Louise Haigh is expected to agree to cut a target for EV sales by about a quarter
Downing Street has insisted that the government remains committed to the principle of the zero emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate – while not denying today’s Guardian report saying interim targets to achieve it are set to be watered down. (See 9.26am.)
Asked about the story at the daily lobby briefing, the PM’s spokesperson said:
The government is fully behind the zero emission vehicle mandate, and no decisions have been taken yet.
We’re sticking to our commitment, phasing out new cars that run only on petrol or diesel by 2030, every new car and van will be zero emission by 2035, and our legally binding net zero targets. None of that is changing.
Huang is receiving support from some fellow tech executives, including Elon Musk.
Musk commented “I agree” on a post by Sequoia partner Shaun Maguire that said Huang “did something incredibly dumb” that was “bad for America” but that “Jensen is irreplaceable for America’s AI leadership”.
“While Nvidia has sought to reassure us all, there are several layers here, beginning with the unfortunate timing.
“For example: The company is systemically important for tech, markets and the economy; Investors tend to struggle to price in key-person and governance issues; and there are fluid national security and geopolitical dynamics.”
Dozens of migrants trying to reach the Greek island of Crete or Spain died on boats and scores were rescued as the steady stream of such migrants showed no signs of diminishing, authorities said.
Terrorism investigation was opened after attacker opened fire in a market square
AFP has a quick snap that Ukraine is to hold “separate” meetings with Europeans and Nato in Abu Dhabi. The Kremlin earlier insisted no other European nations would be involved. The US-mediated talks are expected to start tomorrow.
Canada is expanding its Russia-related sanctions to target another 38 entities and 24 individuals, including actors involved in ballistic missile technology development and cyber activities, Reuters reports.
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was “only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC):
Public health leaders and politicians whomadehealthcare a central part of their platforms swept into office in the US midterm elections last week, setting the stage for national, state and local changes.
Futurism reports:
While many scientists have long held that Mars is "geologically dead" inside, new research is adding to the growing body of evidence to the contrary.
As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, an international team of researchers examined data collected by the European and Russian ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter in 2021, which found that Mars is slowly belching hydrogen chloride gas. The researchers suggest this gas is being released from hot magma deep beneath its surface after discovering intriguing new fissures along a massive volcano, indicating the planet may be geologically active after all — or at least it was until relatively recently.
The research could have significant implications for the possibility of ancient life on the Red Planet, hinting at a far warmer and thicker atmosphere — and an abundance of liquid water on its surface — in its not-too-distant past.... The team discovered new fissures measuring thousands of feet in length... suggesting ongoing activity underneath the surface. The researchers discovered discolorations along these fissures, concluding that they may be the result of seeping gases leaving mineral deposits similar to volcanic gas vents on Earth... The fissures could also be a perfect place to find evidence of past life on the Red Planet [argued Daniel Mège, the study's colead author and a Polish Academy of Sciences professor]... "If hydrothermal systems are active, they could contain the ingredients and energy needed for microorganisms to develop, and shield microorganisms from the hostile and changing environment above the surface."
Old-school dishes still earn a place on the menu. These 17 retro recipes span casseroles, quiche, chowders, chicken, and classic sides, with familiar flavors for family dinners, brunches, and gatherings.The post 17 retro comfort food picks that never needed a…
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he was 'only kidding' when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
Election wins of Annie Andrews, Abdul El-Sayed and more who ran on healthcare issues are viewed as sign of home as Trump administration unravels US health policy
Public health leaders and politicians whomadehealthcare a central part of their platforms swept into office in the US midterm elections last week, setting the stage for national, state and local changes.
Voters, faced with an unprecedented rise in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, alongside devastating outbreaks of foodborne illnesses, chose national candidates who prioritized public health, healthcare affordability, reproductive health and the impeachment of Robert F Kennedy Jr, among other key issues.
With Thanksgiving groceries on the way, use up vegetables, cooked turkey, rice, pasta, and cheese in these 17 casseroles. The mix includes hearty dinners and familiar sides, so less food gets left behind.The post 17 casseroles to clear out the…
Jensen Huang reportedly had close relationship with Chinese businesswoman accused of passing information to Beijing. Plus, tennis legend Billie Jean King tells all
Good morning. Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, has been placed under “independent investigation” by the tech company after reports emerged he had been “the target of a foreign intelligence effort”, namely a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who is accused of passing information to Beijing. Nvidia stock is down 5% in pre-market trading as a result.
The company’s board said in a statement that while it had no reason to believe that either US national security or Nvidia secrets were compromised, its inquiry would examine all available information. Republican lawmakers have expressed alarm, asking Huang to give the House foreign affairs and intelligence committees a closed-door briefing next week on Nvidia’s “security protocols against foreign adversary espionage”.
An Israeli airline shipped thousands of pounds worth of parts for controversial “bunker-buster” bombs through John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York during the height of the Israeli–U.S. war against Iran, according to a new investigation by a left-wing research group.
Challenge Airlines, a cargo hauler based in Israel, made three flights this spring carrying the bomb casings for BLU-109s — a 2,000-pound munition that has been tied to numerous mass-casualty attacks on civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, Lebanon, and Iran in recent years — according to open-source data obtained by the Movement Research Unit and reviewed by The Intercept.
The airline also made more than 100 shipments of guidance kits known as joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMs — which are used to convert so-called “dumb bombs” into GPS-guided munitions capable of striking a specific target — according to data shared with The Intercept. Many of the guidance kits were marked for use on the MK-84, another 2,000-pound bomb Israel used in its campaign to level Gaza, where fragments of JDAMs have repeatedly been found at the site of airstrikes.
The 2,000-pound bombs present a serious risk of civilian casualties, according to Josh Paul, a former State Department official who resigned at the outset of the war in Gaza to protest the Biden administration’s sale of weapons to Israel.
“If you look at historic U.S. use of 2,000-pound bombs, in the entire counter-ISIS campaign, there were just two that were dropped in the vicinity of the city of Mosul precisely because there is no way to use a 2,000-pound bomb discriminately in an urban environment,” Paul said, referring to an American air war during the final years of the Obama administration to end the Islamic State’s control of the Iraqi city of Mosul.
Israel hasn’t shared the United States’s reservations. The country made extensive use of the weapons to attack targets in Gaza and Lebanon, including a deadly strike on Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp that killed dozens of civilians, according to an analysis by the New York Times.
“If you look at a picture of Gaza right now, I would say Israel’s use of these weapons is functionally indistinguishable from indiscriminate bombing,” Paul said.
“There is no way to use a 2,000-pound bomb discriminately in an urban environment.”
Challenge Airlines, and the Israeli military did not respond to request for comment.
“We work closely with all airport partners to ensure the safety of public, neighboring communities, and airport personnel,” said a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates JFK Airport. “The federal government and commercial airlines have primary responsibility as to what is allowed to be shipped on aircraft. We are pre-empted under federal law from interfering with these activities.”
While the shipments of JDAMs and bomb bodies for BLU-109s did not include active munitions, previous shipments of weapons through JFK have included explosives, including 14 tons of nitrocellulose bound for Israel in May 2025.
The Intercept verified the data showing all three shipments of bunker-buster bomb bodies, and verified a portion of the data showing shipments of JDAM kits. Movement Research Unit, an investigative outlet whose prior work has uncovered shipments of drone tech to Israel and the transport of fighter jet parts by United Airlines onboard civilian passenger flights, shared the data on the condition that some specifics of its methods be withheld to prevent a crackdown on the availability of such data.
In response to the flow of weapons and materiel through JFK, the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America has been organizing a campaign to stop the flow of weapons to Israel through the airport.
“This is another example of a growing body of reporting that shows how civilian infrastructure is used for the genocide in Gaza,” said a DSA member named Henry, who asked to be identified without his last name in order prevent retaliation from his employer. “Civilian air travel should prioritize passengers, travelers, and the international community — not weapons — and no worker should be forced to serve the militarized supply chain.”
Tons of Pressure
Challenge Airlines shipped the bunker-buster bomb bodies on flights leaving JFK for Tel Aviv on March 12, April 30, and May 6, according to the data shared with The Intercept.
They shipped the guidance kits far more frequently, with 109 shipments leaving JFK for Tel Aviv between December 22, 2024, and June 7, 2026. Cargo documents indicate that most of the shipments were of JDAM kits designed for 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs but also included at least one shipment of kits for bunker-buster bombs.
In total, the airline shipped 175,884 pounds of BLU-109 casings and more than 5 million pounds of JDAM kits between December 22, 2024, and June 7, 2026, according to the data obtained by Movement Research Unit.
JFK Airport is the main export hub for such munitions flying by air to Israel, according to federal data: More than half of all Israel-bound air shipments of weapons that fit the government export category for bombs and missiles was sent abroad from JFK.
It was not immediately clear where the bunker buster and JDAM shipments originated, but sales of military hardware to Israel typically either come from deals between the Israeli and U.S. governments or direct commercial purchases under a special export license made by the Israeli military from private companies.
In the first two years of Israel’s war on Gaza, the U.S. spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel, according to a study by analyst William Hartung. That has included multiple shipments of 2,000-pound bombs like the BLU-109 and the MK-84, as well as JDAM kits to equip the weapons with GPS guidance.
The Biden administration in May 2024 halted the shipment of MK-84 2,000-pound bombs to Israel, citing the potential harm to civilians, but President Donald Trump resumed shipments of the heavy munitions within weeks of retaking the White House.
News of the shipments comes just over a month after the Associated Press revealed plans in the works for the U.S. to ink a vast $2.8billion arms sale to Israel that would include thousands of 2,000-pound bombs.
The ongoing sale of such heavy weapons to Israel underscores the need for a federal solution, according to Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., who sponsored last year legislation dubbed the “Block the Bombs Act,” that would bar the U.S. from selling BLU-109s, JDAMs, and other munitions central to Israel’s war effort.
“It’s good that people are putting pressure locally, but ultimately it is Congress’s responsibility to make that happen.”
“It’s the only bill that prohibits these weapons transfers from happening, and the only bill that creates a comprehensive process of oversight,” Ramirez told The Intercept. “There’s been a big push, particularly in New York and around JFK, to block these transfers and it’s good that people are putting pressure locally, but ultimately it is Congress’s responsibility to make that happen.”
First introduced in May 2025, the bill has gathered more than 80 co-sponsors but has thus far languished in legislative limbo. With the House of Representatives soon to be under Democratic control, Ramirez said she plans to bring the bill to the floor next session.
The same technical limits that prevent superintelligence make these systems dangerous. But we know how to regulate them
Many Silicon Valley leaders believe superintelligence is an imminent threat to society. The White House even published an accord about it. This isn’t enough.
Geoffrey Hinton, the godfather of AI, estimates the risk of human extinction is at least 10% within the next few decades. The Anthropic CEO, Dario Amodei, argued that unchecked AI “could outrun our ability to understand and control these systems”. In response, 1,300 leaders and employees from many leading AI companies signed a letter calling to “deliberately pace” development.
The new Congress cannot maintain the culture of political impunity that got us here in the first place
Fresh from an overwhelming victory, Democrats might quickly divide over what should be seen as unnecessary fracture.
Establishment figures demand a focus on “kitchen table issues”, while others insist that successful candidates did not just campaign on the cost of living, but managed to connect people’s daily struggles with the unprecedented corruption of the Trump administration.
Winning candidates promised to cut costs, rein in corporations, curb billionaire power and improve the economy
Don’t worry, cash-strapped Americans, “relief is on the way”, the senator Chuck Schumer promised last week in a press conference celebrating Democrats’ massive midterms win.
Winning candidates promised to cut food and healthcare costs, rein in corporations ripping off consumers and workers, curb billionaire power and make the world’s biggest economy better serve the working class.
Donald Trump Jr., left, and Eric Trump, right, watch as their father, Donald Trump, center, speaks to members of the media in 2024. Justin Lane/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Trump administration awarded a small biosecurity company nearly $40 million to screen for Ebola and other infectious diseases just months after a firm linked to President Donald Trump’s elder sons invested in its parent company, according to records and interviews.
The contracts, one to screen for Ebola in several U.S. airports and the other to respond to disease outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are seven times the total value of government contracts the company had directly received before.
The company, XpresTest, has years of experience monitoring for COVID-19 and other diseases for the government at U.S. airports. That makes its parent, XWELL, an unusual hybrid, selling both spa treatments and biosecurity services. Last year, it made most of its money from waxing salons and airport spas that offer manicures, massages and “chakra beds.”
The contracts are the latest example of the president’s family benefiting financially from his administration’s actions. And the stakes for these deals are particularly high. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, an Ebola outbreak has killed more than 5,000 people this year, and the federal government is trying to stop the pathogen from coming to the U.S.
XpresTest has never worked with Ebola or provided biosecurity services abroad, let alone in the kind of volatile locales it’s now expected to work in. The CEO of its parent company, Ezra Ernst, said XpresTest won both contracts in a competitive bidding process and pointed to its years of experience doing screening for COVID-19 and other pathogens at American airports. But even he acknowledged that working internationally is “a new thing for us” and expressed uncertainty about being able to complete the work in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“This is a risky contract. I’m not sure we can do it,” Ernst said in an interview.
Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped oversee the U.S. government’s response to a 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, said there are some parallels between monitoring for COVID-19 and Ebola at airports, but he said it’s concerning that the government would award such a lucrative contract to a company that has no experience in Africa.
“There are countless organizations in the world that have decades of experience doing this work,” Konyndyk said. “I have to wonder why the hell they’re not going with someone who has actually done this before.”
Under previous administrations, the U.S. government addressed international disease outbreaks in partnership with the World Health Organization. But Trump withdrew from the group last year, dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development, which handled much of this work, and dramatically scaled back the global presence of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At the same time, the State Department launched the America First Global Health Strategy, which calls for the U.S. to use aid to foreign countries to “promote American companies and American innovations abroad.” This March, the State Department announced it would be giving up to $4.5 billion in funding for various purposes, including responding to infectious disease outbreaks.
Under that program, XPresTest was awarded $20 million. Other funding went to better-known global aid nonprofits, including International Medical Corps, Save the Children and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, whose awards ranged from $25 million to $35 million.
The CDC also awarded XPresTest a contract, for $18.8 million.
In response to questions from ProPublica about XPresTest and its parent company, XWELL, the State Department noted the firm’s previous work screening for diseases at airports under a contract with the CDC and said its own award was made “through a competitive process that builds on this successful model.”
The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.
A spokesperson for the president’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric Trump said that they are “merely passive, minority investors in a fund that invested in this company,” and that they had no “involvement in or knowledge regarding the negotiation or procurement of any of its contracts, including any government contracts.”
“Both are private citizens who hold no government positions, broken no laws and who have every right to pursue lawful business and investment opportunities,” the spokesperson said.
The Trump sons’ connection to XWELL was established in February, when a fund called American Ventures invested in the company. The fund was launched by Dominari Holdings, a small financial firm with offices inside Trump Tower in New York. The leaders of Dominari hired the Trump sons as advisers after their father was elected to a second term and granted them a stake of more than 10% in Dominari.
Anthony Hayes, the CEO of Dominari Holdings, told ProPublica, “We have never seen or even heard of Don or Eric using their family name to influence the granting of a government contract.”
American Ventures has taken stakes in other companies that have benefited from Trump administration actions. The Florida-based drone company Powerus got a contract worth up to $90 million from the U.S. Air Force five months after the Trumps’ involvement was announced. Through American Ventures, Donald Jr. and Eric Trump also are acquiring a stake in a critical minerals group that has received U.S. government support to mine for tungsten in Kazakhstan. The Trumps have described themselves as passive investors who do not advocate for the companies they have stakes in before their father’s government.
XWELL was founded in 2006 as a line of airport-based spas that provided massages and facials. During the pandemic, the company, then known as XpresSpa Group, got $5.5 million from the CDC to offer travelers COVID-19 testing. It also collected waste from airplane toilets to check for new viral strains. It has done similar work for at least one other company that has received government contracts.
In January, XWELL announced that it was hiring a former senior adviser at the CDC who created and led the agency’s traveler surveillance program. The firm said the move was part of a plan to expand “its traveler-based pathogen surveillance capabilities to support international travel hubs and large-scale mass gathering events worldwide.”
The following month, American Ventures invested about $30 million in XWELL. The company had lost money the previous year. “We were so cash-strapped, close to bankrupt,” its CEO said.
Its valuation before the cash infusion was just $3 million. In exchange, American Ventures got a roughly 10% stake in the company to start, with an option to essentially print and sell millions of shares in the future.
Why American Ventures would invest so much in XWELL is unclear. In other cases, when the fund has invested in similar tiny publicly traded companies, some of those firms have moved into hot new sectors and drawn publicity for their connection to the Trumps, then Dominari has offloaded shares. In this case, there is no indication it has sold any of its stake yet.
In June, XpresTest was awarded the CDC contract for what a public notice about the grant said was “Ebola entry screening services.”
XpresTest then received the State Department grant for “rapid, effective, and coordinated outbreak response” to infectious disease threats in theDemocratic Republic of Congo, which began in September, according to a government database. The company is also planning to work in Kenya and Morocco. XWELL’s website shows it is now hiring specialists in Ebola response training and biosecurity in the U.S.
An XpresSpa at Miami International AirportKarston Tannis/Monmouth Media House
In July, after XpresTest was awarded the CDC contract, XWELL announced plans to sell the subsidiary along with its line of spas to a private facial spa company. Ernst, the CEO, said the government contracts played a role in the $13 million sale price and will follow XpresTest to the new company.
That means XWELL, the company that the Trump-linked investment fund took a stake in, will benefit financially from the Trump administration contracts if the sale closes, even though it won’t be involved in doing the work for the government.
XWELL said in a public filing that the sale was part of an effort “to pursue a new direction in the national security sector.” Ernst said he didn’t know the exact plans but thought the parent company might be looking to work with the Department of Defense.
XWELL did not announce either of XpresTest’s biosecurity contracts, which recently became public in federal contracting disclosures. Public companies like XWELL are required to report so-called material events, developments that could affect their share price, such as a large government contract. XWELL has publicized previous work for the federal government, including a $2 million, eight-week pilot program for testing COVID-19 in 2021.
When asked why his firm didn’t announce the awards, Ernst gave various reasons, including the possibility that XPresTest might wind up not being able to do the work — either because of its own inexperience working internationally or because the Trump administration might suddenly shift priorities and only pay for a fraction of the contract.
“None of these contracts are guaranteed,” he said.
The biosecurity awards add to the questions about the Trump family’s enrichment during his second term. The Trump family’s business activities extend far beyond Dominari and American Ventures. The president himself has made more than $1 billion from cryptocurrency ventures whose value has ballooned as his administration has taken a friendly stance to the industry. And other companies backed by his sons Donald Jr. and Eric have received billions of dollars in federal deals. Earlier this year, ProPublica reported that the Pentagon granted a small North Carolina startup linked to Trump Jr. a $620 million loan after a top aide to the president intervened on the company’s behalf. The Pentagon denied preferential treatment, and a spokesperson for Trump Jr. said he played no role.
The Trumps’ financial ties to government deals and actions are expected to be a primary focus of Congress in the coming months after Democrats won control of both the Senate and the House in last week’s midterm elections.
“When the government is corrupted for personal gain over the public interest, Americans lose trust and taxpayer dollars are wasted,” Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, wrote in a letter to colleagues last week.
Soon after Democrats retook the U.S. Senate, comedian Jon Stewart stirred the pot on his weekly podcast, criticizing Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who could become his party’s majority leader in the coming weeks.
“One of the first things you need to do is remove that system of seniority from Democratic politics,” Stewart said Nov. 5, two days after the election. “It is a b——- system, and it needs to go. … (People are) already like, ‘Chuck Schumer deserves a lot of credit for putting together this (victory). … Enough. Chuck Schumer fought tooth and nail against half of these f—— people, and even if he didn’t, he does not understand the urgency of the moment and what the future demands.”
Stewart’s remark echoes the complaints of some progressives, who have criticized Schumer’s support for Rep. Haley Stevens over the more progressive Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan’s Senate primary race. El-Sayed won the general election, days after Stevens endorsed his opponent, Republican former Rep. Mike Rogers. Schumer also faces discontent from some Democrats who want a new generation of leadership; Schumer is 75 and has been in Congress since 1981.
Even when accounting for comedic hyperbole, Stewart ignores that Schumer actively recruited at least five of the winning Democratic Senate candidates — enough to supply the margin that flipped the chamber blue. Schumer did support an alternative candidate before the primary in three states, but he closed ranks once the nomination was settled.
In a Nov. 6 interview with The New York Times’ The Daily podcast, Schumer said he didn’t expect to face any challenge in the election for Senate majority leader. Schumer said: “Our caucus is focused on moving forward. Everyone’s very happy with what we all did.”
Michael Cohen, a Democratic commentator and MS NOW columnist, said he gives “most credit (for the Democrats flipping the Senate) to Donald Trump, but I would put Schumer second. He recruited these candidates.”
Representatives for Stewart did not respond to our inquiry. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which is the political arm of Senate Democrats aligned with Schumer, did not respond, either.
Which candidates did Schumer support from the beginning?
For the North Carolinarace, Schumer recruited former Gov. Roy Cooper, who ended up winning by 20 points. As long ago as April 2025, Axios reported that senior Democrats were describing Cooper as a potential “coup” for Schumer, given his popularity during his two terms as governor.
In Ohio, Schumer also recruited former U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. In his interview with The Daily, Schumer said he flew to Columbus twice to persuade Brown to run. Brown won by five points.
Schumer also worked to get candidates in Alaska and Iowa. Schumer recruited former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola in Alaska and state Rep. Josh Turek in Iowa, The Washington Post reported in January 2026. Peltola was narrowly ahead as of Nov. 6, while Turek won his race by five points. Schumer and his allies pushed for Turek in his successful primary bid instead of a primary rival, state Sen. Zach Wahls.
In Mississippi, Schumer was an early backer of Scott Colom, who is leading in a close and uncalled Senate race. Schumer told The Daily that he invited Colom and his father to his Brooklyn home before he was in the race and urged Colom to run. In a Nov. 5 appearance on MS NOW, Schumer said he had been trying to recruit a candidate in Mississippi for three or four years. Colom initially declined, but Schumer said he told Colom “we’ll back” him.
In several cases, we were unable to confirm that Schumer recruited a winning Democratic candidate, but we also found no evidence that he backed anyone else or stood in the way of their efforts. That’s the case for U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, pediatrician Annie Andrews in South Carolina, state Rep. James Talarico in Texas and pastor Adam Hamilton in Kansas. Another winning Democrat, Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia, was an incumbent and always had Schumer’s support.
“He’s just a very effective recruiter,” Cohen said of Schumer.
Where did Schumer bet on the wrong horse?
The biggest irritant for many Democratic voters was Schumer’s role in Michigan’s primary. There, Schumer backed Stevens over El-Sayed. El-Sayed won the primary by less than a percentage point, then went on to win the general election by eight points.
In Minnesota, the primary featured U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, another moderate, and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Schumer did not endorse either candidate, but other establishment Democrats openly or tacitly supported Craig. Flanagan won the primary and had unified party support going into the general election.
Maine was more complicated. Schumer recruited Gov. Janet Mills to challenge Republican Sen. Susan Collins, but Mills struggled and suspended her campaign before the primary and oyster farmer Graham Platner won the nomination. Platner withdrew after sexual assault allegations. After Troy Jackson won the nomination at a party convention, Schumer endorsed him.
Schumer’s aligned campaign committee, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, supported all the Democratic nominees, regardless of whether they received Schumer’s initial backing.
What do these candidates think of Schumer?
In public, even some of the candidates Schumer backed have not returned the favor when asked whether they would support him as Senate majority leader.
Among the winners who have said on the record that they will not support him for leader are Hamilton of Kansas, Andrews of South Carolina, Jackson of Maine, El-Sayed of Michigan and Flanagan of Minnesota. The winners in three other states — Talarico of Texas, Pappas of New Hampshire and Turek of Iowa — have declined to affirm their support for him when asked.
The majority leader is not chosen by seniority, as Stewart described. The leader is chosen by a secret ballot of the Senate Democratic Caucus. So there’s nothing stopping Democratic senators from choosing someone else.
After the 1994 elections, Senate Democrats elected Tom Daschle of South Dakota minority leader when he was in the bottom half of the caucus’ seniority, said Steven Smith, an Arizona State University political scientist.
There’s also no way of knowing how a senator voted unless they volunteer that information publicly.
“Seniority was never how party leaders are chosen, and it’s been several decades since it was how committee chairs were elevated,” said Donald Wolfensberger, a former senior congressional aide. “Today, party caucuses are king.”
Schumer has been caucus leader since 2017 in both the minority and the majority.
Our ruling
Stewart said Schumer “fought tooth and nail against half of these” Democrats who won Senate races.
Schumer spearheaded the recruitment of winning candidates in North Carolina, Ohio and Iowa, plus candidates who are leading uncalled races in Alaska and Mississippi. Together, these races would be enough to flip the Senate Democratic.
Schumer initially backed different candidates in Michigan and Maine, but he and his allies supported the eventual nominees. Progressives also disliked his decision not to affirmatively back Flanagan in Minnesota. That’s three candidates that he didn’t back, out of 12 competitive races Democrats won or may win against Republicans or in open seats.
The statement contains an element of truth, because of Schumer’s initial opposition or reluctance to support a few Democrats who eventually won seats. But by ignoring his more numerous efforts to recruit at least five other winning candidates, Stewart gives a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.
The new Democratic Congress is expected to try to roll back key changes the president made to federal education policy, including the dismantling of the Education Department.
Violent storms lash northern Iraq and parts of Iran, while Portugal faces strong winds and Japan braces for further snowfall
Deadly flash floods hit northern Iraq on Saturday as severe thunderstorms swept across the region, including in neighbouring Iran. The city of Erbil, in Iraq, was particularly badly hit, with extensive damage to homes and businesses. Streets were inundated as torrential rain fell over a short period.
Rainfall exceeded forecasts, with an estimated 80mm falling in the city, compared with expectations of 30mm. Two people were killed in the floods.
What is the right size for an AI factory? Around the world, the answer is increasingly counted in gigawatts. Europe is asking a complementary question: what does each watt deliver?
The answer is already taking shape. Thirteen AI Factories have been selected by EuroHPC since December 2024, six have signed procurement contracts, and consortia are preparing AI GigaFactories. Alongside the global push for scale, Europe is building on three pillars: an integrated AI environment, sustainability and sovereignty.
An integrated AI environment: power only counts if it delivers
Peak figures flatter. Compute outpaces memory and storage bandwidth, networks take more time as clusters grow, and Amdahl’s law still caps the gains: with 5% sequential code, no number of processors beats 20 times faster. AI sharpens all three limits.
The answer starts with hybridisation, the right processor for each task, from GPUs and AI accelerators to CPUs as conductors and soon, quantum processors. The building blocks are mature; the opportunity now is industrial-grade integration, with software that orchestrates the mix, so users don’t have to.
It also means tying infrastructure investment to measurable objectives, from accelerating scientific discovery and researching brain and medical diseases to enabling digital twins. Performance matters, but so does utilisation, efficiency and return on investment.
Image supplied by Bull
That is where the market is heading, from racks of accelerators to integrated environments. Bull builds its systems on that principle, and its Centre of Excellence in Performance Programming helps customers turn peak figures into results.
Sustainability: more value per watt
Efficiency is a design criterion, not a constraint. An AI rack can exceed 120 kW, against around ten for a typical enterprise one, and the grid is the new frontier: you can order a machine tomorrow and still not know when you can switch it on. At scale, an AI factory draws 100 MW or more, and a Gigafactory a gigawatt, while energy access and infrastructure lead times in the United States can reach 3 to 7 years for major generation assets. Over its lifetime, a machine’s energy bill can rival its hardware amortisation cost. The goal shifts from more compute to more value per watt, tracked alongside accuracy, latency and cost.
The biggest gain may sit above the hardware. Software that makes applications hardware-aware, for instance by matching each workload to the right resources, can cut cost and energy significantly. Regulation is also taking shape: Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act requires a PUE of 1.2 for new data centres, and European industry must get ready. Bull has more than ten years of experience building infrastructures that reach a PUE below 1.2, notably with its patented warm-water Direct Liquid Cooling, which removes heat at the source. On LUMI-AI, due in Finland in the second half of 2027, the excess heat will feed Kajaani’s district heating network, with the site running entirely on renewable electricity
Yet PUE and Green500 describe the building and the machine, not the science they enable. Bull’s answer is Science Usage Efficiency (SUE), a metric presented at the Teratec Forum In Paris by Bruno Lecointe, SVP HPC, AI & Quantum Business Line: useful science per unit of energy, such as simulated nanoseconds per megajoule in molecular dynamics or simulated years per megajoule in climate modelling. Read like an energy label, SUE would reward software progress as much as hardware and give buyers a common target to write into tenders.
Image supplied by Bull
Sovereignty: a European model that travels
Sovereignty is a global aspiration, not just a European one. Every country wants control over its digital future; from the data it generates to the technologies its critical infrastructure relies on. That takes more than local hardware: it takes secure, trusted systems that can be operated independently over the long term. Europe’s opportunity is a model others can adopt while empowering local ecosystems.
And the momentum is real. LUMI-AI, shared by six countries and backed by a €387.8 million contract, is expected to deliver ten times the AI capacity of today’s LUMI. Alice Recoque, France’s first exascale system, shows the European supply chain maturing, pairing Bull’s BXI interconnect with SiPearl’s Rhea2 processor from 2027, alongside AMD accelerators.
The outlook
AI factories require expertise and ecosystems; GigaFactories will bring scale. Europe’s strength will not come from computing power alone, but from combining performance, governance, sustainability and sovereignty in a repeatable model of trusted, secure and economically sustainable environments. In a market where energy is the bottleneck, that may matter more than the hardware, and the next chapter is only getting interesting.
Planning an AI factory? Meet Bull’s experts at SC26, booth #2011, and find out how to turn peak figures into results. For more info or to book a meeting visit bull.com
Lawsuit filed last year against IBM, Atos and Leonardo after delays to passengers blamed on the system, first reported in the FT
The EU has filed a lawsuit against IBM and two other companies involved in its troubled border-management system, an internal document has revealed.
The bloc’s IT agency, EU-Lisa, filed a case last year against IBM, the French IT company Atos and Italian defence contractor Leonardo, the three members of a consortium to implement and maintain the EU’s entry/exit system, which was launched in October 2025.
To accelerate scientific discovery without spending weeks configuring infrastructure or hand-tuning legacy code, high-performance computing (HPC) teams need purpose-built hardware and AI-driven software engineering working together. As the supercomputing community gathers for SC26, computational scientists face two converging priorities: lowering the operational barrier to running massive-scale simulations in the cloud, and integrating generative AI directly into the scientific computing lifecycle.
Historically, moving HPC workloads to the cloud meant navigating steep operational hurdles—translating decades-old Fortran or C++ codebases for modern accelerators, assembling complex storage hierarchies, and hand-tuning job schedulers. At the same time, effectively leveraging AI in science requires moving beyond basic chatbots to systems that modernize, orchestrate, and optimize complex numerical workloads.
At Google Cloud, we are tackling both challenges by pairing Google Antigravity and AlphaEvolve with our purpose-built supercomputing infrastructure, compressing months of engineering overhead into hours so you can go straight from hypothesis to insight.
Reduce operational friction with Google Antigravity
Scientists want to focus on physics, climate modeling, or molecular dynamics—not corralling infrastructure, diagnosing node failures, or refactoring serial code.
Google Antigravity is an agentic development platform that removes friction across the entire scientific software lifecycle. Built around a single co-optimized agent harness, Antigravity meets engineering teams across every surface they already use: the 2.0 Desktop App, CLI, IDE extensions, and SDK. Your project context, domain skills, and governance follow you everywhere through a transparent loop that you review and steer via inspectable artifacts:
Legacy code modernization: Antigravity automates the refactoring, vectorization, and accelerator offloading of serial C, C++, or Fortran kernels for modern parallel hardware.
Natural language cluster orchestration: Instead of error-prone manual setup, Antigravity translates natural language requests into validated, production-ready HPC clusters with complex storage and specialized interconnects.
Automated runtime recovery: When long-running jobs hit hardware faults or memory bottlenecks, Antigravity diagnoses root causes and orchestrates recovery workflows to keep simulations on track.
Push algorithmic boundaries with AlphaEvolve
Once your cluster is running and your code is modernized, maximizing hardware efficiency is the next frontier. Developed by Google DeepMind and available on Google Cloud, AlphaEvolve is a Gemini-powered evolutionary coding agent that autonomously discovers, designs, and optimizes complex algorithms. By combining LLMs with evolutionary computation, AlphaEvolve iteratively writes, tests, and refines code against measurable performance metrics.
Across Google, AlphaEvolve has already recovered roughly 0.7% of global compute resources via a custom Borg scheduling heuristic, optimized Gemini matrix multiplication and FlashAttention kernels, improved Verilog arithmetic circuits for TPUs, and advanced state-of-the-art solutions to decades-old mathematical problems like the kissing number problem.
In HPC pipelines, AlphaEvolve tackles bottlenecks that hand-tuned heuristics struggle to solve:
Kernel and compute optimization: Wrap compute-intensive routines (such as matrix multiplications, tensor operations, or Fast Fourier Transforms) in # EVOLVE-BLOCK-START and # EVOLVE-BLOCK-END tags, and AlphaEvolve tests permutations to discover faster hardware-specific execution paths.
Simulation and solver tuning: In fields including computational fluid dynamics (CFD), molecular dynamics, and semiconductor simulation, AlphaEvolve discovers more efficient convergence rules for numerical solvers and smarter criteria for dynamic grid refinement.
Cluster scheduling heuristics: AlphaEvolve evolves custom scheduling policies for heterogeneous nodes to minimize job turnaround time and reduce idle gaps.
Paired with high-throughput accelerators and JAX integration on Google Cloud, AlphaEvolve runs millions of evaluation cycles asynchronously over hours—simultaneously optimizing speed, memory footprint, and energy usage across search spaces that would take human teams months to explore.
Purpose-built infrastructure live at SC26
Agentic workflows and evolutionary algorithms perform best on infrastructure built for tightly coupled simulations and large-scale AI:
New H4D VM shapes:Purpose-built H4D instances powered by Titanium offload and Cloud RDMA conquer traditional MPI scaling bottlenecks now available in a new high-memory 3 TB shape.
Next-generation accelerators:TPU 8t and 8i systems alongside GPU-accelerated VMs deliver high-density compute for traditional simulations and hybrid AI-HPC workloads.
High-throughput parallel storage:Google Cloud Managed Lustre provides sub-millisecond latency and massive parallel I/O throughput without the overhead of manually managing parallel file systems.
Joining us at SC26? Stop by the Google Cloud booth to experience this stack in action:
See TPU 8t and 8i up close: Inspect our latest TPU hardware in person and explore how TPUs accelerate scientific and technical computing workflows.
Test-drive the HPC Prompt Playground: Go hands-on and see how natural language prompts spin up functional HPC environments and running jobs in minutes.
Explore demos: Watch demos showcasing Antigravity agentic workflows, prompt-to-simulation HPC tools, AlphaEvolve physics optimization, and 10 TB/s Managed Lustre storage, alongside interactive TPU kiosks and a hands-on agentic lab.
Learn at our in-booth theater: Hear directly from Google Cloud engineers, researchers, and our partner community on real-world breakthroughs in AI-powered HPC.
Okinawa's governor says he is going to request a review of a pact seen as giving the U.S. military preferential treatment in Japan, following a murder allegedly committed by an American Marine.
Troubled utility lobbies for deadline on part of the debt to be extended to March 2028
Thames Water has asked its creditors for more time to pay back billions of pounds in debt, as the water company scrambles to keep itself afloat.
The UK’s largest water company said it had proposed an “interim” deal under which the deadline to pay off an unspecified portion of the £20bn of debt on its balance sheet would be extended from 2027 to March 2028.
Thick fog will shroud much of the southern half of England, the eastern half of Wales and most of Northern Ireland throughout the early part of the week, forecasters have said, as commuters are told to expect delays.
There was disruption to flights at Heathrow airport on Monday, while an incident involving 30 vehicles closed a major road in Kent on Saturday evening.
The Polish man suspected of killing six people in a shooting attack in Krakow, described as an "act of terror" by senior officials, has died of his injuries.
Assault on Michel Zecler in 2020 is rare case of police brutality reaching court, at time of heightened tensions
Three French police officers are to go on trial over the beating of a black music producer who they say was not wearing a face mask during the Covid pandemic, in a rare case of police brutality reaching court.
The assault on Michel Zecler, now 47, triggered outrage in France over police violence, which victims and researchers say is systemic but authorities and law enforcement unions claim is limited to isolated cases.
A gunman suspected of killing six people, including a British man, and injuring 16 in a rare mass shooting in a busy market square in Kraków has died in hospital, Polish police said.
The 24-year-old Polish national, who has not yet been officially named, opened fire in the city’s main square on Saturday afternoon in an attack that a government minister said was probably influenced by far-right ideologies. He was wounded during a shootout with police and taken to hospital in a critical condition.
COLUMBUS, OHIO — Ohio voters delivered a sweeping rejection of large data center development in Tuesday’s election, with all 21 ballot measures tied to restricting, regulating or opposing such projects producing results unfavorable to the industry.
The measures appeared across 18 communities and included outright bans, zoning restrictions, financial safeguards and referendums on proposed development. In Wilmington, roughly 80% of voters rejected four separate rezonings that could have enabled data center projects.
In Piqua, voters approved a charter amendment prohibiting data centers by about a 2-to-1 margin and also recalled three city commissioners associated with approval of a Meta project. Upper Sandusky voters backed a data center ban with nearly 77% support, while 87% of voters in Perry approved a requirement that developers receiving tax incentives provide financial guarantees.
The results reflect growing local concern over electricity demand, water use, farmland conversion, tax incentives and whether large data center projects provide enough long-term employment or community benefit to justify their infrastructure demands.
Ohio was not alone. Ballotpedia found voters favored limiting data center development in 40 of 41 local ballot measures nationwide on Nov. 3.
Industry groups responded by promising greater transparency and community investment, while opponents are now pushing Ohio lawmakers to consider a statewide moratorium on large projects.
The Ohio results do not amount to a statewide ban, but they send a clear message that communities increasingly want more control over where and whether hyperscale data centers are built.
Ever since it crashed on to PC and consoles in the late 90s, GTA has been tearing up the game-making rulebook. We explore how its cultural references, rebel spirit and sprawling sense of freedom make it a definitive work of art
In the 00s, when the Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games revealed a new project, video game writers from all over the UK would make the journey to the company’s office in London. They would be ushered one by one into a darkened room to sit facing an enormous TV. There would be a dish of sweets on a low bench in front of them but, in the reverential hush that descended, it was never entirely clear if it was acceptable to eat them.
After a few moments, the screen would come to life. Rockstar would sometimes begin its presentation not with footage from its new game, but clips from classic movies. This is the context of what we are making, Rockstar was saying, and that is where we belong.
What happens when Elon Musk and a bunch of tech bros try to rip up the US government? Journalist Michael Lewis – the acclaimed author of Moneyball and of The Big Short – talks to Nosheen Iqbal about his new book Blockers, which tells the story of the civil servants who stood up to Musk’s ‘department of government efficiency’ as it tried to dismantle the US government
Trump has long relied on sports to project strength and fuel his culture wars. But after a crushing midterm defeat, even his UFC ally cannot distract from the political fallout
In the wake of being destroyed in the midterm elections, it was only a matter of time before Donald Trump did something outrageous in an attempt to misdirect public attention away from his catastrophic losses. Before the midterms, published reports suggested the possibility of apocalypse, global or domestic – a nuclear strike on Iran, martial law to suspend last week’s, the invalidation of individual races, such as in Alaska – but Trump opted for banality over Armageddon, offering his vacant press secretary opening to Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White.
It was absurd, and widely posited that a confused Trump had erroneously conflated UFC’s White with the Dana White who made more sense, former Heritage Foundation staffer Dana White. Because the public reactions made him look even more lost, confirming the sentiments of recklessness and disorder, utter chaos and buffoonery that led to the Republicans being routed in the midterm elections, the president said his offer to White was all a joke. As a disciple of the notorious McCarthyite Roy Cohn, who taught Trump one of his main political pillars – never apologize or admit wrongdoing. Ever. – Trump should not, of course, be taken at his word.
When a person challenging their conviction can’t afford a lawyer, a judge will appoint one. Last year, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Frank Palumbo advised a newly appointed lawyer that his case looked “like it’s going to be a … dismissal.” Illustration by Mark Harris for ProPublica. Source images: The First Judicial District of Pennsylvania; David Swanson/The Philadelphia Inquirer.
One morning in July 2025, I was the lone spectator in Judge Frank Palumbo’s courtroom in Philadelphia, watching prosecutors and public defenders haggle over the fates of defendants.
Palumbo paused the proceedings to talk to a lawyer he’d appointed to help a prisoner who had ineptly challenged his conviction. The lawyer profusely thanked the judge for the job. Then, Palumbo offered a bit of guidance: “I think I know where this is going to go. I don’t want to make it overly complicated. It’s real simple.”
The judge said he’d pass along a brief that a different lawyer had filed arguing that there was no merit to the man’s claims in a related case. “I’m not saying plagiarize,” the judge said.
The attorney told the judge he got the message. “So it’s called a Finley letter,” he said, using the common legal term for that no-merit brief, in which an attorney can argue against the client’s claims and ask to withdraw from the case.
“It’s looking like it’s going to be a Finley dismissal,” the judge agreed after a bit more discussion, “but every option is open.”
I’ve spent years covering criminal justice in Pennsylvania, including the post-conviction system that allows people to argue that their lawyer had mishandled their case or to raise newly discovered evidence. That day, I left the courtroom wondering how what I’d observed squared with the state’s promise of effective legal representation in cases like this.
That question sent me on a yearlong reporting odyssey, during which I read hundreds of Finley letters, tracked down court financial records from all 67 Pennsylvania counties, interviewed dozens of lawyers and analyzed thousands of court dockets. What I wanted to know was: Why has it become the norm for Pennsylvania’s lawyers to argue against their own clients? And who is this system serving?
I found that lax rules, low pay and heavy caseloads have compromised legal representation under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act. Over the past year, I’ve reported on how lawyers, working under fee structures banned in other states, fell years behind on their cases. I spoke with prisoners who’d waited nearly a decade for their lawyers to file anything and others whose lawyers filed Finley letters despite compelling evidence of innocence. I also looked at three years’ worth of invoices and found that, three quarters of the time, Philly lawyers who wrote Finley letters had never spoken with their clients, contacted the trial lawyer or obtained available police files before deciding their claims had no merit.
None of those seemingly basic steps, I was surprised to learn, is required under the law. In fact, dozens of lawyers I spoke to expressed sharply divided opinions about the extent of their obligations to these clients.
But court-appointed lawyers are not working unsupervised. Judges are largely in charge of appointing them to cases, and those same judges are supposed to make sure they’re doing a timely and diligent job.
I noticed that judges continued to assign lawyers more cases even after appeals courts flagged serious issues with their work. And when it came to Finley letters, judges accepted almost all of them over the three years of cases I reviewed, despite the lawyers’ minimal investigative efforts. Some of the letters they approved contained obvious factual errors or even named the wrong client.
Last fall, after Palumbo gave the lawyer a copy of a Finley letter, the lawyer followed the template. His no-merit brief said that his client’s claim could not be considered because he’d missed his filing deadline. The bulk of the document was, in fact, identical to the other lawyer’s brief.
Palumbo, who didn’t respond to my requests for comment, accepted the Finley letter anyway, let the lawyer drop the client and dismissed the claim.
Who Judges Judges?
I thought a fair way to evaluate judges would be to look at the rulings of the Pennsylvania’s Superior Court, the state’s appeals court that hears hundreds of challenges to judges’ rulings on post-conviction matters each year.
And boy, did the Superior Court have thoughts on how judges are handling post-conviction cases.
In one withering opinion, a judge bemoaned an “embarrassing saga” of deficient lawyering that a Berks County judge had tolerated. Another derided a Philly judge and the five attorneys she’d appointed who all missed appeals deadlines, writing, “As Hall of Fame manager Casey Stengel said of the hapless 1962 New York Mets, ‘Can’t anybody here play this game?’”
After logging hundreds of rebukes laid out in Superior Court opinions by hand, I asked some colleagues with data skills to help identify as many of these cases as possible across the last 14 years, the time frame for which opinions were reliably posted online.
In an excerpt from a court opinion, a judge mentions that at least five attorneys had abandoned a client.Obtained by ProPublica
We found that the appeals court flagged more than 250 cases in which judges didn’t intervene as lawyers provided what the court labeled ineffective representation: “sandbagging” a client at a hearing, stonewalling a petitioner who’d mailed two dozen letters to the lawyer’s office or filing boilerplate appeals so vague that they doomed their clients’ cases. In hundreds more cases, judges failed to appoint a lawyer at all, held hearings where petitioners went unrepresented or allowed a lawyer to drop a case, leaving the client stranded on appeal. More than 200 times, they oversaw lawyers who abandoned clients, tanking their appeals or stalling their cases for years.
“Judges are in a terrific position to be able to prevent these kinds of injustices,” said Marissa Boyers Bluestine, a longtime post-conviction lawyer who now works at the University of Pennsylvania’s law school.
The scathing reversals aside, the Superior Court affirms about 80% of lower-court rulings. That’s expected given the strict deadlines and complicated rules about how appeals must be filed. The appeals court is also required to defer to the lower court’s factual decisions. And when it reverses due to an error, the recourse is generally limited to ordering a do-over or, on rare occasions, instructing the lower court to explore sanctions. In one opinion, the court resorted to using boldface to call out an egregious failure: “The PCRA court did nothing in this case for 20 years.” Then, it told the lower court to try again.
Marissa Boyers Bluestine leaves court with her newly exonerated client, Willie Veasy, center, in 2019. At the time, she was working for the Pennsylvania Innocence Project. She said judges have a duty to report unethical lawyering.Heather Khalifa/The Philadelphia Inquirer
Judges do have the authority — and, in fact, an obligation under state rules — to make disciplinary referrals. Because complaints are confidential, there is no way to know how often they do so. But only six lawyers in the last decade have been publicly sanctioned for work on court-appointed post-conviction cases.
Judicial discipline is even rarer. No lower-court judge in at least a decade has been publicly disciplined for mishandling a post-trial matter. Judges who, according to the Superior Court, exhibited biases, imposed vindictive sentences or improperly denied recusal requests remained on the bench.
Even after the Superior Court raised alarms, more than 100 cases ricocheted between the appeals court and county judges two, three, four or more times, as judges repeated errors or reappointed lawyers to cases they’d already mishandled.
One such case played out after Jefferson County’s only judge, John Foradora, sentenced a woman to up to 22 years in prison for passing two narcotics pills in prison. Her lawyer failed to object to or appeal the lengthy sentence. After she filed a PCRA, the Superior Court found that her lawyers’ inaction enabled the “unduly harsh and clearly unreasonable” punishment to stand. But each time the Superior Court reversed, Foradora again imposed a lengthy term. After three such reversals, the woman wound up serving more than eight years. Foradora said through a court spokesperson that he was unable to comment.
Shannon McDonald, an attorney in the Philly suburbs, said that “some judges don’t consider PCRA a priority.”
She described waiting as a petition languished on a Delaware County judge’s desk for two years, until her client had finished his sentence and been released from prison. Then, the judge finally ruled, dismissing the claim.
The Finley Problem
Like lawyers, judges I’ve spoken with seem to be divided on their obligations, especially when it comes to the no-merit letters known as Finley letters. The state Supreme Court says that when a lawyer submits a Finley letter, the judge needs to conduct a review of the merits of the case.
Attorney Rob Perkins, who leads the nonprofit Allegheny Lawyers Initiative for Justice, told me that while he’s encountered some judges who take post-conviction matters seriously, others seem to view them as a nuisance. He said several lawyers told him that they were afraid that if they litigated cases too aggressively, judges would withhold future assignments. The no-merit letter becomes the simplest path forward: “When a judge is handed a no-merit letter that sounds good, I think their inclination is to accept that the attorney did their job.”
Rob Perkins, an attorney and founder of Allegheny Lawyers Initiative for Justice, says some court-appointed lawyers fear that litigating post-conviction cases aggressively would be bad for business.Justin Merriman/The Philadelphia Inquirer
Superior Court opinions reflect this pattern as well. In my review, I found hundreds of cases overruling lower-court judges who accepted flawed Finley letters. The appeals court noted that lawyers claimed, incorrectly, that their clients had missed filing deadlines, rejected legitimate claims as meritless or failed to notice that their clients were serving illegal sentences.
In dozens of cases, judges approved defective Finley letters that did not fulfill basic rules, such as including a notification to the client or addressing all the claims the client wanted to raise.
Several judges told me that Finley letters serve an important purpose, in shutting down frivolous challenges that waste resources.
“Not all [claims] have merit,” Judge John J. Mead of Erie said. “A lot of them initially you could look at and make a determination [as to] whether or not it’s going to require a hearing.”
I’ve noticed that the system makes accepting Finley letters the simplest choice for judges. A judge who rejects a Finley letter must either find a new lawyer willing to take the case, or force the same lawyer to pursue a matter they previously deemed meritless.
Judges who take that path risk pitting a lawyer against his own client, the Superior Court wrote in one recent case, finding the judge’s actions resulted in the denial of a man’s right to counsel. His lawyer, forced to handle a hearing after writing a Finley letter, treated it “more like a cross-examination of a witness that [he] does not believe than a direct examination of his client.”
Jon Auritt, who retired after more than 50 years as a lawyer in Delaware County, said that these failures stem from a common cause: Instead of working independently, lawyers are beholden to the local judges who appoint them.
Even if judges are not as explicit as Palumbo was with their instructions, Auritt said, their message is often clear: “The judges are never incentivized to appoint a lawyer who might earnestly find a reason to overturn the conviction.”
Why Should Delaware Care? In recent years, Wilmington has seen its share of debates over monuments in public spaces. Last month, a statue of President James A. Garfield, which stood in the city’s north side for over a century, was shipped to Ohio at a cost of nearly $21,600 in public dollars. Now, some elected officials and community leaders are arguing the move took place with little public notice.
A backlash has erupted over last month’s removal of a statue of President James A. Garfield from a small plaza in Wilmington, with several state lawmakers and transparency advocates demanding it be returned from its new location in small-town Ohio.
City Councilman Nathan Field has also called for a formal investigation into the move. Field met with Mayor John Carney’s office on Friday to discuss the statue and said he is working on a plan to return the monument to a new location in the city.
In response to the calls to bring back the statue, City Councilwoman Shané Darby — who led its relocation push as part of a revitalization effort for the Concord Avenue area it had occupied — said, “No, it’s gone. Not coming back.”
Last month, a contracting crew took down the statue from its perch along Concord Avenue and 23rd Street, where it had stood for 110 years. Mayor John Carney had authorized the removal.
City officials then shipped the monument on to Hiram, Ohio, where Garfield attended college and later served as principal for the school.
Wilmington taxpayers covered the $21,595 cost to remove, crate and ship the statue, according to a city invoice.
The move marked the end of the statue’s 130-year residence in Wilmington. It also came in the wake of two separate controversies over the removal of statues in the city in recent years. Those included the Christopher Columbus statue, whose proposed reinstallation drew support and backlash from city residents back in February, and the Ceaser Rodney statue, which some lawmakers called for the return of after it was removed during the 2020 George Floyd protests. The Rodney statue is currently on display in Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., as part of the America 250 anniversary.
Is Garfield significant to Wilmington?
On Memorial Day in 1895, a group of Wilmington civic leaders and Union veterans — called the Garfield Monument Association — first dedicated the statue at a location along Delaware Avenue, near downtown Wilmington.
By 1918, the city moved it north to Concord Avenue at a location that became known as the Garfield Triangle. In recent years, the statue sat mostly unnoticed in the small neighborhood plaza.
“This was never simply about removing a statue. It was about addressing neighborhood concerns, investing in a neglected public space, and ensuring that residents have a voice in shaping their own community,” she wrote.
In the post, Darby asserted that Garfield had no “significant documented personal connection to Wilmington or Delaware,” while Hiram, Ohio, has a direct historical tie to the former president.
Darby said she had been in conversation with community members and local artists for the past two years about revitalizing the area, which has been ridden with loitering, drug solicitation, and poor conditions overall, she said. She noted that residents were surveyed about the statue and did not express a strong connection to the monument.
Darby said the goal is to create an art space and to rename the triangle.
Carney’s deputy chief of staff, Daniel Walker, told Spotlight Delaware that conversations with Darby about relocating the statue began in February.
“Monuments are not stop signs or park benches. They are collective property owned by the people of Wilmington and a key part of the city’s cultural history,” Field said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware.
Following Field’s letter, a group of state lawmakers and other Delaware residents also formally called for answers from the mayor about what they said was a lack of input from residents and council members.
They argued the relocation was done in a “highly non-transparent process.” They also named their advocacy group, The President Garfield Citizens’ Monument Association, after the organization that existed a century earlier
An empty platform sits at the Garfield Triangle in Wilmington where a statue of President James Garfield once stood. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
John Flaherty, a prominent transparency advocate who organized the association’s letter, said he learned of the move from The News Journal report and from Field’s letter to Carney.
Signing onto the letter were five elected officials, including Field, Wilmington City Councilman James Spadola, and Republican state lawmakers, Rep. Jeff Hilovsky, Sen. Eric Buckson and Sen. Gerald Hocker.
Other signers include former-state Rep. Gerald Brady; New Castle County Recorder of Deeds Mike Kozikowski; Delaware Justice of the Peace James Hanby Sr.; and Wilmington Land Bank board member Rick Gessner.
Civic groups also signed the petition, including the Southwest Civic Association, the Delaware Society Sons of the American Revolution, and the Brandywine Village Civic Association.
In an interview, Flaherty said the statue merits continued reverence in Wilmington. He also said he hoped it was just a mistake by the mayor’s office to move it “out of the city where this monument association spent a lot of time, energy, and money collecting funds, making citizens aware of President Garfield.”
In response to the backlash, Walker said the mayor had the authority to remove and relocate the statue. But he reiterated that the process began with Darby, her conversations with residents and her “desire to reimagine what happens at that location.”
The $21,595 spent to de-install and transport the statue was split between Carney’s office and Darby, who used $7,000 of her discretionary council funds. Hiram, Ohio, covered the costs to reinstall the statue.
“Relocating the statue allows for President Garfield’s statue to move from a place of obscurity and to be celebrated and recognized in a location with deep connections to his work and efforts,” Walker said.
Asked if the statue would be returned to the city, officials from Carney’s office acknowledged they had been in contact with Field, but asserted that next steps should be directed to Darby, who they said initiated the statue’s removal.
Asked about council members not being involved in the process, Darby said that nothing in the city code required other council members to be a part of the conversation.
She also emphasized that the statue would not be brought back to Wilmington.
Could the statue return?
In her blog post, Darby noted that the relocation of the Garfield statue was not done in secret.
In addition to a dialogue with the neighbors, she said her office researched potential areas in the city and contacted historical and museum institutions in Delaware to see if there was an alternative location for the monument.
Darby did not respond to a Friday request for comment about the institutions she contacted.
Wilmington City Councilwoman Shané Darby. | PHOTO COURTESY OF WILMINGTON CITY COUNCIL
In an emailed statement, officials from the Delaware Historical Society said they were unaware of the statue’s relocation.
“The Delaware Historical Society did not advise or facilitate the transfer of the statue in any way and was not aware of the move until the [News Journal] article was published,” officials wrote.
Other civically engaged residents also said they had no clue of its removal.
John L. Pittas, treasurer and former president of the Second District Neighborhood Planning Council, said he and two other council directors met with Darby at the statue in May 2021 to talk about its future, but said there was not an appetite to move it at the time.
He learned of the removal the morning it happened, when a colleague texted him photos of crews packing up the statue, he said.
“There was no consultation by either the city or Councilwoman Darby,” said Pittas, who is also president of the Brandywine Village Civic Association and signed the association’s letter. The planning council’s office sits across the street from the statue’s former Concord Avenue site.
Pittas also argued that the statue held significance in Wilmington, pointing to the president’s Civil War service and support for civil rights for freed slaves.
“Those folks back then in Wilmington thought that he was worthy of recognition, and that’s why the statue was put up,” he said.
Pittas said he has a proposed spot if the statue returns: the small triangle across from the Central YMCA on Delaware Avenue, near where it originally stood.
Who was Garfield?
Garfield served as the 20th president of the United States. He was born in 1831 in northeast Ohio. He worked his way through the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute in Hiram, and later returned to lead the school, now Hiram College.
When the Civil War broke out, Garfield served in the Union Army. He served for two years, leading troops at the Battle of Shiloh and the Battle of Chickamunga, and retired a major general. He pursued politics at the insistence of President Abraham Lincoln, who believed more Union leaders were needed in Congress.
Garfield was elected to Congress while still serving and spent 17 years in the U.S. House of Representatives for Ohio, where he opposed slavery and backed voting rights for Black Americans.
Garfield won the presidency in 1880 but served only about 200 days. He died in 1881 after he was shot by Charles Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker, at a Washington, D.C., train station.
After his death, communities nationwide, including Ohio, D.C., California, and Wilmington, raised money for memorials in his honor.
Hiram Mayor Ann Haynam confirmed that she was introduced to the idea of relocating the statue earlier this year.
“This has been a community fundraising effort to honor one of our local historical figures. Hiram is one of four sites on the Garfield Trail where he went to school, preached, became the President equivalent of what is now Hiram College, led area residents as a Civil War general, and became a congressman.”
The city plans to honor the Garfield statue at their dedication ceremony on Nov. 15.
Why Should Delaware Care? Local school boards are the governing authority for school districts. Their responsibilities include deciding whether to hold a referendum and hiring or firing superintendents. Last month, a Laurel staff member, whose son is a member of the Laurel Board of Education, was named as one of two employees to take over superintendent responsibilities.
Last month, Laurel school board members narrowly voted to approve an undisclosed set of recommendations that they had discussed during a private meeting.
The next day, the Laurel School District announced that its superintendent would be replaced by two school district individuals — Susan Whaley and Ashley Giska .
Whaley’s son, Zach Whaley, is the Laurel Board of Education member who had motioned the board to vote in favor of the undisclosed recommendations.
In the days since, one other member of the five-person school board has spoken out, telling Spotlight Delaware he voted against the motion because he knew his colleague’s mother would be one of the two people to assume superintendent responsibilities.
“To me, anything that [Zach Whaley] votes on in the district is going to be a conflict of interest,” said the board member, Brent Nichols.
In response to questions of a conflict, Board President Jana Pugh said in a statement that “there is no conflict of interest” because the Oct. 21 vote only approved then-Superintendent Shawn Larrimore’s leave.
“The practice of Mr. Giska and Mrs. Whaley assuming the duties and responsibilities of the superintendent is something that has occurred before, years before Zach Whaley was elected to the board,” Pugh said in the statement.
Zach Whaley declined to comment for this story.
The vote occurred during a public meeting that did not state on its agenda that the school board members were considering parting ways with the superintendent — meaning the public would have had little notice that such a decision was being made.
Instead, a relevant line on the agenda stated only that there would be “Possible Action on Executive Session Items.” It then listed, “personnel.”
An executive session is a private meeting that a public body is allowed to hold for certain legally allowed purposes.
Prior to the vote during the public meeting, Pugh read aloud, “Attachment E: administrative … to approve the personnel report with recommendations as discussed in executive session.”
Zach Whaley, a member of the Laurel Board of Education. | PHOTO COURTEST OF THE LAUREL SCHOOL DISTRICT
Zach Whaley then made a motion for the board to approve the recommended personnel report. The board approved the motion in a 3-2 vote, with Whaley voting in favor.
None of the board members who voted in favor of the recommendation announced that Zach Whaley’s mother, Susan Whaley, and Ahsley Giska would be taking over superintendent duties, despite it being a “practice” that Pugh said occurred before Zach Whaley was elected in May.
Nichols and Sabrina Isler were the only two board members to vote against the measure.
In its subsequent social media post on Oct. 22, the board said Larrimore would be “concluding his duties” as superintendent on Oct. 30 “following discussions with the Laurel School District Board of Education.”
The social media post did not provide reasoning for Larrimore’s departure from the Laurel School District after 13 years of service.
However, his service was interrupted in 2024 when the school board announced that he would be “away from his duties as superintendent for an indefinite amount of time,” following a charge of driving under the influence, as first reported by The News Journal.
Larrimore returned to his position in July 2024.
After he returned, the board released a statement expressing confidence in his ability to lead the district “with integrity and commitment to the safety and well-being of our students, staff, and community.”
Larrimore did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment for this story.
A question of ethics
Two weeks after the vote, Delaware Public Integrity Commission Chairman Ron Chaney told Spotlight Delaware in a statement that the state’s Code of Conduct “generally” requires public officials to recuse themselves “from any matter in which they or a close relative, such as a parent, have a personal or financial interest.”
Susan Whaley and Giska will not receive additional compensation for the extra responsibilities, Pugh said.
Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia Law School who studies government ethics, said he recognizes that school boards in small towns, such as Laurel, may have limited numbers of people involved in various activities, and so “it may be hard to avoid family members.”
Still, Briffault said participation in any employment decision that impacts a close relative gives “the appearance of corruption.”
“There’s the fact that the decision-maker may benefit personally from this financially, or only through ties of affection, and because of these close ties, the public official may not necessarily be motivated by what’s in the best interest of the community,” he said.
Although Giska and Susan Whaley have not received pay increases, Briffault said Zach Whaley should recuse himself from any potential future cases when the board considers the superintendent’s salary, benefits or contract renewals, if they were to impact his mother.
Chital Mehta, the Middletown author of the recently published novel “Have You Seen Romit?”, came across the news article in 2018: an IT worker and bachelor in Bengaluru, the most populous city in South India, had been reported missing.
Mehta didn’t know the man, and there was nothing particularly striking about the case. It was, from a certain point of view, relatively pedestrian. After all, more than half a million people went missing in the country of 1.4 billion in 2024 alone, according to India’s National Crime Records Bureau.
Get Involved Middletown author Chital Mehta’s novel “Have You Seen Romit?” is available to purchase through various national sellers listed on her website, as well as local stores like Huxley & Hiro Booksellers (601 N Market St, Wilmington, DE 19801) and Hockessin BookShelf (7179 Lancaster Pike, Hockessin, DE 19707).
Mehta will also table the Holiday Fall Fair at Kirkwood Library (6000 Kirkwood Hwy, Wilmington, DE 19808) on Saturday, Nov. 28, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Still, the man haunted Mehta, keeping her awake as she wondered what had happened to him and how his family was grappling with his disappearance.
So, she began writing about a fictional family whose 25-year-old adopted son, Romit, suddenly vanishes. The family first responds by talking to those who last saw Romit, reporting him missing and posting on social media. But as time passes by, they begin to move on.
Well, everyone except for his mother, Usha, who runs away on her daughter’s wedding night to search for Romit in the treacherous forests of southern India where he went missing.
“I wrote a couple of drafts with the father who went to look for Romit, because I grew up seeing men making the decisions in my household, or in society in general,” Mehta said.
But Usha took up residence in Mehta’s mind and refused to be ignored.
The character — a woman who has followed the lead of her controlling husband her entire marriage — was inspired by many women Mehta has met. Mehta was intrigued by the familial friction that might emerge from such a woman stepping out of the roles she’s played her entire life.
Letters to Usha
Mehta grew up in Tiruppur in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. She read so voraciously that her parents begged her to slow down. There were only so many books they could offer her, since they didn’t live close to a library.
Mehta realized she wanted to be an author in her 20s and began writing drafts of young adult novels and short stories. She set her eyes on higher education as soon as she immigrated to the United States.
Mehta wrote her first draft of “Have You Met Romit?” in 2018 as the thesis for her MFA in Creative Writing from Lindenwood University in Missouri.
Middletown author Chital Mehta speaks at Huxley & Hiro Booksellers during her book launch event for “Have You Seen Romit?” | PHOTO BY ARUNKUMAR PALANIAPPAN, COURTESY OF CHITAL MEHTA
“I was kind of steering away from cultural points because I kept telling myself that I want to write for the white audience, for an American audience. I wanted to make it easy for them,” said Mehta. “(My MFA professor) said, ‘You have to stop doing that. Just focus on telling a good story.’”
After her thesis, Mehta kept tinkering with the novel’s point of view and ending, repeatedly starting from scratch, scrapping characters and reworking the climax.
What kept Mehta going through her six-year writing process and countless revisions was her fixation on understanding Usha.
“I started writing three pages every day to Usha, just to strike conversations with her. … ‘What is it that you want me to do? Why are you telling me your story? Could you tell me more about your settings? What is it that you like to eat for breakfast? What makes you angry? What kind of clothes are you wearing?’” Mehta said. “All of these details don’t make it into the book … but it gave me an inside view of her life.”
As Mehta raised her own two children, Usha was always in the back of her mind, and the author found herself learning valuable lessons about parenting from her character.
“Now, I have a middle schooler.. … He’s being independent, and he wants to start keeping secrets,” Mehta said. “One of the things that I’ve learned as a parent is, no matter how much you try to know everything about your children, there are going to be parts that you may not have access to.”
‘Storm inside my head‘
Mehta’s fixation on her novel did not always manifest itself in positive ways.
“I felt like I was carrying a storm inside my head all the time. I kind of struggled socializing with people because this story was very urgent,” she said.
When Mehta began submitting “Have You Seen Romit?” to literary agents in 2024, she was hit by rejection after rejection — about 150 in less than one year.
A stack of copies of “Have You Seen Romit?” at Chital Mehta’s book launch at Huxley & Hiro Booksellers. | PHOTO BY ARUNKUMAR PALANIAPPAN, COURTESY OF CHITAL MEHTA
“I considered meeting a therapist. And I kept wondering, ‘What would I talk (about) with the therapist? I have a book, and I don’t know what to do with the book.’ It felt very silly at that point, but it was real,” she said. “I was glad I was able to connect with my writer friends.”
Some of the agents offered feedback in their rejections, so Mehta took their advice and revised the novel three times in just one year.
Mehta’s work finally paid off when “Have You Seen Romit?” was named the 2025 winner of the James Alan McPherson Prize for the Novel. Mehta’s award included $5,500 and publication by The University of Nebraska Press.
The contest was judged by R.O. Kwon, author of national bestsellers “The Incendiaries” and “Exhibit.”
Even when she was named a finalist, Mehta never expected to win the award, telling herself she was content with the idea of Kwon having read her novel.
Mehta was eating with her family at Honest Indian Restaurant in Wilmington when she got a phone call with the news. She immediately burst into tears.
“I remember I was not able to talk much to the editor, and he understood,” Mehta said. “I could not eat the rest of the meal. … My kids were terrified. (When I told them about the award,) my son immediately said, ‘So, now can I get a PS5?’ And I said, ‘No, that’s not happening.’”
Mehta has been busy with her book tour for the past month, but she’s itching to return to writing. Already, a new protagonist has taken up residence in Mehta’s mind — a mother who becomes disabled after the birth of her child.
“I feel like I’m cheating on her by not paying attention to her,” Mehta said with a laugh. “I’ll probably do 20 minutes a day, 30 minutes a day. That’s all I can do. But I’m going to go back to her soon. This time, hopefully, it doesn’t take six years.”
Why Should Delaware Care? Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
Georgetown could end tiny homes
City of New Castle considers data center rules
State budget office to talk next year’s spending
Kent County planners consider new Felton-are homes
Record store asks Newark to let it host live music
Georgetown could ban tiny homes
The Georgetown Town Council is set to vote Monday night to repeal a long-debated ordinance that would allow up to 12 tiny homes to be built on a single acre of land.
The repeal is likely to pass the five-member council, as three council members have publicly expressed their support, and another plans to recuse herself from the vote.
The measure has been a topic of debate in Georgetown for more than a year. The previous town council originally approved the ordinance in December 2025, before a new council makeup elected last May began taking steps to repeal it.
Recently elected Mayor Angie Townsend has been a vocal advocate of the repeal, citing a belief that many residents do not want tiny homes in town, and that the previous town council went against residents’ wishes by approving the measure.
Adding to the complicated picture is an ongoing lawsuit against the town by Springboard Delaware, a local organization that already operates its pallet village, a transitional homeless shelter, in town and also is seeking to build a 122-unit tiny home development.
Springboard sued the town in September, after council members enacted a pause on reviewing all new tiny home projects in July. That pause has prevented Springboard’s project from moving forward.
�� The Georgetown Town Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday inside Georgetown Town Hall, located at 39 The Circle in Georgetown. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Another town to consider data center regulations
The City of New Castle is considering regulating data centers, and could soon add itself to a list of local governments that have imposed restrictions on the fast-growing industry.
The draft ordinance would require data centers to be located 1,000 feet from homes and schools, and to use energy-efficient backup generators, among other regulations.
The council on Tuesday will also do a first reading of a potential moratorium on data centers and will host a public hearing at a future date.
��The New Castle City Council will conduct a public hearing about the data center regulations at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at 400 South St. in New Castle. Residents can submit comments about the proposal via email to info@newcastlecity.delaware.gov until 3 p.m. on the day of the hearing. For more information about the hearing, click here.
State gets a head start on budget discussions
Delaware’s government could be flush with cash during the upcoming fiscal year, which begins next July. And this month, its budget office is holding a series of hearings to begin discussions about how the spending might look.
Distinct from the legislature’s budget hearings to be held next year, these will involve discussions between agencies and budget officials from the Delaware Office of Management and Budget. Included within the discussions will be mandatory reports showing how agencies could cut their respective budgets by 1%.
Still, any such cuts could be unlikely following a report last month that the state could bring in more than $360 million more than previously estimated, according to an article from Delaware Public Media.
This week will feature three days of hearings about the budgets of 12 state offices or agencies. Included within those are the University of Delaware’s budget on Monday; the new Office of Inspector General’s budget on Tuesday; and the state judiciary’s budget on Thursday.
�� The Delaware Office of Management and Budget will meet 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday and then from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Thursday. The meetings will take place at the Delaware Public Archives, located at 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. in Dover. For more information, including about virtual attendance, click here. Additional hearings will take place the following week. Click here for the full November hearing calendar.
New subdivision near Felton?
The Kent County Regional Planning Commission will consider a proposal to build 265 new homes near Felton on Thursday.
Dubbed Spartan’s Village, the plans call for 265 single-family homes to be built on a 100-acre plot of land on Killens Pond Road near its intersection with South Dupont Highway just south of Felton town limits.
The property is located within Kent County’s growth zone overlay, meaning it falls within an area where county leaders typically anticipate and welcome growth.
�� The Kent County Regional Planning Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Thursday inside Levy Court Chambers, located at 555 Bay Rd. in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
A new music venue in Newark?
Delaware’s third largest city could get a new spot for live music.
On Monday, the Newark City Council will discuss a request from Rainbow Records to allow the company to host live music at its location along East Main Street. City planners previously recommended that the city approve the permit request.
�� The Newark City Council is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Council Chambers at 220 S. Main St. in Newark. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Kevin Warsh’s September calendar didn't reflect a conversation the president said he had with the Federal Reserve chair about how to vote at a meeting.
The quarterback has led Cincinnati to four straight wins with stat lines that put him in the company of Tom Brady. At this rate, the trophy seems his to lose
At the end of the 2021 season, the Cincinnati Bengals came up three points short in Super Bowl LVI against the Los Angeles Rams. Near the end of the 2022 season, the Bengals came up three points short – a 23-20 score line again in the AFC championship game against the Kansas City Chiefs. But from 2023 through 2025, those Bengals had to walk the desert for a while. Between injuries to quarterback Joe Burrow, an offensive line that was problematic at best, and one of the NFL’s worst defenses from year to year, Cincinnati had a combined regular-season record of 24-27, and no playoff appearances.
Now, the new Bengals are 6-2 after their 34-17 shellacking of the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid. And Burrow is on a tear we’ve rarely seen from any quarterback. Over the last four weeks, his 16 touchdown passes is the most in a four-game span in Bengals history (which goes back to 1968). He is the second quarterback in pro football history with 16 or more passing touchdowns and two or more rushing touchdowns in any four-game span, putting him up with Tom Brady in 2007 – the season in which the New England Patriots’ offense scored 36.8 points per game, and Brady was at his best. Burrow has been pressured on just 30.2% of his dropbacks this season, as opposed to 33.8% in 2025 and 34.2% in 2024.
A crowdfunded sequel to the movie Return of the Living Dead was uploaded last weekend — but producer Richard Driscoll is drawing criticism for what he did to the 1985 punk/zombie classic.
Kotaku reports:
[The release of the movie] came to the surprise to the original cast, who were attached to star in the follow-up. Instead it seems Driscoll opted to use AI to generate the film...
In 2024, Driscoll, who operates his own no-budget streaming service "DragonFLIX," launched an Indiegogo page for "TRASH's REVENGE Return of the Living Dead Universe." Unlike other fan projects, this one had a large portion of the original cast involved, with stars Randolph and Linnea Quigley acting as producers. It also threw in Quigley's fellow Sorority Babe in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama Michelle Bauer and the Oscar nominated Eric Roberts, who has seemingly been in everything except The Living Dead....
But after some confusion and radio silence between the cast and director, this incredible movie did not come to be. Last Halloween night, Driscoll pushed out [the almost entirely AI-generated] The Return of the Living Dead: Aftermath... The results won't surprise you. Robotic line delivery. Nonsensical sequence of events. Object impermanence. Everything's wet. Everyone looks shocked. At one point the video just flips around like you're watching on a phone someone dropped. And while the Return cast didn't film any of this footage, their likenesses are peppered throughout.
"It turned out to be a fiasco," says Quigley. "I warned him, "Whatever you do, don't do any AI, because people don't like it, the fans don't like it." Living Dead alumni, even those who weren't attached to this film, have spoken out against Aftermath. They seem most concerned about the existing and continued use of their likeness, given that Driscoll has seemingly pivoted 'Trash's Revenge' into an additional project. Randolph encourages those who provided any funding to ask for a refund through their credit card company. While Romero's original film was public domain, Return of the Living Dead was not. Randolph also encourages Amazon, who bought MGM in 2022, to take legal action.
A review on Reddit calls it "the worst 'film' I've ever seen," a production that "manages to not only be the worst zombie film ever made but is also the nadir of exploitation filmmaking.
[T]hings quickly descend into madness and we get lots of bits of A.I. reporters out on the streets being attacked by A.I. zombies... [T]here are some A.I. cops battling it out too...
President makes unusual acknowledgment that one of defining policies of his second administration had become a political liability
Donald Trump has admitted that his deportation policy was “too tough” and has offered to strike an immigration deal with Democrats in a concession after the Republicans’ disastrous defeat in the midterm elections.
In an interview on the CBS network’s 60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday, the president acknowledged that the aggressive crackdown had hurt him politically and said he was open to an arrangement to allow some undocumented immigrants to remain in the US.
From Serbia to Bangladesh and India to France, young people are pushing back against authoritarianism and reshaping political landscapes
In Brazil, they rallied online by the millions, sharing videos and spreading memes. In Serbia, they cycled across Europe and ran ultramarathons to make their voices heard.
Both movements burst into international public view last month as they became central during election campaigns to the pushback against authoritarianism. What they also offered, however, was a window into a wider phenomenon playing out across the globe, as youth-led movements reshape political landscapes.
Trump’s most controversial aide begins his first day as White House chief of staff
Stephen Miller, the influential architect of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, is due to start as White House chief of staff today. His promotion has horrified many, handing even more power to the president’s most controversial aide.
The 41-year-old has been with Trump since the beginning of the US president’s political career – serving as a speechwriter during his 2016 presidential campaign – and has long been seen as a hardliner on the right, serving as the driving force behind first-term Trump policies such as family separation at the US-Mexico border and the travel ban on people from many Muslim-majority countries.
Residents of Astley in Greater Manchester will tell public inquiry next week of ‘cacophony’ of noise causing sleep deprivation and depression
When Stephen Retford retired from the police in 2006, he looked forward to a quiet life after nearly three decades catching villains. But now the former detective has landed another big case – one that is extremely close to home.
“It’s the total injustice of it,” the 70-year-old seethed, staring up at the 18-metre-high mega-warehouse that looms over the quiet village of Astley in Greater Manchester. Residents are up in arms about the “monster” construction, likening it to having a “cruise ship in our back garden”.
British-Somali boxer claims first world titles in Texas
Kreps outlands Ali but loses disputed split decision
Baumgardner wins 135lb belt as Dubois feud heats up
Australia’s Nicolson retains junior featherweight title
British-Somali boxer Ramla Ali became a world champion for the first time at the age of 36 on Sunday night after escaping with a highly contentious 10-round split decision over former sparring partner Mikiah Kreps to claim the vacant WBO and IBF women’s junior featherweight titles in Arlington, Texas.
Ali, who grew up in east London after fleeing Somalia’s civil war with her family and went on to become the first boxer to represent the African country at the Olympics, completed her remarkable journey to the top of the 122lb division at College Park Center on her second attempt at a world championship – but only after a controversial verdict rewarding her for a fight that appeared to be largely controlled by her opponent.
Mouser will be your best friend. This forum will be your best friend. It has parts, the bootup sequence and flow, and breaks down microchip and battery chip and where to source them.
When you get into the weeds, make sure you have a inline fuse because i have fried to esc due to shorts. I had one where it was a xt60 with a fuse between it just incase. The bms really does not have a known failure on paticular parts ( im on a og pint, they are tanks) and i just opted to buy a broken bms from a local seller as a donor for parts. On pint or xrbms its really easy to knock a cermaic cpacitor (the little things around the big bms chip in the middle). Ive onlt worked on pints a xr so cant say anything on the gt and up. Rest is really trial and error.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said that he could move to Israel and try to become prime minister if Americans eventually “get tired” of him, while also claiming he enjoys a 99% approval rating there.
The comments came during a Fox & Friends interview in which Trump also reiterated plans to end roughly $4 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Israel after 2026, while continuing arms sales. Trump said Israel no longer needs the assistance.
Trump’s claim of near-universal support in Israel is not supported by recent polling. An August survey by the Jewish People Policy Institute found only 10% of Israelis had “a great deal of confidence” in Trump to do the right thing on U.S.-Israel relations, while 46% said they had no confidence in him.
His suggestion that he could become Israeli prime minister was also largely rhetorical. Israel’s prime minister must be a member of the Knesset, meaning Trump would first need to satisfy Israeli citizenship and electoral requirements before such a scenario could even become legally possible.
The remarks come as U.S.-Israel relations enter a more uncertain period following Democrats’ takeover of Congress and weakening bipartisan support for unrestricted military aid. Reuters reported that Democrats plan greater scrutiny of aid to Israel, although Trump retains broad authority over foreign policy.
We can’t allow our health data to be locked into the control of a US tech firm. It won’t be easy, but next spring the job of clawing it back must begin
Ben Coleman is Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham and a member of the health and social care committee
Next March, Palantir’s £330m contract to run NHS England’s federated data platform (FDP) ends. Ministers must decide by Christmas whether to extend it. They should move on from Palantir, and transition to new suppliers that put the NHS in full control of its technology and patient data.
I sit on the health and social care committee. In June, we recommended no extension – people don’t trust Palantir, its benefits are contested and other tools could deliver the same or similar advantages. The debate so far has been whether to drop Palantir. The harder question is what replaces it. The tempting solution is to hire a single British firm. But that would not give the NHS the control it lacks: the freedom to switch supplier without losing what it has built.
Ben Coleman is Labour MP for Chelsea and Fulham and a member of the health and social care committee
ANTALYA, Türkiye, Nov. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As COP 31 gets underway today, leading standards organizations IEC, ISO and ULSE, along with 13 other international partners, will reconvene the Standards Pavilion in Antalya, Türkiye, continuing joint efforts to position International…
@lemur appriciate the looking out. I hit a wall this week with the microchips. They are from 2.0.7 revision so im guessing the chips are locked out from erasing. They pass and write properly according to mplab. Tired 3 i had around and all three lied about success. Im gonna have to replace the 1788 with a new blank one. Orderd them yesterday and will update when everything comes in. My board is on 4212 and already have a owie inline so the only issue is the fw.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, has urged ministers to stop undermining the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, as Labor struggles to sell its budget and looks to cut popular clean energy subsidies to help with the fight against inflation.
Cabinet ministers met again on Monday to discuss potential budget savings to be included in next month’s mid-year update, part of efforts to reducing spending to ease pressure on the economy.
It's FOSS reports:
Asahi Linux is the reason you can run Linux on an Apple Silicon Mac today. For years, the project put most of its own code under the MIT license so that anyone, including the BSDs, could reuse it as needed... They have announced that Asahi is moving all of its repositories to the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. Going forward, all Asahi Linux code will be under strong copyleft licenses only.
Asahi Linux compares their dilemma to the 1990s, when "permissively licenced projects were viewed by tech companies as free real estate to pilfer and exploit," adding that "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it... The malicious practices of the 90s and 2000s have reared their ugly heads once again, this time driven in large part by both the insatiable appetite of frontier AI labs for high-quality training data, and militant animosity toward the Free Software community." In short, they argue that for Asahi Linux, using the permissive MIT license "is no longer viable."
Some time ago, we were made aware of multiple attempts to exploit our permissive licensing to hijack our work, with a direct view to replacing the project and aggressively monetising Linux on Apple Silicon. In some extreme cases, in-development feature code was being lifted straight out of our personal forks and published without attribution or lazily rewritten with LLM assistance to obfuscate its origin. The MIT licence explicitly allows this, and has no carveouts to protect against bad faith actors. As such, we made the difficult decision to begin the process of transitioning all of our repositories to the GNU General Public License version 2 or later. Going forward all Asahi Linux code will be licenced under strong copyleft licences only.
It's FOSS explains that "Under the GPL, anyone who distributes a modified version has to release the source under the same license. You can't legally build a closed, paid Apple Silicon distro on top of GPL code. And if a product's source has to be public, the copying is easier to spot."
And their article also points out that before AI, bad actors attempting code laundering "usually meant manually rewriting code line by line, renaming variables and stuff, and shuffling functions around until it no longer looked like the original. LLMs made it much more easy and cheaper of course."
In case you did not know, Asahi Linux forbids AI generated code contribution... As far as I can tell, this is the first time a major open source project has moved to copyleft specifically because of AI-assisted code laundering. Projects have relicensed before, but usually to stop cloud providers from reselling their work as a service. This one is specifically about AI...
The move has drawn criticism, particularly from the BSD side, which was one of the main reasons Asahi chose MIT in the first place. OpenBSD's Apple Silicon support relies on Asahi's m1n1 bootloader.
The writer and podcaster on why politics is made to seem more complicated than it is and his mission to unpack world events for everyone
Why did you get into comedy?
My mum was a professional dancer and always encouraged me to perform. Given that I have zero rhythm, comedy was my other option. She wrote me a poem called Mrs Brown’s Moggy, about a cat that was often very soggy, for my school’s talent show. Because you can’t tell the difference between real and polite laughter at the age of six, I assumed I’d killed my first gig and convinced myself I was born to do nothing else.
69 million people people live in the United Kingdom. And now >Electrek reports:
Battery-electric cars took 32% of the UK's new car market in October, while petrol cars fell to just 37.2%, according to new data from the SMMT. That's the closest the two have been. At the current pace, electric cars will outsell petrol in the UK within a year. And it could happen as soon as this December.
The UK registered 152,730 new cars in October, up 5.4% year-over-year and the 11th straight month of growth for the overall market. All of that growth came from plug-ins. Battery-electric vehicle registrations jumped 32.7% to 48,858 units, and plug-in hybrids rose 30.1% to 22,898. Meanwhile, petrol fell 11.6% to 56,876 units, diesel dropped 15.9%, and even conventional hybrids were down 5%...
The brands growing fastest in the UK are mostly Chinese. BYD registered 6,065 cars in October, up 73%. Jaecoo more than doubled to 6,089 units, Chery nearly tripled to 3,707, and Leapmotor doubled to 1,773. MG was up 85%.
Looking at trend lines, EV car sales surpass petrol sales "around August 2027 at roughly 33% each," the article points out. "But that's the slow scenario, because it ignores December."
UK battery-electric vehicle share spikes every December as automakers push volume to get closer to their zero-emission vehicle mandate targets... Petrol's days as the UK's default car are numbered. The only question is whether the milestone comes in December or sometime in 2027.
Pontiff tells Argentina’s president the economy must benefit all on second stop of 12-day Latin America tour
Pope Leo XIV has delivered a stinging critique of Argentine president Javier Milei’s harsh austerity measures, insisting growth must benefit all in a speech met with rapturous applause in Buenos Aires.
“The economy must be at the service of the people, rather than people being at the service of the economy,” he said on Sunday, shortly after landing in Argentina on the second leg of a Latin America tour.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump is showing little sign of backing away from his hardline immigration agenda despite Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses and evidence that aggressive enforcement helped drive some Latino voters back toward Democrats.
Trump defended his immigration policies over the weekend and argued that Republicans should continue emphasizing border enforcement and deportations rather than moderate their approach. The stance comes as party officials debate why Republicans lost both chambers of Congress.
Reuters found that Republican support dropped sharply across many majority-Latino counties compared with 2024. In 64 such counties with Senate races, the GOP vote share fell by about 14 percentage points. Immigration enforcement and deportations were among the issues repeatedly cited by Latino voters, alongside the economy and cost of living.
Trump’s approval on immigration has also declined. A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found just 37% approved of his handling of the issue, down from 50% at the beginning of his second term.
Rather than signaling moderation, Trump has elevated Stephen Miller, one of the architects of his mass-deportation strategy, to White House chief of staff.
Republicans remain divided over whether immigration enforcement contributed substantially to the defeat or whether economic concerns and the Iran war mattered more. But the administration’s early post-election moves suggest Trump intends to stay the course.
President says it was ‘just a little fun’ to picture White, UFC boss and Trump’s friend, in briefing room with fighters
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he “was only kidding” when he announced a day earlier that he had offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Speaking to reporters on his way back to the White House from his beach club in Florida, Trump explained the premise of his joke, that if the UFC boss, who is a devoted fan of the president, took over the briefing room, flanked by six fighters, reporters “wouldn’t mess around with him so much”.
He said building a governing coalition would require “creative and unconventional political steps” and added that change was needed to restore “sanity.”
CEO reportedly had close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to Beijing
Nvidia said on Sunday it “is initiating an independent investigation in light of recent reporting that founder and CEO Jensen Huang has been the target of a foreign intelligence effort”.
The New York Times reported in October that Donald Trump had been briefed last year on intelligence that Huang had a close relationship with a Chinese businesswoman who passed information to Beijing.
Larson clinched his third Cup Series title in six years early in Sunday’s 400-mile season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, becoming the first back-to-back champion since Jimmie Johnson in 2010. Johnson won five consecutive titles beginning in 2006.
CrowdStrike's "Falcon Guardian" protects Windows systems by enforcing policy, restricting unauthorized applications and blocking USB devices, notes Gartner.
And now CrowdStrike says they're giving security teams "the ultimate human control over AI agents" with — an "AI Kill Switch... a defender can terminate it where it runs, block it from launching again, and cut off its enterprise network access."
"When you deploy agents with a kill switch, you stay in control," said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike... "The AI Kill Switch puts power in the hands of the people to realize AI safety...." In the case of a rogue agent, the AI Kill Switch will give the security decision-maker the final control: terminate the agent at its root, where it runs. It starts on the endpoint, where the Falcon sensor already operates, and builds on what Falcon Guardian already sees: what an agent is told to do, what it communicates, and what it executes... An authorized administrator triggers the action, and every action is recorded in the audit trail.
CrowdStrike also announced it's acquiring Fiddler AI, a company it describes as "a leader in AI agent observability and explainability" that will give their Falcon platform "pre-deployment evaluation, continuous behavioral accountability, and agent explainability."
Together with the Falcon Guardian innovations announced today, CrowdStrike will deliver comprehensive AI security and AI safety: Guardian secures agents from attack and misuse; Fiddler validates they behaved as intended. "Every company is deploying agents and asking the same thing: what are agents actually doing?" said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike. "When a regulator or your board asks what an agent did, saying 'the model did it' is not an answer. Fiddler is the flight recorder for every agent: the observability to explain exactly what an agent did and why. This level of agent visibility and control enables AI safety."
AI agents are goal-seeking. They hit an obstacle, find another path. An agent can hold valid credentials and approved tools and still make unsupported decisions, ignore instructions, or claim work it never completed. They don't have to be compromised to create risk. AI observability gives enterprises visibility into agent behavior. Explainability goes further, showing why agents make decisions and where things go wrong. Enterprises have to be able to say what an agent actually did, and why, a conversation they will increasingly have with auditors, regulators, boards, and heads of risk.
CrowdStrike is promising pre-deployment evaluation for "accuracy, task completion, and policy compliance," as well as agent traceability and behavioral accountability ("Detect behavioral drift, hallucinations, and unintended actions in production, and show exactly what happened.") It's announcement also touts auditable governance: "Track agent decisions and actions across first-party, third-party, and coding agents, providing evidence for compliance and audits."
And CrowdStrike also acquired Dreadnode, the company behind an automated AI security testing platform, to "continuously test every AI model, application, and agent for security weaknesses before deployment."
"Enterprises are deploying AI faster than they can prove it is secure," said George Kurtz, CEO and founder of CrowdStrike. "A model can be jailbroken, an agent can be manipulated, and most organizations have no way to find those flaws until the AI is already in production. With Dreadnode, CrowdStrike will give every enterprise the power to trust AI and deploy faster, with confidence."
Quartz notes that CrowdStrike's push "follows legislative efforts to require shutdown capabilities in AI systems" Reps. Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran introduced the Kill Switch Act after OpenAI disclosed an incident in which rogue models circumvented a sandboxed testing environment and accessed Hugging Face. The bill would require AI companies to maintain the ability to shut down, throttle or suspend their models.
In short, the new capabilities "lets security teams terminate an AI agent, block it from restarting, and cut off its network access," writes CSO Online. But they add that a kill switch "should be viewed as an emergency brake, not a rewind button, said Apeksha Kaushik, senior principal analyst at Gartner."
She added that it may prevent additional actions, but it might not necessarily reverse all the data that has already been accessed, every system that has already been changed, all communications that have already been sent, or transactions that have already been initiated. Its effectiveness will also depend on how quickly abnormal behavior is detected, which environments are covered, and whether the agent or security infrastructure has been compromised.
An AI Kill Switch looks promising from the details provided, but its actual effectiveness will come in after it is used extensively in live systems, warn analysts. Also, it may be a good starting point, but it cannot be viewed as a standalone solution to enterprise AI security. "CISOs would need a more integrated approach that brings together AI discovery tools to identify unauthorised agents, runtime monitoring to track agent behaviour, robust identity and access management, and incident response and recovery mechanisms," added [Devroop Dhar, co-founder at Primus Partners].
He noted that equally important is the need for stringent AI security testing and clearly defined policies governing what agents can access and execute. There should be no ambiguity around permissions, access controls or the boundaries within which these agents are allowed to operate. The objective should be to ensure that security controls are built into the entire AI agent lifecycle rather than relying on a kill switch to intervene after something goes wrong. Dhar added that enterprise AI agents often have access to sensitive systems, databases, applications, credentials, and APIs. A compromised or misdirected agent could therefore become a point of vulnerability. The challenge is compounded by the fact that such activity may go undetected for some time, making it difficult for organisations to identify and contain the threat.
Lucy Powell says proposals to end widespread practice will be included in overhaul of England’s national curriculum
Pushing GCSE subjects on younger pupils risks turning England’s secondary schools into “early exam factories”, the education secretary has said, warning that it is increasing disengagement from education.
Lucy Powell wants schools to end the widespread practice of teaching GCSE topics to pupils in year 9 or earlier, before they officially start in year 10, and says she plans to reduce the amount of GCSE content to make it easier to fit into the official timetable.
In a wide-ranging conversation, President Trump discusses Republican losses in the midterms, his potential successors, the Iran war, immigration, allegations of corruption, and artificial intelligence.
In an interview with 60 Minutes, President Trump said his administration's deportation policy might have been "too tough" in pursuing immigrants with "good jobs."
60 Minutes visits France to understand who and what are driving protests and interviews populist, far-right politician Marine Le Pen, who could benefit from the strife in the streets.
£40m scheme in England aims to keep most vulnerable people well at home and avoid unnecessary hospital stays
Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable patients in England are to receive extra support from their GP as part of a £40m drive aimed at keeping them out of hospital this winter.
As the NHS gears up for the pressures of the coming months, family doctors will offer 300,000 people with frailty and long-term conditions health checks, medication reviews and respiratory tests designed to prevent avoidable hospital admissions.
CBS News spoke with several Democratic representatives-elect who say their priority is making life affordable for the American people, but they also plan to hold the Trump administration accountable.
Calley Means, a White House senior adviser and aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who resigned last month, said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that some Trump administration officials are catering to special interests.
Bengals joint-top of AFC North with 34-17 win in Madrid Myles Garrett returns in Rams win with three sacks
Broncos 0-0 Panthers 14:56, 1st quarter
Here we go! Carolina kick it away to Denver. The Broncos run it back to the 45-yard line. Nice trot from Sean Fresch. Excellent field position for Bo Nix to go to work.
CNBC reports new details about the relationship of alleged Chinese spy with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang:
Huang told Nvidia staff in a email on Sunday that he had an affair with the woman and that Nvidia's board of directors had opened an independent investigation into the spying allegations. "I was unfaithful to my wife. My actions hurt her and our children. There is no excuse for what I did," Huang wrote in the message. "I am deeply sorry."
Nvidia's board "said an independent committee, assisted by outside counsel, will investigate the matter," reports Axios:
The board said it has no reason to believe national security or company secrets were compromised and expressed confidence in Huang's leadership... Huang has been a key voice in Washington pushing to loosen restrictions on AI chip sales to China. He argued that keeping American technology in the Chinese market strengthens U.S. competitiveness and prevented China from developing their own potentially more advanced chips.
The board's statement added that their inquiry "will examine all available information," CNBC reports. But "An Nvidia spokesperson said that Huang was committed to continuing as CEO of Nvidia without interruption."
"I love our country and our company," Jensen Huang wrote in his letter to Nvidia's staff (as reported by CNBC), "and I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America's national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American."
But while U.S. lawmakers have requested Huang appear for closed-door committee briefing, Jensen has not confirmed he'll appear, notes CNBC:
When asked by the New York Times whether Huang would appear before lawmakers to discuss the matter, Nvidia spokesman John Rizzo declined to comment. "Our chief executive has an outstanding security team that accompanies him where needed," Mr. Rizzo said in a statement to the Times...
Rizzo said [Thursday] the Nvidia CEO's interactions with [alleged Chinese spy Alice] Huang were consistent with meetings he has had with any of Nvidia's customers.
Jakub Kulik critically injured and Artur Morański also wounded after actions that ‘prevented further casualties’
Two Polish police officers who were injured as they pursued and detained the gunman in Kraków on Saturday have been hailed as heroes.
One of them is Jakub Kulik, a former paratrooper and volunteer firefighter, who was left critically injured after a close-range exchange of fire with the suspect, a 24-year-old Polish national who killed six and injured 17 in an attack believed to have been inspired by far-right ideologies.
Nationwide, voters elected at least 75 Native women or non-binary candidates in Tuesday’s elections, report says
The US midterm elections saw voters elect a slew of historic representatives – from the country’s first Muslim senator to the first Black female governor – but among the most significant gains were those for Native American women.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the Democratic Socialists of America policy he believes is most acceptable to mainstream Americans, while distancing himself from several other positions associated with the organization.
During an interview with Fox News Sunday, host Shannon Bream asked Mamdani which parts of the DSA platform he believed ordinary voters would support. Mamdani pointed to abolishing ICE and “making sure we have humanity back in our immigration enforcement.”
Mamdani also rejected eliminating the Senate, the Supreme Court, national borders and jails, making clear that membership in the DSA does not mean he supports every proposal associated with the group.
His position on ICE is not new. In January, Mamdani said publicly that he supports abolishing the agency, arguing that its enforcement practices have gone far beyond what he considers legitimate immigration enforcement.
As mayor, Mamdani has also said New York City agencies will not assist ICE with civil immigration enforcement and has sought to prevent federal agents from using city property for staging operations.
The comments come after immigration enforcement became a major issue in the 2026 midterms, particularly in cities that experienced expanded federal operations.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Calley Means, former senior adviser to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a portion of which aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 8, 2026.
The New York Times reports:
After chatting for months with Google's artificial intelligence on a school-issued Chromebook laptop, a 13-year-old student made plans to end her life, according to a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court on Monday, the latest in a wave of litigation over Big Tech's effects on young people. The lawsuit, which refers to the girl as Emma, said that her parents first learned she had access to Google's AI in mid-March after their daughter's school sent a message warning them that she was in "imminent danger" of self-harm. Emma's mother logged into the teen's school Google account and found her daughter composing a suicide note on Google Docs, the complaint said. Her parents, named as John and Jane Doe in the lawsuit, immediately took Emma for an emergency psychiatric evaluation, and she now goes to therapy every week.
Emma, a seventh grader in Charlotte, North Carolina, had grown convinced that she had multiple mental health disorders following interactions with AI Mode, a chatbotlike feature on Google Search, the complaint said. She also searched for "what is a suicide note" and made comments like "I am planning my own funeral" to the AI, the complaint said. The lawsuit is likely the first to claim that Google "hastily integrated" AI features into company apps used on K-12 Chromebooks, Google-powered laptops provided to millions of children by U.S. school districts, while failing to notify their parents of the potential risks...
The case underscores how public school districts have come to depend on classroom laptops, tablets and apps from companies like Google and Microsoft for teaching and learning. In recent years, some Big Tech companies have used their own infrastructure in schools to promote their AI chatbots for teachers and students. The new lawsuit argues that Google's "sprawling digital ecosystem" of laptops and apps has enabled the tech giant to spread its Gemini AI chatbot across public schools — as well as turn on some students' access to AI features by default — without parents' awareness or permission. While school administrators can toggle company apps like YouTube and Gemini on or off for students in different grades, school administrators have complained that Google's system has not allowed them to disable AI Mode and AI Overview, features that are embedded in Google Search...
The new lawsuit against Google is part of a wave of litigation this year over Big Tech's effect on young users... Several parents have also sued AI companies over allegations that their children died by suicide following interactions with chatbots.
In a possibly-related development, Google announced a new policy of disabling its AI tools by default for schools this week. And schools that re-enable searches will have a new choice, the New York Times points out: "to enable student access to the AI features that the company has already embedded in search or to a new AI feature intended to assist students with schoolwork."
But Google still isn't offering schools an option to turn off AI altogether in search, a company executive told the New York Times, because "search and AI are deeply integrated."
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader theodp for sharing the article.
Man taken to hospital after falling off Royal Caribbean ship in Pacific Ocean, with Coast Guard investigating incident
A pianist for a Royal Caribbean cruise ship is expected to survive after two Newport Beach, California, fishermen discovered him treading water in the Pacific Ocean nearly 20 miles (32km) offshore on Friday.
The unidentified man was taken to the hospital after the rescue, according to the US Coast Guard, which is now investigating how he went overboard from the cruise ship.
"It has been an extraordinary privilege," says the subheading on Thursday's announcement. After 31 years Salon.com will stop publishing, according to an announcement which appeared on the site under the byline "Salon". It remembers that Salon "was an idea about what journalism could be, born at a moment when the internet was still a largely unexplored frontier."
When Salon launched in November 1995, the web was a very different place. A small group of journalists set out to create something original: a publication with a strong voice, a curiosity about the world and a belief that the internet could bring journalism and readers together in new ways. They helped pioneer a form of journalism that would come to define an entirely new era of publishing. Over three decades, Salon has brought together politics, culture, criticism and ideas in a way that was distinctly our own...
Our writers and editors helped shape conversations about the forces changing our lives. The work was never simply about keeping up with the news. It was about making sense of it... To the founders who imagined it, the staff members who built it, the contributors who gave it their voices and the alumni who carried its spirit into the world: Thank you. Salon's legacy belongs to all of you...
The business realities of independent digital journalism have changed profoundly over the years. After careful consideration, we have reached the difficult decision that our publishing model is no longer sustainable...
Thirty-one years is a remarkable run, but what matters most is what happened during those years: the journalism, the ideas, the voices, the conversations and the community that grew around them. Salon helped demonstrate what digital journalism could be and could become. We hope that legacy will continue to matter long after today.
Thank you for being part of our story. It has been an extraordinary privilege.
Slashdot reader oumuamua remembers Salon as one of the internet's first digital-native publications. Slashdot linked to Salon many times over the years — for example, this 1998 story headlined "Linus Story in Salon".
Peter Neves was the first of many who wrote in to tell us about an article in Salon Magazine that describes an
"...analogy between MS and the Catholic Church, and Linus and Martin Luther. "
The Associated Press remembers Salon as "an early staple of internet discourse."
And while Salon told them there were no immediate plans to take down Salon's online archives, the Associated Press notes the site's announcement "did not immediately indicate what would become of its employees, though some reported they had lost their jobs." (Longtime staff writer Amanda Marcotte
wrote on her Patreon that she and "everyone" are "the latest victim of AI's predations.") "A spokesperson for the outlet said 19 full-time employees had been affected, as well as a handful of private contractors," writes the Associated Press.
Variety adds that Salon "joins later-arriving sites such as Buzzfeed and Gawker that found it difficult to monetize cultural and topical reporting for a general audience and eventually shut down."
No one was injured after emergency landing in Fort Myers 50 minutes after takeoff with two people onboard
A small plane crashed into the rear of a pickup truck as it made an emergency landing on a busy Florida highway on Saturday but miraculously no one was injured in the dramatic incident.
Video footage obtained from the sheriff’s office shows a Cessna 172 grazing over the truck as it approached the ground for a complete landing on a road in Fort Meyers at about 11.45am on Saturday.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 8, 2026.
On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and former Robert F. Kennedy health adviser Calley Means join Margaret Brennan.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Rep. French Hill, Republican of Arkansas, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 8, 2026.
House Democrat is a ‘hard yes’ on impeachment resolution against defense secretary who ‘has abused his power’
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, poised to become majority leader, said on Sunday that he strongly supports impeaching defense secretary Pete Hegseth as a Republican lawmaker prepares to force a House vote.
The top Democrat made his position clear during an appearance on ABC’s This Week, declaring himself a “hard yes” on the impeachment resolution targeting Hegseth.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump shared an AI-generated video Sunday depicting UFC fighters physically attacking members of the White House press corps while UFC CEO Dana White stands behind the briefing-room podium.
The animated clip, originally posted by an X account and later reposted by Trump on Truth Social, shows reporters asking White questions including whether Trump threatens democracy and about the president’s pronouns. UFC fighters then tackle, restrain or remove the animated journalists. The video ends with Trump looking into the room as several reporters lie on the floor.
The post came one day after Trump publicly offered White the vacant press secretary job and suggested that several UFC fighters join him as assistants to help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.”
White said Saturday he planned to meet with Trump Monday but noted that he already has “a lot of jobs.” He has not publicly accepted the position. Reuters reported that Trump and White have maintained a close relationship for years, with White repeatedly supporting Trump politically.
The video is fictional and AI-generated, and Trump did not explicitly direct anyone to attack journalists. Still, it portrays physical violence against members of the press from inside the White House briefing room, adding another unusual element to the administration’s ongoing search for a permanent press secretary.
The crash occurred in al-Ayyat district in Giza province, about 32 miles south of Cairo, when a train traveling to the southwestern Fayoum province crashed into the rear of another train.
Be careful with the file .claude/settings.local.json, warns The Hacker News:
Passwords and API keys that developers typed into commands they approved in Claude Code are sitting in public GitHub repositories, where anyone can read them. When a user selects "Yes, and don't ask again," Anthropic's AI coding assistant can save the command, word-for-word, including the secret, in a project settings file. Software security company Apiiro said that 1,122 public copies of that file hold at least one secret, though it did not test whether any still work. One company the researchers notified earlier this week confirmed its key had been live...
Removing [the file] from a project does not undo the leak, because older versions stay in git history and in forks of the repository. The researchers' advice is to rotate first: change every password, token, and key the file has ever held, then clean up...
Claude Code tries to keep the file out of git. The first time it writes the file in a git repository, it adds the file to the user's global git excludes, its settings documentation says. Git on that computer then ignores the file in every repository. That protection stays in one user's git settings on one computer. It does nothing for a file that was already committed, the researchers say. Claude Code never adds the file to the project's own .gitignore, so the protection does not travel with the project. In 539 of the 1,105 repositories the researchers traced, a commit listing Claude as a co-author changed the file. They take this to mean Claude often commits the file itself.
Apiiro's search of public GitHub found 104,185 copies of the file in 103,617 repositories, its research write-up shows. About 1.1% of them, or 1,122 copies, hold at least one secret. Together they hold 1,379 different secrets... ]And "in half of those repositories it had been there for at least 217 days."] More than a third of the secrets open a database directly, including 379 database passwords. Others include 43 SSH logins for public servers, 42 tokens for GitHub, GitLab and npm, and 23 AWS keys. Among the owners of these files are 63 organizations, mostly software companies of all sizes. The strongest cases include a database vendor's own admin-level cloud key and the owner password of a medical-records database, the researchers say.
Boris Cherny, Anthropic's head of Claude Code, responded to the story in a comment on Hacker News:
"Historically Claude Code has not done secret scrubbing (there are many good tools for that), but we are looking into what we can do to prevent this.
That said, a few thoughts:
1. .claude/settings.local.json is meant to stay local. This is not a file you should check into source control. We automatically gitignore it when Claude creates the file, so in this case the files were manually created and checked in (docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/settings)
2. Permission rules are old hat. Everyone should be using auto mode instead. It is safer and also does not require manually maintaining finicky allow/deny lists. Auto mode is enabled by default and is included for free in all plans.
3. Regardless of what agent you use, you should have secret scanning enabled. GitHub and other source control hosts offer it. There are many threat models that it protects against and you should absolutely use it if you can. (see https://github.com/security/plans)"
Cherny also named approaches Anthropic plans to prototype, Apiiro notes in an update, citing Cherny's goal of
"making sure auto mode catches this, building in basic secret scanning," and, when a reader noted the same can happen in auto mode when it asks about a sensitive command, answered "good catch."
Claude Code users had already filed a bug report on the issue on August 11, 2025, notes The Hacker News, but "An automated bot closed that report as 'not planned' on January 3, after 60 days without activity."
Three more bug reports were then filed, according to the researchers. "None got a reply from Anthropic, and three were closed automatically as inactive or duplicate."
Two people arrested after Robinson’s presence inflames tensions in scenes witnessed by many on social media
Two people were arrested at an influencer boxing event that descended into a riot in Ireland after the presence of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson inflamed tensions in the crowd.
The riot took place at about midnight on Saturday at an event organised by the controversial internet personality HSTikkyTokky, whose real name is Harrison Sullivan, at the Hub events venue in Kilkenny.
Bengals beat Falcons 34-17 in Madrid for fourth straight
Giants win in Philadelphia for first time since 2013
Dak Prescott threw for 335 yards and CeeDee Lamb caught 10 passes for 195 yards before the Dallas defense made the decisive play to help the Cowboys escape Indianapolis with a 27-23 victory on Sunday.
Cowboys rookie safety Caleb Downs intercepted Daniel Jones with 35 seconds remaining to seal the victory for Dallas.
Culture secretary pushes back against talk of revisiting Brexit but says closer ties would fulfil referendum promises
One of Andy Burnham’s cabinet ministers has said she wants to avoid “circular arguments” about whether the UK should rejoin the EU, underlining divisions at the top of government over revisiting Brexit.
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, appeared to suggest she was not in favour of rejoining the trade bloc, but she said the prime minister should still pursue closer ties to fulfil the promises made at the time of the referendum.
Andy Burnham insists he is committed to the green transition, but his MPs worry that in decision after decision, he is showing that other priorities come first.
Americans outscore opponents 12-0 through two games
Sweden bounce back with 4-1 victory over Finland
Emma Peschel celebrated her international debut with a goal as the United States shut out Germany 5-0 at the women’s ice hockey world championship on Sunday.
The 22-year-old defender scored with a wrist shot from the point to make it 2-0 in the opening period of the Group A game.
Trump poised to double down on immigration crackdown and refuse concessions to new Democratic majority in Congress
Donald Trump set the stage for his administration to lurch further to the right this weekend, claiming the US had taken a “giant step back” by widely rejecting his party.
Former military chief says prime minister brought Israel to historic crisis and it is approaching ‘point of no return’
Israel’s former military chief Gadi Eisenkot started the tough task of forming a government on Sunday, reaching out to Benjamin Netanyahu’s allies as he said the veteran prime minister had brought the country to a historic crisis.
Eisenkot, 66, the leader of the Yashar party, who has vowed to bridge Israel’s deep polarisation under Netanyahu, formally received a mandate from the president, Isaac Herzog, who gave him 28 days to form a government despite his bloc lacking a clear majority.
President orders prompt investigation after one train derails in collision in al-Ayyat about 50km from Cairo
Seven people were killed and at least 125 injured when two trains collided on Sunday south of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, officials said.
The crash occurred in al-Ayyat district in Giza province, about 50km (30 miles) south of Cairo, when a train travelling to Fayoum province crashed into the rear of a train heading to the southern province of Aswan, according to the transport ministry.
Ministers are expected to make steep cuts to the government’s electric vehicle (EV) targets this week, in a move that will relieve carmakers but alarm many Labour MPs who are worried about the government’s commitment to the green agenda.
Louise Haigh, the de facto deputy prime minister, will finalise the plan after a crunch meeting in Downing Street on Wednesday to settle a long-running dispute between the transport, energy and business departments.
In "The Altruists," the Emmy-winning star of "Ozark" plays Caroline Ellison, girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried and business partner in a multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency fraud. Julia Garner talks about how, for her, the eyes truly are the windows to the soul.
"According to a new study by researchers at Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania, data centers are probably having only a small effect on residential electricity prices," reports the Washington Post.
"The researchers calculated that these operations were responsible for just 4% of the utility rate increases over the last five years..."
There are certainly some areas — like in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio and other states covered by grid operator PJM — where data centers have skyrocketed demand, pushing some costs onto residential customers. But multiple studies by different researchers and organizations have failed to find a strong connection between data centers and the overall trajectory of U.S. electricity prices in recent years. Another analysis earlier this year by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that, between 2010 and 2024, data centers increased average electricity prices for residential customers by just 2.1%. Last year, research from the Brattle Group and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that data centers were actually decreasing costs in certain regions. And another study by the Electric Power Research Institute found that a doubling of data center capacity between 2019 and 2024 resulted in a 4 percent drop in home electricity prices...
The new Harvard and Penn study found a slightly higher impact on industrial electricity prices — the price paid by manufacturers and large facilities. For those customers, data centers were responsible for 15% of the price increase between 2020 and 2025. But for ordinary Americans... the changes simply were not substantial [according to Wharton School professor Serguei Netessine, one of the study's authors]. "So far we have no evidence that data centers increase prices all that much," Netessine said. Instead, he said, prices are rising due to more quotidian factors: rising gas prices, an aging electricity grid, and wildfires and hurricanes requiring improvements to the grid and recovery after disaster...
If the number of data centers continue to boom, experts say, residential prices could be affected more down the line. Data center electricity demand is expected to increase steeply over the next few years, requiring new power generation — wind, solar or natural gas — to be put onto the grid. And residents have issues with data centers that go beyond the price of electricity. The new developments have been singled out for loud noise, polluting power generation, and for disturbing residential neighborhoods and natural landscapes. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of Americans say that data centers are mostly bad for the environment. Others feel that the AI race — which could ultimately leave many Americans out of work — is being forced upon them.
"I think generally what we're seeing is a broader range of reasons the public has opposed data centers," [said Ryan Hledik, principal at the Brattle Group]. "Concern about AI leading to loss of jobs — all of that is getting packaged together."
Culture secretary says there is still a problem with exploitation and abuse in the industry and public life
The culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said there is still a problem with exploitation and abuse in the media industry and a failure to properly deal with allegations after Russell Brand’s conviction for rape and sexual assault.
She said women who came forward were too often not protected by institutions across public life, including in politics, and that huge power imbalances meant speaking up came at a very heavy cost.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Rep.-elect Nancy Lacore, a portion of which aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Nov. 8, 2026.
Two Newport Beach fishermen found a Royal Caribbean cruise ship employee treading water nearly 20 miles off the coast while returning home from a fishing trip near Catalina Island on Friday.
The university has become a hub for human and artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration.
With the development of the First State AI Institute (FSAII) and collaborative efforts with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create the AI Institute for Human-AI Cooperation (HAIC), the university is aiming to stay ahead of the curve.
The NSF awarded the university a $21.5 million, five-year grant to develop HAIC, headquartered at the university’s Data Science Institute within the Ammon Pinizzotto Biopharmaceutical Innovation Center on STAR Campus.
Other universities involved are Delaware State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Florida and Princeton University.
HAIC is a program that brings professionals in health care, engineering, robotics, neuroscience, rehabilitation and artificial intelligence together to make advancements in physical therapy. Its goal is to transform AI into a “teammate” that works alongside clinicians, personalizes rehabilitation and supports decision-making to improve patient outcomes.
“UD is advancing AI that sharpens a clinician’s judgment rather than replacing it — that’s innovation with intention,” University President Laura Carlson said to UDaily.
“We feel like Delaware has a very strong foundation for us to come up with a team for a very competitive application, and so basically that’s what we did,” Cathy Wu, director of the NSF HAIC Institute, said. “We hosted a workshop, brought teams together, and then came up with the UD ideas.”
Wu, who is also a professor in the university’s computer information sciences department, hopes that AI can interact in dynamic partnerships with health care systems.
“By developing AI that enables personalized models tailored to individual needs and decision-making, our institute will chart a new path for health care and cultivate the next generation of leaders in AI,” Wu said.
HAIC is focusing on collaborating with AI models to encourage mass data analysis. The more patient data collected and updates made, the better the AI can spot trends in treatments and medications, which can support patients everywhere, explained Wu.
“Being able to control these systems and not rely on other third-party vendors who are selling us the AI is critically important for how we actually do this research,” John Huffman, director of research computing at the university, said to NBC 10.
Austin Brockmeier, the deputy director of NSF, is very enthusiastic about the possibilities for future collaborations across the university and wider Delaware community.
“There’s, you know, many, many physical therapy clinics across the nation, many of them independent, each using their own sort of system,” Brockmeier, who is also an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the university, said. “We’re trying to unify the health records in Delaware alone, so that it could be used more efficiently for tracking a single patient’s health records.”
This program will also encourage students to get involved in various events and research opportunities, both in undergraduate and graduate programs.
“Students, you are the future,” Wu said. “You are going to be the drivers who really help us elevate what we will be able to accomplish from this grant, and so we would love to engage students in various types of activities that we will be developing.”
The FSAII, situated on STAR Campus and directed by Sunita Chandrasekaran, will focus on research, enhanced teaching and learning, optimized business operations and ethical AI leadership. It will invest in AI infrastructure, including large language models (LLMs) trained to understand and generate human-like language.
“The goal of the proposal was to be able to provide the UD community with an AI-enabled tool that UD faculty, operations and students can use without needing to pay a subscription towards external models,” Chandrasekaran, an associate professor in the university’s department of computer and information sciences, said.
With these recent adaptations and discourse about the fast-paced development of AI, the FSAII is developing opportunities for university- and Delaware-specific AI deployment.
The FSAII strategic plan states it will bring together the university’s expertise and computing resources to advance research, prepare Delaware’s AI workforce and partner with state agencies, industry and schools to teach responsible AI use to every Delawarean.
Since its inception in June 2025, the FSAII has hosted several events open to both the university and Newark community members, including a yearly Ignite AI Challenge in March and the Hennovate the State Hackathon hosted in August, both focused on encouraging smart engagement with AI models.
Professor Chandrasekaran explained that the institute will be available not only to the university but also to Newark community members.
Chandrasekaran’s ultimate goal is to “educate our community on [how to] use it with a purpose.”
Bailiffs reportedly seized digital records before court case over alleged intellectual property breaches on Land Rover Defender
Bailiffs acting for Jaguar Land Rover raided the Dutch offices of a Chinese “copycat” rival before a legal showdown this week over whether its “Defender clone” infringes intellectual property rights.
Bailiffs acting on behalf of JLR reportedly seized digital records from the offices of Chinese carmaker BYD in Schiedam and Hoofddorp in August, according to the Sunday Times.
Travel may be disrupted until Monday morning in areas including most of southern England and across Midlands
The Met Office has said weather conditions in the UK are creating a “perfect recipe” for fog as it warned that travel may be disrupted.
A yellow weather warning lasting from 6pm on Sunday until 11am on Monday has been issued by the service, with the affected areas including most of southern England, excluding the south-west, and the entirety of the Midlands.
ole (Slashdot reader #19,909) writes in about his free, Norwegian open-source music recording studio for GNOME called GarageJam, which he says allows musicians to compose, record, and share original music seamlessly on the Internet.
The latest release, GarageJam 8.0.1, is available in C and Python. It records audio immediately to Ogg Vorbis (.ogg) files in the current working directory and lets you edit metadata in .gjxml XML files from a GTK/GNOME wizard — all built on the Gingerblue Recording Studio API.
Ole shares links to its IETF GarageJam XML draft and GitHub repositories, and there's also GarageJam Studio, "a commercial music and audio recording app for the World Wide Web written by Aamot Innovation from Norway.".
ole is also spreading the word about GNOME Media, which "puts internet radio and your photographs on one OpenStreetMap... built from GNOME Radio 85.0.1."
Click a station on the map to listen. Cities with several stations show a count and a menu.
Open a folder of pictures or import from a camera. Photos with a GPS position in their EXIF data appear on the map. Double-click a thumbnail to open it. The search box filters the station list and the map together.
ole also announces:
GPhoto 3.0.1. ("After 25 years, libgphoto2 2.5.34 now supports more than 2,500 camera models, and GPhoto 3.0.1 is built on it.")
Skolelinux 13.6.0. Built on Debian 13 âoetrixieâ, Skolelinux is "a complete, ready-to-use Free Software operating system for schools, classrooms and home computers... an office suite, web browser, educational programs and network services for an entire school, all set up out of the box."
(The Center Square) – The Republican-controlled 119th Congress is facing a backlog of legislative duties it can no longer ignore – yet it has only eight weeks left in session until Democrats take the helm in both chambers.
The State Department is also offering "possible relocation" for informants who have information on Iranian "facilities, equipment and associated personnel."
(The Center Square) – Democrats promised voters they would end President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The arithmetic says they cannot do it without Republican help.
Scheme in Derry aims to sow confidence by getting people with learning and physical disabilities into wrestling
The music thumped, the lights blazed and from the ring the announcer did a countdown. “Who is ready to rumble?” he roared. The bellows and cheers indicated that the crowd at St Columb’s Hall in Derry on Saturday night was more than ready for the Foyle Rumble, and so began a wrestling extravaganza of heroes and villains in leotards, masks and kneepads.
The blend of athleticism and scripted storytelling would have been familiar to fans of WrestleMania, but this Northern Irish version came with a twist: many of the performers have learning or physical disabilities, and the characters they play in the ring do not quite stay in the ring.
In the last year CVEs have increased 3x for Python and its package manager Pip, according to Python's security developer in residence Seth Larson. "And the amount of malware published and removed from the Python Package Index (PyPI) is up 60%." Securing Python's ecosystem is getting more complex, he writes, especially given "the evolving role of AI in both security risks and security response."
Their response includes bringing on a new Security Developer "to address the increasingly demanding scale of security response for the Python ecosystem."
Providing prompt security response services and innovating to prevent future threats... is more difficult now than ever before... [Security developer Brett Smith] will help us keep pace with critical ongoing work such as vulnerability remediation, providing vulnerability data as a CVE Numbering Authority, and removing malware from PyPI. He'll also give the team bandwidth for new projects such as scaling PyPI's autonomous quarantine program to reduce manual effort on malware remediation and streamlining processes for the PSRT to handle the new vulnerability report volume.
The role was made possible by an "ecosystem security" grant from Anthropic. And having the new security developer "will both build capacity for security work the PSF already does and enable new, proactive work," concludes Python's security developer in residence. (He discussed Python's security challenges in a June presentation with Python security engineer Mike Fiedler> .)
In June, Curl's Daniel Strenberg reported Curl's CVEs have also tripled.
Michigan senator-elect’s former peers recall his time at university in Britain – and his love of coronation chicken sandwiches
In the cold, twilight days of 2008, inside the University of Michigan’s fortress-like Fleming administration building, one student was given a particularly adulatory sendoff.
Mary Sue Coleman, president of the university at the time, convened a ceremony for the latest Rhodes scholar heading to the University of Oxford: Abdul El-Sayed. “There is no doubt among anyone who crosses his path that he will achieve all he sets out to accomplish and more,” she declared to a room full of the university’s leaders, calling the medical PhD student the “epitome of the engaged intellect”.
Smalltown Nephi, Utah, was where the musical sensibilities of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers started to take form, before finding success as a rock star in Las Vegas. Now his solo album, "Thrasher," is filled with country songs like those beloved by his dad.
In last week's historic elections, voters were asked to weigh in on whether our nation will maintain the ideals of equality, dignity, fair play, and the rule of law; historian Jon Meacham says that Americans overwhelmingly answered, and democracy prevailed.
A film producer once told Judi Dench she had "everything wrong with her face." One Oscar and a Damehood later, she's had the last laugh. The actress, now 91, talks about her new memoir, "Is It Too Late to Make a Run for It?"
Resilience is often presented as feats of bravery and endurance. But everyday practices like journaling, drafting a text or even writing a to-do list are manifestations of a capacity to adapt.
Lesson for teenagers included how cattle’s methane emissions contribute to climate crisis, but it was then scrapped
A beef industry-funded effort to teach teenagers about cattle’s climate impact was quietly scrapped following backlash from some ranchers, who disputed the premise that cows contribute to global heating.
The episode is the latest example of the livestock industry’s decades-long battle to determine what US children learn about cows and the climate.
Choosing a healthcare plan can be extremely complicated, but it’s necessary to attract and retain good workers
Again, healthcare costs are going up. According to a recent study from Mercer, total health benefit cost per employee in 2027 is expected to rise 8.2% – after employers’ planned cost-reduction measures (without action, employers told Mercer their existing plans would rise about 11%). This would be the highest increase since 2003.
And, again, we see the same reaction from employers. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that even as healthcare costs have gone up, the share of these costs coming out employees’ paychecks has “shot up” even faster.
From the military to healthcare, Trump systematically dismantled Obama-era protections for transgender rights
Shelby Chestnut remembers turning on the news in 2016 and hearing something he didn’t expect. Then- attorney general, Loretta Lynch, had just announced a federal lawsuit to block HB2 in North Carolina, otherwise known as the “bathroom bill”. Lynch said the law, which made it illegal for transgender people to use a public restroom that did not align with the sex listed on their birth certificate, was reminiscent of those passed during the Jim Crow era that restricted public facility use by race. Then, she addressed transgender Americans directly: “But no matter how isolated or scared you may feel today, the Department of Justice and the entire Obama administration wants you to know that we see you; we stand with you; and we will do everything we can to protect you going forward.”
HB 2 was repealed within the year. Chestnut said he thought at the time: “Oh this is the next phase of protections for trans people.”
(The Center Square) – Democratic Socialists will now lead America’s two most populous cities and the nation’s capital, raising questions over the Democratic Socialist of America platform.
Much-loved passenger ship has traversed Atlantic swells between islands and Cornish mainland for almost 50 years
Tears were shed, sea shanties sung and tales of stormy voyages exchanged as one of the UK’s most characterful ships set sail for the final time.
Scillonian III, also known as the “vomit comet” because in stormy weather it tended to rock a little too much for the comfort of those susceptible to sea sickness, has chugged between the British mainland and the Isles of Scilly, for just shy of half a century.
She was the fastest ocean liner in history. But the jet age took the SS United States out of service, and she wound up docked in Philadelphia for nearly 30 years. Now, she's scheduled to be scuttled off Florida, to become the world's largest artificial reef.
Knesset has been deadlocked since the election last month when Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition lost its majority
Israel’s president has chosen Gadi Eisenkot, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest rival, to try to form a new government, after a deadlocked election that left neither man with a clear path to power.
Isaac Herzog’s office said he had informed Eisenkot, the leader of the Yashar party, on Saturday night “of his intention to task him with forming a government”.
The midterms marked one of the biggest rebukes of the Republican Party since Watergate. What is the fallout from this year's elections, and how are Democrats going to address a lame-duck President Trump?
Tuesday’s winners offered a new politics at a time when ‘there is something broken in America’
As the US election returns came in throughout the night on Tuesday, there was ebullience at the size of the margin. It was comparable to the significant thumpings over the years. Yet bigger.
In 2006, Americans were exhausted by the war in Iraq (by simply changing the last letter to “n”, we have a similar situation today). But even that big win paled in comparison.
Australia weakening copyright protections to aid AI companies would be “ridiculous and dangerous”, the global peak body for the music recording industry has warned as it watches with concern how the Albanese government responds to big tech’s demands.
While local creatives have raised constitutional issues and threatened political backlash, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), representing recording industry bodies worldwide, said its members were worried about Australia potentially agreeing to demands other nations had rejected.
Authorities said that the gunman opened fire in Krakow’s Old Town, and that the suspect was “fascinated by far-right ideologies.” Fifteen others were injured.
Five of seven facilities in England and Wales never reached operational stage as Tories vacillated over plans to check goods
The UK wasted at least £100m in taxpayers’ money to set up zombie Brexit border inspection posts that were never used, it has been revealed.
The overall cost of Brexit was put at an estimated £4.7bn by the National Audit Office last year but this included years-long transformation of the software used for customs declarations and other systems built to cope with the UK leaving the single market.
Some residents of the Villa Vie Odyssey cruise are trying to reclaim the ship, which could potentially be auctioned off by its lender, CBS News has learned.
The high-stakes meeting begins on Monday, as countries around the world grapple with the strongest El Niño weather system on record, supercharged by fossil fuels, which is set to take hundreds of thousands of lives and cause damage costing trillions of dollars.
Bring familiar sweets to the holiday table with 17 old-fashioned desserts, including classic pies, cakes, brownies, bread pudding, chocolate mousse, and apple turnovers. Find a nostalgic treat for sharing after dinner.The post 17 old-fashioned desserts your grandparents will recognize at…
Andy Burnham takes part for first time alongside about 12 second world war veterans, as ceremonies held across UK
Second world war veterans outnumbered former prime ministers for what could be the last time at the national service of remembrance at the Cenotaph in central London.
The number of surviving service personnel from that conflict attending the service has dwindled from 20 last year to about a dozen, the oldest of whom was Jeffrey Brereton, who served in the RAF. He volunteered for the air force in 1940, at the age of 19, and served as a mechanic on Hurricane aircraft during the Battle of Britain.
The Trump administration is unlikely to scale back its aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration following the results of the midterm elections, multiple U.S. officials told CBS News, citing the elevation of Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff.
A New York City Department of Education employee is facing a murder charge in the stabbing death of a 28-year-old woman last week in Brooklyn, authorities announced Saturday.
The movement founded by Greg Glassman grew into an empire, helping popularize the masculinity aesthetic embraced by Pete Hegseth and RFK Jr
Comparative machismo is hardly new, but when Donald Trump publicly admired Senator Jon Husted’s backside earlier this month, later telling advisers it made the since-defeated Ohio incumbent more “interesting” to voters, the senator leaned into the compliment, saying it gave him extra motivation to “get down to the gym”.
Would that odd exchange have taken place without CrossFit, the fitness empire founded by college dropout and gymnast Greg Glassman in the 1990s that grew to 15,000 gyms across 160 countries before he was drawn into public controversy at the height of #MeToo and the social justice movement in 2020?
“What happens if I walk in and survivors’ names are just plastered everywhere?” Bensky wondered about the reading room, a traveling exhibition of Epstein investigative files, first held in a New York City gallery this May. “I was a little worried in the beginning that this would be a form of exploitation for survivors.
The report, compiled by the Environmental Integrity Project, also found pipelines are being built to meet demand for natural gas exports fueled by wars in Ukraine and Iran. Federal records identified almost 200 pipeline projects that are proposed or in the works, and would collectively span 17,000 miles (27,000km).
Skip the seasonal coffee shop line and bring pumpkin to breakfast, dinner, dessert, or the party table. These 15 recipes range from savory risotto and soup to waffles, cookies, cakes, bars, and a shareable cheeseball.The post 15 pumpkin recipes that…
"Aaron Swartz would have turned forty this year," writes FSF deputy director Sean O'Brien. "November 8 is Aaron Swartz Day, when we remember a pioneer of free software and information sharing whose contributions helped shape the modern internet."
The Internet Archive will host a hackathon Sunday in San Francisco celebrating Aaron's Swartz's life "and the projects he worked on, many of which are still going strong today," including SecureDrop, OpenLibrary, and Creative Commons. "We are also spreading the word about projects he inspired," including OnionPress and the EFF's Atlas of Surveillancedocumenting police tech use through open source research, now a collaborative effort with volunteers, the University of Nevada, Reno, and the Reynolds School of Journalism. The event is also supported by Free Law Project, and organizers are asking attendees to "bring a color print out of your favorite photos of Aaron for a huge collaborative collage."
From the Internet Archive's blog:
Aaron was also a co-founder of Creative Commons, where he worked with Lisa Rein developing the RSS-enhanced HTML code that sits behind Creative Commons licenses, much of which is still in use today. The "Quantifying the Commons" project was designed to help measure open-licensed and public-domain works worldwide, and is one of the projects participants can work on. Aaron loved Tor and created tools such as "Tor2web" (with Virgil Griffith) to help more people publish Tor-accessible websites. Onion Press is a Tor-based publishing system designed for decentralized, censorship-resistant publishing, and participants can work on the code base...
We also encourage you to have a hackathon in your own town using our materials — or materials of your own. Please let us know if you plan to do this (although it's not required!). If you do let us know, we can include you on our website and help you spread the word about your event. So far, there is an event in Portland sponsored by Portland Civic Lab where they will be screening The Internet's Own Boy and celebrating Aaron's life.
"EFF was proud to call Aaron a friend and ally," the digital rights organization posted this week. And the FSF's deputy director writes "It is particularly striking that some of the world's largest companies now rely on technology Swartz helped to develop."
One of Swartz's most important technical contributions was his collaboration with John Gruber on Markdown, the simple text formatting system introduced in 2004. Markdown allows users to create structured documents using ordinary text, without requiring proprietary software. More than twenty years later, Markdown has become one of the most popular formats for documentation and publishing, and is widely used in community websites such as forums and wikis. This is not a minor contribution. Companies developing LLMs use Markdown extensively in their products and development tools. OpenAI, for example, recommends Markdown for organizing instructions and communicating structure to its ChatGPT models... Swartz also developed web.py, a public domain framework for building Python applications, and contributed to RSS 1.0, a public internet standard for distributing news and other information between websites.
Swartz developed web.py while rewriting the software running Reddit after Reddit acquired Swartz's company Infogami.
Reddit recently licensed its content to AI companies, and the FSF's deputy director notes "the enormous scale of the alleged 'piracy' by giant technology corporations" while Aaron himself had "faced criminal prosecution for downloading academic research that he wanted to distribute with no monetary gain."
In 2011, federal prosecutors charged Swartz with computer fraud and related offenses after he downloaded millions of academic articles from the JSTOR collection through MIT's university network... Although he was not charged with copyright infringement, he faced aggressive federal prosecution and the possibility of decades in prison before he tragically died by suicide in January 2013, at just twenty-six years old...
Swartz helped build tools that made the internet more useful and accessible, and his contributions continue to shape a world he never lived to see. On Aaron Swartz Day, we should remember his achievements and the access-to-knowledge principles that guided them. The companies benefiting from his legacy should respect those same principles by giving users true freedom and control, rather than imposing more restrictions on us all.
When the evenings turn cold and the daylight slips away, these 13 slow cooker recipes bring pork roasts, chicken, beef stews, soups, and meatballs to dinner with the crock pot doing most of the work.The post 13 easy slow cooker…
Last week’s midterms may not have cowed Donald Trump, but they should be a wake-up call for the grinning tech broligarchs who lined up at his inauguration two chaotic years ago.
Clearly, the cost of living squeeze unleashed by Trump’s war in Iran was a big driver of the Democrat wave. But AI was also on the ballot – in many places, literally.
See My World, an event highlighting the pan-African thought via film, poetry and dance, builds on momentum sparked by local activists and creatives
African philosophies including exploring how lessons from the past can shape the present and near future have inspired a film festival coming to Manchester.
See My World, a day dedicated to independent creators from across the African diaspora in the north of England, will take place at the Contact theatre on 21 November.
The once-bearded New York mayor has downsized his facial hair. Does it work?
I’ve battled with facial hair almost my entire adult life.
I started growing it early, turning me into a pubescent villain from a spaghetti western. I was told by my parents not to shave it off, lest it grow back more furious than before. I just had to walk around high school looking like a hungover bond trader, which did nothing for my popularity.
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
The blue wave, while a rebuke of Trump’s policies, was also a referendum on the party’s status quo
On election night I stood in a crowd at Harlem Tavern, a restaurant in New York City, at the electoral party for Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member and congresswoman-elect from New York’s 13th congressional district. The crowd cheered as what came to be called the “blunami” rolled in: Iowa blue, Kansas blue, Talarico in Texas, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, House, Senate, gubernatorial races overwhelmingly going for the Democratic party.
The victories were a clear rebuke of Trump’s politics, but also a referendum on the Democratic party’s own centrism that is complicit in the violence of masked men hunting immigrants, the funding of a genocide and the denial of healthcare to citizens of the world’s wealthiest country.
Midterms success gives party potent leverage over Trump – expect tough campaigns of investigating and lawmaking
“Costs, chaos, corruption”: after almost two years spent relentlessly criticizing Donald Trump for failing to address those three, broad political concerns, Democrats won a monumental return to power in Tuesday’s midterm elections that will give them potent new leverage over the president.
Now the question becomes: what will they do with it?
More people recognize opioid overdoses, but education about stimulant overdoses hasn’t been as clear-cut
Overdoses involving stimulants are on the rise in many parts of the country, according to recently available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but experts say recognizing and responding to them is more complex when compared with opioid overdoses.
“The rate of overdose decline was not nearly what we expected” in California, said Dr Taylor Nichols, an emergency and addiction medicine physician based in Sacramento.
From roundabouts to the stock market, relentless streamlining could be making the world more dangerous
We have all been there: packed shoulder to shoulder on the train while the person beside us coughs and sneezes. A protective flu jab offers some reassurance, but so does the thought that there will be a hospital bed for you, should you need it. Yet, in England, about 95% of adult hospital beds were occupied at the height of flu season last year.
If hospitals were hotels, that level of occupancy would be good business, and we would commend them for their efficiency. But do we really want a hospital to have so few beds in reserve that it’s just one bad flu week away from having to treat patients in corridors?
Six people killed in attack probably inspired by far right, according to officials, as police say suspect’s parents and sister found dead at his home
Polish prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation after a 24-year-old man opened fire in a busy market square in Kraków, killing six people including a Briton and injuring 17, in an attack that authorities said was probably inspired by far-right ideologies.
Police confirmed on Sunday that three people found dead at the gunman’s home after the attack on Saturday afternoon were his father, 53, mother, 52, and sister, 21.
What are the relationships and dominant interests in play, as the summit kicks off after a bitter row over its hosting?
Hosting Cop was a key pledge from Australia’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese in 2021, while in opposition, before his successful election campaign. But arcane rules meant the country had to wait its turn to bid and was then embroiled in an angry row with Turkey over the hosting. The final compromise put Australia in charge of the negotiations which will take place in the Turkish city of Antalya. The bitter taste left by the row lingers and Australia has seemed to some a rather half-hearted host. The country’s media has been much quieter on Cop than previous host countries, and although Albanese will speak at the opening of the leaders’ segment, he is unlikely to stay long.
Margaret Parkes and her husband, in their 80s, want Allan Grimson to reveal location of their son Simon’s remains
The mother of a teenage Royal Navy sailor who vanished 40 years ago has called for a “serial killer” suspected of murdering him to finally reveal where her son’s body is hidden.
Speaking as Simon Parkes’ suspected murderer, the former navy petty officer Allan Grimson, was sentenced for sexual offences against four boys and men, Margaret Parkes, 80, said time was running out for her and her 84-year-old husband, David, to find out what happened to their son.
Luc Corlouër made ‘deal’ with Prix Goncourt winner Philippe Jaenada over his research into model Louise Cansot, murdered in Paris in 1949
For almost eight decades the artists’ model Louise Cansot, the subject of the novel winning France’s most prestigious literary prize this year, was one of Paris’s forgotten murder victims.
After her body was found near the Seine in September 1949, city police wrote off the young woman, immortalised as “the girl of 100 portraits”, as loose, libertine and – worse – an unmarried mother. They closed their investigation after just four months having made little effort to find her killer.
Delegates from more than 190 countries are gathering in Turkey for climate talks, but the US will be absent
As the planet faces unprecedented human-caused global heating, heads of government are meeting for the next fortnight for the latest round of climate talks. We ask why it matters and what is likely to be achieved.
On paper, the second-largest city in the country has its first democratic socialist mayor.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman declared victory on Thursday over the embattled incumbent Karen Bass, joining a list of socialist mayors who have risen to power in recent years, including Zohran Mamdani in New York; Seattle’s Katie Wilson; and most recently Janeese Lewis George in Washington, D.C., who won in a landslide this week.
Raman, however, did not campaign unabashedly as a socialist. Though she ran as an endorsed member of the Democratic Socialists of America’s Los Angeles chapter, the national DSA threatened to override the local chapter and rescind the endorsement over concerns around her stances on Israel and Palestine.
Unlike her counterpart in New York, to whom she drawsmostcomparisons, Raman did not make sweeping socialist promises, such as free public transit, universal childcare, or taxing the rich. Instead, she focused on what’s wrong with the city. Riding a wave of resentment for Bass’s alleged mismanagements of the Palisades fire and the Lineage Logistics warehouse fire in Boyle Heights, Raman talked about filling potholes, fixing street lights, and making roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
In addition to DSA-LA support, she earned the endorsements of popular anti-corruption City Controller Kenneth Mejia and Unite Here 11, a major local hospitality workers union, whose large membership canvassed for her in the general. But she lacked endorsements from most key labor groups and social justice nonprofits, and the organizing base they provide. Her fellow DSA members on the Los Angeles City Council all pulled for Bass, forcing Raman to battle back the perception that she struggles to build coalitions.
While Mamdani, 10 months into his term, now finds himself under pressure from New York’s left for refusing to fire NYPD’s police commissioner, his massive base of organizer support offers a buffer to criticism. Raman won over the city’s voters, but it’s not clear how much time that will buy her to tackle the city’s most vexing problems once she takes office.
“Folks in New York are willing to cut Mamdani more slack on the movement side, because he was one of them on a bunch of issues,” said David Levitus, executive director of LA Forward, a progressive nonprofit that endorsed Raman in the general election. ”I think Nithya” — who did not come from the ranks of DSA organizing like Mamdani — “has more skepticism from parts of the left because of that.”
Raman will face scrutiny from LA’s progressive left on a host of issues: bloated police department spending amounting to roughly a quarter of the city’s nearly $15 billion budget; fear of collaboration between ICE and law enforcement agencies; the 2028 Olympics prompting an expansion of surveillance; rising homelessness; and failing infrastructure.
Weeks before the November election, Raman seemed less concerned with movement-based allegiances or ideological labels, saying she is “a capitalist and I’m also a democratic socialist.” Before the primary in June, she said she was “one of the most independent voices in City Hall” when asked about her membership with DSA. The statements and her votes in city council have prompted intense debate among DSA-LA’s members over whether Raman holds up to democratic socialist ideals.
While most Angelenos do not care about such fine distinctions, Raman’s measured embrace of socialist mantle has created among some activists the perception of a more responsive audience in city hall compared to previous administrations. Yet to others on LA’s progressive left, Raman’s ideological elusiveness reads as political unreliability.
“I don’t think Nithya Raman is accountable to anyone in the movement,” said Kris Rehl, an activist who volunteered for Raman during her 2020 city council run and now runs the mutual aid group LA Street Care. “If you do not subscribe to any ideology, you can’t be held accountable to it.”
Rehl, who advocates for abolishing anti-camping bans that criminalize homeless encampments near schools and daycares, expressed dismay over Raman’s previous votes on expanding the police department despite running on defunding the police in 2020.
Others like Tal Levy, a member of DSA-LA’s electoral politics committee, remain more optimistic about what Raman can deliver as mayor. While DSA-LA is pushing for reallocating funds from the police budget into social services, Levy sees the value of Raman’s pledge to support LA Forward’s initiative of citywide expansion of unarmed crisis response teams, which divert certain 911 calls to teams of social workers and clinicians, rather than police.
“Even if Nithya were a fire-breathing abolitionist, it would still be a long fight to make those changes,” said Levy, who has been organizing with DSA-LA for nearly a decade. “But I believe there is plenty of room for us to make material wins in the short term.”
Room to Push
While there is debate over how much power DSA-LA has within LA’s political landscape, the group provided Raman additional attention and credibility among leftist voters, which was only bolstered by the successes of other DSA-endorsed candidates in New York and in congressional races across the nation.
The DSA’s National Political Committee, however, spurred one of the biggest public rifts during Raman’s campaign. The committee held a vote to un-endorse Raman over her perceived lack of support for the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which hadn’t been included by the DSA-LA on its endorsement questionnaire. After a week of debate and dueling resolutions, and an email from Raman, in which she wrote, “the best way for working Angelenos to stand in solidarity with Gaza is through non-violent protest, legislative action, and diplomatic pressure, including BDS,” the national committee decided against rescinding its endorsement of Raman by a narrow margin.
Frances Gill, one of three DSA-LA members on the DSA national political committee, voted against rescinding the group’s endorsement. She opposed the idea of alienating the organization’s second largest chapter as “bad organizing and bad leadership,” especially in a high-profile race when the stakes for the regional and national chapters were so closely intertwined.
“The public ties us to one another,” Gill said of the DSA and Raman, “and there’s not a lot of other key players who have also played such a critical role in her being able to win. So I think that gives us an outsized seat at the table.”
She was a part of the faction among national leadership that instead called for a long-term pressure campaign on Raman on the issue of Israel and Palestine. The group is planning to push Raman on what she can do as mayor to halt the transportation of military hardware that makes its way through the Los Angeles International Airport to Israel. Organizers also plan to call for an end to real estate events in LA facilitating the sale of housing illegally built in the occupied West Bank. They will also examine whether the city itself is invested in companies that are profiting off Israel’s genocide in Gaza and apartheid rule of Palestinians.
“I think there is room to push,” Gill said.
Another major public spat between progressives and Raman took place in January before she announced her candidacy for mayor.
Catching housing advocates by surprise, Raman introduced a motion to reform the city’s “mansion tax” to make exemptions for developers. Raman claimed that the tax, known as Measure ULA, was inadvertently preventing construction of new multi-family housing. Organizers opposed the idea, since the tax generates funds for services to support existing affordable housing and keep people housed, and that carveouts for developers would only fuel displacement of low-income renters, possibly pushing more people to the streets.
LA Forward was among those blindsided by the motion, which she eventually withdrew. Before endorsing Raman, Levitus and the group met with the candidate alongside organizers in an activist’s home.
“She talked about, ‘The times when I’ve succeeded, it’s because I built a coalition, the times when I failed, it’s because I didn’t, and I didn’t bring people along,’” Levitus recalled from the July meeting. “She really owned her mistake. I don’t know how much her mind has changed intellectually about the policy, but think clearly she recognizes that she needed to do something different — and that might lead to her pushing for a policy that is different from what she had pushed for before.”
Police Chief Dilemma
Among Raman’s early tests progressives will be watching for is how she fulfills her pledge to fire LAPD police chief Jim McDonnell. Raman was among the councilmembers who approved his appointment in 2024, despite concerns around his track record of collaborating with ICE as LA County sheriff. She has since said she would fire McDonnell over his response to the ICE raids and his refusal to enforce a state law that banned federal agents from wearing masks.
Yet the pledge to replace McDonnell may present a political quagmire for Raman, given that the mayor in LA cannot unilaterally force out a police chief. The city’s police commission, consisting of five civilians appointed by the mayor, must make that decision. Raman first will need to assemble her own commission, but that process also requires approval from a city council that remains largely supportive of the police department.
William Gude, a vocal police accountability advocate who supported Raman in the election, said he planned to push the mayor to circumvent the process by asking McDonnell to resign. “I’m putting pressure on her from day one,” he said. “There’s some promises that she made, and those promises need to be kept.”
In her first press conference as mayor-elect, Raman sidestepped a question about whether she still planned to fire McDonnell, amid public threats from the police union warning of “Armageddon.” “Public safety is the most important service the city is delivering to its people,” said Raman, noting the chief was one of her first phone calls after winning.
Activist pressure could be a burden for Raman — or a tool she could use to force legislation through a city council she knows well, according to Gude. “Does she want to have activists coming after her, also while battling 15 council members?” said Gude, who goes by @FilmthePoliceLA on social media. “Or would she rather have the activist base going after the council members that are coming after her, to create a buffer, to do a lot of her heavy lifting? It’s a choice she has to make.”
Hamid Khan, who heads the Stop Spying LAPD Coalition, is among those who is closely watching who Raman appoints to her police commission. But he sees Raman’s pledge of firing McDonnell as “a band-aid” for the more glaring structural issues of the department. While crediting Raman’s opposition to automated license plate readers from Flock Safety and Axon, Khan also pointed to Raman’s historic support for expanding the police department.
While in city council, Raman voted to expand LAPD’s budget three times: in 2021, 2022, and 2023. But she also voted against police raises in 2023, and this year, she opposed a plan by Bass to hire 170 more officers. She has said on the campaign trail she does not wish to expand the police budget, but also said she would not cut into it either.
In the span of her time in city council, the LAPD has expanded its surveillance reach, Khan said. The department is slowly unrolling its Real-Time Crime Centers, which meld automated license plate reader technology, social media monitoring software, and CCTV cameras into a constant surveillance tool. He warned such a technology, while marketed to curb retail theft, will disproportionately harm Black and brown Angelenos.
“We have to situate the people’s expectations in Los Angeles that they’re not based upon the comment, ‘I’m gonna fire Jim McDonald,’” said Khan, who advocates for abolishing the budding police outposts. “What does that do? The fundamentals still remain the same.”
A True Outsider
There is a notion among some on the left that Raman is very much a part of the political machine that bred some of LA’s ongoing problems. She has served on city council for five years and was an ally to Bass, having endorsed Bass just weeks before jumping in the race herself. Yet Raman, a Harvard-educated urban planner and former entertainment director of Time’s Up, is in many respects an outsider to the political establishment.
Former City Councilmember Mike Bonin called Raman’s victory a “reordering of the governing class in Los Angeles.” For the past several decades, LA politics has been run by establishment Democrats, such as Bass or her predecessor, Eric Garcetti, son of a former LA County district attorney; the chambers of commerce; lobbyists; longtime city hall staffers; all riding the influence of homeowners.
For Lex Steppling, an organizer with Los Angeles Community Action Network and a critic of Raman’s time in city council, the “political recalibration” with her victory in city hall was a welcome sight.
Steppling grew up in a generation of LA political activists who got their start organizing with Community Coalition, which Bass founded in 1990 and for a long time was the only progressive organization in the city offering paid political work. He watched as his peers grew to leading campaigns on issues such as policing and mass incarceration, then began running for elected office. They brought with them their organizing chops, but also their relationships with the organizations that gave them their start. Steppling described this as a “relational ecosystem,” in which movements would be co-opted into electoral politics — in which scoring political points became more important than addressing the issues.
He blamed the lack of gains on policing and mass incarceration since the 2020 George Floyd uprising on such a relational ecosystem. A victory for Raman could mark a reset to such an establishment, and he hopes activists will capitalize on the opening.
“The right kind of openings to do the right kind of work will reemerge,” said Steppling, who helped lead a successful anti-incarceration measure in 2020. “It’s gonna once again start to be about the demands.”
Raman’s election evoked for Bonin memories of the last time an LA incumbent mayor was ousted. In 2005, then-state Assembly member Antonio Villaraigosa beat James Hahn, becoming the city’s first Latino mayor. Villaraigosa, previously director of Southern California ACLU, was seen as a progressive candidate at the time. That’s not how he governed. An early sign of his establishment politics was hiring a longtime political insider as his chief of staff.
Raman will also signal her governing priorities with the hires for her transition team and cabinet.
Some organizers were encouraged to see progressive figures added to her campaign, such as Faizah Malik, a civil rights attorney and former city council candidate also endorsed by DSA-LA, and Jamie York, an advocate for greater transparency in city politics whose high-profile rejection by the city council as an ethics commission appointee drew public scrutiny. It remains unclear what if any role they would play in city hall.
The LA Times reported that Rick Cole, former deputy mayor, is expected to supervise Raman’s transition team alongside Andrea Conant, Raman’s chief of staff in city council.
“How big is the table,” Bonin said, “and how much of the activist community is at the table?”
A picture of the pylon at Delaware Stadium during the Fightin’ Blue Hens first game of the 2026 season against Merrimack. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The Kennesaw State Owls (3-6, 2-3 CUSA) defeated the Fightin’ Blue Hens (4-5, 2-3 CUSA), 42-40, on November 7, making the Blue Hens chance at a CUSA title improbable.
Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci received the shotgun snap and took his drop while surveying the Kennesaw State defense. Minicucci kept his eyes downfield on fourth and six, but felt the Owl pass rush closing in. The Owl’s outside pass rushers forced Minicucci to step up in the pocket where their interior teammates awaited the senior’s arrival.
Minicucci tried to navigate himself out of the pocket, but all the Owl pass rushers converged on him as he attempted to escape. Linebacker Tywon Christopher was the player to take him down, giving the ball back to the Kennesaw State offense with over four minutes to play in the third quarter.
Christopher’s third quarter sack was one of three sacks the Kennesaw defense accumulated throughout the game in the Owls’ 42-40 victory over UD, Saturday evening.
The Delaware offensive line struggled against the Kennesaw front seven throughout the night allowing the three sacks along with nine quarterback hurries. Minicucci seemed like he was scrambling on many of his dropbacks and the running game never gained any momentum, rushing for 85 total yards.
Despite the struggles up front, UD still had a chance to come away with a win.
Following the turnover on downs, Conference USA (CUSA) interception leader, George Mullins, picked off Owl quarterback Landon Varnes and returned it into Owl territory. The interception led to a Tucker Smack field goal that put the Blue Hens ahead, 34-33, near the end of the third quarter.
Varnes and the Kennesaw offense immediately bounced back, scoring 42 seconds into the fourth quarter on a 63-yard touchdown pass to Reed Jesiolowski. Jesiolowski was wide open running down the numbers on the left side of the field behind the Delaware secondary when Varnes hit him in stride for the long touchdown. The Owls attempted a two-point conversion, but the try was intercepted by Blue Hen defensive back Kevin Moore.
A Delaware punt followed the Kennesaw State scoring drive and the Owls added a field goal on their next possession, increasing their advantage to eight with 8:25 left to play.
Delaware’s offense continued to struggle after the field goal and ended their next two drives with a lost fumble and punt. The Blue Hen defense made key stops down the stretch and forced the Owls to punt the ball away late in the fourth quarter. The Delaware defense gave the offense one last shot to tie the game with a minute and 47 seconds remaining and 82 yards of field to traverse.
Delaware’s offense capitalized on the opportunity and marched down the field to the Kennesaw State 17 yard line with thirty seconds remaining in the game. Minicucci attempted a pass on first down, but the throw was hurried and fell incomplete. Delaware’s signal caller attempted a second pass on second down and connected with receiver Bryson Graves running across the middle of the field. Graves out ran the Owl defense and crossed into the endzone with 24 seconds remaining in the game.
The Blue Hens lined up for the two-point conversion and schemed up a play that seemed designed for Graves to sneak out into the left flat out of a condensed formation. Graves slipped as he started his route and Minicucci quickly pivoted his focus from Graves to the Owl pass rush bearing down on him. Minicucci scrambled to his right and threw on the run to Donovan Lewis in the back right of the endzone. Lewis made a diving effort for the throw, but was unable to come up with the catch.
Delaware’s onside kick attempt was recovered by the Owls and Kennesaw State went into victory formation to secure the win.
The Blue Hens finished the game with 493 total yards of offense with 408 of those yards coming from the passing game. Minicucci finished with 35 completions on 54 attempts and two throwing touchdowns putting him two away from second place on Delaware’s all-time passing touchdowns list. Graves finished the game with a team-high seven catches and 125 receiving yards (both are career highs) notching his first career game of over 100 receiving yards. Jo Silver led the running back room with 39 yards on the ground.
The Owls offense finished with similar totals with 446 total yards, 309 of which through the air. Kennesaw State did out rush the Blue Hens, 137 to 85, accumulating 107 of those rush yards in the second quarter.
The Owls scored 17 points in the second quarter with both of their touchdowns coming via the run game and running back Boogie Woods III. Woods finished the game with 90 rushing yards on 15 carries to go along with the two scores.
Blue Hen running back Viron Ellison Jr. also finished the first half with a pair of touchdowns, scoring one in the first quarter and his second in the second quarter.
The first quarter got off to an explosive start after the Owls scored in the first 20 seconds of action. Redshirt senior Davis Bryson fielded the game’s opening kick-off and found a hole near the left side of Delaware’s kick coverage. Bryson took advantage of the opening and streaked down the left sideline passing the lone defender in his way, kicker Tucker Smack, en route to a 99-yard return touchdown.
The Blue Hens answered with a methodical drive that lasted nearly seven minutes and ended with the first of Ellison’s two touchdowns. The Delaware defense followed with defensive tackle Trace Scott III’s first career interception and touchdown, giving the Blue Hens a 15-6 lead with a little less than seven minutes to play in the quarter.
The Owls bounced back from the turnover and cut the lead to two with a drive that ended in a Rickie Collins eight-yard touchdown run along the right sideline. Originally called out of bounds before the score, the play was reviewed and deemed a touchdown due to Collins’ ability to reach the ball out past the pylon as his body was pushed out of bounds.
That was the last snap Collins played in the game. Collins was on the sideline with ice on his right shoulder and his pads off when the Owls’ offense took the field at the start of the second quarter. Junior Landon Varnes took over under center and played the rest of the game finishing with 254 passing yards and a quarterback rating of 112.5.
The Owls’ win keeps them in the hunt for a bowl game with their overall record sitting at 3-6 with three games remaining on their schedule.
The Blue Hens’ loss makes it very improbable they end the season with a chance at the CUSA title.
Delaware sits behind Jacksonville State, Liberty, Middle Tennessee and is tied with New Mexico State in the CUSA standings. Delaware has already lost to Liberty and Middle Tennessee this season and will play New Mexico State and Jax State within the next three weeks. The Blue Hens would need to win out and hope for a pair of losses from Middle Tennessee and three straight losses from Jax State to have a shot at playing in the CUSA championship game.
Delaware is also a couple wins away from being bowl eligible. The Blue Hens will need to win two of their next three games to play in their second bowl game in just their second season at the FBS level.
The Blue Hens’ next game is against FIU at home on Saturday, November 14. Kick-off will be at 3:00 p.m.
Gwen Biesenbach at 11 days old Courtesy of the Biesenbach family
The emergency room was a mile from their Texas home. Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took comfort in that when their newborn daughter, Gwen, wouldn’t stop bleeding from her belly button. They buckled Gwen into her car seat and made the drive over.
Medical records from that warm August evening in 2023 described her condition as a “generic problem” of a bleeding umbilical cord stump. The doctor on duty, Nicole Malouf, had treated plenty of those as an emergency room specialist. She covered Gwen’s oozing belly button with a special gauze to stanch the flow, and when it appeared to stop, she sent Stephanie, Eric and Gwen on their way.
They made it as far as the parking lot before they noticed Gwen had bled through her footed pajamas. Eric slid his arm under the car seat handle and lifted his 11-day-old daughter out of the car. They walked back toward the glaring lights of the Lonestar 24HR ER, a freestanding emergency department in New Braunfels next to a car wash, a McDonald’s and a deli.
Stephanie told Malouf that Gwen had been bleeding a bit after the scab that replaced her umbilical cord stump fell off. The amount of blood they saw that night worried them. She ticked through Gwen’s history. No fever. No vomiting. Exclusively breastfed. She mentioned that she and Eric had declined a vitamin K shot when Gwen was born and instead had been giving Gwen oral vitamin K drops, which they trusted would protect her.
Malouf tried another type of pretreated gauze. When that didn’t work, medical records show, she turned to silver nitrate, a chemical applied to the tip of a long matchlike stick that cauterizes blood vessels. Malouf rotated one stick after another inside Gwen’s belly button.
Since the 1960s, the vast majority of newborns in the United States have received a vitamin K shot. The injection virtually eliminated vitamin K deficiency bleeding, a rare condition that can cause catastrophic bleeding and even death.
But a shift in recent years has threatened to upend the unwavering protection that many doctors and hospitals had taken for granted. Families — mistrustful of medical interventions, misled by social media and devoted to a birth experience they deem natural — have begun to shun the vitamin K shot.
A pair of studies published last week, both of which involved millions of births, found that babies who didn’t get the vitamin K shot had an increased risk of bleeding. One of the studies found that between 2017 and 2025, the rate of vitamin K deficiency bleeding increased a staggering 347%.
Without the single, inexpensive shot — which is not a vaccine — babies are dying. Autopsies reveal how babies’ systems shut down without warning and well-meaning parents who declined the vitamin K shot were left mourning the loss of their children.
Malouf kept trying to stop the bleeding. Over the course of nearly three hours, she used seven methods. At one point, she applied so much pressure to a bandage that, Stephanie said, Gwen threw up. The remedies essentially treated the symptoms and not the cause, like putting a cover on a leaking faucet.
Malouf said she called her husband, who’s also a doctor, as well as a nurse at a local hospital, to see if she was missing something. They, too, were at a loss. The nurse’s only suggestions were the ones that Malouf had already tried.
Malouf decided to transfer Gwen to a small, local hospital, which at least had pediatric specialists and a neonatal intensive care unit. But while she waited for a call back to confirm the hospital would accept Gwen, Stephanie walked out of the room to tell her that Gwen had bled through the latest dressing. Malouf, according to the records, quickly checked to see how long it was taking her blood vessels to refill. It was slower than when she arrived.
Gwen’s condition was growing more dire, and Malouf had reached the limits of what she could do. What followed also wouldn’t be enough.
Stephanie and Eric Biesenbach took Gwen to an emergency room a mile from their house.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica
Stephanie had given birth to Gwen without complications in an inflatable tub in their living room. She was perfect, with doelike eyes and a full head of brown hair that, when the light hit it, hinted at the red of her father’s beard.
Her older brothers and sisters fussed over her like a birthday present. Her aunts from California and Louisiana came in to meet her. When the house quieted, Gwen fell asleep to the calming rhythm of Stephanie’s chest rising and falling.
Stephanie marveled at the way Gwen seemed to study the faces of everyone who carried her. She wasn’t two weeks yet, but the corners of her mouth constantly turned up to form what her parents insisted were smiles. Even when her siblings passed her around, she rarely cried in protest.
Stephanie and Eric met in 2010, when they both worked at Chili’s. Texas natives, they had just returned home after spending time in Florida, where Stephanie spent a semester interning at Walt Disney World Resort.
“I was doing lawn care work and maintenance on restaurants,” Eric said before Stephanie interjected. “He moved there for a girl,” she said as the two erupted in laughter.
He proposed to Stephanie on Christmas Eve. They married at a vineyard on Halloween. The venue capped off the night with fireworks.
Life moved quickly after that. They had a daughter and two sons, then adopted the daughter of a relative who was too young to care for the child herself. Just when they thought their family was complete, Stephanie got pregnant with Gwen.
Overjoyed, they decided to name her after Stephanie’s grandmother, Gwendolyn, who passed down her flowered baby blanket with “Gwen” embroidered in the corner.
There were no signs something could be wrong with Gwen until the day her parents took her to the ER. Stephanie had texted her midwife first.
“So sorry to bother you,” she typed into her phone, writing that Gwen’s belly button had been bleeding most of the day and they couldn’t get it to stop.
“How much blood is too much blood,” she asked.
The midwife told her to send a photo. Stephanie sent two, one of dried blood on Gwen’s stomach and the other of a pile of bloodied tissues. The midwife instructed Stephanie to tape some gauze over Gwen’s belly button. About 90 minutes later, just before going to bed, she checked on Gwen again. She snapped another picture, this one with bright red blood soaking through the gauze and diaper, and texted it to the midwife. “Are you sure this is fine?”
The midwife told her to go to the emergency room.
Stephanie texted her midwife about Gwen’s bleeding before going to the emergency room.Courtesy of the Biesenbach family
In many states, all emergency rooms are in hospitals, where patients can be transferred to other units for more care. Not so in Texas, where more than 200 ERs are freestanding, separate and distinct from a hospital. At the ER, Gwen grew increasingly pale. Her heart raced at 177 beats a minute. Around 1:40 a.m., Stephanie and Eric received their first piece of good news: Malouf was transferring Gwen. She had scrapped her plan to send Gwen to the local hospital and would instead transfer her to North Central Baptist, a larger hospital in nearby San Antonio with more specialists. North Central was only about half an hour away, and it was sending a NICU transport team to get Gwen.
Eric’s eyes fixated on the large clock hanging in the room. Ten minutes passed, then 20, then 30, then an hour. He couldn’t understand what was taking so long. He stepped into the hallway and asked if he could just drive Gwen to the hospital.
But, he said, Malouf told him he couldn’t because it would be too dangerous. Malouf, however, said she told him that if he did leave, he would have to sign paperwork acknowledging he was doing so against medical advice. The transport team, she told him, would have blood and IVs. Besides, she said, Gwen was stable. Malouf called to check on the status of the ambulance; she was told they were on their way.
Stephanie and Eric said that was the last time they spoke to Malouf that night.
By the time the ambulance arrived, it had been nearly two hours since Malouf had requested it. One of the team’s first questions was whether Gwen had received a vitamin K shot.
The ER nurse told them they didn’t have the shot on hand.
It was the first time since walking into the ER, Stephanie said, that anyone suggested that vitamin K may be the culprit — and the cure.
At 3:45 a.m., within minutes of the ambulance team’s arrival, they gave Gwen a vitamin K shot in her left thigh. They spent the next two hours at her bedside, hooking her up to an IV, drawing blood for lab tests and giving her antibiotics — all things that, the records show, hadn’t been done yet. Malouf didn’t respond to questions about why not.
Stephanie and Eric observed the ambulance team as they worked, bantering, discussing another call that had come in and, just as they were about to leave, waiting for one of them to go to the bathroom. Between what they viewed as the team’s laidback pace and Malouf’s reassurances that Gwen was stable, Stephanie and Eric were encouraged enough to split up. Eric went home to the kids, who had been with his mom all night, to get them ready for their first day of school. Stephanie stayed and planned to ride with Gwen in the ambulance.
“Grab me a change of clothes and coffee,” Stephanie called to him as he was leaving.
The team transferred Gwen to a temperature-controlled enclosed incubator. As they packed up to leave, Gwen began to whimper. With each breath, Stephanie said, she let out a weak, high-pitched sound. It was unnatural. Stephanie reached through the incubator’s opening and ran her hands back and forth across her daughter’s chest.
The team loaded Gwen onto the ambulance and flipped on the sirens and lights. At 5:55 a.m., they headed down Interstate 35. It had been seven hours since Gwen was first admitted to the ER.
GwenCourtesy of the Biesenbach familyA cutout of Gwen’s footprint held next to that of one of her sistersCourtesy of the Biesenbach family
Stephanie appreciated the importance of vitamin K. All of her other children got the vitamin K shot shortly after they were born. But over the years, she and her husband had grown wary of medical intervention. When their youngest son was nearly 2, they fell behind on his vaccines. After getting several vaccines at one appointment, they said, he developed a high fever and suddenly stopped talking for about a year. He was later diagnosed with autism.
“I think that they just gave him too much at once,” Eric said.
Research studies from numerous sources have found that multiple vaccines taken at once do not overwhelm or weaken a child’s immune system. They also do not increase the risk of serious or long-term adverse effects.
Still, seeing their son struggle to speak, Stephanie and Eric were convinced there was a connection. They stopped vaccinating their children after that.
Before Gwen’s birth, Stephanie’s midwife gave her a five-page handout on newborn vitamin K. It covered why babies need vitamin K to help their blood clot and cautioned that babies who don’t have enough of it can start to bleed without warning.
The handout compared the pros and cons of the vitamin K shot with oral vitamin K drops, noting that the drawbacks of the drops are that some babies may not be able to absorb them or may spit them up. They also don’t eliminate the risk of bleeding entirely. Stephanie initially signed the document agreeing to the shot, but as her due date neared, she and Eric changed their minds. If both are effective, they reasoned, why not go for the option that didn’t involve sticking their baby with a needle?
“We did our own research. I don’t remember feeling like there were red flags,” Stephanie said. “I felt like the information we had was sufficient.”
She doesn’t recall exactly what sources she consulted, but she read articles online and spoke to some people who worked in the medical field. No one, she said, warned her against the drops. But she didn’t ask her mother, Lauren Hoel, a longtime family nurse practitioner. Stephanie knew exactly what her mom would say.
Many medical experts consider the drops inferior for several reasons, including those mentioned in the handout. There are also concerns about harried parents of a newborn forgetting a dose and the fact that cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding have been reported even when drops are used.
Only limited data exists about vitamin K drops, and much of it is from Europe, where the drops are more common. In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration does not provide oversight of the drops. Instead, parents can simply add them to their Amazon carts without any verification of what’s in them, or whether they’re safe or effective.
A single vitamin K shot acts quickly, and then the liver stores the rest of the vitamin K to slowly release into the baby’s system over months.
For decades, the recommendation from doctors, hospitals and medical organizations has been the shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization call for giving the shot to all newborns.
“While some countries outside of the U.S. sometimes administer vitamin K orally, it has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration,” the American Academy of Pediatrics wrote in May, reiterating its longstanding position, “and it is less effective than an intramuscular injection.”
Stephanie and Eric’s choice to opt for the drops reflects a broader trend. Vaccine skepticism grew after the COVID-19 pandemic, and under the direction of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a fierce vaccine critic and champion of the Make America Healthy Again movement, the federal government has fed those doubts. Stephanie and Eric, who voted for President Donald Trump and are ardent supporters of both Kennedy and MAHA, welcomed the change.
In December, the CDC stopped recommending that all newborns get the hepatitis B vaccine. In January, the agency revised its childhood vaccination schedule, reducing the number of routinely recommended shots by six. A federal judge temporarily blocked that move in March, but the CDC’s decisions appear to have caused a ripple effect beyond vaccines.
After the January change to the vaccine schedule, an analysis of more than a million newborns found a rise in the rate of babies not receiving the vitamin K shot so sharp that it resembled a hockey stick. Between January and June of this year, the analysis found, the rate jumped from 5.2% to 8.1%. Despite being asked multiple times at a congressional hearing to assure parents that the vitamin K shot is safe, Kennedy responded by declaring that he has not said anything publicly about the shot. An HHS spokesperson did not answer ProPublica’s questions but said that the CDC recommends that parents give newborns the vitamin K shot within six hours of their birth to prevent vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, where Gwen was transferred after being treated at a standalone emergency roomBrenda Bazán for ProPublica
In the ambulance, Gwen’s blood pressure dropped.
“Infant looks much more lethargic,” the team wrote in their notes.
They placed a mask on Gwen to increase her oxygen and gave her an infusion of saline in hopes of improving her blood volume.
Gwen’s condition continued to deteriorate. Almost immediately after they arrived at the hospital, her heart stopped. Doctors inserted a breathing tube then began pressing down on her chest with two fingers to manually pump blood through her body. They pushed epinephrine into her IV to stimulate her heart. That appeared to work.
Stephanie couldn’t comprehend what was happening. All night, she said, no one had acted like Gwen’s life was in danger. Suddenly, her daughter was covered in tubes and doctors were performing CPR.
Stephanie said she heard someone yelling into a phone, “Where is the blood?”
She texted her family. “I need you to pray for Gwen like her life depends on it,” she wrote.
She called Eric. “You need to get here now,” she told him.
Eric pressed on the gas pedal of Stephanie’s Honda and sped to the hospital. There, he pushed through a clutch of doctors to find Stephanie crying in the corner of the room. The same wave of shock that had washed over his wife minutes earlier crashed over him. For the first time, he worried he might lose his daughter.
They prayed together, and the chaplain stopped by the room to check on them. He noted, according to records, that they were anxious but hopeful.
Less than two hours after she was admitted, Gwen crashed again. The medical team called a code blue. Doctors performed CPR for the next 34 minutes. They gave her epinephrine four more times. She had lost so much blood. Her heart was barely pumping. Doctors told Stephanie and Eric that they could keep trying to resuscitate Gwen or they could take her off the machines for her parents to hold her.
Stephanie sobbed. Eric collapsed at her knees. She told him she couldn’t make the call. Eric said they wanted to spend the final moments with their daughter. The doctors unhooked Gwen from the beeping machines and handed her to him. Stephanie and Eric told Gwen how much they loved her and how much they were going to miss her.
Shortly after 9 a.m., nearly 11 hours after they’d first brought her to the ER, Gwen took her last breath. The team ushered them to another room where families can mourn in private. They spent hours there. They gave Gwen a bath. Family stopped by. Stephanie’s sister picked up their kids from school so they could say goodbye to their baby sister. Two nurses came in to create molds of Gwen’s hands and feet.
When Eric and Stephanie finally left the hospital, Gwen’s car seat was empty. Their two youngest children slept in their bed that night. At one point, Stephanie jolted awake. She turned to Eric. The look in his eyes told her that it hadn’t been a dream. Without making a sound that could wake their kids, they cried themselves back to sleep.
Eric’s grief soon morphed into anger. His brother-in-law drove him to the Lonestar ER to ask for Gwen’s medical records. He didn’t trust himself to go in, so he asked his brother-in-law to retrieve them.
The file was just 15 pages with the payment and registration forms. They searched for any clue that could explain what happened to their daughter.
“I was constantly assured that it wasn’t that bad,” Eric said. “I can’t tell you how many times they said, ‘Don’t worry, babies are very resilient.’”
They planned Gwen’s funeral. When they couldn’t find a coffin small enough to fit her tiny 8-pound body, Eric’s brother, who makes custom cabinets, built one. They wrapped Gwen in the flowered baby blanket from Stephanie’s grandmother for the viewing.
Stephanie and Eric operated on parallel tracks those next several months: mourning their daughter and trying to understand what led to her death. The family attended a grief camp put on by a local hospice group. They painted a garden pole with things that reminded them of Gwen. When Thanksgiving approached, they escaped to Stephanie’s sister’s house in Colorado to avoid questions about how they were doing.
Eric got Gwen’s handprints tattooed on his chest, the last place he felt them before she died. Stephanie picked Gwen’s footprints, but the tattoo artist had to size them down to fit.
“She had such big feet,” Eric said. “She was gonna be a tall girl.”
“Or clown,” Stephanie said, half laughing, half crying. “One of the two.”
They also reached out to Byron Miller, a medical malpractice attorney, who sought records from Malouf, the ER, the ambulance company and the hospital. Miller investigated whether negligence in Gwen’s care resulted in her death. But the medical expert hired to review the case homed in on Stephanie and Eric’s decision to give Gwen the vitamin K drops instead of the shot. Without an expert’s supporting opinion, which Miller said was a state requirement, his office was unable to continue pursuing a case. Miller recommended that Stephanie and Eric follow up with the Texas Medical Board.
The ER, the ambulance company and the hospital did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The nurse on duty at Lonestar that night also did not respond to requests for comment.
Stephanie had several conversations with her mother, who remembers learning in the 1980s, while in nursing school, that all babies need a vitamin K shot at birth. Hoel didn’t know that Stephanie and Eric didn’t get the vitamin K shot for Gwen.
“It never occurred to me that people would refuse the vitamin K shot,” she said.
Even with that, Hoel couldn’t look past Malouf’s actions that night.
“She should have said, ‘That’s a newborn. Take it to a NICU,’” Hoel said. “And by not doing that, the fate was sealed.”
That next December, Stephanie sat down at the kitchen table and pulled out her laptop. Someone, she said, had to hold Malouf accountable. She found the website for the Texas Medical Board and followed the instructions to file a complaint.
“When Dr Malouf decided to provide medical care to our daughter, despite her lack of training in neonatal emergency care, and lack of appropriate monitoring equipment,” Stephanie wrote to the board, “Gwen was deprived of any potential life saving intervention.”
The seven hours they spent at the ER that night, she continued, could have been used to save Gwen’s life. And she stressed that the ER nurse said the facility didn’t carry the vitamin K injection.
“If Vitamin K was a vital part of the evening,” she wrote, “then we should have been pointed to another location that was fully equipped sooner.”
Malouf became the target of her anger and her anguish. She described how painful it was to drive by the Lonestar billboard with Malouf’s giant photo near her house every day. She wrote that Malouf failed to recognize that her daughter’s life was in danger. “I just don’t understand how it can go from a calm relaxed environment to all of a sudden your child is dead,” she wrote to the board. She recounted feeling intimidated when Eric asked if they could leave when Gwen’s color began to change and Malouf advised against it.
“To this date,” she wrote, “Dr Nicole Malouf does not even know that my daughter died under her care.”
A garden pole the Biesenbachs made to memorialize Gwen stands in the family’s yard.Brenda Bazán for ProPublicaA baby blanket embroidered with the name Gwen was passed down by Stephanie’s grandmother, Gwendolyn.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica
After Gwen died, Malouf said, a doctor from the hospital called. The news, she said, came as a surprise.
Sitting in her home office, her framed degrees hanging on the wall behind her, Malouf spoke to ProPublica for nearly three hours about what happened. Malouf and her husband have three daughters, for whom she is team mom for cheerleading and president of the Fine Arts Boosters. Racks of uniforms filled her home’s entryway in preparation for an upcoming sale.
She said she repeatedly relived the details of that night with her therapist. The first few sessions, she said, were just the two of them crying. She said they discussed what was in her control and what wasn’t. Every life is precious, she said, but it’s one thing to lose a 95-year-old grandmother with a long list of medical problems. It’s another to lose a baby.
“I still have my three daughters,” Malouf said, pushing back her long, dark hair, “and now she has lost hers.”
Malouf said the doctor who called said the hospital would conduct its own review. Malouf said the doctor mentioned that they had already identified some issues, including questions about the transport team.
The hospital wasn’t the only one probing the night’s events. The state Medical Board also launched an investigation. The board subpoenaed records and reviewed the medical documents.
In September 2025, the board held a virtual hearing, which was closed to the public. Stephanie and Eric appeared, as did Malouf and her attorney. The board staff attorney charged that Malouf did not meet the standard of care in her treatment of Gwen and that she failed to halt or limit Gwen’s bleeding. Her lack of timely care, the board’s attorney alleged, ultimately resulted in Gwen’s death. Citing confidentiality, the board would not release a recording or transcript of the hearing.
The next month, the board issued its decision. It found that Malouf failed to recognize that Gwen had a life-threatening vitamin K-dependent bleeding disorder. The ER did not have vitamin K shots on site, and Malouf failed to immediately transfer Gwen to a regional pediatric referral hospital better equipped to handle Gwen’s condition. Finally, the board found that Malouf had failed to quantify the amount of blood lost by Gwen.
The Texas medical board found that Dr. Nicole Malouf failed to recognize Gwen’s vitamin K-dependent bleeding disorder and failed to immediately transfer her to a pediatric hospital.Obtained and highlighted by ProPublica
The board required her to take 24 hours of continuing medical education; she said she completed her hours in courses on pediatric advanced life support, communicating with patients and vitamin K deficiency bleeding. She also had to inform her employers that she had been disciplined. Malouf neither admitted nor denied the allegations but agreed to abide by the board’s final order.
A board spokesperson would not answer specific questions about Gwen’s case but said the board expects all licensees “to provide appropriate treatment and, if the necessary supplies are not available, to make arrangements for transport to a higher level of care.”
“I felt that I had done everything that I could with the resources I had,” Malouf told ProPublica.
She said she did know that Gwen had vitamin K deficiency bleeding, even though she did not immediately give Gwen a vitamin K shot. Malouf said she thinks the board didn’t believe that she knew because she didn’t act “in a panicked manner.” It remains unclear, even to her, whether the ER carried the vitamin K shot at the time or if it was just in a spot where the nurse couldn’t find it. But she said she asked the nurse for it.
Either way, she believed that giving Gwen vitamin K at that point would just be to make her chart look good.
“It’s really not even going to take effect at that stage,” Malouf said. “As soon as you give vitamin K, the earliest it’s even going to start working is 10 to 12 hours.”
But several doctors told ProPublica that vitamin K should be given immediately if there’s even a suspicion that a baby has vitamin K deficiency bleeding. It’s so vital to stopping the bleeding that they don’t even need to wait for a confirmation. There is no downside, they said, to giving it. Vitamin K, they said, may need to be followed up by blood or blood products, such as fresh frozen plasma, which is rich in the proteins that help the blood clot.
While vitamin K can quickly help to halt the bleeding, it can’t reverse the bleeding that’s already occurred. It also has to be given in time, and some babies need more than one dose of vitamin K to recover. Gwen, as one doctor who reviewed her medical records put it, needed vitamin K, blood and blood products much sooner than she got them.
Malouf said she had learned about vitamin K deficiency bleeding in medical school and during her residency, but she doesn’t recall ever seeing it in practice. Nearly every medical student learns about the coagulation cascade, but not all doctors know or remember how to diagnose and treat an infant who shows up in an ER bleeding, often in the brain and invisible to the eye. Some completed their training at a time when vitamin K deficiency bleeding was still considered a historic condition, much like measles.
The ER staff, Malouf said, has been subsequently trained on the importance of vitamin K, and the ER keeps it in stock. All ERs, she said, should carry vitamin K.
“I still gravely regret that the outcome was still the same,” she said, “even after again assuming that, ‘Hey, I’m putting this baby in y’all’s hands. You guys are the experts. Fix her.’”
Malouf doesn’t understand how the board found that her care that night fell short. She didn’t intentionally harm her patient.
“I can state my whole case and literally one of the board members goes, ‘Well, I just don’t believe you,’” Malouf recalled. “I said, ‘Well, then I don’t know what more to tell you.’”
In addition to working at the ER, she had a part-time job doing telehealth. The telehealth company that employed her, she said, fired her once she disclosed the board’s action. As of August, she was still working some shifts at Lonestar ER; the board’s decision didn’t affect her ability to practice. Following the interview with ProPublica, she declined further comment.
“I feel like the only way to change the outcome is to go back to the beginning, that fork in the road,” Malouf said. “And go, ‘OK, well let’s give vitamin K after birth.”
Eric and Stephanie at Gwen’s grave in San AntonioBrenda Bazán for ProPublica
Stephanie and Eric also have asked themselves what they would have done differently. They wished they had left the ER that night and driven Gwen to a hospital.
“We were just trusting that the person who went to school their whole life for this would know more than us,” Eric said.
In their minds, the role of vitamin K has overshadowed the medical mistakes they believe are most responsible for their daughter’s death. By the time Gwen had arrived at the hospital, her organs were already starting to shut down. The autopsy found that she had tiny spots of bleeding in her kidneys and small intestine and a small scrape on her chest where doctors pushed down for CPR. The medical examiner noted Gwen’s precipitous decline and listed her cause of death as vitamin K deficiency bleeding.
If they could go back, both agreed they would get the vitamin K shot for Gwen.
“I don’t trust a lot of things,” Stephanie said, “but get peace of mind and get the vitamin K shot.”
A few months after Gwen’s death, Stephanie found out she was pregnant with a little girl. They were so ready to love a baby again. She gave birth to her in 2024. This summer, they welcomed another baby girl.
A visit to the petroleum-rich Orinoco Belt revealed a nascent U.S.-backed oil empire in a vassal state where officials once railed against the imperial north.
Scientists are exploring whether the flu vaccine can disrupt tumors, providing another treatment along with expensive cutting-edge care. A small clinical trial offers hope.
Netanyahu supporters blame radicals and “drug-addled teens” for attacks eroding Palestinian self-rule. Others see “state violence” and hope Gadi Eisenkot has an answer.
Three more people found dead at home of suspect, who minister says held ‘ultra-nationalistic’ views
Six people were killed and 16 wounded after a gunman opened fire in a busy market square in Kraków, authorities said, in what Poland’s defence minister called an “act of terror” on the people of the city.
The suspect, a 25-year-old Polish citizen, opened fire with an automatic weapon in the city’s main square at about 3pm on Saturday before being apprehended by police.
President has opposing views on many issues, and once called Leo’s predecessor the ‘representative of the Evil One’
Trees are being planted in the garden. The brightly coloured buildings are getting another coat of paint. The choir rehearses. Hundreds of other residents, several of them using wheelchairs, practise their positions outside the sanctuary. Excitement is in the air, because on Monday 9 November, the Cottolengo Don Orione – a Catholic-run home for disabled people – will be the first stop on Pope Leo XIV’s first full day of his trip to Argentina.
But the pope’s visit to Claypole, about 26km from Buenos Aires, does not come at an especially happy time for the home, which counts about 400 residents with disabilities. Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has made wide-ranging cuts to disability funding.
Saturday NASA officials announced it's accepting applications for a new astronaut class, reports the Associated Press:
With only 32 active astronauts, the space agency needs more recruits as it looks to expand humanity's presence beyond low-Earth orbit as quickly as possible... "We have far more work than we have astronauts," Artemis III commander Randy Bresnik told The Associated Press on Saturday. Aspiring astronauts have between now and Dec. 3 to submit their applications... [They'll begin their training by early 2028]. By then "we're going to have people on the moon — so don't delay," Bresnik urged potential candidates.
Bresnik and his three crewmates will blast into orbit next summer to practice docking their capsule with a pair of lunar landers, one built by Elon Musk's SpaceX and the other by Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin. Their mission will stick close to Earth — no lunar flyby — and serve as a dress rehearsal for the following year's Artemis IV mission that will attempt to land two astronauts near the lunar south pole. The moon base will materialize as more rovers, robots, structures and power grids are launched.
The article notes NASA's last call for new astronauts was two years ago, and "More than 8,000 applied, with 10 making the final cut in September 2025."
Event regarded as Oscars of fashion industry replaces John Galliano retrospective with homage to the ‘extra ordinary’
A few months after the planned John Galliano Met Gala retrospective was cancelled amid a backlash focused on the designer’s past, a more commonplace theme has been announced: “extraORDINARY: fashion and the poetics of the everyday.” It has left some commentators speculating that celebrities might replace the couture “omelette dresses” and four-part red-carpet performances with jeans and a nice top.
While the dress code for the next Met Gala, which will be held on 3 May 2027, is yet to be announced, it traditionally derives from the exhibition theme.
Naturalists divided over potential impact of proposals to increase number of wild raptors in England and Wales
White-tailed eagles reintroduced into England and Wales imperil endangered seabird populations and risk wiping out some colonies, ecologists and conservationists are warning.
Puffins, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and kittiwakes are among the birds for which breeding populations could collapse if large numbers of white-tailed eagles are released, according to some academics and conservationists.
MPs, local authorities, lawyers, schools and more are receiving floods of grievances, requests and legal challenges, often complex to read and respond to
‘It started as a trickle in 2024 and now it’s an onslaught.” Hollie Wickens, a senior caseworker in a Labour MP’s office, is explaining the daily reality of dealing with surging volumes of artificial intelligence-generated correspondence.
“Half the emails we receive are some form of AI,” she says, adding that this has made requests and complaints much more complex and time-consuming to read and deal with, despite her decade of experience in the role. “It is definitely more taxing.”
David Lammy among those raising concerns after errors found in rejected applications for indefinite leave to remain
Concerns have been raised over the sudden rise in number of Turkish nationals facing removal from the UK as a result of mistakes, prompting accusations that the Home Office has failed to learn the lessons of the Windrush scandal.
Since the start of the year, there has been a sharp rise in the number of rejected applications for indefinite leave to remain for those on European Community Association Agreement (ECAA) visas, a longstanding route to residency for Turkish nationals seeking to set up a business in the UK.
President claimed to have ushered in a ‘golden age’ even as prices soared and war dragged on – and midterm voters did not buy his looking-glass narrative
A new “golden age of America” is under way, Donald Trump repeatedly declared in his final pitch to voters before the US midterm elections.
The war in Iran was not really a war, because “we’ve done very little fighting”, the US president stressed. The stock market had hit 88 all-time highs. “They’re saying,” he said, that on his watch the US has become “the hottest country anywhere in the world”.
Farmers face big drop in production from extreme weather during this year’s super El Niño event
Banana producers in Latin America are calling for better pay to help cope with the impact of the climate crisis, as they face big drops in production resulting from extreme weather during this year’s super El Niño event.
High winds in parts of Colombia, one of the biggest suppliers to the UK market where droughts are predicted in some regions this year, and heavy rainfall in Peru and Ecuador are already affecting production, according to the Fairtrade Foundation ethical trade body. In the Dominican Republic, farmers are expected to face drought conditions, with forecasts of drier and warmer than usual conditions.
A lifestyle podcast or brief TV clip is less taxing than a full press conference – but No 10 insists the PM is not ducking accountability
In an interview this week Andy Burnham said he believed the traditional media was less relevant and the world was “not like that any more”. But some people are now asking: does this change in approach mean less scrutiny?
The question was in part prompted by Burnham’s decision to travel to the Commonwealth heads of government meeting (Chogm) without the usual accompanying pack of reporters, instead bringing just one TV crew and a news agency journalist.
Mumbai facility is part of Reliance Industries, owner of world’s biggest oil refinery and funder of controversial mega-zoo
The Prince of Wales’s Earthshot prize will host its forthcoming annual awards ceremony at a venue owned by the billionaire Ambani family conglomerate, drawing criticism from conservationists over their fossil fuel businesses and their foundation’s controversial mega-zoo.
A spokesperson for the Earthshot prize, which awards £1m to five winners every year to invest in conservation work, confirmed to the Guardian and the news outlet Mongabay that this year’s ceremony will be held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai on 17 November.
As AI exposes flaws in IT systems and geopolitics plays out on the cyber frontline, some experts say the events of recent weeks could soon be a common occurrence
Alex Pearce was doing the morning rounds at his fruit and vegetable wholesale business in London on Monday last week when he noticed something odd.
The defrost light on refrigeration unit 2 was on, and the panel reading was 150C. Unit 4 was the same.
With the global tide turning against him, the US president’s lame duck status could still aggravate old tensions and spark new explosions
It was a victory for the world, too. People in the many countries that suffered pain, loss and cruel indignities at the hands of Donald Trump over the past two chaotic, fearful years celebrated a moment of glorious, shared redemption. The monster, like others of his kind, still lurks in his gilded White House lair; far-right authoritarianism still casts a dark shadow over many nations. But the power of this most destructive of presidents is shattered, his malignant spell broken. The triumphant roar of US midterm voters was a rallying cry of democratic defiance that, echoing the American revolution of 250 years ago, reverberated around the globe.
For Iranians, Trump’s electoral humiliation raised hopes, perhaps misplaced, that his murderous war of choice against Tehran’s oppressive regime may soon cease. In Israel, many among the majority who voted for change last week will welcome the humbling of the foremost supporter of Benjamin Netanyahu’s as-yet-unvanquished extremist coalition. Ukrainians voiced optimism that a Democratic-controlled Congress will curb the sickening appeasement of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. In Europe, the beginning of the end of the Trump era brought a sense of relief – and hope that toxic transatlantic relations can be drained of Maga poison.
Netherlands physical commodity merchant executes direct volume off-take for used beverage can scrap and spot-to-recurring supply of 99.7% primary aluminium ingots across European and international routes.
Carr throws for 319 yards and three TDs in 31-24 win
No 4 Irish avenge loss that cost them playoff berth
Miami comeback falls short after disputed late call
CJ Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns as No 4 Notre Dame avenged their most damaging loss of last season, racing to a 21-point lead before holding on to beat top-ranked Miami 31-24 on Saturday night.
Micah Gilbert caught two of Carr’s touchdown passes, Jordan Faison had the other and Nolan James Jr added a rushing score for Notre Dame (8-1, No 11 College Football Playoff), who entered the game knowing another defeat to Miami could derail their national championship hopes.
NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Travelzoo® (NASDAQ: TZOO), the club for travel enthusiasts, announces six of many new Club Offers for Club Members in the U.S.
In a war driven by drones and battlefield sensors, access to space is essential. After Starlink speed restrictions and Russian Oreshnik missile strikes, Kyiv is racing to develop its own space capabilities
For people in the Russian industrial city of Samara on the banks of the Volga, the first they knew of the Ukrainian attack were detonations that sent a column of smoke into the air.
If the Kremlin was vague about the target, video footage on social media soon made it clear what had been hit in the early hours of 15 August: the Progress Rocket and Space Centre, manufacturer of Russia’s Soyuz-2 rockets.
Slashdot reader sandbagger brings news about the classic science ficdtion magazine Starlog. It's 33-year run from 1976 to 2009 is now available on the Internet Archive.
And 17 years after publishing its final issue, Starlog is relaunching, publishing one issue a year starting November 13, according to The Hollywood Reporter:
The magazine launched in 1976 and gained a fanbase for being one of the few places to get reliable news and interviews about geek culture. It launched with a cover focusing on Star Trek, one of its key areas of expertise, but the magazine's editors and writers also pioneered coverage of Star Wars. (The new issue chronicles some of the rumors it put out a year before the movie opened). In all, Starlog published 374 issues and more than 25,000 pages... In addition to the film and TV-focused features Starlog was known for, the new Starlog will also delve into futurism, as the cover from Gabriel Yeganyan highlights. The opening story of issue No. 1 looks at the viability of humans farming crops on planets outside of Earth, for example... The revival was announced earlier this year, and includes a podcast hosted by Jordan Hoffman, a veteran journalist who has contributed to The Hollywood Reporter.
Kayson McAllister completes a pass in a recent game for the Wildcats. He threw for 126 yards and a touchdown during Friday’s playoff win over Fleming County.
Lionel Messi won his second consecutive MLS Golden Boot award on Saturday, but Inter Miami squandered a three-goal lead in a 3-3 draw with Charlotte on the final day of the regular season.
The Argentinian superstar failed to score but set up Miami’s first two goals from corners at Nu Stadium as the defending champions secured second place in the Eastern Conference and home-field advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs.
One person was killed and at least a dozen others injured when a driver suspected of being impaired struck a group of more than 40 cyclists in North Carolina, authorities said.
Activists fear Bangkok will give in to pressure from Beijing despite reports of torture and human rights abuses against the mostly muslim ethnic minority
The deportation of two more Uyghurs to China from Thailand would put their lives in grave danger, activists have said, with one of the men saying he would be “like a slave” if he was sent back.
MADISON, WISCONSIN — A 21-year-old Wisconsin State Patrol trooper has been released from federal immigration custody after ICE detained him at Dane County Regional Airport while he was preparing to board a domestic flight.
Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, was arrested Thursday during what the Department of Homeland Security called a “targeted enforcement operation.” His attorney says Van Der Merwe came to the United States legally as a teenager, is included in his father’s pending asylum application and has federal work authorization valid through 2030.
DHS says Van Der Merwe entered legally in March 2019 but overstayed his authorized admission in September of that year. The agency emphasized that work authorization and a pending asylum application do not themselves confer lawful immigration status.
Van Der Merwe’s attorneys said ICE agents detained him despite his explanation that he had a valid work permit and unresolved asylum case. He was later released under an order of supervision requiring regular check-ins and electronic monitoring while his removal proceedings continue.
The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association publicly backed Van Der Merwe, calling for fair treatment and due process. He has worked for the State Patrol since July 2025 and has no known criminal record.
National party will be largest in parliament but ultimate shape of next government won’t be settled for some time
New Zealand could be facing a weeks-long wait to know the shape of its next government, after its nail-biting election failed to hand a decisive victory to either the incumbent rightwing coalition or opposition left bloc.
On preliminary results, the centre-right National party, led by the prime minister, Christopher Luxon, managed to secure enough seats to govern alongside its traditional coalition partners, the libertarian Act and populist New Zealand First parties.
Lproven (Slashdot reader #6,030) shares his article about a new OS in the BSD family "combining NetBSD's kernel and libc with a port of the Alpine Linux userland" — and promising it won't use AI-generated code:
AlpineBSD is so new that it barely exists yet. There are no installation media available, though it's possible to manually bootstrap an installation. What AlpineBSD does already have is an AI policy, and the plan is to avoid "the output of generative AI models (e.g. LLMs)" as far as possible:
"Any software whose code, documentation, binaries, or other assets include, in any part, the output of a generative AI tool such as an LLM, is considered 'tainted' for our purposes...."
Back in 2024, the NetBSD project made its position on AI plain. Its commit guidelines say that "code generated by a Large Language Model [...] is presumed to be tainted code...."
AlpineBSD's ports repository and source code are hosted on Sourcehut, under the account of sircmpwn, better known as Drew DeVault... We will follow AlpineBSD with interest. There's strong appeal in the plan of combining perhaps the best-known, longest-established AI-free Unix-like kernel with the user-facing parts of pretty much the smallest and cleanest Linux distro there is. The AI advocates often warn LLM skeptics that they risk being left behind. Well, here's an OS for those who don't want to surf the AI wave.
The article does acknowledge difficulty installing software using the pkgin package manager (an optional extra), explaining that since 1993 the NetBSD community has had "its own ideas about what is normal... Some folks on the mailing list told us that they never use binary packages anyway — they compile what they need from source code."
White says he has meeting with Trump in Washington DC on Monday, without saying whether he will accept the job
Donald Trump has offered the job of White House press secretary to Dana White, the chief executive of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the president said in a social media post on Saturday.
Trump described White, who staged a cage-fighting spectacle at the White House to mark the president’s 80th birthday in June, as “a violent Fighter and Warrior”, credentials unlike any ever used to describe previous press secretaries.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — UFC CEO Dana White reportedly turned down President Donald Trump’s offer to become White House press secretary just hours after Trump publicly announced the proposal.
CNN reported Saturday that a source familiar with the matter said White declined the job. Earlier reports had suggested White planned to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss the position. White has not publicly explained his decision.
Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, describing White as a longtime ally and suggesting several UFC fighters could join him as assistants to help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.” White initially appeared to play along, sharing Trump’s post and publishing an image of himself behind the White House briefing-room podium.
The announcement also revived scrutiny of a 2022 incident in which White was recorded striking his wife during an altercation at a nightclub in Mexico. White later publicly acknowledged the incident and said there was “no excuse” for his actions.
The press secretary position has been vacant following a period of unusual turnover. Karoline Leavitt left the job in August, and Katie Zacharia reportedly lasted only five days in the role.
White’s refusal means Trump will need to continue searching for a permanent spokesperson as his administration reorganizes following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.
White and Trump have been close for years, with White repeatedly supporting Trump politically and Trump frequently attending UFC events.
Windows 11 offered a PC-to-PC Migration feature that "moved files and settings directly between two PCs over Wi-Fi or Ethernet," reports Ghacks. But according to an updated Microsoft support page, the tool is no longer available.
"Microsoft's support documentation now redirects users to Windows Backup, a tool that relies on OneDrive cloud storage instead of a direct connection between two computers..."
Windows Backup works differently. It requires a personal Microsoft account and backs up supported folders (Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music) to OneDrive. Free OneDrive accounts include only 5GB of storage, and Microsoft's own promotional screenshot for Windows Backup shows 4.5GB of that allowance already in use. Years of photos, documents and downloads can exceed the free tier quickly.
Windows Backup does carry some extras. It can remember installed apps, Wi-Fi networks, passwords and some settings to speed up setup on a new device. Apps still have to be reinstalled, and supported files are restored from the cloud.
Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the article.
Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe immigrated to US at 14 and has been waiting seven years for asylum case to be heard
A Wisconsin state patrol trooper, whom federal immigration agents detained on Thursday at an airport, has been released from their custody.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached Carel Aaron Van Der Merwe, a South African national, as he waited to board a domestic flight, according to his law firm Christopher & De León.
The former military chief has 28 days to build a coalition, with a possible extension of up to 14 more. If he fails, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to get his chance.
Rather than racing toward their net-zero targets, Amazon and other AI/cloud computing companies "are driving emissions sharply higher," reports the Washington Post:
To support their data centers, tech firms are driving construction of a new generation of supersized, gas-fired power plants that could lock in hundreds of millions of tons of climate pollution for decades to come, according to corporate disclosures and an analysis conducted for The Post by a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Industry estimates show these projects have put the tech sector on course to grow from a modest driver of industrial carbon pollution into one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. Some anticipate that its share of global carbon emissions will increase as much as fivefold from 2020 to 2030. That would leave the tech industry churning out more than half the climate pollution created by global aviation or shipping — sectors long associated with driving warming...
Already, Amazon's carbon footprint reached 80.85 million metric tons last year — 58% larger than when [Amazon CEO Jeff] Bezos pledged to shrink it. The company has veered far from the path laid out in the Paris agreement, which would have emissions falling steeply by now and dropping to 43% below 2019 levels by 2030. The tech companies say in corporate disclosures and public statements that they remain committed to their net zero targets, and they suggest the emissions surge is temporary — to be mitigated down the road, when new energy technologies enable the data centers to run cleaner and more efficiently. They also stress that they continue to invest in clean energy and rank as some of the world's biggest consumers of it. With some complicated accounting maneuvers and carbon credit purchases, their solar, wind and geothermal installations partly cancel out their gas emissions, according to corporate disclosures.
A June report from international insurance/asset management Allianz found the world's data center emissions are on track to double to 643 million tons of CO2 annually between 2020 and 2030, the article points out. And they cite American data centers contributing to the problem:
Just two gas projects Amazon signed on to for data centers planned in Texas and Pennsylvania "would produce more carbon pollution than the dirtiest facility in the country," an Alabama coal plant powering 1 million homes.
Meta is building a nearly six-square-mile campus in Louisiana "that will consume as much electricity as three cities the size of New Orleans."
"A sprawling Microsoft project in West Texas involving a giant gas plant built by Chevron and a Google project in Wyoming that would consume five times as much electricity as every household in that state would vastly expand the emissions associated with those companies."
"A data center campus in Pike County, Ohio, that will support OpenAI's artificial intelligence operations will consume significantly more gas power, and, therefore, emit more carbon pollution, than the Microsoft and Google projects combined."
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Saturday that he offered UFC CEO Dana White the job of White House press secretary, continuing a post-midterm personnel shakeup that has already elevated Stephen Miller to chief of staff.
Trump announced the offer on Truth Social, calling White a “Fighter and Warrior” and suggesting he bring six current or former UFC champions as assistants, including Islam Makhachev, Khabib Nurmagomedov, Justin Gaethje, Daniel Cormier, Kayla Harrison and Amanda Nunes. Trump said the fighters could help “defend us against the Lunatic Left.”
White and Trump have known each other since the early 2000s, when Trump’s Atlantic City casino hosted UFC events. White later became an outspoken Trump supporter and appeared at Republican National Conventions on his behalf. Trump has also repeatedly attended UFC events, and the White House hosted a UFC card earlier this year.
The press secretary position has been vacant since Katie Zacharia left last month after serving less than a week. Karoline Leavitt had departed the role in August.
Despite Trump’s public offer, CNN reported that White declined the job, according to a source familiar with the matter. White and UFC parent company TKO had not publicly commented as of Saturday.
The offer comes one day after Trump named Miller as his new chief of staff following Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses.
Some workplaces are holding mandatory AI training sessions, while others "are requiring employees to use a specific number of tokens," reports the Washington Post, "or log a certain amount of time on AI platforms."
The article's headline? "Why mandating AI use in the workplace can backfire."
[A] lot of employers are going about it the wrong way, said Arvind Karunakaran, an assistant professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University. "You can consume a lot of tokens without creating a lot of value," Karunakaran said....
The adoption of AI is happening faster than the adoption of the internet did, according to a new report from Stanford's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. And many users report that AI tools have really helped — whether saving time and costs or increasing innovation. The same report, though, found that one-third of organizations surveyed expected AI-related staff reductions in the coming year. Especially in that context, simply mandating usage won't spark excitement about the technology, Karunakaran said, and neither will insisting that employees use AI to cut turnaround times and ramp up productivity. "People start asking questions like 'What am I as an employee getting out of it?'" he said.
The report he co-authored found that in the short-term, mandating AI tools may ramp up productivity. But in the long-to-medium term, employees tend to feel devalued and disengaged. From there, people find ways to mindlessly check the box.
When employers present these tools and their use as an opportunity for employees to expand their skills and grow their careers, people are much likelier to use them, Karunakaran said. He suggests that rather than requiring employees use a specific number of tokens, companies should encourage workers to experiment and share their own use cases and success stories. Most workplaces are still shutting employees out of the conversation. More than half of employees said they have less of a say than they'd want on adopting new tech at work, according to a report from Gallup and Jobs for the Future, a work and education nonprofit.
Any Slashdot readers want to share your own stories on how AI was introduced at your workplace?
Known for sophisticated musical style in band that played significant role in emerging 1970s punk rock movement
Richard Lloyd, known for his sophisticated musical style as a founding member and guitarist for the influential punk band Television, has died at the age of 75.
His family confirmed that Lloyd died Saturday morning at his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “His loving wife Sheila and his dog Willie Mays were with him at the end,” his family said in a statement to Rolling Stone.
Systems provide 360-degree view of airport operations, but concerns have been raised about the technology
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has announced that the first digital air traffic control towers in the US are officially operational, bringing new technology first to smaller airports in Florida and Alaska as the Trump administration presses ahead with updating the country’s ageing aviation infrastructure.
The systems are now online at the Bartow executive airport (KBOW) in Florida and the Kenai municipal airport (PAEN) in Alaska, with five additional regional airports slated to receive the technology next.
Ana Reyes wants to know whether federal officials lied about extent of renovation plans at East Potomac golf course
A federal judge said on Saturday that she intended to appoint an ex-top federal prosecutor who served during Donald Trump’s first term to investigate whether she was purposely misled by lawyers and administration officials over changes to a historic public golf course in Washington DC.
Jessie Liu, a former US attorney for the District of Columbia, would examine whether officials with the interior department and the National Park Service and attorneys with the Department of Justice violated ethics or misled US district judge Ana Reyes during the course of the civil case that was initiated with a lawsuit in February by the DC Preservation League and two golfers.
About five months after the previous release, the MorphOS team has released MorphOS 3.21. It brings the usual list of big fixes and smaller improvements, but there’s a few big ticket items in here as well.
MorphOS 3.21 introduces BasicWorks, an office suite made up of CellBasics and PageBasics. It offers document and spreadsheet authoring and loads and saves Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents. Also new are NVMEMount, an auto-mounter for booting from and mounting NVMe partitions, and the Marbles and Cyber 3D blankers.
Graphics performance has been improved, with a faster Radeon driver on cards with little video memory thanks to GART backed bitmap transfers, quicker TinyGL texture copies, hardware accelerated antialiased text in TTEngine and much faster color SVG glyph rendering in Cairo. The Bcm43xx wireless driver has been substantially reworked, with automatic transmit rate selection, updated firmware and numerous connection fixes. PowerBook and iMac hotkeys are now fully configurable.
The BasicWorks office suite has been in the works for a while now, and more information on it can be found in a thread on the MorphZone forums and on the website for the spreadsheet component of the suite, CellBasics. The formula loaders and xlsx loaders are ports of open source projects, but the rest of the application is new code based on ObjectiveC++ and Cairo/Harfbuzz. It uses its own file format, but can import csv and xslsx files, so I’m assuming the same more or else applies to the word processor (but with docx, of course).
Alongside MorphOS 3.21 also comes a new release for Wayfarer, the web browser the Amiga-inspired operating system uses. Wayfarer 12.0 moves to WebKitGTK 2.52.5 (which was released in July of 2026, so it’s quite up to date), and now uses the Skia graphics library. R300-R500 Radeons will render websites with Skia-GL for some massive performance improvements, helped further along by a slew of additional performance optimisations. Adblocking has been improved as well, YouTube should work a lot better now, and much more.
Ask any program to listen on port 0 and it will hand you a socket on port 47193…or 58037…or whatever the kernel felt like that day. Port 0 is not a port you can have. It is the number you pass when you want the operating system to pick one for you.
But a TCP header is just bytes. The destination port field is 16 bits wide, and 0x0000 fits in 16 bits as well as anything else does. Nothing on the wire stops a packet from being addressed to port 0. Your tools will refuse it, your browser will block it, and your scanner’s default port list skips it, because everyone agrees it isn’t a real port.
Which makes it a pretty good place to hide things, whether anyone meant to or not. So we did some TCP cowboy shit & port scanned the entire fucking internet for open ports on port 0, which uncovered some interesting unexpected findings.
A little tidbit of news regarding the nest major update to Windows, known as Windows 11 27H2. Apparently, it’s going to come with some more serious changes to the codebase, therefore necessitating a full operating system swap instead of a mere enablement package, much like Windows 11 24H2 was.
For those who need a refresher, Microsoft has long been rumored to be running on a three-year release cadence and for a while, it was even thought that the company would launch Windows 12 in 2H 2024. That evidently didn’t happen, as instead we got Windows 11 24H2, but it was a major upgrade, a full OS swap compared to Windows 11 23H2 and 22H2. Essentially, it looks like every three releases, Microsoft is performing a full swap with major changes in the underlying codebase, and it seems to line up with Windows 11 27H2 as well. At the moment it’s not known if system requirements will change or not.
Microsoft is currently testing adding support for Intel’s Advanced Performance Extensions, which should yield improved 64bit performance and reduced power consumption. It makes sense to assume this support will be coming with Windows 11 27H2, which should hopefully lead to tangible performance improvements across the board.
Also, there’s going to be a new default wallpaper. Be still my beating heart.
Ahead of Cop31, climate change minister dismisses concerns about whether Australia as a major producer can keep the world moving away from fossil fuels
Australia has been urged to set aside support for its near US$100bn fossil fuel export industries and fight for a global agreement to move away from coal, gas and oil as its climate change minister, Chris Bowen, leads negotiations between nearly 200 countries at UN talks this week.
Delegates will gather in the Turkish Mediterranean resort city of Antalya on Monday for Cop31, two weeks of climate talks held amid geopolitical turmoil, with conflict in the Middle East driving an oil price crisis that has raised living costs across the globe.
"I didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth," a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it's actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago:
Technically speaking it's a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results.
It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars."
Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement.
The Washington Post reports:
The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago...
Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.
The 2026 DIAA Boys Soccer State Tournaments begin on November 10 with the first round of the division two state tournament. Salesianum earned the No. 1 seed in division one and Newark Charter earned the honor in division two.
Delaware high schools’ sports postseason is underway with the 2026 DIAA Field Hockey and Volleyball State Tournaments already in the midst of competition. Boys soccer is joining the postseason calendar with the division two tournament beginning on Tuesday, November 10.
The top-seed in the division two tournament is the Newark Charter Patriots who finished the season with a 14-0-1 overall record. The Patriots one tie this season came in their game against the Charter School of Wilmington Forces. The Forces earned the fifth seed in the division one tournament.
Salesianum claimed the top spot in the division one tournament with a record of 13-2. The Sals two losses were against out-of-state opponents from Kentucky and New Jersey. Salesianum won the state championship last season and have finished as state champions or the runner-ups the last 13 seasons.
The division two state tournament will start with a first round played on November 10 and then be followed by the quarterfinal round on November 14. The top four seeds in the division two tournament earn a first round bye. Those teams are: Newark Charter, Tower Hill, St. Mark’s and St. Andrew’s. They’ll play their first games in the quarterfinal round. The division one tournament opens with the quarterfinal round played on November 12. All eight teams will participate in the quarterfinal round.
Here’s a look at the upcoming boys soccer postseason schedule:
Division One
Quarterfinals: (All games played on November 12)
Salesianum boys soccer posing with the state championship banner after winning the 2025 DIAA Division One State Tournament. Photo credit: Ryan Colasanti
No. 1 Salesianum vs No. 8 Caesar Rodney: Sallies and Caesar Rodney will play each other for the second time this season in their quarterfinal matchup. The Sals beat the Riders, 9-0, earlier this season with a pair of goals apiece from senior Sawyer Valle and juniors Bryan Perez-Herrera and Brady Esser. The quarterfinal will be played at Abessinio Stadium at 5:30 p.m.
No. 2 Cape Henlopen vs No. 7 Sussex Central: The Vikings enter the state tournament with a 12 game winning streak that includes a win over Sussex Central on November 3. Viking junior Brooks Whaley scored two goals in the win and sophomore goalkeeper Kasen Adams earned eight saves preserving the shutout. The quarterfinal rematch will be played at Cape Henlopen at 6:00 p.m.
No. 3 Appoquinimink vs No. 6 Middletown: The Jaguars and Cavaliers renew a rivalry that spans across all athletic programs in their quarterfinal game which will be played at Appoquinimink at 6:00 p.m. The two teams played each other during the regular season with the Jaguars winning a close game, 1-0.
No. 4 Delcastle vs No. 5 Charter School of Wilmington: This the lone quarterfinal matchup in which the two teams didn’t play each other during the regular season. The Forces enter the contest winners of three straight, shutting out their opponent in each win. Delcastle begins the postseason on a five game winning streak earning four shutout victories in that stretch. The game will be played at Abessinio Stadium at 7:30 p.m.
Division Two
Round One: (All games played on November 10, at 6:00 p.m.)
No. 5 Caravel vs No. 12 Glasgow: The Buccaneers and Dragons play each other for the first time this season when they match up at Caravel on Tuesday. This is the Dragons first playoff game since 2018 and the Buccaneers first since making it to the semi-final round in 2024.
No. 6 Woodbridge vs No. 11 Brandywine: The Blue Raiders and Bulldogs will play each other for the first time this season in round one. Woodbridge enters the game winners of three of its last five games. Brandywine has won four of its last five. This game will be played at Woodbridge.
No. 7 Concord vs No. 10 Lake Forest: This a rematch of both teams’ first game of the season. The Raiders and Spartans finished that September 9 game with a 0-0 tie where both defensive and goalkeeping units performed well. The Raiders and Spartans have since finished the season with 9-4-2 records. This game will be played at Odyssey Charter.
No. 8 Sussex Academy vs No. 9 Delmar: The Seahawks and Wildcats will meet for the second time this season when they play at Sussex Academy in the first round. The Seahawks won the regular season matchup, 4-0, in late September with help from a two goal performance from senior Dominic Catlett. Junior Bodhin Williams and freshman Anderson Martin-Chilel also scored in the game.
Quarterfinals: (All games played on November 14)
No. 1 Newark Charter vs Winner of No. 8 Sussex Academy/No. 9 Delmar: This game will be played at 7:00 p.m. at Newark Charter.
No. 2 Tower Hill vs Winner of No. 7 Concord/No. 10 Lake Forest: This game will be played at Tower Hill at 6:00 p.m.
St. Mark’s Spartans boy’s soccer team taking a picture with the division two state championship banner after winning the 2025 state championship. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
No. 3 St. Mark’s vs Winner of No. 6 Woodbridge/No. 11 Brandywine: This game will start at 6:00 p.m. and be played at St. Mark’s.
No. 4 St. Andrew’s vs Winner of No. 5 Caravel/No. 12 Glasgow: This game will be played at St. Andrew’s and begin at 1:00 p.m.
Despite the Trump administration's efforts to halt development on a $6.2 billion wind farm, it's now "completely up and running," reports the nonprofit energy news site Canary Media, delivering enough electricity to power the equivalent over 350,000 homes:
On Thursday, the Danish energy giant Ørsted said its 704-megawatt wind farm near Connecticut and Rhode Island began "generating up to its full capacity" in October. Revolution Wind began producing smaller amounts of power in the spring, and the company installed the last of 65 turbines in September. The project is the third U.S. utility-scale offshore wind farm to reach full commercial operations, after South Fork Wind near New York and Vineyard Wind near Massachusetts.
Before the start of Trump's second term, BloombergNEF projected America would build 39 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035 the article points out, but "Now, it expects just 5.9 GW to come online — an amount that reflects the handful of projects that were already completed or under construction at the start of last year."
Despite the diminished pipeline, the carbon-free energy source is still expected to help keep household utility bills in check across the U.S. Northeast, experts say. Revolution Wind and the country's other completed projects have already played a key role in reducing grid stress during extreme weather events this year...
Ørsted hit its power milestone despite being forced to halt construction twice last year. In August 2025, the Interior Department issued a stop-work order for Revolution Wind, due to unspecified national security threats. That order was tossed out by a federal judge one month later. But in late December, the administration issued new stop-work orders to all five offshore wind projects then under construction. Judges struck those orders down one by one — but not before developers had lost huge sums of money and nearly missed key project deadlines...
Meanwhile, Ørsted said it's making progress on another offshore wind development, Sunrise Wind. The developer on Thursday said it has finished installing all of the wind-turbine foundations for the 924-MW project off the coast of Long Island, New York. That installation is expected to be fully operational in the second half of next year.
For more than two decades, Italy has dominated Virtuoso's annual Luxe Report. But the 2027 rankings have a new leader. Japan has overtaken the perennial favorite for the first time in the report's history, ending Italy's reign at the top…
"AlmaLinux OS charted a new path in 2023 when Red Hat restricted source code access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux," remembers Linux Magazine.
"Rather than pursue 1:1 compatibility with RHEL like other Enterprise Linux alternatives, the AlmaLinux OS Foundation chose application binary interface (ABI) compatibility, which guarantees that applications and kernel modules that work on RHEL will work on AlmaLinux OS."
No longer constrained by the 1:1 promise, AlmaLinux can offer new features, or add back deprecated ones, while still remaining a stable, drop-in replacement for RHEL... The release of AlmaLinux OS 10.2 in May 2026 reveals just how far AlmaLinux has come....
When RHEL 10 increased the x86-64-v2 architecture baseline to x86-64-v3, many older server platforms (and some new ones) were left in the lurch. These older servers couldn't support the modern CPU feature sets in x86-64-v3, including AVX2 CPU instructions. AlmaLinux recognized that many community members employed older hardware that relied on x86-64-v2. While x86-64-v3 is enabled by default in AlmaLinux OS 10 and AlmaLinux OS Kitten 10, an additional x86-64-v2 build is also available. The x86-64-v2 build works best for environments that rely on standard OS packages or that can rebuild any additional packages required by x86-64-v2. For users with older hardware, the additional x86-64-v2 build allows continued use of current hardware, saving money and keeping servers from the landfill. AlmaLinux OS 10 is actively supported through 2030 with security support through 2035, significantly extending the life of older hardware....
Many legacy applications and containerized workloads still run on i686, a 32-bit computer processor architecture belonging to the Intel x86 family, including software that only ships as i686, CI pipelines that require a specific 32-bit glibc, and seemingly normal looking containers that require a 32-bit environment. RHEL 10 completely removed 32-bit application support and multilib libraries after deprecating support in earlier releases... AlmaLinux OS 10.2 has added package repos and official container images for 32-bit x86 (but not a 32-bit kernel or installer)...
NVIDIA GPUs, ubiquitous in modern computing, have been a pain point for Linux users. Getting the closed-source NVIDIA drivers has required extra steps and manual installation. When NVIDIA released an open source version of their graphics driver, AlmaLinux integrated the drivers, along with the associated CUDA components, into the AlmaLinux repository starting with AlmaLinux OS 9 and 10. AlmaLinux also signs the open source drivers, allowing secure boot with the NVIDIA drivers they ship. Unlike RHEL users, AlmaLinux users now have native support, allowing them to skip manual installation. AlmaLinux users can now enjoy a fully integrated NVIDIA experience.
In addition, "Thanks to ABI compatibility, AlmaLinux can sometimes deliver patches more quickly than RHEL," the article points out. And it lists other points where AlmaLinux OS 10.2 diverges from RHEL 10:
Re-enabling frame pointers disabled by default in RHEL and CentOS Stream to provide system-wide, real-time tracing and profiling to diagnose and optimize code.
Enabling both kernel and userspace components that allow installation of AlmaLinux on a Btrfs filesystem
Adding SPICE support dropped in RHEL 9, allowing users to interact with a virtual machine's desktop remotely instead of just from the host server.
Restoring support for older storage and network drivers disabled upstream, including Adaptec, Dell PERC, HP, Mellanox, QLogic, Emulex, LSI, and Broadcom.
Twelve midwife-led maternity units have closed in England since 2019 with six closing since Labour came to power in 2024
NHS officials are shutting growing numbers of birth centres in a “shocking” denial of a woman’s right to have a midwife rather than a doctor oversee their baby’s birth, say campaigners.
Twelve birth centres – midwife-led maternity units – have closed in England since 2019. Birth centres play a key role in ensuring that women can choose whether to have their baby at a unit in a hospital run by doctors, at one where midwives are in charge, or at home.
After helping Trump to victory in 2024, young voters swung decisively toward Democrats, helping deliver a wave of midterm victories
The 2026 blue tsunami owes a lot to the youth vote.
According to data from Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (Circle), which monitors youth civic engagement, early estimates show the second-highest youth turnout in a midterm election in 30 years, second only to 2018, when an estimated 31% of young voters turned out during Donald Trump’s first presidency.
Armed police attended the scene, which led to two nearby schools going into lockdown
Three teenagers have been arrested after a 17-year-old was injured in a suspected sword attack near a school in Gloucester.
Officers were called to Chalford Road, near St Peter’s high school, in Tuffley, shortly after 8.50am on Friday. It was reported that two people, one in possession of a sword, had been seen chasing two 17-year-olds. The suspects then fled the scene on foot.
Voters approved two measures to save the region’s financially distressed public transit agencies
Voters in the San Francisco Bay Area overwhelmingly approved two transit measures this week that advocates hope will save the region’s financially distressed public transit agencies from a potential death spiral that could have had massive repercussions for the area’s residents and its economy.
The Regional Transit Measure (RTM), a 0.5% sales tax across four Bay Area counties and a 1% sales tax in San Francisco, will generate approximately $1bn annually to fund the region’s four largest transit operators. It received a strong 62.2% support across all five counties that voted on the measure, winning with a landslide of 78.6% in San Francisco.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: A Chinese businesswoman who had a close relationship with the chief executive of one of the most important artificial intelligence companies in the United States was a spy for China's Ministry of State Security, Beijing's top intelligence agency, according to people briefed on U.S. surveillance. The businesswoman, Alice Huang, was recruited by the ministry to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang, the chief executive of Nvidia, as part of a drive to learn more about American A.I. chips and potentially influence the company to push for its most advanced chips to be made available to China, the people said.
[...] The New York Times reported last week that Mr. Huang was a target of a Chinese intelligence operation, and that U.S. intelligence agencies were conducting electronic surveillance of Ms. Huang, a Chinese citizen, for at least a year. The Times reported that Mr. Trump had been briefed last year about Mr. Huang's relationship with her, but chose not to do anything about it. Ms. Huang speaks English well and has relationships with executives at the highest levels of the A.I. chip industry, including Mr. Huang and the leaders of Gigabyte, one of the top assemblers of Nvidia supercomputers, said people who have met her. She has attended industry conferences and private executive dinners. It is unclear when Ms. Huang first met Nvidia's leader. In 2024, around the time the two of them were photographed together at a bar in Taipei, her company, Megaspeed, began a multibillion-dollar purchase of advanced A.I. microchips.
To many in the industry, the well-funded push by Megaspeed into A.I. appeared to come out of nowhere. Ms. Huang was connected to a network of companies and investors clustered around Shanghai and Zhejiang province that had used their ties to local officials in Shanghai to push aggressively from mobile video games into data centers, which provide the computing power behind artificial intelligence. Megaspeed has been building data centers in Southeast Asia and then renting their computing power to Alibaba, the giant Chinese internet firm, giving China a backdoor way of getting access to advanced Nvidia chips. Nvidia is restricted by the United States from selling those chips directly to China. Beyond its local connections, the network also has a financial link to the Chinese military establishment, through an investment in a cybersecurity subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group, one of the country's largest makers of military technology. Following the report, top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford said. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark say cooperation on clean energy will benefit both sides
Five European leaders have called for closer ties with Britain ahead of a keenly anticipated EU-UK summit.
The leaders of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark, said deeper cooperation on clean energy would benefit both sides in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa.
Hardline aide offers ‘unwavering commitment’ to president amid fears White House will double down on far-right immigration agenda
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, has lavished praise on the president after his appointment as White House chief of staff.
In his first public remarks since the move was announced, Miller – who begins the role on Monday – pledged “total devotion” to Trump amid concern the administration is now poised to double down on its far-right, nativist immigration agenda.
Charity’s AGM decides overwhelmingly to begin tendering process amid criticism of Barclays’ fossil fuel investments
The National Trust has voted overwhelmingly to seek a new banking partner in a significant victory for members who have long argued that its relationship with Barclays was at odds with its commitment to protecting the natural world.
The resolution, passed at the charity’s annual general meeting on Saturday with the backing of its board of trustees, instructs the organisation to begin a competitive tendering process for its banking arrangements.
Gympanzees near Bristol will be the first UK site of its type, catering for children unable to use regular playgrounds
It has been over a decade since Stephanie Wheen set out to create the UK’s first play and leisure centre specifically designed for disabled children.
Over the past 10 years, she and her team have raised millions of pounds, meticulously researched how to make the centre as inclusive as possible and spent years trialling sessions with disabled children. And soon, the doors to Gympanzees will open for the first time.
Charges against party members and off-piste remarks highlight problems brought about by rapid expansion
Speaking to reporters after unveiling his new defence spokesperson this week, Nigel Farage’s jovial and upbeat mood suddenly switched. Why, he was asked, was a Reform UK councillor who was arrested in January over multiple alleged sexual offences still in his role nearly 10 months later?
“I have no idea,” Farage replied icily. “I was told yesterday, and I wasn’t very happy.”
Democratic socialists won the mayorship, a US House seat and powerful positions in Los Angeles – and a large network of volunteers helped them do it
As a blue tsunami overtook US politics this week, Los Angeles saw a major shake-up of its own with a wave of democratic socialists elected to key offices.
Most notably, Nithya Raman, the first democratic socialist to serve on the Los Angeles city council, prevailed over incumbent Karen Bass to become the next mayor. Even in the deep blue city, Raman’s victory was hardly a given, and marked a stunning win for the progressive wing of the party. With her election, America’s two largest cities will now be run bydemocratic socialist mayors.
Both Christopher Luxon of the National Party and Chris Hipkins of the opposition Labour Party admitted it was not yet clear who New Zealand's next leader would be.
(The Center Square) - With Democrats taking control of Congress in 2027, leaders and advocates are calling for meaningful reforms to healthcare and policies that prioritize affordability.
Semi-retired professor Carolyn Marvin became a local celebrity facing down Philadelphia’s growing robot delivery army: ‘It’s my first amendment right to protest’
“One of you needs to be on the lookout for cops, while I block the robot, OK?”
It is a crisp fall morning in Philadelphia. Tucked away in a dingy alley, opposite a garage called Patriot Parking, 78-year-old Carolyn Marvin is laying out some ground rules for a robot-disrupting expedition. Once a suitable target is identified, we will follow it to a busy sidewalk and Marvin will stand in front of the robot, blocking its way. The photographer and I will take turns ensuring we’re not all carted off by the police.
Tech companies like the idea, as they largely eliminate community opposition, and could cut down on utility costs
While Elon Musk has often touted putting datacenters in space, reports suggest that another geographic area may soon become a widespread target: our lakes and oceans.
Two underwater datacenters are already in operation off the coast of China, and recent reports suggest that the Trump administration is considering plans for four proposed underwater, sealed-pod datacenters to be built off the shores of Maine and Alaska.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case to determine whether presidential administrations can issue financial damages against immigrant employers.
I realized I haven’t addressed the IMU filtering levels in my post, so here we go.
The Accel/Gyro Filter setting (LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH) selects low-pass filters inside the IMU. The cutoff frequencies you get from it depend on whether the IMU is polled or uses the data-ready interrupt. In the tables below, each cell shows the accelerometer and gyro cutoff in Hz.
When polled (all onboard IMUs except Z400), the IMU always runs at its maximum rate and the firmware reads the newest sample at the Sample Rate.
With the data-ready interrupt (Z400 onboard IMU), the IMU runs at the Sample Rate, rounded up to the next rate it supports, and the filters change with it. The imu_status terminal command shows the actual rate.
Both filter values need to stay below half your sampling rate with some headroom to preserve signal quality, so aim at filter values below one third of your sampling rate.
However, filtering adds delay and smears sharp attitude changes, so the goal is the least filtering (highest cutoffs) that still preserves signal quality.
Polled: Your sampling rate is the Sample Rate.
Data-ready interrupt: Your sampling rate is the Actual IMU rate from your IMU’s table above.
Example:
You’re running an LSM6DS3TR-C polled at a 900 Hz Sample Rate. A third of that is 300 Hz. LOW (400/351) is above it, so that’s pushing it. MEDIUM (133/237) is below it, so it’s the better choice.
Top Trump adviser Stephen Miller, who is set to take over the White House chief of staff role on Monday, has driven President Trump's most controversial immigration policies during both of his administrations.
Moscow used 172 drones and 36 ballistic missiles in attacks on electricity substations and bridge over the Dnipro
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of trying to “plunge Kyiv and the entire country into a blackout”, after a major attack overnight on energy infrastructure in the capital and a bridge over the Dnipro River.
Ukraine’s president said Moscow’s preparations for peace talks next week involved pummelling a city of millions with ballistic missiles.
Department had claimed that being kidnapped for ransom was not exploitation of trafficking victims in case of Syrian man abducted in Libya
The court of appeal has rejected claims by the Home Office that being kidnapped for ransom is not exploitation of trafficking victims.
The ruling means that many people who have been kidnapped for ransom, whom officials have previously excluded from being victims of exploitation under trafficking rules, will now have to have these claims considered. They may be eligible for the support and recovery package trafficking victims are entitled to.
The ‘secretary of war’ and his shameful history are facing bipartisan scrutiny
Can you smell the schadenfreude in the air?
Watching some of the worst people in the world get their comeuppance this week has been deeply satisfying. And the show isn’t over yet. While the midterms have wrapped up, the blame game is only just getting started, with Republicans desperate to find scapegoats for their shellacking.
Architect of Trump’s far-right immigration agenda is now most powerful unelected figure in government – it suggests White House is moving to a war footing
Donald Trump just gave the middle finger to millions of American voters.
Any other president who suffered the kind of drubbing at the polls that Trump did this week might have felt at least a sliver of humility – and perhaps even anobligation to work with the new opposition in Congress.
When daylight fades and dinner remains, these 17 crock pot dishes offer pork roasts, chicken, soups, beef, and meatballs with little hands-on work. Start one early and sit down when the day winds down.The post 17 comforting crock pot dishes…
Still deciding what turkey to serve for Thanksgiving? These 13 recipes include a whole roast, slow-cooker breast, pot pie, casseroles, soups, sliders, and make-ahead pinwheels for meals before and after the holiday.The post 13 turkey recipes to write down before…
Fans trying to access latest releases are being priced out in a cut-throat market driven by crypto-like hype
The runaway demand for Pokemon cards is because they are being hyped “like crypto”, according to one young fan who had spent the night queueing outside a London store to make sure he did not miss out on the latest card release.
Before its 10am opening on Friday, the line outside the pop culture store Forbidden Planet in central London snaked past five others and, despite its strict sales policy, was probably “50/50” fans and resellers, said Kai, who had been there since 3am.
Sunshine state emerged as the lone flag bearer of the Maga agenda, but even there, the GOP finds itself on the defense
After the dust settled on Tuesday night’s near-annihilation of the Republican party nationwide, a single red flag fluttered defiantly in Florida, now a last bastion of the Maga movement that has dominated politics in the US for a decade.
Voters in the Sunshine state bucked the national trend, just barely, to elect two close allies of Donald Trump into office: congressman Byron Donalds as its first Black governor, and Ashley Moody to the US Senate.
Dinch, an allegedly ‘safe’ alternative, used in the EU and US also found to cause fetal development complications
Exposure to a new generation of allegedly “safe” plasticizers is linked to lower birth weight and fetal development complications, which could cause serious health problems later in life, a new peer-reviewed study found.
As the health risks in exposure to common phthalate plasticizers became clear over the last few decades, industry began switching to a new type of chemical, called Dinch, that it claimed was a “high safety”, nontoxic alternative. It is widely used in soft plastic food packaging in the United States and European Union, and is found in children’s toys, medical devices, some textiles, flooring and other consumer goods.
From North Carolina to Arizona, Democrats with almost no public profile were stunned at their election triumphs
One candidate had dropped out in September. One had no campaign staff. One was a 19-year-old and halfway through the fall college semester.
Across the US, Democratic candidates with almost no public profile and long odds of winning their midterm races were stunned to find they had outperformed their opponents on Tuesday. They were swept into Congress and statehouses in the blue wave that knocked out Republicans from seats considered untouchable in deep-red districts.
From corn pudding and cheesy pasta to beefy layers, breakfast bakes, and sweet potato sides, these 15 fall casseroles bring plenty to scoop and share. Several can be prepped ahead for easier suppers or brunches.The post 15 warm fall casserole…
Tech giant leaped to shore up relationship even as company was roiled by worker protest over its role in the war
A year into the war in Gaza, the networks of Israel’s military intelligence community were plagued with technical problems. There were major, multi-hour outages to their systems, and repeated crashes. Built-in debugging mechanisms failed.
The problems, which started as intelligence operations were undergoing updates to digital infrastructure, became so persistent as to undermine the “confidence” of Israeli intelligence agencies in one of their top network providers: the multinational tech conglomerate Cisco.
In a reversal of longstanding assumptions, strong criticism of Israel’s actions may have helped put candidates over the top
“You took a chance on the unlikeliest of candidates,” Abdul El-Sayed told a Detroit crowd on Wednesday, declaring victory in Michigan’s hard-fought, often ugly, Senate race. In what was predicted to be a squeaker, the Democrat beat his Republican opponent, Mike Rogers, by a healthy seven points.
In some ways, El-Sayed was an unlikely candidate. At 34, in his first Congressional run, he set his sights almost cockily on a US Senate seat. He ran on what has become an uncontroversial affordability platform but also championed the socialist-adjacent Medicare for All.
Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it
For the first time in a decade, election predictions far exceeded public expectations. What pollsters anticipated as a blue wave billowed into a blue tsunami. Wins that held ground for already blue seats eased nerves, and the flips of swing states such as Georgia, North Carolina and Ohio – and the victory in Michigan – energized the blue base. But red-belt-busting wins in Republican strongholds like Texas, South Carolina and Kansas alongside pending races in Alaska and Mississippi left mouths agape. The explanation was that Democrats turned out far more supporters than their regulars, and that the “regret voter” (both swing voters and partisan Republicans) expanded the wave across districts Trump previously won. Elation and sighs of relief rolled over consistently Democratic voters who suffered multiple sucker punches from recent years of Republican upsets. Regret voters, who run the gamut from gen Zmen to Latinos, farmers and the white working class, hope a different party can deliver on the economy Trump promised them.
Blue voters look at the dismantling of democracy, multiple wars, mass deportations and Trump’s unchecked power in these last two years and see how it all could have been avoided. Regret voters, however, either co-signed or conceded to Trump’s naked racism and brutish bullying of marginalized people, but switched their votes as soon as the consequences hit their pockets. While some of the president’s backers may have been turned away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) gunning down American citizens, the final straw for most wasn’t ICE’s brutality, but rather the price of eggs. Some may have been upset by the Tomahawk missile assault that killed 120 schoolgirls in Iran, but most fumed at the rocketing costs at the gas pump that followed. Few demanded answers for the nearly 60 deaths of innocent people detained in DHS detention centers since the start of 2024, but many felt scorned by lost immigrant labor that cut into owners’ profit margins. Maga’s regret voters were all-in for Trump’s racism. Then they found out they couldn’t afford it.
The GOP tried to dilute their power, but Black voters helped Democrats get elected in Alabama, Texas and Florida
Black voter turnout surged across US southern states where Republicans were accused of redrawing electoral maps to “diminish Black political power” in the wake of a seismic supreme court ruling.
Democrats flipped or held seats in Alabama, Texas and Florida with the support of this voting bloc, building on a decades-long, dedicated movement to protect and build Black political power in the region.
Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa at a rally in Austin on Election Day. Leila Saidane for The Texas Tribune
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s vision for education was finally coming together.
This year, the state launched a voucher program that allowed roughly 110,000 of Texas’ more than 5 million schoolchildren to get a private education using taxpayer dollars. Abbott’s loyal appointee at the Texas Education Agency, Commissioner Mike Morath, was leading the state’s largest takeover of public schools in recent history. And the Texas State Board of Education, with Abbott’s support, helped pass a controversial new social studies curriculum that required teaching Bible stories and shifted away from world history to focus on Texas and the United States.
On Tuesday night, as Democrats clinched nearly every office in the state, it all began to unravel.
In a speech after denying Abbott a fourth term, Texas Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa called for a reversal of his education agenda. She pledged to fire Morath and to end the public school takeovers.
Perhaps most significantly, she doubled down on a campaign promise to erase one of Abbott’s biggest accomplishments: school vouchers.
“We will work tirelessly to repair the damage of the Texas voucher scam,” said Hinojosa, who did not respond to requests for an interview.
It is not clear how Hinojosa will deliver on that promise. While Democrats have the ability to restrict parts of the program, eliminating it would require legislative action.
But Hinojosa will have help.
Democrat Sarah Eckhardt, a former state senator who voted against vouchers and will now lead the state office charged with running the program, has said she will push changes to increase accountability and transparency.
Eckhardt, however, acknowledged the limitations of her office, saying that any big overhaul must come from lawmakers.
Democrats won back the Texas House for the first time in 24 years, but Republicans retained a majority in the Senate.
Rep. Diego Bernal, the Democratic vice chair of the House education committee, seemed confident that there is a path toward killing the program, at least as it now exists.
Bernal, whose district is in San Antonio, said some Republican colleagues previously told him privately that they had reservations about the voucher program, but were limited in what they could do because of pressure from leaders who have now been ousted.
“I guarantee that program is not going to be untouched, and it will be probably unrecognizable, if not extinct, by the time we’re done with it,” he said.
Gov. Greg Abbott signs a 2025 bill authorizing a school voucher program that allows parents to use public money to pay for private school tuition.Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune
Rural Texas Pushes Back
Abbott spent years trying to pass a statewide voucher program. By 2024, he’d grown angry at rural Republicans who repeatedly blocked such legislation because, they argued, public schools were a vital part of their communities. So Abbott shelled out millions of dollars to oust them from office and elect pro-voucher Republicans instead.
He succeeded. And the following year, those Republicans helped pass the $1 billion state voucher program. This week, at least 13 Republicans who Abbott had previously endorsed or helped fund as part of his voucher push lost to Democrats or were trailing in close races.
Abbott’s office declined an interview request, referring ProPublica and The Texas Tribune to his campaign office, which did not respond.
His bullishness on vouchers turned off some Republican voters in rural communities that have historically been strongholds for his party, education experts and politicians said.
A Texas Tribune analysis found Democrats made striking gains in rural and semirural parts of the state, where concern over vouchers, along with issues like data centers, ran high. In rural counties, Abbott’s margin over Hinojosa fell 16 percentage points from his 2022 margin over former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, and it fell 20 percentage points in exurban counties.
Former state Rep. Dewayne Burns, an anti-voucher Republican from a mostly rural district south of Fort Worth who was defeated by an Abbott-backed primary challenger in 2024, said many of his constituents felt betrayed by the governor’s push for vouchers. “That’s the first time that I think rural Texans really kind of stepped back and said, ‘Are you guys really supporting us?’” he said. “I think they overestimated the loyalty that Texans, especially rural Texans, had to the governor.”
Former state Rep. Steve Allison, who represented a suburban San Antonio district before he was unseated in the 2024 primary, said he remains convinced his constituents never wanted the voucher system. Pro-voucher groups targeted him in a series of ads that attacked him for issues like border security and property taxes but said little about school choice. Polls at the time showed Texans held complicated views on school choice, with one University of Houston poll showing that while two-thirds of Texans supported voucher legislation, an equal number believed that vouchers would funnel money away from already struggling public schools.
“I know what I saw when my staff took very careful notice of what phone calls were coming in and what emails and texts and visits were coming in,” he said in an interview. “It was clear that the overall district was opposed to vouchers.”
Concerns about vouchers became key in several rural and suburban Texas districts this year where Abbott’s selected candidates had won two years ago. One of those races was for Allison’s old seat, which pro-voucher candidate Marc LaHood won in 2024 after Abbott spent at least $700,000 supporting him.
Another was in Bell County in Central Texas. There, the Abbott-backed incumbent, Rep. Hillary Hickland, conceded a close race Wednesday morning. She did not respond to a request for an interview. Her Democratic opponent, Amelia Rabroker, a former teacher, said the Republicans’ heavy-handed push for vouchers spurred her to challenge Hickland.
“A lot of money was pushed into her campaign to make that happen, and she delivered on those vouchers, and it was very upsetting to the people of Central Texas,” Rabroker said. “I think it was a huge concern. The biggest.”
Similarly, LaHood, who did not respond to requests for comment, faced a flurry of questions over his support of vouchers at a candidate forum for the District 121 race in October. His opponent, Democrat Zack Dunn, said vouchers and public education were second only to affordability in the minds of voters he met. On Tuesday night, Dunn defeated LaHood with 54% of vote.
“Across the board, overwhelmingly the sentiment was, ‘We need to fully fund our public schools,’” Dunn said in an interview. “The voucher scam, the voucher scheme, the voucher vote that was taken is hurting us. It’s hurting us definitely across the state, but it’s hurting us in 121. Yes, we heard that over and over and over again.”
What’s Next?
Dunn said he would support measures that ensure more transparency in how taxpayer dollars are used for private schools.
Ultimately, though, he wants to see the program repealed.
Some changes can come through administrative actions by Eckhardt, the new state comptroller. In a news conference the day after her election, Eckhardt said she planned to rigorously audit how taxpayer money is spent and to release more information about the program to the public.
Under her Republican predecessors, the comptroller’s office shielded information that included data detailing how much state funding certain private schools received and how many students most public schools lost to the program. The office argued that it was protecting student privacy.
“As the comptroller, my job is to vigorously follow the money and report back to the Legislature if their investment is not panning out,” Eckhardt said. She added, “That is part of the vigorous audit and performance evaluation of this program that any comptroller should be doing, and I certainly will be doing.”
One key supporter of vouchers in the Senate, the last Republican bulwark in the state, is taking a more measured approach on the program’s future.
Houston Republican Sen. Paul Bettencourt, who led the effort to approve vouchers that had failed in prior years, said the Legislature will need to review the outcomes from the 2026-27 school year and assess the benefits and families’ concerns. He pointed to the fact that vouchers were returned by some parents whose children required special education services.
“I think that it has helped students in many other states,” Bettencourt said. “We need to look at what’s happened here with this first cohort, and we need to make sure that we’re debating not the emotionality prior to passage of a bill, but the facts of what happened after the passage of a bill.”
Scott Schneider, an attorney who represents private schools participating in the voucher program, said the midterm results shocked private school leaders. Some were counting on the state funding to support their business. He said private school leaders could start a lobbying effort to grandfather in the families already benefiting from the program, but schools are also planning for what they will do if the state funding goes away altogether.
Socialists will soon govern three of the United States’ most influential cities: Los Angeles, New York City, and the District of Columbia.
Janeese Lewis George joins Zohran Mamdani and Nithya Raman as part of a new wave of socialist local executives. But unlike Mamdani and Raman, Lewis George will govern a city under federal rule.
D.C. is a “federal district,” subject to the whims and micromanagement of the president and Congress. If the federal government doesn’t like the city’s legislation, it can override it. This poses additional challenges if Lewis George wants to change how things are done in the nation’s capital.
Lewis George, a current D.C. city councilmember, has promised to usher in sweeping reforms centered around affordability, including stronger tenant protections, investments in affordable childcare, and long-sought-after reforms on the city’s restrictive zoning laws. She rose to political prominence as the first socialist on the city council, winning her seat on a platform of defunding the police in the wake of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor protests in 2020. (She has since called for hiring additional Metropolitan Police officers.)
For Lewis George to fulfill her campaign promises is “going to require Janeese to use her position and her longstanding reputation as an organizer to convince members of Congress that we can exercise Home Rule and that we deserve the dignity of any other collective body, like a state, in this country,” said Kurtis Hagans, chair of Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, which endorsed Lewis George in the primary.
All local D.C. bills are required to go through a congressional review period of 30 working days for civil legislation and 60 working days for criminal bills. If Congress doesn’t like the bill, it can either decide to let that review period lapse, allowing the legislation to go into effect, or pass a joint disapproval resolution in both the House and the Senate. If they pass a disapproval resolution, it goes to the president’s desk, where they can choose to veto and let the new law stand or sign it and override the legislation.
Speaking to The Intercept on Election Day, voters said they supported Lewis George because they wanted to elect someone who would fight for everyday Washingtonians.
“I was certainly motivated by wanting really strong leadership for D.C. and people who are going to put D.C. first, in the sense of the residents and the community members and not solely as our role as the capital city,” said Izetta Mobley, a voter in Ward 4, where Lewis George serves as a councilmember.
For Mobley and other voters, that primarily means tackling issues of affordability. “Affordable housing and the rise in unhoused folks, and making sure that unhoused folks have support and city resources …those were very important to me,” said Mobley.
Although Democrats took both houses of Congress on Tuesday, paving a clearer path for the district to flex its autonomy, Lewis George will still have to contend with Democratic leaders like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, both moderates, who are likely to lead the Senate and the House next session. Schumer and Jeffries were often critical of Mamdani when he was running for mayor in their home state of New York, though they seized primarily on his stance on Israel.
Hagans pointed out that Lewis George has the longtime support of former at-large councilmember Robert White, who was elected as Washington’s non-voting delegate on Tuesday. But Hagans said the DC Metro DSA is also preparing to organize residents to put pressure on Congress, given ”the relative powerlessness of the district in the face of Congress.”
Governing Washington has other pitfalls. The district is hamstrung by the fact that the D.C. Council is required to pass a balanced budget and is prohibited from carrying it over into the following year. (Congress also gets to approve it.) The city is already struggling to close a $1.1 billion budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year — caused by Congress.
In order to achieve her agenda, Lewis George has suggested raising taxes on businesses and the city’s wealthiest residents. For that, she’ll need the support of the city council.
Lewis George is aided by the fact that Tuesday also ushered in a record number of socialists on the city council, adding two, Aparna Raj and Oye Owolewa. “A big part of the vision for the district is to have these organizers on the council as well as an organizer-in-chief at the executive level,” said Hagans.
Aside from bold economic policies, many voters who spoke to The Intercept said they want the new administration to prioritize resistance to the federal takeover of Washington, D.C., and ending the scourge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “We’ve seen ICE raids in our neighborhood, literally where our kids used to go to school,” said Jason Cherkis, another Ward 4 voter. “That’s one reason we voted for Janeese for mayor because she was out front and speaking about ICE in a way our current mayor never did.”
Despite the restrictions placed on a D.C. mayor, immigrant advocacy and civil rights groups concerned about the incursion of ICE in the district are pushing for Lewis George to take a stand.
“We want to see the next mayor doing everything possible to protect these most vulnerable communities from continued attacks,” said Peggy Ramin, policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia. “Whether that is legislation or the mayor ensuring that the administration’s agencies are well educated as to what that means in terms of limiting cooperation and even prohibiting cooperation.”
In particular, Ramin said that her organization is calling on the D.C. council and Lewis George to pass legislation that would allow residents to sue any officer — local or federal — who violates constitutional rights.
Ramin is aware of the challenges facing the district to pass this type of legislation without incurring interference from Congress or President Donald Trump — who has personally vowed to oppose Lewis George.
“No matter what Congress ends up doing, whether it disapproves or passes a disapproval resolution or not, I think people here in D.C. are really demanding and asking our council to step up and pass this sort of legislation,” said Ramin.
Aside from federal immigration officials, residents also complained about the National Guard, whose presence was felt even on Election Day. “I have two boys, Black men,” said one voter, Tamika Jackson, “and the harassment is out of control.”
As evidenced by the record number of socialists winning power across the country, Hagans says it’s clear both D.C. and the nation are looking for fighters.
“Democrats have promised a lot for a long time, but they seem unwilling to stand up to Trumpism,” said Hagans. Voters are noticing “this new class of democratic socialists,” he said, concluding, “Maybe I don’t know what that means entirely, but let’s give it a shot.”
A UN-backed report warns that even temporarily overshooting the Paris agreement's 1.5C warming target could cause permanent and widespread losses of glaciers, snow and polar ice sheets. With Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets already melting about six times faster than in the 1990s, the report argues that global temperatures should ultimately be brought back below 1C. The Guardian reports: The report, which comes as world leaders and diplomats converge on Turkey for the 31st annual Cop climate conference, documented rapid and accelerating melting of the cryosphere and polar oceans, with damages that range from the loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, driving sea level rises that threaten hundreds of millions of people, to thawing permafrost, which releases more planet-heating gas. Glaciers, which are still responding to historical warming, would only preserve about 70% of their current volume over a timescale of centuries if long-term heating were brought back down to 0.8C, the report found.
Meanwhile, the ice sheets covering Greenland and Antarctica, which are melting about six times faster today than in the 1990s, would continue to lose ice even in scenarios where overshoot is brief and temperature rise returns to 1.5C, the report found. The scientists said a safe, long-term temperature limit for polar ice sheets lies much closer to 1.0C of global heating, and possibly even lower. "Snow and ice respond rapidly to every fraction of a degree of warming," said [James Kirkham, a glaciologist at ICCI and the lead author of the report. "But most of these systems will take centuries or millennia to recover after overshoot, especially if tipping points are crossed that cause changes to become essentially irreversible."
Last month, a UNEP report found the world must cut emissions by 18% by 2030 and by 45% by 2035 to have a good chance of keeping temperatures from rising 1.7C above preindustrial levels. It found there were "no good outcomes" of remaining above 1.5C. The cryosphere report found that current policies, which will result in 2.8C of global heating, would reduce the mass of glacier ice to below 10% in the Rockies, Alps, Iceland and Scandinavia. If warming was limited to 1.5C, about 20-35% of the mass would remain. In the Hindu Kush Himalayas, where glaciers are a source of water for nearly a quarter of humanity, current policies will leave just 41% of the ice mass. If warming was limited to 1.5C, 83% would remain.
As the Democratic governor-elect targets vouchers and takeovers, new school officials may reverse policies that put religion in classrooms and cut diversity efforts.
There’s not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over prices
It was the economy, again. Although Donald Trump largely ignored it, voters’ acute concerns over the rising cost of living fuelled a political upheaval for the ages that is likely to deliver the biggest swing toward Democrats since Watergate, granting them the largest House majority in nearly four decades alongside their biggest edge in the Senate since 2008.
Still, having come to power promising to restore affordability, the new crop of Democrats are soon to discover that there is not much they can do over the next couple of years to alleviate angry voters’ stress over pricey gas and groceries, exorbitant mortgages and unaffordable healthcare.
Eduardo Porter is a journalist focused on economics and politics. He writes the newsletter Being There on Substack
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Democrat Mary Peltola’s Senate campaign sued Alaska election officials Friday seeking immediate access to records identifying rejected absentee ballots as her race against Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan remains separated by roughly 600 votes.
The campaign says it requested the records under Alaska’s Public Records Act on Oct. 27 and again after Election Day but was denied immediate access. It wants the names of voters whose absentee ballots were rejected and the reasons for rejection, arguing that without the information it cannot determine whether lawful ballots were improperly excluded.
Alaska officials say the records are preliminary and historically treated as confidential while ballot processing continues. The state argues that releasing them now could burden election workers and interfere with counting.
Importantly, the lawsuit does not establish that any ballots were wrongly rejected. It seeks information that could allow the campaign to contact affected voters or challenge individual decisions if problems are found.
The dispute comes as Alaska continues accepting absentee ballots from remote communities through Nov. 18. If neither Peltola nor Sullivan reaches 50% of first-choice votes, the state will conduct its ranked-choice tabulation that day.
The race is one of only two unresolved U.S. Senate contests, alongside Mississippi.
Power and water constraints are pressuring what seemed like a juggernaut of growth for the region just months ago
In early 2026, Thailand’s datacentre industry was on a roll. The country’s board of investment had recently announced approval of datacentre projects from Tiktok, a UAE-based Skyline datacentre and Singapore’s Bridge datacentres, totalling a planned investment of $27bn.
As the year has passed, however, what once seemed like a new industrial juggernaut has ground to a halt. Thailand paused construction on 49 projects and approval decisions on 117 more in September 2026, amidst growing concern about the lack of sufficient details for regulation and monitoring. It is not alone in reconsidering datacentre projects. In neighbouring Indonesia, the governor of the country’s most populous province of West Java halted construction on a datacentre due to lack of permits and an incomplete environmental assessment process.
On Friday afternoon, the US president abruptly announced via his Truth Social platform that Miller – the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown – would replace Susie Wiles, whom he confirmed had been ousted.
After losing an election, sneaking to Miami and proclaiming himself rightful president, Flávio Bolsonaro says in an interview that the U.S. is a refuge where “institutions still work.”
U.S. allies are not celebrating Trump's midterm defeat, viewing the election results instead as another worrisome sign of a fickle electorate and unreliable partner.
Carl B. Stokes defeated Seth Taft, scion of an Ohio political dynasty, in Cleveland to become the first Black person elected mayor of a major U.S. city.
DataVita has revised plan for Chapelhall development’s 1GW power requirement to be wholly drawn from renewable energy
A datacentre company that said it would power a massive AI development near Glasgow with renewable energy has admitted that the scheme will be entirely served by the national grid.
DataVita, a key plank of the UK’s AI strategy, had promised that the Lanarkshire project would draw 1GW – the equivalent output of a small nuclear reactor, or Britain’s largest windfarm – from green sources. But when the Guardian raised questions about the pledge, it said the arrangement was “subject to final commercial agreements, planning, grid and consenting processes”.
Campaign group the3million lodges court papers after EU citizens told pre-settled status was an ‘error’
The Home Office is being sued for alleged breach of the Brexit withdrawal agreement after stripping almost 1,500 EU citizens of their full rights to live in the UK.
Campaign group the3million lodged papers at the high court on Friday after several cases emerged of EU citizens who were granted pre-settled status to remain in the country after Brexit but were told recently those decisions were an “error”.
Researchers say popular performers covertly market OnlyFans content and tell followers about wealthy lifestyle
TikTok is helping to promote and normalise the sex industry, allowing “sexfluencers” to post videos aimed at marketing pornographic content they have uploaded elsewhere on sites such as OnlyFans, a report indicates.
After studying non-explicit content posted on TikTok over the course of a year by some of OnlyFans’ most popular young female performers, researchers said the women buried coded references to pornography in “girly lifestyle content” that showed them shopping, playing with their pets, baking or offering skincare advice.
Senior British politicians and officials highlight potential to end Iran war but warn US president is not yet ‘a spent force’
Andy Burnham was having dinner at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua when the results of the US midterm elections started rolling in.
UK government officials in the Caribbean with the prime minister scrolled through their phones with growing incredulity as the scale of the Republicans’ defeat became clear.
Charities say situation exposes ‘fatal flaw’ in Andy Burnham’s plan to end rough sleeping in England by Christmas
In just four days James is facing the prospect of sleeping on the street. He was released from prison in August and given temporary probation accommodation in Somerset, but that is about to expire and he has nowhere to go.
“It is scary,” the 37-year-old said. “I am not asking for special treatment. But literally nowhere wants to help – I have contacted MPs, solicitors, probation and the council. I am quite tempted to just get myself recalled to prison because it is November. It is cold.”
Trump still considering new assault on Iran nuclear sites – though threats less credible after Vance remarks
Qatar, the lead mediator in the US-Iran conflict, is seeking to persuade Tehran to allow UN nuclear weapons inspectors to visit Iran’s bombed nuclear sites, including those housing the country’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
Iran would not be required to make any commitment that the stockpile would be removed from the country, with other options on the table, including reducing the uranium content by down-blending it.
Samuel Gibbs doubted he could cut costs and still keep warm by putting tech in control. The results surprised him
Can smart thermostats and AI reduce your heating bills? Every manufacturer claims the answer is yes, quoting average savings in the 25%, or £180 a year range. But all of these promises are heavily caveated and, with energy costs changing regularly, it can be very difficult to tell what is having an impact.
To find out if technology can really help, I spent the last two years comparing my miserly manual control and basic heating schedule to an AI-governed system. The results surprised me.
Susan Lawrence, elected to Wolverhampton city council, sits on committee overseeing financial reporting of multimillion-pound budget
A woman who promoted a notorious cryptocurrency scam has been elected as a Reform UK councillor and now sits on the audit and risk committee of a major city council.
Susan Lawrence was one of the main UK promoters of the HyperVerse cryptocurrency scheme, which was named in US court documents as an alleged “pyramid and Ponzi scheme” that cheated investors worldwide out of a “staggering” $1.89bn (£1.41bn).
A vibrating mattress combined with two pills that release nitric oxide enhanced the brain's ability to clear an Alzheimer's-related protein. According to New Scientist, the experiment "caused the brain's blood vessels to swell and constrict more strongly, which enhanced the glymphatic system's clearance of [the protein]." From the report: [Kesa Kiviniemi at the University of Oulu in Finland] and his colleagues recruited 29 adults who hadn't been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or any other cognitive issues. The participants took a pill that dissolves when under the tongue, releasing nitric oxide. They then lay on a mattress that caused their bodies to gently vibrate for 40 minutes, taking another pill halfway through. Blood samples revealed that their levels of a type of protein called beta-amyloid 42 increased by 35 per cent, on average, after the intervention. This protein, which usually helps neurons signal and connect to each other, misfolds and form clumps in Alzheimer's disease.
"The treatment seemed to enhance the glymphatic system's ability to clear beta-amyloid from the brain to the blood," says Kiviniemi. "A 35 per cent increase in circulating beta-amyloid 42 is a substantial and very interesting acute effect," says Tuomas Lilius at the University of Helsinki, who wasn't involved in the work. "It is certainly possible it could become biologically, and eventually clinically, relevant." Side effects were mild and minimal, with six of the participants experiencing issues such as nausea and headache. However, this could partly be due to the expectation of an effect from the nitric oxide pills. The researchers hope to overcome this in future work by including placebo pills.
Brain scans suggest the treatment enhanced the flow of fluid along glymphatic channels, probably by widening the brain's blood vessels and making them pump more strongly, says Kiviniemi. But other mechanisms could also be at play, says Brown. For instance, this intervention may slow the breakdown of beta-amyloid 42 by the liver, leading to higher amounts in the bloodstream, he says. Future studies could get around this by injecting markers into cerebrospinal fluid, which moves through the glymphatic system, to more directly measure its flow, says Brown. Additional experiments by Kiviniemi and his colleagues tested either only the mattress vibrations or only the nitric oxide pills on the same participants, at least a week before or after they underwent the combined approach. Based on brain scans, these solo interventions seemed to have less than half the effect on the glymphatic system than when they were combined. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.
DULUTH — The Norcross Blue Devils came out on top of one of the oldest football rivalries in Gwinnett County, beating Duluth 35-21 in their Region 7-AAAAAAA matchup on Friday.
The Republican party will regroup after their shellacking in the US midterm elections, but it won’t look the same
Walking by a tattoo studio and medical spa on the pretty main street of Round Rock, in Texas Hill Country, Tarik Bakir recalled voting for Barack Obama in 2008 and Donald Trump in 2024. But when it came to the 2026 midterm elections, he was firmly back in the Democrats’ column.
“I’m not happy with the Iran war,” said Bakir, 41, a financial adviser who served with the US military in Afghanistan. “The economy’s OK, but not great. This election was a rebuttal to Trump. This time people said they didn’t like him, or his policies.”
Democrats’ sweep could urge Israel’s divided opposition to join forces and remove prime minister closely allied with Trump
The Democrats’ sweep of Congress may make it easier for Israel’s splintered opposition to overcome deep internal divisions and form a coalition government, by increasing the urgency of unseating Benjamin Netanyahu, who has associated himself so closely with Donald Trump’s Republicans.
But as Israel took stock of the results, there was also a sense that the elections marked a longer-term shift in US politics that will make the job of any new Israeli leader far more difficult.
Go.AI has raised $85 million in Series A funding, bringing total funding to $90 million, to expand its private AI infrastructure platform for regulated industries and compliance-focused organizations.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — California voters have rejected Proposition 40, the closely watched measure that would have imposed a one-time 5% tax on residents worth more than $1 billion, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ.
With roughly three-quarters of ballots counted, about 54% opposed the measure and 46% supported it. The Associated Press had not yet called the race Friday, but Proposition 40 had consistently trailed by a substantial margin.
The proposal would have applied to roughly 250 California billionaires and generated tens of billions of dollars, according to state estimates. Ninety percent of the revenue would have gone toward healthcare, with the remainder funding food assistance and education programs.
Opponents dramatically outspent supporters. Billionaires and business groups poured more than $300 million into efforts opposing Proposition 40 and promoting competing measures that could have blocked it. Google co-founder Sergey Brin alone contributed more than $100 million.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also opposed the measure, arguing it could encourage wealthy residents to leave California and destabilize state revenues. Supporters, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and the California Democratic Party, argued billionaires should contribute more toward healthcare and social programs.
The defeat does not necessarily end the wealth-tax debate. Democratic leaders nationally have already indicated that taxing extremely wealthy Americans will remain part of their agenda.
Its key temperature goal has been missed but experts say the agreement is still proving a vital moral compass for progress
It was a curious way of conducting negotiations. Ahead of the 2025 climate summit, in the Amazonian port of Belém last year, the Brazilian hosts had taken off the table the issue that most had assumed would be at its heart: concrete plans from each country laying out exactly what they would be doing to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.
Brazil was insisting, instead, that these plans – the bedrock of the Paris agreement – were the business of national governments and not up for negotiation. “In that case, it will be a very short Cop,” one seasoned global south negotiator told the Guardian shortly before, reflecting a widespread unease. “There is nothing to negotiate.”
Acts of greyzone aggression aim to spread panic. Europe has to show the saboteurs that we are resilient
It was as though a ghostly hand had switched the settings on supermarket freezers across Europe from “freeze” to “defrost”. From Finland to Ireland, they suddenly began heating up, many reaching 50C and food worth millions of euros had to be thrown away. But no actual hand was needed to cause the meltdown. This was a cyber-attack, or rather a chain of attacks. Like pretty much everything else in 2026, supermarket freezers are digitally enabled. That makes them smarterand more efficient, but like everything else that is connected to the internet, it also makes them more vulnerable.
Russian hacktivists claimed they were behind some of the supermarket sabotage, but no one knows for sure. It could also be Iran, Iranian proxies, North Korea – or unaffiliated bedroom hackers. When Transport for London suffered a devastating hack two years ago, the culprits turned out to be two British teenagers. Governments regularly warn retailers and other companies about cyber-attacks and even provide cyber-defence training to businesses. The lessons of costly ransomware and cyber-attacks also mean many big organisations and retailers have become much better at keeping their payments and logistics systems safe.
Elisabeth Braw is a Swedish security expert and the author of The Undersea War: The International Battle for Supremacy at the Bottom of the World
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries sharply condemned President Donald Trump’s promotion of Stephen Miller to White House chief of staff, calling the longtime immigration hardliner a “dangerous xenophobe” and demanding that Trump “fire him today.”
Jeffries also described Miller as a “reckless extremist,” arguing that elevating him after Republicans’ sweeping midterm defeat showed Trump was doubling down rather than changing course.
The criticism comes against a substantial public record. Miller was a principal architect of Trump’s first-term family-separation policy and travel restrictions targeting several Muslim-majority countries. In Trump’s second term, he has helped direct the administration’s mass-deportation strategy, pushed for thousands of daily immigration arrests and advocated broader use of executive power.
Miller has also repeatedly described immigration in stark terms, including portraying migration as an “invasion” and saying the country was being “conquered.” He has defended family separation and advocated suspending habeas corpus in some immigration cases.
Other Democrats joined Jeffries. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Miller should be investigated rather than placed in charge of the White House, while Rep. Don Beyer accused Trump of continuing a politics of “hatred, lawlessness, and failure.”
Trump has defended Miller as one of his most trusted advisers. Miller is scheduled to replace Susie Wiles as chief of staff on Nov. 9.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: On Tuesday, Mexico's Senate approved (PDF) a reform of the Federal Copyright Law that ties ISP liability to having a policy to terminate repeat infringers. [This policy has to be published permanently on their website and in their terms of service, and it must include a basic way to notify users. In other words, what can be terminated is the Internet connection itself, not just an account. According to Mexican business outlet EL CEO, this means that access providers such as Telmex and Izzi will need such a policy.] The Senate approved the amendments with roughly two-thirds of the vote, as the opposition voted against. The Chamber of Deputies already approved the same text in October, so the decree now goes to President Claudia Sheinbaum. Her government proposed the changes in May to bring the law in line with the USMCA trade agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada.
[...] Providers that don't comply risk facing liability. Under the new rules, any ISP that fails to meet its safe harbor conditions becomes liable for its users' infringements if it knowingly contributes to, induces, or causes the infringement. The same goes for an ISP that can control the infringing user and profits directly from the infringement. In both cases, the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI) can fine the provider up to roughly 4.7 million pesos (~$250,000), depending on the infringement. The law doesn't explicitly define the term repeat infringer, nor does it say how many piracy accusations it takes before a subscriber can be cut off. According to Aurora Lopez-Portillo, director of legal services at IP firm ClarkeModet, each provider has to decide its own threshold. She told EL CEO that ISPs should also check whether the accusations actually hold up, while giving users a chance to respond, even though the law doesn't require that.
During Tuesday's Senate debate, some lawmakers in the opposition raised similar concerns. Senator Gabriel Elizondo warned that families can share a single connection, so the pirating activities of one person could leave an entire household offline. Previously, opposition lawmakers proposed requiring a court order before Internet service could be suspended, but that proposal was not adopted. [...] There, failing to meet the safe harbor conditions, including the repeat infringer policy, is the first requirement for liability. If an ISP also contributes to infringement with knowledge of it, or can control the infringer and directly profits from it, it can be held responsible. The new repeat infringer rules will take effect 180 days after their publication in Mexico's official gazette, which hasn't happened yet as far as we can see. How Mexican ISPs will define a repeat infringer, and how many accusations it takes, has yet to be seen.
The president’s announcement comes days after an earlier attack on Iran was made public, and as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have accelerated
Donald Trump has said the US military on Friday carried out a new round of limited strikes on Iran, targeting an air defence system, describing the action as “minor.”
Iranian state media reported the sound of two explosions in the Suza area of Qeshm Island, which is in the strait of Hormuz, the crucial waterway for oil shipments that has been disrupted since the beginning of the US war on Iran in February.
Donald Trump will begin the day in Washington today.
He has closed door meetings for much of the day, and will take part in a Diwali celebration at the White House at 1:30pm ET. While that’s currently not open to the press we’ll let you know if that opens up.
Santiago Peña was detained minutes after he was impeached by Congress, as protesters took to the streets demanding answers after the suspension of the Ueno bank
Paraguay’s rightwing president has been placed under house arrest minutes after he was impeached by Congress, amid a severe crisis that left more than half the country’s population unable to access their bank accounts.
Santiago Peña is being investigated about allegations he used his political influence to favour a bank that expanded exponentially under his government and was suspended this week after irregularities.
Warriors center, 31, announces decision on social media
Latvian big man does not disclose nature of health issue
Porziņģis leaves door open to return after long absence
Golden State Warriors center Kristaps Porziņģis announced he is stepping away from basketball to prioritize his health due to an undisclosed matter in a social media post on Friday.
Porziņģis did not reveal the nature of the issue in a message posted on his X account, and the 31-year-old did not make clear whether he will resume playing.
The Justice Department moved to dismiss its own lawsuit that sought to stop California from counting roughly 20,000 ballots it alleged went to noncitizens.
US president confirms Susie Wiles, current chief of staff and first woman to serve in the role, will step down
Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s most controversial aide and the architect of his sweeping immigration crackdown, will become his new White House chief of staff days after Republicans lost control of the US Congress in US midterm elections.
The president announced the extraordinary appointment on Friday, confirming that Susie Wiles – his current chief of staff, and the first woman to serve in the role – had been ousted.
Ian Winter KC told Rosamund Urwin of the Sunday Times, whose investigation led to Brand’s victims coming forward: ‘I hope you are pleased with yourself’
Russell Brand’s barrister has reported himself to his professional regulator after being accused of launching a tirade at a journalist shortly after his client had been found guilty of rape.
Ian Winter KC “confronted” the Sunday Times journalist Rosamund Urwin, whose investigation led to Brand’s victims coming forward, telling her: “I hope you are pleased with yourself.”
President Trump announced that Stephen Miller would replace Susie Wiles as White House chief of staff just hours after he told 60 Minutes that he'd be shaking up his team.
Secret Service officers found three weapons in the vehicle of the suspect, who allegedly told officers he had heard voices in his head telling him to come to Washington and assassinate the president.
Nov. 6, 2026 — Women in High Performance Computing (WHPC) has announced its 12 Rising Stars for SC26. The program recognizes exceptional early-career researchers from underrepresented groups for their research contributions and individual excellence.
Applications for the Rising Star program undergo a competitive peer-review process, typically with an acceptance rate of less than 50%.
As part of both the ISC and SC programs, WHPC Rising Stars receive mentorship support, a lightning talk opportunity, eligibility for the best WHPC submission award, and eligibility for travel support. These up-and-coming researchers are the future of the HPC workforce, and bringing them to large conferences connects them to the HPC community.
WHPC is grateful to its sponsors for making it possible to offer funding to all 12 members of the SC26 Rising Stars cohort. Four of this year’s Rising Stars will receive full travel support to attend the conference.
SC26 Cohort
Ashwini Naik is a Computational Scientist and Visualization Laboratory Operations Lead at the Research Computing Center (RCC) at the University of Chicago, where she integrates scientific visualization, artificial intelligence, and high performance computing into collaborative research workflows spanning the physical sciences, biological sciences, social sciences, and humanities.
She holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Chicago, where she conducted research at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) in visual data science, immersive analytics, and human-computer interaction. Her doctoral work included designing and executing user studies, mentoring more than fifty students in AR/VR development and visualization, and publishing in venues including IEEE ISMAR and the Journal of Neuroscience Research.
At the RCC, Ashwini leads technical collaborations spanning AI-assisted biomedical image analysis using 3D Slicer and MONAI on NVIDIA A100 and V100 GPUs, immersive cultural heritage reconstruction deployed across display walls and Meta Quest Pro VR headsets from a single Unity pipeline, and an active digital twin initiative using XGRIDS PortalCam for spatial capture. She is currently developing a custom tool for stitching multi-capture Gaussian splat scans into unified, navigable environments. She has delivered workshops reaching more than 75 researchers across five sessions on topics including foundation models for biomedical imaging, AI-enhanced image analysis, and interactive data visualization.
Prior to her doctoral studies, she held engineering roles at Scientific Games, Olenick & Associates, and Birlasoft across the United States and India.
Olivia Maynard is a second year PhD student in Computer Science and Engineering at The Ohio State University, supervised by Dr. Suren Byna. Her work involves profiling I/O and data movement for scientific computing, particularly within scientific deep learning; she additionally has interests in architecture and security within scientific computing. Outside of her research, she is a passionate educator in engineering education and computer science, currently serving as the lead Graduate Teaching Associate for Ohio State’s first-year Engineering Foundations sequence in the Honors track. She graduated with her B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Ohio State in 2025.
Eva Fernandez Amez is the Community Manager for Digital Research Infrastructure at Durham University. Her work focuses on developing training opportunities, fostering communities, and supporting the skills development of research technical professionals across the research computing landscape, with a particular focus on advanced and accelerated computing. She works closely with researchers, technical specialists, and community stakeholders to identify skills needs and create resources that support collaboration, knowledge exchange, and professional development. Alongside her community-building and training activities, she contributes to outreach and communications through website development, graphic design, video production, and science communication. She holds a degree in Physics and combines her scientific background with expertise in digital education and communication to make complex technical topics more accessible to diverse audiences.
Yuqian Huo is a PhD student in Computer Science at Rice University, advised by Dr. Tirthak Patel in the Positive Technology Lab. Her research focuses on making quantum computers more reliable and efficient through better system design, compilers, and performance optimization. She works with both superconducting and neutral atom quantum computers. She is also interested in quantum machine learning, as well as security and privacy in quantum computing.
Her research has been published at SIGMETRICS, ICCAD, AISTATS, and QCE. She also shares open-source code and tools with her papers so that other researchers can use and build on her work. She received the SandboxAQ Global Travel Scholarship in 2025 and was selected as a DAC Young Fellow in 2024.
Daria Godorozha is an MSc by Research student at the London School of Economics, where she founded the LSE Beavers HPC team. LSE has no STEM departments apart from statistics and mathematics. The team includes two women and members from a range of ethnic backgrounds, and finished 1st in one of two challenges and 3rd overall at the CIUK Cluster Challenge. It was also one of two student teams accepted onto an AMD/DIRAC UKRI funded residential research development programme, and received GPU and RSE support. She has spoken at Imperial College London HPC SIG on the topic of creating a successful HPC educational initiative. Previously, she completed an MSc in AI and Data Science with Distinction.
This year she has led research teams working on NLP and LLMs at the University of Oxford and ETH Zurich. She has also worked in medicine, health and life sciences, leading a research project at the Swansea University Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences, where she engaged with the Welsh Parliament and is contributing to a health consultation. She presented “Compute Optimal Diffusion on Learned Conformer Manifolds” at the AIBIO BBSRC funded network conference and came 2nd at the Edinburgh BIOAI conference.
From September she will be a teaching assistant in data at Imperial College London further to her work on the QMUL Designing an Inclusive Curriculum project. Her interest in HPC includes its role in regional economic development, particularly in Wales and in its ability to empower diverse regional talent.
Elizabeth Koleva is an HPC software engineer at the Discoverer petascale supercomputer in Sofia, Bulgaria, and works on agentic AI workflow management and deployment at BRAIN++, the Bulgarian AI Factory under EuroHPC, where she is sole developer of the organisation’s internal platform.
She recently completed an MSc in Innovation and Research in Informatics, specialising in High Performance Computing, at the Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – a double degree with Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski through EUMaster4HPC. Her thesis, “Predicting and Explaining Alzheimer Disease Using UK Biobank,” built a leakage-controlled, cost-sensitive machine learning pipeline that treats auditability as a primary result, supervised by Prof. Jordi Torres Viñals and Prof. Petia Radeva.
Her earlier work spans knowledge graphs, disinformation-prevention research, and fine-tuning NLP models for Bulgarian at the European Software Institute. She won the EuroHPC Summit Student Challenge 2025 in Kraków, placed second in the EUMaster4HPC Student Challenge 2025–2026 for benchmarking AI Factories on MeluXina, and received the Most Innovative Business Solution award at the AmCham Bulgaria Hackathon 2025.
Elizabeth serves as an HPC Student Ambassador Mentor for the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, having been an ambassador herself, and represents EUMaster4HPC at information sessions. She previously chaired the Supervisory Board of the Sofia University Students Council and sat on the Transform4Europe Student Council. She began her career teaching C++ to secondary school students and has taught computer graphics at Sofia University. She is preparing to begin a PhD at the intersection of HPC, explainable AI, and health research.
Emma Urquhart is a 3rd year PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on accelerating unstructured scientific methods on wafer-scale hardware. Her research interests include computer architecture, low-level software performance optimizations and scientific computing. Emma completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Galway, followed by the MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge, ranking first in her cohort.
Serena Ma is a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds working at the intersection of high-performance computing, compiler optimization, and quantum computing systems. Her research journey has spanned CPU-side compiler optimization, large-scale GPU and AI infrastructure, and emerging quantum computing. Her broader research goal is to develop software and compiler techniques that maximize the useful performance of emerging computing hardware. Her interests include HPC, compiler optimization, heterogeneous systems, reinforcement learning for systems, and quantum software systems.
Suné Toerien is a South African engineering student and high-performance computing (HPC) enthusiast based in Johannesburg. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science in Biomedical Engineering (BEngSc) from the University of the Witwatersrand and is currently a fourth-year Information Engineering student. Her interdisciplinary interests include computational methods, HPC performance, and applications in biomedical contexts. Suné’s earlier work includes a paper on skeletal muscle oxygen tension in COVID-19, exploring its potential as a disease severity marker. She also contributed to a collaborative HPC study on the productivity-to-energy trade-off via DVFS, core scaling, and C-state control. The work placed second in the ACM Student Research Competition at PASC26 in Switzerland and won Best Student Short Paper at PEARC26 in the USA.
Preetika Kaur is a final-year Ph.D. candidate in Civil Engineering (Hydrologic Sciences) at the University of Wyoming, where she works on snow remote sensing. Her dissertation asks where satellite radar can be trusted to measure mountain snowpack. She built the first feasibility map of L-band InSAR snow water equivalent retrieval for the western United States, published in Geophysical Research Letters, and runs the Fortran-based SnowModel system on Wyoming’s Medicine Bow HPC cluster to simulate snowpack liquid water content across large mountain domains. She is now quantifying snow density variability at Arctic tundra and boreal forest sites in Alaska. She came to computational hydrology sideways. After a B.S. in agricultural engineering at Punjab Agricultural University in India, she completed an M.S. at Auburn University using X-ray computed tomography to quantify how tillage and cover crops reshape soil pore networks, producing three first-author publications and Auburn’s outstanding master’s student and thesis awards. Her HPC and cloud computing skills were assembled through hackweeks and summer schools rather than coursework, an experience that shapes how she teaches. She helped organize a University of Washington eScience Institute hackweek and taught a hands-on Google Earth Engine workshop at Wyoming. She is Vice President of the Society of Women Engineers at Wyoming and secretary of both its ASPRS student chapter and Wyomingites in Math, Science and Engineering. She won second prize in Wyoming’s Three-Minute Thesis competition and a Boyd Scott graduate paper award from ASABE, and completes her Ph.D. in May 2027.
Nada Abdalgawad is a PhD candidate in the Computer Science and Engineering department at University of Michigan. Her current area of research is computer architecture with focus on memory architectures. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering from the American University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates in 2020.
Sonal Jha is a Ph.D. student in Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech, where her research focuses on early and explainable health risk assessment through Graph AI and high performance computing (HPC). To improve the accuracy of risk assessment, Sonal developed graph-based methods that model clinically useful information from irregular and sparse clinical data. Her work has progressed from a graph-based approach using a single clinical variable to Graph AI methods for multivariable and multimodal clinical data. To improve the scalability, she studied bottlenecks in Graph AI training and developed distributed approaches for efficient multi-GPU training. On the professional front, Sonal serves as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) with Virginia Tech’s Advanced Research Computing (ARC@VT), where she provides HPC and AI consulting to faculty, postdocs, and students across 26 departments. Her work spans migrating, profiling, optimizing, and scaling scientific workloads; debugging parallel and distributed jobs; managing large-scale data; installing scientific software; and helping researchers integrate AI workflows on ARC’s HPC systems. She has interned at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) as an HPC and AI Visiting Scholar and at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Data Science at Scale Intern.
Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos arrested by secret service after telling officers voices told him to kill Donald Trump
The US secret service said a suspect has been taken into custody and charged after officers found him in a vehicle near the White House with multiple guns, claiming he heard voices in his head telling him to kill Donald Trump.
The arrest Thursday night happened after secret service officers approached a man “acting suspicious” in a parked car, according to a Homeland Security statement. US officials said the suspect – Ronny Yordrix Guanipa Chrinos – went on to describe voices in his head that were telling him to come to the nation’s capital and kill the Republican president.
President Donald Trump’s naming of deportation architect as his chief of staff unleashed anger, fear and astonishment among leaders of industries that depend on immigrant labor.
McBride agrees as teammates question celebrity fandom
Knicks give statement saying Swift is longtime supporter
Taylor Swift’s love story with the New York Knicks caught an unexpected stray after two players from last season’s NBA champions accused the singer of being a fair-weather fan.
The Knicks released a statement on Friday defending Swift after Tyler Kolek and Miles McBride questioned whether the pop superstar was a genuine supporter of the team.
Met police chief says ‘many more’ victims could come forward, as actor and comedian awaits sentencing
Police are bracing themselves for more victims of Russell Brand to come forward, with at least 10 more women suspected of having been attacked by the disgraced star.
Brand, 51, will be sentenced on Monday to what is expected to be a lengthy jail sentence for rape and sexual assaults after he abused his fame to become a “predator” targeting women, and got away with it for years.
(The Center Square) – The mood among the winners in the 48th State after Democrats gained back control of both chambers of Congress was a mix of optimism and responsibility.
The European Commission has preliminarily found that TikTok violates the Digital Services Act because its For You recommendation algorithm can create a "rabbit hole effect," repeatedly exposing users to potentially harmful content involving topics such as sadness, isolation and body image. TikTok must change the feed's design or potentially face fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue. The Verge reports: The findings come months after the EU Commission declared that TikTok's design is too "addictive." While TikTok has implemented controls to mitigate the algorithm's "rabbit hole effect," the Commission says its preliminary findings suggest that they're not effective. TikTok must now change the design of its For You feed, or else face fines of up to 6 percent of its global annual turnover. The platform is also facing pressure in the US, with lawmakers and a wave of lawsuits raising concerns about child safety. "Every time a user scrolls or likes a video on TikTok, the algorithm serves more of the same leading users down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from," Henna Virkkunen, the EU Commission's executive vice president of tech sovereignty, security, and democracy, says in the press release. "Today's preliminary findings show again that TikTok needs to step up its efforts to protect users' well-being, including those of minors."
Tech stocks have lost trillions while voters have rejected the industry’s political champions. The billionaire-led boom is facing a democratic reckoning
This week’s midterms showed that the political bill for the AI boom is falling due. The Democratic sweep intensified fears over runaway spending, mounting debt and resistance to datacentres, sending tech shares tumbling. On Thursday Wall Street suffered its worst day since the pandemic as $3.2tn was wiped from markets. Anthropic, developer of the Claude chatbot, is hoping to float within the next fortnight for $1.5tn (£1.1tn), but it may not now get even a trillion dollars. The dominant AI chipmaker Nvidia saw its value crash by more than $400bn. The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, lost $113bn in two days.
While a few very rich people may be a little less wealthy, the sell-off may not be a bad thing. It brings a needed dose of reality to an industry whose spending plans and valuations depend on heroic expectations of future profits. That is a view held by many influential figures – from Goldman Sachs’ research boss to Nobel laureate Daron Acemoğlu. AI may transform the economy. That does not guarantee investors will earn back the sums being poured into it.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The White House's page listing dozens of financial disclosure forms went offline without explanation, only to be restored after CBS News inquired about its removal.
Cornell University's Faculty Senate approved a resolution expressing no confidence in the university's administration, including Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff and other administrators.
PHOENIX, ARIZONA — Democrats have captured both chambers of the Arizona Legislature while Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs retained the governor’s office, giving the party complete control of state government for the first time in 60 years.
The Associated Press called enough remaining legislative races Friday to confirm Democratic majorities in both the state House and Senate. Republicans had controlled the Arizona House continuously for 60 years and the Senate since the early 1990s.
The victory dramatically changes the political environment for Hobbs. During her first term, she vetoed more than 540 measures passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, covering issues including immigration, elections, taxes and education.
Hobbs has said her next-term priorities include addressing water shortages and affordability while tightening oversight of Arizona’s expansive school-voucher program.
Arizona was part of a much broader Democratic surge at the state level. Democrats also secured full control of government in Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin, while winning the Texas House and governorship.
Nationally, Democrats also captured both chambers of Congress, making the 2026 election one of the largest shifts in political control since the Republican wave of 2010.
For Arizona, however, the result is especially historic: the state will enter 2027 with unified Democratic government for the first time since Lyndon Johnson was president.
Chainalysis says attackers exposed usernames, password hashes and live tokens for all of its customers. "While the company locked Chainalysis accounts as a precaution after discovering that some customers' passwords had been exposed and asked users to reset their passwords before signing in again, it has now taken the login portal offline, together with Reactor and Data Solutions, the Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) user interface and API, and address screening products, after discovering further abnormal activity," reports BleepingComputer.
The company says it has no evidence that investigative data or blockchain attribution records were accessed or altered, but all users will be required to reset passwords and rotate API keys before regaining access. BleepingComputer reports: Chainalysis provides blockchain analysis tools to trace cryptocurrency transactions and investigate crimes such as fraud, ransomware, and money laundering. Its customer list includes law enforcement, government agencies, financial institutions, insurance companies, and cryptocurrency businesses worldwide. This follows the company's disclosure last Friday that attackers using AI tools accessed customers' names, email addresses, user IDs, and organizational role labels using what it described as "offensive agentic techniques."
While it initially said the impact was limited and the breach affected only non-sensitive identity metadata, later updates revealed that usernames and password hashes for all customers were exposed in an "on-path attack" (more commonly known as a Man-in-the-Middle or MITM attack). However, the company found no evidence that the attackers accessed investigative graph data or altered its blockchain attribution repositories. [...] To ensure threat actors don't access affected accounts, Chainalysis asked customers to provide trusted IP addresses so they can regain access to the login portal once it is brought back online and reset their credentials.
Federal agents seized 78 items from California storage units, including slides, film negatives and books that contained suspected child sexual abuse material.
Donald Trump on Friday said Susie Wiles, the first woman to serve as White House chief of staff, will leave her post, a major shake-up of his inner circle that comes amid a steady exodus of senior female officials from his administration.
The president announced her ouster – and her replacement, by the immigration hardliner Stephen Miller – in a post on Truth Social, days after a sweeping blue wave gave Democrats control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. Wiles’s departure leaves behind an overwhelmingly male leadership team.
Father and daughter Andrés and Rebeca Gόmez stand outside Dominican Cafe, which has been in their family for over 40 years. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
Father of the Duchess of Sussex was taken into custody near Tampa, US prosecutors said
Thomas Markle, the father of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, was arrested by US federal agents in Florida on Friday and charged in connection with possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
Markle, 82, was taken into custody at a senior care facility in Polk county early on Friday, and made a brief initial appearance in federal court in Tampa on Friday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. He was later released with the condition that he be electronically monitored.
In the US, call or text the Childhelp abuse hotline on 800-422-4453 or visit their website for more resources and to report child abuse or DM for help. For adult survivors of child abuse, help is available at ascasupport.org. In the UK, the NSPCC offers support to children on 0800 1111, and adults concerned about a child on 0808 800 5000. The National Association for People Abused in Childhood (Napac) offers support for adult survivors on 0808 801 0331. In Australia, children, young adults, parents and teachers can contact the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800, or Bravehearts on 1800 272 831, and adult survivors can contact Blue Knot Foundation on 1300 657 380. Other sources of help can be found at Child Helplines International
More than 100 activists breached a Microsoft AI data center construction site in Amsterdam as part of coordinated protests against the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure. "These data centres are destroying our world. It's becoming uninhabitable because of all the resources they consume. That's why we're here today," protester Sam van der Beek said. Reuters reports: Activist groups have announced actions in 16 countries on Friday and Saturday, according to the "Stop Dirty Data Centers" coalition, which is rallying environmental groups and digital rights campaigns behind calls to pause large-scale construction. In Amsterdam on Friday, more than 100 activists gathered at the construction site of a Microsoft AI data centre, marching arm in arm before breaking into the site, climbing cranes, hanging balloons and dancing while police stood by. Some carried placards with messages reading: "Screw your datacenter."
Site owner Pure Data Centers, which plans to invest more than $1 billion and is backed by Brookfield-owned Oaktree, said it was committed to engagement with local stakeholders. "We respectfully ask those on site to leave safely and engage with us in dialogue about the development and any concerns they may have," it said. Other planned actions include a march in Dublin, a protest outside the parliament building in Warsaw, and a demonstration against a different Microsoft data centre in Denmark. [...] Stop Dirty Data Centers says it is not anti-progress or calling for existing data centers to be closed but that major construction should be halted until governments establish clearer rules.
(The Center Square) - Days after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and justices on the highest courts in Texas were ousted and a Democrat was elected attorney general, Houston Mayor John Whitmire issued an executive order directing local police to not…
Faculty senate passed resolution expressing deep discontent with school’s response to alleged fraternity rape
Cornell University’s faculty senate approved a resolution on Friday declaring “no confidence” in the school’s top leaders, a symbolic gesture reflecting deep discontent on campus in the wake of a former student’s lawsuit saying she was gang-raped at a fraternity party in 2024.
The resolution passed 75-50, with five faculty senators abstaining and five others not voting, according to an email sent to members of the faculty senate on Friday afternoon.
(The Center Square) - Advocates for the rights of homicide victims and legal professionals throughout California are continuing to express outrage over Gov. Gavin Newsom's decision to commute the death sentences of all 548 inmates on the state's death row.
(The Center Square) – A parental rights organization and other groups celebrated the victories from the 2026 midterm elections for protection of girls’ sports and private spaces in Arizona, Nebraska, Colorado and Washington. The groups said that protecting girls is…
Nov. 6, 2026 — The European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has announced that bidders must recreate and resubmit tenders under its call for consortia to establish and operate AI gigafactories. A technical issue with the submission system affects all tenders for both lots, whether in draft or already submitted.
EuroHPC encourages bidders to pause work on current drafts and wait for instructions. It will announce new submission links for both lots in the coming days once the technical solution is in place. Only the submission links will change.
EuroHPC has extended the deadline for medium-scale AI gigafactories (Lot 1) to Feb. 4, 2027, to give member states time to complete their national budgetary procedures and submit their financial commitments. The deadline for large-scale AI gigafactories (Lot 2) is Dec. 3, 2026. Both deadlines are at 5 p.m. Central European Time.
About the Call
AIGFs should aim to provide a world-class sovereign AI computing infrastructure for European researchers, public authorities, entrepreneurs, industries, and SMEs. They shall strengthen the European industry, enable the development of entirely new AI solutions, strengthen the European AI value chains in both software and hardware, and ensure the EU’s competitiveness and sovereignty as an AI Continent. To achieve this, they will integrate massive AI computing power, together with energy-efficient data centers, and AI-driven automation to optimize AI model training, inference, and services deployment.
To qualify as an AIGF, each facility must integrate at least three to four times the number of the most advanced AI processors currently available in the most powerful European AI factories. In addition to computational scale, AIGFs must demonstrate adequate power capacity infrastructure and incorporate best practices in energy efficiency, water efficiency, and circularity principles in their design and operations.
(The Center Square) – Despite broad bipartisan support of the U.S. Senate’s permitting reform bill, which aims to expedite energy projects and lower electricity costs, Democratic leadership in the House is now demanding more concessions.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has blamed high electricity prices in Democrat-led states on climate policies. Prices do tend to be higher in blue states than red states, but climate policies explain at most a modest portion of the price difference.
Longstanding structural and geographical factors — combined with more recent price increases from wildfires, extreme weather and, in certain areas, anticipated rapid load growth from data centers — have also contributed to high electricity prices in certain states and regions.
Wright’s recent commentshaveemphasized political differences between states while omitting many of these other factors, at times misleadingly blaming large price rises on climate policies.
“Electricity prices are almost 50% higher in states run by Democrats,” he saidOct. 1 on Fox News. “For 17 years since President Obama came to office, the Democrat position has been to constrict the growth of energy and drive the prices up so Americans could afford less and we would solve climate change.”
In other interviews, the secretary has suggested state-level requirements for adopting renewable energy — called renewable portfolio standards — are to blame for the price differential.
“Subsidizing and forcing wind and solar onto electricity grids around the country has been a disaster,” he saidOct. 28 on the Bloomberg show “Balance of Power.” “You can see it in the states with renewable portfolio standards that have forced wind and solar. They have 50% higher electricity prices than the states that don’t have those. I haven’t met anyone that wants their electrical bill to go up 50%.”
“Half of the states have renewable portfolio [standards], half of them don’t,” Wright also said at a Sept. 23 event hosted by the New York Times. “Forty-five percent more expensive electricity in the states that have them. That’s not coincidence.”
Wright’s math approximately checks out when comparing average retail electricity prices in states with and without current renewable portfolio standards, or states with Republican versus Democratic governors as of fall 2026. But renewable portfolio standards have not on their own made electricity prices rise by 50%, experts told us, nor do all states with these policies have higher-than average prices.
“The correlation is real, but this does not establish causality,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers Fischer J. Espiritu Argosino and Christopher R. Knittel told us in an email. Their 2025 working paper found that renewable portfolio standards aren’t a driver of electricity prices once other differences between states are accounted for.
Other research has indicated a partial role for renewable portfolio standards in raising electricity rates in certain states, particularly if the standards are very strict. Still, “[m]ost of the electricity price differences between Democratic and Republican states are not attributable to RPS,” Devin Hartman, president of the Lighthouse Energy Institute, a newly founded energy policy nonprofit, told us.
The data also do not indicate a relationship between renewables in general and rising prices, despite Wright’s claim at the New York Times event that everywhere renewable energy has had “meaningful penetration has meaningfully higher electricity prices.”
“That’s just demonstrably false,” Paul Donohoo-Vallett, an independent energy consultant who previously worked for the Department of Energy, told us, pointing to Texas, Iowa, South Dakota and New Mexico as examples of places that added relatively high levels of wind and solar in recent years while maintaining relatively low prices. “There’s no inherent connection between more wind and solar and higher prices,” he said.
“Renewable portfolio standards or net-zero goals lead states to force reliable power sources, such as coal-fired power plants, to close, which drives up prices,” DOE spokesperson Ben Dietderich told us, in response to questions about the data supporting a link between the renewable portfolio standards and electricity prices.
As for the counterexamples of states with relatively low prices and high renewable energy penetration, they “still have strong reliance on coal, nuclear and/or natural gas power which prevents their electricity prices from being higher,” he said. “In that sense, penetration of wind and solar is not as meaningful there.”
Structural Reasons for Expensive Electricity
The high average electricity prices among blue states is driven largely by a few specific areas of the country: Hawaii, California and a group of states clustered in the Northeast. Electricity prices have been elevated in these areas for many decades. Experts pointed to several major factors that help explain why prices are higher in these states.
For Hawaii, a major underlying cause is geography. The island relies heavily on oil to produce electricity, which puts it at the whims of the global oil market. The state’s electricity prices have soared recently in part due to the war in Iran.
Similarly, isolation from the rest of the country and a large number of unconnected microgrids contribute to high prices in Alaska, a Republican-led state without renewable portfolio standards that nonetheless has high electricity prices.
Geography plays a role in the lower 48 states, too. “Utility-scale wind and solar resources are predominantly located in Republican-led Midwestern and Southwestern states, whereas Democrat-led Northeast states are highly reliant on pipeline-capacity-constrained natural gas,” Michelle Levinson, a senior manager at the nonprofit research organization World Resources Institute, told us.
“A large number of blue states are small geographic states that are all clustered in New England, which just happens to not have any natural gas production,” Donohoo-Vallett said. This leads these states to pay elevated prices for natural gas to be piped in via limited pipelines, he said.
Price increases may in some cases be related to implicit climate policies, Hartman said. In the case of New England, “policy decisions that suppressed pipeline development” played into high regional natural gas costs, he said.
In California, wildfires have been the “big driver” of increasing costs, Hartman said. Wildfire risk has driven up transmission and distribution costs in the West, while also leading to liability costs, he said. Transmission lines carry electricity over long distances while distribution lines take it the rest of the way to customers.
“California stands out among all states with a massive 64% increase in rates since 2019 (30% after adjusting for inflation), driven by significant and unique wildfire-related expenses accounting for 40% of the rate increase at least through 2024,” an April 2026 report from the research firm the Rhodium Group concluded.
In 2018, Pacific Gas and Electric Company equipment started the deadliest fire in California’s history, the Camp Fire, one of a number of highly destructive fires in recent history in the state to be started by electrical equipment.
In addition, a “big issue is transmission is old, so replacing that aging infrastructure is expensive, especially in New England,” Hartman said. New England has older transmission infrastructure than some other areas of the country, he said, and it is also relatively expensive there to upgrade infrastructure due to high land values, labor and taxes. California and the Northeast have also had relatively high distribution cost increases, Hartman said.
In some cases, the aging of equipment and wildfires or extreme weather come together to necessitate spending, said Donohoo-Vallett, who was the first author of the Rhodium Group report. Aging infrastructure is “colliding with increasing threats from extreme weather and climate change,” he explained. “That’s just accelerating the need to replace this stuff.”
For example, he said, the Camp Fire occurred after a metal hook holding up a century-old transmission line broke. “The power price had been low for a long time because we just weren’t paying for this stuff,” Donohoo-Vallett said.
Between 2019 and 2025, average residential electricity prices nationwide rose 33%, but only 5.6% above the rate of inflation, according to a July analysis from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, to which Donohoo-Vallett contributed. LBNL is a government research center affiliated with the DOE. However, residential prices rose significantly more in California and some New England and mid-Atlantic states.
The LBNL researchers cited recovery and mitigation from wildfires and extreme weather, as well as the need to replace or improve aging distribution and transmission infrastructure, as top drivers of electricity price increases above inflation during this period.
Madalsa Singh, an energy researcher at Rochester Institute of Technology, also pointed out that tying average electricity prices to state-level policies ignores the wide variation within states in prices, which are set by utilities.
Singh and her colleagues studied electricity prices in California from 2019 through 2023, finding that electricity prices were relatively flat in publicly owned utilities while investor-owned utilities had price increases that made them “some of the most expensive power providers in the United States.”
“Neighboring utilities in states — red or blue — can have different price trajectories,” Singh said.
Renewable Portfolio Standards and Prices
As we said, analyses have come to mixed conclusions on whether renewable portfolio standards have contributed to electricity price increases.
A 2025 working paper by economists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology tried to rigorously answer this question by comparing states to themselves over time between 1998 and 2023. The researchers found that even though having more stringent renewable portfolio standards shows a “clear, positive correlation” with higher electricity prices, the standards are not the cause of this pattern.
In an aerial view, high voltage power lines run through a sub-station along the electrical power grid on Jan. 14 in Miami, Florida. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.
After controlling for both longstanding, fixed differences between states and national drivers of price increases during the period of the study, “the escalation of a state’s RPS has no detectable effect on residential electricity prices,” Knittel and Argosino told us.
Instead, they said, “states that already had high electricity prices were more likely to adopt an RPS in the first place … creating the correlation.” Further factors continued to raise electricity prices as more states adopted the standards and strengthened them. But again, this doesn’t mean the standards were the cause. Rather, “the big rate increases over the past two decades line up with waves of capital spending on transmission and distribution, not with renewable mandates,” the researchers said.
Other analyses have found that RPS does increase prices in certain circumstances – although not to the degree that Wright claims.
Noah Kaufman, an economist and senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told us that “policies that mandate increases in renewables, regardless of costs, do tend to increase electricity prices,” but that such rules “have not been the main driver of increases in electricity prices in recent years.”
As of 2026, 27 states had standards mandating a certain level of renewables, according to LBNL, and most of those states are controlled by Democrats. (A larger number of states has had RPS at some point in the past, including some red states that have gone on to have robust levels of renewable energy outside of any requirements.)
Current policies vary, with states requiring anywhere from 9% to 67% renewable energy in a utility’s energy mix in 2026. States have various ways to allow utilities to comply with the policies, such as requiring them to have a certain number of renewable energy credits, which they can either obtain by acquiring or generating energy from renewables or simply buying the credits themselves.
Standards requiring a limited amount of renewable energy “generally don’t affect prices” because “market-driven renewables have exceeded” these requirements, Hartman said, but policies with very high levels “are becoming infeasible to meet” and can raise prices.
The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s July analysis of the drivers of electricity price increases between 2019 and 2025 concluded that renewable portfolio standards have “often increased prices” if they require renewable energy adoption beyond what would be driven by the market. However, the researchers found that the majority of wind and solar development during this timeframe — occurring outside of any RPS requirements — does not “appear to have driven price increases.”
The standards raised electricity prices approximately 1 cent per kilowatt hour in a few New England and mid-Atlantic states between 2019 and 2025, according to the LBNL analysis, with much lower impacts on average among states with these standards. For context, the price of electricity in Maine, one of the states with a 1-cent increase from RPS, rose more than 5 cents per kilowatt hour in total during this period.
A version of the LBNL analysis that looked at the drivers of rising rates between 2019 and 2024 concluded that RPS played a “medium” role in pushing up prices above the rate of inflation. For context, the researchers concluded that replacing or improving aging distribution and transmission infrastructure also played a medium role in increasing prices, but over a broader geographic area. Wildfires and extreme weather had a larger effect than renewable portfolio standards, over a similar geographic breadth.
Donohoo-Vallett said that the LBNL and MIT analyses came to different conclusions because they used different methods of estimating the impact of RPS. The LBNL work is based on calculating the costs of complying with renewable portfolio standards. But this does not fully measure what would have happened to prices if there weren’t renewable portfolio standards, he said, whereas the MIT work attempts to account for this counterfactual scenario.
The MIT paper found that utility-scale renewablesadoption wasassociated with lower electricity prices. Investing in renewables can also mitigate costs from spikes in prices of other forms of energy, such as natural gas, Donohoo-Vallett said.
“On the substance, we largely agree,” Knittel and Argosino said of the LBNL analysis. “Neither analysis supports the claim that renewables or RPSs explain a 40 to 50 percent price gap.”
Exception for Some Versions of Rooftop Solar
While renewable energy adoption overall is not associated with rising electricity prices, both the MIT and LBNL analyses concluded that rooftop solar in some cases can increase prices.
Knittel and Argosino explained that a method of compensating people with rooftop solar for the power they send back to the grid — called net metering — can drive up electricity prices for everyone else.
Under this system people are charged only for the net amount of electricity they pull from the grid — their use minus the amount they produced. But electricity rates are meant to cover the cost of maintaining the grid, not just the cost of the electricity itself. As people with rooftop solar pay for less power, they pay less to maintain the grid, and electricity rates rise. Net metering in effect “shifts the fixed costs of the grid onto households without solar,” the MIT researchers told us
Rooftop solar had a small effect on electricity prices in most states in recent years, the LBNL analysis concluded, and a higher effect in a few others, including Maine and California.
These states have now made changes to lower how much they compensate people with solar panels to alleviate the problem.
Even in those states, the LBNL researchers found that rooftop solar and renewable portfolio standards were only responsible for a portion of the price increases. For Maine’s primary utility, net energy metering policies for rooftop solar contributed to an increase of 1 to 1.5 cents per kilowatt hour between 2019 and 2024. Winter storm recovery costs played a slightly bigger role in cost increases, at 1.6 cents per kilowatt hour, while distribution-related spending and renewable portfolio standards each contributed about a cent to the increase.
For California’s largest three utilities, the researchers calculated that net-metered solar policies led electricity prices to increase by around 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour over this period — less of an impact than wildfire costs, at 4.3 cents per kilowatt hour, and inflation in distribution and transmission costs, at 3.7 cents per kilowatt hour. Renewable portfolio standards contributed to less than half a cent per kilowatt hour of the increase.
“California’s prices are high mainly because of wildfire costs, distribution spending, and rate design, not because it has a lot of solar on the grid,” Argosino and Knittel said.
Electricity Price Increases During the Trump Administration
Wright has often spoken about electricity prices in Democrat-led states as a response to questions about affordability or criticisms of electricity prices under Trump. At the Sept. 23 New York Times event, he responded to a question about rising electricity prices by suggesting Democratic policies were to blame for rising prices during the Trump administration.
“Electricity prices in red states that have followed the United States federal policy have not seen a rise in inflation-adjusted electricity prices during the Trump administration,” he said. “Electricity price rises that are well above inflation are all limited to states with aggressive climate policies. California, Massachusetts, New England — those are the places with the fastest rise and the most expensive electricity prices.”
Price rises, however, have not been limited to blue states and are not just due to climate policies. Nor have all blue states seen major increases. California, for example, saw its 2025 electricity prices rise more slowly than inflation.
Between 2024 and 2025, 39 states had electricity price increases above inflation and 26 had increases of 2% or more above inflation, according to data from the Energy Information Administration analyzed by the nonprofit Institute for Progress. The largest increases — between 7.1% and 11.9% above inflation — were in New Jersey, Maine, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois and New York, all states with renewable portfolio standards whose governorships and legislatures were at least partially controlled by Democrats as of fall 2026.
However, Republican-controlled states without RPS also had some significant price hikes. Indiana, Louisiana and Utah, for example, had increases between 4.2% and 5.7% above inflation.
One driver of the cost increases was a 36% rise in the price of natural gas after hitting a low in 2024, according to the LBNL analysis. The greatest natural gas-related increases affected grid operators in New England and New York, followed by those in the mid-Atlantic and parts of the Midwest. “It’s not really about who’s leading the state,” Levinson said. “It’s about … your exposure to natural gas prices.”
“PJM spans 13 states and DC, many of them red or purple states,” Singh said.
The LBNL report listed clean energy policy and wildfire costs as lesser contributors to price increases in 2025.
There has been more limited analysis on electricity prices in 2026 so far, but the available datacontinue to show price increases in both blue and red states.
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Vice President JD Vance delivers remarks during a midterm campaign rally at JRJ Construction on Oct. 29, 2026, in Weatherford, Texas.Photo: Evan Vucci-Pool/Getty Images
To say that Americans were pissed off is an understatement.
On Tuesday, Democrats didn’t just seize control of both houses of Congress. They redrew the American political map, capturing offices that had remained reliably Republican for generations, from the Deep South to Kansas and Texas. The Lone Star State alone, with its 40 Electoral College votes, now raises the possibility of a seismic shift in the calculus of future presidential elections.
The sheer scale of the historic Democratic surge delivered an unmistakable rebuke to America’s supposedly populist president. The message was clear and simple: We do not like you.
Much of Americans’ rapid disillusionment with the Trump administration can be traced to a single word — Iran — and the cascading economic hardships Americans have endured as the war has dragged on.
The Iran war has gone from a Republican loyalty test to a political albatross.
For the GOP, the threat is existential. The war has gone from a Republican loyalty test to a political albatross for many of its former supporters, one that many Republicans are now jettisoning themselves away from to salvage their own political futures.
By Wednesday, it had become the chief explanation for the party’s sweeping electoral defeat, with Vice President JD Vance declaring unequivocally on X that “the reason we lost is the war.”
“If you’d like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that’s at least honest,” he wrote. “But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.” Coming from Trump’s own vice president, it was a striking about-face.
The tirade also raised an awkward question ahead of the 2028 presidential race: How does a potential successor to the MAGA mantle campaign against a war waged by his own administration?
Trump, however, has not gone nearly as far as his VP. Although the president acknowledged the war hurt Republicans, he still defended it on its merits. Speaking with reporters Wednesday after expounding at length about his White House ballroom, Trump said, “The Iran thing we had to do, and we continue to do it.”
Where Did All the Warmongers Go?
But on the campaign trail, Republicans were not completely oblivious to Americans’ collective frustration with the Iran war.
In September, ABC News identified 17 Republican lawmakers and candidates who had called for ending the war through public statements or votes. Much of the pressure came in competitive midterms races, as the conflict’s effects on oil, diesel, and fertilizer prices reached American households.
In Iowa, Republican Senate candidate Ashley Hinson called for a “successful and immediate end” to the war in September, warning that voters were paying the price at gas pumps and grocery stores. Yet she voted six times against House measures directing Trump to halt the attacks. During an October 25 ABC interview, Hinson said she would not rule out a post-election U.S. offensive and said she trusted Trump and the military to choose the right timetable. Despite the president praising her weight loss at a recent rally, tepidly breaking with Trump wasn’t enough to get Hinson over the line, and she lost to Democrat Josh Turek by 4.5 percentage points.
Michigan also had its share of Iran backtrackers. Republican Senate hopeful Mike Rogers described Iran as an “imminent threat” when the bombing began on February 28. In May, he called the conflict a potential “win-win-win.” But with the midterms fast approaching, Rogers released a campaign ad declaring “the war with Iran needs to end” quickly and warned Michigan families could no longer afford the economic fallout.
Rep. John James, the Republican candidate for Michigan governor, likewise praised Trump’s use of force early in the war, saying the president “had the balls” to “assure the survival and success of liberty.” He voted against six House war-powers resolutions, including as recently as September. Days after that vote, he said the war needed to wrap up “quickly.” https://bridgemi.com/michigan-politics/fact-check-mike-rogers-john-james-shift-positions-on-iran-war/He went on to declare in an interview, “the position has always been, I hate war.”
Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a possible contender in the Republican Party’s next presidential contest who could reportedly be up for Pete Hegseth’s job, warned Monday that the war was a “big, big drag” on his party. Trump, DeSantis pointed out, campaigned against another Middle Eastern war. Now voters are dealing with higher fuel costs, and Republicans who refuse to acknowledge the connection are “gaslighting” them. But back in spring, DeSantis defended the strikes on Iranian leadership, describing its government as “a fanatical, apocalyptic, militant Islamist regime.”
The polling helps explain the Republican panic. An Associated Press poll found roughly 6 in 10 voters believed the U.S. made a “wrong decision” in attacking Iran. And it’s not as though Republicans weren’t warned. A handful within their own ranks, including Thomas Massie and Rand Paul, opposed the war from its earliest days and backed efforts to rein it in. But those criticisms seemed to fall on deaf ears.
A Hasty Retreat
With plenty of blame to go around, the criticism has gone beyond candidates and into the conservative media ecosystem.
During the network’s primetime Election Night coverage, Fox News host Sean Hannity told his colleague Bret Baier that the results would have been different without the Iran war. Conservative commentator Matt Walsh called the war a betrayal of America First principles, demanded new Republican leadership, and labeled the conflict a “catastrophically stupid decision.”
Other commentators placed the responsibility squarely on Trump himself for sucking his own party into a political quagmire. In The Federalist, senior editor John Daniel Davidson blamed the party’s collapse on Trump’s undermining of a GOP coalition built upon rejecting the interventionist politics of the George W. Bush era.
Some prominent Republican operatives are sure to be thrown under the bus by their own party in the retreat. The first to get the boot may be none other than Hegseth, America’s chief “warfighter,” who has been one of the war’s most enthusiastic, and public, cheerleaders. The defense secretary responded to the criticisms in a nearly six-minute-long video posted online on Thursday, in which he seemed to make the case for keeping his job, touting his elimination of the “Marxist ideology” of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and tarring transgender troops as having a “mental illness.”
“Regardless of how people care about the war, which I believe is a courageous and historic effort that will ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon, we need to continue, as President Trump did in his first term, to rebuild our military,” he said. “This is not about me, but of course, the other side, in case you noticed, they’re obsessed.”
Already facing growing Republican dissatisfaction and a ballooning roster of disgruntled and ousted senior military officials, Hegseth now faces the prospect of investigations by a Democratic-controlled Congress and an impeachment effort led by Massie. And while Trump has so far publicly defended his defense secretary, he has also reportedly consulted allies about whether to hit the ejector seat on Pete.
Tuesday’s results show voters are increasingly willing to hold politicians accountable for needless war.
But while Republicans and Democrats read polls and calculate the political currency of war and economic hardship, the human cost cannot be measured in votes. At least 3,636 people had been killed in Iran as of early April, including 1,701 civilians and 254 children, according to human rights monitors. More fighting has followed and likely driven that number far higher.
At least 23 American service members have died in operations connected to the war, with almost 900 wounded by enemy fire. But these are estimates, and the Trump administration has worked to actively obfuscate the true casualty rates of the war. These are not electoral statistics. They are lives lost, families shattered, and consequences that will endure long after administrations swap office spaces.
For Republicans now scrambling to distance themselves from a deeply unpopular war, the political consequences may be harder to escape than their own voting records. Tuesday’s results show voters are increasingly willing to hold politicians accountable for needless wars, and the suffering inherited from them.
Men allegedly impersonated voices and images of executives to convince employees to send large payments
Three foreign nationals were arrested and charged with using AI to allegedly impersonate corporate CEOs and attorneys to steal over $100m, according to an indictment that was newly unsealed by the US Department of Justice.
According to a press release from the United States attorney’s office for the southern district of New York, three men – Jacob Soall, Sharon Hazan, and Guy Sheetrit – were arrested for using AI to alter and impersonate the voices and images of executives and attorneys at various companies in order to convince employees to send over large payments. Soall and Hazan were arrested in Spain over the summer, while Sheetrit was arrested in the United Kingdom in September. The alleged fraud took place between 2024 and 2026.
Tech industry fears delays to its multi-trillion dollar infrastructure buildout meant to power artificial intelligence
Several newly elected Democrats and Senator Bernie Sanders have renewed calls for datacenter moratoriums in the days after the US midterm elections. The sweeping Democratic victory, which was buoyed in part by backlash to the tech industry, has added momentum to efforts to slow down the multi-trillion-dollar buildout of the controversial facilities.
On the social media platform X, Sanders posted a call for an immediate national datacenter moratorium this week. “Americans don’t want Big Tech oligarchs wrecking the environment, gutting jobs and threatening humanity’s future,” Sanders said on Wednesday.
Bilka and Edwards score twice each in American rout
Canada open with 5-1 win over Sweden as Eldridge shines
Jersey dispute overshadows tournament’s Danish debut
The United States opened their defense of the women’s ice hockey world championship with a 7-0 victory over Switzerland on Friday in Esbjerg, Denmark.
Hannah Bilka and Laila Edwards scored twice each, while Kirsten Simms, Hilary Knight and Casey O’Brien also found the net as the Americans pulled away after a competitive opening period. Caroline Harvey contributed three assists.
Democrat James Talarico won a Senate seat in Texas, breaking a 38-year drought for his party in the Republican stronghold and delivering a stunning blow to Donald Trump. The race became one of the most expensive Senate contests in US history, with advertising spending topping $500m, according to estimates. GOP-aligned groups poured hundreds of millions of dollars into efforts to elect Ken Paxton, including substantial funding linked to multibillionaire Elon Musk, whom Talarico accused of trying to buy a Senate seat.
Asian and European markets follow US tech rout with many analysts predicting more waves of selling to come
European and Asian stock markets fell sharply on Friday after the Democrats’ decisive victory in the midterms triggered a rout in US tech stocks a day earlier.
A sell-off on Wall Street on Thursday was followed by sharp falls in Asian stock markets on Friday. The investor sentiment then reached London, where the market was, at one stage, poised for its worst day since March.
The Senate race in deep-red Mississippi remains unresolved, as Democrat Scott Colom has mounted a surprisingly competitive challenge to incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
The grant will allow the UChicago team to build new AI weather forecasting frameworks.
CHICAGO, Nov. 6, 2026 — If you had the resources, how would you use AI to solve humanity’s hardest problems? That question is at the heart of a $10 million grant the Laude Institute awarded to a University of Chicago team building AI weather forecasting models and supporting a software platform for people who depend on them for their health and livelihoods.
The PI Team from left to right: Prof. Ian Foster, Prof. Rebecca Willett, Prof. Michael Kremer, and Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh. Photo Credit: Victoria Smith.
In just two seasons, governments in South Asia and Africa have used AI forecasts developed with the UChicago team to give more than 50 million smallholder farmers life-changing information: when the rainy season will arrive. The Laude funding will make that process faster, simpler, and more accurate, and extend it to new regions and new weather phenomena.
For example, a farmer whose livelihood depends on knowing when the monsoon season will begin must decide whether to plant now or wait. However, farmers in tropical regions have had less accurate and less actionable forecasts. Wealthy nations developed modern, physics-based weather forecasting for mid-latitude climates, using dense observation networks and supercomputers that most tropical agencies lack. And forecasts are typically built to predict general conditions like temperature and precipitation, not the specific events, such as when the rains will arrive, that drive farmers’ decisions.
The UChicago team is led by scientific AI expert Prof. Rebecca Willett, Worah Family Professor of Statistics and Computer Science in the Wallman Society of Fellows; AI for atmospheric physics expert Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh, Associate Professor in Geophysical Sciences; platform scaling expert Prof. Ian Foster, Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor of Computer Science; and development economics expert Prof. Michael Kremer, Nobel laureate and University Professor in Economics and the College and the Harris School of Public Policy.
This team is working to close the gap between mid-latitude and tropical forecasting abilities through AI-powered systems that work with sparse observational data and modest computing resources. Working at the frontier of AI weather modeling, the group has developed methods that take the best existing AI and physics-based forecasts, blend them, and tune them to the specific human-centered decisions that farmers, health officials, and emergency managers actually face. Over the last six months, the UChicago team and collaborators have cut the time needed to benchmark and adapt forecasting models from four to five months of expert labor to a single day of expert review.
Willett said, “The leading AI weather models are evaluated on whether they accurately predict global temperature and precipitation. That’s useful if you’re a meteorologist. But it tells you almost nothing about whether a model will correctly predict monsoon onset for a farmer in West Java or a dangerous heat wave for a public health official in Addis Ababa. We built our platform around a different question: not ‘how accurate is the model’ but ‘does this forecast help a specific person make a better decision in a specific place.’”
With Laude Institute support, the team will build new AI weather forecasting frameworks embedded in the UChicago–Laude AI Almanac, a free, open-source platform that will let any meteorological agency, government, or NGO generate, evaluate, and deploy AI weather forecasts tuned to their own geography, observations, decision needs, and knowledge of local weather dynamics without requiring specialized technical expertise, supercomputing infrastructure, or dense observational networks.
“This platform will significantly accelerate the translation of the AI-driven weather forecasting revolution into enhanced capabilities of the meteorological agencies that need it most, so they can give high-quality, actionable information to the people they serve,” said Hassanzadeh.
Scaling to Hundreds of Millions
Early deployments have already shown what’s possible using AI weather forecasts. From 2024 to 2026, the UChicago Human-Centered Weather Forecasts initiative supported government agricultural ministries in producing AI weather forecasts that were sent via text message to tens of millions of farmers in Africa and South Asia. Those AI forecasts correctly predicted an unusual stall in the seasonal rains, providing an early warning to farmers. Farmers who received the AI-powered forecast on their phones could make informed planting decisions, rather than planting too early and losing their crop. The Laude grant will help turn this work into a global platform covering many kinds of weather and climate hazards.
Development banks and philanthropies such as the OpenAI Foundation and the Gates Foundation are investing heavily in delivering accurate weather forecasts and decision-support tools to farmers, public health workers, and government officials in low- and middle-income countries, with a goal of reaching hundreds of millions of people within the next several years.
The UChicago team works closely with these organizations, as well as AIM for Scale, Precision Development, and UC Berkeley, on forecast delivery. The work supported by the Laude Institute will strengthen the AI and computational backbone behind those efforts with new AI methods, trusted evaluation focused on local community needs, and a scalable, open platform that expands access and increases forecast reliability, without major investments in computing infrastructure or software development. The platform will support not only agriculture but also public health and warnings of compound climate extremes.
“Reaching hundreds of millions of people requires infrastructure that can scale across countries, datasets, and weather hazards,” said Foster. “With Globus, a non-profit research data management platform, we have learned how to make large-scale research computing reliable and accessible. We will draw on that experience to help meteorological agencies adapt and deliver forecasts for their communities without having to build and maintain their own computing infrastructure.”
A companion AIM for Scale training program, co-led by UChicago and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, is already preparing government meteorologists from 14 countries to use these tools, with the goal of reaching 30 countries by 2027
“If this works for weather, it is a model for AI for public health, for education, and for many other areas where the people who need these tools most cannot pay for them,” said Kremer. “Philanthropy can step up where the market cannot. That is what makes this moment extraordinary.”
Built by and for impact researchers, the Laude Institute operates at the intersection of academia and industry to catalyze research that reaches people’s hands. It convenes, resources, and amplifies computer scientists who ship their research and impact the lives of billions. With carefully chosen targets, AI research has an opportunity to move all of humanity forward, and the UChicago-Laude AI Almanac aims to contribute significantly to that momentum.
The project team includes Adam Marchakitus, Dr. Alexander Wikner, Andrew Dennehy, Raphael Rossellini, Dr. Rajat Masiwal, Rathan Sudheer, Dr. Bo Dong, Dr. Casey Keel, Dr. Colin Aitken, Hayden Holbrook, Dr. Katie Kowal, Terrina Govender, Tiana Pyer-Pereira, and Dr. Victoria Flores.
Roku is removing its popular Aquatic Life fish tank screensaver on December 1 and automatically switching affected users to Roku City. According to Cord Cutters News, the creator pulled the license after Roku's sale to FOX was announced. Ars Technica reports: The screensaver has been an option for Roku OS users for 10 years. Roku has been licensing the animation, which is called the Marine Aquarium, from artist Jim Sachs through Prolific Publishing. Sachs is the creator and copyright holder of the Marine Aquarium. He developed the screensaver through his company SereneScreen. He tells Ars Technica that the licensing agreement with Roku is up for renewal every October and can be canceled by either party for any reason. A day after learning that Fox was planning to buy Roku, a deal that closed today, Sachs told Prolific that he wouldn't be renewing Roku's license. "I can't be part of the Fox world," he tells Ars, pointing to Fox News' controversial style of news and entertainment.
Roku will automatically switch the Aquatic Life screensaver on affected devices to the Roku City screensaver, another popular animation that includes subtle advertisements, according to the user notice. The Aquatic Life screensaver provided an ad-free, relaxing display for years for some Roku users. Numerous people online have lamented the impending loss of the screensaver for Roku OS. [...] The decision to not renew the licensing contract has "major financial consequences," Sachs said. "Our needs are very small, with a high property tax bill being the only significant expense," he said. "We'll be okay but can't start any of the projects I had planned."
According to Sachs, the licensing "agreement was $80,000 per year for exclusive rights to all set-top devices, or $60,000 per year for non-exclusive. They have always opted for exclusive." Ars asked Roku to confirm the details of the licensing agreement but didn't hear back ahead of publication. The licensing deal with Roku was Sachs' primary form of income, he told Ars, noting low sales of the version of the screensaver for computers. Marine Aquarium fans can still buy the screensaver for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, but it seems unlikely that it will return to the Roku platform.
Hayden is working to unite the high performance computing community, showcase Illinois research and highlight how computing can help address challenges that affect people’s lives.
Nov. 6, 2026 — For decades, Kevin Hayden, a senior network engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has helped maintain the connections that allow computing systems to exchange information. His work supports high performance computing, or HPC, the technology behind research that tackles complex scientific and engineering problems.
Kevin Hayden. Credit: Argonne National Laboratory
Now, after years of supporting that technology and volunteering at supercomputing conferences, Hayden is bringing his experience to a new role as general chair of SC26, the 2026 International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage and Analysis. SC26 will take place Nov. 15-20 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. The annual conference comes to Chicago for the first time. Organizers expect more than 20,000 attendees from around the world.
HPC uses powerful computer systems to solve complex problems in fields such as science, medicine, engineering and super intelligence (also known as artificial intelligence). SC conferences bring together researchers, engineers, students and industry professionals to share their work, explore new technologies and build connections across the field.
Making that work possible requires more than computing power. Networks connect computers and storage systems, allowing researchers to move enormous amounts of data, access results and collaborate across distances. That behind-the-scenes infrastructure has been the focus of Hayden’s career.
Hayden began his career at Argonne in 1994 as an electronics fabrication technician before moving into networking, where he helps maintain the connections that allow computers and other devices to communicate and share data.
“I kind of fell into the networking group,” Hayden said.
Although Hayden is not an HPC researcher himself, his work supports the systems that make the research possible. Networking allows scientists to access computing resources, move data and share results across complex research projects.
“I always consider myself a HPC supporter,” Hayden said. “Without the networking, you can’t get the information from the computers to the users.”
Hayden started volunteering at SC conferences in 2005. He has served in a variety of roles, including SCinet chair for SC20. SCinet is the high-speed network built specifically for the conference to support technical demonstrations and presentations that require substantial network capacity.
Years of volunteering have given Hayden firsthand experience with the technical coordination and teamwork required to make SC successful. As SC26 general chair, he works with about 1,500 volunteers and oversees a network of contractors while helping guide the conference program and attendee experience.
“A conference of this size can’t be done by one person alone,” he said.
He hopes to use the conference to bring the HPC community together, showcase Illinois research and highlight how computing can help address challenges that affect people’s lives.
A key part of Hayden’s vision for SC26 is the Regional Tech Hub, a new, immersive space highlighting research and innovation across Illinois.
The hub will include researcher profiles, videos and hands-on displays. It will feature work from Argonne, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
The hub will focus on four areas: super intelligence, quantum technologies, high-throughput computing and translational biomedical research.
“Illinois has incredible research happening across our institutions, and the Regional Technical Hub is about bringing people together to collaborate, share ideas and build on each other’s strengths. I want to make sure we’re connecting these communities and showcasing what we can accomplish together,” Hayden said.
The Regional Tech Hub will feature the work of Argonne researchers David Awschalom, who is also the director of UChicago’s Chicago Quantum Institute, and Laura Schulz in quantum and next-generation computing. It will also highlight the work of Nick Chia, Ravi Madduri and Arvind Ramanathan in high-throughput computing infrastructure and systems.
The hub reflects Hayden’s interest in connecting conference attendees with research happening in Illinois while giving local institutions a platform to share their work with an international audience.
He also wants to bring more attention to biomedical and cancer research at SC26, including panels featuring cancer researchers. The topic is personal for Hayden, who lost his first wife to cancer.
“Cancer will touch nearly all of our lives, whether through our own experiences or those of the people we love,” Hayden said. “The research itself is critically important, but so is understanding the human impact behind it. We wanted to highlight how advances in computing and scientific research can translate into meaningful progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care.”
These priorities align with this year’s conference theme, “HPC Unites.” For Hayden, the theme reflects his belief that HPC is a collective effort and that, as computing technology becomes more embedded in everyday life, it can help people work together to address shared challenges.
“We’re all part of a shared mission,” Hayden said. “By harnessing the power of HPC to address society’s most pressing challenges, we can accelerate discovery, drive meaningful innovation and create a lasting, positive impact on people’s lives.”
The theme also reflects the collaborative effort required to put on SC26, from maintaining the technical infrastructure to coordinating the volunteers and contractors who help bring the conference to life.
“As a sum, we’re a whole lot better than just one,” Hayden said. “So, let’s work together and make meaningful change.”
A personalized gift is a special thing that says that you not only know what the recipient likes, but that you also know who they are. “Gift math” suggests you score extra points for offering a personalized gift, and it’s not hard to see why: monogramming or engraving, which takes time and effort, may feel more meaningful than, say, a last-minute grocery store bouquet of carnations.
When shopping for a loved one (or even the colleague on the other side of your cubicle), a personalized gift suggests foresight and consideration that is incredibly thoughtful without coming on too strong. To get you started on your quest for shopping for that perfect personalized gift this holiday season, we have sourced from ideas we’ve given, received and truly, truly love.
Just weeks after cancer surgery, Pope Leo XIV, who has arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, will navigate the region’s tide of secularism, deep polarization — and high altitudes.
Nov. 6, 2026 — AWS has announced that Amazon FSx for Lustre now supports up to 192,000 metadata I/O operations per second (IOPS) on file systems that use the Intelligent-Tiering storage class, 16x higher than the previous maximum of 12,000 IOPS.
Credit: VGV MEDIA/Shutterstock
The FSx for Lustre Intelligent-Tiering storage class delivers the lowest-cost and only fully elastic Lustre file storage in the cloud. It is optimized for workloads that mix hot and cold data and do not require consistent SSD-level performance.
A file system’s metadata IOPS determine how many files and directories you can create, list, read, and delete per second. Today’s launch allows you to scale to even higher levels of performance, accelerate time-to-results, and optimize your storage costs for metadata-intensive machine learning research and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
Higher metadata IOPS are available on new FSx for Lustre Intelligent-Tiering file systems in all AWS Regions where the Intelligent-Tiering storage class is available.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is guided by customer obsession, pace of innovation, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. By democratizing technology for nearly two decades and making cloud computing and generative AI accessible to organizations of every size and industry, AWS has built one of the fastest-growing enterprise technology businesses in history. Millions of customers trust AWS to accelerate innovation, transform their businesses, and shape the future. With the most comprehensive AI capabilities and global infrastructure footprint, AWS empowers builders to turn big ideas into reality.
OpenAI says its new GPT-6 Cyber model helped an automated system identify 1,724 security flaws in the Linux kernel and exploit 948 of them to gain administrator-level access during testing, including at least 10 previously unknown techniques. Axios reports: During testing, the system identified 1,724 security flaws and found ways to use 948 of them to gain administrator-level access to Linux systems for about $1.2 million in API credits. At least 10 of the techniques the model used were previously unknown, according to OpenAI. Human researchers reviewed the Linux findings before reporting vulnerabilities and proposed fixes to maintainers. The model also uncovered 81 previously unknown, high-severity flaws in Mozilla's Firefox browser.
Replacements for embattled War Secretary Pete Hegseth are increasingly being discussed at the Pentagon, according to current and former defense officials. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is at the top of many lists. Mike Waltz, the disgraced former national security adviser at the center of the 2025 Signalgate messaging scandal and currently U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has also been mentioned.
Those and other names have emerged as Hegseth is facing down a bipartisan impeachment effort as early as next week and is in a mad scramble to hold onto his job.
Officials acknowledged that both DeSantis and Waltz were dismal choices, but all who spoke with The Intercept said even the most problematic picks would be preferable to Hegseth, who has been excoriated at the Pentagon and beyond for Signal-gate, his purge of top military leaders, his inability to defeat Yemen’s Houthis in 2025 or win the Iran war in 2026, his campaign of extrajudicial killings in attacks on so-called drug boats, his efforts to weaken transparency and scuttle accountability, and his obsession with troops’ testosterone levels, among other distractions.
In the wake of an election rout that handed Democrats firm control of the House and the Senate, Hegseth is in the crosshairs of lawmakers whom he has treated with contempt for two years. “Dead man walking,” said one official in an exposé published by The Intercept Thursday. Hours after publication of that report, Hegseth launched a desperate bid to stave off his ouster, employing his Fox News-host-honed skills at fanning culture war flames to air his grievances and whip up the support of his boss and the MAGA faithful.
In a video posted on X, the self-styled secretary of war pulled out the stops: “He literally took a bullet for this nation,” Hegseth said amid obsequious flattery of Trump. “He shook his fist and said ‘fight, fight, fight,’ and so will we.”
The chief of what he recently called “the most powerful, most lethal and most prepared military on the planet,” Hegseth cast himself as a besieged victim and tied himself to Trump in a naked attempt to save his job. “A disgruntled, defeated congressman, along with all his Democrat allies, has also dropped sham articles of impeachment against yours truly, just like they tried against President Trump twice,” Hegseth carped in a video filmed outside the Pentagon.
Hegseth was referring to outgoing Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who said Wednesday that he plans to reintroduce articles of impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors when the House is back in session next week. Numerous Democrats have indicated a desire to join Massie’s effort to oust Hegseth since their midterm election landslide, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, who is poised to be the next speaker.
Hegseth’s missive to Trump hit many hot-button issues that Americans seemingly repudiated in Tuesday’s electoral landslide. He boasted about driving “the weird and the woke” out of the military and took aim at his and Trump’s enemies. “Why do the Democrats and the deep state radicals really hate us? Because we tore down their sacred cows one by one and without apology,” said Hegseth, who rattled off a list of things he has torn down, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives; military efforts to combat climate change; the rechristening of military bases named for Confederate leaders; and the rights of trans service members.
Hegseth’s video rant was part of a doomsday plan coordinated by chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, first reported by CNN and corroborated by a defense official who spoke with The Intercept. It was accompanied by a coordinated campaign of social media posts by Pentagon underlings trying to tie Hegseth’s fortunes to the president, consisting of photos of the war secretary posturing accompanied by the text, “STAND. FIGHT. DEFEND THE REPUBLIC.”
While it was a brazen attempt to cast any future effort by Trump to cut him loose as an enormous defeat for the president, officials said Parnell’s Hail Mary could succeed. “It’s sad. But it may work because Trump is so easy to manipulate,” said one defense official. “Hegseth knows he is dealing with a president with the mind of a three-year-old.”
During the Pentagon’s Thursday afternoon social media blitz, one of those Hegseth underlings messaged this reporter a clip from the 2013 film “The Wolf of Wall Street,” in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s stockbroker character pivots mid-way through announcing his resignation and a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, declaring: “I’m not fucking leaving! … They’re gonna need a fuckin’ wrecking ball to take me outta here!”
The House has only impeached two Cabinet secretaries: William Belknap, the secretary of war, in 1876; and Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, in 2024. In neither case did the Senate vote to convict. Should Massie’s lame-duck impeachment measure succeed in the House, it would likely languish in the Senate where Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., would have little incentive to bring it to a vote, said a congressional staffer for a member on the Armed Services Committee. Still, some pundits predict Hegseth may not survive the weekend, much less the month or the year.
If and when Hegseth is ousted, there will be no shortage of people jockeying to take his place. In addition to DeSantis and Waltz, other names bandied about at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill include Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, a retired military officer who chose not to run for reelection this year, as well as failed Republican Michigan Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who was defeated by Democrat Abdul El-Sayed. Some of those names were mentioned in a Thursday post on X by James Stavridis, a retired four-star Navy admiral, former supreme Allied Commander of NATO, and partner and vice chair of Carlyle, a global investment firm with deep Pentagon ties. Stavridis also named Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state.
While DeSantis and Trump had been bitter rivals during the 2024 Republican presidential primary campaign, the outgoing Florida governor and assumed 2028 GOP presidential hopeful has since vocally supported Trump’s crackpot initiatives. To advance Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, DeSantis hastily constructed (and then quickly shuttered) “Alligator Alcatraz,” a detention hellhole that the Department of Homeland Security’s watchdog found did not comply with a slew of federal and state standards. The Florida governor was also the first official to use Trump’s renamed “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico, in an official document.
Amid the rubble of a devastated Republican Party, DeSantis — a longtime culture warrior who rode what he called what he called “woke gender ideology” to national prominence — quickly pivoted. “The ground shifts and the emphasis, then, is on different things,” he said on Wednesday. “Four years ago, we were in that peak woke era. … Now, the issues are different and Republicans, it seemed like, in some of the ads I was seeing, with how much money they were spending, they really were fighting yesterday’s battle.”
DeSantis also has a troubling military background. As a lieutenant in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps — a role akin to that of a first-year associate at a law firm — he served at the notorious American prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. He also served in the failed forever war in Iraq, as a senior legal adviser to the commander of SEAL Team One in Fallujah.
Asked about DeSantis’s standing within the Pentagon, an official said: “Anything is better than Hegseth.”
Rapper called out ‘intimidation, manipulation and suppression’ in a social media post, claiming major arenas refused to host him after the Ed Sheeran controversy
Macklemore says that nine major US arenas have refused to host his Free Palestine fundraising tour, calling out “intimidation, manipulation and suppression” tactics.
In an Instagram post, the rapper says that he hoped to bring the tour to the US, but nine major arenas refused to host the event, including New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Los Angeles’s Crypto.com arena and Brooklyn’s Barclays Center.
New lawmakers from Annie Andrews and Adam Hamilton to Abdul El-Sayed indicate they will not support him
Incoming Democratic senators want someone other than Chuck Schumer to become the next majority leader in the US Senate, althoughSchumer likely still has enough votes in his caucus to remain the top Democrat.
Annie Andrews, the Democratic senator-elect from South Carolina, told Fox News’s Bret Baier on Thursday that the Democratic party needs new leadership. When asked whether she would support Schumer’s leadership bid, she replied: “I still very much believe it’s time for generational change on both sides of the aisle.”
Mayor said only immigrants that ‘pose a danger’ would be referred to ICE, after Democrats gain control of governor’s seat
The mayor of Houston on Friday said the city would limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, heralding “a new model” of immigration enforcement after Democrats won power in Texas for the first time in decades.
Houston’s mayor, John Whitmire, said the city would go after immigrants “that pose a danger, not those that are going about their family business, work and education”.
A jury in Massachusetts is deliberating the fate of former police officer Matthew Farwell, who is charged in the 2021 death of 23-year-old Sandra Birchmore.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump announced Friday that longtime adviser Stephen Miller will become White House chief of staff, replacing Susie Wiles in the administration’s first major personnel shakeup since Republicans lost control of Congress in the midterm elections.
Trump said Miller, currently deputy chief of staff for policy, will take over Monday. Wiles will move to Trump’s political operation rather than leave his orbit entirely. Trump praised both aides, calling Miller one of his most trusted advisers.
The move comes just three weeks after Trump publicly insisted there was “zero chance” he would replace Wiles and said she would remain “for a long time.”
Miller has been one of the administration’s most influential figures, particularly on immigration. He has played a central role in designing Trump’s mass-deportation strategy and has also been involved in planning how the White House could rely more heavily on executive authority once Democrats take control of Congress in January.
Republicans have been openly debating changes after their sweeping midterm defeat. Reuters reported that some GOP officials urged Trump to overhaul his staff and reconsider policies including the Iran war, tariffs and immigration enforcement.
Miller’s promotion suggests Trump is responding to the electoral setback not by moderating his agenda, but by elevating one of its principal architects.
New Wilmington community center combines education, health care and recreation in a major public-private investment. Its long-term success will be measured by opportunities created for families and lasting neighborhood improvements.
By George Rotsch, Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del. — A new chapter in Wilmington’s Riverside neighborhood began Friday, Nov. 6, with the opening of the $56 million Kingswood Community Center, an investment designed to expand educational opportunities, improve access to health care and help families build more prosperous futures.
The two-story, 81,000-square-foot facility is nearly five times the size of its predecessor, which served Riverside residents for generations. The new center brings together services for children, families and seniors while serving as a cornerstone of a broader effort to revitalize one of Wilmington’s historically underserved neighborhoods.
For residents, the new building represents an opportunity for greater neighborhood stability and access to services. For taxpayers, donors and community leaders, it also raises an important long-term question: Will the investment deliver measurable improvements in education, employment, family well-being and economic independence?
The answer will ultimately be determined not by the size of the building but by the opportunities it creates for the people who use it.
U.S. Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, Gov. Matt Meyer, Attorney General Kathleen Jennings, Wilmington Mayor John Carney and City Council Member Zanthia Oliver joined community leaders for Friday’s opening ceremony.
Building opportunities for families
The expanded Kingswood Community Center brings several important services together under one roof, making it easier for residents to access programs that support education, health, recreation and family stability.
Among its features are:
A gymnasium accommodating more than 600 basketball spectators or up to 1,500 people for community gatherings.
A Nemours pediatric care center providing access to children’s health services.
The Ernest L. Webster Montessori Academy, expanding early childhood educational opportunities.
An expanded Jimmy Jenkins Senior Center in a separate building, serving older residents.
A commercial kitchen and dining room supporting food programs and community activities.
Flexible meeting and event spaces for neighborhood organizations and families.
The services could have practical economic benefits beyond their immediate purposes.
Reliable early childhood education can help working parents maintain employment. Accessible health care can reduce the time and transportation challenges families face when seeking treatment. Recreational and educational programs can provide young people with constructive activities and opportunities to develop skills.
Together, these services are intended to help address barriers that have limited economic opportunity for some Riverside families.
Public and private partners share the investment
The Kingswood project illustrates how government agencies, nonprofit organizations, financial institutions and private partners can combine resources to address longstanding community needs.
The project received substantial government support, including state funding and federal resources. The state described Kingswood as a $56 million development when construction began in August 2024.
Its financing also involved New Markets Tax Credits, private financial institutions and philanthropic support, demonstrating an approach that extends beyond traditional government-funded community programs.
One notable partner is Nemours Children’s Health, which provided an eight-figure, low-interest community impact loan to help advance the project’s construction.
In a September 2026 account of the partnership, Nemours President and CEO R. Lawrence Moss said the loan helped unlock additional financing and was repaid in full ahead of schedule.
Nemours is also establishing a pediatric care center at Kingswood and working with community partners to connect neighborhood residents with skilled employment opportunities at its hospital.
The arrangement demonstrates how private institutional investment can support neighborhood development while connecting residents to health care and potential careers.
It also highlights the importance of financial planning and responsible stewardship in projects involving both public and private resources.
An 80-year commitment to Riverside
The opening comes as Kingswood celebrates 80 years of serving Wilmington residents.
Founded in 1946, the original community center became a gathering place and support system for generations of Riverside families, offering youth development, educational programs and services for older adults.
“The Kingswood Community Center had an amazing 80-year run rooted in humble beginnings,” said Logan Herring, CEO of the WRK Group, which includes Kingswood Community Center, REACH Riverside and The Warehouse.
Herring credited generations of community leaders and volunteers for adapting Kingswood’s programs to meet changing neighborhood needs.
“The new Kingswood Community Center builds on all of this. It will continue that same legacy of rising to meet the needs of Riverside by providing the community with more resources, support and opportunity,” he said.
The new building provides significantly more space, but the organization’s challenge remains much the same: helping residents strengthen families, develop skills and build better lives.
Connecting education, employment and economic mobility
The new center is part of the WRK Group’s larger effort to transform Riverside through a coordinated approach involving housing, education, health care and economic opportunity.
Other investments include Imani Village, a mixed-income residential development that began opening in 2022; The Warehouse, which provides programs for Wilmington teenagers; and expanded STEM educational opportunities at EastSide Charter School.
The strategy recognizes that improvements in one area often depend on progress in others.
Children are better positioned to succeed academically when they have stable housing, access to medical care and strong educational support. Parents are better able to pursue employment when reliable child care and other family resources are available.
The new Kingswood Center is intended to bring many of those resources within easier reach of Riverside residents.
Of particular importance is the potential to connect young people and adults to workforce development programs, employers and career opportunities.
The WRK Group has described economic mobility and self-sufficiency as central goals of its Riverside redevelopment effort.
Success in those areas could help create a stronger local economy, greater household financial stability and an environment more attractive to private investment.
Measuring the return on investment
The opening of Kingswood marks a significant construction and fundraising achievement. The larger challenge will be sustaining the facility and demonstrating its impact over time.
The building will require ongoing expenditures for staffing, maintenance, utilities, security and programming. Long-term financial planning will be essential to maintaining services without placing unsustainable demands on government or philanthropic resources.
Equally important will be demonstrating whether the programs achieve their intended results.
Potential measures of success include the number of children benefiting from early education, improvements in school readiness, participation in job training, employment outcomes, health care access and residents’ progress toward greater economic independence.
The redevelopment also presents an important question for longtime Riverside residents: Will neighborhood improvements create opportunities for existing families to remain, prosper and participate in the area’s changing economy?
New housing, improved community facilities and expanded services are important signs of progress. But lasting revitalization also depends on stable neighborhoods, family advancement, employment and a growing base of private economic activity.
Public reporting on program outcomes, operating expenses and funding sources would help residents, donors and taxpayers evaluate the results.
Those measures will become increasingly important as the Riverside transformation moves from major construction projects to the long-term operation of its facilities and programs.
A new chapter, with work still ahead
For Herring, the opening is both a tribute to Kingswood’s history and a commitment to future generations.
“We are opening a new chapter, opening new doors to space built to serve generations to come,” he said.
The grand opening also reflects years of collaboration among Riverside residents, nonprofit leaders, government officials, businesses and philanthropic organizations.
With the center completed, the focus now turns to making the most of its expanded capabilities.
For Riverside families, the opportunity is immediate: improved access to education, health care, recreation and community support.
For Wilmington, the larger opportunity is to demonstrate that a combination of public investment, private participation and strong community institutions can help produce lasting neighborhood improvements.
The new Kingswood Community Center provides the facilities and resources to pursue that goal.
The next chapter will be measured by what Riverside residents accomplish with them.
Community invited to celebrate Saturday
The WRK Group will continue its grand-opening weekend Saturday, Nov. 7, with Kingswood Community Day, a free celebration offering residents and visitors an opportunity to explore the new center.
Activities will include building tours, family entertainment, youth activities and opportunities to learn more about the educational, recreational and community programs available.
The celebration also recognizes Kingswood’s 80-year history and the generations of residents, volunteers and community leaders who helped make the institution an important part of Riverside.
TO GO: Kingswood Community Day
What: Grand-opening community celebration and open house.
When: Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Where: Kingswood Community Center, 2500 Rosemont Ave., Wilmington.
Admission: Free; advance registration requested.
Activities: Building tours, family entertainment, educational activities and information about community services.
The most enjoyable conversations strike a balance between exploring a topic and pulling in fresh ideas, study finds
As an early stab at rules for conversation, Cicero did a fine job: watch your tone, never look bored, never lose your temper and never ramble on, particularly about yourself, he advised.
Now scientists have followed in the great orator’s footsteps and discovered a telltale signature of an enjoyable chinwag. The secret of a mutually satisfying exchange is a healthy dose of pink noise, they say.
Officials in Kyiv hope Democrats will restore funding that eroded under the Trump administration. But they also know foreign policy is still in the hands of the president.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Top Republican lawmakers have asked Jensen Huang to appear before Congress to answer questions after it was reported that US intelligence officials believe Nvidia's chief executive has been targeted by a Chinese spying operation. The chairs of the House committees on China, foreign affairs, and intelligence wrote to Huang this week asking him to appear before a joint closed-door briefing for their committees on November 18. "Recent reports raise significant national security concerns regarding the People's Republic of China's access to sensitive US technology and information," representatives John Moolenaar, Brian Mast, and Rick Crawford wrote. "The issue of PRC infiltration and access to cutting-edge US technology is core to the investigative work of our three committees this Congress. It is vital that Congress determines the extent to which US national security has been placed at risk," the lawmakers added.
The New York Times last week wrote that US intelligence officials believed Huang had been the target of a Chinese spy operation. The concerns center on a Chinese woman named Alice Huang, an executive at Megaspeed, a Singapore-based cloud company that has bought billions of dollars of Nvidia's chips. Nvidia has rejected the claims and on Thursday would not say if Huang would appear before Congress. "Meetings with customers are part of a CEO's job. Jensen talks with thousands of customer executives every year," the company said. "Our regional cloud customers receive ordinary business information -- not sensitive Nvidia trade secrets -- and zero information relevant to national security," it added.
The lawmakers said they wanted Huang to discuss the security protocols Nvidia had in place to protect against "foreign adversary espionage." The company said its chief executive had an "outstanding security team" that travels with him. The New York Times said Huang had not received a "defensive briefing," which the intelligence community usually, but not always, provides potential espionage targets to warn them about the activity. Nvidia said it was confident that the US government would have let the company know if it thought a person was a threat to US industry and that it often receives updates from Washington about people of concern.
Group including Doreen Lawrence and Elton John face £50m bill after losing claims over alleged unlawful information gathering
Prince Harry and five other prominent figures have launched a legal challenge against a judge’s verdict in their unsuccessful claims against the Daily Mail’s publisher, Associated Newspapers.
Harry, Doreen Lawrence, the mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence, the singer Elton John and his husband, David Furnish, and the actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost faced a legal bill of more than £50m after losing their case claiming that Mail journalists used unlawful methods to source stories.
Separate actions also take place outside fence and across Europe in backlash against impact of AI boom
Activists have stormed the site of a Microsoft datacentre being built in Amsterdam, as the backlash to the social and environmental harms of the AI boom spreads across Europe.
Protesters from Geef Tegengas, a Dutch direct action group, clashed with police while breaking into a construction site at Westpoort, Amsterdam, where some members climbed a crane, lit flares and tied helium balloons to equipment.
Democrat Scott Colom is on the verge of winning a Senate seat in Mississippi in a stunning upset, but ballots are still being counted in a close race where Colom holds a lead of just under 2,000 votes over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith. Losing ruby-red Mississippi would be the final straw for Republicans after a midterm sweep by Democrats that turned Texas and South Carolina blue.
A possible legal fight is also brewing, as both sides trade sharp legal letters about the procedures for counting remaining ballots. National voting groups and attorneys have descended upon the magnolia state, joining the local groups that worked to mobilize voters. Democratic and Republican groups, including Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.
Jason Reding Quiñones led investigation into whether Trump’s rights were violated during 2020 election inquiry
A US attorney overseeing the so-called “grand conspiracy” investigation into Donald Trump’s rivals announced on Friday he is leaving the Department of Justice, one of several officials to leave the department in recent days after sweeping Democratic wins in the midterm elections.
Jason Reding Quiñones, the US attorney for the southern district of Florida, and John Eisenberg, who led the justice department’s national security division, are both leaving. Democrats have pledged to use their majorities in the US House and Senate to conduct aggressive oversight of the justice department, among other agencies.
President Donald Trump exits the stage after speaking at a campaign rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Oct. 28. Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
Jacob Hawk leaned over the plastic fencing to get Vivek Ramaswamy’s attention as the Republican candidate for Ohio governor moved down the line shaking hands at the Ohio University branch campus in Chillicothe, six days before the midterm elections. Hawk held onto Ramaswamy’s hand and started trying to tell him everything he was dealing with, everything he wanted the Republican candidates gathered there to help him with.
Hawk, 39, told him that he was a self-employed landscaper who was having a hard time with the high cost of fuel. He told him that he was raising three young kids from two different moms, mostly on his own. He told him of his worries for his 9-year-old son, who was autistic and underweight and suffered from a two-year delay in brain development.
Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire, nodded and offered some token reassurance and moved down the line, toward the arena where he would soon be appearing with President Donald Trump and Sen. Jon Husted and the rest of the Republican slate in a state that Trump had won by 11 percentage points two years ago, and which the party had dominated during the era of Trump. I had been at many Republican events in the state over that time, including a rally in an airplane hangar outside Dayton in March 2016, where a giant crowd had roared as Trump’s jet had rolled into view and where he had declared that he had come to save Ohio. “Our jobs are being sucked away,” he said then. “It’s unbelievable what’s happening.”
This event was different. Ten years had passed, and gone was the fierce bravado of Trump the conquering hero, bristling with retribution and promises. This rally was populated largely by the same sort of voters who had been particularly drawn to Trump all along, working-class Midwesterners who had not been engaged in politics before he came on the scene. But there were fewer of them — the campaign had chosen an arena that held only 2,000 — and their devotion had been subsumed by uncertainty. They were still with Trump, but they weren’t sure how to reconcile their own difficulties with the fact that he was the president during this trying time.
Take gas prices, which “are beating the hell out of me,” Hawk told me. He was trying his best not to hold them against Trump and his decision to go to war against Iran, instead faulting Congress for limiting domestic oil drilling. “The president has to go find oil in another country because Congress won’t let him find it in our country,” he said, overlooking the fact that Trump’s party has controlled both houses of Congress during his second term.
Nearby, Debbie Shock, a 57-year-old mail carrier, blamed the high fuel costs on “the stock exchange, the markets — they’re the ones that control it.” “We have oil right here in the U.S.,” she said. “Why are we buying it from other countries to begin with?”
Shock fit a profile I had gotten to know well in 2016: an Obama-Trump voter. She was loyal to Trump — “I like the man. Nobody’s perfect, you know what I mean?” — and told me she would never go back to Democrats now. Why not? I asked. “They’re covering up the child molestation,” she said. What did she mean by that? “I’ve heard stories about the sex trafficking. The Clintons are involved in it, Disney World, you know, all that.”
It would be easy to ridicule such murky talk, yet it was not much less coherent than what soon emerged on the arena stage, which was streamed on a large screen for the few hundred of us who were out on the lawn outside the arena. Trump has never been known for structured oratory, but it is hard to overstate the extent to which his digressive style has advanced since 2016, and to convey how surreal it is to experience firsthand, as the reality of what presidential communication has come to in 2026.
The rally opened with the customary introductory video of late-era Trump, an explicitly messianic framing: “God said, ‘I need someone who will be strong and courageous,’” the voice-over intones. “So God made Trump.”
Thus introduced, Trump opened his remarks with a lengthy disquisition on Husted’s body, which had newly become part of his routine. “I looked at Jon and studied his physique,” he cooed, after referring to his recent comments on Husted’s “ass.” “I studied the feet, the legs, the shoulders. I tapped him on the shoulder, and it was like hitting a piece of steel.”
When a protester inside the arena started shouting something — those of us outside couldn’t hear what — and was removed, Trump bid him good riddance: “Now he goes home and his boyfriend gets upset with him.”
There were protesters outside, too, and things were starting to heat up between them and the supporters. “What are you talking about, ‘boyfriend?’” shouted one protester, a young man. “He was just talking about Jon Husted’s ass! That’s not gay??”
A supporter in front of me, a bearded man in his 50s, stewed as he watched the protesters. “You’re going to see someone dropping like a bad habit,” he growled, as he started to move toward them, before being held back by the woman who was with him.
A moment later, Trump had moved on to Jeffrey Epstein, saying that the Democrats had protected him for years. “I threw Jeffrey Epstein the hell out of Mar-a-Lago,” he declared. “I was the one who was totally exonerated from him. But they use it, because that’s what they do. They’re sick, weak people.”
This set off a new round of shouting outside, as cries of “pedophiles!” flew back and forth.
Suddenly, one Trump supporter near me rushed hard at a protester and knocked him to the ground, his head landing with such a thud on the blacktop that I initially thought it might be a suppressed gunshot. Dozens of officers swarmed to the spot. Cameras flashed.
A few moments later, a couple other protesters, also young men, began railing against the war against Iran. “We’re going to be the ones sent off to die for Israel,” one shouted. “‘America First,’ and you want me to die in the Middle East?”
Trump touched on the war — “they’re getting beaten very badly” — but spent far more time on his home renovations. “The White House has to be beautiful outside, it needs that exterior plaster. The bricks were falling, the stone was broken, the monuments were coming off, the beautiful windows were cracked, it looked terrible, and I fixed it very inexpensively, and now it’s more beautiful than ever,” he said. “And President Obama, who doesn’t understand cleanliness, who doesn’t understand broken cracked stone and sidewalks, who doesn’t understand that having asphalt going to your main entrance is not the right thing, we’d like to have granite and marble we’d like to have it look nice, you don’t use asphalt, you use asphalt for your streets. …”
On the ramble went. To the Haitians in nearby Springfield: “The town went from no crime to high crime,” but “they’re being moved out.” To a riff on Ramaswamy’s ad featuring his opponent Amy Acton’s mother calling her a liar, in apparent reference to Acton’s having accused her stepfather of raping her when she was 12, as he was subsequently charged with doing. The ad had met with widespread opprobrium, but Trump defended Ramaswamy. “The mother said that Amy Acton, the daughter, is a liar, that she is no good. … How the hell is that his problem?” To “O Canada, which has been ripping us off for years,” and Somalia, “which isn’t even a country,” and “transgender mutilization,” and his plan to rename the Strait of Hormuz for himself.
Finally, Trump ceded the stage to Husted and Ramaswamy. But by then, the lawn had emptied out as people drifted home, Jacob Hawk among them. A vendor was shouting out discount prices on his MAGA merchandise. “$10 special on hats! All the hats are $10! These are normally $25 hats. That’s a good hat for $10.”
The next day, the full Republican slate of statewide candidates appeared, sans Trump, at a small pep rally inside a former Delphi auto-parts factory in Vandalia, outside Dayton. It is an enormous building that employed more than 100 prior to its closing in 2009 and is now being used as a warehouse by a company that sells air conditioners, employing only 10 or so; Delphi announcements still remained on the bulletin boards, adding a ghostly feel.
The setting was an unintentional reminder of what Ohio has been through. Between 2000 and 2025, the state lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs, a devastation that had made it highly susceptible to Trump’s message in 2016. But Republicans have been in charge of the state since 2010, and so it was the task of the candidates gathered there, with an audience of just a few dozen, to cast the state as being on an upswing. Complicating this challenge is the fact that so much of the state’s recent growth has been concentrated in the Columbus area: countless data centers, defense contractor Anduril, a massive Intel plant under construction.
The bigger challenge, though, was the nationwide pall that hung over the event: the reality of stubbornly high inflation and high gas prices, the latter a direct consequence of Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran. He had stood against costly foreign entanglements when he ran in 2016, in opposition to his party’s recent record, and carried that same banner again in 2024. But another aspect of his political persona had prevailed: a heedless swagger that, in this case, had been fanned by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. It had led him into this drawn-out conflict that has already cost U.S. taxpayers more than $47 billion.
And it had left a long row of Republican candidates standing in this giant building stacked high with made-in-China air conditioners all but pleading the small assemblage to save them from the political climate. “You can’t give up,” Husted said. “This is a Republican state, and the only way Democrats can win is if Republicans don’t vote.”
Five days later, I was in York County, Pennsylvania, which Trump had won by 25 points in 2024, and which was home to one of four Republican-held House districts targeted by Democrats. I chose to go to a precinct on the outskirts of York, thinking it would offer a diverse cross-section, in between more Democratic York proper and more Republican rural areas. But over 90 minutes of conversations, I didn’t encounter a Republican voter until I was about to call it a day.
The first person I spoke with, Bill, a 52-year-old state government employee who asked that I not use his last name for fear of losing his job, had voted for Trump three times. He hardly considered himself MAGA but was drawn in 2016 to Trump’s “drain the swamp” rhetoric and his disavowal of the war in Iraq. He voted for him again in 2020 and 2024 because he didn’t think much of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
But on this day, Bill was coming to vote against his Republican representative, Scott Perry, because he was too “Trump adjacent.” Bill had finally had enough of Trump, especially when it came to all the revelations of self-dealing involving his family and cronies. “I will not be falling for him again,” he told me. “Drain the swamp, no wars. … It was all a lie.”
He said he couldn’t understand how Trump had gone from America First to seemingly letting the country’s foreign policy be dictated by Israel. He said that he was voting for the Democrats mainly just for the sake of “gridlock,” as deliberate blockage. “Someone’s got to stop this,” he said. “It’s getting out of control.”
Each Democratic voter I spoke with after that was coming with their own motivation for voting against the Republican slate, like the cast of “Murder on the Orient Express.”
For Annie (who also asked that I not use her last name), it was for Trump’s social-welfare cuts, which had cost her and her disabled husband $300 per month in SNAP benefits and nearly cost them their Medicaid coverage.
For Desiree Edmonds, an elementary school teacher, it was high inflation, which was translating into anxiety among the working-class children in her classroom.
For Mark Castillo, a 19-year-old ironworker, it was for the sky-high cost of diesel.
For Jacqueline Jimenez, a native Puerto Rican who worked as a home-health aide, it was for the excessive harshness of ICE arrests.
For Shiri Kramer, a warehouse worker, it was for the general meanness emanating from the administration, which made her think of her grandfather, a Jewish American who had extended mercy to German POWs during World War II. “My grandfather would be writhing right now,” she said. “Nothing happening in our country is OK.”
By night’s end, Republicans had lost this Pennsylvania district by 10 points, as well as the other three in the state and more than 40 nationwide. They had lost at least seven Senate seats, even in states where Democrats hadn’t prevailed in decades — Kansas, Texas, South Carolina. Incredibly, even Mississippi was on the verge. In Ohio, Republicans lost the race for Senate and governor — only one of the seven statewide candidates on stage at the warehouse emerged a victor — as well as two Republican-held House seats, a stark reversal in a state that had seemed to be trending away from Democrats for good. In all, Democrats flipped five governorships and up to 12 state legislative chambers. The Democratic popular-vote margin in congressional races nationwide was 13 percentage points — nearly double the Republican margin in their own wave years of 2010 and 1994, and approaching the scale of the historic Democratic rout in the post-Watergate election of 1974.
The particularly stunning loss of the South Carolina seat brought to mind a warning issued in May 2016 by Lindsey Graham, whose death this July left the seat vacant. “If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed…….and we will deserve it,” Graham tweeted in 2016. For years, the Republican Party had avoided the catastrophic reckoning he warned of — through Trump’s narrow win in 2016, through the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, through Biden’s fateful insistence on running for reelection at age 81 in 2024. Along the way, much of the party, including Graham himself, had accommodated itself to Trump. One way of looking at the 2026 results was that the warning had finally come true. The reckoning had been delayed by a decade, but it had gathered more force over time, like a boulder rolling downhill.
There was a hint of such a reckoning in the words that Bill, the three-time Trump voter, left me with in York. After he returned from voting, he bade me farewell with a parting regret.
“You see what’s going on,” he said, “and you’re like, ‘What the hell did I do?’”
PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 6, 2026 — Smartbird, Inc. has announced a collaboration with Supermicro to deliver dedicated, fully managed AI infrastructure tailored to enterprise workloads. Combining Supermicro’s broad portfolio of computing platforms and rack-scale solutions with Smartbird’s infrastructure capabilities, the collaboration aims to support customers with varying processor, capacity, performance, and deployment requirements, from targeted AI applications to large-scale computing environments.
The collaboration advances Smartbird’s strategy to build a network of leading technology partners, working to integrate proven technologies into purpose-built AI infrastructure solutions. Smartbird will draw on Supermicro’s expertise in high-performance computing and integrated infrastructure to design, deploy, and operate dedicated AI clusters optimized for each customer’s requirements. For Supermicro, the collaboration creates additional opportunities to bring its advanced computing technologies to enterprise customers through fully integrated, managed AI infrastructure solutions.
Bringing Enterprise AI to Production Scale
As enterprises move from AI experimentation to production, infrastructure requirements are becoming increasingly complex. Large-scale inference, model training, and agentic AI applications demand more than GPUs. They require integrated compute, storage, networking, power, cooling, and specialized operational expertise.
These requirements vary significantly across organizations and workloads. Different applications demand different processor architectures, computing capacities, and infrastructure configurations. For organizations in regulated industries, these demands are compounded by requirements for data security, infrastructure control, and sovereignty.
Smartbird addresses these challenges by delivering dedicated, sovereign-by-design AI infrastructure as a fully managed service. Through its collaboration with Supermicro, Smartbird can incorporate a broad range of computing technologies and rack-scale infrastructure solutions, enabling customers to select architectures suited to their workloads without building and operating the underlying infrastructure themselves.
The collaboration brings together complementary capabilities:
Flexible, AI-optimized computing: Supermicro’s portfolio of GPU-accelerated and other processor platforms supports diverse AI workloads, including training, fine-tuning, and inference, with configurations matched to customer requirements.
Scalable, integrated infrastructure: Supermicro’s rack-scale expertise enables coordinated compute, storage, networking, power, and cooling designs, supporting deployments of varying sizes and complexity.
Fully managed, end-to-end delivery: Smartbird oversees infrastructure design, procurement, integration, deployment, and ongoing operations, providing customers with a single accountable partner.
Sovereign-by-design infrastructure: Dedicated, single-tenant clusters deployed on-premises or in colocation environments support customer requirements for data isolation, security, and operational control.
Infrastructure Designed Around Customer Requirements
The collaboration is intended to support a broad range of enterprise AI infrastructure needs, from dedicated systems optimized for specific applications to large-scale, high-density computing environments.
“The challenge for enterprises isn’t simply acquiring compute. It’s bringing together the right technologies and operating them reliably at scale,” said Dr. Nadia Carlsten, president and CEO of Smartbird. “Our collaboration with Supermicro strengthens our ability to deliver complete AI infrastructure tailored to each customer’s workloads, regardless of the scale or computing architecture required. This is central to Smartbird’s strategy: combining the best technologies in the market with the expertise to deploy and operate them as a fully managed service.”
“Enterprises need secure, compliant AI infrastructure that delivers performance, flexibility, and scalability,” said Ray Pang, senior vice president, Technology Enablement, Supermicro. “Our collaboration with Smartbird combines Supermicro’s Data Center Building Block Solutions (DCBBS), application-optimized platforms, and rack-scale expertise with Smartbird’s managed infrastructure model, enabling enterprises to rapidly deploy and scale AI environments tailored to their specific needs.”
Launched in June 2026, Smartbird designs, builds, and operates dedicated AI infrastructure tailored to enterprise workloads. The collaboration with Supermicro expands Smartbird’s partner network and reinforces its commitment to delivering production-ready AI infrastructure through proven technologies and end-to-end managed operations.
Availability
To learn more about Smartbird’s enterprise AI infrastructure solutions, visit www.smartbird.ai. For more information about Supermicro, visit www.supermicro.com.
About Smartbird
Smartbird, Inc. (NASDAQ: BIRD) is an AI infrastructure company focused on making enterprise AI deployment simpler, more secure, and more cost-effective. Smartbird designs, deploys, and operates dedicated, fully managed AI infrastructure tailored to customers’ workloads and business requirements. With flexible deployment and ownership models, Smartbird enables enterprises, governments, and research organizations to run AI at production scale while maintaining control over their infrastructure, data, and costs.
We’re using our custom-made robot to open and close the iPhone Duo hundreds of thousands of times. Watch along and get your questions answered by CNET editors live.
Elon Musk says Tesla will be "winding down" Cybertruck production at its Texas Gigafactory around mid-2027 to free up capacity for increased production of its Cybercab robotaxi. CNBC reports: The Cybertruck is exclusively produced at the company's plant in Texas alongside the Tesla Model Y and two-seat Cybercab, which Musk has touted as a crucial product for the automaker moving forward. Musk did not say whether the company would produce the Cybertruck at a different facility, but he later responded to a user on X who called the update an "end of an era" and said the Cybertruck was the "best vehicle Tesla has ever made." "True, but the Cybertruck fleet will be around for a long time," Musk said.
The Cybertruck and its polarizing design gained a niche following, but it did not achieve mass-market sales, despite Musk's pre-launch prediction that annual sales would eventually total 250,000. "Trucks have been the same for a very long time," Musk said when the truck was unveiled in 2019. "Like 100 years. Trucks have been basically the same. We want to try something different." While Tesla does not break out its sales by model or region, Cox Automotive estimated sales of the Cybertruck last year at 20,237 units in the U.S., down 48% from 38,965 in 2024. Thank you Slashdot reader Dan Posluns for sharing the news.
Concern over AI and misgivings about data center construction helped drive votes for change in the midterms — and fueled volatility on the stock market that experts say is likely to continue.
After midterm wins, Democratics plan comeback for when new Congress is sworn in, including pushback against Trump and his policies
Donald Trump will be blocked from putting a “rightwinger” on the US supreme court, according to Chuck Schumer, the soon-to-be Senate majority leader, in remarks that were a preview of how Democrats intend to wield their power come January.
In an interview with the Associated Press, Schumer said Democrats would not confirm “any crappy nominees” to the supreme court, lower courts or Trump’s cabinet.
Media organisations in Ireland and UK also affected as apparently coordinated effort to cause chaos continues
A fresh wave of bomb threats disrupted air traffic across Europe on Friday but the affected aircraft landed safely and searches revealed no explosive devices.
The latest alerts affected at least 18 flights to or from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, France, Hungary, Italy, Portugal, Romania and the UK.
The race for 2028 is already starting, and progressives are all asking one question: Who will take up the left’s mantle in the next presidential election?
An obvious first choice for many self-described leftists, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., has said she is seriously considering a run. Ocasio-Cortez laid the groundwork for a potential presidential bid rooted in economic populism and “fighting oligarchy” while campaigning alongside Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., for midterm candidates around the country this cycle.
Democratic strategists, however, have pointed out it would be far easier for Ocasio-Cortez to run for Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer’s seat in 2028; and it’s even possible the 75-year-old presumptive majority leader will retire.
There isn’t a clear pick for another Democratic candidate with star power who could mount a truly progressive campaign — presenting the left with the threat of losing the momentum that fueled a democratic socialist wave during the primaries and animated campaigns across the ideological spectrum on Tuesday.
That, said her former spokesperson Lauren Hitt, is not Ocasio-Cortez’s problem.
“The wrong reason to run would be because nobody else is running in the progressive lane.”
“I think the wrong reason to run would be because nobody else is running in the progressive lane,” said Hitt, who now advises progressive and moderate candidates. “She has made a lot of good investments in the midterms and in helping build up the progressive bench, but it was not her job to make sure we had another person to run.”
(Representatives for Ocasio-Cortez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
So if Ocasio-Cortez doesn’t run from the left, who will?
The Field So Far
Candidates exploring potential presidential bids include a few newer faces alongside a very similar cast of moderates who campaigned for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 and 2020 primaries.
Names like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and even the party’s former nominee Kamala Harris are making the rounds; Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., has also laid the groundwork for a run. The recently reelected Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has long been viewed as a potential contender, as has Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff, though he said last month he’s not planning on a run.
None of them are people you would necessarily liken to someone like Ocasio-Cortez or the grandfather of the movement behind her, Sanders himself.
Rep. Ro Khanna of California is so far the most “progressive” person openly considering a run. Khanna served as national co-chair of Sanders’s 2020 presidential campaign, and he’s long been a voice for an anti-interventionist foreign policy. He drew the ire of tech billionaires for supporting a wealth tax in California.
Yet there’s a palpable skepticism around Khanna among leftists, even if they can’t quite put their finger on why. Some weren’t impressed when he defended his support for funding Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system after publicizing an arrest in the West Bank earlier this year. (Khanna later came out against funding the Iron Dome). And as a multimillionaire, he’s also drawn criticism from the right and the left for his personal wealth.
There’s a palpable skepticism around Khanna among leftists, even if they can’t quite put their finger on why.
Like Ocasio-Cortez, Khanna has said he will back Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., for House Speaker despite pledges from other candidates to withhold their support for either Jeffries or Schumer, both moderates, for leadership positions next session.
Leveraging Economic Populism
It’s still incredibly early, but there’s one unifying theme emerging from Tuesday’s results for whichever candidate decides to try to court the progressive vote.
“All I know is that the populist lane is wide open for someone to seize it,” said Ravi Mangla, the spokesperson for the Working Families Party.
Victories over the past two years, from Zohran Mamdani’s election as mayor of New York City to the clutch of democratic socialists and progressives heading to Congress in January, show that Democrats can marshal discontent with Donald Trump and the far right to elect candidates running on progressive policies.
”Voters were very clear: People are very, very angry,” said Greg Krieg, a progressive Democratic strategist who works with Slingshot Strategies and is the spokesperson for the pro-Palestine super PAC American Priorities. “There is a focus on economic populism that transcends the ideological splits in the party.”
With the rising cost of living, and candidates tapping into that populism, the question for progressives is how to best wield the blue version of economic populism against the right-wing version that powered Trump’s rise.
“Right-wing populism didn’t really defeat left-wing populism, it just ran against a kind of corporate slop for many years,” Krieg said.
This era’s new “kitchen table” issues are a constellation of economic woes that voters are increasingly connecting to the forces concentrating wealth and political power in the hands of the few. Democrats should respond to that by fighting, visibly, against the things that take money out of people’s pockets, corruption and price-gouging among them, Krieg said.
“I think that the American people, if they are presented a choice of right-wing populism and left-wing populism, will opt for the left-wing populism,” Krieg said. “And I think that’s quadruply true now that we’ve done the right-wing populism experiment and it’s been such a fiasco — so let’s give them that option.”
The factors influencing how Democrats approach 2028 are taking shape now. They include the debate over who will lead the party in the House and Senate, though any effort to stop Schumer or Jeffries from leading roles would face long odds. And how Democrats fare in the next presidential race will depend in large part on what they do with their control of Congress during the last two years of Trump’s final term in office.
DSA Endorsement?
Then there is the group that helped power the rise of Ocasio-Cortez, Mamdani, the next mayors of Washington and Los Angeles, and the largest incoming bloc of socialist members of Congress in history: the Democratic Socialists of America.
Any candidate that gets buy-in from DSA will have to support policies like Medicare for All, taxing the rich, a Green New Deal, and an embargo on U.S. arms to Israel. DSA, which endorsed both Sanders’s 2016 and 2020 primary bids, is running a presidential exploratory committee that will eventually vote to endorse a candidate after collecting input from its members.
DSA passed a resolution to explore a 2028 endorsement at its national convention last year. And there isn’t necessarily a consensus among its members — more than 125,000 people across 130 chapters in 43 states — on whether or not they want to see Ocasio-Cortez run, said Ella Teevan, who chairs the group’s presidential exploratory group and sits on its National Political Committee.
“The Bernie case feels just a little bit different because I think the membership was a little bit more united around Bernie, although by no means unanimously,” Teevan said. “If and when we do consider an AOC endorsement, hers will be a little bit more contentious. But like I said, that’s the beauty of DSA.”
Though Ocasio-Cortez is no shoo-in, DSA members haven’t coalesced around any other candidate — and it’s not clear they will.
“I know that there are other quote-unquote progressives who might be considering a presidential run in 2028, but I think it’s really clear for us that they need to support DSA’s core demands that most people in the United States support,” Teevan said.
“If a candidate were to come along who supported those policies, I think a considerable portion of membership would think about whether we should endorse them,” she said. “But yeah, I don’t think that there’s a natural other person with name recognition in the field that, at least, I can think of right now.”
And there may yet be candidates who enter the race who aren’t yet on the radar, said Hitt, Ocasio-Cortez’s former spokesperson: “It’s totally possible there’s a progressive champion who could fill that lane that we aren’t even thinking of yet.”
Democrats won sizable House and Senate majorities in the 2026 midterm elections, but the exact margins are unclear because some races haven't been projected yet. Here's where the results stand.
Jason Reding Quiñones, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, abruptly resigned, marking another high-profile departure from a DOJ inquiry plagued by internal disputes.
It was reported in October that Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle, was under investigation by authorities in the Philippines for alleged possession of child sexual abuse materials.
Global tech stocks have plunged after the Democrats’ victory in the US midterm elections, with fears of a slowdown in AI development. Major tech corporations including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia shed about $1tn in a single trading session. Is this stock market jitters, or a sign the AI bubble might be about to burst? Lucy Hough speaks to senior economics correspondent Richard Partington
Vogue asked on Instagram whether followers knew the Iowa governor-elect once modeled for Prada. A verified account for Sand, who was previously elected to the Iowa state auditor's office, replied affirmatively in the comments.
Nevada Pierre drew national media attention last month when organizers at a youth soccer game called 911 and body camera footage from the incident went viral.
Britain plans to require employers to disclose salaries in job advertisements. "Whether you're a young person starting out or a parent trying to support your family, you should know what a job pays before spending your time and effort applying for it," Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement. Reuters reports: The government said requiring companies to disclose pay in job ads would help young people applying for their first jobs, while boosting pay transparency and helping tackle disparities that can disadvantage women. Just over two in five employers always publish salary ranges, while fewer than one in five always disclose specific salaries, Burnham's office said, citing estimates from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
The government will soon introduce legislation to parliament making salary disclosures mandatory, Burnham's office said, although it did not provide a timeline. Nearly one million, or 13%, of 16 to 24 year-olds in Britain are not in employment, education or training, one of the highest shares in Europe. A government review into youth inactivity is due to be published later in November.
Lisa Nandy calls for whistleblowers to be protected and highlights bravery of women who came forward in case
Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has warned that Russell Brand’s conviction for rape and sexual assault must be a “wake-up call” to the media world and beyond, after widespread concerns over the failures to confront his behaviour.
With renewed calls from TV insiders for a new examination of how Brand’s treatment of women was tolerated for so long, Nandy said the case was a “defining moment for our country”.
Prime minister says ‘root and branch review of childhood’ needed and does not rule out cutting some benefits
The government is aiming for “quite radical change” in the way young people are supported, Andy Burnham has said, indicating this could include tougher rules for benefits as well as notably more help with everything from finding work to mental health.
In media interviews before the release of the second report by the former minister Alan Milburn on reducing the numbers of young people not in work, education or training, Burnham said his mission was “rethinking childhood” from the early years onwards.
European and Asia-Pacific markets slide after Wall Street rout, while latest US jobs report beats forecasts
Despite the sharp losses suffered on global stock markets around the world, most indices are still up for the year.
The NasdaqComposite index, for example, is still up 4.6% since the start of January – even though it’s more than 10% below its peak.
“The tech sell-off has intensified, with the pain of the brutal sell-off on Wall Street carried straight through to Asia and knocking sentiment in Europe.
Big worries are colliding – the build-out of data centres looks set to slow, which risks shredding the spending spree underpinning the boom, right at the time that investors have become super nervous about returns on this massive investment.
Freshways lowers price paid to producers by 7p a litre, prompting warnings confidence in the sector is ‘at rock bottom’
“Milk is leaving the farm at a loss,” says dairy farmer Ian Harvey, as he warns confidence in the sector is “at rock bottom”.
Most of the UK’s dairy producers were already being paid less for their milk than it costs to produce it after a year of volatile farmgate milk prices, combined with the impact of the summer’s drought and soaring costs of vital fuel and fertiliser triggered by the conflict in Iran.
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A Romanian airline Tarom flight from Prague to Bucharest is the latest believed to be affected by today’s bomb threats.
The aircraft, operating flight number ROT226M, sent a squawk code of 7700 – general emergency – before landing safely in Bucharest. The threat was later confirmed to be unproven.
The first two parts looked at where the US and China stand and what the AI race is a contest over. This installment turns to fronts that get less attention and matter just as much: What comes after the chatbot era, the security risk that rides along with every supply chain, and the engineering answers to the water, noise, and land objections behind so much of the backlash against data centers.
Robotics and Physical AI
The public debate stays fixed on chatbots and benchmark leaderboards, while many capable people are already building the next thing: physical AI. At CES in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the ChatGPT moment for robotics is here, meaning the point where machines that perceive, reason, and act in the physical world move from research demo to product category. Humanoid robots are shipping in limited production. Autonomous vehicle stacks are trained end to end, from raw camera input to steering and braking. Manufacturing plants are being redesigned as, in the industry’s phrase, gigantic robots, with AI optimizing scheduling, quality control, and predictive maintenance across a whole facility.
Who wins the physical AI and robotics race may matte as much as who builds the biggest supercomputers (metamorworks/Shutterstock)
This wave runs on a different kind of chip than the one dominating headlines. Frontier training wants the largest, most power-hungry accelerators available, clustered by the tens of thousands. Physical AI wants the opposite: small, low-power, low-latency chips that run inference locally, because a robot cannot wait half a second on a round trip to a distant data center to decide whether to stop. Whoever builds the best inexpensive, efficient, mass-producible edge-inference chip may matter as much to national competitiveness over the next decade as whoever owns the fastest training supercomputer today. That makes physical AI a second front running in parallel to the frontier-model race, and no single leaderboard settles it.
Cybersecurity and the Supply Chain
Part of this competition has nothing to do with who trains the larger model or builds the faster chip. Western intelligence assessments and US government reports have documented a long pattern of state-linked intellectual property theft and data exfiltration targeting research and corporate data. AI raises the stakes, because training data, model weights, and chip designs are now among the most valuable intellectual property in the world.
The practical implication is that hardware provenance matters. A chip, board, or piece of networking equipment sourced through a compromised supply chain gives an adversary a foothold. That is a case for treating supply-chain security as a first-order engineering requirement for critical AI infrastructure, on the same level as power availability and cooling capacity, and for designing it in from the start. Nations and companies that build that discipline early will hold a durable advantage that has nothing to do with chip speed. The same applies to data. A model is only as trustworthy as what it was trained on, and that favors the narrow, verified, domain-specific systems described in Part 2.
The Hearing Room Argument
This brings us back to the hearing rooms where residents raise noise, water, and land. Their concerns are legitimate, and recent incidents explain the anger.
On September 11, a fuel tank at an Equinix data center in Secaucus, New Jersey, leaked more than 5,000 gallons of diesel, some of it into Anderson Creek; state officials said it did not reach the Hackensack River, and the mayor attributed it to a computer glitch. In May, reporting revealed that a QTS facility in Fayette County, Georgia, had run more than 29 million gallons of water through connections that were not being billed, while nearby residents had complained of low water pressure. The county back-billed the company about $147,000 and described it as a metering problem, and no causal link to the pressure complaints has been established.
Dismissing those concerns as uninformed is wrong and counterproductive. The local benefits can be large too. Loudoun County, Virginia, which says it has the highest concentration of data centers in the world, about 233 buildings for some 450,000 residents, or one for every 2,000 people, now draws 38 percent of its general-fund revenue from them and has cut its property-tax rate every year for a decade, from $1.145 to $0.805 per $100 of assessed value. In Quincy, Washington, data-center tax base made a new high school and hospital affordable. Most of the residents’ concerns also have engineering answers already in commercial use.
The Water Question
The image behind much of the alarm is the traditional evaporative cooling tower. Nvidia puts conventional cooling-tower water use at roughly 2.6 million gallons per megawatt per year, a significant amount at data-center scale. It is no longer the only option, and the right choice depends on how much heat each rack produces. Cooling works like a ladder. Air alone handles ordinary racks: the Uptime Institute puts the typical enterprise rack at about 11 kilowatts and considers air impractical above roughly 50. Rear-door heat exchangers, water-cooled radiators mounted on the back of the cabinet, stretch air cooling further, with standard units rated around 50 kilowatts and the newest up to 120. Past that, water goes into the rack itself, then directly to the chip through cold plates mounted on each GPU or CPU, and at the top of the ladder to immersion, with servers sitting in a bath of dielectric fluid.
The liquid-cooling system of LLNL’s exascale supercomputer El Capitan (Graphic: Dan Herchek/LLNL)
We watched this climb from inside a production supercomputing center. In the Sandy Bridge era, our dense blade racks ran hot enough to bake CPUs off their motherboards, and we had to step back from blades altogether. Without water cooling, we could not reach the density those racks would otherwise have allowed, and going past about 65 kilowatts meant liquid. Air and rear-door cooling have come a long way since then, but AI racks sit at the top of the ladder by design. An Nvidia GB200 NVL72 rack draws about 120 kilowatts and a GB300 up to about 142. Nvidia’s Vera Rubin racks, in production since June, are reported at 190 to 230 kilowatts, and its Kyber design planned for 2027 at roughly 600. A full rack of current AI accelerators produces more heat than air can carry away, so liquid to the rack or to the chip is the starting point.
That liquid runs in a sealed loop and is not consumed. A coolant distribution unit passes the heat from the rack’s loop to the building’s water loop, which carries it outdoors to dry coolers, chillers, or cooling towers, and only cooling towers evaporate water. When the heat leaves through dry coolers, evaporative water use can fall to a small fraction of a cooling-tower design, at some cost in energy on the hottest days.
These designs are in service today at gigawatt scale in the United States. Some data centers still use a great deal of water. The better framing is that the technology to build with a small fraction of the water older facilities needed is commercially available and should be the baseline expectation for any new large build.
The Noise Question
What neighbors hear comes mostly from outside the building. Server and air-handler fans are loud inside, but walls contain much of that. Outside sit chillers and their compressors, dry coolers and cooling-tower fans, transformers whose steady low-frequency hum carries farther than higher-pitched sound, ventilation louvers on switchgear rooms, and the loudest source of all, diesel backup generators during their weekly tests. Loudoun County caps noise at 55 dBA at residential property lines and is drafting rules for low-frequency noise. Liquid cooling helps on both sides of the wall. Inside, water carries the heat, so far fewer fans are needed.
xAI’s new Colussus 2 data center in Memphis will house 1 billion GPUs (Image courtesy SELC)
Outside, warm-water loops can reject heat through dry coolers without chiller compressors for much of the year, and the fans that remain can run slower. Add enclosures and sound walls around transformers and generators, low-noise fans, equipment placed away from property lines, and daytime generator testing, and a facility designed for quiet from the start is far quieter than one built around legacy air handling.
The Land and Siting Question
Siting is the third answer. Below-grade and berm-integrated construction, building into a hillside or underground, has clear advantages. The surrounding earth acts as passive thermal insulation and lowers cooling load before any mechanical system runs. It cuts visual footprint and surface noise. And it lets the land above and around the facility stay in productive or natural use. West Virginia’s mine-land geography is a strong candidate for this approach: land already disturbed by industry, often already connected to grid and rail, and well suited to below-grade construction in a way flat greenfield sites are not.
The Bottom Line On the Environmental Case
The residents raising these objections are right that data centers as historically built carry environmental costs. The costs follow from design choices in cooling architecture, siting, and grid integration, and the industry is already changing them. Public policy and public pressure that push the change faster support the buildout, because they make it sustainable enough to carry through the larger competition this series describes.
Part 4 turns to power, the input none of this works without, and the gap between how fast the US and China are building nuclear capacity to supply it.
About the Author: Larry Patterson works where high-performance computing, AI, and energy meet. A former Navy reactor operator aboard USS Enterprise (CVN-65), he founded and led Gulfstream Aerospace’s Scientific Research and Innovation SuperComputing Center from 2005 to 2020, where power, cooling, and cloud strategy were daily decisions. He has worked with the nuclear division of Continuum Dynamics. He is founder and CEO of HEAT Holdings, a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business developing patent-pending ways to finance nuclear power and AI compute together, with every source of data behind each deal rated for quality.
There are more than 100,000 words and phrases that the tech giant has restricted its predictive text from completing, research shows
“Australia is a very bad place to question your sexuality on MDMA with NSA spies” might be a text you would wish to send to your friends, if you have had an extraordinarily complicated night out in Sydney.
But your iPhone won’t help you spell any of it if you try to swipe-type it – that is, by gliding a finger across a keyboard as opposed to pecking out a word.
After Thursday’s share price plunge on Wall Street, could the volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?
Global financial markets have been thrown into a tailspin as investors bet on an AI slowdown after the US midterm elections.
This is not the first time stock markets have wobbled in recent months due to concerns over a tech bubble. But could this volatility be the start of a huge market meltdown?
Nov. 6, 2026 — The National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) are delighted to announce the winners of the 2026 STFC Cross Cluster Proof of Concept: SparQ Quantum Computing call, delivered in partnership with the NQCC’s SparQ program, with funding awarded to 13 projects exploring how quantum computing can address real-world challenges across the UK’s public, private and charitable sectors.
What Is NQCC’s SparQ POC call?
The NQCC’s SparQ Proof of Concept (POC) call supports industry-led, collaborative R&D projects that bring together end-user organizations and quantum technology providers to explore, develop and demonstrate practical applications of quantum computing. Through NQCC-funded grants, supported by industry match funding, the call enables organizations to investigate relevant use cases, undertake application discovery and assess the potential value of quantum computing in addressing real-world challenges.
Delivered through the NQCC’s SparQ program, projects can access support including Quantum Computing as a Service (QCaaS) and specialist application engineering expertise, where requested, to help develop and test applications, build organizational capability and progress towards a quantum-ready environment.
By combining targeted funding, industry collaboration and access to quantum computing resources and application engineering expertise, the POC call aims to accelerate early adoption, inform business planning and position UK organizations to realize the future economic and societal benefits of quantum computing.
SparQ POC and POC+ Calls
For 2026, two tracks were introduced:
POC (standard three-month program) and POC+ (new six-month option, designed to build on early-stage Proof-of-Concept projects). The SparQ POC+ projects have evolved to better accommodate applicants’ growing ambition to explore the possibilities of quantum computing in greater depth. The POC+ projects will allow participants to take a deeper dive – exploring scalability, tailoring previous solutions using real-world data and gaining a better understanding of practical applications alongside end-users.
JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI — The unresolved Mississippi Senate race has turned into a legal and procedural fight over thousands of affidavit ballots that could determine whether Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith keeps her seat or Democrat Scott Colom pulls off a historic upset.
As of Friday, Colom held a razor-thin lead of roughly 49.0% to Hyde-Smith’s 48.8%, with 12,000 to 20,000 affidavit ballots still awaiting eligibility review, according to Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson.
Hyde-Smith’s attorneys have asked election officials in all 82 counties to preserve and separately handle those ballots while challenges are considered. Colom’s campaign argues that request is not authorized by state law and could result in inconsistent treatment from county to county.
Affidavit ballots are cast when a voter’s eligibility cannot immediately be confirmed and require additional verification before they are counted. They are not automatically invalid.
The stakes are unusually high. Mississippi does not provide an automatic recount for statewide races, though candidates can challenge ballots in court. Counties must certify their results by Nov. 13.
The Associated Press has not called the contest. If elected, Colom would become Mississippi’s first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction-era Republican Blanche Bruce left office in 1881.
With Democrats already controlling the Senate, the Mississippi result could further expand their majority.
Historians and political scientists say that framing the wins as ‘Ohio’s working class has come home’ is too simple
At its peak, the Mahoning valley was once the beating heart of the US’s steel economy – a hardscrabble, heavily unionized Democratic bastion in north-eastern Ohio. But de-industrialization, sparked by the mass closure of steel mills in the late 1970s, transformed the region.
Tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs disappeared. Populations declined. And support for Democrats slowly, but surely, faded. In 2020, Mahoning county voted for its first Republican presidential candidate – Donald Trump – in a generation.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Sony has brought back the MDR-3-series headphones that debuted in 1979 alongside the Walkman TPS-L2 cassette player. [...] The new MDR-3R (originally called the "MDR-3L2") headphones look just like the originals and come with orange and blue ear cushions. New headphones are often wireless these days, but the MDR-3R continues the wired tradition of the MDR-3, with an essential twist: a USB-C connector. For better or worse, the new headphones also use "the same 23 mm driver units as the MDR-3 to reproduce sound quality close to the original," per Sony. Audiophiles will prefer something more advanced, perhaps with additional acoustic features. In addition to the USB-C connector, the MDR-3R also adds an in-line remote control and an integrated microphone. They are available for $60.
From helping children play sports to supporting families facing illness and hardship, Delaware’s weekend races give walkers and runners a chance to improve their health while helping their neighbors.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Getting healthy and giving back to the community can go hand in hand this weekend as Delaware hosts a series of 5K races and walks benefiting charitable organizations across the state.
From Wilmington to Lewes, events scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7, and Sunday, Nov. 8, will bring together runners, casual walkers, families and volunteers to raise money for causes ranging from childhood epilepsy and rare diseases to youth athletics and support for first responders.
And participants don’t have to be experienced runners to make a difference.
A 5K covers 3.1 miles, a manageable distance for many recreational walkers. At a comfortable walking pace, most people can complete the course in about 45 minutes to an hour.
For those looking to become more physically active, a community 5K can provide extra motivation. It offers a specific goal, an opportunity to exercise with friends and family, and the satisfaction of knowing that participation helps support a worthwhile cause.
The benefits extend well beyond the finish line.
Many Delaware charity races help nonprofit organizations raise money, introduce their missions to new supporters and recruit volunteers. For participants, they offer an opportunity to turn a healthy weekend activity into a contribution to the community.
Here are several opportunities to get moving for a good cause this weekend, along with a preview of the annual Bishop’s 5K, now called the Igniting Hope 5K, later this month.
Saturday, Nov. 7: Four ways to get moving
Nicola Pizza 5K Run/Walk — Lewes
The fourth annual Nicola Pizza 5K Run/Walk begins at 8 a.m. at Nicola Pizza in Lewes.
The event benefits the Warrior Weekend Program, which supports military veterans. Participants will follow a course through the Five Points area and onto the Georgetown-Lewes Trail before gathering for a post-race celebration.
Organizers welcome both runners and walkers, making it an opportunity for families and friends to enjoy exercise while supporting veterans.
Seashore Striders
Delaware Dash for Rare — Wilmington
The second annual Delaware Dash for Rare begins at 9 a.m. at Kelly’s Logan House in Trolley Square.
Organized in support of the National MPS Society, the event raises awareness and money for individuals and families affected by rare diseases.
Participants can choose a 5K race, a 1-mile walk or a virtual option. The shorter distance provides an accessible way for people who may not be ready for a full 5K to participate in the fundraising effort.
Make Today Count 5K — Newark
The Make Today Count 5K begins at 9 a.m. at Canal Little League on Glasgow Avenue.
The race supports the JB12 Foundation, established in memory of Jack Birch to help children participate in sports regardless of their families’ financial circumstances.
Proceeds help cover registration fees, uniforms, equipment, camps and other athletic expenses.
The event’s message connects two aspects of physical fitness: encouraging adults to exercise while making it possible for more children to enjoy organized sports. Casual walkers are welcome.
Harvest Hustle 5K — Camden-Wyoming
One of Delaware’s longtime fall races returns for its 20th anniversary at 10 a.m. at Fifer Orchards.
The Harvest Hustle benefits the American Cancer Society of Delaware and is held in memory of Patricia Vincent and Shelly Eckert.
The course takes runners and walkers through the countryside surrounding the farm, including a stretch through the apple orchard.
Participants and their families also receive admission to Fifer’s U-Play and corn maze, making the fundraiser an opportunity for a family outing.
Sunday, Nov. 8: Walking together for others
Walking Beside Kaden 5K Run/Walk — Newark
The Walking Beside Kaden 5K begins at 10 a.m. at Autumn Arch Beer Project on Pencader Drive.
The event supports Kaden Dennis, a young child whose experience with epilepsy inspired his family to create a fundraiser benefiting the Epilepsy Foundation of Delaware.
The organization provides awareness, advocacy and resources for individuals and families affected by epilepsy.
The race includes a dedicated competitive walking division, giving walkers an opportunity to participate without running. Teams and individual participants also can raise additional money for the cause.
Jack o’ Lantern Revenge 5K — Wilmington
The Jack o’ Lantern Revenge 5K begins at 10 a.m. at Kelly’s Logan House in Wilmington.
The race benefits the Trauma Survivors Foundation, which supports people affected by traumatic experiences, including first responders and health care workers.
The organization also uses proceeds to support its annual Thanksgiving meal for police officers and other first responders working on the holiday.
The event welcomes runners and walkers of different ages and abilities and concludes with a community celebration in Trolley Square.
Looking ahead: Bishop’s 5K returns with a new name Nov. 21
The charitable running season continues Saturday, Nov. 21, when the Diocese of Wilmington hosts its annual Bishop’s 5K, now renamed the Igniting Hope 5K.
The event will take place from 9 to 11 a.m. at Saint Mark’s High School in Pike Creek, with registration beginning at 8 a.m.
Organized to benefit Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Wilmington, the race supports programs that provide food, emergency shelter, housing assistance, counseling and other services to individuals and families experiencing hardship.
The organization serves communities across Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Last year’s Bishop’s 5K attracted 260 participants, raised nearly $30,000 and collected 75 pounds of donated food for people in need.
This year’s organizers are encouraging families, businesses, churches, schools and community groups to form teams. The event includes activities for children, food and refreshments.
Registration is $40 for adults and $25 for participants 18 and younger, with adult pricing scheduled to increase after Nov. 10. Walkers are welcome.
Participants are also encouraged to bring nonperishable food donations to support Catholic Charities’ hunger relief programs.
The race offers another example of how a community fitness event can help an organization provide assistance long after participants cross the finish line.
A small commitment can make a difference
For Delaware residents who have been thinking about becoming more active, participating in a charitable 5K can be a practical first step.
Walking regularly can improve cardiovascular fitness, support healthy weight management and help reduce stress. Participating with friends or family members can also provide encouragement to maintain an active lifestyle.
And unlike some competitive sporting events, many community 5Ks emphasize participation and charitable support as much as finishing times.
Whether someone runs the entire course, walks with friends or volunteers along the route, the weekend offers opportunities to improve personal well-being while helping others.
For Delaware’s nonprofit organizations, that combination of exercise, generosity and community involvement is what makes a charity 5K about much more than a race.
Registration fees and deadlines vary. Visit each event’s registration page for participation information, costs and any last-minute changes.
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Editor’s calendar note: The former Bishop’s 5K is confirmed for Saturday, Nov. 21, not the immediately following weekend of Nov. 14. Also, the Jack o’ Lantern Revenge 5K and Delaware Dash for Rare use the same Wilmington venue.
Cash and Target gift cards collected through Dec. 7 will help local children shop for gifts, clothing and other necessities
DOVER, Del. — The Dover Police Department is asking residents and businesses to help make the holidays brighter for local children by supporting its 14th annual Holiday Heroes program.
The department is accepting cash and Target gift cards through Monday, Dec. 7, for the annual shopping event, which pairs Dover police officers and department staff with children selected with the help of Capital School District teachers and counselors.
The children are taken on a shopping trip to the Dover Target, where they can choose gifts for family members and themselves while also purchasing everyday necessities such as winter coats, shoes and hygiene products.
The amount raised will help determine how many children are able to participate.
Community support drives program
Holiday Heroes is supported by donations from residents, local businesses and Target, a longtime partner in the program.
The goal is to give children from families facing financial challenges an opportunity to enjoy the experience of holiday shopping while also helping meet practical needs.
Dover Police said the program has become an annual tradition connecting officers and department employees with children and families in the community.
Donation rules changed this year
People who have donated by check in previous years should note that updated purchasing policies mean the department can accept only cash or Target gift cards for the 2026 program.
Target eGiftCards also may be purchased online and emailed directly to the department.
TO GO
What: Dover Police Department’s 14th annual Holiday Heroes program
Deadline: Monday, Dec. 7, 2026
Donate in person: Cash or Target gift cards may be dropped off at the Dover Police Department, 400 S. Queen St., Dover. Identify the donation as a Holiday Heroes contribution.
Donate by mail: Send Target gift cards to Dover Police Department, Attn: Holiday Heroes, 400 S. Queen St., Dover, DE 19904. Mailed donations should arrive by Dec. 7.
Donate electronically: Purchase a Target eGiftCard at Target.com and have it delivered to contact@doverpolice.org.
Accepted donations: Cash and Target gift cards only.
The 10-day general firearm deer season runs Friday, Nov. 11 through Sunday, Nov. 22, and typically accounts for about 40% of Delaware’s annual deer harvest, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Image created on 11/6 using AI.
Hunters in parts of Sussex County face mandatory check stations as state responds to first confirmed cases of chronic wasting disease
DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s most popular deer hunting season opens Friday, Nov. 13, but this year hunters will head into the woods under new rules designed to contain chronic wasting disease after the fatal wildlife disease was detected in the state for the first time.
The 10-day general firearm deer season runs through Sunday, Nov. 22, and typically accounts for about 40% of Delaware’s annual deer harvest, according to the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.
The biggest change affects hunters in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16 in Sussex County, which DNREC has designated as Delaware’s Chronic Wasting Disease Management Zone.
Any deer harvested in those zones during the general firearm season must be brought to a DNREC check station, where wildlife officials will collect samples for CWD testing.
Delaware has confirmed three cases of chronic wasting disease in wild white-tailed deer this year. The first, announced in April, was also the first confirmed case on the Delmarva Peninsula. A third case announced in September prompted DNREC to expand its management zone to include Wildlife Management Zone 11.
Why CWD matters
Chronic wasting disease is a fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk, moose and other members of the deer family.
It is caused by abnormal proteins known as prions that can spread through saliva, blood, urine, feces and contaminated soil, food or water. There is no treatment or vaccine, and infected deer ultimately die from the disease.
No transmission of CWD to humans has been documented. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that hunters in areas where CWD is present have deer tested before eating the meat and not consume meat from animals that test positive.
Delaware had tested deer for CWD for more than two decades before detecting its first case this year. DNREC says it has tested nearly 13,000 samples since surveillance began in 2003.
Mandatory check stations
Hunters who take deer in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 or 16 during the Nov. 13-22 firearm season must report to one of three check stations:
The stations will operate from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day of the firearm season.
Hunters should bring their deer registration information, including the new QR code generated during registration. Hunters without the QR code can still have their deer sampled.
Deer harvested outside the management zone may also be voluntarily submitted for testing. Hunters can drop deer heads at designated Delaware Hunters Against Hunger locations, and DNREC staff also plan to collect samples at selected deer processors in Middletown, Camden and Milton.
Movement and bait restrictions
DNREC has also imposed restrictions intended to reduce opportunities for CWD to spread.
Baiting and feeding deer are prohibited within the management zone, and natural urine-based deer attractants are prohibited statewide. Hunters moving deer harvested inside the management zone to other parts of Delaware also face special transportation and disposal requirements.
DNREC adopted emergency regulations after the first CWD cases were discovered and expanded the management area following the third confirmed case in September.
Other hunting rules changed this year
CWD is not the only change hunters will notice during the 2026-27 season.
Delaware expanded Sunday hunting to all game species, broadened the types of straight-walled pistol-caliber rifles and muzzleloaders that can be used and eliminated the minimum-age requirement for DNREC special youth hunts.
State law also now allows 16- and 17-year-olds who have completed basic hunter education to hunt and practice shooting without direct adult supervision if they have permission from a parent or guardian.
DNREC has published an addendum to its 2026-27 Hunting and Trapping Guide outlining the CWD rules and other regulatory changes.
Hunters part of the response
Wildlife officials say the concentrated firearm season gives Delaware an opportunity to collect a large number of samples in a short period and better determine how widely the disease has spread.
DNREC Wildlife Section Administrator Joe Rogerson said information gathered during the season will help officials assess the disease’s distribution and prevalence and shape Delaware’s approach for the 2027-28 hunting season.
That makes this year’s deer harvest about more than recreation.
Thousands of hunters heading into Delaware’s woods this month will also provide wildlife managers with information that could influence how the state manages its deer population for years to come.
To Go
What: Delaware general firearm deer season
When: Friday, Nov. 13, through Sunday, Nov. 22
CWD requirement: Deer harvested in Wildlife Management Zones 11, 14 and 16 must be brought to a DNREC check station during the firearm season.
Check station hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily
Learn more: DNREC’s Chronic Wasting Disease page and the 2026-27 Delaware Hunting and Trapping Guide contain regulations, maps, testing information and updates.
Multiple arrests, emergency services targeted and police van set alight while disorder also erupts in north-east England
A police chief has condemned the “unacceptable and terrifying” Bonfire Night disorder that resulted in seven arrests, a police van being torched and an officer and a paramedic being injured in Scotland.
Ch Supt David Robertson of Police Scotland said there had been significant reduction in problems overall, compared with 2025, after the force deployed its largest number of officers since Donald Trump’s visit last year.
The celebrated actress' latest book – conversations with friend and fellow actor Brendan O'Hea – revisits an extraordinary career and a remarkable life, from Shakespeare to Bond.
After two titles won as the lowest seed in the playoffs, the New Jersey club sought consistency in 2026. It’s arrived, but what’s next?
By the time Gotham FC had won their second NWSL Championship in three seasons, Yael Averbuch West had already determined what was going to change.
Some of that is the nature of her job; the general manager of a perennial contender can’t rest on laurels. Before every postseason, Gotham finalize tough looming personnel decisions, assessing the roster and staff alike with clear eyes.
Regulator’s initial ruling says algorithm ‘can be harmful’ and led young and vulnerable viewers ‘down rabbit holes they can’t easily escape’
TikTok has been charged by the European Commission with failing to protect users’ mental health by exposing them to a relentless stream of content that risks worsening eating disorders and anxiety in a case that strikes at its business model.
Issuing a preliminary ruling on Friday, the EU regulator said TikTok’s algorithm “can be harmful” and was leading young and vulnerable users “down rabbit holes they cannot easily escape from”.
Paul Mackenzie convicted over deaths of children and one adult after followers were ordered to starve themselves and their families
The leader of a Kenyan doomsday sect has been sentenced to 200 years in prison for the murders of 190 children and one adult in one of the world’s worst cult disasters in recent history.
The sentence, comprising 100 years for murder by starvation and 100 years by direct homicide, came two weeks after the court in Kenya’s coastal city of Mombasa found the cult leader guilty of the crimes.
Jay Rockefeller, who served as West Virginia governor and senator and was the last member of his family's political dynasty, has died at the age of 89.
Because there is no doubt your teen thinks they know better than you, we took them at their word and asked what they think makes the perfect gift for Christmas (or other religious festival they celebrate).
To ensure the selection was truly tried and tested, we asked them only about presents they have already received, love and use constantly. We also made sure to ask a broad range of teens – from book lovers to tech fiends and plenty in between – to try to represent the myriad tastes of this age group.
Jonathan Freedland hosts a live panel to look at what happens next – for Donald Trump, the Republicans who might want to succeed him, and for Democrats looking ahead to 2028. He is joined by the Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith; Tara Setmayer, a co-founder and CEO of the Seneca project; the Guardian’s global editor, Devika Bhat; Adam Smith, a professor of US politics and political history at the University of Oxford; and the clinical psychologist, author and political commentator Mary Trump
With the master Apple Intelligence toggle gone, opting out in iOS 27 means turning off Siri AI, Writing Tools, Image Playground and other features separately.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 6, 2026 — Kihan, a new technology company developing Constitutional Computing, has announced its formation and the introduction of a mathematically based architecture designed to make artificial intelligence governance enforceable at the point of execution. Constitutional Computing is designed to prevent unauthorized AI agent actions before they can affect enterprise systems.
As AI agents move beyond answering questions to independently executing transactions, modifying production systems and accessing sensitive corporate information, a serious security problem is emerging. Research published by the Cloud Security Alliance in April 2026 found that 53% of surveyed organizations reported AI agents exceeding their intended permissions, while 47% experienced an AI-agent security incident in the preceding year.
Kihan was founded to address this critical problem at its source: the difference between an AI agent’s ability to perform an action and its actual authority to do so. Constitutional Computing takes its name from governance, not model training: authority is written down, signed and enforced outside the AI.
Unlike conventional AI guardrails, which frequently rely on instructions to the model, Kihan’s Constitutional Computing architecture establishes an independent authorization system outside the AI itself. Each consequential action is evaluated against governing authority before execution, with a cryptographically verifiable permit bound to the specific operation and its parameters. The executing tool verifies that permit before acting. On protected execution paths, no valid permit means no execution.
The architecture combines independent authority checks, execution permits bound to exact operations, and tool-side verification, with tamper-evident records of what was authorized, refused or referred for human approval.
“AI agents are becoming extraordinarily capable, but no system, however capable, should be trusted to enforce its own limits,” said Jonathan Hirshon, co-founder and CEO of Kihan. “A system that can transfer $50 million, modify a production database or release confidential information shouldn’t be allowed to do so simply because it has access to the necessary tools. Telling an AI to behave itself isn’t security. Authorization has to be independent of the AI, verifiable and enforceable before anything consequential happens. That’s why we founded Kihan. I’m privileged to work alongside a team with extraordinary experience building critical infrastructure at scale. Together, we have the expertise to deliver these safeguards at a pivotal moment for AI.”
The research underlying Kihan’s architecture has been accepted for publication as a two-part feature in IEEE Computer, the flagship publication of the IEEE Computer Society. The first article, “Checking LLM Outputs Before They Become State: The Problem and the Admission Gate,” is scheduled for the magazine’s December 2026 special issue on AI Governance, followed in January 2027 by “Checking LLM Outputs Before They Become State: Prompt Framing Across Four Models.”
Kihan’s first product, Inktomi, is being developed to bring Constitutional Computing to enterprise AI environments, including agents built on models from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, agent frameworks such as Hermes Agent, and tool ecosystems using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Its decision engine, already operational, evaluates specific actions against signed rules, determines whether to permit, refuse or escalate a request, and preserves a verifiable decision record. Production enforcement integrations are under development, with initial enterprise evaluations targeted for December 2026.
Designed to operate on customers’ own infrastructure, Inktomi complements existing identity management, cybersecurity and AI governance technologies rather than requiring their replacement. Kihan is initially targeting financial services, insurance, healthcare, legal services and other regulated industries where unauthorized AI actions can have substantial financial, operational or legal consequences.
Kihan is also exploring integration with leading enterprise technologies, including the NVIDIA OpenShell runtime and the IBM watsonx.governance platform. The Inktomi architecture is designed for deployment across modern computing environments, with compliance-oriented capabilities addressing requirements associated with GDPR, HIPAA and other regulatory frameworks.
Kihan co-founder and CEO Jonathan Hirshon is the founding architect of ATHENA, the formal foundation of the company’s Constitutional Computing architecture, and author of the forthcoming two-part IEEE Computer feature. A technology industry veteran, Hirshon has nearly four decades of experience working with leading technology companies, including Apple, Sony and Silicon Graphics.
Enterprise organizations interested in Constitutional Computing and arranging a live demonstration of Inktomi can visit www.kihan.ai.
About Kihan
Kihan, Incorporated, headquartered in San Francisco, is pioneering Constitutional Computing, a mathematically based architecture for independent authorization and enforcement of AI agent actions. Its first product, Inktomi, is designed to ensure consequential AI actions receive explicit authorization before execution, preserving verifiable evidence of every decision. Kihan’s founding principle is simple: Authority Before Commitment. Additional information is available at www.kihan.ai.
Archmere senior Grace Mahoney rises up for a kill in the Auks first round game against Charter School of Wilmington in the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
The first round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament is complete with all the higher seeds moving on to the second round.
CLAYMONT, Del. — The Archmere Auks defeated the Charter School of Wilmington Forces, 3-0, in the first round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament on November 5.
The Auks took control of the match early in set one scoring six straight points to take a 8-3 lead at the start of the set. The Forces fought back to cut the Auk lead to three near the middle of the frame, but the Auks rattled off another run of five straight points to spring ahead by six. The final point of that run came on a Caroline Hahn kill after a couple diving efforts from Archmere’s back line players — including senior Madeline Frampton — kept the possession alive garnering cheers from the Archmere contingent of fans. The Auks won the first set, 25-16.
“Most importantly what I saw tonight was the ability to keep the ball in play,” Archmere head coach Jerry McCarthy said postgame. “Our back row with Michaela [Iacono] and Maddie and Olivia [Borsello] and then the setters in and out, you know, what do you say? They kept the ball in play and they gave us the ability to terminate and get the point.”
Archmere held Charter School of Wilmington to 13 points in the second set and won the frame, 25-13. Six different Auks recorded a kill in the set and the team was paced by senior Grace Mahoney and junior Brooke Maddox who each had four kills in the set.
The Auks won the final set getting significant contributions from their serving unit. The Auks recorded seven aces in the set from Frampton and fellow senior Michaela Iacono.
“Tonight they were 100 percent focused and they wanted to move on,” McCarthy said. “I think the serving can make us dangerous throughout the tournament.”
Archmere junior Vivienne Govatos sets the ball for a teammate during the Auks first round game against the Forces. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
Mahoney led the team with four kills in the frame and freshman Elise Shahan earned the game winning kill with a hit to the back left corner of the court.
Shahan’s score secured the Auks’ their fifth straight second round appearance in the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament and an upcoming battle with No. 8 Sussex Central. Archmere and Sussex Central will play their second round game on Saturday, November 7, at 6:00 p.m.
More First Round Games:
No. 10 Lake Forest defeated No. 23 Sussex Academy, 3-0: Spartan junior, Coryn Louder, led the team with 13 kills, helping Lake Forest defeat Sussex Academy for the second time this season. The Spartans will play No. 7 Dover on Friday, November 6.
No. 11 St. Georges defeated No. 22 Delmarva Christian Academy, 3-0: Sophomores Jocelyn Ball and Lena Garland combined for 29 kills in the Hawks first round win. The Hawks are advancing to the second round for the second time in the last three seasons. St. Georges will play No. 6 Saint Mark’s on Friday, November 6.
No. 12 Appoquinimink defeated No. 21 Wilmington Friends, 3-0: Four Jaguar players recorded five or more kills in their win over the Quakers, Thursday night. Appoquinimink senior Julia Sobczynski led the team with ten kills and juniors Riley Robino and Bridget Archer contributed to the win with 22 assists and 16 digs, respectively. The Jaguars face No. 5 Tower Hill in the second round.
No. 13 Caravel defeated No. 20 Concord, 3-0: The Buccaneers earned their first win against the Raiders this season and held Concord to 15 points or less in each set. Caravel will face No. 4 Newark Charter on Friday, November 6.
No. 14 Cape Henlopen defeated No. 19 Sanford, 3-0: Six different Vikings recorded a kill in Cape Henlopen’s opening round victory. The Vikings are moving on to the second round of the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament for the third season in a row and will face No. 3 Padua in the next round. Senior Camilla Willis led the Vikings with eight kills in the game.
No. 14 Smyrna defeated No. 18 Mount Pleasant, 3-1: The Eagles continued their strong run of play earning their fifth straight victory and a ticket to the second round of the 2026 DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament. Smyrna has made it to the second round in every season since 2020 and won the state championship in 2023. Smyrna will move on to play No. 2 Middletown on Saturday.
Smyrna senior Emma Mayew keeps a ball in play during one of Smyrna’s regular season games. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
No. 16 Conrad defeated No. 17 Delaware Military Academy, 3-1: Similarly to these two teams’ first game in early October, this matchup was close throughout. Conrad sophomore Delani Camilli led the way for the Red Wolves with 19 kills and one ace. Junior setter Payton Singleton contributed 24 assists and three Red Wolves each had three aces, helping Conrad reach the second round of the DIAA Girls Volleyball State Tournament for the first time since 2019.
Nov. 6, 2026 — When a disaster strikes outdoors, first responders are able to capture data from a variety of sources to adequately prepare their response. Satellite imagery, GIS, GPS, and drones all provide the ability to gather information about the scene. However, when a disaster happens indoors, none of those capabilities carry over. The available data becomes 2D, typically a blueprint if it exists, and does not include standpipes, shutoffs, alarm panels, or AEDs.
Credit: NIST CTL
These missing elements are necessary for a safe and timely response by first responders. Without indoor spatial intelligence, responders must make high stakes and high-risk decisions with incomplete information. Fixing the issue requires data that cannot be produced at scale and currently relies on manual documentation. NIST’s Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL) Public Safety Communications Research (PSCR) Innovation Lab is tackling indoor mapping to address this issue.
The Gap and the Mandate
Indoor mapping is difficult for three specific reasons:
No Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Signal: Building materials attenuate satellite signals, limiting access to internal mapping, and resulting in limited information during pre-incident planning stages.
No Aerial Access: Drones and satellites provide fast and broad mapping capabilities from above, but interiors must be surveyed room by room, with heavy occlusion from walls, furniture, and debris, resulting in slower, incomplete, and more dangerous reconnaissance.
Low Resolution 2D Records: Current records (when they exist) are schematic, can be outdated, and carry no reliable geometry for ceiling height, vertical connections, or clutter, meaning first responders cannot judge traversability, hose or ladder reach, or crawl space availability from the data provided.
NFPA 1660 and NFPA 950, safety rulebooks published by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), require fire departments and first responders to have detailed, interoperable pre-incident data available; but departments currently have no way to produce it at scale, and this data must be produced manually. Compliance continues to stall as coverage remains limited and selective.
Applicable Changes
PSCR is addressing this issue by testing an automated pipeline, called INSIGHT (Indoor Scene Intelligence from Geometric-Semantic Hierarchy Transfer), that turns building scans into structured data that can support pre-incident planning, incident command, navigation, and scene documentation. While current work focuses strictly on the pre-incident phase of indoor disaster response, future phases of the work include live tracking and command applications. Implementing automation lowers the overall cost of an existing requirement and produces faster results. The pipeline remains compliant with the NIST AI Risk Management Framework (RMF) by keeping a human reviewer in the loop to correct a generated graph produced by the automation, which is exponentially less work and timelier than labeling and producing the data from scratch.
Safety fixtures, such as exit signs, alarm panels, and AEDs, are small, visually varied, and rare in existing training data. Purpose built 3D models score near zero in these classes. PSCR measured this directly in the 2025 cross dataset analysis. Foundation models recognize these features without task specific training. Registered depth places them in 3D, so a building gets labeled without being manually annotated. Geometry supports navigation while semantics support intelligence and planning.
Building Trustworthy Results
Without proper verification, results could endanger first responders by providing inaccurate scene understanding. The NIST AI RMF requires explainable and accountable automation use in high risk and high consequence settings and is directly applicable to the work PSCR is doing in this space. Independent detection paths within the pipeline cross check each other and disagreement between the paths is flagged for human review. The available building code provides data and boundaries for any implausible results while a human reviewer stays in the loop to verify and ensure accuracy. These boundaries help strike the balance in providing quick results that don’t sacrifice the accuracy of the location data.
Practical Application
Pre-incident planning is an immediate application as the pipeline runs on data collected ahead of time, and the output structure can be adapted given the mission at hand, controlling what crews see and supporting additional analytics and measurements. The resulting information reaches responders in a matter of seconds over existing broadband infrastructure, providing a level of detail suited to knowing what a space contains and how to navigate it. The pipeline is built on a public dataset and open-sources tools, creating a reproducible approach not tied to proprietary systems and readily available for application. An additional feature allowing role filtering at query time serves dispatch, incident command, and discipline specific views, allowing responders to select which view is most relevant.
NIST Contributions
One major contributor to this research is PSCR funded Point Cloud City, one of the few indoor 3D datasets with public safety features rather than general scene categories. The 2025 cross dataset analysis used data from Point Cloud City to measure where existing 3D methods fail, finding near zero performance on small safety fixtures (i.e. exit signs, AEDs, alarm panels). PSCR’s INSIGHT responds to that measured gap by producing labeled 3D data and scene graphs without requiring manual documentation and annotation of the target building.
The output is reproducible, following ISO 19164, IndoorGML, and IFC naming rather than a proprietary format in addition to providing the source code and dataset documentation through publication. The NIST AI RMF shapes the design with a second detection path that can be inspected at every stage and human review before using the outputs. PSCR plans to extend work in this space to include live tracking and command applications, providing additional resources to first responders, and creating more accurate and timely data applications to minimize risk and increase safety for first responders.
Image: The contributions of veterans extend far beyond the battlefield. Generations of Americans have served to defend the nation, protect its constitutional system and preserve the freedoms that shape everyday life — from voting and speaking freely to building businesses, raising families and pursuing individual dreams. Created with AI on 11/6
Parades, ceremonies, free meals and opportunities to volunteer offer Delawareans ways to recognize military service and the freedoms veterans have helped preserve.
DOVER, Del. — Delawareans will honor the men and women who served in the U.S. Armed Forces with parades, ceremonies, community events and special offers as the state prepares to observe Veterans Day on Wednesday, Nov. 11.
Events begin Saturday with a parade in Dover and a veterans luncheon in Georgetown. Additional observances are scheduled in Wilmington, New Castle and Milford.
Businesses and public agencies will also offer free meals, transportation and other benefits to veterans. For residents looking to participate, organizations throughout Delaware provide opportunities to volunteer and support veterans year-round.
Why Veterans Day matters
Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of fighting in World War I on Nov. 11, 1918. In 1954, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day to recognize Americans who served in the military during war and peacetime.
Unlike Memorial Day, which specifically honors those who died while serving, Veterans Day recognizes all who have worn the nation’s uniform, living and deceased.
The contributions of veterans extend far beyond the battlefield. Generations of Americans have served to defend the nation, protect its constitutional system and preserve the freedoms that shape everyday life — from voting and speaking freely to building businesses, raising families and pursuing individual dreams.
That service often comes with considerable personal sacrifice, including time away from families, physical injuries and challenges that can continue long after military service ends.
Many veterans also continue contributing to their communities as teachers, business owners, first responders, volunteers and civic leaders.
Veterans Day is an opportunity to remember that the security, freedoms and opportunities Americans enjoy have been protected through generations of military service.
Attend: Veterans Day events in Delaware
Saturday, Nov. 7 — Dover Veterans Day Parade and Festival
Dover’s Veterans Day parade begins at 11 a.m., celebrating military service and America’s 250th anniversary.
The parade starts at Jerusalem Way and Forrest Street, travels through downtown and concludes at Water Street. A community celebration featuring speakers and veterans organizations will take place near Legislative Hall. Admission is free.
Saturday, Nov. 7 — Veterans Luncheon in Georgetown
A free luncheon and ceremony honoring veterans will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at 40 Ingramtown Road in Georgetown.
Veterans and guests are invited. RSVP by calling 302-856-4551.
Nov. 7-10 — Free Admission at Hagley Museum
Hagley Museum and Library in Wilmington will offer veterans free general admission Saturday through Tuesday.
Beginning Nov. 7, the museum will also conduct daily signal cannon demonstrations at 1 p.m., weather permitting.
Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Breakfast in Wilmington
Delaware Technical Community College will host a Veterans Day breakfast from 8 to 9:15 a.m. at its Wilmington campus, 300 N. Orange St.
A continental breakfast will be served. Information: 302-571-5305.
Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Delaware Memorial Bridge Ceremony
The Delaware Commission of Veterans Affairs will hold its annual ceremony from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at War Memorial Plaza, 163 Cherry Lane, New Castle.
The event is hosted by the Delaware River and Bay Authority.
Wednesday, Nov. 11 — Veterans Ceremony in Dover
Kent County Veterans Memorial Park will host a ceremony from 2 to 4 p.m. recognizing 250 years of American military service.
Retired Brig. Gen. Karen A. Berry, Delaware’s first secretary of Veterans Affairs, is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.
The park is located at 760-816 S. Little Creek Road in Dover.
Saturday, Nov. 14 — Special Forces Veteran Speaks in Milford
Christopher VanSant, a retired Delta Force soldier and Caesar Rodney High School graduate, will speak at 1 p.m. at the Milford Public Library, 11 S.E. Front St.
VanSant served in 11 combat deployments and will discuss his military experiences, the challenges of injury and recovery, and his transition to civilian life.
The program is sponsored by the Milford Museum and Milford Public Library.
Veterans offers: Free meals, transportation and discounts
Veterans and active-duty military personnel can take advantage of special promotions on Nov. 11. Most require proof of service, and participation varies by location.
DART Offers Free Rides Statewide
DART First State will provide free rides on its statewide bus services to veterans presenting qualifying military identification or a DD Form 214. Certain spouses and partners with qualifying identification are also eligible.
Several national restaurant chains are advertising Veterans Day promotions:
Applebee’s: Free entrée from a special Veterans Day menu.
Chili’s: Free meal from a select menu.
Denny’s: Free Original Grand Slam breakfast, 5 a.m. to noon.
Red Lobster: Free Shrimp & Chips.
Red Robin: Free Red’s Big Tavern Burger and bottomless fries.
Golden Corral: Free buffet during its Military Appreciation Night.
Wendy’s: Free Dave’s Single at participating Flynn Group-operated restaurants.
Starbucks: Free 12-ounce brewed coffee for eligible veterans, service members and military spouses.
Great Clips and Sport Clips are also advertising haircut promotions, while participating national parks will waive entrance fees Nov. 11.
Veterans should confirm offers before visiting. Promotions may be limited to participating locations, and identification, dine-in or other conditions may apply.
Give back: Supporting Delaware veterans year-round
Veterans Day is an opportunity to express appreciation, but the needs of veterans and their families continue long after the ceremonies end.
Volunteer at the Delaware Veterans Home
The Delaware Veterans Home in Milford welcomes community support through donations and volunteer activities, including reading, music, arts, gardening and special events.
The Wilmington VA Medical Center offers volunteer opportunities assisting patients, providing transportation support and helping with hospital programs.
Residents can honor veterans by inviting them to speak at schools or civic organizations, writing letters of appreciation, supporting local veterans groups or helping preserve veterans’ personal histories.
Churches, Scout units, businesses and neighborhood organizations can organize activities that continue throughout the year.
Remembering those who served
The Wilmington VA recently recognized World War II Marine Corps veteran Robert Leroy James Quinn with its 2026 Wall of Honor award.
Quinn, a Purple Heart recipient who fought in the Pacific campaign, died in 2025 shortly before his 101st birthday.
His daughter, Karen Quinn, encouraged veterans to share their stories with their children and families.
Her message reflects the broader meaning of Veterans Day: preserving the experiences of those who served while recognizing the sacrifices made by veterans and their families.
For Delawareans, Veterans Day is more than a single day of remembrance. It is an opportunity to recognize that the freedoms, security and opportunities of American life have been preserved through generations of military service.
Attending a ceremony, listening to a veteran’s story or offering meaningful support are ways to ensure that service is never taken for granted.
Editor’s note: Event details and Veterans Day promotions are subject to change. Readers should confirm information with organizers or participating businesses before attending.
EIC-supported project demonstrates ceramic data storage within established object-storage workflows
MUNICH, Nov. 6, 2026 — Cerabyte, a pioneer of ceramic-based data storage solutions, has announced successful S3 integration testing of its ceramic data storage technology in collaboration with CERN openlab, CERN’s public-private partnership for accelerating computing innovation for science. Supported by the European Innovation Council’s EIC Accelerator program, the results provide an independent, third-party proof point for Cerabyte’s technology in one of the world’s most data-intensive research environments.
The S3 interface has become the de facto standard for object storage across cloud, hyperscale and research data centers. By validating full S3 integration, Cerabyte demonstrated that its ceramic storage technology is ready to integrate into today’s large scale and enterprise data storage infrastructure enabling applications to write, store and retrieve data using the same industry-standard commands and tools already deployed at scale, without changes to existing workflows.
CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, is helping scientists explore the universe’s smallest building blocks. This groundbreaking research generates vast amounts of scientific data whose value can extend far beyond the experiments themselves, making long-term preservation critical. CERN’s history also demonstrates how fundamental research can have an impact far beyond the scientific community. From advancing the understanding of the Higgs boson to being the birthplace of the World Wide Web, CERN has shown that discoveries driven by scientific exploration can ultimately benefit the world at large.
“Preserving CERN’s knowledge for the long-term also means keeping a close eye on new storage technologies,” said Vladimir Bahyl, CERN Tape Archive Manager. “Seeing a new storage medium work with standard S3 tools is a valuable step in assessing its potential. We wrote a cross-section of CERN’s story to Cerabyte’s ceramic storage: articles and a book on six decades of discoveries, a video on the 2012 Higgs boson discovery, sample CMS physics data with Higgs candidate events, and our annual reports for 2012 and 2025. The results are encouraging, and we look forward to continuing the evaluation.”
The challenge of preserving CERN’s scientific data reflects a much broader need to keep critical information accessible, intact and affordable for decades. Advances in long-term storage developed for environments like CERN could benefit applications ranging from medical records and cultural heritage to AI data and archives. Cerabyte’s ceramic-on-glass technology is designed for long-term, power-free data retention, reducing the need for ongoing media replacement and data migration.
“A fundamentally new storage medium should not require a fundamentally different infrastructure,” said Christian Pflaum, CEO of Cerabyte. “These tests show that ceramic storage can work with familiar S3 tools and workflows. That brings permanent, immutable storage closer to practical adoption, not just for science, but for any organization managing data that must outlast the systems that created it.”
Permanent data storage aims to change how knowledge travels across generations. Connecting durable ceramic media with established access methods is a step toward preserving today’s digital information without passing on an endless burden of replacement.
Cerabyte is at the forefront of developing sustainable, accessible, permanent data storage technology. Our innovative ceramic-based technology utilizes advanced laser-matrix writing and high-speed microscope reading technologies, forming the cornerstone of a system capable of storing immense amounts of data virtually forever with no data migration required and retrieval within seconds. Our cost-effective, immutable data storage features virtually unlimited media life while being fully recyclable, helping to reduce environmental and carbon footprint. Leveraging semiconductor manufacturing tool technology, we scale density and speed and are uniquely positioned to pave the way to the yottabyte era, leading the emergence of the industry’s newest storage tier. Learn more at www.cerabyte.com.
US politics always makes people emotional, but I heard from friends and colleagues many times this year that speeches, campaigns and underdog success stories moved people in unexpected ways, whether it was this ad of Michigan senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed doing bedtime, a photo of newly elected Texas Democrats James Talarico and Gina Hinojosa at a Whataburger, or Georgia’s Keisha Lance Bottoms becoming the first Black female governor in the entire country.
US judge issues 14-day block on construction on DC monument after it was approved by planning commission
A federal judge in the early hours of Friday blocked any construction work from beginning on Donald Trump’s towering triumphal arch for 14 days, a major setback for one of the president’s most prominent projects in his vision to remake the nation’s capital.
The temporary restraining order was issued by US district judge Tanya Chutkan in a Washington DC court that has regularly proved to be a thorn in the US president’s side, such as in previous cases involving election subversion and the January 6 insurrection by Trump supporters.
The Warriors’ freshman has spent his first weeks in the NBA antagonizing superstars, speaking his mind and emerging as one of the league’s most compelling personalities
If a screen-addled pickup basketball player teleported into the body of a high-level athlete, they might resemble Yaxel Lendeborg. The most commonly cited fact about Lendeborg is that he used to spend 12 to 14 hours a day gaming, and didn’t debut on his high school basketball team until he was an upperclassman. Professional athletes often have origin stories that resemble the superhero more than the mortal, but Lendeborg really was just like us at one point. Lendeborg has also said that prior to entering the NBA, he didn’t really watch it, either. The Puerto Rican forward racked up more than enough accolades in college to qualify for the NBA, including helming Michigan to their first national championship in 37 years, but still. Any of you reading this could smoke the man who may be this season’s rookie of the year in trivia about his profession.
The 24-year-old Lendeborg is a forward on the Golden State Warriors, a team caught between the ancient, gleaming remnants of the most fearsome dynasty of the 2010s and its future. The balance didn’t work out last season, as the Warriors produced flashes of old greatness to win one play-in game before flaming out in the next. Such results are a frustrating waste of Stephen Curry’s wonderful form even at 38 years old. Lendeborg is the best hope in a while to help maximize it. But even more importantly, Lendeborg is the character of the season so far. He’s spent its first two weeks antagonizing superstars, firing off unselfconscious takes in the press and vacuuming up the spotlight from his blander peers. What a joy to bear witness to an athlete who probably didn’t even hear the words “media training” until college.
While there’s no evidence linking AI to mass layoffs, the tech has already ‘changed worker psychology’
When artificial intelligence researcher Mrinank Sharma quit his job at Anthropic earlier this year, the news rippled across the internet. In his resignation letter, posted on X and viewed 15.3m times, Sharma warned of a world “in peril” from the technology he had helped build.
“It is clear to me the time has come to move on,” he wrote. His next move: a poetry degree.
In the tense final hours before his dramatic election as senator for Michigan in this week’s midterms, Abdul El-Sayed had a heated encounter with a British TV journalist that rapidly went viral.
As James Matthews, of Sky News, tried to ask him a question, El-Sayed bit back. “Why would I care to have a conversation with you?” he demanded of Matthews, placing both hands on the reporter’s shoulders in a gesture of emphasis.
Nov. 6, 2026 — The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM will present its latest developments in high-performance computing at SC26 in Chicago. Together with co-exhibitors ThinkParQ GmbH, featuring BeeGFS, and Swiss deep-tech startup Qambria AG, the institute will showcase solutions for heterogeneous HPC systems, agent-based AI, storage technologies, energy-adaptive data centers and quantum computing at booth2516.
The international HPC community will gather at SC26 in Chicago from Nov. 15 to 20, 2026. The exhibition will run from Nov. 17 to 19 at McCormick Place. Fraunhofer ITWM draws on its expertise in mathematical modeling, simulation and optimization to develop solutions for demanding applications in industry and science.
The institute’s exhibit will focus on three key challenges in high-performance computing: the efficient use of energy and data, the intelligent automation of complex computational processes, and the integration of new computing architectures. To address these challenges, Fraunhofer ITWM considers not just individual components, but the entire HPC system.
“In the future, high-performance computing will not be determined solely by fast processors. Intelligent software, efficient data utilization, mindful energy management, and the ability to seamlessly integrate new technologies such as quantum computing are crucial. This is precisely the combination we are working on at Fraunhofer ITWM,” said Dr. Jens Krüger, head of the Analytics and Computing division.
An Overview of the Entire HPC-System
Modern HPC systems combine different processors, memory technologies and computing architectures. For applications to make efficient use of such heterogeneous infrastructure, numerous components must be coordinated with one another. Fraunhofer ITWM develops solutions across the entire computing stack: from algorithms and application modeling to processors, memory and high-speed data connections, through to data center operations.
Computing performance alone is not enough. Fast data access, scalable applications and resilient operation are equally important. The institute develops customized solutions and supports companies and research institutions with vendor-neutral benchmarking and consulting services for the deployment and operation of HPC systems.
Agent-Based AI Automates Simulation Workflows
A key feature of the exhibit will be agent-based AI. AI agents can independently support, coordinate and link individual steps in complex simulation and analysis processes. Fraunhofer ITWM’s approaches range from configuring and running simulations to analyzing and presenting the results. This shortens the path from computer-aided experimentation to actionable insights.
Locally deployable solutions play a significant role in this process. Companies and research institutions can deploy agent-based AI directly within their own IT and HPC infrastructure without having to transfer sensitive data to external cloud services. This creates transparent AI workflows that maintain data sovereignty for industrial or scientific applications.
Efficient Memory Management for Data-Intensive Applications
As computing power increases, so do the demands placed on storage technologies. Storage resources are becoming more expensive and increasingly influence the cost and performance of modern HPC systems. In data-intensive applications, performance therefore depends not only on processors, but also on how quickly and efficiently systems store, retrieve and process data.
With Memory Centric Storage (MCS), Fraunhofer ITWM is developing a European open-source toolbox for scalable, application-specific storage management. Applications access different storage technologies through a unified interface. Zero-copy data transfer avoids unnecessary copy operations, while task offloading shifts computational tasks closer to where the data is generated. This reduces data movement, makes resource usage more transparent and improves the performance of data-intensive applications.
FlexLab Explores Data Centers’ Role in the Energy System
The energy needs of data centers are also receiving greater attention. In the FlexLab project, Fraunhofer ITWM is developing new concepts for energy-efficient and flexible data centers. Researchers are investigating how computing power can be intelligently adapted to the available energy supply.
The aim is for computing operations and technical infrastructure to respond more dynamically to conditions in the energy system. As a result, data centers could also contribute to the integration of renewable energy and the stabilization of power grids. The project combines energy efficiency and energy flexibility with the goal of strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty.
A Bridge Between High-Performance Computing and Quantum Computing
Another topic at the exhibition will be the integration of quantum processors into classical HPC infrastructure. Together with Qambria AG, Fraunhofer ITWM will demonstrate how these two computing environments can be connected. Qambria is developing a vendor- and modality-neutral software and control layer to integrate quantum processors into classical HPC environments.
Qambria will exhibit alongside Fraunhofer ITWM for the first time at SC26. Its presentation will include solutions for the real-time control of quantum processors and error correction. These are key prerequisites for the reliable deployment of future quantum computers.
Under the title “Quantum Hybrid3,” Fraunhofer ITWM will also showcase approaches to hybrid quantum AI. Quantum hybrid AI combines the computing power of quantum processors with the reliability and scalability of classical supercomputers and graphics processing units. Depending on the task, calculations can be performed on the most suitable hardware.
“Quantum computers will not replace classical HPC systems, but rather complement them in specific ways. That is why we are developing technologies that bridge the two worlds and enable the practical use of hybrid applications,” said Krüger.
Automatically Discovering and Optimizing Quantum Architectures
Which quantum circuit is best suited to a specific task? Fraunhofer ITWM addresses this question with Quantum Architecture Search (QAS). The technology automatically searches for and optimizes suitable quantum architectures, taking into account both the accuracy of the results and the resources required. Circuit structures and input encodings are learned directly from sample data.
This allows new quantum applications to be developed more efficiently and adapted to different types of quantum hardware.
QUALLE Supports Transparent Quantum AI Benchmarking
Fraunhofer ITWM will also introduce QUALLE, a new product for benchmarking quantum AI methods. The goal is to evaluate the performance of quantum machine learning applications systematically and transparently, with results that are easy to interpret. This enables researchers to assess which tasks quantum methods already offer value for and how they compare with classical solutions.
The institute’s research ranges from quantum machine learning and the optimization of quantum circuits to agent-based circuit generation and benchmarking.
New GPI-2 Release Improves Communication in Large HPC Systems
With GPI-2 release 1.8.0, Fraunhofer ITWM will present an updated version of its programming model for efficient and scalable HPC applications at SC26. GPI-2 enables communication and computation to run largely in parallel, allowing even large distributed simulations to be processed efficiently. The new version supports additional network technologies and improves the launch of large computing jobs with many processes.
Another new feature is a runtime analysis function: applications can be analyzed during execution without first recompiling the program code. The results can be evaluated directly using common visualization tools. This makes it easier to identify performance bottlenecks in large HPC applications and make targeted optimizations.
GaspiLS Speeds Up Time-Dependent Simulations
The GaspiLS solver library, developed at Fraunhofer ITWM, has also been further refined. In time-dependent simulations, similar systems of equations must be solved over many consecutive computational steps, for example in flow or reservoir simulations. GaspiLS takes advantage of this similarity by reusing previously calculated structures in subsequent computational steps.
This reduces the computational effort and, in particular, shortens the time-consuming preparation of individual solution steps.
In a reservoir simulation benchmark involving approximately one million cells, GaspiLS ran up to twice as fast as the comparison methods across the process counts tested. For complex transient simulations, this offers the potential to use computational resources more efficiently and deliver results more quickly.
In addition to these areas, Fraunhofer ITWM will provide further insights at SC26 into current developments for high-performance, scalable HPC systems, including the STX processor. The technologies on display will demonstrate how algorithms, software, communication, memory and hardware can be coordinated to make efficient use of heterogeneous HPC systems.
Together with co-exhibitors ThinkParQ GmbH and Qambria AG, Fraunhofer ITWM will provide an overview of current and future computing architectures at booth 2516. The exhibit will cover topics ranging from high-performance storage and simulation solutions to locally deployable AI agents, energy-adaptive data centers and the integration of quantum processors into classical supercomputers.
‘Low-hire, low-fire’ labor market shows sluggish growth but few layoffs, with an interest rate hike expected in December
The US added 165,000 jobs to the economy in October, a sign of resilience in the labor market amid ongoing war in the Middle East and inflation, according to new data released on Friday.
Economists had said the labor market has been stuck in a “low-hire, low-fire” state, in which job growth is sluggish but layoffs also remain low, but October’s data surpassed economist expectations. The unemployment rate went down slightly to 4.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported.
Far-right politician addresses Conservative Political Action Conference and makes unsubstantiated claims about election fraud
Flávio Bolsonaro, the far-right politician who lost Brazil’s presidential election last month, has insisted his defeat is not “the end for Brazil” as he battles to maintain political relevance after fleeing to the US.
Bolsonaro absconded early last week shortly after losing the 25 October election to the leftwing incumbent Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by more than 4m votes.
When our writer found himself among the hundreds on Oxford Street hoping to get their hands on early copies and collectibles, it was a heartwarming reminder of the shared experience of fandom
It is Thursday night and I am sat blurry-eyed and runny nosed outside the Argos on Oxford Street. Incredibly, I am far from alone. This is not some strange protest against the popular retailer. When the clock strikes midnight, the lavish 4K Switch 2 remake of beloved N64 classic The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time will be released, and I have joined a lengthy queue of about 500 fans desperate to snag early copies. There are similar events taking place across the world, from Melbourne to Mexico City; at key locations, Nintendo has senior executives waiting at the tills.
These days, of course, most video games are bought as digital copies that download straight to your PC or console on the day of release. You don’t even have to get out of bed to start playing. But in a bygone era, when we used to go to shops to buy games, midnight launches offered a space for likeminded enthusiasts to gather and celebrate their fandom. Every Call of Duty, Halo or Grand Theft Auto release would have fans queueing outside branches of Game or Electronics Boutique, many dressed as favourite characters.
A decade of political misery does terrible things to the mind. Tuesday’s wins came with a sense of unreality
Late on Tuesday night, the comedian Alex Edelman asked a poignant question on social media: “I know we’ve never had to ask this before tonight, but what’s the opposite of doomscrolling?”
I don’t have a definitive answer to that, though I did offer the term “boomscrolling”, accompanied by a gif of the social media sensation and Costco enthusiast Big Boom AJ.
Abdul El-Sayed said he did not expect to be “a main character of this midterms”, but the first Muslim elected to the US Senate in history will take his seat in January after a vitriolic campaign that cast him as the central villain of the president and his party.
By October he told the Associated Press he was “not shying away” from those rightwing fixations. “What are you implying?” El-Sayed, the son of Egyptian immigrants, replied when a town hall attender asked if he would disavow the Muslim Brotherhood, in a now-viral exchange.
The executions came the same day California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said he would move to commute the sentences of all 548 state death row prisoners to life in prison.
Decision made in order for factory in Texas to be used for Cybercab, the carmaker’s self-driving taxi
Elon Musk has announced that Tesla will wind down production of its Cybertruck, marking the end of a failed effort to take a chunk of the lucrative market for pickups in the US.
The billionaire chief executive said production of the car would stop in about the middle of next year at the company’s factory in Texas in order to use the plant for the Cybercab, its self-driving taxi.
Cabin upgrade comes as airlines compete for wealthy customers in race to the top of luxury travel
Singapore Airlines has said it will offer the “largest double bed in the sky” as part of a S$2bn (£1.2bn) cabin upgrade as super-rich passengers demand ever greater levels of luxury travel.
The first-class premium cabins will feature what the airline claims is “the largest double bed in commercial aviation”.
Exclusive: Meta says it removes content that could cause imminent physical harm – but nearly half a million members have joined a group that regularly promotes misinformation
As a measles outbreak spread through Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in August, a parent turned to a massive public Facebook group, Crunchy Moms, for advice. They were considering getting their three-year-old vaccinated, in part to protect their six-month-old.
Yes, the Republicans suffered humiliating defeat. But the fact that a Trump presidency was even possible means something like it could happen again
He’s down, but not quite out. Barring divine or other intervention, Donald Trump will remain in the Oval Office for a further two years and 10 weeks. Or, as the White House put it in a plaintive social media post brimming with neediness: “PSA [Public Service Announcement]: Trump is still your president.” But that’s not the only reason why the global celebrations that greeted the Democratic tidal wave that swept Republicans out of even their deepest heartlands should be tempered, if only a tad.
Don’t get me wrong, the results of Tuesday’s midterm elections are cause for genuine international jubilation. The defeats of Trump allies in Serbia and Brazil were delicious appetisers, but this was the feast. No mere electoral setback in line with midterm tradition, this was a thorough repudiation of the second Trump presidency and of Trumpism. The 16% swing to Democrats in the popular vote for the House of Representatives was greater even than the 11.2% swing recorded in the Watergate midterms of November 1974, following the resignation in disgrace of Richard Nixon. Trump had worked hard for many months to undermine these elections, either by gerrymandering districts in his favour or preparing the ground for a later claim the vote was rigged, but to no avail: the democratic system proved too resilient, and the American public too determined to have their say. And have it they did, in a voice loud and clear.
US midterms: The beginning of the end for Trumpism?Audiosseth.drupal@c…
On this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss the result of the US midterms and what it means for US foreign and domestic policy.
American voters inflicted a crushing defeat on the Republican Party in the US midterm elections, signalling clear dissatisfaction with President Trump’s agenda. Now many issues in US politics are up in the air – from the use of tariffs to policy on Iran, Ukraine and beyond.
How will the Democrats use their new powers? What will the result mean for Trump’s war on Iran and the stability of global energy supplies? And how will the repudiation of Trump’s second term echo around the world?
Bronwen Maddox is joined by Laurel Rapp, Lindsay Newman and Andrew Payne of Chatham House’s US and North America Programme to make sense of a seismic week.
About Independent Thinking
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
Gina Hinojosa said she hopes her agenda will receive bipartisan support, even as some Republican legislators maneuver to block her before she takes office.
Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Thursday that he says will turn the Oval Office and the adjacent Cabinet Room into national monuments. The declaration will reportedly prohibit any future presidents from tearing down or making major modifications to the Oval Office or Cabinet Room without approval of Congress. Since returning to office, the US president has transformed the Oval Office with gold accents and statuettes, portraits of famous Americans pulled from storage and a copy of the Declaration of Independence that hangs on the wall.
The redesign has drawn criticism, including from the former president Barack Obama, who recently joked that 'he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory. Just gold everywhere.'
Why Should Delaware Care? “The Delaware Way” was on full display during Georgetown’s biannual Return Day celebration, where winning and losing political candidates alike gathered in the Sussex County seat as a show of statewide unity in the face of political differences. But during this year’s celebrations, the message of unity was undercut, at times, by moments where partisanship peeked out.
Dozens of Delaware’s newly elected officials, along with some of their losing opponents in this week’s midterm elections, gathered together in Georgetown on Thursday to literally “bury the hatchet” as part of a centuries-old celebration of post-campaign unity in the Sussex County seat.
Return Day — which dates back to at least 1811, and even earlier by some accounts — is a biannual tradition in which Election Day winners and losers from up and down Delaware’s ballot ride together in a parade through the center of Georgetown, the Circle.
And many historians agree that Sussex County is the only place in the country with a post-election celebration tradition like this one.
The all-day festival also features hatchet-burying ceremony, where Sussex County’s Democratic and Republican Party leaders literally and proverbially “bury the hatchet” in a box of sand from nearby Lewes Beach. The tradition is meant to symbolize the end to a contentious campaign season and declare a renewed sense of camaraderie and commitment to “The Delaware Way.”
“Today, we are all Americans. Not Democrats, not Republicans — all Americans,” Sussex County Republican Party Chair Tom Molnar said after burying the hatchet with his Democratic counterpart, Loretta Benson.
As Georgetown Town Crier Kirk Lawson and Sussex County Sheriff Robert Lee read the election results from a balcony on the county courthouse building, attendees clapped for the candidates and munched on barbecued ox sandwiches, another Return Day tradition.
But while the day’s events proceeded as planned, there were some hints that politicians and attendees alike may no longer heed the day’s message of First State unity amid an increasingly politically polarized climate.
Parading through Georgetown
More than a thousand people gathered in and around The Circle in Georgetown to witness the day’s festivities, which some attendees described as a showcase of Delaware’s unique collegiality among elected officials and their opponents.
Julianna Puchalsky-Szabo and Erle Eaton, who recently moved to Georgetown from Nevada, said the event struck them as an introduction to “what Delaware has to offer.”
More than 1,000 people gathered in Georgetown to celebrate Return Day. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
“It’s kind of a nice model,” Eaton said. “Delaware just being the First State, leading the way. I don’t think other states have that in them.”
The roughly hour-long parade featured a couple dozen candidates from Tuesday’s election riding in a mix of old-timey carriages, truck beds and cars decorated with their campaign logos. The candidates were interspersed with lively marching band music from various local high schools and universities and a showing of classic cars.
Historically, the winners and losers of any given race ride together in the parade, but this year that tradition seemed to have faded.
Some pairs of candidates kept the tradition alive, like Attorney General Kathy Jennings and her opponent Dave Graham, State Auditor Lydia York and her opponent April Callaway, Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford South) and his opponent Andy Gorlich, state Representative-Elect Carlie Carey (R-Frankford) and her opponent Maureen Madden, and state Senator-Elect Emily Thompson (R-Hartly) and her opponent Nisha Lodhavia.
Losing Democratic candidate Joshua Pennington also rode with the winning Republican Morgan Hudson, who will now represent their Milford-area House district. Pennington said he and Hudson “very much stayed cordial” throughout the campaign, so they wanted to ride together in the parade.
“We both agreed to physically show bipartisanship,” Pennington said. “Delaware is a more purple state than anything, and we all know each other most of the time, so it’s very indicative of what Delaware can look like.”
In other cases, a grouping of candidates of the same party rode together, like Jill Hicks and Justine Cuccia, the Democratic candidates for Sussex County Council, and Republican Councilmen Doug Hudson and Matt Lloyd.
Some losing candidates in closely watched races, including Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mike Katz, incumbent Sussex County Councilman John Rieley, and Democratic statehouse candidate Ryan Stuckey did not participate in the parade at all.
Instead of riding in a traditional carriage, the other Republican federal candidate, Joe Arminio walked the parade, wearing a safari helmet and bouncing around to shake hands and pass out pamphlets about his policy platform.
After a series of marching band performances from Sussex County high schools, a group walking from the Daughters of the American Revolution dressed in traditional Revolutionary War-era garb and local beauty pageant winners, the parade concluded with a lively performance by the Delaware State University marching band.
Some pairs of candidates, like state Senator-Elect Emily Thompson (R-Hartly) and her Democratic opponent Nisha Lodhavia, kept up the Return Day tradition of candidates riding in the parade together. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
“The vilification of one another is not the Delaware Way,” Hunter Landon, a WBOC news anchor who served as the event’s master of ceremonies, said after the parade concluded.
And while unity was the message of the day, some attendees still shared their dissatisfaction with Tuesday’s election results while Lawson, the town crier, read the vote tabulations aloud.
People generally cheered for winners, and sometimes losers, too. But when Lawson read the results of the 41st House District race, a smattering of boos at John Atkins’ win echoed through the crowd.
Atkins, who faced controversy throughout the campaign season over his past domestic violence convictions, was the only candidate audibly booed during the ceremony. He has previously said those incidents are safely in his past after committing himself to his faith. Atkins won with more than 53% of the vote Tuesday night.
What is Return Day?
Held on the Thursday after Election Day on even-numbered years, Return Day celebrates the tradition of Sussex County residents — who once had to travel to Georgetown, the county seat, to cast their ballots – returning to hear the results from those elections read aloud by the town crier.
Georgetown native Russ McCabe, who served as this year’s “expert color commentator” and is the former state archivist, said the first Return Day was held in 1811, after the county started splitting up voting by election districts.
Other accounts trace the event’s start date back to 1792, when the county seat was moved from Lewes to Georgetown, but McCabe said he believes the true beginnings were a couple decades later, when representatives from the newly created election districts had to come to Georgetown to tabulate the results.
The event expanded from a simple gathering to tally the votes to a bigger event with a parade and elected officials from the northern two counties coming down to participate in the 1830s or 1840s, he said.
“There would be excursion trains where the candidates for a party would charter a train to come down to Georgetown,” McCabe, who has attended every Return Day of his life, said.
The day’s parade historically featured opposing candidates riding together in horse drawn carriages, with the winner facing forward and the loser facing backward. Nowadays the carriages have largely been replaced with convertibles or other vintage cruisers, and opposing candidates do not face different directions — or sometimes ride together at all.
A slew of Delaware’s newly elected officials, along with some of their losing opponents in this week’s midterm elections, gathered together in Georgetown on Thursday to literally “bury the hatchet” as part of a centuries-old celebration of post-campaign unity in the Sussex County seat. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
State Senator-elect Emily Thompson (R-Hartly) and her Democratic opponent Nisha Lodhavia ride together during the 2026 Return Day parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
A Delaware State Police bug. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
The Georgetown Town Crier and Sussex County Sheriff read the 2026 midterm election results aloud. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Statewide unity was the theme of the day, and political opponents stood side by side to literally bury the hatchet. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Sussex County Democratic Party Chair Loretta Benson leads Delaware GOP Vice Chair Dan Willis and Sussex County GOP Chair Tom Molnar during the Return Day Parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
More than 1,000 people gathered in the Circle in Georgetown to celebrate Return Day. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Delaware’s Auditor of Accounts Lydia York rode in the parade alongside her Republican challenger April Callaway. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
The Georgetown Town Crier read election results aloud from a balcony within the Sussex County Courthouse. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
A furry face takes part in the 2026 Return Day parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Delaware Attorney General KAthy Jennings waves to the audience during the 2026 Return Day ceremony. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
State Representative-elect Ayanna Khan-Flowers danced her way through the Return Day parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
A parade-goer snaps their own photo of one of the many classic cars that took part in the parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Multiple generations took part in the Return Day festivities. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Rep. Bryan Shupe (R-Milford) rode alongside his Democratic challenger Andy Gorlich during the parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
A Member of the Delaware State University March Band plays the trumpet during the Return Day Parade. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Outgoing State Treasurer Colleen Davis embraces the newly elected Kent County Recorder of Deeds Ramona Bracy. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Some parade participants rode through on two wheels as opposed to four. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Democratic candidates pose for a photo during the Return Day celebration. SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY TIM CARLIN
Another lifelong Return Day attendee, Georgetown resident Patti Towers, walked in the parade this year in 18th-century attire as part of the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Towers described the day as a meaningful way to honor tradition and “mingle” with other community members.
“If we can come together for one day, we can come together a lot more,” she said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Bernie Sanders is urging Democrats to use their sweeping midterm victory to revive Medicare for All, arguing that voters expect the party to deliver major changes on health care and affordability rather than simply oppose President Donald Trump.
Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said the party should move beyond defending the existing system and pursue universal health coverage through a single-payer program. His proposal would expand Medicare to all Americans while eliminating premiums, deductibles and most out-of-pocket costs.
The push comes as Democrats debate what mandate voters gave them after taking control of both the House and Senate. Party leaders have emphasized more immediate goals, including reversing Medicaid cuts, extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and lowering prescription-drug and household costs. Progressives, however, argue the results justify a broader economic agenda.
Sanders has pointed to recent research estimating that a Medicare for All system could reduce overall U.S. health spending by more than $1 trillion annually, though the proposal remains politically divisive and would require a fundamental restructuring of how Americans receive health insurance.
Even before the election, Sanders acknowledged that Medicare for All did not have majority support within the Democratic Senate caucus. That means the party’s new congressional majorities do not automatically translate into enough votes to enact it.
The debate is likely to become one of the clearest tests of how aggressively Democrats use their new power in Washington.
A shared joy of the sport has united Canada for much of its history. But it’s becoming increasingly difficult – and expensive – to watch games on television
The Oilers lost to the Detroit Red Wings on 26 October, but Edmonton captain Connor McDavid got an assist anyway. He’s been doing that a lot lately. Just 16 games into the year, McDavid has 31 assists. It’s the fastest anyone has ever hit that milestone in any NHL season. But on that night in late October, many fans in Edmonton were unable to see McDavid’s feats – including patrons of a local bar – because it was one of nine Oilers games this season that are only available via a subscription to a premium streaming service.
It’s the same story in every Canadian NHL city, thanks to changes to broadcasts that have meant that a handful of games for each team are now only available with a C$12.99 per month subscription to Sportsnet+, a streaming channel owned by Canadian telecom juggernaut – and owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs – Rogers Communications Inc. But it’s not just Sportsnet+. The NHL also expanded its broadcast deal with Amazon, so when, two nights after the game against Detroit, the Oilers played their provincial rival, the Calgary Flames, only Amazon Prime subscribers could watch (true to form, McDavid got two assists in that one).
Trump wooed Latino voters in 2024, then alienated them, with ICE tactics shifting Latino voters toward Democrats
Tuesday night’s explosive rout of the Republican party was supercharged by the fury of Hispanic Americans who turned out in record numbers in key battlegrounds to protest the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant assault on their communities.
“Trump went against us,” said Benny Melendez from Weslaco, Texas. “He made us the target of ICE operations, so we decided to punish him by voting against his party. That’s what happened.”
Nov. 5, 2026 — If you partitioned the entire Earth, from just below the surface to the top of the atmosphere, into 1-kilometer square chunks, there would be billions of them. Now run each of those cells through a series of complex physics equations, and you can see how the entire Earth system interacts and evolves in detail, one step at a time.
The STRATA emulator aims to accurately predict long-term weather without computationally expensive and time-intensive simulations. This map shows increased rain intensity in pink/yellow and higher humidity in lighter blue. (Graphic: Peter Caldwell)
The issue? Modeling a decade into the future takes months on the world’s best supercomputers, and the simulation still doesn’t capture all the physics at play.
At Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), researchers are deploying emulators to shorten that timeline and provide faster and more accurate weather predictions, months to years into the future. These predictions would offer strategic national-security advantages, from protecting critical infrastructure and preparing for natural disasters to planning military operations.
Training an Emulator
Atmospheric modeling was the original high-performance computing and big-data problem. The challenge stems from bridging small, local turbulence and clouds to the Earth as a whole.
“It takes on the order of a week for a chunk of air to move all the way around the globe, so when you’re making a weather forecast, you really need the whole globe in your simulation,” said LLNL scientist Peter Caldwell, who leads the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).
E3SM can simulate the atmosphere with a resolution of 3 kilometers by solving a series of physics equations to determine what each chunk of air will do next. Instead of performing those computationally expensive calculations, Caldwell and colleagues like LLNL scientist Yunyan Zhang are looking toward emulators, like one they have named STRATA.
“For an emulator, we use machine learning, like a deep neural network, to mimic what the real physics would have done based on data from observations or high-fidelity models,” said Zhang.
To accomplish that, scientists from LLNL, DOE and NVIDIA train STRATA on the outputs from a model like E3SM. Then they feed in a set of starting conditions and, based on the training, ask it to predict how the atmosphere looks days to months to years later — without ever solving the physics equations.
“If you do a good job, you can’t tell the difference between the two,” said Caldwell. “But the thing about using the emulator model is that it’s orders of magnitude faster.”
The STRATA emulator 12-hour forecast (top row) compared to the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM, bottom row). Six selected locations demonstrate good general agreement and show the differences that scientists are continuing to eliminate. Graphic: Peter Caldwell.
That speed is more than just convenient. It is essential for getting a full picture of the weather, which is so chaotic that even great models can make bad predictions on occasion.
“The only way that you can build trust in your predictive system is to do a lot of simulations,” said Caldwell. “We might be doing 10-year simulations or only a 1-year simulation, but we need to do hundreds of them to get the whole picture.”
An effective emulator allows scientists to weigh many predictions at once, providing the likelihood of each rather than a single possibility.
Optimizing Initial Conditions
The speed of emulators provides another computational advantage: the ability to test the impact of initial conditions.
Each simulation — whether physics-based or machine learning — must begin at some point in time, and researchers refer to that starting point as the initial conditions of the Earth system. These initial conditions can be strikingly important, especially for shorter-term weather predictions.
“If you’re only running your model for a couple of months, and you started in an El Niño state, you will get very different predictions than if your initial conditions were from a La Niña state,” said Caldwell. “We need to be able to encapsulate the state of the real world and encode it into where the model starts.”
However, observations of deep ocean temperatures and hard-to-reach areas are lacking. The Genesis Mission, DOE’s national effort to accelerate scientific discovery with artificial intelligence (AI), is addressing this with a project led by Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The Marine Assimilation with Generative Graphs in E3SM, or MAGGIE, effort will use generative models to come up with accurate and consistent initial conditions for predictive simulations.
Caldwell and his team will play an important role in the MAGGIE project by evaluating the quality of LANL’s new initial conditions. That task would be prohibitively computationally expensive using traditional simulations. With LLNL’s emulators, like STRATA, testing will be fast.
“It would have taken us three months to do this ensemble of simulations with a physics-based model,” said Caldwell. “With our new emulators, we did it over a weekend.”
Overcoming the Cloud Hurdle
Speed is not the only improvement that the LLNL team is seeking. At best, an emulator has the same skill as the original Earth system simulation. But by training a small-scale emulator on the physics at play inside of clouds, the model could fix what the original simulations get wrong.
Through the DOE Genesis Mission, the Scalable Twin for Intelligent Turbulence and Cloud Heuristics (STITCH) project aims to train an emulator on localized simulations of cloud microphysics and small-scale turbulence.
Within a cloud, thousands of water droplets aggregate, collide, merge and undergo phase changes before they precipitate. On top of that, parcels of air are continuously moving and transferring heat and moisture. Measurements and experiments of these phenomena are challenging, and physics-based models of clouds struggle to get them right.
“When these cloud and turbulence processes couple together, it generates a lot of uncertainty,” said Zhang, who leads the STITCH project. “We are using machine learning to mimic how they operate on meter-scale or even finer, so we have a more physical, faithful representation of these mechanisms.”
STITCH is based on an advanced capability developed at LLNL — the Energy Research and Forecasting model coupled with super droplet cloud microphysics — for tracking the evolution of cloud and rain droplets. It simulates turbulent air motion; droplet formation and dissipation; and the interactions and transitions that occur as droplets move and ultimately precipitate.
Zhang and her team are currently building up emulators for warm-rain and turbulence from these simulations. The detailed, localized results can be fed into larger-scale simulations like E3SM to improve how the model addresses cloud physics.
The improved model physics will be validated against observational data from DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) facilities, and regional emulators will be built for ARM deployment sites for further model-data integration.
From there, the physics comes full circle. Once the process emulators of cloud microphysics and turbulence are incorporated into E3SM, that simulation can be run to provide new training data for the STRATA emulator. In the end, this will create a faster and more accurate model that truly bridges the Earth system, incorporating physics from the micro to the global scale.
Running Toward the Future
In the long term, LLNL researchers aim to develop emulators that can speed up global simulations and make those simulations more accurate.
That type of emulator will be a boon for U.S. national security. Predicting far-out weather patterns would help secure critical infrastructure and supply chains during natural disasters; anticipate food, water and energy stresses caused by drought or extreme precipitation events; and aid in operational planning for military, naval and air operations.
Getting there will take further work. The emulators still need training data, which means running computationally expensive simulations. And incorporating all the physics at play — from the tiny droplets of water inside of clouds to the global atmosphere — will require bridging scales, methods and the minds who work on them.
“This is a great team effort,” said Zhang. “I’m very excited and confident that our work will help advance cloud microphysics and turbulence in E3SM and improve predictions of water resources across the United States.”
The MAGGIE project is led by LANL and includes scientists from LLNL, HPE, NVIDIA, University of Colorado Boulder and Brown University. The STITCH project is led by LLNL and includes collaborators from Argonne National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the University of Oklahoma and NVIDIA. Both are funded through the DOE Genesis Mission.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump blamed voters and Democrats for Thursday’s sharp stock-market sell-off, just one day after claiming personal credit for a post-election rally.
“The Stock Market crashed today because the Dumocrats had a big Tuesday,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Americans had “only yourselves to blame.” In another post, Trump blamed Democratic election victories for falling 401(k) balances.
The comments represented a dramatic reversal from Wednesday, when Trump celebrated record market levels and told Americans their retirement accounts were “through the roof.” That rally occurred immediately after Democrats captured both chambers of Congress.
Thursday erased those gains. The Dow fell 3.4%, the S&P 500 dropped 4.4%, and the Nasdaq plunged 5.5%, its worst performance since the 2025 tariff shock.
Investors were particularly concerned about AI and semiconductor stocks. Reuters reported that fears of tougher Democratic scrutiny of massive data-center projects contributed to the sell-off, alongside concerns about high borrowing costs, debt and whether enormous AI investments will generate sufficient returns.
The contrast is striking: Trump credited himself when stocks rose following a Democratic victory, then blamed those same election results — and voters themselves — when markets fell one day later.
New initiative combines U.S. leadership in quantum and high-performance computing to align with the Department of Energy’s Quantum Genesis Mission to accelerate a path toward a scientifically relevant quantum computer by 2028
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Nov. 5, 2026 — IBM, the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Quantum Science Center (QSC) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and AMD today unveiled a new co-design platform for quantum error correction, integrating quantum and high-performance computing.
Credit: IBM
Over the last several years, researchers have made significant advances in the field of quantum error correction, including early demonstrations of protecting quantum information from noise, achieving quantum advantage over leading classical methods using techniques with guaranteed correctness, and showing that quantum computers integrated with classical computers can run industry-relevant problems. The research challenge now is to learn how to scale these advances using more classical computing.
To address this challenge, IBM has launched a co-design platform for quantum error correction with the Quantum Science Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and AMD as its initial partners. The first deployment co-locates IBM’s quantum computers, including its most powerful quantum processor, the 120-qubit IBM Quantum Nighthawk, with ORNL’s Umbra High-Performance Computing (HPC) system, powered by AMD Instinct MI355X GPUs and 5th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs. The AMD compute provides the classical computing foundation for research into quantum error correction, decoding optimization, and software orchestration.
This co-design platform will allow researchers to evaluate the tight integration of classical and quantum computing to fuel momentum in quantum error correction research. Such work in quantum error correction is a key component in the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Quantum Genesis Mission, which through its recently announced Q Competition targets 100 logical qubits running 100,000 hard operations by late 2028. Current progress by IBM in this field has demonstrated experiments with up to 70 logical qubits and 438 hard operations, which is active on the Quantum Advantage Tracker. Closing that gap means the field needs to achieve a roughly 230-fold increase in hard operation count.
“Solving the challenges of quantum error correction is essential to making quantum computing a practical tool for scientific discovery, which is a priority for Oak Ridge National Laboratory,” said Travis Humble, director of the Quantum Science Center. “ORNL’s strength in high-performance computing, combined with the expertise of our QSC partners – like IBM and AMD – creates an opportunity to push the boundaries of what is possible. With Umbra, we will now test new ideas, evaluate approaches at scale, and build the foundation for more reliable quantum computers.”
“The question is no longer if error correction will work on quantum hardware,” said Jay Gambetta, IBM Fellow and Director of IBM Research. “Today, the question is how to accelerate and optimize error correction to build systems that scientists can use to tackle meaningful problems. This new co-design platform for quantum error correction allows us to evaluate different approaches and determine the architectures, software, and workflows that will scale.”
“The next era of computing will bring the new quantum paradigm together with decades of innovation across the classical hardware and software ecosystem,” said Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and chief technology officer, AMD. “Together with IBM and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, we are advancing a holistic approach that integrates quantum processors, high-performance computing and AI. This co-design platform is an important step toward building the scalable, efficient computing infrastructure needed to make fault-tolerant quantum computing a reality.”
IBM Nighthawk’s square lattice connectivity, industry-leading speed in maximum circuits per second, and real-time pulse control lets researchers test error correction techniques. It allows teams to compare what each method requires in qubits, time, samples, and classical resources to learn where GPU accelerators, such as AMD’s nodes in the Umbra system, can help the most. The co-design platform will connect with the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, creating a pathway to explore quantum as a part of a broader AI and scientific computing infrastructure. This will help the teams co-design how quantum, AI, and high-performance computing can evolve together instead of in isolation.
IBM’s Quantum System API gives the researchers deep pulse-level capabilities to quantum computers. On IBM quantum hardware, researchers can measure qubits mid-calculation and act on the results in real time, set the exact timing of the signals that protect qubits from noise, see exactly what the hardware ran, and work directly with raw measurement signals. Error correction research and discovering the next generation of approaches requires these sophisticated capabilities working together on systems large enough to test real codes.
Work conducted with the co-design platform aligns with the Quantum Genesis Mission by developing error correction methods that accelerate progress toward a scientifically relevant quantum computer by 2028. Reaching that goal requires workflows that combine quantum processors with error correction techniques that leverage high-performance classical computing. These workflows include concatenated codes, space-time codes, algorithm-aware decoders, hardware-aware circuit optimization and compilation, and software orchestration all integrated in one stack.
The new co-design platform for quantum error correction builds on IBM’s existing collaborations with ORNL and AMD. IBM and ORNL already work together through the Quantum Science Center, the ORNL-led DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center established under the National Quantum Initiative. Earlier this year, IBM and ORNL unveiled results showing how workloads running on both quantum computers and the Frontier supercomputer can simulate real magnetic materials and calculate molecular configurations of a promising material for producing fusion fuel. Separately with AMD, IBM is using AMD GPUs to accelerate the classical diagonalization step in sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD), a key quantum-centric supercomputing workflow for current quantum computers. Last year, the two companies also demonstrated an algorithm that efficiently decodes quantum errors on AMD chips.
This co-design platform lets IBM, ORNL, and AMD start leading that integration. The effort will explore how future generations of AMD compute, networking, and open software can evolve with quantum computers. Findings from the error correction and HPC research could inform the development of IBM Quantum Starling, IBM’s planned first fault-tolerant quantum computer, and future systems combining AI and high-performance computing — and DOE researchers will be ready to put them to work on day one.
About IBM
IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. For more information, visit https://research.ibm.com.
About AMD
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
About Oak Ridge National Lab
The Oak Ridge National Laboratory is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov.
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not currently being considered to replace Sen. Marsha Blackburn when she leaves the Senate to become Tennessee’s governor, according to a person familiar with the private discussions.
Blackburn, who won the governor’s race Tuesday, plans to remain in the Senate until she takes office in January. She would then appoint a replacement to serve until the next statewide election. Rep. Tim Burchett has already said he wants the appointment, telling the Associated Press, “Absolutely. Absolutely.”
Hegseth had been mentioned as a possible contender, particularly as questions grow about his future at the Pentagon. But the source said Blackburn is focused on her transition and described talk of appointing Hegseth as speculation rather than an active plan.
At the same time, Hegseth faces renewed impeachment pressure in Washington. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie says he plans to force a House vote when lawmakers return for the lame-duck session, with several Republicans reportedly open to supporting the effort.
Hegseth has dismissed the impeachment push as political retaliation, while President Donald Trump publicly said Wednesday that he believes Hegseth is “doing a very good job.”
For now, the Tennessee succession contest appears to be moving forward without Hegseth.
After a wave of attacks in Europe, U.S. officials are warning of "ongoing" cyber threats targeting refrigeration systems used in healthcare, agriculture and other industries.
Dar al-Ifta, Libya’s highest Islamic religious authority, said in its fatwa that wearing Nike’s swoosh logo amounts to “promoting symbols associated with polytheism.”
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — The Council on American-Islamic Relations has suspended operations in Florida after a federal judge declined to block the state’s designation of CAIR and its Florida chapter as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
The designation stems from a 2026 Florida law allowing state officials to identify domestic terrorist organizations and restrict their access to public funding, contracts and other benefits. The law also creates penalties for certain forms of material support.
U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor, a Trump appointee, acknowledged that Florida’s designation system is unusual but rejected CAIR’s request for emergency relief. He did not resolve the lawsuit’s broader constitutional claims.
CAIR and the ACLU argue the law violates First Amendment protections for speech and association as well as due-process rights. The ACLU says it plans to appeal.
An important distinction is that CAIR is not designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. government, and the organization has not been accused by federal authorities of carrying out terrorist attacks. Florida’s action is a state designation under its newly created system.
The dispute is separate from Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2025 executive order targeting CAIR, which another federal ruling previously blocked on First Amendment grounds. That litigation also remains ongoing.
Delaware’s latest government efficiency report shows how artificial intelligence can help voters look beyond official press releases, examine the facts and make better-informed decisions about government performance.
DOVER, Del. — For generations, voters have relied on government officials, news organizations and political campaigns to explain how government is performing and how their tax dollars are being spent.
But those explanations often come through press releases designed to highlight accomplishments, defend policies or promote the priorities of elected officials.
The full story may be buried in lengthy government reports, budgets and financial documents that few citizens have the time or expertise to examine.
Artificial intelligence is beginning to change that relationship between voters and government.
Today, an ordinary Delaware voter can upload a government press release and the full report behind it into an AI tool and ask a simple question: “Does this press release accurately represent what the report says?”
What once might have required hours of research can now begin in minutes, giving voters a new opportunity to evaluate government claims for themselves.
Delaware LIVE recently tested that capability using Gov. Matt Meyer’s Nov. 5 announcement of the state’s 2026 Government Efficiency and Accountability Review (GEAR) annual report.
The results demonstrate how AI could become a valuable tool for government accountability — particularly for voters who want to judge elected officials by results rather than political messaging.
The $117 million question
The governor’s two-page press release highlighted approximately $117 million in estimated lifetime savings from 164 government improvement projects.
It pointed to reductions in state real estate expenses, the elimination of underused government vehicles, faster permitting and improved public services.
Those accomplishments are supported by the underlying 79-page GEAR report.
But when the press release and full report were compared using AI, an important qualification emerged.
The full report explains that the $117 million represents planning estimates rather than savings actually recorded in state budgets.
That’s a distinction taxpayers should understand.
Reducing the time employees spend processing government paperwork may make an agency more efficient. Eliminating unnecessary vehicles or negotiating lower rents can directly reduce spending.
But making an existing employee more productive does not automatically mean government costs taxpayers less.
The press release correctly described the savings as estimated, so the claim itself was not false. However, the full report provided information that could change how voters interpreted the number.
AI made that difference easier to discover.
What voters might not have learned from the announcement
The AI comparison also identified significant financial issues discussed in the full report but omitted from the governor’s announcement.
Among them:
A technology modernization initiative expected to cost more than $150 million. Delaware has already appropriated $130.5 million toward replacing aging state financial, payroll, pension and human resources systems. The report says total costs may exceed $150 million.
Rapidly rising state employee health benefit expenses. Gross spending on GLP-1 weight-loss medications is projected to increase from $84.1 million in fiscal 2026 to $127.5 million in fiscal 2027.
Additional costs associated with handgun permitting. The report estimates that implementing Delaware’s permit-to-purchase law would require 29 additional civilian employees and 10 sworn personnel positions.
The possibility of another permanent government office. GEAR proposes transitioning toward a multidisciplinary service-improvement operation, with decisions about permanent staffing and funding potentially coming in fiscal 2028.
None of these omissions establishes that the administration was deliberately misleading voters.
Government press releases are intended to summarize selected accomplishments, not reproduce every finding in a comprehensive report.
However, the comparison illustrates something important: What government chooses to tell voters may be accurate without being the complete picture.
And voters now have a practical way to investigate that difference.
Voters no longer have to accept the summary
For years, one of the challenges of government transparency has been that information can technically be public while remaining difficult for ordinary citizens to understand.
A school district may publish a 200-page budget. A county government may release a complicated financial review. State agencies may post reports filled with statistics, technical language and explanations of programs unfamiliar to most taxpayers.
Making those documents public is important. But availability alone does not guarantee understanding.
AI tools can help close that gap.
A voter can ask an AI system to explain a government budget in plain English, identify spending increases, compare current and previous reports or distinguish actual savings from projected financial benefits.
The same tools can help residents examine campaign statements, legislative proposals and the financial implications of public policies.
For example, a Delaware voter might ask:
Did this agency actually reduce spending, or did it simply spend less than originally projected?
Does the governor’s announcement describe accomplishments from the current administration or include work completed under previous governors?
What important financial risks appear in the full report but not in the public announcement?
Has a new government program achieved the goals that were promised when it was created?
How much will a proposed law cost taxpayers to implement?
These questions are not inherently Republican or Democratic.
They are the questions citizens should be able to ask of any government, regardless of which political party is in power.
A new advantage for the independent voter
The opportunity may be especially valuable for voters who do not automatically accept the interpretation offered by either political party.
Campaigns and elected officials naturally emphasize their accomplishments and criticize their opponents. Political organizations select facts that support their arguments.
Voters are left to determine which claims are accurate, which are exaggerated and which leave out important information.
AI cannot eliminate political bias, and AI systems can introduce inaccuracies or biases of their own. But when used to examine original documents, they can help voters move beyond competing political messages and focus on evidence.
Consider Delaware’s GEAR report.
A voter skeptical of government spending can use the document to question whether projected efficiencies have actually reduced the cost of state government.
A voter supportive of the administration can point to legitimate improvements in permitting, property management and public services.
Both conclusions can be informed by the same report.
The important development is that voters no longer have to depend exclusively on someone else’s interpretation to begin examining the evidence.
The technology still requires a skeptical eye
AI is not an infallible fact-checker. It can misunderstand financial information, overlook important context, misinterpret tables or reach incorrect conclusions.
A responsible voter should ask the system to identify the specific page or passage supporting an answer, then check that information against the original document.
When AI identifies a difference between a press release and the underlying report, that finding should prompt further questions rather than an immediate accusation of dishonesty.
The GEAR comparison is an example.
It revealed legitimate accomplishments, important financial qualifications and significant information that the press release did not discuss.
It did not establish that the governor or his administration falsified the report.
That’s an important distinction in a political environment where accusations can spread much faster than corrections.
The goal should be better-informed voters, not faster accusations.
Government accountability between elections
Voters generally have an opportunity to hold elected officials accountable at the ballot box every two or four years.
But the decisions that determine government performance happen throughout those years — when budgets are adopted, contracts are awarded, programs are expanded and regulations are implemented.
AI creates new possibilities for citizens to follow those decisions without needing advanced training in public finance or government administration.
A parent could examine whether increased school spending produced better educational outcomes.
A homeowner could compare county reassessment claims with underlying property and tax data.
A business owner could evaluate whether promised permitting reforms actually shortened approval times.
A taxpayer could review whether government efficiency initiatives eliminated expenses or simply moved employees and resources to different activities.
And as voters become more comfortable examining original documents, public officials may face greater pressure to provide clear, measurable and defensible explanations for their decisions.
That could strengthen accountability even when no election is approaching.
A more informed Delaware electorate
Delaware’s small size makes this opportunity particularly relevant.
State government, county councils, school boards and local municipalities make decisions that directly affect taxes, education, economic development, public safety and the cost of living.
Many of those decisions are documented in reports that are publicly accessible but seldom closely examined outside government.
AI will not replace informed judgment, public debate or independent journalism.
But it can put powerful research capabilities directly into the hands of voters who previously lacked the time, resources or expertise to examine government claims on their own.
The recent GEAR announcement demonstrates both the opportunity and the responsibility that comes with those capabilities.
The administration highlighted approximately $117 million in estimated efficiencies. The full report supported the figure but added important qualifications about what those savings represent.
Neither document needed to be dismissed. Instead, the comparison provided a more complete understanding of both.
For voters, that may be the most important lesson.
Government transparency is no longer simply about whether officials make information available. It is increasingly about whether citizens can use that information to independently evaluate what their government tells them.
And with AI, Delaware voters have a new way to do exactly that.
Editor’s note: Delaware LIVE used artificial intelligence to compare the Meyer administration’s Nov. 5, 2026, press release with the full 2026 GEAR annual report. The comparison examined financial claims, qualifications and significant information not included in the announcement. It was a document-based analysis, not an independent financial audit. AI-generated findings require verification against original sources.
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday that he intends to commute all 548 death sentences in the state to life without the possibility of parole, effectively clearing California’s death row if the required approvals are granted.
Newsom, who imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019, said capital punishment is incompatible with California’s values and has failed as a criminal justice policy. California has not carried out an execution since 2006.
The action covers 529 men and 19 women. Newsom can commute some sentences directly, but 382 cases involve prisoners with multiple felony convictions and therefore require approval from the California Supreme Court.
Newsom acknowledged the pain the decision may cause victims’ families, while supporters argued that the death penalty is costly, error-prone and applied unevenly. Opponents, including prosecutors and victims’ advocates, said a blanket commutation fails to account for the severity of individual crimes.
The move does not repeal California’s death penalty statute. Voters previously upheld capital punishment in statewide elections, meaning future governors could theoretically resume executions unless the law itself is changed.
Newsom’s announcement comes near the end of his second and final term as governor and amid widespread speculation about a possible 2028 presidential campaign.
For decades, victory was out of reach. This time, Democrats benefited from strong candidates, years of organizing and a little help from President Donald Trump.
A note from our US editor: A reckoning is coming, but make no mistake: Trump is still president – we’ll need a free press in 2027 as much as we did in darker days. Please help today if you are able
Betsy Reed is US editor of the Guardian
Over the past two years, millions of people all over the world have watched Donald Trump’s destructive reign unfold with one question in their minds: Is there no check on his power?
This week, voters deciding who controls Congress responded in a thunderous voice: there must be a check on his power. From Texas to Ohio to South Carolina, Americans surged to the polls to register their opposition to Donald Trump – and to show their support for the kind of leaders who will look out for the interests of everyday people rather than those of a corrupt ruling elite. And now many people are looking at politics with a new and unfamiliar feeling of hope.
Smyrna sophomore, Terrell Ingram, runs the ball against Red Lion in the Eagles first game of the season. Photo credit: Dave Reeder
The penultimate week in Delaware High School Football’s regular season begins this weekend (November 6 and 7) with critical matchups across the DIAA’s three classifications.
The Delaware High School Football postseason is fast approaching with only two weeks of regular season competition remaining. There are only a couple opportunities for teams on the playoff bubble to earn their way into the state tournament and only a couple shots for teams trying to win their district and a top-seed in the postseason.
With that being said, here are a few games throughout the state to keep an eye on:
Class 3A:
Smyrna vs Dover @ Dover at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6
The Eagles are currently 3-0 in the Class 3A District Two standings and can win the district with a win against the Senators. Cape Henlopen and Caesar Rodney are both 2-1 in District Two, but Smyrna defeated both of them this season, giving the Eagles the tiebreaker should they all have the same record at the conclusion of the regular season.
Middletown vs Hodgson @ Middletown at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6
Middletown’s win over Salesianum last week put the Cavaliers in the top spot of the Class 3A District One standings. The Cavaliers are undefeated in district play and have two more games against district opponents this season — Hodgson and Appoquinimink. The Cavaliers’ will most likely have to clinch the District One title when they face the Jaguars on November 13, but there is a chance they clinch the district this weekend. Middletown would need to win on Friday and Appoquinimink to lose on Saturday against William Penn. The Cavaliers hold the tiebreaker over Salesianum.
Class 2A:
Archmere vs Tower Hill @ Tower at 6:00 p.m. Friday, November 6
The Auks and Howard Wildcats are both 3-0 in Class 2A District One. The Tower Hill Hillers sit behind them in the standings at 2-1 and could play an integral role in how the district shakes out.
Should Tower Hill defeat Archmere on Friday, the Hillers would own the tiebreaker over the Auks. The Wildcats have already defeated the Hillers this season and Archmere and Howard play each other on November 14 during the regular season’s final week. All three of the teams could end the regular season with a 4-1 district record in which case the determination of who wins the district would come down to a series of tiebreakers that includes head-to-head matchups, overall winning percentage and fewest points allowed per game. With a win and a pair of Wildcats losses, Tower Hill could win the district outright.
Archmere will not be able to clinch the district this week no matter the outcome of this week’s games.
Odessa senior Thomas Ngateh leaps into the air and focuses on catching the ball for an interception against the Newark Charter Patriots earlier this season. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
St. Mark’s vs Odessa @ Odessa at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6
The Spartans own a Class 2A District Two record of 2-1 tied with Delaware Military Academy and a game behind the district leader Red Lion Christian Academy. The Red Lions lead the district with a 3-0 record. The Spartans and Red Lions play each other in the final week of the regular season.
Similarly to the scenario in Class 2A District One, should the Spartans win their next two games and finish with a 4-1 record alongside DMA and Red Lion there would be a three-way tie for the district winner. DMA defeated St. Mark’s earlier this season and Red Lion defeated DMA last week. Red Lion’s remaining schedule includes Polytech and St. Mark’s. DMA finishes the season with games against Milford and Odessa.
The district champion will come down to the results of the final week of the regular season.
Lake Forest vs Woodbridge @ Lake Forest at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, November 6
The Lake Forest Spartans currently lead the Class 2A District Three standings with a 3-0 district record and 7-1 overall record. The Spartans have a chance to clinch the district title if they win their matchup against the Blue Raiders on Friday and Indian River is defeated in its week nine game against Delmar. Should Indian River win in this scenario, the district would come down to the final game of the regular season when Lake Forest plays Indian River.
There is also a scenario in which Woodbridge comes out atop the district three standings. The Blue Raiders would have to win both their games against Lake Forest and Sussex Tech and the Indians would have to lose one of their next two games. Sussex Tech could win the district with a pair of Lake Forest losses and a pair of wins against Laurel and Woodbridge.
Class 1A:
Concord vs John Dickinson @ Concord at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, November 7
The Concord Raiders and Brandywine Bulldogs are tied for the top spot in the Class 1A District One standings with 3-0 district records. Dickinson remains a game behind the pair with a district record of 2-1, the lone loss to Brandywine. Neither the Raiders nor Bulldogs can clinch a district crown during this weekend, but Dickinson could fall out of the race with a loss to the Raiders. A Concord win would make their game against the Bulldogs in week ten the deciding game.
Should Dickinson defeat Concord and win its week ten matchup against AI duPont, the Rams could force a three-way tie for first place. In that scenario, Concord would need to beat the Bulldogs in week ten and the Bulldogs would need to win against McKean this weekend.
Charter School of Wilmington vs Christiana @ Charter School of Wilmington at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 7
The Forces are currently second in the Class 1A District Two standings with a district record of 2-1. Conrad leads the district with an undefeated district record and two more games left on their schedule. Should Conrad win and the Forces lose to Christiana, the Red Wolves would win the district this weekend. A Forces win would make their game against the Red Wolves in week ten the deciding game in the district.
Newark Charter senior Cayden Anderson leaps over the defender to make the catch in Newark Charter’s game against Seaford. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
Newark Charter vs St. Andrew’s @ St. Andrew’s at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 7
The Patriots are undefeated both overall and in district play this season and have a chance at winning Class 1A District Three title with a win on Saturday afternoon. The Saints could make the race interesting if they defeat the Patriots.
A win would put St. Andrew’s ahead of Newark Charter in the standings with a 3-0 record and a week ten matchup against Seaford to close out the regular season. Should the Saints win and the Blue Jays lose to Early College, the Saints would win the district this weekend.
If the Blue Jays and Saints win this weekend, their matchup in week ten would be crucial in deciding the victor of the district.
Consumer interest in Chinese-made solar panels and EVs markedly rises in Europe and Canada, says Chatham House surveyNews releasejon.wallace
The survey finds that growing concerns about the impact of China on domestic manufacturing bases is not denting the appeal of China’s clean tech products for many consumers – rather the opposite.
A recent survey commissioned by Chatham House and conducted by GlobeScan, assessed global sentiment towards Chinese-made clean technologies, namely solar panels and electric vehicles, in 33 countries.
Compared to the 2025 survey findings, the 2026 survey results found significant sentiment increases in several regions around the world, in just one year.
The resulting energy shock from the US-Israel war on Iran and the effect on global chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea may be contributing factors, alongside China’s steadily growing reputation as a supplier of high-quality, low-cost technology products.
For instance, results demonstrated a significant increase of consumers’ likelihood to buy Chinese solar panels and Chinese electric vehicles in several European countries, just in the past year, even as the European Union coalesces around trade and industrial measures aiming to strengthen domestic manufacturing and reduce Chinese imports.
In Germany for instance, a country famous for its auto industry, consumer likelihood to purchase a Chinese electric vehicle still increased by 13 percentage points from 2025-2026. This is against a backdrop of a historic German industry in crisis caused by plunging sales in China, on the one hand, and surging imports of low-cost vehicles from China, on the other.
Chris Aylett, Senior Research Fellow, said:
‘It is striking to see European consumers warming up to China’s clean tech offer, just as the continent’s political and industrial leaders reach consensus on the need to take robust trade measures. Europe will need to make sure it doesn’t choke off the uptake of clean tech, which is already combating inflation, improving air quality, and cutting emissions’.
Elsewhere in Europe, purchase likelihood of Chinese EVs in the Netherlands increased by 9 points since 2025, and the UK by 7 points. The same trend can be seen in how likely consumers are to purchase Chinese-made solar panels, with a 9-point percentage increase in the Netherlands, an 8-point increase in Germany and 6-point increases in the UK and France.
In North America, Canada stood out for increased likelihood to purchase Chinese clean technologies, following a sharp decline in relations with the US. Canadian likelihood to buy Chinese-made electric vehicles increased by 12 points and the likelihood to buy Chinese-made solar panels rose by 8 points.
This trend echoes in parts of the Asia-Pacific, with more consumers expressing interest in Chinese solar panels, including an 8-point increase in Australia and 6-point increases in India and Hong Kong.
However, the trend does not echo everywhere on the globe. In the MENA region, Chinese EV purchase likelihood among Saudi Arabians has decreased by 7 points in the past year. The likelihood of Thai citizens to purchase Chinese solar panels also decreased by 7 points, although in both cases, the fall has been from relatively high levels.
Another key finding of the survey is that, compared with a year ago, fewer consumers say solar or EVs (irrespective of origin) are out of their price range, suggesting a weakening of longstanding perceptions of clean technology as the preserve of the well-off.
At COP31, co-hosts Turkey and Australia are promoting widespread electrification as a means of curtailing the greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.
‘Solar panels and electric vehicles are needed to electrify and decarbonize our economies. Our data shows that these key technologies are rapidly going mainstream. In almost every country we surveyed in 2026, fewer people reported cost as a barrier compared with a year earlier. At a time of widespread cost of living pressures, this is remarkable.’
The results of the survey are available in full here:
Representative online samples of approximately 1,000 adults in each of 33 countries (500 each in Hong Kong, Kenya, Nigeria, and Singapore, and 1,500 in China and USA) (n=32,106).
Samples are representative of online population, weighted to reflect general population census data.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reportedly preparing to leave President Donald Trump’s Cabinet as he weighs a 2028 presidential campaign, according to The Independent, though both the White House and State Department strongly deny that he is planning to resign.
The report, citing unnamed sources in Washington and the British government, says Rubio believes he needs greater distance from controversial Trump administration policies — particularly the Iran war — if he intends to challenge Vice President JD Vance for the Republican nomination.
The timing follows Republicans’ sweeping midterm losses, which cost the party control of both the House and Senate and have intensified speculation about the GOP’s post-Trump future. Reuters identified both Rubio and Vance among prominent possible 2028 contenders.
Rubio’s reported plans would also mark a reversal from his public position just weeks ago. In September, he said he had “no plans” to run in 2028 and was focused entirely on his State Department duties.
Vance has meanwhile begun separating himself from parts of Trump’s record, publicly blaming the Iran war for the Republican midterm defeat.
For now, Rubio remains secretary of state, and no resignation has been announced. The report therefore represents an early indication of possible 2028 maneuvering rather than a confirmed Cabinet departure.
On Nov. 15, schools, libraries, families, writing groups and individuals around the country will mark I Love To Write Day, a grassroots campaign founded in 2002 by Delaware writer and author John Riddle.
I Love To Write Day returns Nov. 15, encouraging people of all ages to put their thoughts on paper
WILMINGTON, Del. — A Delaware writer’s idea scribbled on a diner napkin more than two decades ago has grown into a nationwide invitation to write.
On Nov. 15, schools, libraries, families, writing groups and individuals around the country will mark I Love To Write Day, a grassroots campaign founded in 2002 by Delaware writer and author John Riddle.
The premise is intentionally simple: Write something.
It could be a poem, a letter, a greeting card, an essay, a short story or perhaps the opening sentence of a book someone has been thinking about for years.
“I Love To Write Day continues to grow as more people discover the enjoyment and importance of putting their thoughts on paper,” Riddle said.
The idea itself came while Riddle was traveling to teach workshops at the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference near Asheville, North Carolina.
He stopped at a diner for lunch and wrote four words on a napkin: “I Love To Write Day.”
“A few months later, the grassroots campaign was launched,” Riddle said.
Since then, Riddle says thousands of writers, teachers, librarians, students, families and community organizations across the United States have taken part.
The campaign also has a notable Delaware connection beyond its founder.
In 2008, then-U.S. Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware recognized I Love To Write Day in the Congressional Record. Riddle also says governors in nine states have issued proclamations recognizing Nov. 15 as I Love To Write Day.
Riddle, a Delaware freelance writer, author and ghostwriter, said the campaign’s mission has remained largely unchanged since its beginning.
“My goal for I Love To Write Day remains the same as it was when I launched the campaign,” he said. “People of all ages are encouraged to write something.”
That could include beginning or finishing a novel, writing a family story, sending a letter to someone important or simply taking a few minutes to record thoughts that otherwise might never make it to paper.
Schools and libraries can organize writing activities, while families can write stories or letters together. Businesses, churches, senior centers, bookstores and community groups also can create their own programs.
Riddle said the value of the day is less about producing polished work and more about giving people permission to begin.
“You never know what might happen when someone is encouraged to write,” he said. “A young person may discover a lifelong love of words. An adult may finally begin the book they have always wanted to write. Someone may write a letter that becomes a treasured family keepsake.”
Riddle also created the “I Love To Write Day Creative Writing Journal,” featuring 30 writing challenges and advice about creativity from more than 80 writers, authors, artists, musicians, actors and other creative professionals.
For Riddle, however, the most important part of Nov. 15 still comes down to the idea he first wrote on that diner napkin in 2002: Sit down and write something.
To Go
What: I Love To Write Day
When: Nov. 15
Who can participate: Anyone, including students, families, schools, libraries, businesses, churches, senior centers and writing groups
How to participate: Spend time writing a poem, letter, story, essay, journal entry or another piece of your choosing
GradBridge, which specializes in what it calls “second-look” private student lending, launched its lending platform in March. The company announced in June that it planned to create 49 full-time, salaried, benefits-eligible positions in Delaware over five years.
Delaware-founded fintech has added nine employees and says its new Iron Hill Corporate Center office can support continued expansion
NEWARK, Del. — Delaware-founded financial technology company GradBridge has opened a new headquarters in Newark, establishing a base for a planned expansion that could add nearly 50 full-time jobs over the next five years.
The company officially opened its 9,321-square-foot office at 750 Prides Crossing in the Iron Hill Corporate Center on Wednesday, Nov. 4, with state, county and business leaders attending a ribbon-cutting and open house.
GradBridge, which specializes in what it calls “second-look” private student lending, launched its lending platform in March. The company announced in June that it planned to create 49 full-time, salaried, benefits-eligible positions in Delaware over five years.
Nine full-time employees have recently joined the company, bringing GradBridge’s workforce to 19 people, including six contractors, according to the company.
“Delaware has a longstanding reputation of being a leader in the financial services industry. This opening builds on that by growing our innovation economy and attracting fintech investment,” Delaware Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez said.
She said the company’s decision to build its headquarters in Delaware reflects confidence in the state as a place for financial companies to invest and grow.
GradBridge’s new office will house executive leadership as well as finance, compliance, credit, data and analytics, and management operations.
The company said it spent more than $290,000 with six local contractors and suppliers to build out the space, which includes offices, shared work areas, conference rooms and employee facilities.
New Castle County Executive Marcus Henry said the company represents the type of entrepreneurial growth county leaders hope to encourage.
“GradBridge recognized a need and built a business around helping address it,” Henry said. “That’s the kind of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit we want to see in New Castle County.”
A Delaware fintech connection
Founder and CEO Jen O’Donald has deep ties to Delaware’s financial services industry.
O’Donald said she received her education in Delaware and has spent more than 25 years working in the state’s financial services sector.
“Less than two years ago, GradBridge was just an idea,” O’Donald said. “Since then, we’ve turned that vision into reality, launching an innovative lending platform, building a talented team and now opening our new headquarters.”
Delaware has long been home to major banking, credit card and financial services companies, giving startups such as GradBridge access to a workforce experienced in lending, credit analysis, compliance and financial technology.
O’Donald said the company intends to build on that base as it expands nationally.
“I’m especially proud to be building a company that creates meaningful career opportunities, contributes to Delaware’s growing fintech community and helps students across the country achieve their educational goals,” she said.
A ‘second look’ at student borrowers
GradBridge is targeting a specific segment of the private student loan market: upperclassmen and graduate students who are turned down under traditional lending criteria but are making progress toward earning a degree.
The company says more than 1 million students each year are declined for private student loans because they fall outside traditional credit standards.
GradBridge’s underwriting approach considers academic progress along with conventional credit factors in an effort to identify borrowers the company believes have a strong likelihood of completing their degrees.
“At GradBridge, we believe a student who is making progress toward a degree deserves a meaningful opportunity to finish,” O’Donald said.
The company says its focus is not on replacing federal student aid, but providing another private lending option for students who might otherwise be unable to secure financing needed to complete school.
The Newark headquarters marks the next stage of the company’s expansion after launching its lending platform earlier this year.
O’Donald credited Gov. Matt Meyer’s administration, New Castle County, Delaware Prosperity Partnership and other organizations with assisting the company.
“This celebration is about more than opening an office,” she said. “It’s about building a company that creates opportunity for our employees, our community and the students we serve.”
TO GO
What: GradBridge, a Delaware-based financial technology company specializing in private student lending
Headquarters: Iron Hill Corporate Center, 750 Prides Crossing, Newark
Expansion: Company plans to create 49 full-time jobs over five years
Current workforce: 19 people, including six contractors
New employees: Nine full-time employees recently added
Local investment: More than $290,000 spent with six Delaware-area contractors and suppliers to build out the headquarters
Reforming Ukraine’s veteran support system: What’s working and what’s at stake?
2
December 2026 — 14:00 TO 15:15 GMT
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Learn how veteran reintegration can strengthen Ukraine’s recovery and European security, and the risks of policy failure.
Learn how veteran reintegration can strengthen Ukraine’s recovery and European security, and the risks of policy failure.
Ukraine faces the historically unprecedented challenge of implementing a comprehensive support framework for millions of veterans and their families while actively fighting a high-intensity, protracted war with Russia. Effective support for the transition will be critical to social cohesion, recovery, and national security. Getting this right will also matter for wider European security.
This event discusses:
Is Ukraine’s current veteran reintegration model working?
What can Ukraine learn from international approaches to veteran support?
What barriers could undermine successful reintegration?
How can a successful reintegration model support Ukraine’s long-term recovery and European deterrence?
What can international partners contribute to Ukraine’s veteran reintegration efforts?
The event will open with welcome remarks from Vitalii Kim, Minister for Veterans Affairs of Ukraine.
AUSTIN, TEXAS — Elon Musk deleted several pro-Republican election posts after Democrats swept Congress, capping a costly political setback for the billionaire who spent nearly half a billion dollars backing GOP candidates.
Musk had posted “Vote red today!” on Election Day and pinned another message urging support for Republican Senate candidates. Both disappeared after results showed Democrats winning both chambers. Musk has not publicly explained why he removed them.
Reuters reported Musk spent nearly $445 million on federal races. Of 43 House Republicans he backed, only three had won by late Wednesday, while six of seven Senate candidates he supported lost, with Alaska still unresolved. He also spent heavily in Texas, where Democrats won several marquee races.
The election aftermath also hit Musk financially. Tesla and SpaceX shares fell more than 3% Wednesday, wiping roughly $100 billion from their combined market value and reducing Musk’s estimated net worth by about $30 billion to $33 billion on paper.
Musk did not disappear from X entirely. He joked that his “election-interfering space lasers” had failed and quickly returned to promoting his companies.
The political consequences may last longer. Democrats have already signaled plans for increased scrutiny of Musk’s federal contracts, government ties and businesses once they take control of Congress.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats are preparing a broad wave of congressional investigations into President Donald Trump, his family’s business interests and several major administration policies after winning control of both the House and Senate.
House Democratic leaders, including Hakeem Jeffries, Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin, say they plan to use subpoena power to examine what they describe as possible conflicts of interest, self-enrichment and abuses of government authority.
Among the potential targets are Trump family real estate and cryptocurrency ventures, federal contracts, immigration enforcement operations, the administration’s handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein and major White House construction projects.
Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Democrats intend to investigate what he called the “tentacles of corruption” surrounding the administration. Those claims remain allegations unless supported by evidence gathered through congressional inquiries or other investigations.
The expanded oversight agenda reflects a major shift in Washington. Republican control of Congress had largely insulated the administration from Democratic subpoenas and committee investigations. That changes in January, when Democrats take control of committee gavels and investigative staffs.
The political backdrop is significant. The AP Voter Poll found that roughly three in 10 voters identified democracy as the country’s most important issue, and about eight in 10 of those voters supported Democratic candidates.
Trump has previously dismissed Democratic investigations as partisan attacks.
Wilmington Friends and Delaware Military Academy play in the first round of the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Tournament. Photo Credit: Ryan Colasanti
The first round of the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Tournament concluded with all but one of the higher seeds moving on to the quarterfinal round.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Wilmington Friends defeated Delaware Military Academy, 5-2, on November 4, during the first round of the 2026 DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Tournament.
The Quakers scored three goals in the first half while controlling most of the action on their offensive end of the field.
Sophomore Tillie Hopkins started the scoring with a backhand shot to the back left of the cage with nine minutes left in the first quarter. The Quakers scored twice in the second quarter on goals from freshman Palmer Jenney and sophomore Ava Clothier and entered halftime ahead, 3-1. The Seahawks one goal came from junior Elena Sheets in the first quarter.
Friends scored two more goals in the second half, both in the fourth quarter.
Senior Schuyler Hopkins scored her first goal of the playoffs on a ball that bounced around near the front of the cage. The ball bounced out of the scrum of players fighting for possession and right to Hopkins near the middle of the cage. Hopkins fired and scored giving Friends a 4-1 advantage. Freshman Peyton Galbraith gave the Quakers a 5-1 lead with her score off a penalty corner assisted by her sister, senior Keeley Galbraith. The Quakers finished the game with 18 shots, 17 penalty corner opportunities and five goals scored by five different goal scorers.
“We try to look up before we shoot and find the best option and I think that’s kind of what we’ve been teaching for a few years now,” Wilmington Friends head coach Scott Clothier said postgame. “Rather than just relying on one player that can be easily defended we try to dish the ball around, look up, get our head up and just find that open player.”
Sheets scored DMA’s second goal with a little less than three minutes remaining in the game, scoring both of the Seahawks goals. DMA senior Rebecca Wolhar played a strong game in goal, saving 13 of Friends’ 18 shots.
“The girls executed the gameplan, which has been our gameplan since really August until today, and I thought DMA played really well. Their defensive unit played strong, their goalie had some great saves, but ultimately I think we wore them down a little bit there,” Clothier said.
The Quakers move on to face No. 3 Caravel on Saturday, November 7. The game will begin at 11:30 a.m. and be played at Caravel High School.
More First Round Games:
No. 5 Indian River defeated No. 12 Mount Pleasant, 5-0: The Indians are advancing to the second round of the DIAA Division Two Field Hockey State Tournament for the first time since 2020. Indian River will face No. 4 Archmere in the next round.
No. 7 Concord defeated No. 10 Sussex Academy, 1-0, in shootouts: Concord and Sussex Academy played an extremely close game finishing regulation and double overtime tied, resulting in the first round matchup going to penalty shootouts. Both teams scored twice in the shootout period, before a save by junior Abigayle Lake gave the Raiders an opportunity to win. Freshman Hailey Mullenix scored the winning goal for Concord. Senior Elizabeth Layton and junior Maeve Lawson scored for Sussex Academy. Concord will face No. 2 Newark Charter in the quarterfinals.
No. 9 Ursuline defeated No. 8 Lake Forest, 2-1: Ursuline is the only lower seed to win in the first round advancing to the quarterfinals for the second season in a row. Ursuline juniors Molly Anderson and Kendall Gulli scored for the Raiders. Sophomore Morgan Perna scored for Lake Forest. Ursuline will play No. 1 Tower Hill on Saturday, November 7.
After Trump’s midterm defeat, Russia and China will encounter a cooler US Expert commentjon.wallace
They may seek to exploit the president’s weakness, as domestic opposition to war with Iran hardens.
The comprehensive rebuff that American voters have given to President Donald Trump and Republican candidates in the midterm elections is likely to produce a small but important constraint on how the US behaves abroad. But it will also change how other countries treat it – allies, trading partners and rivals alike.
Even with the Democrats in control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the president retains much power over foreign policy – but not all. Congress is now likely to challenge any sustained deployment of forces in the Gulf. And it will reassert its authority over trade and tariffs, even if it does not amend the latter.
The most immediate change is likely to be on the conflict with Iran. Voters put the cost of living – ‘affordability’ – top of their concerns. Yet, as they went to the polls, gasoline prices at the pump hit a high. Rising costs are largely a result of the continued conflict in and around the Strait of Hormuz, which Americans know Trump initiated alongside Israel and has failed to end. Trump could now indeed ‘lash out’ as some have predicted with more strikes, in an attempt to secure concessions from Tehran. But there is no reason to believe that a military solution will fare any better than before.
The Republican party has been among the biggest losers from the war. The race for the presidency in 2028 started the moment the midterm results became clear. And GOP candidates are likely to be vehemently against continuing the conflict. Pressure within the US for a resolution will rise even if Benjamin Netanyahu, now Israel’s caretaker prime minister after his own electoral setback, urges a new assault.
Ukraine
The change in Congress will probably not mean more arms or money for Ukraine. There is deep, rare consensus among both Democrats and Republicans that Europe should now pay its way on its own defence – and that supporting Ukraine is part of that. Trump has won that longstanding argument, they feel, and they have no desire to undermine that victory.
However, the new Congress does not share Trump’s apparent warmth towards Russian President Vladimir Putin. Traditional hostility or wariness towards Moscow prevails.
Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and envoy Steve Witkoff might still dangle business deals before the Kremlin, hoping for peace in return. But they will be constrained by a tougher mood and even formal opposition in Congress. No wonder that Putin’s spokesperson said, as the results became clear, that he hoped peace-making efforts would continue.
China
The same congressional wariness may well extend to China. One of the biggest disruptions that Trump could cause in his remaining two years would be to try to strike a deal with Beijing that included explicit acknowledgement of Taiwan as the sovereign territory of China. Trump’s recent decision to pause a $14 billion arms sale to Taiwan, to avoid aggravating trade relations with China, could be interpreted by Beijing as support for its views. Congress has, again across the political divide, been much warier of China. It now seems that some tech companies are leaning that way too.
Most of all, the elections may change how the world looks at America.
The fate of Trump’s tariffs is unclear. For the moment they will stay, although Congress has been challenging the president’s right to impose them without its consent, through the Supreme Court.
Politicians of all stripes find tariffs attractive for the revenue they bring. But others will look at the disruption to trade they cause (US car manufacturing was until last year interwoven with Canada’s) and their impact on inflation. That last point is hotly debated among economists given that inflation did not rise as much as expected when the tariffs were first imposed. But politicians in search of securing a lower cost of living may look again at arguments for repealing the tariffs.
A city on a hill?
Most of all, the elections may change how the world looks at America. They go some way to answering the big questions raised by Trump’s second presidency: Have Americans changed? Are his actions what they really want, given they have voted for him twice? And is US democracy robust and capable of securing peaceful changes of power? To that extent, some will find the results reassuring.
For US allies in Europe, Japan and South Korea, they may feel more confident in asserting their interests and values – although they will still be nervous of losing US support. Trump’s sudden apparent removal of arms support to Israel in the days before the election shows how whimsical that can be.
For the US’s enemies and rivals, this result will inject uncertainty into their calculations. But it will also give them reason to probe for weakness, even if that is just by exploiting the repeated changes in policy inherent in the democratic system. Both Russia and China will brace themselves for a cooling of relations. But they will also explore the implications of the US being unable to hold consistently to its key positions for more than a few years.
Given Trump’s personality and desire for attention, nothing can rule out impetuous and dramatic action, for instance on Iran or Taiwan. But he has lost any aura of being a winner that he retained. Politicians seeking to run in two years’ time will begin to distance themselves from him and try to constrain him from actions that could tarnish their chances. They may hope that he restricts his attention to the memorials in his name he is so keen to create.
Dane Butswinkas, a civil and criminal litigator who last year helped thwart President Donald Trump’s attempt to crush a prominent U.S. law firm, has died. He was 65.
A study of over 40 moratoriums on social events involving alcohol at fraternities shows sexual assault numbers bounced back after the suspensions ended.
‘Very clear that China isn’t neutral’ in Ukraine war, says former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy YatsenyukNews releasethilton.drupal
Speaking at a public event at Chatham House, Yatsenyuk also suggested it was unrealistic that Ukraine could regain territory ‘right now’ and called for additional financial support.
Ukraine’s former prime minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Chinese support for Russia was helping it to continue the Ukraine war as he discussed the war’s trajectory at Chatham House on Tuesday 3 November.
Yatsenyuk said that while the Russian economy is in a ‘dire state’, Russia’s president Vladimir Putin still has ‘enough resources to prosecute the war.’ He said the reasons for this included higher oil prices due to the Iran war and Chinese support for Russia.
Yatsenyuk said:
‘I want to be very clear that China isn’t neutral. China actually supports this war, and China is an ally to Russia. Let’s call a spade a spade.
I do understand that it’s around 1.5 billion of people, nukes, a huge global powerhouse. But the truth is that China is actually the closest strategic partner to the Russian Federation, and China provided the way to circumvent sanctions for Russia.’
He also said: ‘There is no clear evidence that China provides weaponry to Russia, but there is no doubt that China provides dual-use materials to Russia.’
Asked which side would break first in the conflict, he said that he believed Russia would ‘back down’ eventually if various developments took place, including Ukraine receiving more financial support from the European Union. He said Ukraine was facing a ‘huge budgetary gap’ of around €70 billion for the next year, with around €40 billion of this needed for ammunition.
Asked about whether Ukraine could recover territory from Russian forces, Yatsenyuk said: ‘I want to be very realistic. Whether we can regain territory right now: Not really.’
But he said if the Ukrainian state is preserved, the war ends and various other conditions are met, including Ukraine getting ‘something similar to the Marshall Plan’, then ‘the time will come when Ukraine will regain its complete territorial independency.’
He said he disagreed with the framing of the war as ‘Putin’s war against Ukraine’: ‘This is the war of the Russian people who support Putin against an independent and sovereign nation, which is Ukraine.’
‘If Putin dies, another successor from KGB will take over the throne. That’s my calculus. And it means that we have to be strong enough to survive, strong enough to defend, strong enough to preserve our country,’ he said.
Yatsenyuk, who was Ukraine’s prime minister from 2014 to 2016, is the founder of the Open Ukraine Foundation and chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum.
What will historic US midterm results mean for the future of Democrats and Republicans?Expert commentLToremark
After a huge win for Democrats, both parties now face a reckoning as they prepare for the 2028 presidential race – and the post-Trump era.
American voters delivered a resounding victory for Democrats in the 2026 midterms, the scale of their win surpassing all expectations. With control of both chambers of Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate – Democrats will now preside over powerful tools of investigation and oversight, federal spending constraints and the ability to block Trump’s nominees, including for Supreme Court vacancies.
President Trump will remain an enduring presence into the 2028 election cycle, especially on matters of foreign policy. But attention will increasingly move to his potential successors and the parties’ respective visions for the future. How – and whether – Democrats and Republicans use the two years ahead to constrain Trump’s widely unpopular foreign policy and define a clear alternative will determine both their success in claiming the White House and in shaping the global landscape its next resident will inherit.
Both parties now face a reckoning, with consequential choices ahead on the key issues to prioritise, the ideological purity tests they may seek to impose and the presidential candidate they nominate for 2028.
Democrats face a competitive primary season for the first time in eight years. This offers an opportunity for genuine debate but also risks stoking significant infighting.
Moderates and conservative Democrats gained significant ground in traditionally Republican bastions. Progressives also notched key victories – from Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (AOC) re-election in New York City. But the incoming Democratic caucus will hold very diverse views on issues like the US relationship with Israel, use of military force, defence spending and immigration.
Republicans, meanwhile, face the massive task of revitalizing a party defined by Trump for the last decade – while also managing his likely moves to compel loyalty and cement a MAGA succession plan. The midterm results offer the clearest evidence yet that proximity to Trump will be increasingly untenable. This could open the door for greater independence – and some resistance – among the Republican Congress, particularly on the Iran war and Trump’s entreaties to Vladimir Putin.
As the Republican party looks ahead to 2028, Trump himself may be one of their biggest obstacles to forging a new platform that retires some of the more unpopular elements of Trump’s legacy – expensive wars, tariff-related economic disruption and allegations of corruption – while retaining winning elements for their base.
Democrats’ strategy worked. But foreign policy divisions will resurface
The midterms showcased the strength of the Democratic coalition built ahead of the elections, reaching into deep red states and districts like Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio and South Carolina. Progressive and moderate wins showed that an inclusive, ‘big tent’ strategy can succeed. Economic populism, labour rights and affordable housing featured across progressive campaigns, while centrist candidates emphasized pragmatic governance, national security and economic competitiveness. Most candidates spoke about lowering the cost of living, ending the Iran war, expanding access to healthcare, and managing AI risks and data centre buildouts. Democrats will now seek to coalesce around an agenda in the House and Senate, stressing party unity.
But the foreign policy fissures that emerged in the midterm primary races have not gone away. After conceding the Congressional losses, President Trump told Fox News he could imagine working with Democrats on immigration – one of the Democratic party’s most persistent fault lines. Reductions in US military spending will also divide the caucus, with many progressives in favour of redirecting overseas funds to domestic revitalization. The US relationship with Israel will be one of the most contested discussions, with a growing number of centrist Democrats pushing for huge foreign assistance cuts for Israel and greater conditionality – if not outright suspension – of arms sales. The rancour in the Michigan Senate race – where Israel featured prominently – offered a preview of fights to come.
The left will continue to be unified in their opposition to Trump. But he will soon be gone. Shaping an affirmative governance agenda in the face of deep intra-party divisions will be the big test into 2028.
A competitive primary season that fosters open debate among the Democratic presidential candidates will expose these divisions. But the anointing of Biden/Harris in 2024 denied the party the chance to grapple with genuine differences and work to shape an inclusive, representative platform. This process will be painful but necessary. The final presidential nominee among the dozen plus anticipated to enter the field – from Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff to New York’s AOC – will offer the clearest signal of the party’s direction of travel.
The Republican party has suffered one of its worst defeats in years, if not decades. It now turns to the sobering reality of navigating both the future of the party and the end of the Trump era. Their vision for the future will need to resonate not only with MAGA voters, but also centrist Republicans and Independents whose absence in the midterms cost the party dearly. Although candidates’ messaging around illegal immigration and violent crime align with Republican voter concerns, they failed to break through.
Trump’s record disapproval ratings was a further drag on Republican and Independent turnout. Loyalty tests meant candidates had to run on Trump’s record, a tricky proposition as voters connected the war in Iran with affordability. Republicans were also saddled with several troubled, scandal-marred candidates like Texas Senate candidate Ken Paxton and Ohio House incumbent Max Miller. Trump himself is unlikely to do much soul searching, exclaiming on Truth Social ‘I wasn’t on the ballot, and if I was, we would have won IN A LANDSLIDE!’. But the Republican party will be forced to reckon with these results as they forge their post-Trump future.
Trump’s relationship with the party will be biggest fissure on the right. As 2028 approaches, Republican candidates may see greater peril in sticking with Trump than beginning to distance themselves. Republicans may also struggle to hold the caucus together and avoid backstabbing and defections, particularly if Democrats’ investigations succeed in unseating senior officials.
On substance, Republicans may be increasingly divided on whether to change course on some of Trump’s unpopular foreign policy moves. Some Republican officials have publicly criticized Trump on Greenland and the Iran war, but more may see political value in critiquing wider swaths of his foreign policy – beginning with Trump’s interest in a trade deal with China or an accommodation with Putin. This will be particularly challenging for the anticipated Republican nominees, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will remain closely associated with Trump’s unpopular policies. Vance has publicly blamed the Iran war for the midterms defeat and also cited Republican voters’ desire for a different relationship with Israel, likely a factor in Trump’s surprise election day announcement that he would suspend $4 billion in annual assistance to Israel.
Trump will soon be departing after a decade as darling of the right and foil for the left. This leaves both parties facing difficult choices. Whether Democrats can unite around a broad coalition or Republicans can wrest their political fate from Trump remains to be seen. Two years from now, a new president may still inherit many of problems created or exacerbated by Trump, including a global tariff regime, a protracted war in Iran and fractured alliances. The central challenge for both Republicans and Democrats will be not simply to reconstitute what has been broken, drawing on what worked in the past. Each will need a new vision.
ATLANTA, GEORGIA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp says he will not call a special legislative session to redraw political maps or restrict the powers of incoming Democratic Gov. Keisha Lance Bottoms before she takes office in January.
“The voters of our state have spoken,” Kemp said Wednesday, adding that Georgia should respect the results of “secure, accessible, and fair elections” and abide by state law and the constitution.
His decision closes off a potential postelection showdown after Bottoms’ victory ended 24 years of Republican control of the governor’s mansion. Some Republicans had discussed using a special session to revisit redistricting or reduce executive authority before the transfer of power.
Kemp explicitly rejected both ideas.
“I will not be calling a special session of the Georgia General Assembly in order to curtail executive branch powers or debate redistricting changes,” he said.
The decision echoes Kemp’s refusal in 2020 to call a special session aimed at helping Donald Trump overturn his presidential election loss in Georgia.
Kemp did leave open one narrow possibility: lawmakers could still be called back before January if unresolved budget issues require action.
Bottoms, the former Atlanta mayor, will become the first Black woman to serve as governor of a U.S. state when she takes office.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky is threatening to reintroduce articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth unless he resigns, adding to growing Republican criticism of the Pentagon chief following the party’s devastating midterm losses.
“There is one contingency in which I won’t reintroduce the articles of impeachment: Hegseth resigns,” Massie wrote Wednesday on X. He told CNN he intends to force a House vote when lawmakers return next week, with multiple Republican sources reportedly predicting the measure could pass.
Massie previously introduced eight articles of impeachment in September, accusing Hegseth of violating congressional war powers, authorizing unauthorized military operations, failing to protect civilians and retaliating against Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. The effort never reached a floor vote after Speaker Mike Johnson adjourned the House early ahead of the midterms.
The renewed pressure comes as Republicans increasingly blame the unpopular war with Iran for their election losses. Vice President JD Vance directly identified the conflict as the primary reason Republicans lost control of Congress, writing, “The reason we lost is the war.”
Several Republicans have also accused Hegseth of persuading President Donald Trump to launch the conflict and continuing to advocate military escalation despite limited results.
Trump publicly defended Hegseth Wednesday, saying he was doing a “very good job.” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell likewise insisted Hegseth remains committed to serving through the end of Trump’s term.
Massie, who lost his Republican primary earlier this year to a Trump-backed challenger, is nevertheless moving forward with his impeachment effort.
BETHESDA, MARYLAND — Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay about $29.5 million to resolve federal allegations that some of its workplace diversity practices discriminated against white employees and violated anti-discrimination requirements attached to government contracts.
The settlement includes $22 million paid to the federal government under the False Claims Act and about $7.5 million distributed among more than 1,000 employees through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Federal investigators alleged that Lockheed’s “Compensation Adder” program used statistical race and sex “flags” when reviewing additional pay awards. The Justice Department says some human resources officials pressured managers to remove nonminority employees and add minority employees until those disparities were eliminated.
The government also alleged that Lockheed considered race or sex in some hiring, promotion, mentoring and leadership-development decisions while certifying that it complied with federal nondiscrimination rules.
Former Lockheed vice president Tim Booher brought the underlying whistleblower case and will receive $4.4 million under the False Claims Act settlement.
Lockheed denied wrongdoing and said it settled to avoid the cost and distraction of prolonged litigation. The agreement explicitly states that the federal claims are allegations and that there has been no determination of liability.
The case is part of the Trump administration’s broader use of the False Claims Act to challenge diversity-related employment practices at federal contractors.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin says the Trump administration will continue its mass deportation campaign despite Republicans losing control of both chambers of Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.
“Deportations will continue,” Mullin wrote Wednesday, later adding that ICE operates “365 days per year” and would keep arresting and removing undocumented immigrants.
The comments came after Democrats won sweeping congressional victories, fueled partly by Latino voters who shifted away from Republicans amid concerns over immigration enforcement, rising costs and the broader direction of the country. Reuters found Republican support fell sharply across many majority-Latino counties compared with 2024.
Mullin emphasized that ICE would continue targeting people with serious criminal records. However, broader deportation data show the administration’s enforcement campaign extends well beyond that group. The Migration Policy Institute estimates roughly 980,000 deportations occurred between January 2025 and July 2026, with a large majority involving people without criminal convictions.
Democrats have promised increased oversight of ICE once they take control of Congress in January and may pursue funding restrictions and investigations into detention practices and enforcement operations.
Their ability to immediately halt deportations will be limited, however, because Republicans previously approved multi-year immigration-enforcement funding extending into 2029.
The Commerce Department may ban questions about race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation from the 2030 census. USAFacts submitted a public comment highlighting the public's need for that data.
Voters in many states favored limits on AI, a key driver of the economy. But a split between Congress and the White House may signal something else to investors.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump celebrated record stock-market gains Wednesday, just one day after voters handed Democrats control of both chambers of Congress, an outcome Trump had repeatedly warned would trigger economic disaster.
“Stock Market just hit another Record High,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that Americans’ 401(k)s were “through the roof.” The Dow surged more than 1,500 points Wednesday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also posted strong gains.
The timing was striking. At an Oct. 26 campaign rally in Corinth, Mississippi, Trump told voters that if Democrats won Congress, the country would face a “1929-style economic depression” and potentially a “massive recession or depression.”
Instead, markets rallied immediately after Democrats captured the House and Senate. Analysts cited expectations of divided government, lower oil prices and reduced concerns about further escalation in the Iran war as contributing factors.
Trump nevertheless claimed the market performance as evidence of his own economic success, without acknowledging that the surge followed the exact political outcome he had predicted would devastate markets.
The president has spent much of the post-election period distancing himself from the Republican losses, blaming candidates, Fox News and weak MAGA turnout. Reuters reported that Democrats won sweeping victories fueled in part by dissatisfaction with the economy, high living costs and Trump’s handling of the Iran war.
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis offered one of the Republican Party’s bleakest assessments yet of Tuesday’s midterm elections, calling the nationwide losses “close to an extinction-level event” and warning that the damage could take years to repair.
Speaking Wednesday in Tallahassee, DeSantis said Republicans may emerge with Democrats holding as many as 55 Senate seats and roughly 250 seats in the House. Those figures were his projections rather than final totals, with several races still unresolved Wednesday morning.
What is already clear is that Democrats captured control of both chambers of Congress and flipped seats across territory Republicans had considered secure. The Associated Press reported Democratic Senate victories in traditionally Republican states including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina, while the party gained more than two dozen House seats.
DeSantis said the consequences could extend well beyond President Donald Trump’s remaining two years in office, arguing that Republicans now face a difficult rebuilding process.
The losses have already triggered significant Republican infighting. Trump has blamed candidates, Fox News and insufficient MAGA enthusiasm, while Vice President JD Vance pointed to the Iran war as a major factor.
Republicans also lost governorships and state legislative ground, while Democrats made gains among voters who cited the cost of living, the economy and dissatisfaction with Trump as major concerns.
Democrats’ new legislative supermajorities, a widening gap in statewide votes, and limited campaign resources leave Republican leaders confronting difficult questions about the party’s future.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE News
DOVER, Del. — Delaware Republican Party Chairman Gene Truono is calling for unity, stronger candidate support and a reassessment of party operations following Tuesday’s election, which left Republicans without a statewide elected office and reduced their representation in the General Assembly.
The Nov. 3 results underscore the challenges facing a party that has struggled for years to compete statewide, particularly in heavily Democratic New Castle County, while relying increasingly on Sussex County and portions of Kent County for its electoral base.
Democrats won all five federal and statewide contests, captured three Republican-held House seats and secured more than two-thirds of the seats in both chambers of the legislature. The result gives Democrats the votes needed to approve constitutional amendments without Republican support, provided their members remain united.
In a statement Wednesday, Truono thanked Republican candidates and their families, volunteers and supporters but acknowledged the organizational challenges confronting the party.
“Every candidate faces unique challenges, from fundraising and organizing volunteers to communicating with voters,” Truono said. “While candidates are ultimately responsible for managing and running their individual campaigns, the Delaware Republican Party recognizes those challenges and remains committed to strengthening the resources, coordination, and support available to them.”
His remarks come as election results and campaign finance reports raise questions about whether the Delaware GOP has the financial resources, organizational reach and voter support necessary to compete more effectively.
Election results reveal the size of the challenge
Republican House seats 11 Down from 14
Statewide offices held 0 Five GOP losses
Registered Republicans 24.6% Of Delaware voters
Sources: Unofficial Nov. 3 election returns and Delaware Department of Elections registration report, Nov. 1.
Republicans entered the election holding 14 of the 41 House seats. They will begin the next legislative session with 11, compared with 30 Democrats.
The GOP also will hold six of the 21 Senate seats, while Democrats control 15. That gives Democrats approximately 73% of House seats and 71% of Senate seats.
Three House races illustrate the Republican losses:
Kent County, District 34: Democratic challenger Annie Norman defeated Republican Rep. Lyndon Yearick, 4,905 votes to 4,755 — a margin of just 150 votes.
Sussex County, District 4: Democrat Gregg Lindner defeated Republican Dan Zitofsky, 8,039 votes to 7,658, capturing the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Jeff Hilovsky.
New Castle County, District 9: Democrat Ayanna Khan-Flowers defeated Republican Jamar Money, 8,451 votes to 4,753, winning the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Kevin Hensley.
Republicans did retain several competitive or open seats, including House districts 33, 38 and 41 and Senate District 15. Republican Mike Smith also won reelection in his Pike Creek-area district, while Republican Emily Thompson won the open Senate seat previously held by Dave Lawson.
The results leave Republicans with fewer legislators to influence policy, negotiate legislation or prevent Democrats from acting along party lines.
Republicans can still participate in legislative debates, negotiate with Democratic lawmakers and build coalitions on individual issues. But without sufficient votes to block constitutional amendments on their own, their influence will depend increasingly on public opinion and disagreements within the Democratic caucuses.
Statewide vote totals show a persistent Republican disadvantage
The results were similarly one-sided in statewide races. Democratic candidates received between 60% and 65% of the vote in each of the five federal and statewide contests.
Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons won reelection with 63.6% of the vote against Republican Mike Katz, while U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride received 64.3% against Republican Joe Arminio.
In the open state treasurer’s race, Democrat Ted Lauzen defeated former Republican House Minority Leader Mike Ramone, 62.4% to 37.6%. Attorney General Kathy Jennings and Auditor Lydia York also won reelection.
Those figures suggest the GOP’s difficulties extend beyond individual candidates or particular campaigns. Republicans are attracting support beyond their registered voter base, but that support has not been sufficient to seriously challenge Democratic control of statewide offices.
Voter turnout increased, but Republicans failed to capitalize
Delaware’s statewide turnout increased to 47.5%, compared with 42.7% in the 2022 midterm election, according to unofficial results.
A total of 384,862 ballots were cast, up from 325,558 four years earlier.
Delaware midterm voter turnout
Despite the stronger participation, Republicans did not gain ground in the legislature or statewide offices.
Registration figures help explain the challenge. As of Nov. 1, Delaware had 333,488 registered Democrats, compared with 199,294 Republicans and 276,849 voters registered as unaffiliated or with other parties.
That gives Democrats a registration advantage of more than 134,000 voters. Republicans account for approximately one-quarter of the electorate, while more than one-third are not registered with either major party.
Party registration
Registered voters
Share
Democratic
333,488
41.2%
Republican
199,294
24.6%
Unaffiliated and other parties
276,849
34.2%
Total
809,631
100%
Source: Delaware Department of Elections, Nov. 1, 2026.
Republicans retain a registration advantage in Sussex County, where they outnumber Democrats 78,779 to 68,370. But in New Castle County, Democrats have more than twice as many registered voters as Republicans.
The GOP’s dependence on its Sussex County base presents a mathematical challenge. Winning strongly Republican districts is not enough to offset Democratic margins in the state’s most populous county.
Final turnout figures by party registration were not yet available Wednesday. Mid-afternoon Election Day data showed Democrats voting at a higher rate than Republicans, although those numbers did not represent final turnout.
Republicans have historically demonstrated an ability to turn out their registered voters at competitive rates. In 2022, for example, 52.1% of registered Republicans voted, compared with 42.6% of registered Democrats. That advantage in participation was not sufficient to overcome the Democratic registration lead.
Fundraising gap raises questions about party resources
Financial records indicate that the Delaware Republican Party also entered the final weeks of the election with substantially fewer resources than its Democratic counterpart.
According to Federal Election Commission filings covering Jan. 1, 2025, through Oct. 14, 2026, the Republican State Committee of Delaware reported approximately $556,572 in total receipts and $583,180 in expenditures.
The committee reported just $4,954 in cash on hand at the end of that reporting period, along with $11,000 in outstanding debt.
The Democratic State Committee reported approximately $1.52 million in receipts over the same period, nearly three times the Republican total.
Party committee receipts, 2025-26 cycle through Oct. 14
Federal Election Commission committee receipts, including transfers and other noncontribution income
FEC figures represent receipts, not exclusively donor contributions. They include transfers and other income, and do not encompass every state or local committee.
The money gap was even more pronounced in the federal campaigns.
In the U.S. Senate race, Coons reported raising approximately $7.69 million through Oct. 14, compared with about $190,000 reported by Katz through the same date.
In the U.S. House race, McBride reported raising about $5.56 million through Oct. 14, while Arminio reported approximately $12,300 through Sept. 30. The latter comparison uses the candidates’ latest available reports, which cover different ending dates.
Fundraising advantages do not guarantee electoral victories, and statewide party committee filings do not capture all fundraising by candidates, county organizations and outside groups.
Nevertheless, the differences demonstrate the scale of the financial challenge. Campaigns with limited resources face difficulties maintaining paid advertising, voter outreach, data operations and professional staffing across an election cycle.
Truono’s statement recognizes fundraising as a candidate responsibility while also acknowledging the need for stronger party assistance. It does not specify new fundraising commitments, staffing changes or financial targets.
Truono acknowledges divisions and looks to Democrats for lessons
Perhaps the most revealing portion of Truono’s statement is his recognition that Delaware Democrats have managed to coordinate electoral efforts despite significant disagreements within their own party.
“There are also lessons to be learned from our political opponents,” Truono said.
“Despite significant ideological and policy disagreements within the Democratic Party, including among progressive and Working Families Party-aligned candidates, Democrats have often demonstrated an ability to set aside public divisions and come together around shared electoral objectives.”
The comments follow a Democratic primary season in which progressive candidates defeated several incumbent lawmakers, creating differences within the party over its direction and leadership.
Those disagreements have not prevented Democrats from retaining statewide control, although the next General Assembly will test their ability to remain united on legislation and constitutional amendments.
Truono also acknowledged criticism within Republican ranks.
“We also recognize that there are differing opinions and constructive criticisms concerning the direction of our Party,” he said. “Those perspectives deserve to be heard respectfully.”
He urged Republicans to turn disagreements into solutions rather than allow internal disputes to overshadow shared objectives.
The statement, however, provides few specifics about how the GOP will change its operations. It does not identify organizational decisions that may have contributed to Tuesday’s defeats or establish measurable goals for improving future campaigns.
In a separate election-night interview with Delaware Public Media, Truono expressed disappointment that the party had failed to achieve its objectives in competitive legislative races. He said Republicans had hoped to gain House and Senate seats and expected to continue concentrating on local contests rather than statewide offices.
What comes next for Delaware Republicans?
Tuesday’s results offer evidence of both the GOP’s difficulties and the limits of Democratic dominance in certain parts of the state.
Republicans won several open legislative races, retained their advantage in Sussex County voter registration and remained competitive in some districts. The 150-vote loss in House District 34 and the 381-vote defeat in District 4 show that relatively small shifts in local elections can change legislative representation.
But the broader statewide picture is less encouraging for the party.
Republicans have not held a statewide elected office since 2018. They now face even smaller legislative minorities, a substantial disadvantage in registered voters and significant gaps in campaign fundraising.
The party’s challenges cannot be attributed entirely to internal disagreements or limited financial support. The results also raise questions about the appeal of Republican candidates and policies to unaffiliated voters and moderate Democrats, particularly in New Castle County.
For Republicans, improving campaign operations alone may not be enough. A significant change in electoral performance would also require building a broader coalition of voters.
For Democrats, their expanded majorities create additional responsibility for governing. The party will have the votes to advance major policy changes, but its increasingly diverse caucuses may not agree on every issue. Democratic leaders will also face scrutiny over the decisions they make with that authority.
Truono closed his statement by congratulating those elected and expressing a willingness to work constructively across party lines.
“This election presents an opportunity to reflect, listen, and build,” he said. “We remain committed to representing Delaware voters, strengthening our organization across all three counties, and advancing responsible government, affordability, accountability, and meaningful representation.”
Whether that reflection produces meaningful organizational changes remains to be seen.
For now, the election leaves the Delaware GOP with a clear set of challenges: fewer elected officials, a smaller voter base than its principal opponent and substantially fewer financial resources.
The question confronting Republican leaders is no longer simply how to compete in individual elections, but how to rebuild a party capable of competing consistently across Delaware.
The Health Literacy Council’s program “Establishing Equity Through Literacy,” centers on helping everyone gain the knowledge needed to make informed health decisions. Greg O’Neill, co-chair of the Health Literacy Council of Delaware, accepts the proclamation in June 2025.
For Delawareans, Health Literacy is practical: clearer information, greater understanding and a stronger foundation for making health decisions.
By John Riddle, Contributing Journalist, Delaware LIVE
A healthcare decision can begin with a question. But when the answer comes wrapped in unfamiliar terms, complicated instructions or confusing paperwork, understanding what to do next can become a challenge of its own.
The Health Literacy Council of Delaware wants to help change that.
Formed in 2022, the council brings together healthcare leaders, community partners and advocates with a shared goal: making health information and healthcare easier for Delawareans to understand.
Its vision, “Establishing Equity Through Literacy,” centers on helping everyone gain the knowledge needed to make informed health decisions. Its work includes advocating for education and policy changes, strengthening partnerships and encouraging clearer communication throughout the healthcare system.
For Greg O’Neill, co-chair of the Health Literacy Council of Delaware, collaboration is an important starting point.
“Delaware has strong momentum around health literacy, bringing together healthcare systems, community organizations, and public health leaders around a shared goal: making health information and healthcare easier to understand for everyone,” O’Neill said.
Turning that momentum into lasting improvements requires more than distributing information. The council’s strategies address how health information is developed, shared, taught and supported across the state.
One priority is creating policies and guidelines that provide ongoing support for health literacy programs. Another involves engaging healthcare and government leaders to encourage consistent practices throughout Delaware.
The council also promotes health literacy campaigns that reach public and private audiences, emphasizing the importance of helping people understand information that affects their health.
Clear materials are another focus. The council helps leaders identify and use health information that is accessible, accurate and easy to understand. Its education goals include incorporating health literacy into school lessons and professional training programs.
Together, those efforts aim to make understandable communication a regular part of healthcare and community education.
Still, measuring progress presents a challenge.
“We still have work to do as health literacy has yet to be built into the systems that we use to measure progress,” O’Neill said.
The council is developing proposals to build on existing data, gather testimonials and highlight community needs. Those efforts could help document experiences while providing a clearer picture of where additional support is needed.
Building the organization itself also takes time.
“Like any new organization, HLCD is still working on building our network, solidifying stakeholder commitments, and raising awareness about the size of the health literacy issue,” O’Neill said.
Much of that work depends on people contributing their time and expertise alongside other responsibilities.
“The majority of the work comes through hours of volunteer time from leaders around the state and most of the work is grant funded so in that sense HLCD is like any small non-profit enterprise working for the public good,” he said.
Competing demands in healthcare delivery, changes in health communication and evolving community needs add to the challenge, according to O’Neill. Those pressures reinforce the council’s case for investing in health literacy, even as they make securing attention and resources more difficult.
The council’s approach places responsibility on organizations and leaders as well as the people seeking information. Making healthcare easier to understand requires examining the messages people receive and the systems they must navigate.
For Delawareans, the goal is practical: clearer information, greater understanding and a stronger foundation for making health decisions.
For the council, the next steps involve expanding partnerships, strengthening support and finding better ways to demonstrate progress.
Its work begins with a straightforward idea: health information can serve people better when they can understand it. Bringing that idea into everyday practice is the mission connecting the council’s volunteers, healthcare partners and community advocates across Delaware as they work toward lasting improvements in health communication.
Cyanobacteria blooms in a tributary of Lake Champlain in the town of St. Albans, Vermont, in August. Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
This summer, Vermont’s Clean Water Board celebrated a milestone: Over the past decade, the state has invested nearly a billion dollars to clean up its polluted streams, rivers and lakes. The vast majority of that money has gone toward Lake Champlain.
“I think that’s something to be extremely proud of,” said Douglas Farnham, the board’s chair.
Vermont was supposed to get an independent evaluation of what it has gotten for all that money. But that study was never done.
A decade ago, Vermont lawmakers mandated that the board submit an audit from an outside environmental consultant to determine whether the projects the state had invested in to improve water quality were working. The audit also was meant to examine whether the state’s agriculture and natural resource agencies are doing enough to enforce water quality regulations on farms, which are the biggest source of phosphorus in Lake Champlain.
Seven Days and ProPublica have teamed up to investigate the cleanup of Lake Champlain. Have you been affected by this issue? We’d like to hear from you.
Lake Champlain has been overloaded with phosphorus-laden runoff from farms, roads and urban sewers for decades. That pollution fuels potentially toxic blue-green algae blooms that have raised health concerns and hurt the state’s tourism industry. Under sustained pressure from citizens, environmental advocates and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Vermont’s leaders embarked on an ambitious initiative to improve the lake’s water quality, enshrined in the state’s landmark 2015 Clean Water Act.
Now, halfway through a 20-year cleanup effort mandated by the EPA, some lawmakers worry they don’t have enough information to ensure that the state is pursuing the most cost-effective cleanup strategies.
When lawmakers approved the clean water law, they took the major step of establishing a fund to pay for the cleanup and a board to administer it. Since 2016, Vermont has disbursed $928 million — $755 million in state funding and $173 million in local and federal dollars — on water quality projects and programs. That’s nearly as much as what Vermont has spent on paving and resurfacing state highways over the past decade.
As part of the law, the legislature also required the board’s leaders to provide it with a full program audit by January 2021.
But the board received no responses to an initial request for proposals in 2020. Lawmakers extended the deadline to 2023. Yet again, no outside firms bid on the audit.
Farnham said the board received informal feedback from some firms that the audit’s scope was too broad and complex. He reported back to fellow board members that he and Julie Moore, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, had asked legislators what to do next but didn’t receive any clear suggestions.
The board never issued a new request or revisited the matter (until Seven Days and ProPublica recently asked about it), and Vermont’s legislature never followed up to narrow the scope.
Water with particles of cyanobacteria, collected in mid-August from Lake Champlain in St. AlbansLake Champlain Committee monitor Jon Twombly, courtesy of Lake Champlain CommitteeSt. Albans in late August during a high-alert bloom dayVolunteer photo courtesy of Vermont Department of Health
Former state Rep. David Deen, who sponsored the clean water law and retired in 2018, said he was dismayed to learn that the audit never happened.
“Personally, I find it amazing that they haven’t done that audit and that somebody in the legislature did not hold them to account to conduct that audit,” he said.
Rep. Amy Sheldon, the longtime chair of the House Committee on Environment, recalled hearing about the audit challenges but noted that it’s difficult for the legislature to follow up because Vermont’s lawmakers don’t have staff. In the other chamber, former state Sen. Chris Bray, who chaired the natural resources committee until 2025, said he did not recall hearing about the missing audit.
In an interview, Farnham acknowledged that an outside audit would be helpful. But he said the board already has robust tools for assessing progress through a yearly performance report compiled by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation, which coordinates and tracks most of the state’s clean water spending.
“We’ve got enough eyes coming at it from different angles that I think that mutes the need for that comprehensive audit,” he said.
The annual reporting process has improved greatly since the audit was mandated, and the DEC’s website “provides a lot of transparency,” about how the state is spending clean water money and the results, said Emily Bird, director of the department’s Water Investment Division.
But some current and former state officials say that approach isn’t a substitute for an audit to determine whether Vermont is getting adequate and cost-effective returns on its huge water quality investments.
The last independent assessment of clean water spending was a 2019 report from the state auditor. It found that a disproportionate amount of money was being spent on wastewater treatment plants, which contributed by far the smallest share of phosphorus pollution, instead of targeting bigger sources such as agriculture.
That mismatch persists seven years later. Agriculture is the largest source of phosphorus runoff, yet agricultural water quality programs receive less than a third of the total clean water funding in the current budget.
“I’d like to think they’re getting something done,” said Doug Hoffer, state auditor since 2013, referring to state agencies and legislators. “But the only way to know that is to hire someone who is independent to study that. And it’s really concerning that hasn’t been done. It really raises questions about accountability on both sides.”
Vermont Auditor Doug Hoffer says the lack of an independent audit of Lake Champlain’s cleanup efforts “raises questions about accountability.”Jeb Wallace-Brodeur/Seven Days
An audit would do a few key things that the department’s performance reports do not, Tee Thomas, a former water finance director for the state of Vermont who now runs her own environmental consulting firm, noted via email. The reports rely on models for how effective each type of project is at reducing phosphorus. An audit would analyze water quality monitoring data from rivers and lakes to check those estimates. It would also scrutinize how well Vermont has managed projects and whether it’s gotten results, she said.
The Clean Water Fund gets, on average, $25 million to $30 million each year from the state’s rooms and meals tax, a surcharge applied to some property transfers and deposit money that consumers pay on cans and bottles. That money is paired with between $6 million and $12 million from the state’s annual capital bill, which finances infrastructure projects. The funds have gone to programs and projects to restore wetlands, expand natural buffers around fields, shore up rural roads against erosion, upgrade stormwater drains and improve manure storage on dairy farms.
The state treasurer in 2017 estimated that the cost of Vermont’s 20-year initiative would be $2.3 billion.
But finding that money could be difficult as state government spending outpaces tax revenue and cooling housing and tourism markets squeeze clean water funding sources.
Without the audit, the governor and legislators responsible for coming up with the next billion dollars’ worth of projects may not have a clear understanding of what Vermonters have gotten for the last billion, lawmakers said.
Jane Kitchel, who as longtime chair of the state Senate’s Committee on Appropriations was known for her encyclopedic knowledge of the Vermont budget, noted that a billion dollars is a significant sum for the small state. Had she not retired from the body two years ago, she said, reviving the audit “would be one of the things I’d put on my to-do list.”
The next legislative session starts in January. State Sen. Anne Watson, who chairs the Committee on Natural Resources and Energy and serves on the Committee on Appropriations, told Seven Days and ProPublica that she would likely discuss whether to revive the audit with her colleagues.
“If we value having a clean lake,” she said, “then we need to put our resources toward places that are going to make a difference, and it’s unclear to me right now that what we’re doing is effective.”
Lake Champlain is a vital ecosystem, economic engine and critical resource for Vermonters. Oakledge Park on the lake in Burlington occasionally gets closed because of dangerous algae blooms.Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
DOVER, Del. — Delaware Democrats will hold more than two-thirds of the seats in both chambers of the General Assembly, according to unofficial results from Tuesday’s midterm election.
Under Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution, an amendment must receive votes from two-thirds of all members elected to each chamber. Democrats will have enough seats in the new General Assembly, which convenes in January, to give final approval to eight proposed amendments without Republican support.
Democrats gained three House seats and received the most votes in all five federal and statewide races. Turnout was 47.5%, up from 42.7% in the 2022 midterm.
All 530 election districts had reported by 3 a.m. Wednesday. The state also listed absentee ballot tabulation as done in all three counties. The Department of Elections cautions that those county updates do not necessarily mean every ballot has been counted. Results remain unofficial until the state certifies them.
Table 1: Seats in the General Assembly, before and after the 2026 midterm
Chamber
Two-thirds needed
Democrats before
Democrats after
House
28 of 41
27
30
Senate
14 of 21
15
15
(Note: “After” reflects unofficial election results for seats on the ballot and the incumbent for seats not on the ballot. Ten Senate seats were not on the ballot. Two-thirds of all members elected to each chamber is the vote required under Article XVI of the Delaware Constitution. Sources: Delaware Department of Elections, unofficial results [updated 3:03 a.m. Nov. 4, 2026]; Delaware General Assembly, House and Senate member lists [Oct. 31, 2026].)
Figure 1: The new 154th General AssemblyHouse: 11 Republicans, 30 DemocratsRepublicansDemocratsSenate: 6 Republicans, 15 DemocratsRepublicansDemocrats(Note: Each block is one seat. Blocks show each party’s side of the chamber, not each member’s assigned seat. Sources: same as Table 1.)
What it means for the Constitution
The Delaware Constitution is the state’s highest law. An amendment must pass twice: once in one General Assembly and again in the next one, after an election. Amendments passed this way become part of the Constitution without going to voters.
The 153rd General Assembly passed eight proposed amendments once. They cover topics including early voting, absentee voting, marriage and the death penalty. The 154th General Assembly will decide whether to give them final approval. If Democrats vote together, they would have enough votes to pass the amendments without Republican support, and Republicans would not have enough votes to block them. Democrats could spare no more than two votes in the House and one in the Senate.
Where the House changed
Three House seats held by Republicans went to Democrats. No seat held by a Democrat went to a Republican.
House District 34, Kent County: Democrat Annie Norman received 4,905 votes to 4,755 for Republican Rep. Lyndon D. Yearick, a 150-vote margin. It was the closest House race in the state, and Rep. Yearick was the only incumbent state legislator who lost Tuesday.
House District 4, Sussex County: Democrat Gregg Lindner received 8,039 votes to 7,658 for Republican Dan Zitofsky, a 381-vote margin, for the seat Republican Rep. Jeff Hilovsky is leaving.
House District 9, New Castle County: Democrat Ayanna Khan-Flowers received 8,451 votes to 4,753 for Republican Jamar Money, for the seat Republican Rep. Kevin Hensley is leaving.
Republicans kept the other open seats they held: House districts 33, 38 and 41, and Senate District 15, the seat Republican Sen. Dave Lawson is leaving. Table 3 has those results.
The statewide picture
In this midterm, with no presidential race on the ballot, the Democratic candidates in the five federal and statewide races each received between 60% and 65% of the vote. U.S. Sen. Chris Coons received 63.6%, U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride 64.3% and Attorney General Kathy Jennings 63.6%. In the open race for state treasurer, Democrat Ted Lauzen received 62.4% to 37.6% for Republican Michael Ramone. Auditor Lydia York received 60.4%.
Registered Democrats make up 41% of Delaware’s registered voters, registered Republicans 25% and everyone else 34%, according to the state’s Nov. 1 registration report. Democrats will have 73% of the seats in the House and 71% in the Senate.
Turnout was higher than in the 2014 and 2022 midterms but lower than in 2018, as Table 2 shows.
Table 2: Turnout in Delaware midterms since 2014
Year
Registered voters
Voted
(turnout)
Registered Democrats who voted
Registered Republicans who voted
2014
642,152
236,923 36.9%
109,867 36.0%
81,857 45.5%
2018
694,923
365,467 52.6%
180,039 54.6%
112,719 58.2%
2022
763,088
325,558 42.7%
154,605 42.6%
109,672 52.1%
2026
810,407
384,862 47.5%
Not yet released
(Note: The percentage under “Voted” is turnout among all registered voters. Percentages in the party columns show the share of each party’s registered voters who voted, not that party’s share of all ballots cast. The state has not yet released 2026 voting by party. Sources: Delaware Department of Elections, Registered Voters by Age Group and Party reports for 2014, 2018 and 2022, statewide totals; 2026 from the unofficial results [updated 3:03 a.m. Nov. 4, 2026].)
The seven races to watch
Before the election, Delaware LIVE picked seven races to watch, all for open seats. Table 3 shows how each one came out.
✓Gregg Lindner (D)51.2%Seat changes from Republican to Democrat
Gregg Lindner
8,039 (51.2%)
Dan Zitofsky
7,658 (48.8%)
House District 33 Kent
✓Morgan Hudson (R)54.5%
Joshua Pennington
4,121 (45.5%)
Morgan Hudson
4,941 (54.5%)
House District 38 Sussex
✓Carlie Carey (R)54.9%
Maureen Madden
8,065 (45.1%)
Carlie Carey
9,803 (54.9%)
House District 41 Sussex
✓John Atkins (R)53.2%
Ryan Stuckey
5,441 (46.8%)
John Atkins
6,173 (53.2%)
New Castle County Council, District 3 New Castle
✓Kira Alejandro (D)63.4%
Kira Alejandro
13,116 (63.4%)
Melissa S. Brayman
7,587 (36.6%)
(Note: “Most votes” shows the candidate who received the most votes. Percentages are each candidate’s share of the votes cast in that race, with all election districts reporting. Source: Delaware Department of Elections, unofficial results [updated 3:03 a.m. Nov. 4, 2026].)
Jeff van den Noort collects a sample outside his home in North Hero, Vermont, for the Lake Champlain Committee’s cyanobacteria monitoring program. Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
On the last day of August, Jeff van den Noort spotted thick swirls of neon green film coating the water just steps from his home in Vermont. He waded in up to his ankles and dipped a jar to get a sample of the scum.
It wasn’t the first time he’d seen the slime. Since his parents bought the house on an island in Lake Champlain in 1966, van den Noort has spent part of nearly every summer in this quiet spot. Back then, the lake was clear.
But he began to witness the water’s deterioration as he grew older, especially after he moved into the home full time in 2010 to care for his ailing mother. That day in late August was the worst he’d seen all summer.
Later that week, van den Noort grabbed a bucket, a few Mason jars and a smartphone and got into his rusty Saab. He drove past the boat launches, frozen-in-time general stores and windswept pastures of the lake’s islands in northern Vermont and stopped at four other spots along the shore. Each time, he collected some murky water, gauged how thick the muck was, took a few photos and jotted down the weather conditions. He then uploaded his report to an online database.
Van den Noort was one part of a large volunteer effort to monitor a problem that has plagued Lake Champlain, which supplies drinking water to about 200,000 people. In recent decades, blooms of potentially toxic cyanobacteria, often called blue-green algae, have killed pets, forced beaches to close and hurt business and property values along the shores of this iconic Vermont feature.
“I just don’t feel like enough is being done,” van den Noort said. “And I think the state needs to take this seriously.”
A cyanobacteria bloom mixes with duckweed on the shoreline of Lake Champlain in the town of St. Albans, Vermont, in early August.Courtesy of Lake Champlain Committee
Just over a decade ago, state leaders seemed to be doing just that. In 2015, then-Gov. Peter Shumlin stood a few feet from Lake Champlain by the Burlington waterfront and signed Vermont’s Clean Water Act. It promised to tighten limits on pollution and provide funding to clean up the state’s waterways.
The move was a response to ratcheting pressure from environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA had been telling Vermont officials for years that they needed to take much stronger action. In 2016, the agency finalized tougher cleanup targets that the state must meet by 2036.
But after 10 years and nearly a billion dollars spent on water quality projects and programs, Vermont’s cleanup effort is faltering. In a little-noticed letter to the head of Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation last year, the EPA’s regional administrator warned that the state was “not on track” to meet its cleanup goal and would need to more than double its annual pace.
Halfway through the two-decade timetable, Vermont has achieved only 35% of the goal, according to the state’s most recent estimates. And the steps that Vermont has taken to get there, such as upgrading sewage treatment plants, represent “low-hanging fruit,” Eric Perkins, a former EPA official involved in setting the target, wrote in an email in response to questions from Seven Days and ProPublica.
The culprit behind these blooms is phosphorus, an element that is an essential building block of life, present in all organic matter. But too much of it has been pouring into the lake from farm fields saturated with fertilizer and manure, dirty stormwater, and raw sewage from treatment plants overwhelmed by heavy rains. That has tipped the lake’s ecosystem out of balance, spurring the growth of microorganisms that turn shallow bays and shorelines into no-go zones.
Ingesting cyanobacteria-laden water can cause vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and liver damage, while skin contact can lead to rashes. Researchers have also detected possible links between chronic exposure to cyanobacteria and heightened risk of Parkinson’s disease and ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The algae blooms can also deprive fish and other aquatic life of oxygen.
While some areas of Lake Champlain have seen incremental improvements in phosphorus concentrations and cyanobacteria blooms, other parts of the lake are getting worse. Seven of the lake’s 15 sampling stations have exceeded the EPA’s annual phosphorus limits every year since 2015, a Seven Days and ProPublica analysis of lake monitoring data through 2025 shows. Four stations recorded higher average phosphorus levels over the past decade than in the decade before, including in the southern part of the lake and its northeast arm.
People enjoy the water at North Beach on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont, on Labor Day weekend. Algae blooms sometimes force the city to close the beach.Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
In September, the Department of Environmental Conservation reported to the EPA that in two northeastern sections of the lake most chronically plagued by phosphorus runoff, the state is not nearly on track to meet its targets. The department specifically acknowledged that it was not making enough progress in addressing stormwater runoff and that reductions in farm pollution in the Missisquoi River watershed have slowed since 2023.
Vermont shares the 120-mile-long lake with New York and Quebec, but it’s the source of about two-thirds of the phosphorus that flows into the water body. Agriculture is the largest polluting sector, while stormwater runoff from development, like urban parking lots and rural roads, contributes the highest amount of phosphorus per acre.
State agencies have repeatedly delayed taking more difficult and politically fraught action to crack down on pollution from farms, businesses and housing developments. Policies around them have encountered resistance from the dairy industry, property owners and lawmakers sympathetic to their interests.
The challenges in cleaning up Lake Champlain raise a salient question: If a small, conservation-minded state like Vermont can’t tackle this problem, what does that mean for other areas of the United States grappling with algae blooms in the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico?
State officials counsel patience as they remind Vermonters it will take more time to solve the problem.
“We are moving apace with the commitments we’ve made, in terms of the projects, but it isn’t manifesting itself nearly as quickly in the lake monitoring data,” said Julie Moore, Agency of Natural Resources secretary. “This is a complex ecosystem, and we need to come at this work with a whole lot of humility.”
Leaders of the Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets said it will take time for investments, such as programs to reduce soil erosion and help farmers upgrade their manure storage equipment, to pay off.
“The first five years, we were really developing an enormous amount of programs,” said Laura DiPietro, the agency’s water quality program director, but implementing them “doesn’t happen overnight.” She said she expects to see greater phosphorus reductions resulting from them in the coming decade.
But for van den Noort, the blooms are increasingly hard to ignore.
“The worst days ever are really, really bad,” he said. “Just as far as you can see, the whole bay is green.”
In September, van den Noort found turquoise and white patches of cyanobacteria in the lake. Scientists say the blooms turn those colors when they break down, potentially releasing toxins in the water.Jeff van den NoortOne of van den Noort’s routine cyanobacteria monitoring sites in North Hero, Vermont.Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
Pushing the Limits
Unlike chemicals and heavy metals that can be removed from lakes and rivers with dredging, phosphorus isn’t technically or economically feasible to extract.
So environmental regulators focus instead on limiting the amount of phosphorus that flows into the water each day. It’s like putting the lake on a diet. The EPA sets what’s known as the total maximum daily load, a target based on the agency’s determination of how much phosphorus the lake can absorb and remain healthy. To meet that goal, the state must cut pollution from agriculture, stormwater drains, roads, forests and wastewater treatment plants.
The EPA had set previous targets for Lake Champlain in 2002, but, concerned that Vermont wasn’t taking strong enough measures, the agency set tougher ones in 2016. For the first few years after those targets were updated, Perkins, who was then the EPA’s Vermont water quality coordinator, felt that the state was generally on the right track.
During his tenure, state agencies and lawmakers set up the Clean Water Fund to finance water quality projects and dedicated tax revenue streams to support it. They put in place stronger rules for fertilizer use and manure storage on farms. They created permit programs to limit stormwater runoff from roads and municipalities. That progress was reflected in a 2020 report card the EPA issued, acknowledging that Vermont had checked off all the milestones up to that point.
“Overall, I was very impressed with the level of commitment demonstrated by the state,” Perkins wrote to Seven Days and ProPublica.
By the time Perkins retired in 2021, he and colleagues at the EPA had become concerned about signs of lagging commitment by Vermont’s agencies to water quality enforcement on farms.
North Beach on Lake Champlain in Burlington in September. Seven of the lake’s 15 sampling stations have exceeded the EPA’s annual phosphorus limits every year since 2015.Caleb Kenna for ProPublica
One clear opportunity to speed up phosphorus reductions, according to Perkins, is to ensure farms comply with required agricultural practices and avoid spreading manure before anticipated rainstorms, which has caused “major phosphorus runoff events.”
If the state and farm operators were to make that a priority, “it could likely make a big difference,” Perkins wrote. And the state could encourage that practice by overhauling its permitting system to tighten water quality requirements and enforcement for farms that keep animals confined in barns for long periods of time. Those farms are called concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs. In recent years, many small family dairies in Vermont have closed or consolidated into larger operations that would be considered CAFOs under federal law.
Yet Vermont has delayed action on an EPA directive to strengthen its approach to regulating CAFOs. Just across the lake, New York has used such permits for decades to ensure better environmental practices on larger farms. In Vermont, a recent state task force report recommended working to develop this program for another five years.
A second, related reform the EPA has recommended is to change who leads regulation of those farms.
Vermont has two different agencies that oversee farm pollution. The Agency of Agriculture regulates how farms handle waste on site, while the Agency of Natural Resources is responsible if runoff from that waste leaves the farm. This split responsibility has caused oversight problems, including lapses in following up on reported water quality violations with inspections and enforcement actions. Environmental advocates have long maintained that the agriculture agency has a conflict because it also has a mandate to promote the state’s farm sector.
A turtle washes up on a high-alert day in St. Albans in August.Lake Champlain Committee monitor Jon Twombly, courtesy of Lake Champlain Committee
This arrangement frustrates farmers, too. In a letter to Gov. Phil Scott earlier this year, owners of one Vermont dairy farm wrote that “the lack of alignment and clear communication between these agencies” places farmers in an uncertain position. “Many in the farming community feel caught in the middle of interagency disagreements, unsure which standards will ultimately govern their operations or how enforcement will proceed,” they wrote.
In interviews, officials at the two agencies acknowledged those communication problems but said that they have taken steps to improve how they share information on potential violations and coordinate more closely on inspections.
In 2024, the EPA ordered Vermont to consolidate the regulation of agricultural pollution under the Agency of Natural Resources, Vermont’s main environmental agency, which the EPA says has sole authority to administer federal Clean Water Act rules.
In a letter that year to Moore, the agency’s secretary, EPA Region 1 administrator David Cash noted that the EPA had monitored the situation in Vermont for well over a decade. “And despite having had ample time and opportunity to cure longstanding program deficiencies,” he wrote, “ANR has failed to do so.” Cash noted that the state has failed to give ANR “sufficient resources or operational authority” to regulate runoff from farms.
Hovering over this back-and-forth is the threat that the federal government could take over enforcement of water pollution rules from Vermont.
Seven Days and ProPublica have teamed up to investigate the cleanup of Lake Champlain. Have you been affected by this issue? We’d like to hear from you.
Following the letter to Moore, the divisions between the two agencies were on display as they discussed their regulatory approach in internal emails obtained under Vermont’s Public Records Act by Seven Days and ProPublica. In a 2025 email, Agency of Natural Resources general counsel Catherine Gjessing reminded her counterpart at the agriculture agency and legislative counsel staff that “there are a significant number of farms that are in fact discharging without a permit” in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. She added that the two agencies had been working under this split responsibility arrangement, with the agriculture agency taking the lead, “for decades now and we are still not in compliance.”
In an interview, the agriculture agency’s general counsel, Steve Collier, said there was never “a Wild West situation where farms were not being regulated” and that his agency’s rules protected the environment. “Whether or not the Clean Water Act was being administered exactly as it should be is a different issue,” he said.
Outside of agriculture, Vermont has yet to fully implement a third EPA demand as well as the directives of its own Clean Water Act. That 2015 law mandated the Department of Environmental Conservation to require properties with 3 or more acres of paved surface, such as parking lots, to install systems to slow and capture stormwater runoff.
Five years later, when the department still hadn’t finalized this “3-acre rule” permit system, the EPA warned Vermont that it would have to give the state “a failing grade” if it didn’t do so by Sept. 4, 2020. Vermont met the EPA’s deadline but in 2025 passed a law pushing the date for getting permits to 2028 for properties in the Champlain basin.
And those property owners don’t need to make the stormwater upgrades until 2033.
Treading Water
Algae blooms in St. Albans in AugustCaleb Kenna for ProPublica
For a quarter century, Steve Cushing has been advocating to clean up St. Albans Bay in the northeast part of Lake Champlain near the epicenter of Vermont’s dairy industry. Throughout that time, he listened as federal and state environmental officials came through town and pledged to act. “Expect a lot of progress 10 years from now in many segments of the lake,” one EPA official told him and his neighbors in 2015.
A decade later, this summer’s cyanobacteria blooms in the shallow bay were some of the worst he’s seen in several years, he said. Since June, the public beach in the St. Albans Bay Park has mostly been closed to swimming.
“Overall, you can’t really see a big improvement in water quality in the bay,” Cushing said.
Public data supports that notion. Every three years the federally funded Lake Champlain Basin Program, which coordinates research and grantmaking across the lake’s watershed, issues a report summarizing its water quality monitoring.
Its most recent edition, from 2024, revealed “deteriorating” trends in the northeast arm of the lake for both phosphorus and cyanobacteria and no progress in Missisquoi Bay, a shallow stretch spanning the U.S.-Canada border that frequently suffers intense blooms.
That’s troubling, scientists and advocates say, because the failure to address new pollution is exacerbated by both historical pollution and the effects of climate change.
What scientists call “legacy phosphorus” has accumulated in soils and lake sediments after many decades of fertilizer use, manure spreading, deforestation and unregulated septic and wastewater systems.
“We are working on a system that’s been impacted by human activities for the past 150-plus years,” said Matthew Vaughan, the chief scientist of the basin program.
Climate change poses another headwind for the lake cleanup. Since 2003, cyanobacteria blooms have appeared earlier in the spring and later in the fall as temperatures rise, and even at lower phosphorus levels. The drought that hit Vermont in 2025 led to a spike in blooms, thanks to the combination of heat and low water levels. Meanwhile, downpours are turning Vermont’s streams and rivers into fire hoses of phosphorus-laden sediment: In just one week in July 2023, record-shattering floods pumped six months worth of phosphorus into the lake.
“All of this just makes it more urgent to do our part to address these water quality challenges,” Vaughan said.
Some state officials and researchers contend that phosphorus deposited in the lake bed and soil decades ago might play as significant a role in fueling algae blooms as today’s runoff.
Caleb Kenna for ProPublicaCaleb Kenna for ProPublica
University of Vermont researcher Audrey Manning, first image, collects water samples on Lake Champlain in Swanton, Vermont, while fellow researcher Katelynn Warner, second image, gathers cyanobacteria to study their genetic makeup.
But while legacy phosphorus remains a challenge, “I think it’d be wrong to just rely on that as the excuse,” said Eric Smeltzer, who worked for the Department of Environmental Conservation for 35 years, including as the state limnologist who monitors the health of Vermont’s lakes and ponds.
“The most important technical question about the Lake Champlain phosphorus cleanup is: Are these practices working? And if not, why not?” Smeltzer said. “How can it be done better? I think you can’t just explain it away based on time lags and legacy phosphorus forever.”
In reviewing the state’s data recently, one detail in particular jumped out to him, he said. Wastewater treatment still garners an outsize share of Vermont’s clean water spending, even though it has been clear for years that it’s not a major contributor of phosphorus, while agriculture and stormwater are.
Cushing traces the algae blooms back to the dairy farms that dominate the watershed and to regulators’ failure to “put any teeth behind” restrictions on manure spreading and other water quality rules.
Cushing, a former dairy farmer, has pushed for policy changes as a volunteer with the St. Albans Area Watershed Association and has led an effort to mechanically remove vegetation that contributes to the phosphorus problem in his overburdened bay.
At 78, he is now searching for someone to take over the weed removal effort. “I’m getting a little burned out,” he admitted.
Seven miles to the west, on the island of North Hero, van den Noort questioned this summer whether all the data he gathers is making any difference.
“If we really wanted to solve the problem, I think we’d have to make some tough choices,” he said. “I don’t think anybody wants to do that. It’s a head-in-the-sand thing.”
Every week, van den Noort drives up the western edge of Isle La Motte on his monitoring circuit, looking out over a stretch of water that is supposed to be one of the cleanest parts of Lake Champlain. On the worst days, a pea green broth of blooms stubbornly hugs its entire shoreline.
A bloom at Lake Champlain at Graveyard Point in North HeroJeff van den Noort
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Democrats captured both chambers of Congress Tuesday in a sweeping midterm victory that extended deep into traditionally Republican territory and sharply curtailed President Donald Trump’s power for the final two years of his presidency.
The Associated Press called Democratic control of both the House and Senate early Wednesday. Democrats won all 20 closely watched House races decided by election night while capturing Senate seats in states including Texas, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan and South Carolina. Reuters described the result as a “sweeping midterm repudiation” of Trump.
The scale of the defeat was remarkable. Democrats won statewide races in states Trump carried comfortably in 2024, including Texas, Kansas and Iowa. AP noted that only three previous post-World War II midterms, 1946, 1994 and 2006, saw both congressional chambers flip simultaneously.
The election also produced several historic firsts. Michigan Democrat Abdul El-Sayed became the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, while New Hampshire Democrat Chris Pappas became the first openly gay man elected to the Senate. In Georgia, Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms became the first Black woman elected governor of any U.S. state.
Exit polling showed broad dissatisfaction with Trump and the country’s direction, with roughly 70% saying they wanted Congress to provide stronger checks on presidential power.
Beginning in January, Democrats will control congressional investigations, legislation and Senate confirmation votes — fundamentally changing the balance of power in Washington.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump spent much of Wednesday morning explaining why Republicans suffered a sweeping midterm defeat. His list of culprits included Republican candidates, insufficient MAGA loyalty, Fox News and voters who failed to show up.
Notably absent from that list was Trump himself.
That omission is striking because Trump repeatedly tried to make the 2026 midterms a referendum on his presidency. Axios reported in September that Trump was explicitly pushing Republicans to campaign around him, while he later urged supporters to “pretend I’m on the ballot.”
After Democrats captured both the House and Senate, Trump posted that Republicans would have won “IN A LANDSLIDE” had he personally been running.
Fox News anchor Bret Baier confronted Trump with the contradiction Tuesday night, reminding him that he had specifically asked voters to behave as though his name were on the ballot. Trump acknowledged that but blamed Republican nominees instead, saying some “weren’t for” him and failed to inspire the MAGA base.
Trump then turned on Fox News, declaring that the network “bears responsibility for these losses” because it allowed Democratic voices on its programs.
He also attacked longtime ally Greg Abbott after the Texas governor lost reelection, accusing Abbott of becoming a “RINO.”
The broader evidence makes Trump’s effort to distance himself difficult to square with the campaign he ran. Axios reported that Republicans privately viewed Trump as their biggest electoral liability even before Election Day, while national polling showed his approval sinking into the mid-30s and majorities expressing dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy and cost of living.
Democrats ultimately seized both chambers, winning races across battlegrounds and traditionally Republican territory.
Trump wanted voters to treat the midterms as if he were on the ballot. They did. His response afterward was to blame nearly everyone except himself.
MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA — Alabama voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday requiring public schools to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance each morning and to allow student-initiated, student-led prayer.
Statewide Amendment 3 passed with roughly 63% support in unofficial results. The measure requires local school boards to adopt policies implementing both provisions, while explicitly allowing students to opt out based on their beliefs.
The practical change is narrower than the ballot language may suggest. Alabama law already requires public schools to conduct the Pledge of Allegiance, and students already possess constitutional protections allowing voluntary prayer and religious expression at school. The amendment places those requirements into the state constitution, making them harder to repeal through ordinary legislation.
The prayer provision specifies that any prayer must be initiated and led by students and that no student may be forced to participate. That distinction is important because the U.S. Supreme Court has long prohibited public schools from sponsoring or requiring religious exercises. Student prayer itself remains protected when it is genuinely voluntary and not school-directed.
The Republican-sponsored amendment passed the Alabama House 94-3 and the Senate 30-0 before being sent to voters.
Supporters described the measure as protecting religious expression and patriotic traditions. Critics questioned whether detailed school policies belong in the state constitution and warned that implementation must remain within federal church-state limits.
Food Bank Launches Thanksgiving Food Drive as Families Face Rising Costs
NEWARK AND MILFORD, Del. – With Thanksgiving approaching and household budgets stretched by the cost of everyday necessities, the Food Bank of Delaware is asking Delawareans to help neighbors put a holiday meal on the table.
The organization’s annual Thanksgiving Food Drive invites individuals, businesses, schools, and community groups to donate food, organize collections, or contribute financially. Thanksgiving donations are requested by noon Friday, November 13, 2026.
According to Feeding America estimates cited by the Food Bank, approximately 157,000 Delawareans, including 42,000 children, face food insecurity. The cost of groceries, housing, and other essentials continues to force families to make difficult spending decisions.
The Food Bank’s pantry traffic indicates that demand for assistance remains high. Visits to its Healthy Pantry Centers in Newark and Milford increased 22% during the summer compared with the same period last year. September 2026 visits increased 15% compared with September 2025.
“For many families, Thanksgiving is a time to gather with loved ones and enjoy a special meal. But for neighbors already struggling to afford groceries and other basic necessities, putting a holiday meal on the table can feel out of reach,” said Cathy Kanefsky, President and CEO of the Food Bank of Delaware.
“No family should have to choose between paying a bill and celebrating Thanksgiving together. With the generosity of our community, we can help ease that burden and make the holiday a little brighter.”
Requested donations include holiday staples and everyday essentials:
Canned vegetables and fruits
Canned gravy and cranberry sauce
Instant mashed potatoes and stuffing mix
Canned meats and soups
Cornbread and biscuit mix
Frozen turkeys
Baby diapers and formula
Cereal
Peanut butter and jelly
Donations may be delivered to the Food Bank’s facilities at 222 Lake Drive in Newark or 102 Delaware Veterans Blvd. in Milford. Frozen turkeys must be delivered directly to one of the warehouses.
Although the Thanksgiving announcement lists a noon deadline on November 13, regular Friday donation hours at both locations end at 11:30 a.m. Donors should plan accordingly. Donations received after the Thanksgiving deadline will be distributed throughout the remainder of the holiday season.
New this year, a virtual food drive offers another way to participate. Supporters can fill an online shopping cart with needed items and make a tax-deductible monetary donation. Participants can also create personalized fundraising pages and invite friends, relatives, and coworkers to contribute.
Community members interested in organizing a collection can contact Aaron Stone at astone@fbd.org.
Midterm to long-term analysis of US election. What’s next?News releasesfarrell.drupa…
As voting was under way, Chatham House analysts on Tuesday looked ahead to how the US midterm elections could reshape the US political system, and the next two years of President Donald Trump’s administration.
On US midterm election day Chatham House convened a panel of experts to discuss what they were seeing, and what lies ahead for US domestic and foreign policy.
The in-person and online event – one of many convened by the Royal Institute of International Affairs – was part of its ongoing coverage of the US and its relationships with Europe, China and the rest of the world.
Dr Andrew Payne, Research Director of Chatham House’s Europe, Russia and the Americas Programmes, and author of ‘War on the Ballot: How the Election Cycle Shapes Presidential Decision-Making in War’.
‘This is actually a foreign policy election, a foreign policy election of the likes that we haven’t really seen since 2006, when you had another very unpopular war in the Middle East that led to a significant backlash against George W. Bush,’ he said.
‘The top issue is inflation and the cost of living. The Chicago Council [on Global Affairs] had a poll out that said that that was 37 per cent, by far and away the top issue.
‘And on the surface that supports this conventional wisdom that voters know little and they care even less about international affairs. These are events which are geographically and metaphorically very distant from the daily lives of voters. So when they go to the polls, they think about things like the price of gas, like the price of groceries.
‘To put it another way, James Carville, the political strategist, in 1992 famously said that elections in the US are about “the economy, stupid.”
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Experts discuss the US midterms at Chatham House.
‘So on the surface, I think that is that is all true, but the key exception, when voters really do start to sit up and pay attention to foreign policy, is when the costs of the administration’s foreign policy choices come to bite. And I think whether it’s tariffs, whether it’s the war in Iran, voters really are feeling the effects of some of the choices that this administration has made.
‘A couple of data points: that same survey I mentioned says 86 per cent of Americans say that the war – the war in Iran that is – has increased the cost of living, 81 per cent say the same about tariffs. When YouGov asked survey respondents why gas prices were going up in their area, 41 per cent said the war in Iran was to blame. That was more than twice as many as the next most popular answer, which was President Trump.
‘So I would make the case that it still is kind of “the economy, stupid”. But in this cycle, more than we have seen for 20 years, the economy really is a foreign policy issue in a very real sense.’
The lame duck era, and succession
Ludovic Hood, Senior Fellow with the Hudson Institute’s Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East and a former US foreign service officer for 20 years.
‘We’re very much going into lame duck era for Donald Trump. And that’s going to be painful for him. I’m sure you’ve all tracked him enough, and the kinds of things he’s sensitive to and about,’ he said.
‘I think the likely results of this election will be a clear repudiation of how Trump has governed in the past two years versus his first term. In some ways some of his economic policies – for example investing in US companies – are more, if you will, Democratic than they are Republican.
‘I think a lot of long-standing Republicans are a little bit uncomfortable or aghast at a lot of the policies of the last two years, notably tariffs and notably some of the quasi, I’ll say, the socialist investments that the Trump administration has made in US firms.
‘I think a lot of American long-standing Republicans would like to see a return to more of a free markets economic freedom approach. And then there’s just the governing style. And we can talk about that for a long time. But I think there’s been a lot of drama. And I think a lot of people are fatigued.’
He added:
‘We throw the term civil war around, but in DC parlance, both parties are going to go through some intense soul searching and public arguing about about the direction.
‘The end of the Trump era is largely the end of the MAGA era. Trump is the magic ingredient. JD Vance will try and pick up strands of the MAGA tent, but it’s going to be a fairly small sub-tent, if you will. He just doesn’t have the appeal. And he’s also been quite ideologically flexible over the years if you go back in time.
‘He is the self-appointed standard bearer for some MAGA values. But don’t forget, Trump is in many ways, as I said, not only a realist when it comes to foreign policy and international affairs, but he’s more of a pragmatist, and he does go with his gut quite a lot. And he’s a bit of a contrarian, a disruptor. It’s very hard to pin an ideology on that.
‘Vance is trying to sort of be a standard-bearer for an ideology that almost quite isn’t there, if you will… I personally don’t think that JD Vance will get the nod, and that someone else – Rubio, Cruz, or someone else – there’s a fairly long list of senators and governors who have publicly said they are interested, or have used the usual vague language to pretend they’re not when they clearly are.
‘And I think you’ll see the Republican Party, for lack of a better term, become conservative again.’
Affordability
Laurel Rapp, Director of the US and North America Programme at Chatham House:
‘The polling over these past months has aligned very much with what Ludo is suggesting here. There is high levels of concern about cost of living, affordability. And that is across the Republican and Democratic voters. That is not a partisan issue. Questions about housing costs, access to health care, rising costs of food tied to inflation. So these are sort of across the partisan spectrum. That is a shared view.
‘When you start to break it down on the right and the left, you’re seeing different priorities. On the left, you see greater access to health care as something that they would like candidates to pursue. Climate change, questions about the US role in the world as it relates to the Iran war, stopping the Iran war.
‘When you look to the right and you’ll see a lot of Republican candidates in these final days reflecting some of these Republican voter attitudes focused on crime, on immigration, on social stability issues, and warnings. And that’s something we’ve seen the president also weave into his message a little bit. But to Ludo’s point, the president in these final days has not really hammered on these messages of affordability, has called that a hoax over the past couple of months.
So when you pull voters across the political spectrum, they will say affordability is really important to me. And then when asked, ‘Who do you trust? Which party do you trust to help get the economy back on track?’ a majority will say that the Democratic Party is more trusted on this. So I think we’re seeing a lot of those headwinds surging to the Democrats in these final days.’
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA — Virginia voters approved a constitutional amendment Tuesday removing the state’s dormant ban on same-sex marriage and replacing it with explicit protections for lawful marriages between two adults.
The measure passed with about 57% support, according to unofficial results, and will take effect Jan. 1, 2027.
Virginia voters originally approved the Marshall-Newman Amendment in 2006, defining marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman. That provision became unenforceable after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision established nationwide marriage equality, but the language remained in Virginia’s constitution.
The new amendment states that Virginia may not deny a marriage license to two adults based on sex, gender or race and must recognize and treat lawful marriages equally under state law. It also reinforces protections for interracial marriage.
Supporters argued that removing the old language was important because constitutional protections could matter if the U.S. Supreme Court ever revisited Obergefell. Opponents included religious conservative groups that campaigned against the change.
The marriage amendment was one of three constitutional changes Virginia voters approved Tuesday, alongside measures protecting reproductive rights and automatically restoring voting rights after incarceration.
MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA — Minnesota voters transformed their Election Day stickers into memorials Tuesday, placing “I Voted” decals at sites honoring Renee Good and Alex Pretti, two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents during the Trump administration’s Operation Metro Surge.
Photos from Minneapolis showed dozens of stickers covering signs, poles and other objects at the memorial sites. The gesture tied Election Day directly to an immigration crackdown that became one of Minnesota’s most contentious political issues this year.
Good, a 37-year-old writer and mother, and Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive-care nurse at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, were killed in January during federal immigration operations. Their deaths triggered protests and continuing demands from their families for greater transparency and accountability.
Some voters explicitly connected their ballots to the shootings. A retired physician who had worked with Pretti left his sticker at the memorial, while another voter said visiting Good’s memorial made his vote feel connected to what Minneapolis experienced during the federal operation.
Immigration enforcement remained a major issue for Minnesota voters throughout the campaign. The Star Tribune reported that several voters cited Operation Metro Surge and ICE activity as important reasons for supporting Democratic candidates.
The memorials ultimately became more than places of mourning on Election Day, serving as visible expressions of how deeply the federal immigration crackdown shaped political engagement across Minneapolis.
Nearly 36% of registered voters had cast ballots by 2:53 p.m., with Election Day voting continuing until polls close at 8 p.m.
BREAKING NEWS: From 2:53 p.m. to roughly 4:04 p.m., Delaware added 22,309 ballots, pushing the statewide total from 292,484 to 314,793 — or 38.9% of registered voters. Nearly all of the increase came from Election Day polling places, which rose by 22,216 votes to 164,818. Absentee ballots ticked up by just 93, while early voting remained unchanged at 129,584. Democrats accounted for the largest share of the new votes (+10,387), bringing their total to 158,101 and their turnout rate to 47% of registered Democrats. Republicans added 6,386 ballots (now 89,186, or 45% of registered Republicans), and unaffiliated and other voters added 5,536 (now 67,506, or 24%). The afternoon pace shows steady in-person turnout continuing with several hours left before polls close at 8 p.m.
DOVER, Del. — More than 292,000 Delawareans had cast ballots by mid-afternoon Tuesday, pushing statewide turnout to about 36% with several hours of Election Day voting remaining.
The state’s Election Voted List showed 292,484 ballots cast as of 2:53 p.m. Nov. 3, including early, absentee and Election Day voting.
The party figures reflect voters’ registration, not which candidates they supported.
Registered Democrats accounted for 147,714 ballots, or about 44.4% of registered Democrats statewide. Republicans had cast 82,800 ballots, representing about 41.5% of registered Republicans.
Another 61,970 ballots came from unaffiliated voters and those registered with other parties, representing about 22.3% of that group.
Democrats make up roughly 41% of Delaware’s registered voters but accounted for slightly more than half of ballots cast through mid-afternoon. Republicans were turning out at a rate relatively close to Democrats, while turnout among unaffiliated and minor-party voters remained substantially lower.
How Delawareans have voted
Absentee voting accounted for 20,298 ballots: 12,915 Democrats, 3,899 Republicans and 3,484 voters registered as unaffiliated or with other parties.
Early voting, which ended Sunday, produced 129,584 ballots: 66,540 Democrats, 37,456 Republicans and 25,588 other voters.
Election Day polling places had recorded 142,602 ballots by mid-afternoon, including 68,259 Democrats, 41,445 Republicans and 32,898 other voters.
That brought the statewide totals to:
Democrats: 147,714
Republicans: 82,800
Unaffiliated and other parties: 61,970
Total: 292,484
Election Day voting accelerates
Polling-place voting had grown rapidly Tuesday, rising from roughly 55,000 ballots earlier in the day to more than 142,000 by 2:53 p.m.
Early in-person voting closed Sunday with 129,584 ballots cast.
Absentee ballots were also continuing to be received Tuesday.
County totals
New Castle County led the state with 145,875 ballots cast through mid-afternoon.
Sussex County had recorded 98,771 ballots, while Kent County had recorded 47,838.
Sussex County has generated particularly strong early and absentee participation relative to its population, while New Castle County was accounting for much of the Election Day voting volume.
Turnout approaching 2022 levels
Delaware’s 2022 midterm general election finished with turnout of about 42.7% of registered voters.
With turnout already near 36% by mid-afternoon Tuesday, Delaware was approaching that level with several hours of voting remaining.
The final turnout percentage will depend on the remainder of Election Day participation and the final absentee count.
The figures should not be interpreted as an indication of how Democratic, Republican or unaffiliated voters cast their ballots. Candidate preferences will only become clear as election results are reported.
To Go Box
What: Delaware general election
When: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026
Current turnout: 292,484 ballots as of 2:53 p.m., about 36% of registered voters
Early voting: 129,584 ballots
Absentee voting: 20,298 ballots
Election Day voting: 142,602 ballots
Source: Delaware Department of Elections Election Voted List and Oct. 1, 2026, voter registration totals
ATLANTA, GEORGIA — A North Carolina man pardoned by President Donald Trump for offenses connected to Jan. 6 is facing new federal charges after prosecutors say he threatened to execute judges who handled Capitol riot cases.
Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr. was arrested Monday over an April Facebook post allegedly declaring that “ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!” Prosecutors say he later posted additional messages warning that “firing squads will commence 11/04/26” following the midterm elections.
Meredith previously traveled to Washington around Jan. 6, 2021, but arrived after the Capitol attack because of vehicle problems. He was later arrested after threatening to shoot then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. FBI agents found firearms, high-capacity magazines and roughly 2,500 rounds of ammunition in his trailer.
He pleaded guilty and received a 28-month sentence. Trump included Meredith in his sweeping January 2025 clemency order covering offenses connected to Jan. 6.
Prosecutors now argue Meredith’s recent posts constitute genuine threats rather than political rhetoric, citing what they describe as a continuing pattern of violent online statements.
The new charges underscore that Trump’s pardon erased federal consequences for Meredith’s earlier offenses but provides no protection for alleged crimes committed afterward. Meredith is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
As fact-checkers, we watch a lot of ads in the lead-up to elections, and we only write about a fraction of them. Some of them are downright bizarre. As we first started doing 20 years ago — just for fun — on Election Day, we’re giving out pretend awards to some of the notable ads we came across this campaign cycle.
Our primary focus is national politics, but a number of this year’s winners are from the state and local level. You may notice that one winner has something in common with director Martin Scorsese, and another honoree is featured holding something just as furry. There’s also an award recognizing the contributions of AI because we want to get on its good side.
Read our awards story and go to the polls and vote. The order in which you do them is less important.
Toughest on China
Winner: Sen. Marsha Blackburn, candidate for Tennessee governor
This ad shows Blackburn, a Republican, has a strategy for cracking down on China that other politicians probably have not considered. It involves going to a Chinese restaurant and smashing all of its fortune cookies. (In 2024, she broke a lot of china, as in plates.)
“Here in Tennessee, we’re going to stop communist China and protect Tennessee land,” she says, appearing satisfied with her display of destruction. If only negotiating with Chinese President Xi Jinping were that simple.
It was considerate of Blackburn not to harm the restaurant’s maneki-neko figurine in the making of the ad. That must be because of its Japanese origin.
Cutest Pasta
Winner: Wisconsin state Rep. Steve Doyle
Doyle’s recipe for an effective ad was a dash of humor and a sprinkle of manipulation. The Democratic assemblyman running for reelection in Wisconsin did the same kind of emotional appeal that he warned voters about in the ad.
“Have you noticed how politicians prey on emotions to influence voters?” he asks, adding that they’ll use “pictures of babies” or “scare tactics” just to get votes. Don’t fall for it, he says, all while holding a baby of his own – an adorable alpaca named Pasta.
Because of that distraction, we’d understand if viewers missed everything Doyle later said about wanting to lower taxes, make healthcare affordable and reign in big tech.
And get this: Pasta has an alpaca sister named Noodle. Put those two in an ad together and Doyle really won’t be fighting fair.
The John Stockton Award for Assists
Winner: AI
Ever had a guest who just won’t leave? Yeah…Ohio knows the feeling. 🎂 https://t.co/bWbnwQX7Hr
A number of analysts havedubbed the 2026 midterms the first “AI election.” That’s because so many ads this cycle have been made with the help of artificial intelligence.
The Wesleyan Media Project said $137 million was spent on 220 ads featuring AI-generated or enhanced content through Oct. 11. That’s up from virtually nothing in 2024, and still likely an “undercount,” it has said. Republicans, more so than Democrats, have used the technology when producing ads, the project’s analysis has found.
In the Republican ad above, an AI version of Democrat Sherrod Brown overstays his welcome at a birthday party. Other notable AI-assisted ads showed Democrat James Talarico writing his own version of the Bible (we fact-checked it), and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie in a “throuple” with Democratic Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar. And some AI ads have prompted cease-and-desist letters from the targeted candidates, such as one in North Carolina that put Jessica Bichler, a state Senate candidate, in crazy yoga positions.
Wesleyan said most of the ads don’t even mention being made with AI, leaving viewers to figure it out. We’re sure that’s because AI is a great teammate and didn’t want credit.
The Best Worst Facial Hair
Winner: Charly Ray, candidate for state Senate in Wisconsin
Typically, at least some political candidates sport unusual beards or mustaches. But this year — at least in Wisconsin — it’s all about the eyebrows.
Democrat Charly Ray, who’s running for state Senate, put out an ad embracing voter reaction to his large, unruly brows, while taking the opportunity to use them as policy metaphors and to gently rib another politician in the state.
“Like data centers, they’ve had very little oversight,” Ray says of his brows in an impressive deadpan. “Like our schools, maintenance has been underfunded.”
He boasts that his eyebrows are “all-natural,” unlike those of “some politicians,” as the ad flashes a photo of Republican U.S. House candidate Michael Alfonso, who is the son-in-law of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. Alfonso’s well-coiffed brows havedrawn comparisons to Bert the Muppet, so he’s received some teasing as well.
Ray, who says there will be no trimming on his part, is not the only politician to capitalize on their brows this year. In the Canadian city of Burlington, Ontario, a female mayoral candidate voluntarily drew on a unibrow (as well as a mustache) à la sign graffiti to cheekily poke fun at herself in an ad to get out the vote. (Alas, she lost her race.)
Worst Romance Plotline
Winner: Steve Hilton, candidate for California governor
Steve Hilton, the Republican running for governor in California, caused a stir with this ad. It shows two young women sitting on a bed in a darkened room, music playing, a large Pride flag on the wall behind them.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” one says.
“Don’t be nervous,” the other says, stroking her hair. “It’s not that bad.”
“I’ve just never done anything like this before. Like what if my dad finds out?”
Eventually, the camera pans down and we see what they’re talking about: filling out a ballot for a Republican, namely Hilton.
“I think I like it?” the first woman says, giggling.
“Now lick it,” the other says — and holds out an envelope for a mail-in ballot.
The ad’s final frame tells voters: “Just try it! Steve Hilton for Governor.”
The suggestive ad prompted pushback from many in Hilton’s own party, including a state superintendent candidate who called it “Weird, creepy, disturbing garbage.” Hilton defended the ad but asked “for some grace,” saying the thought that he had upset anyone saddened him.
Barn Dancing with the Stars
Winner: Jamie Ager, candidate for U.S. House in North Carolina
Campaign ads often show candidates pledging to bring change to Washington. Jamie Ager’s prescription for change in this ad is a bit different.
“Do you know what we need more of in Washington, D.C.?” Ager, a Democrat running for Congress in western North Carolina, tells a crowd as music starts up. “Barn Dances!”
The next shots show people young and old dancing to a live band, in an airy barn with lights strung from the rafters. Ager is seen mixing it up with the other dancers.
“Amy and I host these every month,” Ager continues. “Politicians just dance with the lobbyists. But I’ll take a good mountain hoedown any day.”
Then he dances around to his talking points: investing in western North Carolina, taking on corporate greed and securing funds for the ongoing recovery from 2024’s Hurricane Helene.
Worst Sense of Direction
Winner: Defending Main Street PAC
This super PAC ad is pretty straightforward yet still went in the completely wrong direction. It attacks Democrat Troy Jackson, who would represent Portland and other parts of Maine if he defeats Republican Sen. Susan Collins. But the ad ended up briefly airing in Portland, Oregon, which is on the other side of the country.
The geographic mix-up actually wasn’t Defending Main Street PAC’s fault. It blamed the error on its advertising vendor, Cross Screen Media, which took responsibility.
“During a recent independent expenditure, our media vendor mistakenly placed approximately $25,000 in digital advertising in the Portland, Oregon media market instead of Portland, Maine,” a representative for the super PAC said in a statement emailed to us. Nevermind that they ignored our questions about the misleading claims in the ad, as we wrote.
The super PAC ultimately got a refund, but this could have been an even costlier mistake. There are multiple Portlands in the U.S., including in Texas, Connecticut and Tennessee.
The Eye Spy Award
Winner: BJ Wyrick, candidate for mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas
What the Flock? This ad from the mayoral race in Arkansas wasn’t on our radar until we went searching for award-worthy ads we may have missed. Maybe we shouldn’t have.
As far as we know, the ad was only posted to Facebook. It warns Little Rock residents – in a Rockwell-inspired song – that the city is “watching you” and “everything you do” with thousands of cameras. After a controversy involving local police officers, Wyrick, the nonpartisan vice mayor who wants the city’s head job, spoke out against law enforcement using Flock camera systems, which capture vehicle activity and can be helpful in police investigations. We assume that’s the point of the ad’s lyrics, but it isn’t exactly clear.
What’s really creepy is the illustration for the ad, which features a lot of glossy eyeballs of different sizes. Who wouldn’t fear being watched after seeing something like that?
The True Blood Award for Glamouring
Winner: President Donald Trump
The U.S. Government is up on TV with this spot —
It aired nationally on FOX yesterday during Illinois at #7 Ohio State and also during Fox News Sunday this morning https://t.co/8PP9FPzUZk
The vampires on the TV series “True Blood” used direct eye contact, or glamouring, to hypnotize people and influence their thoughts. Here, Trump appeared to try the same technique.
In the video, which is in black and white for maximum effect, Trump does a model walk down a hallway while staring intensely into the camera for nearly 30 seconds. As he does that, a voiceover plays with Trump saying “we will demolish the deep state,” “expel the warmongers from our government,” “drive out the globalists,” and “cast out the communists, Marxists and fascists.” We’ll have to wait to see if Trump’s method worked.
The White House experimented with some mental tricks, too, when it tried to convince critics of the taxpayer-funded message that it’s a public service announcement rather than a campaign ad. That was tough to do since Trump kept telling voters to pretend he is on the ballot, and released an almost identical ad during his 2024 run for president.
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Effective Nov. 4th, The U.S. Department of Agriculture rule requires affected SNAP retailers to carry at least seven varieties of food in each of four staple-food categories: fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry or fish; bread and cereals; and dairy products. Image created using AI on 11/3/26
Federal standards require more staple-food choices at participating stores as Delaware has 734 SNAP-authorized locations statewide
WILMINGTON, Del. — New federal food-stocking requirements take effect Wednesday for many retailers that accept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, with convenience stores, corner markets and other small-format retailers expected to face a bigger adjustment than traditional supermarkets.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture rule, published May 8, requires affected SNAP retailers to carry at least seven varieties of food in each of four staple-food categories: fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry or fish; bread and cereals; and dairy products.
Stores qualifying under the stocking standard must carry at least three units of each qualifying variety. That amounts to at least 28 different staple-food varieties and 84 individual stocking units. At least one perishable variety also must be available in three of the four staple-food categories. The requirements must be implemented by Nov. 4.
The new standards do not apply in the same way to every business authorized to accept SNAP. Specialty food stores and some retailers qualifying under other federal criteria may be treated differently.
Delaware has 734 SNAP-authorized retail locations, according to a recent compilation of USDA retailer-locator data. The dataset includes 280 convenience stores, 77 supermarkets, 74 grocery stores, 46 superstores, 25 specialty stores and 23 farmers markets or similar outlets. New Castle County accounts for 416 locations, Sussex County for 189 and Kent County for 129.
Why small stores feel it most
Large supermarkets generally already stock far more than the federal minimum. For small neighborhood stores, however, the rules may require changes in inventory, refrigeration, suppliers and shelf space.
USDA itself identified convenience stores, small grocery stores and combination stores as the businesses most likely to be affected.
The department estimated that complying with the rule will cost currently authorized retailers nationwide about $77 million during the first year, followed by roughly $1 million to $2 million annually over the next four years.
During the federal rulemaking process, retailers and trade associations raised concerns that small stores could have particular difficulty meeting dairy and grain requirements because of limited refrigeration, shelf space, product demand and the potential for spoilage.
USDA acknowledged that some currently authorized stores could become ineligible for SNAP participation because of the higher standards. The agency nevertheless said the changes were intended to improve the range of nutritious foods available to SNAP households and strengthen program integrity.
That could make the impact particularly noticeable in neighborhoods and rural communities where a convenience store or small grocery may be one of the closest places accepting SNAP.
For shoppers, the change could mean more staple foods available at those stores. For owners, it could mean carrying products that previously were not part of their regular inventory.
What stores must carry
The four staple-food categories are fruits and vegetables; meat, poultry and fish; breads and cereals; and dairy.
Under the new federal standard, qualifying stores must have:
Seven distinct varieties in each category.
Three stocking units of each variety.
At least 28 qualifying varieties overall.
At least 84 qualifying stocking units overall.
At least one perishable variety in three different staple-food categories.
The USDA also revised how it decides whether foods count as separate varieties. Whole-grain bread and non-whole-grain bread, for example, can qualify as separate varieties, as can whole-grain and non-whole-grain pasta. Shredded cheese and non-shredded cheese also may count separately.
Butter, jerky and many snack or dessert foods do not count toward the staple-food stocking minimum.
Enforcement will not necessarily mean every existing store receives an inspection Wednesday.
USDA said newly applying retailers and stores seeking authorization for new locations will be evaluated under the new standards after the implementation date. Existing stores generally will be assessed when they go through SNAP reauthorization, although federal regulations allow USDA to review a retailer’s continued eligibility at other times.
Shopping options increasingly include online orders
The stocking change comes as SNAP participants increasingly have options beyond traditional in-store shopping.
Delaware Health and Social Services says SNAP benefits may be used to buy eligible groceries online from authorized retailers. SNAP benefits cannot be used to pay delivery, shipping, service or membership fees.
An older DHSS online-purchasing guide lists Aldi, Amazon, Food Lion, Giant, Sam’s Club, ShopRite, Walmart and Weis Markets, but that document is dated February 2022 and should not be considered a complete current list without confirmation from the state or USDA.
The expansion of online EBT purchasing gives some SNAP households additional options, particularly where transportation or nearby grocery choices are limited. But independent neighborhood stores continue to compete largely on convenience and proximity.
What happens next
USDA said it plans to notify authorized retailers about the requirements and provide information intended to help businesses comply.
Stores found short of required inventory during an inspection also may be able to demonstrate that qualifying products were ordered or received during the previous 21 days by producing invoices, receipts or similar records.
A retailer denied authorization or reauthorization because it fails to meet the stocking requirement generally must wait six months before applying again.
For Delaware shoppers, the practical effect will depend on how many small stores already meet the standards and how many need to change their inventories.
USDA has not published a Delaware-specific estimate showing how many of the state’s retailers will have to add products or how many might ultimately decide not to continue accepting SNAP.
TO GO BOX
What: New USDA SNAP retailer stocking standards
When: Nov. 4, 2026
Minimum stocking standard: Seven varieties in each of four staple-food categories, with at least three units of each variety
For shoppers: Use the USDA SNAP Retailer Locator to find authorized stores.
For retailers: The USDA SNAP Retailer Service Center can answer questions about authorization and compliance at 1-877-823-4369, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday.
More information: USDA Food and Nutrition Service and Delaware Division of Social Services SNAP program pages.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the United States will stop providing roughly $4 billion in annual aid to Israel beginning in 2027, while continuing to sell military equipment to the longtime U.S. ally.
Trump told Fox News that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approached him about ending the assistance and that the two had discussed the idea for several years. Trump said Israel no longer needs the money and argued that continued aid had become a political issue in the United States.
The current U.S.-Israel security agreement provides about $3.8 billion annually in military aid through 2028. Because Congress appropriates the money each year, ending the assistance would still require changes to that funding process.
Trump said the policy shift would not end the defense relationship. Israel would instead be expected to purchase more U.S.-made weapons directly rather than receiving them through American military assistance.
The announcement comes amid growing political debate over U.S. support for Israel. Trump specifically cited criticism from Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, while public polling has shown declining support for unrestricted U.S. aid among Democrats and some Republicans.
Netanyahu’s office did not immediately comment. Israel has received tens of billions of dollars in additional U.S. military assistance since the Gaza war began in 2023.
China and its trading partners are moving towards an economic peace. But it is a fragile oneExpert commentthilton.drupal
Beijing appears to have embraced economic stability in its relations with the US and the EU. But serious challenges over its currency and export model remain.
In a world full of geopolitical tension and war, it is worth pausing to consider the few signs of hope that have emerged these last few months in China’s relations with the US and the EU.
Last month’s deal between Beijing and the EU to limit Europe’s imports of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is the most recent notable example. It represents an easing of trade tension and could help to defuse the threat of some very hostile trade tools that the French and German governments are now willing to deploy.
This EU-China agreement also comes in the context of President Xi and President Trump agreeing to a period of ‘constructive strategic stability’ during Trump’s visit to China in May. While this apparent embrace of stability is welcome, China’s economic relations with its global trading partners remain contentious.
Self-serving stabilization
China has some very good reasons of its own to seek a period of stabilization. Just about the one thing that the US, the EU and many parts of the Global South can all agree on, these days, is their shared view that China should import more and export less. Beijing is immensely lucky that its trading partners can’t turn that common view into a common policy, and so they remain entirely uncoordinated in their response to China’s rapidly increasing share of the global market for manufactured goods. Beijing should worry that this luck may run out, and so it makes sense for the authorities there to offer some help.
China’s reaction to the Hormuz crisis is another example of the ‘strategic reasonableness’ that Beijing seems to have adopted. China reduced its oil imports very sharply after Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in March and threatened the world with the loss of some 12 million barrels per day of oil that couldn’t find alternative routes out of the region. In June this year, China’s oil imports were down by about 5 million barrels a day. This reduced stress in the world’s oil market, which both supported economic activity and helped minimize global inflationary pressures.
It should go without saying that self-interest was at work here. China’s intensely export-oriented growth model requires Beijing to make sure that the chokepoint leverage that it is amassing through its manufacturing dominance doesn’t lead to a catastrophic loss of trust on the part of its trading partners. And at a more basic level, China’s economic model requires its customers to stay afloat. Whatever Beijing can do to stabilize global demand conditions, it should do. And that’s not to mention the chance that rising populism in the West might take on a more explicitly anti-China hue in the future.
Fragility
It has to be said, though, that this stabilization is very fragile. For example, China’s agreement to limit its exports of PHEVs to Europe, albeit through a WTO-compliant ‘safeguard measure,’ runs several risks. One is that China’s other trading partners might wonder why Beijing offered export restraint to the EU but not them, potentially leading them to push for their own arrangements.
And within the EU, there seems to be a strong sense that now Beijing has agreed to restrain vehicles exports, the same kind of pressure could be applied to sectors like pharmaceuticals, chemicals and machinery. China’s tolerance for this might be very limited.
Moreover, Europe and China’s other trading partners have ‘whack-a-mole’ problem when it comes to Chinese manufactured exports. The main reason that a rise in PHEV exports became so visible is thanks to the tariffs that the EU imposed on battery electric vehicles two years ago: China simply boosted its exports of PHEVs which weren’t subject to the tariffs. Now that these will be constrained, it probably won’t be long before another kind of manufactured exports surge next.
Currency concerns
Another reason to curb one’s enthusiasm is the way in which the debate about global trade imbalances is likely to evolve.
Beijing’s commitment to its manufacturing-led growth model seems, for the time being, unshakeable. What’s more likely is that China will agree to let its currency strengthen.
Last month, France and Germany made it clear in their unofficial ‘non-paper’ on trade that an appreciation of the renminbi would be a tolerable substitute in the short term for a more meaningful economic rebalancing of the economy that would boost China’s spending on imports. More pressure on China might grow when the US Treasury publishes its next report on potential ‘currency manipulators’ early next year.
—
Watch: David Lubin on what the 2026 Bund Summit in Shanghai tells us about China’s economic engagement with the rest of the world.
It is difficult to argue against the idea that the renminbi remains highly undervalued. CF40, a distinguished Chinese economics think-tank, recently suggested that the underlying equilibrium exchange rate of the renminbi against the US dollar – adjusting for the fact that the cost of living in China is much lower – is around 2.5 CNY per USD. The current market exchange rate is just below 6.7.
In this respect, though, China’s trading partners should be careful what they wish for. A more expensive renminbi will inevitably boost inflationary pressures among China’s trading partners. The European Central Bank has shown how cheap imports from China have kept goods inflation more moderate than it would otherwise be. At a time when anxiety about inflation is especially acute, given the surge in prices seen since the Iran war started in February, a renminbi-induced inflation shock in Europe and the US may not be very welcome.
‘Safe’ FDI
Economic relations between China and its trading partners in the EU and the US suffer from a familiar security dilemma: my pursuit of security leaves you feeling less secure, and vice versa.
The most hopeful way out of this might be for everyone to agree that China should increase its flow of ‘safe’ foreign direct investment (FDI) to the rest of the world.
This issue is now at the centre of talks in Europe about the European Commission’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act. Bigger FDI flows would help to lower China’s trade surplus by generating production in host countries, along with all the benefits of local job creation, technology transfer and tax revenues.
China has a long-term incentive to park industrial assets offshore, not least because they will generate a flow of cross-border investment income in the future.
Finding a way to increase China’s FDI flow to Europe without causing conniptions about national security risks is a worthy task. Set against the $350 billion trade deficit the EU will run with China this year, China’s FDI annual inflows of around $10 billion are tiny.
But boosting Chinese FDI will require tolerance of some minimal level of insecurity on Europe’s part. Otherwise, the pursuit of absolute security will come at an economic price that is just too high, and will, in the end, be self-defeating. FDI may well be the best way to build on the economic peace that is trying to break out.
A flash flood along the Rio Ruidoso on July 30, 2025
Three summers ago, over Father’s Day weekend, my family and I went camping in the Lincoln National Forest, just a few hours drive north of our home in El Paso, Texas. It’s a beautiful area that’s long served as a getaway for the region, with skiing in the winter, and golf and hiking in the summer. My daughter played under the trees, and I rode my bike down mountain trails that, I noticed, seemed concerningly dry.
The next evening, after we left to drive home, two fires started in forests surrounding the town of Ruidoso, New Mexico, around 25 miles away from where we’d been. I watched horrifying videos online of fire lapping the mountains behind the village’s strip malls and parking lots. The fires were eventually suppressed by a combination of human effort and the late summer monsoon season. But when the downpour of rain hit the burnt landscape around Ruidoso, it created another problem: Recurring floods then ripped through town, damaging homes and infrastructure, and leading to emergency rescues.
The following summer, the scene repeated. On July 8, 2025, monsoon rain hit a burn scar and quickly swelled the Rio Ruidoso and its tributaries. Three people — two of them children — lost their lives.
Reporter Abe Streep, a member of ProPublica’s Southwest office, and I met in Ruidoso to report on what happened. Ruidoso is a place built on tourism, with a paid (rather than volunteer) fire department staff and its own disaster manager. How could two children and a man be swept to their deaths in a place that appeared equipped to handle such disasters?
In two stories ProPublica recently published, Abe answered those questions. He found that, after the 2024 fires, experts warned the town of increased flash flooding risks. Initially, local and state leaders considered a relocation plan for some homes and businesses that would get people out of harm’s way, but the project faltered. Instead, village leaders continued promoting tourism to the town, and the mayor even chastised residents for warning of floods on social media. Abe also reported that, while local and state officials insisted the emergency response to the flood was admirable, first responders say the three deaths could have been avoided. The responders told Abe that village leadership left them understaffed and inadequately equipped to contend with the flooding.
The Village of Ruidoso did not respond to detailed written questions about its emergency response, and it has not publicly released a report on rescue efforts during the flood. Reached by phone, the fire chief, Cade Hall, disputed our reporting but declined to provide specifics. Mayor Lynn Crawford has said protecting the village includes balancing public safety with tourism, the lifeblood of its economy. But in an interview last year, Crawford said to Abe and me: “Who’s to blame? I didn’t start the fire.”
My role as a photographer was to document Ruidoso as the story unfolded — to visualize the people and place at the center of it. It’s a role I’ve had countless times in my career, but this story hit unexpectedly close to home. I could imagine my own family caught unaware in a similar situation, trying to escape the El Paso summer heat but instead navigating an unfathomable disaster.
A crumbled trailer and debris from flash flooding in Ruidoso on Aug. 1, 2025The crumbling house at the Riverview RV Park on Sept. 10, 2026
When Abe and I started reporting, we met people from the community and out of town who tried to help. I watched as New Mexico National Guard service members loaded sand bags into families’ cars, people prepared hot meals for those who had been displaced and volunteers handed out donated supplies from collection centers.
Supplies inside a Salvation Army makeshift distribution center and a sandbag distribution point facilitated by the New Mexico National Guard last summer
While we were reporting one afternoon, it started raining. Fear swept through me. Our phones lit up with flood warnings from the National Weather Service. We knew we should take them seriously.
Abe and I sought refuge in a local brewery perched high above the river basin. Before we knew it, the water from that thin little creek of Rio Ruidoso became a torrent. The rushing water rose quickly. It swept through the river valley right under the brewery, carrying what looked like trees and debris with it.
A woman watches the Rio Ruidoso rise from inside a brewery in downtown Ruidoso last summer.Two people venture close to the river as a flash flood began to subside last summer.
Still, I wanted to photograph the river up close. I left the safety of the brewery and let the heavy rain cover me as I moved closer to the river. As I made photos that afternoon and throughout the rest of the trip, questions about my own safety ran through my mind: Would the water keep rising? If it did, could I get to high ground? And, notably, would I have enough warning?
In hindsight, I realize these questions were largely about whether I could trust the systems in place to keep me and others safe. And as Abe kept reporting over the next year, the more those questions felt valid.
Last month, Abe and I traveled again to Ruidoso. The town felt lighter and less ominous. Much of the ruin had been removed or rebuilt. Grass and sagebrush sprouted on a burn scar. Tourists wandered around a lively downtown on a Friday afternoon. People seemed to be moving on from the terror of the previous year.
Downtown Ruidoso on a Friday afternoon this summerA mule deer and an elk wander behind downtown Ruidoso.New growth on a burn scar above Ruidoso
But Stephanie and Sebastian Trotter still carry the scars of the day. They lost their two children, Sebastian Rowan, 7, and Charlotte, 4, in the Ruidoso flooding.
There is now a memorial for them and Benjamin “Tim” Feagin, the third person who died, at the RV park where they had been camped. But I wanted to see for myself the places where each of them was found. I felt that making photos of those places could help people connect with the reality of their deaths as well as their lives. So, early one morning, I walked along the floodplain trying to find the locations Abe had shared with me.
I got to the bridge where a firefighter found Sebastian Rowan. There was no marker, no indication that anyone’s body had been found there.
Then I went looking for the area where Charlotte was found. I wandered under pine and cottonwood, through knee-deep grasses and wild sunflowers. Crows cawed overhead, and the early morning sun broke through the trees. I stood there for a while, admiring the beauty, awed by the sadness of the river’s trickle.
Rio Ruidoso, near where the body of Sebastian Rowan was found
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from sending states lists of voters it suspects may be noncitizens or pressuring election officials to segregate or reject their ballots.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled Monday that the Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security must stop distributing the lists while litigation continues. She said the government’s data may be unreliable, creating a risk that eligible U.S. citizens could be improperly flagged and disenfranchised.
The administration recently sent such lists to California and Washington, asking officials to isolate ballots from thousands of voters until their citizenship could be verified. Voting-rights and privacy groups sued, arguing the effort violated the federal Privacy Act and improperly intruded on state authority over elections.
The Justice Department maintains that its actions are intended to enforce the federal prohibition on noncitizen voting. Noncitizen voting is illegal, but documented cases remain rare.
Chutkan’s order does not prevent states from independently verifying individual citizenship through existing federal systems. It instead bars the administration from distributing its own lists or directing states to act on them.
The ruling follows several other court setbacks to the administration’s election-related efforts, including challenges involving California ballots and alleged noncitizen voters.
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE — Newly released video shows Tennessee National Guard members pointing their handguns at 20-year-old Tyrin Johnson as he lay mortally wounded on a Memphis sidewalk after being shot during a July encounter, adding new scrutiny to a case already complicated by conflicting accounts of what happened.
The Shelby County District Attorney’s Office released police body-camera footage, surveillance video and a bystander recording Monday as the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation continues reviewing the July 5 shooting. Johnson died at the scene from a single gunshot wound.
The released footage does not show the moment Johnson was shot. It does show Guard members shouting commands and aiming their weapons at Johnson after he was already on the ground. A Memphis police officer can be heard calling for an ambulance and asking whether the troops had medical supplies.
That missing footage is important because official accounts and Johnson’s autopsy appear to conflict.
A Tennessee National Guard report said Johnson “rounded on” two Guard members and pointed a handgun at them before both troops fired their M17 pistols. However, an autopsy provided to Johnson’s family found that he had been shot in the back, raising questions about whether the official description accurately reflects Johnson’s position when the fatal round was fired.
Authorities have said Johnson was armed and had fled after officers responded to reports of gunfire. Earlier surveillance footage shows a person firing shots across a parking lot before police began pursuing an armed man. The available video, however, does not establish what Johnson was doing at the precise moment the Guard members opened fire.
Attorney André C. Wharton, representing Johnson’s family, said the investigation should remain focused on whether the fatal shot was legally justified.
The Guard members were deployed as part of a federal crime task force created under President Donald Trump and supported by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. The task force was involved in four fatal shootings between May and July.
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has not yet decided whether criminal charges will be filed.
ST. CLOUD, MINNESOTA — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spent last Friday promoting the Trump administration’s aggressive campaign against fraud in Minnesota. But when asked whether that same scrutiny should apply to an ICE prison purchase that cost the federal government hundreds of millions more than an earlier offer to the state, Bessent dismissed the question as a “waste of our time.”
The exchange highlighted a notable contradiction in the administration’s message: federal officials say they intend to follow suspicious money wherever it leads, while rejecting calls to examine a costly transaction involving their own government.
The controversy involves the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton, Minnesota. ICE purchased the vacant 1,600-bed prison from private prison company CoreCivic for about $496 million in August. However, records obtained by KARE 11 showed CoreCivic had offered the same facility to Minnesota for $75 million in 2025.
CoreCivic also has substantial financial ties to Trump-era Republican politics: the company donated $500,000 to Trump’s 2025 inaugural committee, while its PAC and employees gave nearly $785,000 during the 2024 election cycle, with about $660,000 going to Republican candidates and committees.
Asked about the roughly $420 million difference during the administration’s fraud task force event, Bessent said he knew nothing about the transaction and added that questions diverting attention from criminal fraud were “a waste of our time.”
That response came shortly after Bessent declared that President Trump had made fighting fraud “a mandate” across the entire administration. Treasury’s own release said that “wherever the money leads, the full weight of government will follow.”
No evidence has established that the ICE purchase itself involved criminal fraud. But the enormous difference between the earlier $75 million offer and the federal government’s $496 million purchase has raised legitimate questions about how taxpayers’ money was spent.
DHS and CoreCivic dispute the suggestion that the figures are directly comparable. CoreCivic says the $75 million figure was not a formal appraisal and that the federal price reflected replacement costs, renovations, security upgrades and current construction expenses. The company said independent federal appraisers determined the property’s fair market value.
The timing nevertheless makes the contrast difficult to ignore. At the same Minnesota event, Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel and other officials repeatedly emphasized protecting taxpayers and pursuing fraud aggressively. Treasury said its anti-fraud campaign would use “every tool” available to hold wrongdoers accountable.
That standard may now invite an obvious question: if federal officials believe questionable spending deserves aggressive scrutiny, should transactions involving their own agencies receive the same examination?
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to force Harvard University to turn over extensive admissions records as part of an investigation into whether the school continued considering race after the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious admissions in 2023.
U.S. District Judge Myong J. Joun dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning the Justice Department may be able to file it again after correcting procedural deficiencies. Joun emphasized that his ruling did not decide whether Harvard discriminated in admissions or whether the government may ultimately obtain the requested records.
The Justice Department sued Harvard in February, seeking applicant-level information including grades, test scores, admissions decisions, race and ethnicity data, extracurricular activities and personal essays. The department said the records were necessary to determine whether Harvard was complying with the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.
Harvard maintained that it had already provided substantial information while challenging the scope and relevance of some federal demands.
Joun found that the government had not adequately demonstrated that it followed required procedures before going to court, including formally identifying a compliance violation and establishing that voluntary compliance could not be achieved.
“The Government may be able to identify a qualifying determination or cure the procedural deficiency,” Joun wrote, but he concluded that it had not yet established a sufficient basis for judicial intervention.
The ruling therefore represents a procedural setback for the administration rather than a substantive victory for Harvard on its admissions practices. The Justice Department could renew the case after completing the required administrative steps.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected the Trump administration’s emergency request to force California to set aside roughly 20,000 mail ballots associated with voters federal officials suspect may be noncitizens, handing the Justice Department another defeat in its Election Day challenge.
The court issued a brief order declining to intervene, with no justices publicly dissenting. The ruling allows California to continue processing and counting the disputed ballots under its existing election procedures.
The Justice Department had argued that ballots connected to people on its federal list should be segregated until their citizenship could be verified. Solicitor General D. John Sauer warned that once ballots were removed from identifying envelopes and mixed with other votes, any ballot later determined to have been cast illegally could no longer be identified.
California opposed the request, arguing that the federal list contained significant errors and that imposing a new ballot-segregation procedure at the last minute could disenfranchise lawful voters and disrupt an election already underway.
Those concerns were reinforced by an analysis from the UCLA Voting Rights Project, which found that 8,880 of the 20,930 names on the Justice Department list, about 42%, could not be matched to California’s voter rolls. Researchers also identified confirmed U.S. citizens and thousands of people who appeared likely to be naturalized citizens. The Justice Department disputes that analysis.
The administration had already lost before a federal district judge and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Lower courts questioned both the reliability of the federal data and the Justice Department’s authority to require California to alter its election procedures immediately before voting concluded.
The Supreme Court’s action does not resolve the broader legal dispute over the administration’s noncitizen-voter initiative. Separate litigation over federal voter lists, subpoenas and Justice Department demands remains active. But for the Nov. 3 election, California will not be required to isolate the approximately 20,000 ballots identified by the federal government.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to intervene in its fight with California over more than 20,000 voters the Justice Department says may be noncitizens, seeking an emergency order requiring their mail ballots to be separated one day before Election Day.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer asked the justices to prevent the disputed ballots from being mixed with other votes while litigation continues. The government argues that once ballots are removed from identifying envelopes and counted, any ballot later found to have been cast by an ineligible voter could no longer be isolated.
The Justice Department says federal immigration records identified roughly 20,000 people who are “likely” noncitizens and may also be registered California voters. However, both citizenship and voter-registration status remain disputed, and the government has acknowledged that additional investigation is needed.
California has challenged both the accuracy of the list and the Justice Department’s legal authority to demand that ballots be segregated. A federal district judge rejected the government’s request, and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to intervene in a 2-1 decision, warning that last-minute ballot restrictions could disenfranchise eligible voters and disrupt an election already underway.
Questions about the list’s accuracy have become central to the dispute. An analysis submitted by the UCLA Voting Rights Project found that 8,880 of 20,930 names — about 42% — could not be matched to California’s voter file. Researchers also identified at least 22 confirmed U.S. citizens and said thousands of naturalized citizens may have been incorrectly flagged. The Justice Department disputes that analysis and maintains that its list is based on official immigration records.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli has publicly insisted that the individuals on the federal list are confirmed noncitizens, while separately acknowledging that investigators still need to determine whether they are actually registered California voters.
The case now places the dispute before the Supreme Court at the latest possible stage of the election. Justice Elena Kagan handles emergency applications arising from the 9th Circuit and could act herself or refer the request to the full court.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump said Monday he would consider using presidential pardons to protect Elon Musk, White House staffers and other allies if Democrats gain congressional power and launch investigations after the midterm elections.
Speaking on Miranda Devine’s “Pod Force One” podcast, Trump said he would act if Democrats targeted Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX who has become one of the Republican Party’s largest financial supporters. He also raised the possibility of issuing preemptive pardons to people serving in his administration. Axios first reported the remarks.
The comments come as House Democrats prepare for the possibility of obtaining subpoena power. Democratic lawmakers have discussed investigations into the Trump administration’s relationships with corporations and wealthy supporters, including Musk, whose political spending this cycle has exceeded $400 million. Axios reported that Democrats are examining potential conflicts involving companies and executives with unusually close ties to the administration.
Musk has responded aggressively to those plans. In October, he warned Democrats considering investigations that he would uncover who was “pulling the strings” behind them and retaliate politically.
A presidential pardon, however, would not prevent Congress from investigating Musk or administration officials, issuing subpoenas or holding public hearings. Presidential clemency applies to federal criminal offenses; it does not erase Congress’ constitutional oversight authority or protect someone from state prosecutions.
Trump did not identify specific alleged crimes for which Musk or his aides might require pardons. His comments instead portrayed potential clemency as protection against what he considers politically motivated investigations.
The administration has already taken steps to prepare for congressional scrutiny. In August, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel argued that executive privilege can extend in some circumstances to communications between Trump and private outside advisers, a theory that could become the subject of court battles if Democrats pursue subpoenas.
RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA — North Carolina set a new midterm early-voting record this year, with more than 2.8 million people casting ballots before Election Day, including mail ballots. That represents roughly 36% of the state’s registered voters and significantly exceeds turnout at the same stage of the 2022 midterms.
Registered Democrats accounted for about 38% of ballots cast, while unaffiliated voters made up roughly 35%. Republicans accounted for about 26%, meaning Democrats and unaffiliated voters combined for approximately 73% of the early vote.
The strongest surprise may be the unaffiliated vote. North Carolina’s unaffiliated registration has grown steadily and now represents about 40% of registered voters statewide. During the final four days of early voting, unaffiliated voters outnumbered both Democrats and Republicans.
Saturday, the final day of in-person early voting, was also the busiest, with roughly 249,000 people voting. Overall early turnout was about 30% higher than in the 2022 midterms.
Still, the partisan breakdown should not be interpreted as an election forecast. Party registration does not reveal how someone actually voted, particularly among unaffiliated voters, and Republicans in North Carolina have historically cast a larger share of their ballots on Election Day.
The state’s Nov. 3 ballot includes the open U.S. Senate race between Democrat Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley, a North Carolina Supreme Court contest, all 14 U.S. House seats, state legislative races and three proposed constitutional amendments.
North Carolina polling places will be open Tuesday from 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. Voters casting ballots on Election Day must use their assigned precinct.
Quitobaquito Springs, a rare Sonoran Desert oasis imperiled by border wall construction, is located within 200 feet of the U.S.-Mexico border in Organ Pipe National Monument outside Ajo, Arizona. Anna Watts
Lorraine Eiler stood in the blazing August sun, surrounded by reporters, to offer a warning. The Trump administration was racing to erect a second border wall across Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, southwest of Tucson. If the bulldozers came, she said, they were bound to disturb the final resting places of her family and Hia-Ced O’odham tribal ancestors.
“People used to live here,” the 89-year-old said.
Fifteen days later, her fears were realized.
ProPublica has confirmed that Native American remains were unearthed in Organ Pipe amid soil overturned by border wall contractors.
The discovery, unreported until now, was made on Sept. 8, the National Park Service said in a statement. “Following established protocols, the University of Arizona conducted an assessment and confirmed that the remains are human and align with tribal cremation practices,” the agency said.
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act governs the steps agencies must take following an inadvertent discovery of Native American remains on federal land. Those steps include halting any activity that contributed to the discovery until tribal communities are consulted.
“The National Park Service is committed to respecting tribal rights and traditions,” the agency went on to say, adding that it was “working diligently to identify the culturally affiliated tribe and ensure the respectful return of the remains, so the tribe may observe their religious and cultural practices.”
Eiler was alerted to the discovery by a cultural affairs specialist with the Tohono O’odham Nation, a larger tribe whose reservation is east of Organ Pipe, and later by the Organ Pipe superintendent’s office. Her family discussed what to do next. Ultimately, they decided to hold off on reburying the newly unearthed remains until construction in the area stops, fearing the work will disturb more sites.
“Who knows what more will come up,” Eiler said in an interview. “They’re going to find remains wherever they dig.”
Hia-Ced O’odham elder Lorraine Eiler stands in the shade of a giant saguaro cactus in Organ Pipe National Monument in 2022.Roberto “Bear” Guerra
Customs and Border Protection contractors have bulldozed a wide swath of vegetation parallel to the international divide. The agency has fashioned staging areas for heavy equipment by knocking down, uprooting and attempting to transplant select specimens of the monument’s native plants. Eiler was told the remains were found by a park service archaeologist near the base of a saguaro cactus that was still standing.
In a statement, CBP said it was advised of the discovery six days after it was made, that its cultural resource specialists examined the area and found no other remains, and that “no additional construction has occurred at this location to date.”
The discovery comes amid tensions between the Department of Homeland Security and tribal communities in the Sonoran Desert. In April, border wall contractors bulldozed through a large, well-marked earthen etching, known as the Las Playas Intaglio, that was believed to be at least 6,500 years old. (CBP said the incident was accidental.)
Soon after, the department awarded a $1.3 billion contract for construction of a 62-mile border wall across the entirety of the Tohono O’odham Nation. The tribe is fighting the project in federal court and has erected “no trespassing” signs to keep border wall contractors off its land. As ProPublica recently reported, DHS has responded by deploying masked federal agents as escorts for its work crews and conducting aerial surveillance of tribal members. The head of CBP has justified the need for a wall by describing the reservation as “one of the most dangerous smuggling and trafficking corridors on the Southwest border.”
Verlon M. Jose, the tribe’s chairman, expressed gratitude that the park service had notified his office of the discovery, but mourned the fact that it was necessary.
“When you have mass destruction and disturbance of land taking place where there are clearly sacred sites, cemeteries and other areas of cultural importance, these types of discoveries are bound to happen,” Jose said in a statement. “Every time this happens it is a wound to the heart of all members of the Tohono O’odham Nation — these are our ancestors, our family members — whose remains are being desecrated.”
U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who appeared with Eiler and the chairman at the August news conference, blasted the government for failing to heed their warnings. “Tribal leaders and elders have warned DHS about the devastating consequences of bulldozing through their ancestral lands, beginning with the destruction of the Las Playas Intaglio,” she said in a statement. “For months, those warnings have fallen on deaf ears. Now, we are seeing exactly what they feared: sacred sites destroyed and ancestral burial grounds desecrated.”
James T. Watson, curator of bioarcheology in the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona, analyzed the remains recovered in Organ Pipe in the field.
While he was not authorized to discuss the details of his findings without park service approval, Watson said in an email that he confirmed the remains were human. The evidence suggested they were cremated in a manner consistent with precolonial practices in the region dating back 1,500 years, he wrote.
Under NAGPRA, the graves protection act, Native American remains inadvertently uncovered on park service lands must be immediately secured, Watson explained, and the superintendent of the jurisdiction must notify “all relevant lineal descendants” with “potential cultural affiliation or ancestral ties to the land.”
“Work in the immediate discovery area must remain suspended for at least 30 calendar days,” he wrote, while the park service consults with tribal representatives “to determine the disposition and physical treatment of the remains.”
Workers clear desert flora to make way for construction of a double border wall in Organ Pipe National Monument.Anna Watts
In a region as rich with archaeological sites as the American Southwest, the inadvertent disturbance of Native American remains occurs with some regularity. What sets the discovery in Organ Pipe apart are the extraordinary powers the Department of Homeland Security wields to expedite wall construction in the borderlands.
Following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Congress passed the Real ID Act, which included a provision empowering the secretary of DHS to waive any law that might slow border wall construction. In the two decades since, DHS has invoked its powers 66 times, with 60 of those instances occurring under President Donald Trump’s two administrations.
When DHS uses this authority, it typically waives dozens of laws at a time. That was the case in 2019 when the department set its sights on Organ Pipe. A waiver issued by then-acting Secretary Kevin K. McAleenan set aside more than 40 of the nation’s most stringent environmental and cultural resource protection laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and others. Also on that list was the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the landmark 1990 law that acknowledged the nation’s long history of desecrating Native American burials and required that ancestral remains and cultural objects be returned to tribes.
In an internal 2019 report obtained by The Washington Post, park service officials identified nearly two dozen archaeological sites in Organ Pipe as at risk of damage or total destruction by government contractors.
Of particular significance is a desert oasis known as Quitobaquito Springs. Less than 200 feet from the international border, the springs provide one of the only reliable sources of groundwater and shade for miles around, and they were a longtime gathering place, grazing site and home for O’odham families.
“Archaeological evidence of human presence at Quitobaquito extends back thousands of years, at least to Archaic times,” the survey found, adding that the springs represent the “only known Hia C-ed O’odham village site in the United States.”
A park service report in 2024 noted that a cemetery at Quitobaquito holds the remains of at least two families, including Eiler’s, and 34 graves. Throughout the region, remains of 5,500 ancestors that were displaced have been made available for return to the Tohono O’odham Nation, according to ProPublica’s NAGPRA database.
“This sort of incident has happened numerous times across our homeland, and it’s always alarming to hear about a case from an O’odham point of view,” said David Martínez, a professor of American Indian and transborder studies at Arizona State University and a member of the Hia-Ced O’odham and Akimel O’odham tribes, as well as the Gila River Indian Community.
“Those remains shouldn’t have been disturbed in the first place,” he said. “While there are protocols existing today to properly care for these remains, ultimately, whatever either the government or the corporate world is pursuing to build, we know that at some juncture that construction will continue, and it always leaves us feeling, I think, a little hollow.”
Today, Quitobaquito lies in the shadow of the border wall erected during Trump’s first term. Its construction required detonating explosives in the national monument, blasting apart an area called Monument Hill and outraging tribal leaders. According to Eiler, the remains recovered in September were not found at the springs, though government work crews are working in close proximity to the site.
This year, DHS hired Sundt Construction, an Arizona-based company, to build a second wall in the monument. The $443 million contract was finalized in May. (Sundt directed questions concerning the discovery of human remains on its job site to CBP.)
According to CBP, the 2019 waiver for Organ Pipe is still in effect, years after completion of the project that prompted it. A second waiver, exempting DHS from many of the same laws and applying to the national monument as well as a wildlife refuge to the west, was issued by Homeland Security’s then-Secretary Kristi Noem last year.
“Unfortunately, there is no end date to the effectiveness of the waivers,” said Dinah Bear, a Tucson-based lawyer who served for 25 years as a senior attorney in the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality under both Democratic and Republican administrations. What’s more, she added, “there’s nothing in the statutory language that ties the waivers to a particular project.”
The Department of Homeland Security’s waiver powers have been central to a high-profile legal fight over the department’s efforts to build a border wall through Big Bend National Park in West Texas, with a federal judge overseeing the case recently ordering a temporary halt to the project.
Borderlands advocates in Arizona are hoping for similar interventions. In Congress, Grijalva is preparing legislation to void existing waivers that have allowed DHS to disregard laws designed to protect tribal sovereignty, sacred sites and environmentally sensitive lands.
In the meantime, construction on the border continues. For Eiler, it’s not just the destruction in Organ Pipe that’s troubling. She sees the disturbance of tribal graves resulting from wall construction as reflective of a wider pattern of destruction across the border.
“It’s sad because it’s not only happening down there,” she said. “It’s happening all over the United States, and nobody’s saying much about it.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump confirmed Sunday that he discussed Iran with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the United States weighs continued diplomacy against renewed military action following months of conflict.
Trump described Saturday’s conversation with Netanyahu as “very good” and confirmed Iran was discussed. Reporting from U.S. and Israeli sources indicates Netanyahu has been pressing Washington for faster military action, while Trump has so far preferred allowing negotiations with Tehran to continue. Oil prices fell Monday partly on expectations that another round of strikes might still be avoided.
Diplomatic efforts remain active. Iranian negotiators spent several days meeting Qatari mediators in Doha, with a draft proposal now circulating between the parties. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has described the diplomatic movement positively while warning that Iran is also prepared to defend itself if attacked again. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Trump prefers a negotiated resolution and has not made a final decision on additional strikes.
Trump previously said the United States would not launch another attack before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, but he has not ruled out military action afterward. Netanyahu, meanwhile, has publicly suggested that renewed operations against Iran could become necessary.
Tucker Carlson Raises Nuclear Strike Alarm
Against that backdrop, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson made a far more explosive claim Sunday, alleging that Netanyahu is personally pressuring Trump to authorize a nuclear strike against an underground Iranian nuclear facility known as Pickaxe Mountain.
Carlson claimed, citing unnamed sources, that Netanyahu calls Trump regularly about the issue and that Trump could decide by Nov. 7 whether to use a nuclear weapon. Carlson further alleged that conventional U.S. weapons cannot destroy the deeply buried facility and warned that a nuclear strike could trigger a wider global conflict.
Those claims remain unverified. Carlson provided no documents, intelligence assessments or named sources demonstrating that Netanyahu has requested a nuclear attack or that Trump is actively considering one. The White House, Netanyahu and the senior U.S. officials Carlson named have not confirmed his account.
There is also no public confirmation that Iran is currently enriching uranium beneath Pickaxe Mountain. Satellite analysis has shown continued construction at the site, but analysts have not established that enrichment is occurring there. Carlson’s assertion that nuclear weapons represent the only viable military option likewise was not accompanied by an independent technical assessment.
Trump himself said in an Oct. 15 interview that he would not use nuclear weapons against Iran, saying they were unnecessary. That does not rule out conventional military action, but it directly conflicts with the most alarming interpretation of Carlson’s claim.
For now, the verified picture is substantially narrower: Trump and Netanyahu are discussing Iran, Netanyahu favors a tougher approach, U.S. military options remain available, and negotiations are continuing. Carlson’s nuclear-war scenario is a serious allegation, but at this stage it remains an allegation rather than an established plan.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan’s campaign account on X was temporarily suspended Friday night after the platform flagged it under rules governing inauthentic or impersonating accounts, adding another unusual twist to Alaska’s already chaotic U.S. Senate race.
The account, @DanSullivan_AK, disappeared Friday before being restored Saturday morning or early afternoon. Sullivan’s campaign said X informed it that the account had violated rules against “inauthentic accounts.” X did not publicly explain what triggered the suspension.
The incident comes amid an extraordinary dispute involving another Senate candidate with almost the same name. Retired Petersburg teacher Dan J. Sullivan is also on the ballot alongside incumbent Dan S. Sullivan, Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican Gerald Heikes. The second Sullivan has denied running to intentionally confuse voters.
Sullivan’s campaign and Republican officials accused Peltola’s allies of reporting the senator’s X account as fake, but they provided no public evidence establishing that claim. Peltola’s campaign denied involvement, calling the allegation “silly and unsubstantiated.”
The controversy over the two Sullivans has escalated sharply since reporting showed Democratic operatives explored recruiting candidates with the incumbent senator’s name. The Justice Department has issued more than 40 subpoenas and document-preservation requests as part of an investigation, though authorities have not publicly identified any criminal charges against Peltola or her campaign.
A separate Trump administration lawsuit seeking to block certification of the election under certain circumstances was dismissed Sunday. A federal judge ruled that investigating individual ballots cast for the second Sullivan would be infeasible and conflict with Alaska’s secret-ballot protections.
The temporary X suspension underscores how the unusual same-name controversy has spilled beyond the ballot itself just days before Election Day.
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA — A federal judge on Sunday dismissed the Trump administration’s lawsuit seeking to delay certification of Alaska’s U.S. Senate election if Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan loses, rejecting the Justice Department’s proposed investigation into ballots cast for another candidate with a nearly identical name.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the government’s requested remedy was not workable and would conflict with Alaska’s secret-ballot protections. The Justice Department wanted ballots cast for retired teacher Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. separated so investigators could determine whether voters mistakenly intended to support Sen. Dan S. Sullivan.
Gleason said the government provided no practical method for identifying and segregating those ballots while preserving voter secrecy. Alaska ballots are separated from identifying information before counting, meaning election officials cannot later match individual ballots to voters.
The judge also warned against imposing major election changes just days before Election Day, noting that such an order could create confusion and discourage participation. The lawsuit was filed Oct. 22, after early voting had already begun and months after the Alaska Supreme Court ruled Daniel J. Sullivan was legally entitled to appear on the ballot.
The case stems from allegations that Democratic operatives helped recruit Daniel J. Sullivan as a spoiler candidate against the Republican incumbent. Recent reporting has raised questions about possible coordination involving people connected to Mary Peltola’s campaign, which Peltola denies. Legal experts have said recruiting a spoiler candidate is generally not illegal by itself, although separate fraud or campaign-finance violations could still be investigated.
The Justice Department has indicated it plans to appeal, while a separate federal criminal investigation into the alleged ballot-stacking effort remains active.
DETROIT, MICHIGAN — Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens stunned her own party Sunday by endorsing Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat less than 48 hours before Election Day, abandoning Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed after repeatedly saying she would support him following their bitter primary.
The endorsement immediately detonated inside Democratic circles, prompting senior members of Stevens’ own staff to resign and drawing unusually harsh condemnation from party leaders. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who backed Stevens during the Democratic primary, called the decision a “despicable betrayal.”
Stevens narrowly lost the August primary to El-Sayed but initially pledged to support the Democratic nominee. As recently as last week, she publicly reaffirmed that position. On Sunday, however, Stevens appeared alongside Rogers at Perfecting Church in Detroit before posting a video formally endorsing him.
“Our Democratic nominee for Senate said I was no longer welcome in his campaign and that I should stay away,” Stevens said. “And he’s right. And that’s why I am endorsing Mike Rogers for the United States Senate today.”
That explanation followed days of escalating tensions over Israel and an advertisement produced by an outside progressive group that tied U.S. support for Israel to higher grocery costs. El-Sayed said the ad was not produced by his campaign and that he disagreed with its contents. Stevens nonetheless demanded that he more forcefully condemn it.
El-Sayed later said he did not want Stevens joining a planned unity event because the dispute had become a distraction. Stevens seized on that exclusion as justification for abandoning the Democratic nominee entirely and backing Rogers, a Republican aligned with President Donald Trump.
The reaction from Stevens’ own operation was immediate. Her longtime chief of staff, Justin German, resigned along with multiple other staff members, saying they were “shocked and heartbroken” by her decision and would continue supporting El-Sayed and Democrats across the ballot.
The Michigan Democratic Party responded just as forcefully. Party Chair Curtis Hertel said Stevens “is not a current member of the Michigan Democratic Party, nor will she be in the future.” Rep. Jamie Raskin said there was “a great sense of betrayal,” while other Democratic lawmakers reacted with disbelief and anger.
Progressive activists were even harsher, accusing Stevens of attempting to sabotage the candidate who defeated her and arguing that the endorsement should end her future within Democratic politics. Mediaite documented widespread accusations of “betrayal” across progressive social media.
Schumer’s denunciation was especially notable because he had supported Stevens in the primary. After El-Sayed won, however, Schumer endorsed him and emphasized that Senate Democrats remained united behind the nominee despite disagreements over Israel.
The stakes extend well beyond the personal feud. Michigan’s open Senate seat is being vacated by Democrat Gary Peters and is central to the battle for control of the chamber. More than 1.8 million Michigan voters had already cast ballots before Stevens’ endorsement.
El-Sayed largely dismissed the controversy Sunday, saying he was focused on Michigan voters rather than Stevens. “At the end of the day I actually don’t think about Haley Stevens,” he told reporters while campaigning with Democratic leaders.
Stevens insists she remains a Democrat and says her decision was about opposing what she considers hateful rhetoric. But her endorsement of Rogers after promising to support the Democratic nominee has produced one of the most extraordinary intraparty ruptures of the 2026 campaign, and one that her own staff and party leaders are openly describing as a betrayal.
Its vision, “Establishing Equity Through Literacy,” centers on helping everyone gain the knowledge needed to make informed health decisions. Its work includes advocating for education and policy changes, strengthening partnerships and encouraging clearer communication throughout the healthcare system.
