ASOS says hackers gained unauthorized access to third-party platforms it uses and sent an "ASOS HACKED" push notification directly to customers, apparently as part of an extortion attempt. The clothing and beauty store says some basic personal information may have been accessed but does not believe payment-card data or passwords were affected. The BBC reports: In an email to customers on Tuesday night, the company apologized and urged customers not to engage with the notification. And it said the website and app are "operating as usual" promising customers they can "shop with confidence" while it investigates the incident. The company has not as of yet informed the UK's data watchdog, the Information Commission's Office (ICO), about any breach.
Exactly how many Asos customers received the notification on Tuesday remains unclear, but Google's Play store says the ASOS app has been downloaded to android devices more than 10 million times. The British retailer has a substantial global footprint -- serving around 17 million customers each year across more than 150 markets. Some Asos app users in Australia, France, Sweden and the Republic of Ireland had also received the notification, according to local reports on Tuesday.
[...] Users of the Asos app appeared to have received the alarming notification at around 10:00 BST on Tuesday. Headlined "ASOS HACKED" and addressed to the company's data protection officer and IT teams, it said: "We have fully compromised the Snowflake instance." "Engage with us, or we will leak it," it added, before linking to a Telegram channel. The message left many ASOS customers confused. [...] Meanwhile Snowflake -- whose tools are used by dozens of firms to collect, analyze and store data -- told the BBC its investigation was ongoing, but it had so far found "no compromise" of its platform.
Exclusive: Officials working on further radical changes that would change how much energy companies could charge customers
John Healey is considering a major intervention to cut energy bills for poorer households at this month’s budget, after ministers became alarmed at forecasts which show bills rising by hundreds of pounds in January.
The chancellor is working on plans to spend more than £1bn to help energy consumers, the bulk of which is likely to go towards increasing the discount given to households on certain benefits.
An ABC lawyer argued the FCC was effectively forcing the broadcast company to sit with its "head on a guillotine" while it awaits a decision about its license renewals.
A former CIA official admitted to inventing fake classified programs to divert nearly $200 million in government money that was used to buy Florida mansions and gold bars.
School trustees appoint Sally Yates to review policies as university grapples with fallout from alleged frat gang rape
A former high-ranking Department of Justice official will look at how Cornell handles sexual misconduct complaints, university trustees announced on Tuesday as they tried to address an outpouring of anger over allegations of a 2024 gang rape at a fraternity house.
Sally Yates, who was a deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, will spearhead the review, the trustees said. The assessment is to include how the Ivy League university investigates reports of sexual assault and sexual harassment, how the disciplinary process works, the adequacy of campus police responses, and more.
Dell AI Data Platform, the data foundation of the Dell AI Factory, expands with new data orchestration and storage capabilities
ROUND ROCK, Texas, Oct. 6, 2026 — Dell Technologies is expanding the Dell AI Data Platform so AI systems deliver better answers, cost less to run and reach production faster, giving applications and agents trusted, current context from a company’s own data.
Credit: Shutterstock
In most cases the model isn’t the bottleneck to achieving enterprise scale for AI. The data is. A company’s most useful information sits in files, databases, cloud services and systems across multiple sites. Most of it was created long before anyone expected an AI agent to read it. It was never labeled, connected or organized with a machine reader in mind. As a result, agents burn tokens reconstructing answers that should already exist. Every query means more steps, more compute, more cost and slower, less trustworthy results.
Giving Data Meaning and Context
The Dell AI Data Platform is built end to end, from where data is stored to where agents use it. Storage moves critical data to accelerated compute without bottlenecks; orchestration connects and prepares it; analytics and search transform and index it. NVIDIA Nemotron Retriever models enable document parsing, embedding and reranking. NVIDIA cuVS accelerates vector indexing and search. Because every layer runs on one platform, everything it produces traces back to governed data the customer already owns. Agents return to the same documents, history and decisions repeatedly, and most systems rebuild their understanding from scratch every time. That means answering the same two questions on every request: what does this term mean and how does it relate to everything else? Dell is extending the Dell AI Data Platform with three new features to answer both at once.
The Unified Semantic Layer gives structured and unstructured information consistent business meaning with rules, definitions and a searchable glossary, so a term means the same thing everywhere it appears. If one system calls it a client and another calls it an account, AI now knows they’re the same thing. Users can also import existing ontologies and classification taxonomies, reusing industry-standard or enterprise-specific taxonomy assets. Dell is also enabling NVIDIA Auto-Ontology, an open-source library that builds knowledge graphs from enterprise data, to extend the Unified Semantic Layer.
The Enterprise Knowledge Graph maps how structured and unstructured data is related, so an application or an agent can find the right context. It uses metadata, lineage and query history to keep tuning the graph as activity changes. When an agent asks a question, the platform pulls in every related piece it’s allowed to see: the right tables, data products, multimodal data and vector indexes, wherever they live. For instance, a manufacturer chasing a production line problem can trace one odd sensor reading to the machine, its repair history, the supplier batch and the orders at risk.
Knowledge Agents put that context to work. Each one acts as a trusted advisor on a single topic, grounded in a defined slice of the Enterprise Knowledge Graph. Customers set the rules: what guidance it follows, what data it can see, what quality bar it must clear and how much it’s allowed to spend. NVIDIA Nemotron Retriever models provide reasoning and visual understanding to Knowledge Agents.
The Unified Semantic Layer, Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Agents hold a customer’s most valuable and sensitive information, so they stay inside the platform in the customer’s data center. The platform builds context from that data, keeps it current as the business changes and shares it across every application and agent, without locking customers into any single model, data or storage provider.
Acceleration and Security Built into the Data Path
Business context is only reliable if data is accurate, current and governed from source to application. Customers should not have to adopt another proprietary layer to accelerate different parts of their data environment. Dell brings acceleration into the data engines themselves, working with NVIDIA across the data path. Data must be transformed and analyzed, then reach accelerated compute fast enough to keep GPUs saturated and stay protected along the way. Dell data and storage advancements include:
cuDF accelerated data processing with Apache Arrow: New testing shows that the Dell Data Processing Engine, powered by NVIDIA cuDF on NVIDIA RTX PRO 4500 Blackwell Server Edition GPUs, processes data nearly 4 times faster on average than CPUs alone across a range of workloads, and up to 20 times faster on batch processing workloads. Apache Arrow moves data efficiently between Dell storage and processing, so jobs can query data in place. This can reduce data-preparation time and shorten the path from raw enterprise information to trusted context.
Expanded multitenancy and security: Dell PowerScale now supports up to 500 tenants in a single cluster, with mTLS over NFS to encrypt and authenticate file traffic and more granular role-based access control for managing each tenant. AI service providers and enterprises running shared AI platforms can serve more teams and customers from one cluster while keeping each tenant’s data isolated and secure.
Benchmark workload performance: The new Dell Storage PerformanceTool helps customers confidently size AI infrastructure, compare vendor solutions and keep GPUs fed by testing the performance of their S3-compatible object storageacross training, inference and checkpointing.
Expertise to Get to Production
Dell is expanding Dell AI Data Platform implementation services across its data and storage engines to move organizations from deployment to production results quickly and reliably. Dell Services establish a production-ready foundation, activating the platform’s analytics, processing, search and orchestration capabilities while keeping the platform tuned to the demands of AI workloads.
“Data without context is just noise. Most enterprises have spent years making their data accessible,” said Arthur Lewis, president of Dell’s Infrastructure Solutions Group. “That’s not the same as making it usable. An agent that can find a customer record but doesn’t know what it means, how it connects to everything else, or whether it can be trusted isn’t intelligent. It’s just fast. The companies that solve it won’t just deploy AI faster or run more agents. They’ll get more out of the data they already have.”
Availability
The Unified Semantic Layer, Enterprise Knowledge Graph and Knowledge Agents will be released in 1H 2027.
Dell Data Processing Engine enhancements with the NVIDIA acceleration stack will be available in December 2026, with further acceleration using Apache Arrow expected 1H 2027.
Dell PowerScale security and multitenancy enhancements will be available in November 2026.
The Dell Storage Performance Tool is available now.
AI-ready data services are available now.
About Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry’s broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the AI era.
IBM and Red Hat say their AI-powered Lightwell initiative has identified and helped remediate more than 400 previously unknown vulnerabilities across widely used Java libraries. Phoronix reports: They announced this feat today as part of their promoting Lightwell Clearinghouse to GA, which is an enterprise service for their customers to submit open-source software dependencies for priority review and remediation.
From today's announcement: "The milestone addresses a growing business risk. As autonomous AI agents become capable of combining several lower-risk software weaknesses into a more serious attack, companies need to do more than identify vulnerabilities. They need a practical way to develop, test and deploy fixes in the software that supports critical applications."
Thousands have been detained and classes were canceled for the rest of this week as the student protests tapped into French anger over austerity measures.
The death chamber in Huntsville, Texas Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Over the course of two hours, witnesses watched and listened as Christa Pike cried, whimpered and snored through Tennessee’s attempt to execute her. By the end of it, executioners had given her two doses of the state’s lethal injection drugs. Her arms were swollen and blistered, and one had turned purple, her attorneys said. And she was still alive, marking what legal experts say is the first time a prisoner in the U.S. has survived one dose — let alone two — of lethal injection drugs.
Even if the outcome was unprecedented, what went wrong was not. Pike’s was the third Tennessee execution in 14 months to go awry. But as a reporter who has covered death row for nearly a decade and witnessed several executions, I know the state is not alone. The factors behind the breakdowns in Tennessee have popped up again and again across the country — and show how easily another botched execution could occur, even as soon as the ones planned Wednesday in Texas and next week in Florida.
Here’s what we know about Tennessee’s attempt to execute Pike: The procedure started more than ninehours late, delayed by last-minute legal fights. Then, inside the death house, executioners struggled to find a vein, jabbing Pike with at least seven needles, according to her lawyers, one of whom watched in dismay. As the caustic barbiturate finally started flowing into the IV lines, Pike did not fall into sedation quickly. Instead, witnesses said, she sang with her spiritual adviser. Then she said her arm felt like it was about to burst open. “Does this happen like that?” she asked.
Like Pike, many aging death row prisoners have medical problems that can complicate efforts to kill them, potentially turning what are supposed to be relatively quick deaths into agonizing, drawn-out procedures. Even when prisoners are healthy, several states have faced questions about the competence of their execution teams, as both the American Medical Association and American Nurses Association have strongly opposed their members taking part in death penalty procedures. And death penalty states across the country shroud their executions in such secrecy that it is often difficult or impossible to confirm the age, source or sterility of the drugs.
“The types of failures that went into this botch happen all the time,” said Robert Dunham, director of the Death Penalty Policy Project. “There is nothing in the execution process that states are incapable of getting wrong.”
The Tennessee Department of Correction declined to comment, though hours after the attempted execution the agency said in a statement that it had “followed every step” of the state’s established protocol, which “has been consistently effective.” On Saturday, the head of the agency resigned. Meanwhile, Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement that he had ordered “a comprehensive, third-party review to determine exactly what occurred” and that the execution previously scheduled for December would no longer take place this year. His office didn’t respond to a request for comment.
On Friday, Pike’s lawyers filed a motion asking a court to order the agency to preserve any evidence related to the state’s failed effort to kill their client. In a statement, they said the filing “details the serious complications that occurred during the execution attempt, many of which Christa and her attorneys had warned the State and the courts about months earlier.”
Pike remains critically ill in the hospital, they said, where she is on a ventilator, intubated and unconscious.
Unhealthy Prisoners
By the time the Tennessee Department of Correction strapped her to the gurney last week, Pike had been on death row for 30 years. She had been sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student in Knoxville. Pike was 18 at the time and, like many people on death row, had a history of mental illness and childhood sexual abuse.
Now 50 years old, Pike has faced an array of health problems, which her legal team had repeatedly warned could lead to a bungled execution. During a three-day hearing in August, Pike’s attorneys argued that her small veins and a blood disorder would make it harder and more painful to put in the IV lines to administer the lethal dose. The Tennessee Supreme Court did not agree, calling their arguments “speculative” and rejecting their request for a stay.
Tennessee’s execution protocol relies on pentobarbital, a caustic barbiturate that slows down breathing and has been used to treat seizures, sedate people before surgery and euthanize animals. But its use in putting to death humans has drawn scrutiny.After relying on the drug for all 13 federal executions during the first Trump administration, the Justice Department under President Joe Biden said there was too much uncertainty about whether it would cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” and decided to stop using it “unless and until that uncertainty is resolved.” This year, President Donald Trump’s DOJ reversed course and readopted its use.
Despite supply difficulties and repeated lawsuits from death row prisoners arguing that using pentobarbital is cruel and unusual, several states still use it, including Georgia, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, where I witnessed five executions in the late 2010s as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle. Four of the condemned prisoners said the drug burned. Two said they could taste it. One said he could “hear it going through the vein.” But all of them stopped moving within minutes and were declared dead in under an hour.
Tennessee prison officials have not offered an explanation as to why Pike’s attempted execution was so drastically different. Initially, Pike’s attorneys and several death penalty experts raised the possibility that the drugs may have been too old or degraded to work as intended. Yet in Friday’s legal filings, Pike’s lawyers focused on the way the drug was administered, saying it was “abundantly clear” that Tennessee prison officials either didn’t know that the IV lines were out of place or didn’t realize her veins had been so badly damaged that the highly alkaline liquid started leaking out into the surrounding tissue of her arm. Joel Zivot, a professor of anesthesiology in Atlanta and one of Pike’s medical experts, said that meant there wasn’t enough of the drug in her bloodstream at once to kill her. “It just got into her arms, and most of it stopped there,” he said.
Like Pike, many people on death rows nationwide have significant health problems often compounded by old age. As the appeals process has drawn out, condemned prisoners are spending longer awaiting execution. People put to death in 1988 had spent an average of less than seven years on death row, federal data shows. By 2023, the most recent year with data, that figure had ballooned to more than 23 years. That means more people reaching the execution chamber are old, ill, worn down by decades of poor prison medical care and potentially harder to put to death. One analysis, by the nonprofit human rights group Reprieve, found that the odds of a botched lethal injection increased 6% on average with each additional year of age. Some of the most notorious failed executions of the past decade involved prisoners whose bodies were failing them.
In 2017, Ohio halted the execution of Alva Campbell after the execution team couldn’t find a usable vein. His attorneys had warned in legal filings beforehand that his medical problems — including lung cancer, COPD, prostate cancer and pneumonia — could make for an exceptionally painful execution. The 69-year-old died on his own in prison three months later. The following year, Alabama failed to kill 61-year-old Doyle Hamm, a terminally ill cancer patient. Executioners spent more than two hours trying to find a vein, possibly puncturing his bladder before giving up. He died three years later from cancer complications. And in 2024, Idaho called off the execution of 73-year-old Thomas Creech after trying to find a vein for nearly an hour. He’s still alive and on death row.
Last year, Tennessee put to death Byron Black, a 69-year-old with dementia and congestive heart failure who used a wheelchair and had a defibrillator implanted in his chest. The defense team warned the device could cause painful shocks andprolong the execution, but Tennessee’s highest court refused to intervene and prison officials left it on. After the drugs started flowing, witnesses said Black lifted his head up, groaned and said, “It’s hurting so bad.”
Defense attorneys worry similar problems could surface again as soon as next week, when the state of Florida plans to execute William Lee Thompson for a 1976 murder in Miami-Dade County. Since August, the 74-year-old — who has dementia and does not always remember that he is facing execution — has suffered from sepsis, pneumonia, blood clots in his lungs, a severe sacral wound and an array of other debilitating conditions. Bri Lacy, the lead attorney on Thompson’s case, told ProPublica her client is also malnourished and dehydrated, which could make it even harder for executioners to access his “hard, fragile veins.” She said Thompson had been in an outside hospital until the night before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a warrant for his execution, after which prison officials put him in death watch, the section for people with scheduled executions.
Last week, DeSantis issued an executive order temporarily staying the execution and requiring that Thompson be evaluated by a panel of three psychiatrists to determine whether he is competent to be executed. The results are still outstanding. DeSantis and the Florida Department of Corrections did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Unscrupulous Actors”
If the prisoner’s health is not a problem, sometimes the execution team is.
In May, Tennessee tried to execute Tony Carruthers, who’d been sent to death row in connection with a 1994 triple murder for which he has long maintained his innocence. Executioners jabbed his hands and feet more than a dozen times trying to find a working vein, according to Maria DeLiberato, senior counsel at the American Civil Liberty Union’s Capital Punishment Project, a member of his defense team who was there as a witness. Eventually, a physician — who DeLiberato said had introduced himself as Dr. Mark Fowler — decided to try placing a central line, an invasive procedure that involves puncturing the neck, chest or groin to insert a deep IV near the heart.
DeLiberato objected, saying Fowler wasn’t qualified. Less than a year earlier, he’d admitted in a deposition that he didn’t have hospital privileges and hadn’t placed a central line in about 12 years. “His hands were shaking, and it appeared to me he didn’t know what he was doing,” DeLiberato told ProPublica. By the time Fowler gave up trying to put one in Carruthers, DiLiberato could hear her client moaning and see blood oozing out of his puncture wounds. After more than an hour, the governor called off the execution and gave Carruthers a one-year reprieve.
“Placing a central line is like riding a bicycle. You don’t forget,” Fowler said in a text message to ProPublica. “My hands were not shaking and the process requires deliberation. I stopped because it was uncomfortable for Carruthers.” He added that his lack of hospital privileges was “irrelevant.”
It’s not clear whether Fowler took part in Pike’s attempted execution last week. Though he previously told local media that he would, neither the state nor the defense team confirmed his participation. He declined to comment on the matter to ProPublica.
After the failed attempt to execute Carruthers, several dozen Tennessee doctors and nurses wrote to the governor urging a moratorium on the death penalty. They said medical providers who take part in executions “are those willing to set aside their professional ethics” and that bungled executions “are the predictable result of working with such unscrupulous actors.”
For years, the physician overseeing executions in Missouri was a surgeon who’d been disciplined by the state board and sued about 20 times for malpractice, he estimated in a deposition, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. At least five of those cases ended in settlements, and one ended in a court judgment that he appealed and lost, the paper reported. In court testimony in the mid-2000s, he admitted that he sometimes confused names of different drugs and said he’d decided on his own to halve the amount of anesthetic given to condemned prisoners. A court eventually banned him from taking part in executions in Missouri — though federal officials later put him on the execution team at the federal death chamber in Indiana. He did not respond to phone calls and an email seeking a comment.
After Oklahoma executed Clayton Lockett in 2014 in a drawn-out and bloody procedure, a paramedic involved later testified that it took a long time because “Black people have smaller veins than white people.”
Death penalty experts compared what happened last week in Tennessee to a 2006 Florida execution, where the first dose of drugs failed to kill 55-year-old Ángel Díaz. He struggled for about half an hour, and executioners eventually dosed him a second time. It turned out the needles had gone through his veins and the drugs had seeped into the surrounding tissue, leaving footlong burns on his arms. An investigation found the state hadn’t provided adequate training or followed its own protocols, and the lead executioner later testified he had “no medical training and no qualifications.” Following a short moratorium, the state revised its procedures and resumed executions in 2008.
Shrouded in Secrecy
Cases like these come to light largely by accident. Secrecy laws generally shield the names of execution team members, so it’s almost impossible to know whether they have a troubled history.
Secrecy laws likewise conceal information about the drugs themselves, as well as their effects. Maya Foa, who heads up Reprieve, said that states have “gotten more secretive over time” and that some hide aspects of executions that could shed light on the effects of lethal injection drugs. Some states do not allow witnesses to watch the placement of the IV lines, and in Florida, she said, officials “tape [prisoners’] fingers so you can’t see if they’re wiggling or still conscious.”
Various states withhold everything from the supplier name to sterility testing results to purchase dates — all of which could help determine if the drugs have degraded or become tainted. When executions go badly, that lack of information can make it difficult to know whether the age of the drugs or inadequate testing could have played a role.
Tennessee’s record gives little reason for confidence. In 2022, citing a “technical oversight,” the governor called off the execution of Oscar Smith, then paused future executions and ordered an investigation that ultimately found the state hadn’t been testing its death drugs for bacterial toxins as required by its own rules. After a three-year hiatus, the state resumed executions last year.
It’s not clear how old the drugs were that Tennessee used in Pike’s execution, though records obtained by ProPublica suggest the state purchased some earlier this year. An email from the corrections department to the state comptroller, turned over in response to a public records request regarding payments for lethal injection drugs, showed that the prison agency spent $650,000 this year on execution-related expenses. Legal experts said it’s still not clear where the drug supplies came from, when they were made or even whether they were manufactured by a pharmaceutical company or mixed in a compounding pharmacy.
Prisoners across the country have repeatedly sued over this kind of secrecy, demanding to know more about the drugs used to kill them. Right now, that’s happening in Tennessee, where six condemned men are suing for information about the age, origin and expiration dates of the state’s pentobarbital supplies. One of the lawyers involved in the lawsuit — Kit Thomas, a deputy chief in the Middle District of Tennessee’s federal public defender office — said state officials have resisted providing basic details such as whether the drug was manufactured by a pharmaceutical company or mixed in a compounding pharmacy. The case is ongoing. The state attorney general did not offer a comment on the lawsuit.
“Without public accountability or transparency,” Thomas said, “we should expect to see more people strapped to gurneys and tortured for hours at a time.”
That is what Jamaal Howard’s attorneys fear could happen Wednesday in Texas. The 46-year-old is scheduled for execution in connection with the May 2000 shooting of a convenience store clerk in Hardin County. On Saturday, his legal team asked Gov. Greg Abbott for a 30-day reprieve — not because their client is innocent, but because they want more information about the drugs Texas plans to use. In the past, the state has routinely turned over testing results and other records. But in recent months, that’s changed — and after the botched execution in Tennessee, Howard’s attorneys say they want more proof the drugs are still good. “We expect [the Texas Department of Criminal Justice] will assure you that its drugs are sound,” Don Bailey and Jeff Newberry wrote. “Tennessee gave the same assurance.”
Abbott’s office didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. Amanda Hernandez, a Texas prison spokesperson, said the state has successfully put to death more than 600 people since 1976 and “stands ready to carry out the execution scheduled for Oct. 7.”
Do You Know More About Lethal Injections?
I’m still reporting. If you are involved in preparing or carrying out lethal injections, I want to hear from you.
Keri Blakinger
I welcome any tips leading to tough accountability stories about the legal system. Right now, I’m particularly interested in hearing from federal prison employees and federal prisoners with information about untold and revelatory stories.
Cornell University said Tuesday it is bringing on a former Justice Department official to review its handling of sexual misconduct claims, including the alleged 2024 sexual assault of a former student at a fraternity house.
Oct. 6, 2026 — A University of Washington-led center for optoelectronics — technologies that combine light and electronics — brings researchers from 14 universities across the U.S. together with the mission to develop new materials to transform information technology with light. This research has broad ranging applications, from enabling photorealistic virtual reality displays for telehealth calls, to secure, optical quantum communication links to ensure that data remains private on the internet.
NSF IMOD trainees attend an intensive weeklong summer course that teaches everything from chemical synthesis to quantum mechanics to molecular theory. Here, UW doctoral student Hannah Contreras (center) teaches trainees Quinn Haverstick, Nissa Watkins, Oliver Auciello and Soojin Hwang the basics of thin film light-emitting diode fabrication and testing. Photo credit: Amanda Labrado.
The research tackled by NSF IMOD is so interdisciplinary that it requires researchers from backgrounds such as chemistry, physics, engineering and materials science to work together.
“There’s still this idea that scientists go in their labs, put on their safety goggles and lab coats, and then work alone for hours at a time. The point of this center is to tackle problems that are too big for one scientist or even two or three to tackle by themselves,” said NSF IMOD director David Ginger, UW professor of chemistry. “We have all these people from different disciplines working together to advance optoelectronics and semiconductor technology that we couldn’t do just as individual scientists.”
The center has already seen success with quantum dots. These materials, which are 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, generate very specific colors of light depending on their size. Currently, quantum dots are used in display screens, such as in QLED TVs, but they may help advance quantum computing — if researchers can figure out how to tailor their properties and add them to computer chips.
“Until our center came along, quantum dots were thought of as something you made in a beaker in a chemistry lab. And if you could paint them on a TV or phone display, that was great,” said Ginger, who is also the B. Seymour Rabinovitch Endowed Chair in Chemistry and the chief scientist at the UW Clean Energy Institute. “But they weren’t something that you could put as a discrete component in an optoelectronic circuit. That’s something that we’ve proven you can do.”
With chemists, material scientists, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers, physicists and electrical engineers on the team, researchers at NSF IMOD created something unprecedented: a way to print quantum dots, essentially through an inkjet printer. The team showed that they could strategically place quantum dots into specific cavities, which could one day be the building blocks for quantum communication, and possibly even quantum computing.
The team hopes to continue this research direction over the next five years, further refining quantum dots as well as the cavities the dots get placed into.
NSF IMOD’s interdisciplinary nature gets passed down to its students as well. One of the center’s main goals is to develop researchers into leaders in the fields of semiconductor and optoelectronic technology. Every summer, NSF IMOD trainees from different disciplines come together at the UW for an intensive weeklong crash course in multiple disciplines. The students synthesize quantum dots, study single photons of light in UW’s Quantum Technologies Training and Testbed lab, make quantum dots, and learn to calculate the electronic structures of advanced materials. The collaborations established during this course and throughout the NSF IMOD training program helps students graduate with the ability to work in complex, interdisciplinary teams.
Trainees also gain real-world experience in the form of internships at a variety of companies, including some of NSF IMOD’s industry and national lab partners. A partial list of NSF IMOD’s partners includes UbiQD, Inc.; Nanopattern Technologies, Inc.; FOM Technologies, Inc.; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Tandem PV, Inc.; and Nanosys-Shoei Chemical, Inc. More partner information can be found on NSF IMOD’s website.
“We’re already seeing our students get hired at everything from startup companies to large semiconductor firms for the exact skills they’re being trained for in the center,” Ginger said. “We’re really excited to see our students start taking important roles, and then eventually we hope they move into leadership roles in this space of commercializing new semiconductor materials.”
And it’s not just graduate students who benefit from NSF IMOD. The center hosts a Research Experience for Undergraduates program, and has programming for younger students as well. As part of their science communication training, NSF IMOD trainees become Quantum LEAP ambassadors who can facilitate outreach events, such as at the Pacific Science Center. The team has also developed a quantum education portal for K-12 teachers to find lesson plans to use in their own classrooms.
“Just as the atomic structure of a quantum dot produces unique and exciting properties, the exceptionally interdisciplinary structure of NSF IMOD is enabling foundational science and technological innovations that would not otherwise be possible,” said Birgit Schwenzer, a program director in the NSF Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, which manages NSF IMOD.
Over the past five years, NSF IMOD has published 140 papers, hosted 36 undergraduate students through its REU program and hosted more than 85 outreach events.
“One day I hope that we’ll have photonic computing where we’re massively reducing the energy cost for computation by using a computing paradigm that’s based on the research we’re doing now,” Ginger said. “That’s the kind of thing that’s probably still a decade or more away. But that’s why the government invests in basic science now, because the basic science research of the materials today leads to technology that exists 15 years from now.”
NSF is expected to provide NSF IMOD $22 million over the five-year term of the award. The 14 academic institutions that make up NSF IMOD are the University of Washington; University of California, Berkeley; Columbia University; University of Chicago; Northwestern University; University of Pennsylvania; University of Maryland; Georgia Institute of Technology; University of Colorado Boulder; Arizona State University; Rice University; Lehigh University; City College of New York; and University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
In addition to Ginger, other UW faculty involved with NSF IMOD include Kai-Mei Fu, associate professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering at the UW; Brandi Cossairt, a UW professor of chemistry; Lih Lin, professor of electrical and computer engineering; Devin MacKenzie, associate professor of mechanical engineering and of materials science and engineering, and technical director of the Washington Clean Energy Testbeds; and Arka Majumdar, professor of physics and of electrical and computer engineering. Fu chairs UW Quantum X. Fu, Lin and Majumdar are faculty members with the UW Institute for Nano-Engineered Systems. Cossairt, Fu, Lin, Majumdar and MacKenzie are member faculty at the Clean Energy Institute. Ginger, Fu, Lin, Majumdar and MacKenzie are faculty researchers with the UW Molecular Engineering and Sciences Institute.
Reports of a lab worker dying in Russia after allegedly being exposed to plague have raised concerns, even as the WHO says the public health risk is low.
Letter from more than 40 signatories says university has backed away from promised thorough review of events before death
Senior Cambridge academics have criticised the university’s plans to investigate Prof Jason Arday’s death as inadequate, and said those responsible for “serious failures of leadership” should face consequences.
In a letter to Chris Smith, Cambridge’s chancellor, the academics said “it is not yet clear” how the proposed review will answer difficult questions about the university’s involvement in the events leading up to Arday’s death, including its handling of the criticism Arday suffered after his appointment as professor of sociology of education in 2023.
Silvia Zhang and Guojun Xuan had 15 children, aged between two months to 13 years, removed from their home
A California couple has been arrested on child abuse charges following an investigation into a surrogacy scheme involving at least 21 kids, police said on Tuesday.
Silvia Zhang and her husband, Guojun Xuan are expected to face conspiracy to commit child abuse charges, according to the Los Angeles county sheriff’s department.
Minister says they could not see parties cooperating, while official says coalition should be formally ruled out
Senior Labour party figures said it was very unlikely their party would cooperate with the Greens in the future after they adopted a policy treating Zionism as a form of racism.
One Labour minister said they could not foresee how the two parties could work together, while a government official said Labour should formally rule out a future coalition or other arrangement.
Counter-terrorism police say 22-year-old detained in London on suspicion of terrorism offences
A seventh man has been arrested in London on suspicion of terrorism offences as part of the investigation related to threats to RAF Fairford, police have said.
The 22-year-old British national was arrested in Westminster, central London, on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts under section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006, counter-terrorism police said.
Donald Trump ordered the FBI to investigate protesters in Los Angeles who were demonstrating against the president’s immigration crackdown, according to a whistleblower complaint.
US senator Alex Padilla, a Democrat who represents California and serves on the Senate judiciary committee, said his office had received a copy of the complaint, which makes sweeping allegations about the Trump administration’s response to protests in LA in early 2025.
Oct. 6, 2026 — Rutgers University graduate students, working in collaboration with the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California San Diego Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing, recently won an award for the “Best Student Full Paper (Systems)” at the Practice and Experience in Advanced Research Computing (PEARC) 2026 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Their paper was titled A Comparative Study on LLM-enabled HPC User Support.
Credit: Mingkai Zheng
The graduate students, Mingkai Zheng and Fangru Linghu, along with collaborators from SDSC, the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) and the University of Chicago, contributed to hpcGPT, a project exploring how to leverage large language models (LLMs) to assist researchers who use high-performance computing (HPC) systems. Zheng and Linghu specifically focused on how to equip LLMs with domain-specific knowledge to improve user support at HPC centers like SDSC by testing methods for tasks such as crafting job scripts, managing datasets and models as well as navigating complex software stacks.
“We compared three techniques: 1) Fine-tuning the base LLM on historical user support ticket data; 2) giving it the ability to look up relevant documents (RAG); and 3) showing it example Q&As directly in the prompt (in-context learning, or ICL),” Zheng said. “We used eight different combinations with 60,000 real support tickets from TACC and graded the results on accuracy, coherence and a few other quality measures.”
Zheng said they found that combining in-context learning with document lookup (ICL+RAG) on the base model gave the most accurate answers overall, while in-context learning alone worked best for debugging questions. Notably, fine-tuning of the model wasn’t necessary to get strong results.
“The takeaway is that smart prompting strategies (examples plus real-time lookup) can be a more practical and effective way to build AI-powered support tools for technical computing centers than fine-tuning the underlying model,” said the students’ SDSC collaborator Martin Kandes, who is a senior computational and data science research specialist.
This work was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (award nos. 2411294, 2411295, 2411296, 2411297, 2411298, 2411299).
The Best Student Paper recognition at PEARC 2026, combined with NSF’s CSSI Framework support, highlights the critical role of student innovators in reimagining how AI and HPC can work together to serve research communities.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump will not reimburse the federal government for taxpayer money already spent on television advertisements promoting his administration, despite saying he would “pay for them myself,” the White House confirmed Tuesday.
A White House spokesperson told The Washington Sun that Trump’s statement referred only to future advertising, not repayment of money already spent. The administration says future spots will instead be financed by MAGA Inc., the super PAC aligned with Trump.
The ads have drawn bipartisan criticism because they prominently feature Trump, praise his policies and resemble campaign advertising while carrying disclaimers saying they were paid for by the U.S. government. At least $20 million in Homeland Security funds was allocated for the broader media campaign.
Independent tracking also suggests millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded ads have already aired. The administration has defended the spots as presidential public-service announcements similar to communications used by previous administrations.
Lawmakers and ethics experts have questioned whether the ads violate restrictions on using federal funds for partisan propaganda or political purposes.
Trump’s wording also raises campaign-finance questions because presidents and candidates cannot legally direct the spending of independent super PACs. The White House has not explained how MAGA Inc. will fund future advertisements while maintaining legally required independence.
Order on two construction sites comes after Google failed to carry out environmental impact assessments
Google has been ordered to temporarily stop work on two datacentres in Finland after failing to do the necessary environmental impact assessments on its construction sites.
The planned datacentres in Muhos and Kajanni are part of a €13bn (£11bn) project across multiple sites in northern Finland by the technology company amid huge demand for space to house online infrastructure.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: VMware customers face multiple obstacles as they rethink their virtualization strategy to reduce dependence on VMware. Today, Rimini Street published its "2026 IT Virtualization Survey -- What's Next for VMware Users." The survey examined 300 organizations worldwide that use VMware. Notably, Rimini sells third-party support for VMware and other software, including Oracle and SAP. That means there's an incentive for Rimini to portray VMware users as experiencing obstacles. However, the survey was also conducted by a third-party research company, Unisphere Research, and the results align with other recent reports about VMware customers. For example, 90 percent of participants in Rimini's survey said they're exploring VMware alternatives due to VMware's higher licensing costs, while 54 percent pointed to Broadcom killing support for perpetual license holders.
Since Broadcom took over VMware, customers have said that their VMware costs increased by as much as 1,000 percent, with many more pointing to more modest price hikes of around 100 to 300 percent. In Rimini's survey, 73 percent of participants pointed to cost savings as a top priority in their virtualization roadmap decisions. In today's announcement, Rimini pointed to "significant barriers to progress" for organizations exploring virtualization options, with the most cited barriers being operational complexity (named by 40 percent of respondents), multi-vendor management challenges (38 percent), securing the increased attack surface (37 percent), and team skills requirements (37 percent). "These findings suggest that while organizations are actively pursuing change, they are also looking for ways to reduce risk and avoid unnecessary disruption," Rimini's announcement said.
[...] Rimini reported that 60 percent of the organizations it surveyed are considering a multi-hypervisor strategy, which is indicative of "growing interest in more flexible, mixed environments that support both operational and financial goals." "In addition, 47 percent are favoring a hybrid IT virtualization environment consisting of hypervisors and containers for 'best of both worlds' workload placement," the announcement said. Rimini noted that 48 percent of respondents aren't planning to move any of their assets to VMware's hybrid cloud platform, Cloud Foundation.
Leader also says party is ‘not out of the woods’ and she would rather have another election than form coalition with Reform
Kemi Badenoch has denied she compared a new air defence system proposed by the Conservative party to Israel’s Iron Dome, despite using the term in her press release and a newspaper article.
The Tory leader said the party’s proposed “Britannia Shield” would not be comparable to the missile defence system in Israel, which is primarily designed to counter short-range attacks.
The war with Iran is reshaping America ahead of the midterms – how will it affect US voters at the polls? Guardian political and foreign correspondents answered your questions
KafkasDog asks: As it’s increasingly clear that Trump is not mentally fit, and that allowing him to continue in his role further may (likely?) decimate the economy, if the Dems can secure, say, 60+ seats in the Senate, should they pursue Article 25?
Lauren: A 60-plus majority! Sure things are looking good for Democrats, but not that good. But as I’m based in Los Angeles, a city Trump just last night joked he might “let them take out” - I will indulge the question. There are many Democrats who have long believed (since Trump 1.0) that he was not fit to serve. But then like now the process for actually involuntarily invoking the 25th Amendment originates with the vice president and the cabinet, not Congress. That alone should tell you how likely it is. Even then, if it were to reach Congress, which it would only if there was a dispute between the president and his vice president and cabinet over his capacity to serve, Congress would need a two-thirds majority in both chambers to install the vice president over the president.
I think the question Democrats are more likely to confront is whether they should again pursue impeachment against the president. And on that question, the party is really divided. While many believe he has committed impeachable offenses, they also recognize that their standing remains low and voters want action on the issues they care most about - the economy. Given that there is almost no likelihood of a Senate majority great enough to convict the president, I think Democrats feel this avenue is likely less fruitful than using their political capital to push through legislation that they hope will repair their standing, give them some credibility ahead of 2028, and ideally for them, knee-cap Trump’s movement that way.
Robert: Simple question, to which there is no simple answer. Congress does have the power to impede or limit a war for which it has not voted. But the particular trajectory of the Iran conflict combined with Trump’s powerful grip on a Republican-controlled legislature has given him added flexibility. The 1973 War Powers Resolution - originally passed in the wake of the Vietnam war and intended to rein in a so-called “imperial president” - lays down that the administration must inform congress within 48 of committing forces to military action and must withdraw the forces within 60 to 90 days unless Congress votes to authorize the war or extend the time frame. Trump has been able to circumvent these restrictions through legal sleight of hand. For example, the original conflict was suspended in early April - before the 60-day period had been reached - by a de facto ceasefire that was later formalized through the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Iran and US. When that agreement subsequently collapsed, the White House argued that the 60-day threshold started again from scratch. More generally, Trump has invoked his constitutional powers under Article II, Section 2 of the constitution, which asserts that the president is empowered to order targeted strikes, defend US forces abroad, or respond to threats abroad without congressional authorization. Trump has also been able to reframe his actions as “defensive” by switching the primary goal of the war to re-opening the strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that is a conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil. Iran’s closure of it in response to being attacked has presented a major challenge to the US and global economy. In short, the Congress did not approve the war, and while its constitutional and legislative powers give it the ability to challenge and hamper Trump’s actions, the power inherent in the presidency does not invest it with the powers to stop it per se.
Photo: closure adds to a wider trend of restaurants losses across New Castle County
Newark sports bar joins a growing list of familiar names lost as operators confront higher labor, food, insurance and occupancy costs
NEWARK, Del. — The Greene Turtle in Newark has closed after more than a decade in business, becoming the latest familiar restaurant to disappear from New Castle County as an industry known for thin profit margins confronts persistent increases in the cost of doing business.
The restaurant closed Saturday, Oct. 3, during the University of Delaware’s Parents and Family Weekend, traditionally one of the stronger traffic weekends for Newark businesses.
The Newark location had operated since December 2012, first on South Main Street before relocating to the Park N Shop Shopping Center.
The closing also continues a reduction in The Greene Turtle’s Delaware footprint. Locations in Brandywine Hundred, Lewes, Rehoboth Beach and Middletown previously closed, leaving restaurants at Churchmans Crossing and in Dover.
But the Newark closing is about more than one sports bar.
Across New Castle County, a series of well-known restaurants have closed in recent years, including names that survived recessions, changing consumer tastes and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent high-profile closings
Among the more visible losses across New Castle County:
The Greene Turtle, Newark — Closed in early October 2026 after more than a decade in Newark.
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Newark — The company’s original brewpub, which opened in 1996, closed in September 2025 after nearly three decades.
Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant, Wilmington Riverfront — Closed as part of the company’s broader shutdown before later reopening under new ownership.
Gallucio’s Italian Restaurant, Wilmington — Closed in August 2025 after more than 50 years in business, ending a long run as a neighborhood institution.
Stoney’s British Pub — The longtime New Castle County pub was among the prominent local restaurant closings reported during 2025.
Cromwell’s Tavern — Another established New Castle County restaurant lost during the recent wave of closings.
The Greene Turtle, Middletown — Closed in late 2025 after roughly eight years in operation.
Food and business reporting identified roughly 20 restaurant closings in New Castle County during 2025 alone, including independent restaurants, pubs and brewery locations. The losses included several businesses that had become neighborhood gathering places rather than simply dining options.
A tough business gets tougher
There is no single explanation for the closures.
Some restaurants close because owners retire, leases expire, concepts lose popularity or individual businesses encounter financial problems.
But Delaware restaurant operators are also confronting several pressures at the same time: higher food prices, wages, insurance, utilities, rent and other occupancy expenses.
Those increases are especially significant in an industry that traditionally operates with relatively small profit margins.
Restaurants can also raise menu prices only so far before customers respond by dining out less frequently, choosing less-expensive options or ordering takeout instead of sitting down for a full-service meal.
That creates an increasingly difficult equation.
A restaurant can have a full dining room on Friday and Saturday night and still struggle to generate enough revenue during the rest of the week to cover payroll, food, rent, insurance and other fixed costs.
Labor presents another challenge.
Restaurants in New Castle County compete for workers not just with other restaurants but with warehouses and logistics operations along the Interstate 95 corridor, health care employers, retailers and other service businesses.
Full-service restaurants generally require a comparatively large workforce that can include cooks, servers, bartenders, hosts, dishwashers and managers.
The combination of labor, food and occupancy costs has become particularly difficult for traditional full-service restaurants, where a busy dining room does not necessarily translate into a healthy bottom line.
Newark has seen the change firsthand
Few communities illustrate the shift better than Newark.
The original Iron Hill Brewery & Restaurant opened there in 1996 and became one of the anchors of Delaware’s early craft beer industry.
The Newark restaurant closed in September 2025 after nearly three decades. Iron Hill later shut down its remaining restaurants amid broader financial problems, although its Wilmington Riverfront location has since reopened under new ownership.
The circumstances surrounding Iron Hill and The Greene Turtle are different, and there has been no public indication that the two closings were caused by the same factors.
Still, the loss of another established restaurant is notable in a market that benefits from University of Delaware students, parents, alumni, residents and sporting events.
The Greene Turtle survived more than a decade in that environment, including the pandemic and significant changes in consumer dining habits.
Its closing during Parents and Family Weekend underscores an important reality for the restaurant industry: Strong customer traffic does not necessarily guarantee that a full-service restaurant remains financially sustainable.
Restaurant association works to strengthen operators
The Delaware Restaurant Association has repeatedly identified workforce shortages, inflation and rising operating expenses among the industry’s major challenges.
Rather than treating those pressures as temporary, the association has increasingly focused on helping restaurants adapt.
Its priorities include workforce development, advocacy, leadership training and programs aimed at strengthening independent restaurant operators.
The organization also works with state policymakers on laws and regulations affecting restaurant costs and provides members with information on employment rules, wages, paid leave, workplace safety and other operating requirements.
Workforce development has become a particularly important part of the effort.
Through industry training and educational programs, the association and its foundation work to create a stronger pipeline of restaurant employees while helping existing workers move into management and other higher-level positions.
The association has also emphasized that appearances can be misleading in the restaurant business. A busy restaurant may still be operating on a narrow margin once labor, food and occupancy expenses are paid.
That makes controlling costs and maintaining customer traffic critical.
A changing industry, not a disappearing one
The succession of closings does not mean Delawareans have stopped eating out.
New restaurants continue to open across New Castle County, and some closed locations are being replaced by new operators or concepts.
Instead, the market appears to be changing.
Smaller restaurants, takeout-oriented concepts and businesses requiring fewer employees can operate with different cost structures than traditional full-service restaurants with large dining rooms, bars and extensive staffs.
Specialty restaurants and locally owned concepts also continue to enter the market.
But the recent losses demonstrate that longevity and name recognition alone are no guarantee of survival.
The Greene Turtle made it through more than a decade in Newark, including the pandemic and changing dining habits.
Its closing now adds another familiar name to New Castle County’s restaurant turnover — and another example of the increasingly narrow financial line many Delaware restaurant operators are trying to navigate.
TO GO: Greene Turtle Newark
What happened: The Greene Turtle’s Newark restaurant closed permanently Saturday, Oct. 3.
How long was it open? The restaurant had operated in Newark since December 2012.
Where was it? The restaurant operated most recently in the Park N Shop Shopping Center after originally opening on South Main Street.
What locations remain? The Greene Turtle continues to operate Delaware locations at Churchmans Crossing and in Dover.
Why it matters: The closing follows several other high-profile restaurant departures across New Castle County as operators contend with rising labor, food, insurance, utility and occupancy costs.
Industry response: The Delaware Restaurant Association is focusing on workforce development, business advocacy, training and programs designed to help restaurants manage rising costs and remain sustainable.
The U.S. military is struggling to protect its overseas bases amid a conflict with Iran that has spun out of self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s control.
After a string of damaging attacks on bases throughout the Middle East, U.S. long-range bombers stationed in the United Kingdom fled back to their American home bases on Sunday amid fears of an impending Iranian strike.
A U.S. official described the threat as a “sophisticated plot to attack” Royal Air Force Fairford air base with “multiple drones” that could have turned into a military and public relations nightmare. The U.S. official suggested that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps may have recruited U.K. nationals to play roles in the plot, which so unnerved the Pentagon that they took the extraordinary step of removing 12 B-1 Bombers from the base that has played a key role in the U.S. war. A second official called it a “complex plan” and part of a “hybrid strategy” of asymmetric warfare by Iran that forced the Pentagon to take drastic measures.
“There were some threats,” President Donald Trump admitted on Monday when asked about the bombers, adding that leaving the aircraft would only tempt an attack.
The inability to safeguard U.S. aircraft at a base northwest of London comes at a time of mounting attacks on U.S. outposts around the world.
Complex Iranian drone and ballistic missile strikes have killed and injured U.S. troops, placed many more in harm’s way, and damaged or destroyed numerous outposts across the Middle East. Some crucial bases have sustained so much damage that U.S. operations have been radically disrupted and, according to the second official, “base posture in the region may never recover.”
The strikes have also targeted joint facilities operated by U.S. allies. In March, Iran launched a drone attack on a British air base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, causing damage to a facility the U.S. military has long relied on. Iran also targeted a joint U.K.–U.S. base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia that has become increasingly central to the U.S. war effort.
What Trump called a “little excursion” has become a festering wound for the U.S. military. Despite months of claims by Trump and Hegseth that Iran’s military was annihilated, Iran has attacked more than 15 bases across the Middle East. The official U.S. casualty toll stands at 19 dead and close to 900 wounded, most of the dead occurring since July, after the Trump administration claimed the war had ended. The real casualty toll is higher and has been consistently obscured and manipulated through what one defense official called a “cover-up.”
The first U.S. official said Iran is engaged in a “go for broke” strategy, banking that it can absorb economic ruin longer than the U.S. can sustain a failing war and an expensive and difficult Naval blockade and escort program in the Strait of Hormuz, while dealing with global economic upheaval from stubbornly high fuel prices that have not shrunk to pre-war levels despite the oil flow from other Gulf Nations returning to normal.
The withdrawal of the bombers from Fairford came just days after the British government arrested six suspects in connection with a suspected attack on that same base. U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said there were “strong indications” that Iran played a role in the incident. The men were later released on bail, prompting criticism by Trump.
The IRGC warned in July that “any base used to launch attacks on Iranian territory is a legitimate target for our forces.” On Monday, the commander-in-chief of Iran’s army, Maj. Gen. Amir Hatami, “stressed the need for any creative act capable of disrupting the enemy’s calculations,” according to a report by Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency. The U.S. officials referenced additional threats against other bases in Europe, including Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
This isn’t the first time the U.S. has scrambled to protect its assets from a supposed Iranian threat. In July, Trump himself snuck into a catering truck and fled Turkey on a military aircraft due to U.S. fears of a possible Iranian attack on Air Force One. Trump had earlier said he was Iran’s “No. 1 target” during the NATO summit in Ankara.
Unlike their commander-in-chief, U.S. troops have been unable to flee their bases and ships when Iran has overwhelmed U.S. air defenses during attacks in the Middle East. A recent Pentagon inspector general report revealed Iranian strikes “damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan during the conflict.” Air Force personnel, alone, endured more than 1,200 “alarm reds” — the official code for imminent attack by missiles, aircraft, or ground forces — during just 38 days earlier this year, according to Air Force chief of staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach.
A March 1 drone attack on the Port of Shuaiba in Kuwait killed six U.S. troops, the deadliest known Iranian strike on U.S. personnel during the war; dozens more were wounded. In July, an Iranian attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan killed three soldiers from air defense units although they were “not actively engaged in anti-aircraft activity” during the attacks, according to a “defense official” who spoke on background because they were not authorized to disclose the information. Multiple U.S. military aircraft were also damaged in the attack, including an A-10 Thunderbolt and eight F-15 fighters. These were among dozens of U.S. aircraft so far destroyed or damaged in the war, including four F-15 fighter aircraft, 12 KC-135 refueling aircraft, and as many as 30 MQ-9 Reaper drones, according to the inspector general report.
The U.S. and its allies burned through more than 11,000 munitions, including large amounts of defensive missiles, in the first 16 days of the war alone, according to a March analysis by the Royal United Services Institute. About 65 percent of Patriot interceptors were expended between February and July, leaving fewer than 830 remaining from a pre-war total of 2,330, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The number of THAAD interceptors dropped from more than 450 to less than 270.
Adm. Brad Cooper, the chief of U.S. Central Command, downplayed the risks of depleted stockpiles of such missiles last month, telling CBS’s “60 Minutes” that he wasn’t worried for the safety of U.S. troops. “I’m not concerned at all,” he replied when asked about defending against Iranian attacks. CENTCOM did not reply when asked if Cooper would resign if U.S. troops were killed or wounded in future attacks.
An Iranian missile and drone attack at the start of the war destroyed Navy facilities in Manama, Bahrain, the most critical U.S. logistics hub in the region. The Pentagon claimed for months that the strikes did not significantly impact military operations but acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao admitted last month that “they blew the hell out of Bahrain.” A Wall Street Journal investigation previously found that rebuilding the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet headquarters, barracks, and communication towers at Naval Support Activity Bahrain may cost more than $400 million, which the first U.S. official told The Intercept could be an underestimate if it’s ever attempted. Naval Forces Central Command referred questions about the cost estimate to CENTCOM, which did not respond.
With the home of the Fifth Fleet knocked out and other ports in the region within range of Iranian missiles and drones, the Navy found itself facing the daunting challenge of maintaining a flotilla of more than 24 ships — including two massive aircraft carriers and numerous guided-missile destroyers and cruisers, attack submarines, or supply ships deployed at any one time. This means Navy ships need to haul food and fuel more than 2,000 miles from the base on Diego Garcia. The inspector general report noted that the shift in “naval bases and support ports posed significant challenges,” pointing specifically to the “issue with shifting logistics support and infrastructure to Diego Garcia” and the challenges of “extended sea transit requiring 14- to 18-day logistics cycles.”
Sailors and Marines have been subjected to constant danger as a result. The USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group completed a record-breaking 11-month deployment that also included the invasion of Venezuela. (Under normal conditions, a carrier would visit port about once a month to allow its crew to rest.) The ship was, according to a Presidential Unit Citation, under “persistent threat from enemy missiles and one-way attack drones” during its deployment to the Middle East.
More recently, the IRGC targeted another aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer with ballistic missiles, according to Central Command. And Marines were injured in an Iranian attack on a commercial vessel in the Strait of Hormuz last month; the two U.S. officials said those Marines potentially suffered brain trauma, among other injuries.
Amid the floundering war with Iran, U.S. forces withdrew from neighboring Iraq last week, ending two-plus decades of U.S. military occupation and operations that unleashed waves of bloodshed and civilian suffering. “The expulsion of America from Iraq was the result of … the country’s steadfastness in its independence,” the IRGC announced, in a missive touting the power of national resistance. Politicians in Baghdad also celebrated the withdrawal, with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi officially declaring October 1 a “Day of Sovereignty and Independence.”
Despite the Trump administration’s claims, the Iran war continues to expand. Last month, Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi forces seized virtually all of Yemen’s Red Sea coast, including the shoreline along the crucial shipping lanes of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is the southern entrance to the Red Sea. On Tuesday, the Houthis claimed to have killed or wounded more than 200 Saudi-backed fighters seeking to retake territory.
Three months after its official kick-off in Brussels, the Q-PLANET Pilot Line is moving from vision to execution, with Pasqal steering 28 partners from 11 European countries to build a resilient European supply chain for neutral-atom quantum technologies
PARIS, Oct. 6, 2026 — Pasqal, a global leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, is coordinating the implementation of Q-PLANET (Quantum Pilot Line for production of Advanced chips for Neutral atom European Technologies), co-funded by the EU Chips Joint Undertaking (Chips JU) and regional authorities. Backed by €50 million over three years, the consortium brings together 28 partners from 11 European countries to develop industrial-grade chip components for neutral-atom quantum computing, sensing, and communication.
A Concrete Commitment to Europe’s Quantum Industrial Ambitions and Strategic Autonomy
Pasqal’s leadership of Q-PLANET reflects the company’s concrete commitment to the European Union’s industrial quantum ambitions, in line with the upcoming EU Quantum Act. Through Q-PLANET, Pasqal is delivering one of the flagship initiatives of the European Quantum Strategy, aimed at supporting the large-scale industrialization of quantum technologies across the European Union.
Through this pan-European collaborative effort, Q-PLANET will help establish the foundations for a resilient, state-of-the-art European quantum supply chain, strengthening the broader resilience and strategic autonomy of the European Union, while reinforcing its global competitiveness in quantum technologies.
Over the next three years, the consortium will develop critical industrial-grade chip-based components for neutral-atom quantum technologies, including lasers at four key wavelengths (461 nm, 698 nm, 795 nm and 1013 nm), atom chips for quantum sensing and computing, and microfabricated vapor cells for atomic clocks and field sensors. Q-PLANET will also establish a pathway from laboratory research to industrial fabrication through the development of standardized Process Design Kits (PDKs) and Assembly Design Kits (ADKs), alongside energy-efficiency monitoring assessment across the production cycle of quantum technologies. Within this effort, Pasqal will notably lead the development activities dedicated to chip-based laser sources at 1013nm, one of the project’s core technology streams. Pasqal will also act as an end-user of the microfabricated vapor cells and laser sources, providing top-level specifications for their development, testing and validation.
Strengthening Europe’s Neutral-atom Ecosystem & Building a European Quantum Market around User Needs
Under Pasqal’s leadership, Q-PLANET will strengthen the European industrial and scientific neutral-atom ecosystem by bringing together leading research and technology organizations, industry partners and academic research groups. With 28 partners from 11 European countries, the consortium will foster synergies and partnerships across academia and industry, helping connect scientific research, industrial capabilities and the development of real-world quantum applications.
Q-PLANET will also contribute to the development of a European quantum market by addressing the needs of European users. Through advancements in quantum computing, quantum sensing and quantum communications, the pilot line will help lay the foundations for future quantum use case applications in sectors where societal, economic and scientific interests are particularly strong, including drug discovery and materials discovery. By connecting advances in quantum hardware and manufacturing with concrete application requirements, Q-PLANET will help bring European quantum technologies closer to practical deployment and adoption.
“Three months after our kick-off in Brussels, Q-PLANET has moved from ambition to execution. Together with our 28 partners, we are building a European supply chain for neutral-atom technologies, while bringing quantum industrialization closer to concrete user needs,” said Loïc Henriet, CTO of Pasqal. “Q-PLANET reflects Pasqal’s commitment to Europe’s quantum ambitions, bridging large-scale industrialization rooted in resilient capabilities with real-world application to build a globally competitive and resilient European quantum industry.”
About Pasqal
Pasqal (Nasdaq: PSQL) helps organizations tackle problems that are difficult or impossible to solve with conventional computing methods alone. Founded in 2019 on Nobel Prize–winning research, Pasqal builds and operates neutral-atom quantum computers, delivered with a full software stack, for industry, science, and governments. Pasqal’s production-ready systems are available both on-premises and through the cloud, enabling organizations to harness quantum computing without requiring in-house quantum expertise. A single hardware platform supports analog workloads today and is designed to evolve toward fault-tolerant quantum computing in the future.
Headquartered in France with operations globally, Pasqal’s quantum computing systems are used by customers across energy, financial services and advanced materials to address complex challenges. Pasqal’s customers include Saudi Aramco, Crédit Agricole CIB, LG Electronics and supported by partnerships with NVIDIA and IBM (Pasqal is part of the IBM Quantum Network).
In Europe, under the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking procurement process, Pasqal has delivered three quantum processing units to European High-Performance Computing Centers in France (TGCC), Germany (Forschungszentrum Jülich) and Italy (CINECA). Pasqal is the elected European Convenor of CEN/CENELEC JTC22 European standardization WG3 on quantum computing and simulation, representing 34 European countries. It is also a member of the French governmental delegation to the ISO/IEC JTC3 international standardization committee on quantum technologies.
The Order of the First State Awarded was presented Friday to 8 people, including Ivan Thomas of DETV, pictured here.
Order of the First State recipients include educators, former lawmakers, community leaders and advocates whose work has shaped Delaware
DOVER, Del. — Ten Delawareans whose careers span education, public service, health care, media, animal welfare and community advocacy have received the Order of the First State, Delaware’s highest civilian honor.
Gov. Matt Meyer presented the award to eight recipients during an Oct. 2 ceremony at Woodburn, the governor’s residence. Jane Pierantozzi and Leroy A. Tice were also selected for the honor but were unable to attend the ceremony.
The Order of the First State recognizes people whose service, leadership or achievements have had a profound and lasting impact on Delaware. The award can recognize contributions in public service, philanthropy, education, business, the arts, and community building.
“Delaware is a small state where one person can make a big difference,” Meyer said. “These ten Delawareans have spent their lives opening doors, serving their neighbors and making our state a better place to call home.”
This year’s recipients represent a broad cross-section of Delaware institutions and communities:
Aaron Bass — The Eastside Charter School educator was recognized for leadership focused on students, families, and the surrounding community. His work has included efforts to address the bus-driver shortage, creation of the statewide “Suit Up, Show Up” tradition and development of the Chemours STEM Hub.
Yvette Santiago — Santiago was honored for years of community leadership, developing programs, building partnerships and supporting initiatives designed to improve the lives of Delawareans.
Steven Yeatman — Yeatman was recognized for 30 years of service to Delaware children and families. He worked at nearly every level of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families and also served in the U.S. Army Reserve and Pennsylvania National Guard before recently retiring from state government.
Richard Garrett — As executive director of Children’s Beach House, Garrett has spent more than two decades developing and expanding programs serving children with special needs and their families.
Ivan Thomas — Thomas built DETV into a Delaware-focused media network and was recognized for his work in communications, youth programming and community service. His organization also played a role in communicating information to Delawareans during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marihelen “Midge” Barrett — Barrett has spent decades working to expand student access to health care. She helped establish Delaware’s first school-based health center in 1985 and continued that work through public health service and leadership with the Delaware School Based Health Alliance.
Former Sen. Harris McDowell — McDowell served 44 years in the Delaware Senate, making him the longest-serving member of the General Assembly. His legislative work included creation of the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Their Families, expansion of college access through the SEED Scholarship and initiatives involving energy efficiency and clean energy.
Former Sen. Ernesto “Ernie” López — López represented Delaware’s 6th Senate District for a decade. His legislative work included education, transportation, finance and government affairs, with an emphasis on constituent service and bipartisan cooperation.
Jane Pierantozzi — The founder and executive director of Faithful Friends Animal Society was recognized for 25 years of work in animal welfare. Her organization has expanded veterinary care, adoption, foster care and pet food assistance programs across Delaware.
Leroy A. Tice — The attorney and founder of Team Tice was honored for his legal and community work. His practice represents people and families in automobile accident, catastrophic injury and medical negligence cases, while his community involvement has included charitable and service efforts.
The governor’s office said the award recognizes not simply professional accomplishment but the lasting effect recipients have had on the state and its residents.
“The Order of the First State is our highest civilian honor because it recognizes something we value deeply in Delaware: building a legacy measured by the lives you touch and the people you lift up around you,” Meyer said.
TO GO BOX
What: 2026 Order of the First State recipients
Award: Delaware’s highest civilian honor
Presented by: Gov. Matt Meyer
Ceremony: Oct. 2 at Woodburn in Dover
Recipients: Aaron Bass, Yvette Santiago, Steven Yeatman, Richard Garrett, Ivan Thomas, Marihelen “Midge” Barrett, Harris McDowell, Ernesto “Ernie” López, Jane Pierantozzi and Leroy A. Tice
Learn more: Information about the Order of the First State and other gubernatorial awards is available through the Office of the Governor.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump reportedly met in the Oval Office with former Colorado election official Tina Peters to discuss election security, according to former Trump administration official Ed Martin.
Martin said during a Monday appearance on Real America’s Voice that Peters had met with Trump “just hours” earlier and that the two discussed election-related plans. The White House declined to confirm whether the meeting occurred, saying it does not comment on private meetings.
Peters, a former Mesa County clerk, was convicted in 2024 for her role in breaching county election equipment while pursuing false claims that voting machines had manipulated the 2020 election. She was sentenced to nine years in prison before Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted her sentence in May 2026, ordering her release on parole.
Her reported White House visit comes as Trump continues to question U.S. election systems despite repeated investigations failing to uncover evidence of widespread vote manipulation. A Reuters investigation published last week found that federal agencies examining voting-machine allegations had not produced evidence that foreign actors altered election results.
Martin portrayed Peters as someone advising the president on election security ahead of the November midterms, though neither Trump nor the White House has publicly described what, if anything, was discussed.
PALO ALTO, Calif. and BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct. 6, 2026 — As quantum computing advances, it is creating new cybersecurity challenges that will require a workforce trained to protect critical systems and infrastructure. Yet few workforce development programs provide hands-on training that integrates quantum computing, cybersecurity and critical infrastructure.
Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in collaboration with D-Wave Quantum Inc., is addressing this emerging workforce gap with a new $200,000 cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to establish a regional quantum cybersecurity workforce ecosystem serving Palm Beach and Broward counties and the Treasure Coast counties of Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River.
FAU is one of nine organizations in eight states selected for NIST’s Regional Alliances and Multistakeholder Partnerships to Stimulate (RAMPS) Cybersecurity Education and Workforce Development program. The program builds on workforce partnerships to connect employers, educators and community organizations to strengthen local cybersecurity education and career pathways.
The project comes at a pivotal time for FAU and the state of Florida. FAU will be the first university in Florida to publicly host a dedicated 4,400+ annealing quantum computer through its partnership with D-Wave.
“This NIST award builds directly on Florida Atlantic’s investment in quantum computing and the College of Engineering and Computer Science’s strengths in cybersecurity, AI and advanced computing as well as power infrastructure systems,” said Stella Batalama, Ph.D., dean of FAU’s College of Engineering and Computer Science. “With a D-Wave Advantage2 quantum computer coming to our Boca Raton campus, we are building the infrastructure, expertise and workforce needed for the next generation of computing. This initiative extends that investment into quantum cybersecurity by giving students and professionals hands-on experience with emerging technologies while preparing the talent needed to protect critical systems and infrastructure.”
The FAU project, “Building the Quantum Cybersecurity Workforce in the Palm Beach and Treasure Coast Region,” will be led by Yufei Tang, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor in FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, director of the FPL Center for Intelligent Energy Technologies (InETech), and faculty fellow of FAU’s Institute for Smarter Cities, Spaces, and Health. Co-principal investigators are Hari Kalva, Ph.D., chair and professor, and Zebo Yang, Ph.D., assistant professor, both within FAU’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
“D-Wave is proud to partner with Florida Atlantic University on this important project to prepare the next generation of quantum and cybersecurity professionals,” said Allison Schwartz, senior vice president of global government relations and public affairs at D-Wave. “As quantum computing moves from research laboratories into real-world applications, developing a workforce that understands both the opportunities and cybersecurity implications of these technologies is essential. By combining D-Wave’s powerful quantum technologies with FAU’s academic strengths and regional partnerships, this program will help create a pipeline of talent equipped to address the challenges and opportunities of the quantum era.”
The project will leverage FAU’s established cybersecurity workforce programs, including its NSF-supported CyberCorps SFS and CyberTraining initiatives, as well as the university’s growing quantum computing capabilities, quantum platforms and simulation resources.
“Quantum computing is changing not only what computers can do, but also what cybersecurity professionals need to know,” said Tang. “This project will bring together quantum computing, cybersecurity and critical-infrastructure expertise, to give participants practical experience with the technologies and security challenges that are emerging now. FAU’s FPL InETech Center will play an important role by providing a real-world research and training environment for power and energy systems, including advanced simulation and hardware-in-the-loop capabilities. By combining hands-on training, real-world case studies, access to quantum computing resources and direct engagement with industry and government partners, we want to create a workforce that is prepared to secure systems in a quantum-enabled future.”
The initiative brings together a broad group of academic, industry, government and K-12 partners. Key partners include D-Wave, a leading quantum computing company; InfraGard South Florida Members Alliance, which connects the FBI with private-sector critical infrastructure stakeholders; the School District of Palm Beach County; Broward County Public Schools; and Alexander D. Henderson University School, FAU’s public laboratory school serving elementary and middle school students.
The project will provide hands-on Quantum Cybersecurity Workshop Series, along with reusable curriculum, case studies and online training materials aligned with the NICE Workforce Framework for Cybersecurity and CyberSeek. Participants will also have access to mentoring, internships and employer engagement, while a regional consortium will connect universities, K-12 schools, industry, government, utilities and community organizations across Palm Beach and Broward counties and the Treasure Coast.
The NIST-funded project will establish a lasting regional framework for quantum cybersecurity workforce development, with shared curriculum, online training, employer engagement and a regional consortium extending the work beyond the initial grant period.
FAU continues to advance its position as Florida’s first quantum university, making strategic investments in research, education and infrastructure to drive innovation in next-generation computing. Through the FAU Center for Quantum Technologies, the university brings together faculty, students and industry partners to advance quantum research and prepare the workforce for the emerging quantum economy. FAU’s investment includes the installation of a D-Wave Advantage2 annealing quantum computer on its Boca Raton campus, giving researchers and students access to leading-edge quantum technology and helping position Florida at the forefront of this rapidly evolving field.
About Florida Atlantic University
Florida Atlantic University is one of the nation’s fastest-rising public research universities, serving more than 32,000 students in South Florida. Ranked among the Top 100 Public Universities by U.S. News & World Report, Florida Atlantic is also one of only 13 institutions nationwide to hold Carnegie Foundation designations for R1 research, opportunity and community engagement. Guided by its strategic plan, “2031FAU: Where Tomorrow Begins,” the university is focused on delivering career-ready education and experiential learning, driving scholarly inquiry that creates healthier, safer and more prosperous communities, strengthening institutional excellence, and elevating its impact across South Florida and beyond. Florida Atlantic continues to advance its position as Florida’s first quantum university, integrating research, education and industry partnerships around next-generation computing technologies. Through other signature strengths in neuroscience and healthy aging, environmental, ocean and coastal innovation, and national defense and autonomous systems, Florida Atlantic expands knowledge, fuels economic opportunity and fulfills its mission as South Florida’s hometown university.
About D-Wave Quantum Inc.
D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software and services. It is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, and the first and only to offer dual-platform quantum computing products and services, spanning both annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies. D-Wave’s mission is to help customers realize the value of quantum today through enterprise-grade systems available on-premises and via its Leap quantum cloud service, which offers 99.9% availability and uptime. More than 100 organizations across commercial, government and research sectors trust D-Wave to address complex computational challenges using quantum computing. Learn more about realizing the value of quantum computing today and how D-Wave is shaping the quantum-driven industrial and societal advancements of tomorrow: www.dwavequantum.com.
Mistral has unveiled Mistral Large 4, or "le Chonk," a 1-trillion-parameter model that it says is the strongest open-weight AI model developed outside China by a wide margin. The model is entering preview for developers, cybersecurity teams and governments before a broader release later this month. CNBC reports: ML4 was trained on 4,000 Nvidia Grace Blackwell GPUs over two months that were deployed in Mistral's own data centers in Europe. When its core parameters are released, ML4 will rank among the top open-weight models globally on aggregate benchmark performance, Mistral said in a statement. The company added that ML4 was the strongest open-weight model developed outside China by a "substantial margin." The new model still lags behind the frontier in areas such as coding.
"The model capabilities will further improve as we scale up our training capacity, following our Series D fundraise," said Guillaume Lample, co-founder and chief scientist of Mistral. "Further, the cyber defense capabilities will enable enterprises and governments to defend themselves against threat actors that are jailbreaking closed models to perform cyber attacks," he added. Further reading: Mistral CEO Says US AI Safety Debate Masks Competitors' 'Negligence'
Journalists call for urgent amendment to special operations bill, which increases police search and seizure powers
Journalists in Trinidad and Tobago have called for an urgent amendment to a sweeping new bill that increases police powers of search and seizure, which they argue threatens the country’s much-vaunted freedom of the press.
The government says the special operations bill 2026, passed on 24 September, is designed to tackle alarmingly high crime and murder rates in the Caribbean nation.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis says his UK counterpart, Andy Burnham, has been supportive of restitution efforts in the past
The Greek prime minister has vowed to “ramp up” his country’s claims to get back the Parthenon marbles from the British Museum, emphasising that his UK counterpart, Andy Burnham, was hugely supportive of restitution efforts before he moved into Downing Street.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he would raise the issue in the strongest of terms when he met Burnham, who was culture secretary in a previous Labour government.
Former and current officials who bolstered claims of voter fraud in 2020 make fresh allegations of vulnerabilities
Prominent election deniers have spent recent weeks stoking fears over US election security before next month’s midterms, echoing claims pushed by Donald Trump to justify asserting more control over voting.
On conservative-friendly media outlets, former or current officials who tried to bolster the US president’s false claims of mass voter fraud in 2020 have in recent weeks made fresh allegations of election vulnerabilities.
Police have now detained seven people, and released six on bail, in connection with the incident near an air base used by U.S. warplanes that President Trump and Britain's leader say has Iran links.
Before dawn on Tuesday outside the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris, hundreds of teenagers dragged wheelie bins, metal barriers and shopping trolleys to build a barricade outside the front door of their secondary school.
Climbing to the top of the piles of bins, pupils held banners calling for more funding and greater equality in French schools.
August Hanning is accused of selling state secrets to at least one foreign state. It could be the worst breach at the German foreign intelligence agency since the Cold War’s end.
Klara Shuster said in court she imported mislabeled Botox illegally and dispensed it to clients
The owner of a New York Citymed spa has admitted to illegally administering bootleg Botox, which authorities say led one client to develop botulism.
Klara Shuster, also known as Klara Chrzuszcz, made those admissions in the course of pleading guilty in federal court recently to conspiracy to commit smuggling, among other charges.
Independent researchers say they've identified a large "fleet" of AI agents apparently running on Tencent infrastructure and making parallel queries against Alibaba's Amap mapping service. TechCrunch reports: Researchers, however, resisted the term "swarm," noting that there seems to be little coordination between their different queries. "'Agent fleet,' not 'swarm:'" one researcher wrote in the preliminary report, "many parallel agents on the same kind of task, with no sign of communication between them." The agents were discovered by monitoring traffic to the domain-scanning service urlquery, a technique that previously revealed long-running activity by OpenAI agents. AI agents often use urlquery to load websites that they cannot access directly, leaving a record of their activities that can be valuable to researchers.
In this case, the record showed queries to Alibaba's Amap service, seeking directions to different entrances of various public places, including a park, a zoo, and a hospital. The research is ongoing and so few details are available, but the behavior shows how persistent AI agent activity has become on the internet. In the wake of the Hugging Face incident, many researchers are actively monitoring for rogue agent activity on the internet. Much of that activity has been easy to find because agents tend to use the same techniques and make little effort to conceal themselves.
Cornell University students staged a protest in solidarity with Jane Doe, a former classmate whose gang-rape allegations ignited a national uproar. Protesters demanded the school take firmer action against sexual violence on campus and called for an external inquiry into how the matter has been handled by Cornell's administration. In a civil lawsuit filed last month, Jane Doe alleged she was given drugs and alcohol and then sexually assaulted by several members of the campus chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024 after she had become incapacitated. Doe named seven Chi Phi members as defendants in the suit, along with the fraternity chapter, a local bar, her own sorority and the university. Cornell, which has defended its response to the original report, shut down the Chi Phi chapter and imposed a range of disciplinary measures on the fraternity members involved, including expulsions and other sanctions. The men all denied any wrongdoing and none have been charged with a crime
Congressional candidate Jim Desmond says he ‘served to protect Americans, not write off American cities’
A Republican candidate in San Diego has criticized Donald Trump after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” the city or Los Angeles.
Trump has faced a chorus of condemnation from Democratic leaders in California after his comments at a rally in Nebraska on Monday night. Republicans have largely remained silent.
Alternative für Deutschland has become Germany’s first far-right party to secure the position of speaker of a regional parliament since the second world war.
Tobias Rausch, a former estate agent, was elected in the first round of voting on Tuesday in Saxony-Anhalt. He won 48 out of the 82 votes cast.
Five Eurasian beavers were released into the town of Greenford in October 2023. Then, they got to work, felling trees, gathering branches and building dams.
Asos is investigating unauthorised access to its app system after shoppers received a notification claiming hackers had “fully compromised” its data.
The online fashion retailer said basic personal information including name and contact details might have been accessed by an unidentified third party but it did not believe that payment card records or passwords had been compromised.
More than 1 million people in Great Britain now vape despite having never regularly smoked, ONS data shows
More than 1 million people in Great Britain now vape despite never having been regular smokers, with rates nearly doubling in just four years, according to figures that health experts describe as concerning.
About 5.4 million people aged 16 and above in England, Scotland and Wales (9.9%) used e-cigarettes daily or occasionally in 2025, Office for National Statistics data showed. Vaping was highest among those aged 25-34 (16.4%).
Democratic lawmakers accuse the Trump administration of lifting sanctions against a Bosnian Serb separatist leader in a bid to help enrich the president's allies.
Mirabella Troncoso, a junior at the university, has officially become a 2026 Truman Scholar, receiving the honor in late April. For students pursuing a career in public service like Troncoso, the Harry S. Truman Scholarship awards recipients with $30,000 to fund post-graduate plans.
The Truman Scholarship is a prestigious award, involving a rigorous selection process of college students across the country. Typically the award goes to a winner from each state, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and other territories. Winners have gone on to have successful careers in public service, often becoming notable political figures like Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), who represents Delaware in the Senate.
While she did not always plan on applying to the scholarship, public service has always been an important part of Troncoso’s life. She had an early introduction to law, growing up with her mother who worked as a paralegal.
“Her boss actually sat my sister and I down, and told us what each party stood for,” Troncoso said. “He was completely bipartisan when he did it, but it was an introduction to all of that.”
Her mother’s work was not her only entrance to the field. Troncoso spent the beginning of her life in Chicago, where her father’s work intersected with that of a prominent political figure.
“My parents were always really involved in politics,” Troncoso said. “My dad worked for Barack Obama as his massage therapist when I was little. So that was, like, the first time I had any knowledge about a politician.”
Troncoso had her first formal experience with the world of law and politics in middle school. After encouragement from her mother, she sent in a submission to an essay contest through an organization called Girls Inc. and won. Sixth-grade Troncoso was able to travel to Washington and shadow former Rep. Vicky Hartzler from Missouri.
“I understood what actually went into the office, not just the person, which is really cool,” Troncoso said.
This experience is what sparked her interest in public service, and she soon abandoned her childhood dreams of being a fashion designer. Troncoso knew that Washington was where she needed to be.
Politics became her true focus as she began her studies at the college level. In addition to the academic inspiration, Troncoso’s work on campaigns helped her narrow down her future plans and sparked her interest in voter engagement.
She has maintained this involvement alongside her education and has learned how to balance a busy schedule.
“I’m reading the news and staying up to date on things, even if it’s not something I’m required to do for a class,” Troncoso said. “I think it’s really important, because I think it’s easy when you get to school to kind of get out of touch with what’s happening, because you’re just so focused on school.”
She makes time for all of her priorities, even taking a semester off to ensure she could fully commit to both her education and career without compromising either.
During that time, Troncoso progressed from being a volunteer on Gov. Matt Meyer’s 2024 gubernatorial campaign to a full-time campaign coordinator. With the advice of her mentors on the campaign, she made the decision to put a pause on school.
“I don’t even think I realize now how big a decision it was, but, you know, it was a big risk,” Troncoso said.
Since then, she has continued to gain valuable experience, further strengthening her commitment to public service. Troncoso’s experience includes campaign work, working on Capitol Hill with Sen. Chris Coons, fundraising for Rob Sand, who is running for Iowa Governor, among many other roles.
The connections she built through this work ultimately led her to apply for the Truman Scholarship.
“Somebody that I met on Governor Meyer’s campaign, their older sibling actually won the Truman in 2020,” Troncoso said. “And then, somebody else who worked on the campaign also won it in 2021. And then, when I worked with Rob Sand, Rob Sand won the Truman.”
She saw the signs from all of these different areas of her life and worked to make that dream a reality.
“Looking back at what I had already done in my life, I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this makes total sense for me to apply for it,’” Troncoso said. “And so that was kind of where I decided.”
That was the easy part. In the following months, she had to go through a nomination process with the university, apply to the foundation, receive a finalist selection and complete an interview with representatives of the foundation.
Troncoso emphasized that she did not go through this alone, receiving support from university staff and faculty.
“I would send them updates at 1 a.m., and then they’d be responding the next morning,” she said. “Like ASAP, just because they care.”
Faculty in the National Fellowships office, Laura De Furio and Kristin Bennighoff, also set up several mock interviews for Troncoso with a panel of university professors and alumni to help her prepare for the real thing. While other university students took time off over winter break, Troncoso spent the break zeroing in on her application and work.
“I would wake up at 5 a.m., take an hour and a half-long commute to the Hill, get back by like 7:30, work on this application until 9:30, go to bed, and then do it all the same the next day,” Troncoso said. “So it was exhausting, but incredibly rewarding.”
Troncoso was expecting to hear back from the foundation one day after buzz from other finalists. While sitting in class, the president of the university, Laura Carlson, opened the door with a camera crew and exciting news of achievement.
“It was just a massive wave of relief,” Troncoso said. “Just to hear about it,”
In the weeks following, the shock has only just begun to fade. She explained that it still has not fully set in that she won.
“I had a whiteboard in my room … and eventually I just wrote, ‘You’re a Truman Scholar,’” Troncoso said. “And every morning, I wake up and I see it, and still, I’m like ‘Oh, my gosh. I actually won it.’”
Her professional ambitions have only grown with this award, and she looks toward a future pursuing a dual MPA/JD program with a focus on constitutional law. Troncoso has further plans to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to travel to Hungary and research voter turnout in the country. Even further ahead, she is looking forward to being a part of a 2028 presidential campaign.
“I was trying to fit into a box of what I thought people would want to see,” Troncoso said. “And then, this whole application kind of forced me to just really look into: ‘What do I care about?’”
For Troncoso, the answer has always been public service, and the recognition of the award only highlights that continued commitment.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from ArsTechnica: Cable lobby groups notified the Federal Communications Commission that they will sue the agency to block its controversial repeal of the National Television Ownership Rule, which limits the number of broadcast TV stations a single company may own. The cable groups said that larger broadcast TV station groups will have leverage to demand higher retransmission fees from TV providers, resulting in "higher monthly TV bills for consumers." They said the FCC repeal order "arbitrarily and capriciously ignores the harms that will surely follow from allowing broadcast station groups to exceed the National Cap."
The cable lobby groups represent top providers Comcast, Charter, and various other cable operators. Top cable companies have also expanded through mergers. Charter completed a purchase of Cox in August after the FCC rejected protests by advocacy groups that said the cable deal "would create unchecked gatekeeper power over Internet distribution" and make it easier for the biggest cable companies to raise prices. [...] The TV ownership rule prohibits any single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. Congress directed the FCC to set the cap at 39 percent in 2004. On Friday, cable lobby groups submitted a petition asking the FCC to keep the TV ownership cap in place until litigation over the FCC's authority to repeal the rule is over.
The cable groups' filing said the FCC repeal of the TV ownership cap violates the 2004 action by US lawmakers. The decision by Congress to set the cap at a precise numerical threshold was unambiguous, the filing said. "Congress established the National Cap at 39 percent in the 2004 CAA [Consolidated Appropriations Act] in direct response to the FCC's attempt to aggressively raise the Cap to 45 percent and made repeated references to the 39 percent Cap in the statute," the petition said. The petition to the FCC is mainly a procedural step as the commission isn't likely to stay its own order. The cable groups said they intend to sue the commission in a US appeals court once the FCC order is published in the Federal Register. After the lawsuit is filed, they can ask the court to issue a preliminary injunction that would keep the TV ownership cap in place pending the outcome of litigation.
[...] The cable groups' petition said the FCC can't change the cap because the 2004 law "references the 39 percent Cap as statutory, not regulatory." A provision requiring divestiture of stations "specified that someone exceeding 'the 39 percent national audience reach limitation in paragraph (1)(B)' of 'section 202(c)' of '[t]he Telecommunications Act of 1996' 'shall have not more than 2 years to divest,'" the petition said. "Likewise, Congress singled out the Commission's only mechanism for setting aside statutory requirements -- the Commission's forbearance authority under 47 U.S.C. 160 -- and made clear that it 'shall not apply to any person or entity that exceeds the 39 percent national audience reach limitation,'" the cable lobby petition said. The FCC order argued that the agency's "ability to forbear from enforcement of its rules is distinct from its power to alter or eliminate those rules," and that the FCC forbearance authority doesn't apply to regulation of broadcasters.
Having seemingly written off the midterms, the Republican bigwigs are making their pitches for 2028. But the current commander-in-chief could be looking closer to home
The US midterm elections are a month away and it’s looking rough for the Republicans. I wouldn’t discount devious schemes behind the scenes, but, on the face of it, the president and his entourage seem to be flailing. Donald Trump is desperately dangling money in front of voters and promising “a big surprise”. Meanwhile, the vice-president, JD Vance, and the GOP senator Ted Cruz seem more concerned with fighting over who will be Trump’s heir than with the midterms.
If the polls are to be believed, Vance is the frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. But while he may have great name recognition, Vance is also unlikable. According to the CNN analyst Harry Enten, he is one of the least popular vice-presidents in history. He’s also apparently made enemies within his own party, largely because of his scepticism about the Iran war. His detractors include Cruz, who told MS Now in August that Vance wasn’t a shoo-in for the nomination. The party, Cruz said, was still figuring out the best candidate and needed “to decide who we are, what do we believe”.
Sarah Pochin bought Anglesey property two days after writing to minister about impact of second home ownership on rural communities
A Reform UK MP bought an £800,000 second home on a picturesque Welsh island two days after raising concerns in parliament about the impact of second homes on rural communities.
Sarah Pochin completed the purchase of a Grade-II listed property on the southern coast of Anglesey (Ynys Môn).
Enlargement commissioner Marta Kos outlines proposed safeguards to protect EU from undemocratic leaders
The European Commission wants to ensure there is no repeat Viktor Orbán among the next generation of EU member states, as it set out plans to prepare for the bloc’s enlargement into eastern Europe in the next few years.
In an interview with the Guardian and other European newspapers, the EU commissioner for enlargement, Marta Kos, outlined proposals for special safeguards to protect the bloc from leaders who could flout democratic values and hold hostage decision making, a pattern of behaviour exemplified for many by the former Hungarian prime minister.
David Ellison and ex-Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz to oversee both film studios, HBO Max, CNN and CBS News as co-executives
Paramount completed its $111bn acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery on Tuesday, consolidating some of the world’s most recognizable studios and news outlets after a bidding war with Netflix and months of legal turmoil.
The new company, now called Skydance, will have David Ellison, the son of a billionaire tech mogul, at its helm, with the former CEO of Mattel, Ynon Kreiz, as co-executive. They will oversee Paramount and Warner Bros’ movie studios, HBO Max, CBS News and CNN.
CBP says in response to lawsuit use-of-force cases are ‘thoroughly investigated, reviewed, and presented’
A US citizen who was shot one year ago by a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent during a sweeping immigration crackdown in Chicago filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Monday, alleging the agent lied about the shooting and fired into her vehicle from behind.
Federal prosecutors initially accused Marimar Martinez, then 30, of using her vehicle to strike and box in agent Charles Exum’s sport utility vehicle on Chicago’s south-west side on 4 October 2025 during what the Trump administration named Operation Midway Blitz. Exum then exited his car and opened fire, leaving Martinez with seven gunshot wounds.
Albany, NY — Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state disaster emergency Monday as New York confronts a sharp rise in measles cases, particularly in underimmunized rural communities.
New York has confirmed 108 cases in 2026, including 101 outside New York City. Ninety-two cases have been reported in rural communities since July 15. The state recorded just one case in 2023, 15 in 2024 and 48 last year.
The emergency order expands the number of healthcare professionals authorized to administer measles vaccinations and allows additional providers to order diagnostic testing.
New York’s outbreak comes as neighboring Pennsylvania has surpassed 1,000 cases, with five deaths and 198 hospitalizations reported by state officials. Ohio is also experiencing increased transmission.
Nationally, the CDC reported 3,887 confirmed cases as of Oct. 1, making 2026 the worst year for measles since 1991. Federal data show kindergarten MMR vaccination coverage has fallen from 95.2% in 2019-2020 to 92.4% in 2025-2026.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who spent years promoting anti-vaccine claims before joining the Trump administration, has faced criticism over federal vaccine policy during the resurgence. Kennedy appeared at an anti-vaccine conference in September, while state officials continue emphasizing vaccination as the primary defense against measles.
Copyright law in the US only applies to human-made creations, but AI characters like Tung Tung Tung Sahur are challenging that
One of the most beloved characters in an absurdist genre of online video content has become the center of an international legal battle that could determine where human creativity ends and artificial intelligence begins.
Tung Tung Tung Sahur, also known as Triple T, was created in 2025 by an Indonesian teen who goes by the username Noxa, using OpenAI’s image-generation tool. Based on a kentongan– a type of drum used to wake south-east Asian Muslims for their pre-dawn meal during Ramadan – the character is an anthropomorphized version of the instrument with a broad smile and a vacant stare. Hesits under the umbrella of “Italian brain rot” internet videos.
Märtha Louise and Durek Verrett launch defamation lawsuit in Los Angeles, claiming ‘coordinated series of devastating public attacks’
The Norwegian princess Märtha Louise and her husband, the American businessman Durek Verrett, are suing several former members of their inner circle for defamation over what they described as a “calculated betrayal of trust”.
Court documents filed in Los Angeles on 14 September claim the former friends and colleagues took “private access once afforded to them and weaponised it”. The accused include “former intimate partners, trusted business associates, a family member”.
Officials file ‘denaturalization actions’ against people accused of crimes in what they call ‘largest’ such initiative
Donald Trump’s justice department has moved to strip the citizenship of 40 naturalized citizens accused of crimes in what authorities describe as “the largest” such initiative over a single period during his administration.
US justice department officials on Monday announced the filing of “denaturalization actions” against more than three dozen people alleged to have committed such offenses as “acting as an agent for a foreign government, committing voluntary manslaughter, and aggravated sodomy against a special‑needs man”.
Among the world’s fastest storage systems, DAOS delivers high performance across thousands of Aurora nodes to support data-intensive workloads ranging from massive simulations to AI model training.
Oct. 6, 2026 — Running simulations and AI workloads on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers requires storage that can keep pace. On the ALCF’s Aurora exascale system, Distributed Asynchronous Object Store (DAOS) provides the high-performance storage needed to move and manage massive amounts of data generated by large-scale scientific applications.
Aurora, the ALCF’s Intel-HPE exascale supercomputer, fully integrates DAOS with its compute fabric to support I/O and checkpointing for data-intensive scientific applications. Credit: Argonne.
The ALCF recently completed a major expansion of DAOS, bringing it from 128 storage servers initially, to 370 during an intermediate phase, and now to 800 in its final configuration. Extensive testing has demonstrated that DAOS is stable, highly performant, and able to scale effectively across thousands of Aurora compute nodes.
Available to Aurora users, DAOS has already established itself among the world’s fastest storage systems. Aurora remains No. 1 on the ISC26 IO500 Production list, based on benchmark results submitted in 2023 using an earlier DAOS configuration that demonstrated bandwidth exceeding 20 terabytes per second in individual tests. The ALCF team recently benchmarked the expanded system using all 800 servers which has pushed performance even higher, reaching data transfer rates of up to 30 terabytes per second using 2,048, 4,096, and 8,192 Aurora compute nodes. The testing shows that performance scales up and does not collapse under extreme client counts.
“We’ve put a lot of work into scaling DAOS and making sure it can deliver the performance and reliability our users need,” said Kevin Harms, ALCF-4 Technical Director. “The latest results show that DAOS can sustain high performance as applications scale across thousands of Aurora nodes, giving researchers a powerful resource to support data-intensive science.”
Write bandwidth as measured from HACC as a function of data type and file size. Credit: Adrian Pope, Argonne.
DAOS has also demonstrated strong performance for AI workloads. In the 2025 MLPerf Storage benchmark, a 128-server subset of Aurora’s DAOS system reached nearly 1 terabyte per second of write throughput and 600 gigabytes per second of read throughput, enabling a simulated checkpoint of Meta’s Llama 3 405B model in under 10 seconds. The results highlighted DAOS’s ability to support the intense I/O demands of large-scale AI training.
DAOS is an open-source object store designed specifically for highly parallel computing environments. On Aurora, it is directly connected to the supercomputer’s high-speed network, allowing applications to access the storage system at very high rates as they scale to larger portions of the machine. Its distributed architecture spreads data and metadata across the storage servers, helping provide high bandwidth and low latency without relying on a centralized metadata server. It also supports familiar interfaces used by scientific applications, including POSIX and MPI-I/O.
Researchers are already demonstrating what those capabilities can enable. In a recent effort on Aurora, an Argonne-led team used the Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Code (HACC) to complete two of the largest cosmological simulations ever performed.
The scale of the calculations created immense data-writing demands. The two simulations wrote more than 85 petabytes of data through DAOS, mostly as restart checkpoints that allowed the researchers to resume the calculations in the event of an interruption rather than start over. About 8 petabytes were retained for scientific analysis.
“Each run evolved more than 13 trillion particles across 8,100 Aurora nodes,” said Nicholas Frontiere, an Argonne computational scientist and member of the HACC team who led the simulation campaign on Aurora. “At that scale, I/O is a major computational challenge in its own right, and DAOS gave us the performance we needed to carry out these large-scale simulations.”
Earlier HACC testing had already demonstrated DAOS write speeds exceeding 5 terabytes per second on a smaller configuration of the storage system. The recent campaign shows how that capability can translate into production science at Aurora’s scale.
With its expanded capacity, demonstrated performance, and growing track record across simulation and AI workloads, DAOS gives Aurora users a high-performance option for applications with intensive storage requirements. To learn more about accessing and using DAOS on Aurora, visit the ALCF user guide.
New alliances between the White House, the Pentagon, US intelligence and AI companies are looming ominously
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you as I sit under yellowing leaves in New York. Today in tech, we’re discussing technocracy.
Watchdog examining whether company carried out adequate risk assessment as required by Online Safety Act
Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta is under investigation for a potential breach of the UK’s digital safety laws after launching a Snapchat-style feature on Instagram.
The communications watchdog, Ofcom, is investigating whether the $1.9tn (£1.4tn) company infringed the Online Safety Act (OSA) by failing to carry out adequate checks on whether its Instagram Instants product could show illegal content or be accessed by children.
The deadly outbreak in Pennsylvania is its largest in more than three decades, and confirmed cases in New York are up
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a state of emergency on Monday in response to a dramatic spike in measles cases in the state.
Hochul’s administration said the emergency declaration was in response to a “growing number of measles cases across rural areas of New York and neighboring states”, including Pennsylvania, which has been grappling with a deadly outbreak that is its largest in more than three decades.
Multiple streams of intelligence warned of possible attacks on the U.K. base hosting the aircraft, according to people familiar with the decision, with concerns rising after police arrested five men in white vans.
PC, PS5, Switch 2; Wych Elm Games, Team 17 Abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks make up a dark landscape in which you play a private eye searching for a missing singer-songwriter
In a weird deserted town miles from anywhere, a troubled detective searches for a missing musician and the girl he may or may not have murdered. It could be a Silent Hill game or a lost David Lynch movie from the 1990s – in fact, it’s neither. And also both. If that whets your appetite, stick around, there’s plenty more to come.
Developed by Scandinavian studio Wych Elm Games, Silver Pines is a dark Metroidvania-style adventure, where you play as shambling private eye, Red Walker, exploring a 2D universe of abandoned shops, ruined apartment buildings and rotting sewer networks. Officially, everyone has left because of an incoming storm, but very quickly you learn that something much darker is afoot. Someone has hired you to find singer-songwriter Eddie Velvet, but you don’t know why; your only contact with your client is via the payphones dotted around town, where you can also save your progress – as long as you have a dollar to pay for the call. Each location is filled with clues and puzzles – a weird newspaper story pinned to the wall, a strange statue that needs a missing piece – and through these artefacts you unlock new rooms and descend further into the mystery.
What, exactly, about the drink is so distracting? The viral debate raises bigger questions about who defines ‘professionalism’
The great iced coffee debate of 2026 is the latest submission to the young-people-just-don’t-get-it discourse and, of course, it’s as polarizing as ever.
Recruiters say you shouldn’t bring iced coffee to interviews, while young people are (rightly) asking: what’s the big deal? It’s one of those conversations that makes me cringe, given just how eagerly it springs up from the generational divide plaguing mainstream culture. And as usual, gen Z are cast as the entitled morons who want to live life with no rules or responsibilities, all to the detriment of the millennials and gen X-ers who have to deal with them.
John Murdock had been working for the agency for 18 years and his resignation comes during an exodus of longtime federal workers and scientists
An 18-year veteran of the US Department of the Interior has resigned in protest from the sprawling federal agency, denouncing “a deeply troubling assault on the rule of the law” that took place at the department under Donald Trump.
John Murdock, an attorney and self-described conservative Christian, began working for the agency’s legal office in 2002. In his resignation letter, first sent to his supervisor earlier this year and obtained exclusively by the Guardian and Public Domain, Murdock cites “glaring legal flaws” he witnessed within the agency during the course of the Trump administration, as well as concerns over offshore oil and gas drilling, the aggressive push to expand fossil fuels and the flouting of environmental regulation.
Firms working on reproducing compounds without need for repeated harvesting but conservationists are sceptical
Many of the world’s most expensive perfumes begin with a wounded tree. When some Aquilaria trees are damaged, they produce a dark, fragrant resin that becomes agarwood, or oudh – an ingredient so valuable that wild trees have been illegally felled in its pursuit.
The result has devastated wild Aquilaria populations. But what if perfumers could create the smell without cutting down the tree?
TORONTO, Oct. 6, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Limited today announced a strategic multi-year partnership with GlobalFoundries (GF) to address the high-volume production required for utility-scale quantum computing. This partnership combines Xanadu’s existing expertise in ultra-low loss photonic design and process development with GF’s industry-leading photonics manufacturing prowess to accelerate the development and manufacturing of advanced photonic components, including ultra-low loss silicon nitride (SiN) photonics and Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors (SNSPDs), through GF’s 300 mm production line in Malta, New York.
The initial focus of the Xanadu and GF partnership is on the industrialization of Xanadu’s SNSPDs and its ultra-low-loss SiN platform. In photonic quantum computing, where information is carried by photons, reading calculation outputs requires photon number resolving (PNR) detectors, which are advanced optical sensors that determine the number of photons in a single light pulse. Xanadu has adopted SNSPDs, widely recognized as the most reliable PNR technology, as its PNR platform for utility-scale quantum computing. The adoption of SNSPDs is expected to dramatically increase the speed of Xanadu’s quantum computing systems and considerably reduce the chip overheads needed to deliver utility-scale quantum computers with Xanadu’s photonic quantum computing architecture. Combining ultra-high efficiency SNSPDs with ultra-low loss SiN photonics, used as optical circuit boards to guide photons with negligible signal loss across a wide spectrum of light, forms the backbone of Xanadu’s photonic quantum computing technology.
Transferring components of Xanadu’s existing advanced photonics technology to GF’s 300 mm manufacturing line represents a critical shift from lab-scale prototyping to industrial-grade production. In addition to SNSPDs and SiN, Xanadu and GF are exploring future work packages to further develop high-performance quantum modules that are intended to increase the power and utility of photonic quantum computing systems. The output of this collaboration is expected to serve as the manufacturing foundation for Xanadu’s upcoming fault-tolerant demonstrators, supporting the company’s long-term objective of providing the hardware architecture for future quantum data centers.
“Transitioning quantum computing technology to a high-volume manufacturing line is fundamental to delivering quantum computing at scale,” said Dr. Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “Partnering with GlobalFoundries allows Xanadu to refine and scale up our existing industry-leading photonics platform and apply GF’s industrial expertise and technology to our photonic chip production. This partnership demonstrates our focus on execution and seeks to provide the reliable, precision-manufactured infrastructure necessary to transition quantum technology from the research environment to commercial-scale data centers.”
“By combining Xanadu’s advanced photonic computing technology with GF’s 300 mm manufacturing expertise, this partnership creates a path to industrialize the critical components needed to accelerate the deployment of fault-tolerant systems and enable future quantum computing architectures,” said Nicholas Sergeant, VP of Quantum Technology Solutions at GF.
Xanadu is on a mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. By securing this manufacturing pathway, Xanadu is reinforcing its position as a global leader in photonic quantum computing.
About Xanadu
Founded in 2016, Xanadu is a Canadian photonic quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Xanadu is building fault-tolerant quantum computers using light, with systems designed to compute at room temperature. Xanadu develops both hardware and software, including PennyLane, its open-source quantum computing platform. Xanadu is the first pure-play photonic quantum computing company to list on public markets (NASDAQ/TSX: XNDU) and is recognized globally for its breakthroughs in scalable quantum technologies.
Health minister says 28 contacts identified after death of citizen who arrived from DRC on Saturday
Kenya has reported its first-ever Ebola death, the health minister announced on Tuesday, as the disease continues to spread rapidly through the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the outbreak was announced in May.
This is the 17th outbreak of the highly infectious, often deadly disease in the DRC. As of 2 October, 4,082 people had died out of 8,463 confirmed cases in the country since the emergence of the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is still no vaccine nor specific treatment.
The chatbot that launched 1,000 chatbots: We cover everything about the AI tool, from how it works and how to use it to some of its more controversial points.
World Health Organization detects no sign of further outbreak since Darya Shipilova died last week
The World Health Organization has said the risk of an epidemic in Russia is low after the sudden death of a lab technician who worked at a plague research institute in Siberia.
California’s leaders attack president after he suggests Iran could ‘take out’ Los Angeles or San Diego. Plus an auction of some of the most famous props in movie history
Good morning. Donald Trump has suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego, in comments described as “reckless” and “deranged” by California officials. At a rally in Nebraska on Monday, the crowd applauded when the US president said high prices owing to the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe”. He added: “They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles. Let them take out San Diego.”
Gavin Newsom, the governor of California and a Democrat who has repeatedly clashed with Trump during his two terms, said from his press office account: “Let’s be clear: the president is advocating for an attack on 10+ million US residents in two of America’s largest cities. This is not normal … He is deranged and dangerous.”
What is happening with Trump’s approval rating? A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record low of 32% and the president losing support among independent voters and Latinos, who had backed him in 2024. The dip comes before the crucial midterm elections in November that will determine control of Congress.
What is the latest with taxpayer-funded Trump ads? After repeated criticism, Trump said on Monday he would pay for the hitherto taxpayer-funded ads from Maga Inc, his political war chest. He provided no details on reimbursing taxpayers for ads that had already aired, nor how he would go about having his political organization pay for such advertising.
Why has Iran’s oil minister resigned?Mohsen Paknejad has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars-worth of export receipts to the state. Iran is grappling with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%.
What is behind the latest disagreement between Israel and the UK? It stems from the UK’s decision to ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank – a move that Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign minister, labelled “morally distorted”. Israel has threatened to close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, prompting the UK to warn it will expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced out.
Why has the Green party in England and Wales been condemned over its Zionism policy? The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after adopting a policy declaring Zionism as a form of racism, which has drawn dismay from the group representing European Greens. The co-leader of the German Greens separately said the policy was “intolerable and unacceptable”.
Trump’s counter-terrorism ‘czar’, Sebastian Gorka, was scheduled to speak at conference but White House says he will no longer attend
A National Conservatism (NatCon) conference beginning today in Jerusalem advertises a talk from the Trump administration’s anti-terrorism czar alongside speeches from far-right Israeli politicians, European figures who have faced disciplinary action over alleged antisemitism, and Christian nationalist and far-right figures from the United States.
The Jerusalem event is perhaps the most significant recent gathering to feature large contingents of Israeli nationalists alongside Christian nationalists and far-right European nationalists from a milieu sometimes shadowed by accusations of antisemitism.
Effort builds on prior collaboration to translate high-value use cases into practical applications running on IBM quantum computers
BOSTON, Oct. 6, 2026 — Zapata Quantum today announced it has joined the IBM Quantum Network with plans to use IBM’s world-class quantum computers with Zapata’s deep expertise in use-case discovery and application development. The Company’s effort aims to help close the quantum application gap by translating advances in quantum computing into mission-critical applications and real-world impact.
“The rapid progress IBM is making on the path to fault-tolerant quantum computing brings the quantum application gap into sharper focus,” said Sumit Kapur, CEO of Zapata Quantum. “These advances must be matched by progress in identifying, evaluating and developing the applications that will deliver real-world value. We are excited for Zapata’s Quantum Application Intelligence to translate organizations’ highest-mission priorities into practical quantum applications.”
“IBM’s roadmap to fault-tolerant quantum computing is one of the most credible in the industry, and superconducting qubits remain one of the most capable paths to advantage because their hardware is fast,” said Jonny Olson, VP Strategy and Co-Founder of Zapata Quantum. “Joining the IBM Quantum Network lets us better identify valuable opportunities for organizations that need the fastest systems, and then prepare those organizations for the precise moment that quantum gives them real ROI.”
Joining the IBM Quantum Network builds on a history of joint IBM and Zapata research done on early quantum devices. Zapata used IBM quantum computers in a landmark study published in Nature Biotechnology that produced experimentally validated candidates targeting KRAS and was selected as one of the journal’s Top 10 Articles of 2025.¹ Scientists from the two companies also co-authored research published in npj Quantum Information, which advanced the understanding of variational quantum factoring on a superconducting processor.2
Being part of the IBM Quantum Network also reflects Zapata’s broader strategy of working with technology leaders across the quantum and AI ecosystems. Insights from being part of the IBM Quantum Network will inform Quantum Pilot, Zapata’s hardware-agnostic platform that helps enterprises identify, prioritize, and develop quantum applications as hardware matures.
To learn more about Zapata’s work in quantum application development, please visit the Company’s website.
Ghazi Vakili, M., Gorgulla, C., Snider, J. et al. Quantum-computing-enhanced algorithm unveils potential KRAS inhibitors. Nat Biotechnol 43, 1954–1959 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02526-3
Karamlou, A.H., Simon, W.A., Katabarwa, A. et al. Analyzing the performance of variational quantum factoring on a superconducting quantum processor. npj Quantum Inf 7, 156 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-021-00478-z
About Zapata Quantum
Zapata Quantum (OTCQB: ZPTA) is a leading hardware-agnostic, pure-play quantum software company focused on accelerating quantum application development. With a portfolio of more than 60 granted and pending patents developed over seven years, Zapata supports applications across cryptography, pharmaceuticals, finance, materials discovery, defense, and more. The Company is the only organization to have participated across all technical areas of DARPA’s Quantum Benchmarking program and has worked with Fortune 500 enterprises and government agencies to translate quantum advances into real-world impact. The Company’s study demonstrating the potential of quantum-enabled drug discovery was recognized as one of Nature Biotechnology’s Top 10 Papers of 2025.
LinkedIn prevents tens of thousands of GPU-hours of downtime monthly; new TorchPass innovations preserve AI workload progress without code changes and speed reinforcement learning.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 6, 2026 — Clockwork.io, whose fault-tolerance software keeps AI training, reinforcement learning and inference workloads running through infrastructure failures, has announced $31 million in new funding, production deployments at LinkedIn and Together AI, and expanded adoption by WhiteFiber.
The company also introduced two new capabilities for its TorchPass solution, each capturing the state of a running distributed AI job. Multi-node platform snapshots, an industry first for training, save an entire running job across every node without changes to the training code and preserve it for recovery. Fast, asynchronous application checkpoints, taken in the background while the job runs, accelerate reinforcement learning. They deliver updated model weights to the inference replicas that generate rollouts, the examples the model learns from, so those replicas spend less time waiting or working from a stale model.
Fault Tolerance Has Become a Requirement for AI at Scale
Large distributed AI workloads can span thousands of GPUs that must stay in sync: one failed GPU, dropped link or frozen server can stall the entire job. Meta reported unexpected interruptions averaging roughly one every three hours during a 54-day period of Llama 3 training on 16,384 GPUs.
The typical response is to reload a checkpoint, a saved copy of the job’s progress. Recovery can take up to 90 minutes, leaves healthy GPUs waiting, and requires the job to repeat work completed since that checkpoint. Customers pay for idle GPUs and repeated computation, and models take longer to complete. As jobs grow, each restart puts more GPU time at risk.
At this scale, keeping useful work running through failures is an infrastructure requirement. Clockwork.io meets it with a fault-tolerance suite that platform teams deploy as a layer between the hardware and the workload. LinkPass reroutes traffic around a failed link so the job never sees the fault. TorchPass moves work from a failing GPU to a healthy one so training continues instead of rolling back. Both are in production. TorchPass’s new platform snapshots, announced today, capture the state of a running distributed job so the whole job can be restored when a failure is too large to migrate around.
“Failures are inevitable at AI scale. Losing hours of useful work to them should not be,” said Suresh Vasudevan, CEO of Clockwork.io. “Fault tolerance is a goodput multiplier: it keeps GPUs doing useful work instead of waiting for recovery or repeating work already done. We built our software alongside enterprises and cloud providers operating some of the largest GPU fleets, so it handles the failures they actually see. That protection belongs in the infrastructure enterprises and cloud providers rely on every day.”
Adoption Expands Across Enterprises, Hyperscalers and Neoclouds
Enterprises running their own GPU fleets, hyperscalers and neoclouds are adopting Clockwork.io for the same reason: more of their GPU-hours go to useful work.
LinkedIn has deployed LinkPass network fault tolerance across its AI infrastructure fleet and prevents tens of thousands of GPU-hours of downtime each month.
“At AI infrastructure scale, a single network issue should never sideline healthy GPUs or interrupt running workloads. Before Clockwork.io, one InfiniBand NIC flap could remove an eight-GPU server from service, while a switch port flap could drain a second server, doubling the impact to 16 GPUs,” said Raghu Hiremagalur, SVP, CTO Infrastructure, LinkedIn. “Clockwork.io helped transform that operating model. Its network fault-tolerance technology automatically reroutes traffic onto healthy paths, allowing jobs to continue uninterrupted while link, optic, cable, or NIC faults are repaired. In aggregate, Clockwork.io prevents tens of thousands of GPU-hours of downtime per month across our fleet. By turning what were once disruptive operational incidents into manageable maintenance events, Clockwork.io has helped improve infrastructure utilization and operational efficiency.”
Together AI is bringing TorchPass to market as a service on its GPU Clusters. At the PyTorch Conference, the two companies will demonstrate a live multi-node training job continuing through injected network and GPU failures without restarting.
“Our customers grade us on goodput, the share of their GPU-hours that actually move the model forward,” said Pavneet Ahluwalia, Product Lead, Together AI. “Node repair already detects faults and provisions replacement capacity automatically. Clockwork.io’s TorchPass and LinkPass build on that foundation and are designed to keep jobs moving through GPU faults and link failures, preserving progress. We are bringing them to market as the next layer of resilience in the platform.”
WhiteFiber, an existing customer, is expanding its use of Clockwork.io software across its growing global GPU-as-a-service footprint.
“Pressure-testing a cluster’s reliability before it reaches production is critical, because a customer who inherits a hidden fabric fault pays for it later in failed jobs and lost GPU-hours,” said Tom Sanfilippo, Chief Technology Officer, WhiteFiber. “Marginal optics, misconfigured NICs, and links that pass a basic test but degrade under load can slip through. Clockwork.io’s automated fleet audit validates every link and node at once, localizes faults in minutes, and lets us correct them before acceptance. We bring clusters up faster, and a customer’s first training run lands on a fabric validated end-to-end, not just powered on. With market demand growing as rapidly as it is, getting validated capacity to customers quickly is critical to our business, and it is why we are expanding Clockwork.io across our clusters.”
New TorchPass Capabilities Put Workload Protection in Platform Teams’ Hands
Clockwork.io extended TorchPass beyond GPU migration with two capabilities platform teams have not had: a snapshot of a whole distributed job that they can take themselves, and application checkpoints fast enough to run in the background.
For training, platform snapshots save a running job’s execution state across all of its nodes so the job can be restored after an interruption. Platform teams and AI infrastructure engineers deploy it for supported workloads without waiting for application owners to modify their code or add checkpointing logic. Enterprise teams can protect training jobs across their fleet with one mechanism, and cloud providers can protect customer jobs whose code they do not control. Where teams checkpoint at the application level, TorchPass’s fast checkpoints can be taken more often, so less progress is lost and less computation repeated after a failure.
For inference, large models run across two or more servers, so one bad link can take down a whole replica and cut off a user session or agent task mid-stream. LinkPass keeps those multi-server replicas serving through link failures.
Reinforcement learning depends on both training and inference. Copies of the model generate rollouts, the trainer learns from them, and updated weights must reach the copies before they can generate with the latest version. TorchPass’s application checkpoints carry the updated weights to the rollout replicas sooner, while LinkPass keeps those replicas serving through link failures.
“Cluster fault tolerance used to be a training problem. It is now an inference problem too,” said Dylan Patel, Founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst at SemiAnalysis, whose ClusterMAX ratings benchmark GPU cloud providers. “In our ClusterMAX, TorchPass cuts training goodput loss from 14% to under 3% for a gold-rated neocloud. Reinforcement Learning (RL) ties the two together: inference replicas generate rollouts, the trainer learns from them, and the updated weights go back to the replicas. Clockwork.io keeps replicas serving through link flaps and network failures. Its extremely fast checkpoints accelerate weight transfer back into the rollout fleet, so neither direction stalls the run. One fault-tolerance layer under training, inference, and RL is where this has to be solved.”
Enterprise platform teams and cloud providers can contact Clockwork.io to evaluate the software for their workloads or explore partnership opportunities.
About Clockwork.io
Clockwork.io pioneers Software-Driven AI Fabrics, a programmable layer between hardware and workload that makes GPU clusters observable, fault-tolerant, and fully utilized across any accelerator, network, or cloud. AI workloads need the whole cluster to act as one machine, yet failures and bottlenecks idle GPUs. Clockwork.io’s FleetLens platform recovers that lost capacity: nanosecond-accurate telemetry pinpoints the GPU, node, or link slowing or stalling a job, validates clusters before launch, and, with LinkPass and TorchPass, keeps workloads running through infrastructure failures and degradations, from training to inference. SemiAnalysis has independently benchmarked TorchPass as recovering from failures faster than checkpoint-restart and leading open-source frameworks. LinkedIn, Together AI, WhiteFiber, Wells Fargo, Nebius, NScale, and DCAI trust Clockwork.io to power their AI infrastructure. Learn more at www.clockwork.io.
The World Health Organization says public risks are low after a plague center worker's death, but Marco Rubio says Moscow should "share more information with the world."
Jim Bakker, who along with his first wife Tammy Faye built an evangelical empire around "The PTL Club" TV show, only to lose it all over a sex scandal and financial crimes, has died at 86.
The Trump administration has approved a plan to execute former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan — who killed 13 people in a 2009 shooting at Fort Hood — by firing squad, the Pentagon said.
Iran's Houthi allies deny losing ground to Yemen's Saudi-backed military, but oil prices ease despite the Middle East crisis erupting in a battle over control of another key waterway.
Tabor City, NC — At least 10 people were arrested or detained during a late-September checkpoint in Columbus County, according to immigrant-rights group Siembra NC, which says Latino drivers and passengers were questioned about their immigration status.
The checkpoint operated near N.C. Highway 904 and Pireway Road between roughly 5:30 and 7 p.m. Witnesses told Siembra NC that some drivers were asked where they were born and that passengers were also asked to provide documentation.
Javier Carbajal, an electrician traveling home with coworkers, said he showed his driver’s license but was ordered out of his vehicle and searched. He said a passenger was arrested after being unable to produce documents. Other witnesses reported seeing men restrained with zip ties and several people placed in a van.
Families later told advocates they had difficulty determining where some detainees had been taken. The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office declined to confirm the arrests, citing an ongoing investigation.
The sheriff’s office participates in ICE’s 287(g) Task Force program, which authorizes designated local officers to perform certain federal immigration-enforcement functions under ICE supervision.
The incident has prompted civil-liberties concerns from advocates, who argue that questioning passengers about immigration status and detaining people without clear public information warrants closer scrutiny. Similar enforcement practices elsewhere in North Carolina are already being challenged in federal court.
While adherents to the racist theory condemn a shadowy global elite, Silicon Valley is working toward the replacement of humans with AI
Across the world, “great replacement” theory has been employed again and again as the political foundation for fascism. Some of its fundamental tenets, such as the view that “whites are a dying minority”, have been amplified by tech billionaires and their platforms.
According to the version of this theory most employed in Europe and the United States, white replacement theory, white populations are being “replaced” by non-white populations, a replacement engineered by a shadowy global elite. For example, the need for skilled labor is supposedly being used by global elites as an excuse to bring in non-white immigrants to replace white workers.
An AfD-led state government will develop a strategy for Saxony-Anhalt focused on technological upgrading, digitalization, and AI. This strategy is intended to help alleviate bottlenecks in the local labor market. Furthermore, it aims to avoid the immigration of skilled workers from culturally dissimilar backgrounds.
Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive. All cultures are now equal. Criticism and value judgments are forbidden. Yet this new dogma glosses over the fact that certain cultures and indeed subcultures … have produced wonders. Others have proven middling, and worse, regressive and harmful.
Al's Sporting Goods sits at the corner of Market and Second Street in Wilmington. It will close in December after nearly a century in business. { SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Pablo Quirno says move is part of Argentinian government’s strategy to peacefully assert sovereignty over the islands
Argentina’s foreign minister has told an audience that included the British ambassador that his government would stop the Falkland Islands from exploiting its offshore oilfields as part of a strategy to take sovereignty.
During a speech at a thinktank event in the Argentinian capital, Pablo Quirno condemned the British government for failing to open negotiations over the islands and facilitating a significant offshore oil project in its waters.
Benjamin Davis appealing against dismissal from FAO, after being accused by director general of playing ‘political games’
A former senior UN food agency official has alleged he was fired last week for his work highlighting hunger in Gaza, and has launched an appeal against his dismissal.
Benjamin Davis said the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had refused to renew his contract as director of its rural transformation and gender equality division because his team had published a brief on hunger in Gaza and held a seminar on the subject last year, and because he taken part in weekly “moment of silence” vigils on FAO grounds for those killed.
Jason Kwon’s answers were provided in a helpful, quiet and calm manner. For a company under intense scrutiny, there were no missteps
Open AI’s Jason Kwon flew 15 hours from San Francisco to Sydney to give the company’s first in-person mea culpa after it admitted – in an unsigned email, to a public departmental inbox – that one of its AI agents had accessed a Services Australia website without authorisation and grabbed data related to Medicare.
Kwon – polite, friendly, even-toned – got through a potentially dicey parliamentary committee hearing unscathed, promising to do better and pledging assistance to Australia. No missteps, no viral moments, just delivering his answers helpfully, in a quiet and calm manner, sympathising with the questioner and the point they were making.
The findings come after warnings from tech leaders that AI placed in the wrong hands could trigger larger threats such as nuclear war or bioweaponry destruction
Misusing artificial intelligence (AI) is the top threat to companies’ reputations – more so than being accused of putting children in the way of mental, emotional or physical harm and issues exposed by the US-Israel war on Iran, among other brand risks, according to a new survey of more than 150 public affairs leaders.
Those findings in the new edition of the quarterly Reputation Risk Index, released on Tuesday, came on the heels of other perhaps more dire warnings from leading tech figures that AI in the wrong hands could precipitate existential threats on a mass scale such as nuclear war or destruction by bioweaponry.
OpenAI is rolling out an invisible, machine-readable text watermark called textGrain to ChatGPT and Codex, "but only for users in the European Union at first," reports The Verge. From the report: OpenAI says its textGrain watermarking "matched or exceeded" other approaches like Google DeepMind's SynthID for text, which is also the basis for the watermarking Anthropic announced in August. Like OpenAI, Anthropic made the move to meet the requirements of the EU's AI Act; however, not everyone was happy to learn about the addition. OpenAI also included scores from AI benchmarks showing similar performance from watermarked and unwatermarked text. But it notes that textGrain "does not guarantee reliable detection," and says text watermarks don't verify accuracy, determine who owns the text, measure how much a human contributed, or prove human authorship.
Polls show GOP candidates trailing Democrats in Senate races, and Republicans also struggling in House contests
Thirty days remain until the midterm elections, and Donald Trump and his Republican allies are pulling out all the stops to maintain control of Congress.
Super Pacs aligned with the GOP have already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising and voter outreach in races expected to decide the majorities in the Senate and House of Representatives, and plan to spend even more before the election is over. The president, Vice-President JD Vance, and other top Republicans are fanning out across the country to stump for vulnerable lawmakers.
When the elevator doors opened, the reporters waiting in the hallway immediately crowded around the gaunt, orange-clad man who emerged, escorted by his public defender and a sheriff’s deputy. The three men made their way toward the seventh-floor courtroom of Oklahoma County District Court Judge Natalie Mai, as reporters shouted questions.
“Why did you kill Barry Van Treese?” one asked.
Justin Sneed, 49, didn’t answer, his handcuffs and waist chain clanging as he walked. With a short, graying goatee and long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, Sneed maintained a hollow stare. Inside the courtroom, his lawyer directed him to a chair just in front of the jury box. Sneed sat, his hands clasped in front of him, and kept his gaze toward the floor. Directly across the room was Richard Glossip, the man nearly executed for killing their boss — a grisly murder that Sneed actually committed.
Sneed was 19 years old when he beat Van Treese to death at the Best Budget Inn, a rundown motel Van Treese owned on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. Sneed admitted to the January 1997 murder but swore Glossip put him up to it. Glossip insisted he was innocent and, apart from Sneed’s account, there was scant evidence connecting him to the crime. Still, in exchange for a life sentence, Sneed became the state’s star witness against Glossip, clinching his conviction and sending him to death row.
It would not take long for Sneed’s story to start falling apart. Glossip’s original conviction was overturned after a state court found that Glossip’s trial lawyers failed to present critical exculpatory evidence — a video of Sneed’s police interrogation that showed Oklahoma City detectives pressuring him into implicating Glossip. Nevertheless, in 2004, a second jury reconvicted Glossip and again sentenced him to death.
In 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated Glossip’s conviction, concluding that it was rooted in false testimony and prosecutorial misconduct. The justices found that Sneed lied on the stand, dismantling the basis for the state’s case. “Besides Sneed, no other witness and no physical evidence established that Glossip orchestrated Van Treese’s murder,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the majority. “Thus, the jury could convict Glossip only if it believed Sneed.”
Many expected Glossip’s saga to end there. Instead, Oklahoma announced it would retry Glossip for first-degree murder, once again relying on Sneed. “The evidence presented will be essentially the same as was presented in the first two trials,” prosecutor Jimmy Harmon told Mai earlier this year.
Glossip’s attorneys have strenuously objected to the state’s plan to use the same discredited evidence for a third time. They are also adamant that they should have a chance to put Sneed on the witness stand, so that Mai can assess his credibility before trial. It is this insistence that led Glossip and Sneed to sit face to face in court for the first time in decades.
Glossip, now 63, was released on bond in May. He sat at the defense table in a navy suit and crisp white shirt while the daylong hearing got underway. Mai had convened the September 30 proceeding to consider a flurry of defense motions, many of which centered on Sneed’s role in the case. Sneed had been subpoenaed in advance of the hearing, which attracted a gaggle of reporters to Mai’s courtroom. But it was unclear whether he would take the stand.
Much of the time was spent listening to lawyers on both sides argue over ongoing conflicts in the case. Glossip’s legal team has repeatedly clashed with prosecutors over the state’s obligation to disclose evidence before trial. The constant disagreements have threatened to derail Mai’s tight trial schedule; after initially setting Glossip’s trial for September, she has since pushed the trial date to December 7.
But that too seems vanishingly unlikely. As the hearing dragged on, the bigger question was whether a trial will happen at all.
It was exactly 11 years earlier, on September 30, 2015, that Glossip came perilously close to being put to death at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary, only for officials to realize at the eleventh hour that they had procured the wrong combination of drugs to carry out his lethal injection. In the decade that followed, Glossip’s defense attorney, Don Knight, reinvestigated the case and uncovered a trove of evidence previously withheld by the state. He also secured a host of new witnesses who came forward to say that, despite the state’s portrayal of Sneed as a hapless dolt who was entirely under Glossip’s control, Sneed was actually cunning, volatile, and entirely capable of murder on his own.
The revelations eventually prompted a bipartisan group of Oklahoma lawmakers to question Glossip’s conviction and seek an independent investigation into the case. In June 2022, the law firm Reed Smith LLP published the first in a series of exhaustive reports, unearthing even more evidence undermining prosecutors’ theory of the crime and revealing that the state had willfully destroyed key pieces of evidence before Glossip’s 2004 retrial. The following year, newly elected state Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced his own probe into the case. That investigation found myriad problems with Glossip’s prosecution, persuading Drummond that Glossip’s conviction and death sentence should not stand.
Drummond asked the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals to vacate Glossip’s conviction but it refused, once again setting Glossip up for execution. The attorney general took unprecedented steps to spare Glossip’s life, ultimately joining Glossip’s efforts to get the case before the Supreme Court — and taking a victory lap after the justices finally ruled in Glossip’s favor in February 2025.
But just a few months after the high court ruling, Drummond did an abrupt about-face, announcing that he would retry Glossip for first-degree murder. The reversal coincided with Drummond’s campaign for governor, which ended in a primary defeat this past August. In the meantime, defense attorneys repeatedly reiterated Drummond’s own critiques of the case, emphasizing that, until recently, he vehemently criticized the same evidence his prosecutors plan to reuse.
Among these criticisms were key concessions Drummond made regarding misconduct by Connie Smothermon, the lead prosecutor at Glossip’s 2004 retrial. At the heart of the Supreme Court ruling was that Smothermon not only failed to disclose key notes about Sneed’s psychiatric history, but also failed to correct portions of Sneed’s testimony that she knew were false.
Richard Glossip, center, alongside defense attorney Don Knight and other members of his legal team, as seen from outside Oklahoma County District Judge Natalie Mai’s courtroom on Sept. 30, 2026.Photo: Liliana Segura/The Intercept
Drummond also conceded that Smothermon improperly sought to alter Sneed’s testimony before he took the stand at the retrial to make it fit the forensic evidence. At Glossip’s first trial, Sneed denied attacking Van Treese with a knife even though a knife was found at the scene — and despite the medical examiner’s findings that there were puncture wounds on Van Treese’s chest. Midway through Glossip’s second trial, Smothermon wrote a note to Sneed’s defense attorney, indicating that there were inconsistencies Sneed needed to clear up.
“Our biggest problem,” Smothermon wrote, “is still the knife.” When Sneed later took the stand, he testified that he did, in fact, stab Van Treese.
Glossip’s attorneys did not discover this note until 2022. In its ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with Drummond that Smothermon violated Glossip’s rights by trying to modify Sneed’s testimony mid-trial. Yet Drummond’s own prosecutors now argue that there’s no evidence that Smothermon’s mid-trial intervention “improperly influenced” Sneed’s testimony.
In early September, Glossip’s attorneys filed a motion urging Mai to put Sneed on the stand to clear this up. “No court has yet held an evidentiary hearing to determine the full scope of the … violation,” they wrote, “its effect on Sneed’s testimony, and what procedures may be necessary to prevent the jury from being deceived about what Sneed remembers versus what he was coached to say.”
In a surprisingly candid reply, Joshua Lockett, deputy chief of the Oklahoma attorney general’s criminal appeals unit, wrote that it is unreasonable to expect Sneed to be able to answer questions about the knife and his shifting trial testimony after all these years. “Any evidentiary hearing would be unable to disentangle the source of Sneed’s knowledge” — whether it came from Sneed’s memory about the night of the crime, or from what he “absorbed” from Smothermon’s mid-trial note, he wrote. “That sorting would have been difficult in 2004,” he wrote. “It is impossible in 2026.”
In other words, the state appeared to be conceding that its star witness cannot now reliably recount what happened the night he murdered Barry Van Treese.
Hanging over Wednesday’s proceeding was an uncomfortable reality that has dogged the state’s case for years: evidence that Sneed has repeatedly tried to take back his claim that Glossip coerced him into murdering Van Treese.
In October 2014, nearly a year before Glossip’s near-execution, Sneed’s adult daughter O’Ryan Justine Sneed sent a letter to the Oklahoma Board of Pardon and Parole, urging them to grant clemency to Glossip. “For a couple of years now, my father has been talking to me about recanting his original testimony,” she wrote. “I feel his conscious [sic] is getting to him.”
“Do I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at any time during my life, or anything like that.”
Among the most compelling pieces of evidence to emerge since then are two handwritten notes, penned years apart, in which Sneed indicated he wanted to retract his testimony. In 2003, a year before Glossip’s second trial, Sneed wrote to his public defender, Gina Walker, asking, “Do I have the choice of re-canting my testimony at any time during my life, or anything like that.” In 2007, he sent Walker another letter: “There are a lot of things right now that are eating at me,” he wrote. Things he needed “to clean up.” Walker, who has since died, discouraged him from coming forward.
Both of these notes came from Sneed’s public defender file. Ordinarily such communications would be shielded from release by attorney-client privilege, but in this case the public defender’s office provided the documents to investigators with Reed Smith. Glossip’s attorneys argued that there is reason to believe that there may be additional material in Sneed’s file that could cast further doubt on his story.
But whether the lawyers might be entitled to any of these records depends on a key question: Did Sneed consent to the disclosure of the records in the first place?
Over the state’s objections, Mai said she would allow Sneed to take the stand for the “limited purpose — and I do mean limited purpose” of asking Sneed whether he ever consented to his records being released. “I will allow for very limited questioning of Mr. Sneed as to that topic,” she said.
Sneed shuffled to a wooden chair next to the judge’s bench and sat awkwardly, his legs spread wide and his gaze still fixed on the ground.
In response to questions from one of Glossip’s defense attorneys, Sneed said he never consented to the release of materials from his public defender file. But he also said that he met with investigators with Reed Smith while accompanied by the head of the public defender office. Perhaps more perplexing, Sneed said he knew by then that his files had been released to investigators because he’d seen it broadcast “on the media, when it was on the television with the news reporters.” When the investigators tried to interview him, “I just didn’t answer their questions, didn’t try to go into details about anything,” Sneed said, “because I was actively upset about the fact that [the files] were released anyway without my consent.”
The testimony was confusing and brief, an unsatisfying turn on the stand that did nothing to answer any of the long-standing questions about the state’s star witness or how he would testify about the murder this time around.
As they have for months, lawyers with the attorney general’s office spent much of the day pushing back hard on the notion that Sneed should take the stand before trial to discuss the knife, his public defender file, or anything else. In court, Knight pointed out that prosecutors have met with Sneed repeatedly over the last year and a half, and yet have only turned over to the defense brief summaries of those conversations. Taken together, the state’s maneuvering suggests prosecutors are far less confident in their case against Glossip than they have previously claimed.
“For 29 years, this case had been marked by prosecutorial errors and misconduct.”
In a statement to The Intercept, Knight said he was struck by prosecutors’ efforts to keep Sneed from testifying. “For 29 years, this case had been marked by prosecutorial errors and misconduct,” he said. “And now they can’t even trust the testimony of the only witness that says Rich was involved in this murder. But they can’t hide him forever. We look forward to spending a couple of days with Mr. Sneed on the stand at trial.”
As Sneed was led out of the courtroom, reporters surrounded him again as he made his way to the elevators. “All these years later do you have any regrets?” one asked just before the doors closed. Sneed did not answer.
Exclusive: Campaign group’s analysis of North Yorkshire plans finds datacentre would have to burn 4.9m tonnes of wood a year
Drax’s planned datacentre could produce nearly double the emissions of all flights out of Gatwick airport each year by burning 4.9m tonnes of wood annually, an analysis has shown.
Campaigners say this would make it “one of the dirtiest datacentres out there”.
Bakker spent four and a half years in prison after being convicted in 1989 of defrauding followers in a scheme involving holidays at his Christian theme park
The US televangelist Jim Bakker, who built a multimillion-dollar empire and lived in opulence before being disgraced by a sex scandal, a conviction for defrauding followers and divorce from his television co-host Tammy Faye, has died aged 86.
The death of Bakker, whose journey from the TV pulpit to a prison cell in the 1980s inspired comparisons to the corrupt character of the fictional preacher-huckster Elmer Gantry, was revealed on social media by his second wife, Lori Bakker.
(Photo by John Anderson/The Austin Chronicle/Getty Images)
What I’m Discussing Today
Kareem’s Quote of the Day: If we believe killing is wrong, how can we ask the state to do it in our name?
Tennessee’s Poor Execution: The botched execution of Christa Pike was a grotesque display of incompetence that brought neither justice nor closure.
Trail Blazers Fire Announcer Over Teenage Tweets: A same-day hiring and firing was more about avoiding than embracing true accountability.
Quick Takes: Pete Hegseth’s macho military dream, Donald Trump’s rally, and Pierre Damas Bel’s funeral reveal very different Americas competing for the country’s future.
Coyote vs. Acme, directed by Dave Green: Wile E. Coyote’s long-overdue lawsuit against ACME is a welcome reminder that persistence can be funny.
Nat King Cole, “Autumn Leaves”: A song that carries its sorrow quietly, and the grace the singer maintained when we refused to meet his talent with equal respect.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
“Most people approve of capital punishment, but most people wouldn’t do the hangman’s job.”
― George Orwell (1903-1950), English novelist, essayist, and critic
(Photo by: Geography Photos/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
One of the first lessons every parent teaches their children is that two wrongs don’t make a right. Religion gives us conflicting guidance, from “an eye for an eye” to “turn the other cheek.” In the modern world, most Western countries have abolished the death penalty. In the United Kingdom, the last execution took place in 1964, and the U.K. abolished the death penalty for murder the following year. In the European Union, abolition is a condition for membership. Australia, Canada, Mexico, and most of Latin America forbid it. Here in the United States, 47 people were executed in 2025, and 29 have been executed so far in 2026. That number would be 30 if the two attempts to put Christa Pike to death last week in Tennessee had not failed.
According to an August poll by the Pew Research Center, roughly two-thirds of the American people continue to support capital punishment, though almost 60 percent believe it is not a deterrent against murder. Taken together, those numbers suggest that deterrence is far from the only reason Americans support capital punishment. I can understand how they feel. Although I am morally opposed to capital punishment, I am not immune to vengeful impulses. Reading about some heinous murder, I have found myself thinking that the world would be a better place without that killer in it and wondered if a swift, clean death would not be the best outcome for society. But I always come back to the same moral reckoning: if we believe killing is wrong, how can we sanction the state doing it in our name?
There are more practical reasons for opposing the death penalty, too. The clearest and most persuasive in my mind is the possibility of executing an innocent person. In the Pew poll I cited above, 73 percent of respondents conceded the possibility of executing an innocent person. This flies in the face of a common tenet of jurisprudence, which states that it’s better that a hundred guilty people should go free than that one innocent person should be punished. When the punishment is irreversible, beyond any form of reparation, how high should that number be? Since 1973, at least 203 people who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death have been exonerated. A 2014 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that more than four percent of people given death sentences in the United States are innocent. How many, then, of the more than 1,600 people who have been executed since 1973, did not commit the crimes for which their lives were extinguished?
The way the death penalty is applied is another reason I oppose it. This is an issue that particularly enrages the Black community: multiple studies have shown that Black people are more likely to be executed than non-Blacks convicted of the same crime, especially when the victim was white. In fact, 75 percent of people executed in the U.S. since 1976 were convicted of murdering white victims, though only about half of all homicide victims were white.
Even on a practical level, the death penalty makes little sense. Studies compiled by the Death Penalty Information Center show it costs 2.5 to 5 times as much to execute a prisoner as it does to lock them up for life. In actual money, that means it costs $1 million to $2 million more to execute a killer than it does to imprison them until they die. If that was your money, is that how you’d want to spend it? Because, if you’re a taxpayer, it is your money.
I like the Orwell quote above because it encapsulates something I’ve felt for a long time, that the people casting final judgment on the condemned are awfully far removed from the administration of the “justice” they have imposed. During the six years George W. Bush was governor of Texas, 152 people were executed, all by lethal injection, while he commuted only a single death sentence. If Bush had to administer those fatal drugs himself, would he have been willing to uphold those death sentences? Or would he have found more mercy in his heart?
Washington, DC — The Trump administration is closely monitoring a suspected case of pneumonic plague in Russia after a 28-year-old laboratory worker died and roughly 200 people were placed under medical observation.
The woman worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia. Russian media reported that she may have been exposed to Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, after a laboratory accident. Russian health authorities have not confirmed that account and say she died from pneumonia of unknown origin.
The State Department said U.S. officials are monitoring developments with the CDC and other agencies and urged Russia to provide accurate information quickly. The World Health Organization has assessed the public-health risk as low while the investigation continues.
President Donald Trump said the U.S. is prepared to assist Russia if needed. So far, officials have reported no additional deaths or confirmed plague infections connected to the incident.
Pneumonic plague is rare but can be fatal if untreated. Unlike many emerging diseases, however, it is well understood and can generally be treated successfully with antibiotics when caught early.
From ‘the new Toni Kroos’ to the US’ next big hope, Cavan Sullivan, we select some of the most talented players born in 2009. Check the progress of our classes of 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 … back to 2014. Here’s our Premier League class of 2026
The Mohegan Tribe made the Sun the first Native American-owned franchise in pro sports. Fans say the team’s move to Houston echoes centuries of erasure and displacement
When the Connecticut Sun played their final WNBA game last month, fans at Mohegan Sun Arena came together in an act of collective celebration and grief. The beloved franchise was leaving after 24 seasons, sold to a new ownership group in Houston, in a process so controversial that the state of Connecticut is considering legal action. The end of the Sun is a loss for the entire New England region, which is now without a WNBA team.
The Sun entered the league in 2003 and brought professional women’s basketball to Connecticut, which is considered the “Basketball Capital of the World” – at least, according to signs along the state’s highways. The Sun were the first independently owned WNBA team, and the first Native American-owned pro sports franchise.
The allegations against seven men at Cornell University come amid a climate of belligerent sexism
Last month, a young woman filed a lawsuit against Cornell University, alleging that two years ago the university had failed to protect her from being raped by seven men at a fraternity house near the university campus. She also sued the fraternity.
The lawsuit has plunged the university into a crisis and invited criticism of the district attorney, Matthew Van Houten, who decided there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges against the seven men.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now in the US and in the UK
The Hall of Famer says his successful college career helped him and his family thrive. Now he appears to be backing legislation that would help others
Last week, journalist Rob Parker called Deion Sanders a “sellout” for taking part in an advert promoting the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA). The “sellout” label is harsh, but reflects how disappointing it is for many people to see Sanders stumping for a bill that will hurt athletes.
The major points of contention around the PCSA, which the Senate passed last week and now awaits approval from the House, are a ceiling of around $49m that schools can direct to athletes, as well as a new transfer rule that would, except in a few specific circumstances, restrict players to one “free” transfer (if they move schools again, they’d have to wait a year to play for their next team). Former NFL player Domonique Foxworth has said that “the core of [the PCSA] is about reestablishing the power the NCAA had in the past – that the court system determined was illegal”.
In Donald Trump’s telling, he’s a model of incorruptible self-sacrifice.
“I’m the only president that donated his salary,” he told a group of cheering supporters at a Hispanic heritage month celebration in the White House last week, before conceding that George Washington – “a very wealthy person” – might have beaten him to the punch.
Experts have long warned that immigration dragnets and the erosion of civil rights for immigrants will inevitably result in the erosion of rights for citizens.
Since the start of this Trump administration, we’ve watched those warnings come true.
The Trump administration says none of this is happening.
“DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.” “There are no ‘indiscriminate’ stops.” Allegations of “racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.” “The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.” “ICE does not zip tie or restrain children.”
But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported.
We know because we have once again done what the government hasn’t:
We have tallied and cataloged every case we can find of an immigration agent holding a citizen during the current administration.
More than 500 cases. That includes:
More than a hundred Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.
At least 70 American children and teens detained, some of whom were handcuffed.
Of the more than 300 Americans we tracked as detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, we found fewer than half were actually charged in federal court, and many of those cases were dropped or dismissed.
At least 63 Americans detained while recording.
36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.
Roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.
Collectively, these cases show that as the administration has relentlessly pursued immigrants, federal agents have run roughshod over the constitutional rights of citizens too.
We’re showing you every case — the reality that the administration denies — along with the receipts.
In January 2025, agents held a 21-year-old citizen at gunpoint and put him in handcuffs during a raid at the Philadelphia car wash where he worked.
In April, a 20-year-old was held in a Florida jail for more than 24 hours, despite having proof of his citizenship.
In June, a dual citizen of Mexico and the U.S. was detained while working in California. He was held for four days without access to a lawyer or his family.
During the enforcement surge in Chicago last fall, known as Operation Midway Blitz, there were “no administrative arrests of U.S. citizens,” according to the Department of Homeland Security. “ICE has significant protections in place to ensure U.S. citizens are not arrested, detained, or mistakenly removed.” But we found that federal agents detained more than 120 citizens in Illinois during the height of the surge.
In November, agents took an 18-year-old citizen off the street, eventually dumping him in the woods.
In December, an American in Baltimore was picked up and held for 25 days, unable to see her 5-year-old son over Christmas.
In January, hours after Renee Good’s killing, agents tackled and handcuffed a school staffer in Minneapolis. He was terrified, he recalled: “I feel lucky to be alive.”
In April, when agents stopped a man in Texas, he told them, “I’m a citizen, it’s fine.” He was deported four days later.
In May, a New York teen was thrown to the ground, bloodied and then dumped in an unfamiliar neighborhood. “He just grabbed me and threw me on the floor,” the teen recalled.
In September, agents detained and injured an Illinois man they thought was someone else.
We shared details and footage of many of the incidents with former immigration officials. They reacted with anger and disbelief.
“This is just terrible,” said Eric Balliet, who spent more than two decades at Homeland Security Investigations and Border Patrol, both agencies under DHS, including in President Donald Trump’s first administration.
“I’ve never seen so many U.S. citizen encounters in all my years,” said Darius Reeves, who oversaw the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Baltimore office before retiring last year. “It’s an embarrassment.”
In tallying these detentions, we included anyone who authorities held against their will for any period of time — whether they were handcuffed, held at gunpoint or otherwise prevented from leaving by immigration agents. The courts consider someone detained if they aren’t free to leave.
Immigration agents do have authority to detain Americans in limited circumstances: if they can reasonably suspect they are in the country illegally, or if they allegedly interfered with or assaulted officers.
ProPublica shared its findings and information on each case with DHS.
The department defended agents’ conduct. “DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted. We do our due diligence,” the agency said in a statement. It added that anyone who obstructs agents “will of course face consequences which include arrest.”
We compiled our list by scouring social media, court records and local media to confirm and compile incidents.
Our work doesn’t include all of agents’ problematic interactions with citizens. We didn’t count incidents where, say, an agent shot but didn’t detain a citizen. And as with the tally we did last year, the new list is an undercount. For instance, witnesses estimate that more than 200 citizens were detained in an Idaho raid last fall, but we only included the 30 citizens who we were able to identify.
Willy Wender Aceituno, a naturalized citizen who voted for Trump twice, said he never imagined that the immigration crackdown he supported would entangle him.
Then, last November, Border Patrol agents broke his truck window, yanked Aceituno out and threw him onto the pavement of a parking lot, where one agent knelt on his back. (DHS says he “refused to comply” with agents’ commands.)
“ICE isn’t looking for criminals,” Aceituno said. “They’re looking for Latinos. Having papers in this country does not protect you.”
“Upon Probable Cause”
Under the Fourth Amendment, law enforcement generally must have probable cause to arrest someone. But there’s a lower bar, reasonable suspicion, for stopping someone to question them.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said its agents are just questioning citizens, not detaining them — even when they’re in handcuffs or held for hours. DHS also cites a concurring opinion issued last year by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh stating that agents can consider factors like “apparent ethnicity” when making stops. Citizens around the country have been detained because, they’ve said, of their skin color, accents or jobs.
Willy Wender Aceituno was stopped twice by federal agents who broke his window, pulled him from the car and detained him, even as he and bystanders protested that he had already proved he was a citizen to other agents.The Charlotte Observer
Ever since his arrest in November, Aceituno said his U.S.-born daughter carries her passport at college. “She has a Latino face,” he said, adding, “My daughter’s white friends aren’t carrying their passports.”
“Secure in Their Persons, Houses, Papers and Effects”
The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution also prohibits officers from entering homes without a judge’s warrant.
An ICE memo revealed by a whistleblower this year showed that agents had been doing it anyway. The agency asserted that administrative warrants that didn’t involve a judge gave agents the ostensible authority to force their way into homes looking for someone with a final deportation order. Some of those incidents have also resulted in Americans being detained.
Jeyli Salguero, 20, said in a lawsuit that agents broke into her family’s home in a Minnesota suburb without a judicial warrant to arrest her brother, who didn’t live there. In a video, an agent can be heard saying, “It’s OK, it’s OK,” as a woman screams.Provided to ProPublica
In January, Jeyli Salguero, her parents and her sister were asleep at home when armed federal agents broke through the front door and rushed inside.
“The first thing I yelled when I stepped out of my room was that I was a U.S. citizen and I had the right to record,” Salguero recalled. “That’s when they snatched my phone.”
The agents told Salguero’s family they were looking for her brother, who does not live there. After half an hour, the agents released Salguero and her mother, but detained her father, who had temporary protected status, and her sister, who was undocumented. The sister was eventually deported to El Salvador, and her father was later released from detention.
Salguero told us that agents left her and her mom alone in their wrecked house with the Minneapolis winter air coming in through a broken door.
Salguero is one of several plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against the government for going into homes without a judicial warrant. DHS has moved to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it has “paused” the policy.
“Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures”
The Fourth Amendment is also intended to protect people from “unreasonable” use of force during arrests. Previously, we’ve documented how agents have used chokeholds that DHS banned other than when deadly force is authorized. We’ve also documented how immigration agents have broken car windows while pursuing people they believe are in the country illegally. But they’ve been doing it to citizens, too. Many of those citizens have filed lawsuits.
During the enforcement surge in Chicago in October 2025, workers at a Christian cemetery in Illinois filmed agents cutting open the cemetery gate. The agents then shot pepper balls at the workers and detained them.WGN TV
Darren Eichler was working at a Christian cemetery in a Chicago suburb last October when he and his coworkers moved to help a man who was wading in the nearby river. They soon realized — too late — that the man was running from immigration agents, who emerged from the brush near the river and demanded access to a gated area of the cemetery. When the men refused and started filming, agents used bolt cutters to cut open the gate, then fired pepper balls and tackled the men.
Eichler said his face felt like it was on fire and he had trouble breathing. “I pleaded with them for an hour to please call an ambulance.” Eichler told ProPublica. He was eventually brought to a hospital, still handcuffed, while the agents stood over his bed. Eichler’s co-workers were held for several hours at a nearby federal office. No one was charged.
DHS did not respond to ProPublica’s request for comment about the incident.
“The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble”
The First Amendment protects protesters and those documenting agents’ conduct. The amendment guarantees the freedom to assemble — in other words, to protest peacefully — and the freedom of speech, which courts have interpreted to include recording in public.
The Trump administration has, however, aggressively pursued the arrest and prosecution of citizens who were protesting, often claiming the protesters were assaulting officers or interfering with enforcement activities. We counted more than 300 people accused of assaulting or obstructing officers, about 130 of them at protests.
Top DHS officials, including former Secretary Kristi Noem, went further, claiming that filming ICE agents was interfering with arrests. Last summer, three siblings driving in Texas were detained after they stopped to film an immigration arrest. One of the siblings was a young teen. “They tackled me down and an agent put one knee behind my knee, where I felt a sharp pain,” he told ProPublica. He was separated from his mother, who has a green card. “They were saying my mom wasn’t a U.S. citizen, and I was scared they were gonna take her away.”
The siblings have filed claims for damages with the government. Asked about the incident, DHS said it respects “the First Amendment rights of individuals to observe and express themselves. However, if such actions interfere with or obstruct our operations, ICE will take necessary steps to address the situation.”
Three siblings in Brownsville, Texas, had stopped to film an immigration arrest when agents tried to take their phones, then detained all three citizens, including a 14-year-old. In the video, an agent can be heard saying that the phones are evidence in an investigation. “I’m taking that phone and I’m taking that phone,” he says while pointing to two devices before grabbing at one of them. The agent’s face was already blurred in this video when ProPublica received it.Provided to ProPublica
Our review did uncover instances that appear to show some protesters or other civilians assaulting officers. One person pleaded guilty to throwing pieces of cinder block at an agent. A woman in California pleaded guilty to pulling off an officer’s mask.
Many protesters were accused of crimes but never actually charged. We found 137 instances of citizens who were charged with federal crimes, most of whom were charged with assaulting or obstructing federal agents. In nearly half of those instances, the charges were dropped or dismissed. Three dozen citizens have been sentenced to prison or probation, and another three dozen cases are pending, as of September 15.
Some of those arrested, like clarinet player Oriana Korol, were initially charged with felony assault before pleading guilty to a misdemeanor — in Korol’s case, for trying to kick an officer. She said she did so after officers shoved her and pepper-sprayed her twice in the face. Just moments before, the band had been playing the “Ghostbusters” theme song as part of a peaceful protest.
Video footage shows agents leading Korol away, handcuffed, while one pulls her tear-gas-soaked mask over her mouth. “Please pull it down,” Korol tells the agents in the video. “I’m going to have an asthma attack. I have asthma. Why are you doing this to me? Please.”
The Rights of Children
Unlike earlier administrations, Trump has detained significant numbers of immigrant children living far from the border. Citizen kids have been swept up too — at least 70 of them. We’ve found about 20 kids who were handcuffed or zip-tied.
DHS said that ICE doesn’t zip-tie or restrain children, or separate families. But agents handcuffed a 15-year-old with disabilities outside a school in Los Angeles in 2025. The agents said they mistook the teen for an alleged gang member. A few months later, officers detained more than a dozen American children during a raid on an Idaho horse track. Anabel Romero said her children are still deeply shaken by their detention.
Romero told us how her 7-year-old son warned his older sister about going to another race this month: “He said, ‘Watch out for ICE, make sure you have your phone to film — I’ll come save you.’”
A 17-year-old was on his lunch break in Oregon when agents broke his car window and detained him. DHS said he was obstructing officers. In the video, the teen is heard saying, “I’m a U.S. citizen,” as an agent responds, “I don’t care.”The Oregonian
“Without Due Process of Law”
As the government has rushed to deport people as quickly as possible, Americans have also been swept up and removed from the country too. About a dozen American kids have been deported with their parents, allegedly over their parents’ objections.
DHS said: “Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates.”
One American adult in Texas was also deported this spring.
The car Brian Morales Garcia was in was pulled over earlier this year in central Texas. Officers didn’t believe him when he said he was a citizen. And they wouldn’t let him get his birth certificate. Morales Garcia was held for four days without being able to call his lawyer or anyone else. Then he was deported to Mexico.
After suing, Morales Garcia was allowed back into the country just last month using his birth certificate.
DHS did not respond to ProPublica’s questions about Morales Garcia’s deportation. In earlier court filings, officials disputed Morales Garcia’s citizenship and claimed he had admitted to being born in Mexico.
“I couldn’t process what they were doing to me.” Morales Garcia told ProPublica. When he was first stopped in Texas, he had told officers, “I’m a citizen, it’s fine.”
We found and vetted cases from a number of sources, including English- and Spanish-language social media, DHS statements, court records and local news reports, in addition to our own reporting. We included an incident in our dataset only if we could find at least two sources for it. For additional details about the incident, like whether crowd control weapons were used, we accepted one source in some cases.
When DHS provided a response specific to an incident — including about whether it happened or the circumstances under which it happened — we noted that response in cases in our full list for which we offered detail beyond a simple count of detained citizens. DHS responses that generically denied ever detaining citizens or that are proven inaccurate by our reporting were not included.
As with our count a year ago, most of the detained Americans on our list fell into two broad categories. The first is Americans who were held because agents questioned their citizenship. This time, we found more than a hundred such cases. The second category is Americans arrested by immigration agents after being accused of assaulting or impeding officers at protests or during immigration arrests of others. In that category, we tallied roughly 300 Americans.
In many of these cases, the government accused but never charged these individuals with assault. Sometimes agents detained people because of questions about their citizenship but later accused them of crimes. While public attention often focuses on ICE, the immigration dragnet often relied on officers from agencies across the government.
Since the government itself does not track these cases, our list is almost certainly an undercount. Except in a few cases in which DHS itself confirmed detentions, we only counted citizens we were able to individually identify. So, for example, while witnesses estimate as many as 200 citizens were detained in an Idaho raid last fall, we were only able to identify 30 individuals by time of publication. We encountered the same issues for many smaller raids and protests, such as a raid of a food plant in Cato, New York; protesters detained by ICE at Delaney Hall in Newark, New Jersey; and a raid of a Hyundai-LG plant in Ellabell, Georgia.
ICE itself occasionally has stated higher numbers than we were able to confirm: It told Congress that 131 citizens were arrested for assaulting, obstructing or interfering this year in Minnesota’s Metro Surge. It didn’t name them. We cataloged fewer than a hundred.
We tagged each case with details like whether a minor was detained or a citizen was held after filming. Another trend we tracked was citizens held for more than a day without access to a lawyer or their family. When multiple citizens were detained in one incident or sometimes on the same day and city, we grouped them together.
Because we focused on the expanded presence of immigration agents in American communities, we restricted our count to warrantless arrests that took place outside of airports and away from the borders, where immigration agents have long had more authority. We also excluded cases of Americans who were arrested after a judicial warrant.
We did not include incidents where an agent shot, tackled or pepper-sprayed a citizen but didn’t detain them.
We also did not include immigration protesters arrested by police who were only enforcing local laws. We did, however, include some cases involving police working with immigration agents. We still have little visibility into how many citizens have been detained by police deputized to act as immigration agents.
We also found reports of more than 30 Americans who felt racially profiled by immigration agents, but we did not include them in our database because it was not clear they were held against their will.
How We Counted and Reviewed Court Cases
We searched every named adult in our list to see if they were charged with a federal crime in relation to their detention. We conducted searches, using several name combinations for people with double names or compound names, in federal district courts through the online platform PACER. We looked for a criminal case filed within two months of the noted date of a person’s detention in the judicial district in which the detention happened. We then noted whether we found charges, what the charges were, and whether the person involved was sentenced or had their case dismissed or discharged.
How We Chose the Videos in This Report
We reviewed hundreds of videos of federal agents detaining American citizens across the country. While that included body camera footage, news clippings and helicopter footage, the vast majority of videos were made by bystanders and shared over social media. Many of the videos went viral and were recirculated across the internet by a range of third-party accounts. They touch on everyday American life in a range of settings, including workplaces, homes, protests, car washes, suburban sidewalks and the interiors of vehicles.
We tagged each video with how clearly it shows the incident and whether the citizen detained was clearly visible. We then categorized the videos by the kind of conduct they show, such as citizens being detained after recording. We provided DHS an opportunity to respond to each of the videos we included.
We did not alter videos, nor did we add watermarks, blur faces or overlay captions on videos unless otherwise noted. Videos that include captions or watermarks are shown as they were obtained.
Why Should Delaware Care? The City of Dover has spent the last year debating a measure to ban panhandling and defunding from the city’s largest homeless shelter without providing immediate alternative solutions to the homelessness and drug use issues in the area. But experts say Dover’s latest move to shutter overnight operations for the People’s Church homeless shelter, which city leaders have criticized for enabling homelessness, drug use and neighborhood blight, will leave more individuals out on the streets this winter.
Dover’s largest homeless resource center will likely not provide overnight shelter this winter, as the center grapples with losing funding, following a period of escalating tensions with city and state officials.
Located on South Bradford Street in downtown Dover, the People’s Church has for years operated a 50-bed overnight men’s shelter during the winter, a nightly drop-in meal service and youth after-school programs.
But cuts to the church’s government funding and questions about whether the property is properly zoned for an overnight shelter have all but guaranteed the People’s Church will not provide winter overnight beds this year, shelter leaders said, leaving a large gap in services for the Dover homeless population.
Heightened tensions between the shelter and the Dover City Council began in March, when the city received a number of letters from residents on South Bradford Street complaining that the shelter’s operations encouraged homeless people to use drugs, sleep and leave trash across their properties, impacting their quality of life.
Since then, the city and state governments have taken a series of steps to withdraw funding from the People’s Church and require it to get a zoning change approval in order to continue with winter overnight shelter operations.
While Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen said the city’s zoning and funding decisions are simply the “maintenance of standards across the board,” shelter leaders said they are being targeted by the city, while their services are unfairly being conflated with unrelated drug use and loitering issues.
“We have been under vicious attack by people who blame us for the decades-long problems of social chaos downtown,” said the Rev. Derrick Hodge, the church’s lead pastor. “The attacks are especially sharp now because the city is ramping up its gentrification efforts.”
Hodge said he does not plan to complete the process of the building use code change in order to continue operating as a winter shelter, because he is worried it would leave the church without “protections we have for being a house of worship.”
A city spokesperson said Dover encourages the church to go through the zoning code approval process and does not view the change as impacting the church’s worship protections.
Given the church’s decision not to proceed with the zoning change, their overnight shelter will likely not operate this winter, leaving the Dover area, already sorely lacking in homelessness resources, without a clear alternative for where the 50 men typically sheltered at the church will be able to overnight this winter.
“You are basically turning more people away and into the elements this winter,” said Steve Metraux, a University of Delaware professor who studies homelessness. “It may well kill people.”
And when asked who is working to find an alternative place for homeless people to sleep overnight, city and state leaders pointed fingers at one another, saying that it is the other’s responsibility to find a solution.
Death by a thousand cuts
The conflict has been marked by a series of financial setbacks for the shelter, as the city has cited health code violations and complaints from neighbors as reasons for withdrawing funds.
These setbacks, Hodge said, have amounted to the shelter losing 90% of its funding sources and operating a meal service with a shoestring budget for other resources, like case management and providing clothing.
Leaders on both sides described the relationship between the city and the shelter as positive in the first decade of the shelter’s operations. A spokesperson for the city said the city directed nearly $300,000 in COVID-era federal relief funds to shelter programs.
This past winter, however, the relationship turned sour.
The city received 17 complaints from property owners in the neighborhood, alleging that people using the shelter’s daily meal program were trespassing, using drugs and defecating on their properties.
In response to the complaints, the City Council denied the shelter $47,000 in funding for a workforce development program and sent the shelter a letter stating it must get conditional approval from the Planning Commission to keep operating as a winter shelter.
The church is currently zoned General Residential (RG-1), which includes churches as an allowable use, but the shelter needs to apply for an Institutional and Office Zone building use approval. Other overnight shelters in Dover, including the Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing and Whatcoat Social Services, also have Institutional and Office zoning, a city spokesperson said.
At the same time, some state funding sources also have reduced their support for the shelter.
The church did not receive any Grant-In-Aid funding for its homelessness services this year, while it was allocated between $60,000 and $85,000 for such services in past years.
State Sen. Trey Paradee (D-Dover), chair of the Joint Finance Committee — which makes Grant-In-Aid funding decisions — and whose district includes the church, said he did not fund the shelter this year because it has “wreaked havoc” on the neighborhood.
The church was also slated to receive $350,000 from Delaware’s Prescription Opioid Settlement Distribution Commission last fall, but that money has since been held up in negotiations. The commission’s Executive Director, Brad Owens, said the funds were held because of the zoning and other concerns the city raised.
Most recently, a Dover City Council committee discussed walking back $40,000 the shelter was awarded last fall for renovation projects through a federal grant.
A city employee responsible for administering the grant said at a Sept. 29 meeting the church had not followed monthly reporting requirements and other stipulations of the contract, so the city no longer plans to allocate them the funds.
Along with serving as an overnight homeless shelter in the winter, the People’s Church also offers daily meal services and after-school programming for Dover-area kids. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MAGGIE REYNOLDS
Hodge described the series of events over the past eight months as “threats and harassment” by the government, but he said the church is committed to collecting private donations and operating the services it can — its meal program, individual case management and children’s after-school programming.
“We’ve been here for 120 years,” Hodge said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Winter shelter options
The most recent homelessness numbers in Kent County indicated there are more people without housing than there are shelter beds available. Losing the People’s Church’s 50 beds raises more questions about where homeless people in Dover will seek shelter this winter, experts said.
“If you take away shelter beds, you’re just going to have more people who are going to be sleeping outside,” said Metraux, the UD professor.
The Housing Alliance of Delaware collects data for the number of homeless people in the state on a single night in January, known as the Point-In-Time count.
Amelia Ramsaran, who runs the Housing Alliance’s data collection, said numbers from the 2026 PIT count revealed 277 unhoused individuals and 266 shelter beds in Kent County. This means the number of people without housing already outnumbers the available shelter beds in Kent County, a gap which will be exacerbated by the People’s Church closure, Ramsaran said.
In addition, the People’s Church is one of the only overnight shelters in the Dover area that accepts men – the other option, Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, has 20 beds for men, but those slots are likely to already be full, given data from previous years, Ramsaran said.
Representatives from Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s request for comment.
Some city leaders have also cited the planned Kent County Hope Center, modeled off a similar service center in New Castle County, as location to direct the people displaced from the People’s Church. It is not clear, however, whether the new facility will be open in time to provide overnight housing this winter.
A spokesperson for Delaware State Housing Authority, which is coordinating the Hope Center project, said the agency has purchased a building — a former Delaware State University dorm on North DuPont Highway — to house the new center, but there is not currently an estimated opening date, or details of what services will be provided.
“While we are making good progress, we won’t have a hard date for opening until we get a full review of the building and its needs,” the spokesperson said.
Given the apparent lack of emergency shelter options, some experts also said it is likely people may temporarily seek respite from cold temperatures by admitting themselves to drug detox facilities or hospitals, even if they would not normally seek out those services.
“When the weather gets terrible, people will say, ‘You know what, I can’t do this anymore. I might as well go in and get some treatment,’” said Kathy Greeley, a Sussex County-based drug peer outreach coordinator.
Representatives from Dover Behavioral Health, a drug treatment facility in Dover, and Bayhealth Hospital, did not respond to requests for comment.
Passing the buck
While it’s not clear where people will seek emergency winter shelter in lieu of the People’s Church, city and state leaders have skirted the responsibility of finding additional overnight options.
Teresa Campbell Harris, director of the shelter, said she’s been trying to “prepare” people who come into the shelter for dinner that they will not be able to stay overnight this winter.
“It’s hard to tell somebody when we’re done with dinner and it’s zero degrees out and we’ve housed these men for years,” Campbell Harris said. “Now, all of a sudden, ‘Here’s your blanket. I hope it’s long enough. Just go outside.’”
Campbell Harris said she hopes city officials come up with another place for people to go.
When asked whether he has ideas, Christiansen, Dover’s mayor, said the city “does not have the wherewithal or the funds” to address that, so the state should come up with a solution.
But Sen. Paradee, the Dover legislator, said the city and the shelter have “had months to resolve where the individuals can go.” He added that coming up with a solution is a local issue, not a state one.
For Metraux, the UD professor, the gradual dismantling of a shelter by the government, and lack of answers as to how to fill in the gaps, is a pattern he has seen before in Delaware.
He described the shutdown of the Rick VanStory Center, an emergency shelter in Wilmington, by that city’s government after the State Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAM) withdrew the majority of its funding.
“It’s nothing unusual,” he said. “A city wants to get a shelter out of the downtown area, and they do what they can to do that.”
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
Why Should Delaware Care? Musician Jonathan Whitney has composed a jazz suite about Black history at Cooch’s Bridge, the site of Delaware’s only Revolutionary War battle. Whitney believes celebrating and humanizing enslaved people whose stories have not been extensively documented is more important than ever when the federal government is making advances to whitewash the history of American slavery.
Jazz drummer and composer Jonathan Whitney spent his summer days as a kid wandering up and down the Christiana River in Newark, looking for trees and other structures to climb. One day, he struck gold: a dam of granite boulders stacked on top of one another.
The boulders created a waterfall flowing from a pond filled with crayfish, tadpoles and blossoming water lilies. It was the first time Whitney had seen such natural beauty nestled in his corner of suburbia.
Not far from the dam was a house Whitney assumed was a museum. It was, in fact, part of Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site, the 10-acre homestead built by the Cooch family in 1760 that served as the grounds of Delaware’s only Revolutionary War battle in 1777. The Cooch family lived in the house until 2010, which is now being transformed into a public museum.
It wasn’t until 2022 that Whitney learned the history of the dam while taking a tour of the estate with Friends of Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site President Vince Watchorn. The dam was built in 1792 by enslaved people owned by the Cooch family, who were millers.
“That moment connected me with them because they also had times when they could go back to that dam and look over it and see those lilies,” Whitney said.
Enslaved people built this dam of boulders on the Cooch family’s estate in 1792. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
Inspired, Whitney proposed a series of suites based on the estate’s history. Friends of Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site, with support from Delaware 250 and the Delaware Division of the Arts, commissioned Whitney in 2023 to compose four.
Get Involved “Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence,” composed by Jonathan Whitney, is out now on all major music streaming platforms. Learn more about Whitney’s work at the link below.
The first suite was a string quartet about the Cooch family. The second was a pipe organ suite about the Revolutionary War skirmish on the estate. The third, “Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence,” was released last month after its debut performance in October 2024. The fourth suite will be about local Indigenous history.
“Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence” is a 50-minute jazz album made up of several pieces that characterize Black individuals who passed through or worked on the land. That includes the 20 enslaved people the Cooch family owned between 1742 and 1837.
In comparison to the Cooch family, little is recorded about Whitney’s subjects. So, he uses jazz as a tool to imagine what their personalities were like or what emotions they may have felt during important moments of their lives.
“We’re looking at these bodies not through the trauma that was inflicted on them, but through all the other humanity that wasn’t documented about them,” Whitney said.
The album cover of “Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence.” | PHOTO COURTESY OF JONATHAN WHITNEY
The earliest documented enslaved person owned by the Cooch family is Samuel, whom we know about today because patriarch Thomas Cooch placed an ad in a Lancaster newspaper after Samuel ran away in 1750.
Whitney characterizes Samuel with hopeful trumpets and insistent conga backed by an ominous, looping piano note.
As he composed the piece, Whitney imagined Samuel planning his escape during the dances the Cooch family’s slaves were known to hold in their quarters.
“What was Samuel like at those gatherings? Was he smiling? Was he one of the guys that sat up against a tree and just watched? Did he have his side conversations going on? We can’t prove any of that,” Whitney said. “But as an artist, I can wonder.”
Whitney’s hard bop track “Jesse” is named after an enslaved man who ran away from the Cooch family twice and later negotiated his own manumission.
“It’s the hardest piece to play. It’s the fastest. It goes through so many keys, and it’s extremely complex. But that’s Jesse, right?” Whitney said. “There’s this energy behind him, but there’s this complexity behind him. You don’t become a negotiator with somebody who negotiates contracts for a living and get your freedom easily. He was a smart dude.”
“Cooch’s Bridge: The African American Presence” is not solely about the Cooch family’s slaves. There is also a piece about the indentured servants who worked for the Cooch family after they freed their slaves.
“The ones that are labeled ‘white’ in the record are being trained as millers, and all the rest of them … are being trained as housekeepers. In lieu of education, they’re being given two sets of clothes and $10. So, there’s still a separation there,” Whitney said.
Whitney also wrote a tribute to a housekeeper, Ardessia, who cared for matriarch Eleanor Cooch in her twilight years. Ardessia was so beloved that her room is still dedicated to her over 50 years after her death.
Cooch’s Bridge Historic Site supervisor Melissa Fitzgerald, left, and jazz musician Jonathan Whitney, right, stand within the Cooch family home, which is currently being transformed into a public museum. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
“I wanted to write something beautiful for her because there’s these women, especially Black women, who do amazing things and make this world tick, who never get their flowers,” Whitney said.
The album’s lead single, “We’re Free,” is an upbeat vocal track about Benjamin Harris Martin, an enslaved person from North Carolina who fought at the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge alongside his enslaver, Col. Alexander Martin.
When Col. Martin died in 1807, he, through his will, freed Benjamin Harris Martin and his wife, children and grandchildren and left him over 400 acres of land. He described Benjamin Harris Martin as “a humble friend, companion and servant” who risked his life for “liberty he was incapable of enjoying the benefits of.”
“The song about Benjamin Harris Martin is about that moment when they find out they’re free, and they’re walking down to their land,” Whitney said. “What would that feel like to have no agency, and then not only have agency over your life, but also (your family, and) … the ability to set up intergenerational wealth through a farm and a homestead?”
The fact that Benjamin Harris Martin was present at the Battle of Cooch’s Bridge was a months-old discovery for historian Wade Catts when Whitney was doing research for his suite.
“Wade was super excited in our first meeting in (the Cooch home),” Whitney said. “Just to have confirmation that a Black body fought at Delaware’s only Revolutionary War site made him important.”
Coincidentally, when Whitney posted about Benjamin Harris Martin on social media after writing “We’re Free,” one of his descendents reached out wanting to share stories.
For Whitney, that interaction demonstrates the importance of telling stories from Black history.
Why Should Delaware Care? Al’s Sporting Goods became a Wilmington landmark after nearly a century in business. Its imminent closure highlights the latest shifts for Wilmington’s commercial core that decades ago served as a retail hub for northern Delaware. The closure also marks an expansion of JPMorganChase’s footprint in the city.
After 91 years in business, Al’s Sporting Goods in Wilmington will close its doors in December, marking an end to a family’s legacy and exemplifying the changing nature of the city’s commercial economy.
Owner Bob Hart said his retirement is forcing the closure of the lower Market Street store. He could not find anyone to take it over, he said, despite the shop “doing pretty good business.”
“I think it’s tough today to sell a retail business with people buying stuff online,” he explained.
Hart did find a buyer for the part of his business that sells team uniforms and equipment, although he said the new buyer can’t hire all 18 of his employees. It will open in a new location on Jan. 1.
As for the existing storefront, Hart said he sold it to JPMorganChase. The remainder of the building already serves as a parking garage for the bank’s Wilmington headquarters. Online property records do not yet show the sale.
Asked about the sale, a JPMorganChase spokesperson said, “At this time, we have no comment.”
Sean Park, director of Wilmington’s Office of Economic Development, said he is looking into the store’s closure and could not comment at this time.
Owner Bill Hart shows a photo of the original Al’s Sporting Goods inside the Wilmington store on Monday. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Almost a century in business
Abe “Al” Kristol opened Al’s Sporting Goods in 1935 as a pawn shop located in a separate building on Market Street. Soon after, Hart’s father started working at the business. He later took it over along with a business partner.
Hart began working at the store when he was 12 years old. In 1984, he shifted to running the business alongside his father.
By 2020, Hart considered moving the store after it was looted in riots following citywide protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd, but ultimately decided to stay. Hart said that event was not part of his decision to close the store.
Throughout his 40 years running the shop, the 69-year-old Hart said he has worked six-day weeks, and rarely taken time off.
“It hurts me [to close it] because of how long we’ve been here, but I’ve got to try to live the best life,” Hart said.
‘One of the best stores around’
At midday on Monday, a few customers milled about the store, looking at items that are now discounted 20% to 50% as part of a liquidation sale.
Al’s Sporting Goods sits at the corner of Market and Second Street in Wilmington. It will close in December after nearly a century in business. { SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Several of the customers said they hadn’t heard of the store’s closure until they saw the signs on the doors, and that they were sad to see it go.
“This is one of the best stores around,” said Wilmington native Dave Davis. He said he’s been going to the store for as long as he can remember.
John Jordan, who grew up in Middletown, said he would also visit the store as a kid and is “very surprised” it is closing. He now lives in Maryland but travels to Wilmington occasionally to shop at the store.
“They have pretty much everything,” Jordan said.
Wilmington native George Hairston said he is sad to see it close because he will have to travel to Christiana Mall to go to a sporting goods store.
Debbie Schwartz, property manager of The Lofts & Shops at 2nd & LOMA, said she is worried some people won’t have access to a sporting goods store now that there isn’t one downtown.
Her company manages the buildings on the other side of Market Street, and she said she believes in the idea of mixed-use communities — places that people can shop where they live.
Schwartz also recounted how people would camp outside of Al’s Sporting Goods to get the newest sneakers. She said she is impressed that Hart, the owner, always greets her when she comes into the store.
“The guy couldn’t be nicer,” she said.
Schwartz said she hopes JPMorganChase’s purchase of the store will bring more employees downtown. The buildings in her complex are fully occupied, she said. There are also two new restaurants on the block — Villa Italiana and Urban Fork.
LaMonica McIver is only the 15th member of Congress have a baby while serving, and also the only member indicted for visiting ICE facility
A US congresswoman who just gave birth to a baby girl faces a deadline this week on whether to seek a rehearing of a federal case against her by the Trump administration after an oversight visit to an immigration detention facility.
LaMonica McIver, 40, represents New Jersey’s 10th congressional district. She gave birth to her second child last Thursday – a rarity for a sitting member of Congress. She is only the 15th member of Congress to give birth while serving and part of a small subset of congresswomen who have school-age children.
August Hanning served as president of federal intelligence service from 1998 to 2005
A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has been arrested on suspicion of treason and spying on behalf of an overseas intelligence agency, prosecutors have said.
August Hanning, 80, was head of the federal intelligence service (BND) – whichoperates outside Germany to gather information across the fields of political, economic, and military intelligence – between 1998 and 2005.
Earlier this year, the ACLU filed more than 50 legal claims across 17 states on behalf of people harmed by federal immigration agents. One of them is Norma Bowe. Norma is a nurse and grandmother who was working at her mobile medical clinic outside the Delaney Hall immigration center when protests broke out there in May. An ICE officer flung her to the ground while she was still wearing her stethoscope. In today’s episode Kai Wright speaks to Norma about why she is fighting back, and why her work continues to be vital for family members of people stuck in immigration detention.
Fenton’s successes include scores for Gandhi, Groundhog Day and 18 Ken Loach films, plus BBC TV news themes, Blue Planet and more
George Fenton, the British composer who earned five Oscar nominations for scores to films such as Gandhi and Dangerous Liaisons, has died aged 76.
A statement from his family said his death was “unexpected” but did not give a cause. The statement added that he was survived by various family members, as well as “a life of music”.
Coco Gauff said she received an "insane" amount of racist comments on social media following a controversial point in her China Open match against home player Sun Xinran.
Philadelphia, PA — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear former Pennsylvania Judge Mark B. Cohen’s challenge to a suspension imposed over dozens of partisan Facebook posts, leaving intact a state ruling that judges can face discipline for political advocacy that undermines the appearance of impartiality.
Cohen, a former Democratic state legislator who later served on the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, was suspended in 2024 after Pennsylvania’s judicial disciplinary authorities reviewed more than 60 posts. They included praise for President Joe Biden and Gov. Josh Shapiro, support for Democratic-backed policies and criticism of conservative positions.
Cohen argued that the posts addressed matters of public concern and were protected by the First Amendment. Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court disagreed in January, holding that sitting judges are subject to stricter limits than ordinary political speakers because courts have a compelling interest in preserving public confidence in judicial independence and impartiality.
The state court concluded that Cohen’s volume and tone of partisan posts made him appear to be an advocate for the Democratic Party rather than a neutral judge.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal to review the case leaves Cohen’s suspension and the Pennsylvania court’s First Amendment analysis in place without issuing a separate opinion.
Sovereignty is not solitude: Canada’s strategy for democratic technology leadership
13
October 2026 — 12:00 TO 13:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Hear from Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, on how trust, opportunity and sovereign control are shaping Canada’s approach to artificial intelligence, economic growth and international partnership.
Hear from Canada’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation, Evan Solomon, on how trust, opportunity and sovereign control are shaping Canada’s approach to artificial intelligence, economic growth and international partnership.
This event will explore how Canada is translating its AI strengths into greater productivity, prosperity and better public services, and how deeper cooperation with partners such as the UK can strengthen AI safety, resilience and shared economic opportunity.
This event discusses:
What does sovereign control mean in an interconnected AI economy? And why does sovereignty not mean isolation?
What are Canada’s strengths as AI transforms economies, public services and national security?
How can countries build trust in AI while accelerating innovation and adoption?
How can investment in talent, literacy, research and key industries create new economic opportunities and better public services?
How can Canada and the UK work together work together to strengthen AI safety, resilience and democratic technology leadership?
November’s midterms bring parallels with a moment in October 1988. But Pinochet’s exit wasn’t the end of his influence
A malignant, monomaniacal president, deeply unpopular, faces an election that could restrict his power and end his domination of his country.
It is true that, to influence the outcome, he counts on a supine supreme court and his ability to legislate through executive decrees, as well as an onslaught of fake news accusing his opponents of being unpatriotic communists, true that he has colossal financial support from an entrenched oligarchy that has thrived thanks to his rightwing neoliberal policies, true that he has gone out of his way to limit the freedom of those who vote and true that he has absolute command of the armed forces.
Military families say Trump officials ‘owe us an apology’ after disparaging remarks by JD Vance, Pete Hegseth and others
On the morning of 11 September 2001, Perry Chalmers was running drills for the Royal Canadian Regiment’s specialised mortar platoon in New Brunswick when he heard the news: America was under attack. Word quickly spread across the base. “I went inside to watch the news,” the former corporal recalls. “And there was a huge feeling of – and you’re going to have to excuse me – holy shit. What the fuck just happened?”
Chalmers called his wife, who informed him that, just before 10:30am, the second of the World Trade Center towers had fallen. With that, his battalion was put on notice: dispatched to nearby airports to assist in the forced landings of commercial aircraft after the shutdown of North American airspace.
The Canadian troops went to retrieve their rucksacks and any other necessities, should they need to spring into action at a moment’s notice. As Chalmers recalls: “Things started to happen really quickly.”
For-profit water corporations, federal cuts and climate crisis are ‘supercharging water rate hikes’, study co-author says
US households are paying 62% more for drinking water than they did a decade ago – outpacing inflation, grocery prices and household incomes, according to a new study.
Food & Water Watch, a Washington DC-based non-profit, analyzed 2025 billing data from the 500 largest community water systems in the US, which together serve about 155 million people, or 45% of the country’s population. The analysis compared current rates with data from a similar Food & Water Watch survey conducted in 2015. The study does not include wastewater or storm water charges, which are often billed separately from drinking water service.
Bankrolled by ProPublica, reporter Jake Pearson tested online gambling guardrails by mimicking the betting patterns of a problem gambler for 10 weeks. Photo illustration by ProPublica. Source images: Jake Pearson/ProPublica, Chris Alcantara/ProPublica.
Online gambling has surged in the U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports betting in 2018, prompting public health concerns about gambling addiction and calls for stricter consumer protections. Online sportsbooks such as DraftKings and FanDuel have touted “responsible gaming” features as evidence that they are taking appropriate steps to protect consumers from spiraling out of control.
Reporter Jake Pearson put these safeguards to the test. Bankrolled by ProPublica, he mimicked the betting patterns of a problem gambler for 10 weeks, consulting a panel of addiction specialists, recovering gambling addicts and professional sports bettors for advice.
He found that the safety features were overpowered by the app’s product design and promotions that pushed him to continue gambling.
Pearson detailed his entire journey, which you can read here. Here are five takeaways from his investigation.
1. Sports betting is ubiquitous. The industry relies on very active losers.
Today, nearly a quarter of all Americans, and half of men ages 18 to 49, say they have an active sportsbook account, according to the Siena Research Institute. But that rapid growth has come with consequences: About a quarter of active sportsbook account holders surveyed by the organization this year said that they’d lost enough on a bet that they’d have trouble meeting their financial obligations.
Gamblers who lose frequently are the bettors sportsbooks are most interested in, Matthew Gaskell, a British psychologist and expert on gambling addiction, said. Gaskell noted that a relatively small number of active losers account for a substantial amount of sportsbooks’ revenue.
If you’ve bet on sports with FanDuel or DraftKings, you can help ProPublica understand how these apps work. Use our browser extension to download your betting history, then upload your files.
DraftKings says its responsible gaming system provides adequate safeguards to protect customers from spiraling out of control. “I think as a business, as an industry, we’re doing a good job of educating people, of raising awareness, of making tools and resources available, of monitoring accounts,” Lori Kalani, DraftKings’ chief responsible gaming officer, told Pearson.
But policymakers aren’t so sure. Lawmakers from Colorado to Massachusetts are now proposing stricter consumer protections.
2. DraftKings has adopted responsible gaming tools. They require users to opt in, limiting their effectiveness.
DraftKings’ responsible gambling safeguards include in-app notifications that encourage gamblers to take a break after they’ve lost money and “time reminders” that tell users how long they’ve been on the app. The app also features a responsible gaming center that allows users to set a budget, track their spending or opt into tools like those that allow them to limit the amount of time and money they spend in a 24-hour period or enact more severe restrictions such as a multiday “cool off.”
But this system largely relies on users to have the wherewithal to opt into the tools — something that experts say can be difficult for someone struggling with gambling addiction.
DraftKings told Pearson that if a customer’s behavior raises too many red flags, the company will proactively close an account. Yet it wouldn’t specify how often this actually happens.
Screenshot by Jake Pearson/ProPublica
Pearson’s experiment mimicked the behavior of a problem gambler to see when — and if — the company’s safeguards would stop him. The first in-app responsible gaming prompt Pearson received came more than a week after he began gambling on the NBA playoffs, when he’d already lost roughly what a minimum-wage worker in New York City earns in a month. It told him that he’d hit $2,500 or more in deposits and said to “visit our Responsible Gaming Center anytime to set limits for yourself and access tools for safer play.”
But the app’s warning wasn’t triggered by Pearson’s reckless betting. It was legally required. When New York legalized mobile sports betting in 2023, lawmakers required the apps to notify users when they hit $2,500 in total deposits. The pop-up gave Pearson two options: set limits or “I understand.” He clicked the latter and was back in action.
Even as Pearson exhibited red flag after red flag, according to our panel of experts, his subsequent warnings from the app followed the same pattern.
DraftKings says millions of customers have visited its responsible gaming center, but the little data available publicly suggests only a small percentage opt into these tools. Just over 8% of active DraftKings users in Massachusetts were using them as of April, a company official told state regulators this summer. The official added the number was trending up.
Kalani says her 51-person team manually reviews user accounts suspected of problem gambling. Yet even after Pearson deposited $21,600 into his account in less than eight weeks and exhibited just about every sign of compulsive gambling, he didn’t register for a manual review under the company’s criteria.
3. The design of online sports betting platforms can encourage users to gamble more.
Online gambling companies have created sophisticated technology products designed to squeeze maximum engagement out of users, just as social media companies like Meta did years earlier with users of Facebook and Instagram, according to Darragh McGee, a researcher at the University of Bath.
Indeed, Pearson found that the app’s design encouraged him to keep betting.
Pearson found the app’s quick-tap deposit buttons increased automatically.Screenshot by Jake Pearson/ProPublica. Debit card number redacted by ProPublica.
As he gambled more, he found that the app’s quick-tap deposit buttons increased automatically, making it even easier to mindlessly transfer large sums from his bank into his DraftKings account. And while DraftKings’ safety warnings were sporadic, he was getting up to six push notifications a day notifying him of rewards and betting opportunities.
DraftKings told Pearson it sent him 32 responsible gambling prompts over 10 weeks of gambling, including emails that every DraftKings customer gets. Pearson counted in-app notifications about his betting 14 out of the 71 days he gambled on the app.
4. Perks can also help encourage users to bet more.
DraftKings, like many other sportsbooks, also offers VIP programs that give users perks, including free bets and concert tickets. After Pearson lost $1,800 betting on basketball in one night, chasing his losses with increasingly long-shot bets, he was invited to audition to become a DraftKings VIP. After only three weeks and $5,800 in deposits on the app, Pearson was formally accepted into DraftKings’ VIP program, which assigned him a personal concierge.
That VIP host told Pearson that he would be “keeping an eye out for opportunities and perks tailored specifically” to his account, plus “reminders about Responsible Gaming.” Company representatives offer VIPs special incentives to continue gambling, such as “bonus bets” (free one-time bets using house money) and “deposit matches” (extra house money called DK Dollars that come along with new deposits).
Pearson found that the program rewarded riskier bets. The more money users spend on long-odds wagers, the quicker they accumulate credits needed to “advance” to higher tiers that offer better perks.
Less than a week after Pearson opted into a three-day “cool-off” period — after losing several thousand dollars betting on tennis — Pearson contacted his VIP representative, who helped facilitate his largest deposit match to date: juicing a $5,000 deposit with an extra $1,250 in free DK Dollars.
5. Online gamblers are left to regulate themselves. Experts say more limits are needed.
Lawmakers face a public policy dilemma: While online gambling generates billions of dollars in tax revenue, research shows that gambling disorder diagnoses are rising in states that have legalized.
In New York, sportsbooks like DraftKings have to submit a “problem-gaming plan” to the state regulator but the law leaves the specifics of it up to the companies. The plan must include, among other things, procedures “for identifying users with suspected or known problem-gaming behavior” and for “providing information to users concerning problem-gaming identification and resources.” The exact details are unclear because such plans are not publicly available. (A DraftKings spokesperson wouldn’t provide a copy, and Pearson’s request for it under the state’s open records law with the gaming commission is under review.)
Other countries have already taken aggressive steps to regulate online sportsbooks’ marketing practices and advertisements. But in the U.S., the industry has actively opposed proposed reforms on the federal and state levels — and even seeded a political action committee with $41 million to influence elections this year.
Rob Minnick, a recovering gambling addict and one of the experts we consulted, said that the framework for protecting consumers shouldn’t be entrusted to a publicly traded company that’s driven to grow revenue.
DraftKings told Pearson that all 5,000-plus of its employees are trained on responsible gaming every year and that it’s “not a side initiative. It is embedded across our business and essential to DraftKings’ long-term sustainability.”
“The system worked the way it was supposed to,” Kalani told Pearson.
Critics say that’s the problem.
If you’ve bet on sports with FanDuel or DraftKings, we want to hear from you. You can help us understand how these apps respond to their users’ betting behavior. Use our browser extension to download your betting history, then drop the files here.
A new documentary follows Kristin Bride as she takes on Congress after the death of her 16-year-old son who was cyberbullied
At this point in time, going anywhere without your smartphone feels almost like leaving behind a limb. Whether it’s for directions, distraction or the discourse on social media, our phones have become both a necessity and a crutch in our everyday lives, with our bodies literally evolving around the glow of the screen.
But no matter how much we think we need all the bells and whistles of the attention economy, the attention economy actually needs us more than we need it.
Leaders in California have denounced Donald Trump as “reckless” and “deranged” after the US president suggested Iran could “take out” Los Angeles and San Diego – two liberal cities in the blue state that has been a frequent target of his administration.
At a rally in ruby red Nebraska on Monday night, Trump told supporters that he hoped to see a “tremendous victory” in the fast-approaching November midterm elections. He then suggested high prices due to the war with Iran were a “small price to pay for keeping the world safe – keeping our country safe”.
Falcons ease to 45-24 win and silence Superdome crowd
Match marked two decades since return post-Katrina
The New Orleans Saints quarterback Tyler Shough was “embarrassed”. The second-year coach Kellen Moore was “disappointed” and “frustrated”. And a day of festivities commemorating one of the most triumphant moments in the New Orleans Saints’ history ended with boos and early exits.
Three plays into Monday night’s game against Atlanta, the Falcons running back Bijan Robinson silenced an electric Superdome crowd with a 59-yard touchdown run. The Saints’ performance in a 45-24 loss to the Falcons bore no resemblance to their landmark 23-3 victory against the same team 20 years ago, when the venue finally reopened after being damaged by Hurricane Katrina. On that made-for-TV night, Steve Gleason blocked a punt on the Falcons’ opening possession and Curtis Deloatch recovered it for a touchdown, sending the Saints on their way.
Researchers argue incorrect binding of Voynich manuscript radically changes ideas about its drawings and indecipherable text
It has been called the world’s most mysterious manuscript: a medieval set of pages filled with botanical drawings, astronomical diagrams, pictures of nude women and indecipherable text. Claimed at various times to be a book in a lost language, a musical score, an instruction manual or just an elaborate hoax, the so-called Voynich manuscript’s true meaning has defied cryptographers and codebreakers for centuries.
Now, new research offers an explanation for why a scholarly consensus over this enduring puzzle has been so hard to come by: not only because its truth is so profoundly mysterious – but because everyone has been reading its pages in the wrong order.
alternative_right shares a report from ScienceAlert: It might be reasonable to think that there's an indelible link between the heart and the body it resides in -- the processes that affect one inevitably affect the other. But a new preprint, uploaded to bioRxiv and yet to be peer-reviewed, suggests that this may only be true up to a point. Take the heart out of the body and put it in a new one, and something incredible happens. The transplanted heart begins to take on the biological age of its new owner. Older hearts transplanted into younger recipients appear to become biologically younger, while younger hearts placed in older bodies show signs of accelerated aging.
Four members of disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro’s family have been elected to office, most notably his wife and son Flávio, who won the first round of voting to be Brazil’s new president
The weekend’s elections in Brazil not only put Jair Bolsonaro’s eldest son, Flávio Bolsonaro, in the lead in the presidential race, but also underscored how far the former president has come in building a political dynasty.
As his far-right senator son heads into a runoff against the leftist incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a sweeping far-right victory in congressional races also secured seats for Jair Bolsonaro’s wife, two of his sons and one of his brothers.
The country’s 85-medal haul included athletes who trained with limited money and borrowed equipment. Plus, the Mumbai performer turning everyday absurdities into comedy
In a country where cricket eclipses every other sport, the recently concluded Asian Games offered a much-needed reminder of India’s breadth of sporting talent. In this edition of the games, in Japan, India won 85 medals: 21 golds, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals. I admit I did not know many of the players competing, or even some of the sports they play before putting this piece together. Learning about the stories, I wonder why not.
There were individual breakthroughs, records broken and history made. There were also hard-fought team victories, including the Indian women’s hockey team gold medal after a 44-year wait.
Campaign groups report surge in membership after a spate of AI safety alerts and apocalyptic warnings
In a bar below Waterloo Bridge, a cell of a fast-growing anti-AI protest movement met last week to plot their latest move: disrupting a tech industry dinner being addressed by a senior executive from the chip maker Nvidia.
Emma, a 28-year-old bartender, had never before taken direct action and was the most nervous of the four plotters from Pull The Plug, one of a growing number of AI-focused campaign groups around the world.
Civilians try to flee as men and boys rounded up on streets by new alliance as Ethiopia conflict erupts again
As renewed fighting has threatened a fresh humanitarian crisis in the northern region of Ethiopia, reports are emerging that a new alliance of armed groups in Tigray has been forcibly recruiting men and boys to its ranks.
Renewed conflict erupted on 23 September between Ethiopia’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the region, shattering the fragile Pretoria peace agreement signed between the two sides in November 2022.
British banker Simon Andriesz helped to expose alleged ties between late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick
A top UK regulator has launched an investigation into how it handled a whistleblower – who highlighted alleged ties between the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick – after he took his own life.
The British banker Simon Andriesz died late last month aged 57, the campaign group Transparency Task Force, of which he was a member, confirmed over the weekend.
During a joint parliamentary hearing on artificial intelligence, Anthropic’s head of safeguards, Dave Orr, says that investigations of hundreds of millions of transcripts reveal no unauthorised interactions with Australian government systems. However, Orr acknowledges Anthropic has limited visibility into customer usage due to standard ‘zero data retention’ policies
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: As bipartisan backlash against Flock grows, some cities are asking anti-surveillance advocates and media outlets to pay eye-popping fees -- including charging tens of thousands or even millions -- to get information about how police departments are using and potentially abusing AI-enabled camera systems that track every vehicle that passes them. On Monday, the Texas Tribune reported that city officials in a Fort Worth suburb, North Richland Hills, asked one group to pay $2.3 million before it would fulfill a public records request for Flock data. To reach that high fee, officials claimed that searching "about a terabyte worth of communications about errors, misuse, and effectiveness of the Flock system" would take approximately 14 years of labor at a rate of $15 per hour.
Phil Mynona, who filed the request using a pseudonym on behalf of his group, the Texas Privacy Coalition, told the Tribune that the fee seemed "ludicrous" and designed to stifle his public records searches. Mynona has sought similar records from more than 200 law enforcement agencies across the US, and he said it was impossible to predict how cities assessed fees for Flock records. Some cities provided more than 400,000 pages of documents for free, while others charged $5,000. Other groups, including a Houston news station called KPRC, have seen officials quote up to $121,000 for Flock records, the Tribune reported. The high price tags may be hiding data that anti-surveillance groups note have triggered audits, arrests, and changes in how law enforcement uses cameras, including decisions to get rid of cameras. Further reading: Flock Blamed for Wrongful 13-Day Imprisonment and a Police Stalking Incident in Florida
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump has approved Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s recommendation to execute former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan by firing squad for the 2009 Fort Hood mass shooting that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.
Hasan, an Army psychiatrist at the time, opened fire inside Fort Hood’s Soldier Readiness Processing Center as troops prepared for deployment. A military jury convicted him and sentenced him to death in 2013.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced Monday that the Army secretary will determine the time and location of the execution. Hasan still has avenues to challenge the execution through the federal courts, meaning the approval does not necessarily mean it will occur immediately.
If carried out, Hasan would become the first U.S. military prisoner executed since 1961. He would also be the first Army prisoner executed by firing squad since Pvt. Eddie Slovik was shot for desertion in France in 1945.
The decision comes as the Trump administration expands its use of capital punishment and broadens available execution methods. Hasan’s case is governed by military law rather than the civilian federal death penalty system.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump says his political operation will begin paying for television advertisements promoting his administration after the use of taxpayer money for the campaign-style spots triggered criticism from Democrats and Republicans.
Trump defended the advertisements Monday as a “positive promotion” of the United States and called government-funded promotional campaigns standard practice. He nevertheless said future spots would be paid for with money raised by MAGA Inc., his well-funded political organization.
The announcement leaves unanswered whether taxpayers will be reimbursed for advertisements that have already aired. At least $1.4 million had been spent by the end of September, according to advertising tracker AdImpact, although the total could be substantially higher.
The ads prominently featured Trump, promoted his political accomplishments and, in one case, closely resembled a commercial from his 2024 presidential campaign. Each concluded with the disclaimer “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”
Lawmakers have asked federal watchdogs to investigate whether the spending violated restrictions on using congressionally appropriated money for propaganda or partisan political activity.
The White House had previously defended the taxpayer-funded campaign. It now says MAGA Inc. will finance similar advertising going forward, but has not detailed how those payments will be documented or whether previously spent public funds will be repaid.
CBS News was first to report that the FBI arrested Wanying "Heather" Zhang on Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport before she boarded a flight to Shanghai, China.
Topeka, KS — A Kansas nonprofit camp is demanding Republican Sen. Roger Marshall stop airing a campaign advertisement after it used an unauthorized photograph of children while discussing sexual-abuse allegations involving Democratic Senate candidate Adam Hamilton’s church.
Tall Oaks Camp and Conference Center said it never approved political use of the photograph, which shows roughly two dozen people seated inside its chapel. Board president Lea Ann Combs said the image creates a misleading association between Tall Oaks, the children pictured and events that did not occur at the camp.
Marshall’s campaign said it believed the photograph was a stock image and claimed the advertisement had been corrected. However, Kansas Reflector reported that a version still containing the Tall Oaks image remained available on social media hours later.
The ad attacks Hamilton over his handling of allegations involving a Church of the Resurrection volunteer in 2005. Hamilton has acknowledged that he should have referred the initial allegations directly to law enforcement rather than relying on an internal church investigation. Police were contacted after additional allegations surfaced in 2006.
The dispute comes during a competitive Kansas Senate campaign in which outside Republican groups are committing millions of dollars to support Marshall. Tall Oaks emphasized that its objection concerns unauthorized use of its children’s image and does not represent an endorsement of either candidate.
As the supreme court hears oral arguments this morning, it’s worth noting that if the justices side with Boulder or decide that the case is not in their jurisdiction, then it would continue in state court.
But if the fossil fuel industry convinces the justices, the decision could apply not only to the Boulder case, but also to the many other climate cases brought by state and local governments around the US that we mentioned earlier.
President’s U-turn comes after Democrats and Republicans condemned use of tax dollars for pro-Trump ads
Donald Trump said on Monday he would pay for taxpayer-funded, pro-Trump ads “with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”, a political action committee, after the television advertisements glorifying himself sparked a major backlash.
In a social media post, Trump characterized the ads, which cost at least $1.5m in federal funds, as “a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” and called them “a rather standard thing to do”.
OpenAI has used an appearance before a parliamentary inquiry on AI to apologise again to Australia about the hack on Medicare last month, as media and entertainment organisations argued weakening copyright law for AI model training would leave artists as “roadkill”.
Meanwhile Anthropic told the inquiry it was not seeking to dictate copyright law on model training, but the current rules made it “impossible” to train AI in Australia.
An attorney for one of the men accused in the alleged sexual assault of a former Cornell University student in 2024 is calling for Attorney General Letitia James to step down as special prosecutor.
President Trump says he'll start paying for the pro-Trump ads that have blanketed the airwaves in recent weeks, using money from his super PAC instead of taxpayer dollars.
Exclusive: Guardian analysis finds more than 150,000 tonnes of fuel was shipped to Russian ports in July and August, some using sanctioned tankers
Fuel is being shipped from South Korea to Russia via sanctioned tankers as Moscow scrambles for supplies amid the war in Ukraine, a move one expert said “undermines” Seoul’s public backing for Kyiv.
Guardian analysis of port records and ship-tracking data found that in July and August over 176,000 tonnes of fuel, mostly diesel, was loaded at several South Korean ports on to seven tankers that made 14 voyages to Russia’s far east.
(The Center Square) – An Irvine, Calif. woman accused of operating as an unregistered agent for China was scheduled to appear for arraignment in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles Monday - one day after being arrested by the…
English Heritage acquires film of first re-enactment, ‘a lot of pushing and shoving’ between Kent and Sussex students
At the top of a hill in a field near Hastings, a group of defiant English combatants awaited the invading army of William the Conqueror, brandishing their spears and shouting “Harold! Harold!”.
Unfortunately, the Norman army had been held up in traffic on the A27 from Brighton, meaning the most significant battle in English history had to be delayed by 20 minutes while the French got into their costumes.
Wired reports that rural data center projects could become eligible for expanded federal Opportunity Zone tax benefits starting in 2027, with more than 100 planned or developing facilities potentially qualifying. "Right now, the only requirement to get the benefits is capital investment," says Emily Kraschel, a tax policy analyst at the Searchlight Institute, a public policy think tank. "However, that doesn't guarantee that that money is necessarily creating jobs or creating a local economic boost. You'd be more sure of that with a more traditional factory that requires lots of workers. But with a data center, that assumption goes a little wonky." From the report: During the first Trump administration, a bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed the creation of the opportunity zone program, which offers tax benefits for companies that choose to build projects in certain low-income census tracts. Last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made a number of changes to open up the program in order to attract more investment to rural areas. Kraschel and her colleagues from Searchlight have been researching data center projects that might qualify for these tax benefits, comparing the locations of data center projects in development with rural census tracts eligible for the new program. Wired exclusively reviewed the research compiled by Searchlight and found more than 100 data centers under various stages of development in rural areas that could be eligible.
Searchlight used a very conservative database of under 700 data center projects that are planned or under construction to compile its research; other datasets put the number of data centers in development in the US at closer to 1,500. It's very likely that the number of newly eligible projects is bigger, especially since more data centers are decamping from urban areas. Separate research from Pew found that while just 13 percent of operating data centers are located in rural areas, a majority of planned facilities -- around 67 percent -- are going rural. [...] A project simply existing in a rural opportunity zone doesn't mean the company automatically will get the tax benefits; the company has to create a specialized investment vehicle to kickstart the process. Because the tax break can be considered confidential IRS data, it's next to impossible to know which companies are pursuing the benefits unless they voluntarily disclose.
[...] Nathan Jensen, a government professor at the University of Texas-Austin, says that he would be "very surprised" if some companies were not considering siting in rural opportunity zones as part of their decisionmaking process. "It's essentially free money," he says. There is no requirement for projects getting opportunity zone benefits to create jobs; the assumption is that they will do so, simply by siting in the community itself. This isn't always the case for projects like storage facilities and warehouses, which, Jensen says, have been popular choices for developers working in opportunity zones. Data centers may create a number of jobs in the short term for their construction, but there's an ongoing debate about whether or not they create a lasting new workforce over the longer term.
Publisher says author died peacefully at home ‘between writing sessions’
Jeffrey Archer, the bestselling author and former MP whose political career ended in disgrace when he was imprisoned for perjury, has died at the age of 86.
Archer, who was a Conservative MP for five years before serving as the party’s deputy chair, died “suddenly and peacefully” at his home “between writing sessions” on Monday, his publisher HarperCollins said.
President says ‘I’m doing great’ despite polls showing 32% approval rating and loss of support from 2024 voters
Donald Trump’s approval ratings reached a record low on Monday, according to new opinion polls.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Trump’s approval rating at a record-low 32%. That polling included the president losing support among independent voters and Latinos, who had backed him in 2024. The dip could prove dire for the Republican party a month ahead of the midterm elections that will determine control of Congress.
Advocates holding signs gather outside the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, Oct. 5, 2026, during oral arguments in Suncor v. Boulder, a pivotal climate change case. Photo: Andrew Rice / The Center Square
Harrisburg, PA — Pennsylvania has surpassed 1,000 measles cases in 2026, marking the state’s largest outbreak in more than three decades and adding to the worst U.S. measles year since 1991.
State health officials reported 1,004 confirmed cases, 198 hospitalizations and five measles-associated deaths. Lancaster County remains the hardest-hit area, and Pennsylvania officials say the outbreak has been driven largely by low vaccination rates. Only four of the state’s first 943 cases involved vaccinated people.
The outbreak has also exposed a sharp dispute between Gov. Josh Shapiro and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Pennsylvania has counted five measles-associated deaths, while the CDC has reported fewer federally confirmed deaths after changing how it verifies mortality data. Kennedy has publicly questioned whether all of Pennsylvania’s reported deaths were actually caused by measles.
That skepticism comes during a national resurgence tied in part to declining vaccination rates and persistent vaccine misinformation. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles, according to Pennsylvania health officials.
New York has meanwhile declared a disaster emergency, while Ohio and several other states are also reporting sizable outbreaks. International health officials are expected to review whether the U.S. has lost its measles-elimination status later this year.
Hackers stole records belonging to roughly 8 million Danish citizens and residents from Denmark's Central Person Register (CPR), including names, addresses, social security numbers and other personal information. The breach is believed to be the largest in Denmark's history. TechCrunch reports: The CPR is a government database of Danish citizens' information, including their government-issued identity number for paying taxes and accessing other services. Denmark's current population is about 6 million people, but the database includes records for about 11 million people, with some of the data going back decades.
The Danish government would not say who is behind the breach, which happened in September but was discovered on October 2. However, it said the unauthorized access was obtained by "abusing a Danish company's lawful access to search for information in the CPR system." (Some companies in Denmark have access to the CPR for verifying people's information with the government.)
(The Center Square) – The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened public comment Monday on the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement without asking what tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods have cost American importers or consumers.
(Legal Newsline) — When the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments starting Monday in a high-profile case testing whether state and local governments can sue oil companies over climate change, the lawyer at the podium won’t be from the county or…
Speaking of Windows and performance, how about that RAM crisis? Microsoft is feeling the squeeze too, and is apparently doing work up and down the Windows stack to improve its memory consumption.
Microsoft’s Windows chief Pavan Davuluri has admitted that the rising cost of memory is pushing the company to make Windows 11 use less RAM. Microsoft is working on the Windows memory manager, memory compression, WinUI 3 and WebView2, and has made “memory optimization for 8GB and above” an official priority for the rest of 2026.
In a warm-up speech before President Donald Trump addressed Oklahoma rally-goers, Homeland Security secretary Markwayne Mullin told the crowd in his home state that Trump took a financial hit to serve as president.
“He doesn’t have to do this,” Mullin, a former U.S. senator, said at the Oct. 1 rally in Durant. “There’s no financial gain like the past presidents have had. It’s cost him to be in office.”
That’s not what Trump told the federal government.
His 927-page financial disclosure form for 2025 shows at least $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency revenue alone.
A New York Times analysis estimated that overall, Trump “pulled in at least $2.2 billion” in 2025. That was up from $622 million in 2024, which was before he began his second term.
And a September analysis by Forbes — which has been tracking the holdings of the super-wealthy for decades — found that Trump “is an estimated $2.7 billion richer than when he won the 2024 election.” The Forbes analysis runs through 2026.
“2025 was the most lucrative year of Trump’s life, by far,” said Robert Maguire, vice president of research and data at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an advocacy group that hassued Trump and his administration over such issues as foreign emoluments and a proposed fund to compensate people who experienced what Trump called “government weaponization.”
“There is essentially no scenario, based on public information, where the presidency hasn’t made Donald Trump far richer than he’s ever been,” Maguire said.
White House says to look at Trump’s first term
Mullin’s department did not respond to our questions about his remarks, but the White House did.
In a statement to PolitiFact, the White House cited Forbes data showing Trump’s net worth fell from $3.7 billion in 2016 — the year before his first term — to $2.5 billion in 2021, the year after he left the White House. That’s a 32% decline in net worth during his first term. (For comparison, the median U.S. household net worth with members at least 75 years old — which is close to Trump’s age — is $335,600.)
Mullin’s statement would have been accurate if he’d said it in 2021. But Trump’s financial picture is vastly different in 2026.
Forbes currently calculates Trump’s net worth at $7 billion. That’s almost double the $3.7 billion Trump held before he became president the first time, and it’s also far above his pre-presidential high of $4.5 billion in 2015.
&&
The White House also said Trump has not taken a salary. The White House hasn’t always provided documentation of this, but even if it’s correct, that’s only $400,000 a year foregone — a tiny fraction of Trump’s $2.2 billion in 2025 revenues.
Cryptocurrency accounts for a clear majority of Trump’s 2025 revenue, bringing in $1.4 billion. His 2025 disclosure showed another $400 million from sources such as real estate, legal settlements, overseas licensing agreements and branded merchandise such as watches and footwear.
Could Trump’s added expenses have canceled out his gains?
Experts said it was unlikely that the $2.2 billion or more that Trump has taken in would have been gobbled up by added expenses from being president.
“The only extra expenses I think he could possibly have incurred as president would come from things like extra security costs or travel, but the taxpayers have footed the bill to increase security at the president’s private properties,” said Danielle Caputo, senior legal counsel for ethics with the Campaign Legal Center, which tracks campaign finance and ethics issues.
MAGA Inc., a Trump-aligned super PAC, has reported paying for some of Trump’s travel, but that’s not considered Trump’s own money, Caputo said. “I don’t think that either could account for $1.6 billion in expenses,” Caputo said.
As for traditional overhead expenses that might stem from Trump’s businesses, Maguire said that the biggest sources of revenue disclosed in Trump’s 2025 form are from enterprises that are relatively free of overhead, such as cryptocurrency and licensing deals. These are “about as close to pure income that you can get,” Maguire said.
How do previous presidents compare?
Trump entered office both times with the highest net worth of any recent president — $3.7 billion the first time and $3.9 billion the second time. The next closest was John F. Kennedy, who had family wealth; pre-presidency, Kennedy is estimated to have been worth $100 million in inflation-adjusted dollars.
Two recent Democratic presidents — Bill Clinton and Barack Obama — saw their net worth skyrocket after leaving office. They both entered office with an estimated $1.3 million and finished up their tenures with $120 million and $70 million, respectively.
Those are significant increases, but Trump’s wealth has grown by far more.
Our ruling
Mullin said that for Trump, “There’s no financial gain like the past presidents have had. It’s cost him to be in office.”
Trump’s own financial disclosure form shows he made at least $2.2 billion in revenues in 2025, up from $622 million in 2024, before he began his second term. A Forbes analysis estimated that Trump is $2.7 billion richer than in 2024.
It’s not plausible that overhead or added expenses could have consumed all that extra income, experts said. And the scale of Trump’s presidential wealth gains dwarf those of recent presidents.
From the best information we have, Mullin’s comment is off by more than $1 billion. We rate the statement Pants on Fire!
To this day, Windows retains full support for the old MS-DOS 8.3 filename limitation, and it does this by creating 8.3 aliases for files with longer names. Apparently, this has a measurable effect on performance, so naturally, people are going to turn it off to make their Windows installations perform better.
According to the user, this resulted in noticeably smoother scrolling in Tile view. They subsequently repeated the process on several folders they regularly use and reported that searching through files became much faster. The user also claimed that external hard drives became faster and that browsing an Android directory over USB or FTP behaved more like a regular Windows folder, including when copying large numbers of music files.
You can disable this legacy feature in Windows per volume or globally, but Microsoft is warning users not to do so. Even in 2026, applications and registry entries may depend on 8.3 filenames being available, so removing them can lead to unexpected outcomes. It’s just one of those things you wouldn’t expect to still be around or have a measurable impact in the days of fast SSDs, but there’s enough credibly evidence out there to suggest that yes, it actually does negatively affect performance.
If you’re doing a lot of file operations in Windows, it might be worthwhile to do some testing of your own to see if you can speed things up. Or, you know, you can just not use a house of cards disguised as a serious operating system.
Apple’s macOS has a Full Disk Access permission, designed to allow backup applications full access to, well, the disk, so they can perform their job properly. Apple posted a notice on its website that it’s going to further restrict this permission, because some applications were abusing this permission to gain access to users’ messages, emails, and so on, which it obviously isn’t intended for.
What kind of applications, you may ask?
Going forward, we will introduce additional controls to ensure that users who genuinely wish to grant an app this extraordinary level of access can only do so with very explicit user action. Addressing this is critical. As AI agents become increasingly capable and autonomous, the risks associated with this level of access will grow substantially. We are committed to ensuring users clearly understand these risks before granting such access, so they can make informed decisions about their own data and privacy.
This was prompted by a story a few weeks ago, where Facebook’s Muse “AI” tool was apparently reading people’s private messages and other data, and even sent messages on users’ behalf, without informing its users. It’s incredibly naive to think Facebook software in 2026 would not do creepy things, so I’m honestly not at all surprised. It makes sense in Apple’s worldview to further restrict permissions in response, but I’m sure more experienced macOS users are not going to like this.
Shavdon Gayden killed Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon in broad daylight while walking with her older sister
A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a seven-year-old girl, with police describing it as an unprovoked attack on a sidewalk in Chicago.
Shavon Gayden, 48, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, Chicago police said in a statement on Sunday. The killing happened just before noon on Saturday in the Chatham neighborhood. The victim has been identified by local media and the medical examiner’s office as Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon.
Bridge to Practice grants emphasize phonics, teacher coaching and classroom instruction as Delaware tries to turn science-of-reading policy into measurable gains for students.
DOVER, Del – Delaware is investing another $7.1 million in early literacy instruction, expanding a statewide effort aimed at moving science-of-reading training from policy manuals and professional development sessions into everyday classroom practice.
The Delaware Department of Education announced Monday that 28 school districts and charter schools will receive Bridge to Practice grants for the 2026-27 school year.
The grants support Delaware’s Birth through Grade 3 Early Literacy Plan through teacher training, instructional materials, classroom coaching and school leadership development.
It is the second round of Bridge to Practice funding. A first round announced in March awarded $6.1 million to 25 districts and charter schools, bringing the two-round investment to about $13.2 million.
The approach addresses one of public education’s persistent challenges: Passing a law, adopting a curriculum or training teachers does not necessarily improve student achievement unless those changes reach the classroom.
“We know how to teach children to read, and we believe every Delaware student can become a strong reader,” Education Secretary Cindy Marten said.
Marten said policy, resources, training and coaching are important, but none should be confused with the ultimate goal.
“The work is making sure what we know reaches students through strong instruction every day and then showing our progress in ways we can reliably measure, see and report,” she said.
Phonics returns to a central role
The science of reading reemphasizes phonics as a key part of early reading instruction while placing it within a broader research-based approach to literacy.
Phonics explicitly teaches children how letters and combinations of letters correspond to sounds in spoken language, giving beginning readers the tools to decode unfamiliar words rather than relying primarily on context, pictures, or guessing.
The broader science-of-reading approach also includes phonemic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, oral language, background knowledge and comprehension.
The goal is not simply to help children sound out words, but to build the foundational decoding skills they need to read accurately, understand what they read and continue building knowledge over time.
The new grants support science-of-reading professional development programs including LETRS and AIM Pathways, curriculum-based professional learning, Student-Centered Coaching and leadership development through the Early Literacy Leadership Academy.
Local flexibility brings local responsibility
Districts and charter schools can use the funding differently based on local needs.
Appoquinimink School District used earlier funding to strengthen literacy leadership and relationships between principals and instructional coaches. Capital School District connected LETRS training with classroom reflections, student work and coaching. Indian River School District focused on greater consistency among elementary schools through instructional frameworks, classroom learning walks and science-of-reading training for pre-K through third-grade educators.
That flexibility gives local school leaders room to determine how best to implement the state’s literacy goals rather than requiring every district to follow exactly the same model.
But greater discretion also places more responsibility on local school boards to determine whether those investments are working.
Julia Keleher, executive director of First State Educate, has repeatedly argued that local boards are where state education policy becomes action.
“State strategy becomes real for students when local leadership brings it to life,” Keleher said. “Boards will the grant money to deliver results as measured by improved reading proficiency and then use data to guide decisions, monitor implementation and hold school the school leaders accountable.
Keleher has also emphasized that this new grant adds to the responsibility already resting with local boards to get results.
That responsibility becomes particularly important in early literacy and grants structured like this one. School boards help determine whether interventions succeed by approving staffing, budgets, and accountability structures. In practical terms, boards are being asked not only to approve literacy programs and spending, but also to establish measurements, examine whether those investments are producing results, and hold district leaders accountable for increasing the number of students reading at grade level.
Spending must translate into readers
Delaware’s reading performance remains a significant challenge.
About 40% of Delaware third-graders reached proficiency in English language arts in 2026, leaving a majority of students below grade-level proficiency.
That makes the next stage of the literacy initiative as much an accountability test as an instructional one.
DDOE said it will examine classroom walkthroughs, coaching cycles, implementation measures and student literacy data throughout the school year.
Those measures can help determine whether schools are implementing the program as intended.
But training sessions, coaching visits, new materials and completed professional-development programs are inputs.
The ultimate outcome is whether more children learn to read proficiently.
Guarding against another permanent program
The increased emphasis on evidence and classroom results is encouraging, but the state will also need to guard against allowing Bridge to Practice to become another permanent education funding stream regardless of performance.
Government programs created to address urgent problems can become difficult to unwind after districts build staffing, contracts and budgets around them.
That makes measurable results especially important.
If districts receiving the grants show meaningful improvements in reading, the state will have evidence that continued investment is producing value.
If student performance remains stagnant after repeated rounds of funding, Delaware should be willing to reconsider the strategy, redirect resources or require changes in how the money is being used.
The program should not be judged successful simply because it continues to operate.
Largest grants approach $1 million
The largest award this year is $877,624 for Red Clay Consolidated School District.
Capital School District will receive $763,856, Christina School District will receive $652,691, Appoquinimink School District will receive $556,457 and Colonial School District will receive $556,167.
Milford School District will receive $248,238.
Awards range from $9,528 for Gateway Charter School to nearly $878,000 for Red Clay.
Those differences reflect the size and needs of participating school systems, but the larger grants also create a reasonable expectation that taxpayers should eventually be able to see what changed as a result of the investment.
That does not mean every district should produce identical results. Student populations, staffing and local circumstances vary considerably.
But the state and local boards should be able to demonstrate a connection between taxpayer investment, improved classroom instruction and student academic growth.
An accountability clock starts ticking
Delaware’s early literacy strategy rests on a reasonable premise: Children who become strong readers during the earliest grades have a much better foundation for success throughout school.
The decision to emphasize evidence-based reading instruction, restore phonics to a central role and help teachers translate their training into daily classroom practice is a defensible use of education funding.
But after approximately $13.2 million in two rounds of Bridge to Practice grants, Delaware is moving beyond the stage where implementation alone can define success.
Marten’s own standard provides the appropriate test: Progress should be something Delawareans can measure, see and report.
Keleher’s argument adds another layer to that standard: As boards gain greater responsibility for directing resources, they also assume greater responsibility for measuring results and holding their own district leadership accountable.
The state has identified the problem, adopted an approach and committed significant resources.
Now the test is whether those decisions produce more students reading at grade level.
TO GO BOX
What: Delaware awarded $7.1 million in Bridge to Practice early literacy grants.
Who: 28 school districts and charter schools will receive funding for the 2026-27 school year.
Why: The money supports science-of-reading instruction, including a renewed emphasis on phonics, teacher coaching, instructional materials and school leadership.
Total investment: The latest grants follow $6.1 million awarded in March, bringing the two rounds to about $13.2 million.
What to watch: Whether teacher training and classroom changes produce measurable increases in student reading proficiency — and whether funding remains tied to results rather than becoming a permanent program.
The AI boom is driving massive demand for optical interconnects as we rapidly approach the limits of what copper can provide. Instead of competition, the optical demand is fostering cooperation up and down the network stack as chip designers, ASIC makers, switch vendors, and hyperscalers all look to drive co-packaged optics (CPO) deep into the heart of HPC.
During the recent AI Infra Summit in Santa Clara, California, Ayar Labs, one of the Silicon Valley firms surfing the CPO wave, hosted a mini event called the CPO Summit. The event involved a pair of panels moderated by Sally Ward-Foxton, a senior reporter with EE Times, that included representatives from various vendors involved in CPO, which is considered to be the holy grail for integrating optical networking directly onto semiconductors.
Matthew Streshinsky, senior director of photonics for AMD, applauded the work that the Optical Compute Interconnect (OCI) Multi-Source Agreement (MSA) is doing to establish some basic standards for manufacturers to start building interoperable CPO gear.
“One of the great things about OCI MSA…and what we get to do is really think through what should the standard look like?” he said during the panel on the OCI MSA. “The OCI MSA is really the right one when it comes down to what’s the right answer for scalability, what’s going to be a multi-generation solution?”
The OCI MSA has settled on a specification for a 200 Gbps bidirectional link, and they’re now working on a specification for 400 Gbps, which they expect to share in 2027. While some standardization is good, too much standardization can stifle innovation, said Drew Alduino, director of optical infrastructure at social media giant Meta.
“There’s a lot of understanding and commentary about ‘Let’s standardize,’” Alduino said in the OCI MSA panel. “Really what we want to do is standardize as little as possible. Put as much information as possible in the biggest possible box so that people can create value propositions, that everybody can compete and innovate, and we can allow winners in the marketplace.”
That view was backed by Near Margarlit, VP networking of semiconductor supplier Broadcom, who wants as little standardization as necessary.
“We want to be very careful not to start getting into form factors, pins, PCBs, really get into what is the fundamental element that allows vendor A to talk to vendor B,” Margarlit told Ward-Foxton. “You need the systems to talk to each other, but still having innovation in the actual implementation. … So stay away from implementation, focus on interoperability.”
As former Intel CEO Pat Gelsigner said at the start of the CPO Summit, the tech industry has been working on optical technologies for two and a half decades. Now that the industry is finally seeing real demand from the market for optical, the goal is to build a supply chain and ecosystem that can scale to meet the demand and evolve over time.
“If you go do the math of what’s required for the industry to go to scale up optically versus scale out optically, there’s an order of magnitude increase in the needs of the overall industry that’s required,” Streshinsky said. “So part of that is just making sure the overall supply chain is there.”
Broadcom 3G CPO
One of the interconnect startups looking to innovate in optical is Upscale AI, which is developing an ASIC for scale-up switches utilizing UALink and ESUN. During the other CPO Summit panel on the CPO ecosystem, Barun Kar, the company’s co-founder, president, and CEO, discussed how a rapid expansion in the radix of a network switch can ripple across the entire system.
“CPO definitely gives you a beautiful form factor,” Kar told moderator Ward-Foxton. “But increasing the radix has other challenges.”
For example, if increasing the radix of a switch requires more connections to chips. Moving to chiplet technology can address that, but now you’re dependent upon the chiplet packaging, Kar said.
“Then once you solve the packaging problem, then comes the thermal problem,” he said. “So every generation will have its limitation. It’s not necessarily the CPO limitation that you look for. And then you have to solve all those equations to improve the results.”
There are challenges across the board, from initial manufacturing of the optical component itself to how it integrates with other components, said Bhushan Chitlur, the chief architect for data center and AI at fabless semiconductor firm MediaTek.
“As an ASIC, we own the package, and today the package is awesome,” Chitlur said during the CPO ecosystem roundtable. “Now the moment you integrate optics it stops being a component and becomes a system. So all the challenges associated with yield and reliability of the system now get dropped onto this package. So there’s a lot more responsibility in terms of being able to make sure that that package that has heterogeneous technology can yield and is reliable the way that it should be that allows scaling.”
AI is generating huge demand for optical networking and CPO, but the manufacturing side of the equation also must keep up. Harold Liu, the executive director with Wiwynn, which designs and manufactures IT gear, says Wiwynn is incorporating new manufacturing procedures.
“When we stand up, we have to stand up the test procedure and also the repairing process,” Liu said. “So it’s not like doing the assembly for traditional computer rack, because we need to change the environment….So we definitely need to leverage more automation process to do that.”
Lumentum’s ELSFP laser for CPO
The need for multiple components to work well together for CPO to be a success is driving vendors that would normally compete to cooperate with each other, said Matthew Sysak, the CTO of Lumentum.
“People who used to be perceived as competitors now very much collaborate very tightly because there’s so much demand in the industry,” Sysak said. “And I think that’s the kind of thing it really takes to make sure that the entire ecosystem is ready.”
From indium phosphide suppliers to substrate manufactures to laser companies like Lumentum, everybody is working together to ensure that the CPO industry will be ready when hyperscalers start placing large orders to enable data to flow in next-generation data centeres.
“There’s a lot more collaboration going on now than I think I’ve ever seen,” Sysak said. “And I think that’s really the key. Because there are going to be bottlenecks. Just like I was saying earlier, there are going to be bottlenecks everywhere. It’s just the demand on the entire ecosystem is just too large. This industry is not ready for the types of volumes that CPO is going to require. So really, I think in order to solve it really, the theme has got to be partnerships.”
Ayar Labs CEO Mark Wade provided some closing remarks for the CPO Summit.
“Go back and read the last 20 years of OFC [Optical Fiber Communication Conference] papers and you’re going to see a lot of cool stuff,” Wade said. “But what has not yet happened is getting all those technologies fully graduated into tier-one, high volume CMOS-scale types of solution and matching CMOS scale on the lasers.”
With the right mix of cooperation on basic specifications, as well as healty competition with implementations, the industry may just get there.
Neighboring states are also reporting hundreds of cases, with over 3,800 recorded across the country
Pennsylvania has surpassed 1,000 measles cases this year, state health officials calculate, making it the largest state outbreak in more than three decades. The benchmark comes as neighboring New York declared a state of emergency about measles rates there.
Pennsylvania’s health department said Monday 1,004 cases of measles had been confirmed. Five Pennsylvania residents have died after contracting the disease, with 198 hospitalizations.
Second official suspended for actions in Minnesota game
The NFL has suspended a line judge two games for swearing at Arizona tight end Trey McBride.
Line judge Jeff Seeman was caught on camera cursing at McBride during the Cardinals’ loss at the New York Giants on Sunday. The incident drew the ire of union leader JC Tretter.
Chicago, IL — A Chicago woman shot multiple times by a Border Patrol agent during last year’s immigration crackdown has sued the federal government, alleging the agent fired from behind her vehicle and later gave a false account of what happened.
Marimar Martinez filed the lawsuit Monday under the Federal Tort Claims Act. She accuses the government of negligence, battery, assault, false arrest, malicious prosecution and emotional distress stemming from the Oct. 4, 2025, shooting during Operation Midway Blitz.
Federal prosecutors initially accused Martinez of using her vehicle to strike and box in Border Patrol agent Charles Exum’s SUV. Exum then opened fire, leaving Martinez with seven gunshot wounds. Prosecutors later dropped the charges against her after body-camera footage and other evidence raised questions about the government’s original account.
Martinez’s attorneys commissioned a forensic reconstruction they say shows Exum was beside or behind her vehicle rather than directly in its path when he fired. The analysis has not been tested in court, and the federal government has not admitted wrongdoing.
Exum remains on administrative leave, while Chicago police are separately investigating the shooting.
(The Center Square) – Despite pointed questions from some of the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices challenging the oil companies in Suncor v. Boulder, Republican attorneys general following Monday’s arguments said they came away optimistic about the case’s direction.
Party to unveil plans for one of UK’s ‘most significant military programmes since the cold war’
The Conservatives will announce plans to build a £10bn British “Iron Dome” similar to Israel’s air and missile defence system, which the party will christen “Britannia Shield” in an announcement at conference on Tuesday.
The shadow defence secretary, James Cartlidge, will say Britain needs to be ready to defend itself from potential aerial attacks and that new investment was needed in advanced radar and interceptor missiles.
The Wikimedia Foundation says it found evidence that "rogue" OpenAI agents edited Wikimedia wikis without approval, unsuccessfully tried to exploit its Etherpad service, and generated millions of automated requests across Wikimedia projects. Here's a summary of what Wikimedia observed (via The Verge): Wiki editing: We've identified edits to Wikimedia wikis that we believe are from AI agents operated by OpenAI. These edits were not published to pages with visibility to general readers; almost all of them were testing edits in "sandbox" areas of the wiki. It also included a few edits to the configuration for a citation tool, which we believe were potentially malicious edits that were intended to misuse this tool as a proxy for fetching data from remote services. While Wikipedia policies allow bots to edit when they are disclosed and approved by the community, none of those approvals were sought in these incidents.
Etherpad probing and use: Agents we believe to be operated by OpenAI made some unsuccessful attempts to compromise our public Etherpad, a note-taking tool we host as a community service. Agents unsuccessfully tried to use it to fetch data from other websites as a proxy. Other agents also likely operated by OpenAI took notes about their tasks, though this did not appear to turn into coordination.
Excessive data downloading: Agents we believe to be operated by OpenAI made millions of automated requests to our public APIs to access the knowledge on Wikimedia projects, crawled millions of pages (mainly from our projects Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons), and made hundreds of thousands of data queries to the Wikidata Query Service (WQDS). This traffic may have contributed to a partial outage on WQDS in May.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined most of his Democratic colleagues in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin expressing concern about its actions ahead of the midterm election.
From left to right, Sen. Tizzy Lockman, Gov. Matt Meyer, Joe Zilcosky with the Delaware Division of Small Business, Rep. Kerri Evelyn Harris and The Pine Box Studios General Manager Brian Market at a bill signing ceremony at The Pine…
British Airways Boeing abruptly lost altitude over Ireland due to ‘technical issue’ and returned to Heathrow
A flight from London to Chicago declared an emergency after a sudden and steep descent of 28,000 feet over Ireland and was forced to turn back to Britain.
British Airways flight BA295 was bound for Chicago’s O’Hare airport but after a “technical issue” during which oxygen masks were deployed from the ceiling, the plane landed safely back at London Heathrow.
Barack Obama will head to Detroit this month to rally with Abdul El-Sayed, a show of establishment support for a progressive insurgent in Michigan, one of the most consequential Senate races in the country.
The former US president will appear with El-Sayed and the gubernatorial nominee, Jocelyn Benson, on 24 October, the state’s Democratic party announced on Monday. The rally falls on the first day of the state’s in-person early voting period and 10 days before election day.
Meyer, Working Families Party favor higher rates on upper incomes; Ramone says Delaware should rein in spending before asking taxpayers for more
DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s debate over taxes and spending is sharpening after progressive candidates scored major victories in the Democratic primary, giving greater influence to a political movement that openly supports higher income-tax rates on the state’s highest earners. Gov. Matt Meyer has also continued to support adding new upper-income tax brackets, arguing Delaware can ask higher earners to contribute more while reducing taxes farther down the income scale.
Republican state treasurer candidate Mike Ramone is making the counterargument: Before Delaware aims at implementing a sales tax, state leaders should first determine whether the state government’s spending is correctly targeted and delivering real results for taxpayers.
Ramone said there have been behind-the-scenes discussions in Dover for the implementation of a sales tax for over a decade (years), and a new, more radical legislature in January might finally pull the trigger on it to keep the tax and spending express going.
Progressives gain influence
The Sept. 15 primary strengthened the Working Families Party’s position within Democratic politics.
Working Families Party-backed candidates won one state Senate and five state House primaries. Five Democratic incumbents were among those defeated.
The results matter because the organization has a detailed economic agenda.
Its platform explicitly calls for making Delaware’s personal income tax “more progressive” by adding additional high-income brackets at increased rates.
The party also supported legislation last year that would have added tax brackets at $125,000, $250,000 and $500,000.
Meyer wants higher brackets
Meyer has made a similar argument. Delaware’s highest personal income-tax rate of 6.6% currently begins at $60,000 of taxable income.
Meyer proposed adding three higher brackets at $125,000, $250,000 and $500,000 as part of his fiscal 2026 budget proposal.
His administration argued that the change would make the system more progressive while reducing taxes for 92% of Delaware taxpayers. Under that proposal, taxpayers with taxable income below $134,667 would have faced no overall increase.
The proposal did not become law, but Meyer has continued to argue that taxpayers at substantially different income levels should not face the same top marginal rate.
The progressive argument is straightforward: If Delaware requires additional revenue to finance education, health care and other services, higher-income residents have a greater ability to absorb an increase than working- and middle-income families.
Ramone: Look at spending first
Ramone approaches Delaware’s fiscal problem from the opposite direction.
The former House minority leader and longtime small-business owner has made fiscal accountability and independent analysis of state finances central themes of his campaign for treasurer.
Ramone has said the treasurer should help taxpayers understand the economic impact of proposed taxes, fees and major spending decisions and provide an independent voice on state finances.
His broader argument is that a projected budget shortfall does not necessarily mean Delawareans are paying too little. It can also mean spending is growing too quickly.
“Every time Delaware faces a budget problem, the answer cannot simply be to go back to the people who are already paying the most and ask them for more,” Ramone said. “At some point, we have to ask why spending continues to grow, whether every program is delivering results and whether taxpayers are getting value for the money they already send to Dover.”
Ramone has previously supported directing surplus revenue toward long-term state liabilities instead of using it to support continuing expansions of government spending.
Could a sales tax be next?
Ramone said there have been behind the scenes discussions in Dover for the implementation of a sales tax for over a decade (years) and a new more radical legislature in January might finally pull the trigger on it to keep the tax and spending express going.
He has stated publicly that officials within the Meyer administration have discussed a statewide sales tax and that such a tax could be considered if Delaware needs additional revenue.
Meyer has not publicly proposed a general sales tax, and Delaware LIVE has not independently verified that one is being developed.
That distinction is important: Higher income-tax brackets are a documented Meyer policy position. A sales tax is an option Ramone says has been discussed internally.
The Working Families Party’s published platform does not call for a general sales tax. Its tax agenda instead emphasizes collecting more revenue through higher rates on upper-income taxpayers.
A statewide sales tax would represent a much broader approach because it would reach consumers across the income spectrum.
Who should pay?
That leaves Delaware with a basic fiscal debate.
Meyer and the Working Families Party argue the state can protect most taxpayers while asking those with the greatest ability to pay to shoulder more of the cost of government.
Opponents question whether Delaware should increase its dependence on higher earners — including entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals — without first confronting the growth of state spending.
Ramone says that is the larger issue voters should consider. “Delaware families should not have to wonder which tax comes next every time state spending outgrows revenue,” Ramone said. “My approach is to promote transparency. Help the voters understand the issues from a business and family perspective. Let’s make government live within its means, demand accountability for the money we already collect and protect taxpayers before asking them to pay more. ”
TO GO BOX
THE DEBATE: Delaware progressives are pushing for a more progressive income-tax structure as the state faces growing spending commitments.
MEYER: The governor has proposed additional income-tax brackets at $125,000, $250,000 and $500,000 while lowering taxes for most taxpayers.
WORKING FAMILIES PARTY: Its platform explicitly supports additional high-income brackets at higher rates.
PRIMARY IMPACT: WFP-backed candidates won one Senate and five House Democratic primaries, including victories over five incumbents.
RAMONE: The Republican candidate for state treasurer argues Delaware should address spending growth, accountability and efficiency before seeking additional revenue.
SALES TAX: Ramone says Meyer administration officials have discussed a possible statewide sales tax if more revenue is needed. Meyer has not publicly proposed one, and Delaware LIVE has not independently verified those discussions.
The KDE project recently brought back its classic Oxygen and Air themes, but what if you prefer something… A little older?
A modern recreation of the classic KDE 3 desktop experience for KDE Plasma 6, built entirely using Qt 6 and Qt Quick, with full support for Wayland and fractional scaling.
Progressive voters and supporters of incumbent president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva left reeling after far-right surge
Flávio Bolsonaro is in pole position to win Brazil’s presidential election, after a far-right tsunami propelled him to a shock first-round victory over the incumbent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leaving progressive voters reeling.
The 45-year-old rightwing candidate received 56.1m votes to Lula’s 53.8m – 47.03% to 45.16% – meaning the 80-year-old leftwinger has a mountain to climb if he is to bounce back in the second round on 25 October. Never, since the return of democracy to Brazil in 1985, has the first-round runner-up managed to turn the game around and win the second ballot.
A Russian plague lab worker died of "pneumonia of unknown origin," officials say, in response to initial reports that she was exposed to the deadly bacteria during a lab accident.
Eight of the nine justices heard nearly two hours of oral arguments in a case involving an effort by the city and county of Boulder, Colorado, to hold energy companies accountable for the effects of global climate change.
Tampa, FL — Florida is experiencing what appears to be the largest dengue outbreak in the continental United States in decades, with more than 250 locally acquired cases reported so far this year.
Most cases have occurred in Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa. Florida’s previous high was just under 200 locally transmitted cases in 2023. One death has been reported this year, involving an elderly Tampa woman in September.
Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral illness that often causes fever, severe body aches and other flu-like symptoms. Serious infections can lead to bleeding, shock and death. Many infected people, however, develop few or no symptoms.
Local officials have declared emergencies in Hillsborough and neighboring counties while mosquito-control crews conduct spraying and inspect properties for standing water where mosquitoes can breed.
Experts say Florida’s warm climate and heavy international travel contribute to dengue transmission. Mosquito species capable of spreading the virus have also expanded their range as temperatures rise, increasing concern that locally transmitted dengue could become more common.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided Florida with $800,000 in assistance, although state officials have not requested CDC investigators.
Residents are being urged to use EPA-registered repellents, wear long clothing and eliminate standing water around their homes.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: In the immediate weeks before Muse's launch, Meta engineers found several security vulnerabilities in the company's viral AI agent product, at least one of which could have allowed malicious users to break outside of Muse's intended environment and access Meta's own sensitive databases and services, 404 Media has learned. The issues were so severe that they reached Mark Zuckerberg and staff worked overtime to fix them. These specific vulnerabilities were discovered before the launch of the product but required a multi-team "mad dash" to fix "a sudden spike in reported KVM escapes," according to an internal post by Meta executives to its core infrastructure team seen by 404 Media. In order for Muse to work, a user gives the AI agent access to various important services and accounts that they own. On Meta's end, each individual Muse instance runs on a kernel-based virtual machine, which connects to, but is supposed to be isolated from, Meta's own critical infrastructure. A "KVM escape," then, is when, through a security vulnerability, a Muse instance is able to escape from that virtual machine and interact with the system that runs it, or with other users' virtual machines.
According to a Meta source, as well as internal security documentation and internal posts viewed by 404 Media, at least one of the vulnerabilities could have allowed an outside attacker -- that is, a normal Muse user -- to access data in sensitive internal Meta databases. At least one of the vulnerabilities was related to an exploit found in Linux kernel-based virtual machine code in July. 4 Several of the vulnerabilities were in the underlying Linux virtualization software that Meta uses for Muse. The security issue was considered serious enough that it was raised to Mark Zuckerberg, and several different security teams worked nights and weekends in the leadup to launch to fix the issues. [...] The Meta source said they felt security teams were asked to push hot fixes to these bugs as quickly as possible and in a way that wouldn't delay Muse's launch, leading to what they described as "half-baked protections being rushed out to enable the launch. Many senior engineers believe it's inevitable we're going to have a massive data breach as a result of Hatch." Muse is called "Hatch" internally and in Meta's codebase.
President Trump sent $500 checks to some Affordable Care Act enrollees, while 20 million Medicare recipients will soon get $90 checks. Will they make a difference?
How the court will lean is unclear amid Suncor Energy and ExxonMobil’s attempt to stop lawsuits at state level
The US supreme court began its new nine-month term hearing arguments on Monday in a major case in which big oil companies attempted to strike a fatal blow against lawsuits that seek to hold them accountable for the climate crisis.
After the almost two-hour hearing, while it was not yet clear which way the justices were leaning, experts said the court may find it challenging to write a majority decision siding with industry.
Bridgeville’s signature fall festival celebrates apples, scrapple and the agricultural traditions of western Sussex County as hometown producer RAPA marks its centennial.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE
BRIDGEVILLE — Apples, scrapple and a century of local food history will come together this week as Bridgeville welcomes thousands of visitors for the 34th annual Apple-Scrapple Festival.
The festival officially opens Friday, Oct. 9, and continues Saturday, Oct. 10, filling downtown Bridgeville with food, carnival rides, music, hundreds of crafters and vendors, contests and some traditions that are difficult to find anywhere else — including a ladies’ skillet toss and an invitational scrapple sling.
This year also brings a milestone particularly appropriate for a festival with “scrapple” in its name: Bridgeville-based RAPA Scrapple is celebrating its 100th anniversary.
Ralph and Paul Adams started the company in Bridgeville in 1926, combining their first names to create RAPA. The company continues to operate from its Bridgeville production facility and says it is the leading-selling scrapple producer in the United States.
At 11 a.m. Saturday, RAPA will hold a special Scrapple Centennial Serving at its gate entrance on Cannon Street. The ticketed event is scheduled to include scrapple smash burgers, scrapple tacos, a scrapple breakfast bake and even scrapple cinnamon buns.
What exactly is scrapple?
For people who didn’t grow up in Delaware, Maryland or southeastern Pennsylvania, the festival’s second namesake may require some explanation.
Scrapple is traditionally made by cooking pork trimmings and other edible parts of the hog, grinding the meat and combining it with broth, cornmeal or buckwheat and seasonings. The mixture is formed into a loaf, chilled, sliced and fried — ideally, devotees will argue, until crisp on the outside while remaining soft inside.
The food’s roots go back much farther than Bridgeville.
Scrapple developed from German pork dishes brought to Pennsylvania by German-speaking settlers commonly known as the Pennsylvania Dutch. The German predecessor, called panhas or by similar names, dates to at least the 16th century. In America, ingredients such as cornmeal were incorporated into the recipe, creating the food that became known as scrapple by the early 1800s.
Like many traditional farm foods, scrapple was born from practicality. Families who butchered a hog wanted to use every edible part rather than waste food. Meat remaining after cuts such as ham, bacon and sausage were prepared could be combined with inexpensive grain to produce another food capable of feeding a family.
The tradition eventually became deeply associated with the Mid-Atlantic, particularly Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland.
Bridgeville makes a festival of it
The Apple-Scrapple Festival itself dates to 1992, when Bridgeville residents began looking for a way to promote their town and western Sussex County’s agricultural industry.
They found their theme almost literally in their backyard.
Apples were grown nearby at T.S. Smith and Sons, a Delaware Century Farm, while RAPA had been producing scrapple in Bridgeville since 1926.
Apples plus scrapple became Apple-Scrapple.
The first festival attracted about 2,500 visitors. Festival organizers say attendance has since grown to more than 20,000, turning the event into a major fundraiser for community organizations and one of western Sussex County’s largest annual celebrations. The festival remains organized largely by volunteers.
The food court reflects both the festival’s agricultural roots and the philosophy that a fall festival should not send anyone home hungry. Offerings include scrapple sandwiches, apple dumplings, pies, barbecue, cheesesteaks, funnel cakes and other festival foods. Organizers say apple dumplings served with ice cream remain among the most popular items.
Then there are the competitions.
Children can compete in the Kids Apple Toss Friday evening. On Saturday, competitors take over the Union Methodist Church lot for the Ladies Skillet Toss before the action returns to the bandstand for the Invitational Scrapple Sling.
Visitors who prefer eating rather than throwing their food can browse craft and vendor areas, visit the Bridgeville Historical Society Museum, attend the St. Mary’s luncheon and quilt display, see the car show or spend the day at the carnival.
Friday is a more limited festival night centered around the carnival, food court, entertainment, Little Miss Apple Scrapple Pageant and street dance. The full complement of crafters and vendors arrives Saturday.
And for anyone still debating the proper way to eat scrapple, there may never be agreement.
Some slice it thick. Others insist it should be thin. Some want it extremely crisp, while others prefer a softer center.
Then comes the most dangerous question of all: syrup, ketchup or apple butter?
In Bridgeville this weekend, there should be plenty of opportunities to conduct your own research.
TO GO
What: 34th annual Bridgeville Apple-Scrapple Festival
Admission: Festival activities are generally open to the public. Some individual events or activities may require tickets or fees.
Parking: On Saturday, traffic will be directed to festival parking areas. Free shuttle bus service is available Saturday. Organizers suggest using 7350 Federalsburg Road, Bridgeville, as a GPS reference point for the Red Lot and following traffic-control personnel once approaching town.
Accessibility: Bus service and handicap-accessible accommodations are available.
Restrictions: Pets and unauthorized motor vehicles are not permitted in the festival area.
Information: applescrapple.com
COMPLETE 2026 APPLE-SCRAPPLE SCHEDULE
Friday, Oct. 9
4 p.m. — Bandstand, carnival and food court open
5 p.m. — The Life Center Worship Team, bandstand
5-6 p.m. — Kids Apple Toss registration, bandstand
6 p.m. — Opening ceremony, bandstand
6:15 p.m. — Little Miss Apple Scrapple Pageant, bandstand
7 p.m. — Kids Apple Toss, bandstand
8:30-10 p.m. — Friday Night Street Dance, bandstand
10 p.m. — Bandstand, carnival and food court close
Saturday, Oct. 10
9 a.m. — Festival opens
9-9:30 a.m. — Lifeway Worship, bandstand
10-11:30 a.m. — Star Spangled Sweethearts, bandstand
10 a.m.-3 p.m. — Bridgeville Historical Society Museum open, Williams Street
10 a.m.-3 p.m. — Library Lane open, Williams Street
11 a.m. — RAPA Scrapple Centennial Serving, RAPA gate entrance on Cannon Street
11 a.m.-3 p.m. — St. Mary’s Luncheon and Quilt Display, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, Williams Street
Noon-1:30 p.m. — New Direction, bandstand
12:40-12:55 p.m. — Ladies Skillet Toss registration, Union Methodist Church lot
1 p.m. — Ladies Skillet Toss, Union Methodist Church lot
2 p.m. — Health and Safety Fair closes, firehouse
2 p.m. — Car Show closes, Railroad Avenue
2 p.m. — Kids Zone closes, Union Methodist Church lot
2-3 p.m. — Invitational Scrapple Sling, bandstand
3-4 p.m. — Mariano Mallia, bandstand
4 p.m. — Schoolhouse Craft Show closes, Woodbridge Middle School
4:30 p.m. — Senior Center Vendor Show and Trade Show closes, Delaware, Walnut and Laws streets
4:30 p.m. — Invited Guests, Political and Sponsorship Rows close, Williams and South Cannon streets
5-7:30 p.m. — High Noon, bandstand
8-9:30 p.m. — DJ MIX, bandstand
9:30 p.m. — Bandstand, carnival and food court close
Schedule is subject to change. Festival schedule and event information are from the Bridgeville Apple-Scrapple Festival.
Student activists vandalized a Cornell University administration building overnight in response to the university’s handling of gang-rape allegations in a high-profile case that has dominated national news.
Students smashed a glass door at the entrance of Day Hall and painted messages on the walls at approximately 3am on Monday, the Cornell Daily Sun reported.
Government offensive launched under air cover by Saudi military coalition aims to retake all Houthi-held territory
Forces of the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen have recaptured several key areas around Bab al-Mandab strait from Iran-backed Houthi rebels, Yemeni officials said on Monday.
The officials said forces allied with the internationally recognized government have retaken the crucial town of Dhubab just north of the strait. They also captured the towns of Bab and Hadeid, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters. Witnesses said they saw government tanks and forces entering the towns.
Steve Hilton, the Republican candidate for California governor, is receiving heavy criticism from members of his own party over a controversial, sexual innuendo-filled campaign ad that has been described as “creepy”.
The video entitled “Just Try It, California” was released last week and depicts two young women with brightly colored hair, sitting on a bed in front of a pride flag in low lighting. One nervously says “I can’t believe I’m doing this”, while another strokes her hair and coaxes “don’t be nervous, it’s not that bad” before guiding her to fill out a ballot for Hilton and aggressively commanding “lick it”.
After more than two hours of argument, it was unclear whether the justices would green-light Boulder, Colorado’s novel lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy.
First-of-its-kind event inspired by Delaware-filmed mockumentary “The Conspiracists” will feature Bigfoot calls, tin foil hats, games, vendors and a movie screening
WILMINGTON — Bigfoot believers, UFO skeptics, comic fans and anyone willing to ask “what if?” will have a place to gather in Wilmington later this month.
ConCon, a conspiracy-themed convention inspired by the Delaware-filmed comedy mockumentary “The Conspiracists,” will be held Sunday, Oct. 18, at the Siegel Jewish Community Center.
Organizers describe the event as a lighthearted celebration of the fascination surrounding conspiracy theories rather than an effort to prove or disprove them.
“ConCon isn’t about whether conspiracy theories are true. It’s about why they’ve captured our imagination for generations,” said Christopher Bruce of Wilmington-based King Creative. “Through comedy, games, pop culture, interactive exhibits, unique vendors, and a movie that brings it all together, ConCon transforms curiosity into a shared adventure that everyone can enjoy.”
The convention runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., followed by a screening of “The Conspiracists” and a cast and creator question-and-answer session from 5 to 7 p.m. Ticketing information lists the overall event through 7:30 p.m. Ticket Tailor
Among the scheduled attractions are a tin foil hat-building station, Bigfoot Calling Championship, kids foil fashion show and “Real or Fake?” interactive game show.
A vendor hall will feature comics, collectibles, independent artists and other attractions. Attendees also will have opportunities to meet artists, puppeteers and creators connected to the movie.
From movie screen to real convention
ConCon essentially brings to life the fictional convention at the center of “The Conspiracists.”
The comedy follows siblings trying to create an all-inclusive conspiracy convention as their plans begin falling apart and an even larger conspiracy may be developing around them.
The movie was filmed almost entirely in Delaware and prominently features local locations, including the Hotel du Pont, The Grand and the Siegel JCC itself. The Conspiracists
Directed by Michael Perrie Jr. and produced by Uncultured Swine and King Creative, the film had its world premiere Jan. 8 at The Grand in Wilmington. BroadwayWorld
The production also relied heavily on Delaware cast members, crew members, businesses and locations, an approach filmmakers have said was intended to make Delaware part of the story rather than simply a stand-in for somewhere else. Town Square Delaware LIVE
Three ticket options
Organizers are offering three levels of admission.
The $10 Civilian Pass includes access to the vendor hall and daytime programming, including contests, the tin foil hat station, photo opportunities and scavenger hunt.
The $15 Conspiracist Pass adds reserved seating for the evening movie screening, access to the cast Q&A and additional raffle entries.
The $25 Classified Access ticket includes the daytime and movie activities, early entry, VIP movie seating, a post-panel group photo with the cast and a giveaway that organizers say will be revealed at the event.
The official ticket listing confirms that ConCon will be held Sunday, Oct. 18 — correcting a reference to Saturday contained later in the event announcement. Ticket Tailor
To Go Box
What: ConCon 2026
When: Sunday, Oct. 18
Expo: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Movie screening and cast Q&A: 5-7 p.m.
Where: Siegel Jewish Community Center, 101 Garden of Eden Road, Wilmington
The English and Welsh Greens are facing international ostracism after adopting a policy declaring Zionism as a form of racism, which has drawn dismay from the group representing European Greens.
The co-leader of the German Greens separately said the policy was “intolerable and unacceptable”, running contrary to its belief in the right of Israel to exist.
President Donald Trump and other federal officials are claiming that deals the administration has struck with pharmaceutical companies are “rescuing state budgets” or helping to “save Medicaid” by saving the program tens of billions of dollars on prescription drugs over a decade.
But experts say there are many unanswered questions about the scope of those deals that could limit the potential savings, including how many drugs they actually cover.
It’s also an exaggeration to suggest this program will single-handedly save state budgets, even under the rosiest of scenarios. According to the White House’s projections, the savings to states would initially come to less than 2% of what they spend on Medicaid annually, and diminish over time.
Trump makes an announcement about prescription drug pricing for Medicaid on Sept. 18. Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian.
Trump has talkedregularly about his efforts to lower prescription drug costs, arguing it’s unfair that the U.S. pays much higher prices for brand-name drugs than other wealthy countries.
Over the past 13 months, his administrationhasannouncedagreementswith more than two dozen drug manufacturers — from large corporations like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson to midsize biotech firms — to bring certain prices in line with those in other countries. The administration calls this approach “most favored nation” or MFN pricing.
Among other things, companies have agreed to sell certain drugs to state Medicaid programs at MFN prices. Trump and other administration officials touted the potential savings that could generate at a Sept. 18 White House event.
“The Council of Economic Advisers estimates that the most favored nations deals that we’re extending to states today will save Medicaid over $64 billion, and that’s over a relatively short period of time,” Trump said. “And others project the savings are going to be actually much more than that. I think they’re going to be much higher than that. Could be $100 billion.”
Those savings, Trump continued, “will help us save Medicaid and protect it for future generations.”
“We are rescuing state budgets with this program,” Dr. Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, added. Medicaid prescription-drug spending, he said, “is crowding out schools and roads and long-term care and rural care.”
“It’s going to save the state budget,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, adding that states previously “had to choose between medicine and nutrition, lifestyle, prevention.”
The $64 billion number comes from a report released in May by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, which projected that MFN pricing could save Medicaid about that much over 10 years, split between the federal government and the states.
But experts told us it’s unclear how realistic that estimate is. The details of Trump’s agreements with drugmakers are largely confidential and key questions remain unanswered, including which drugs will be offered to Medicaid at MFN prices, the degree to which states will participate and how long those arrangements will last.
“It is unclear what assumptions were made to develop the administration’s estimates, and there are a number of factors that make it difficult to assess the overall impact the new model will have on Medicaid drug costs,” Robin Rudowitz, a senior vice president and director of the Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured at the nonprofit health policy research organization KFF, told us in an email.
Because Medicaid already gets substantial discounts on prescription drugs, the amount of savings will depend heavily on which drugs are included and whether the prices actually give states a better deal, said Edwin Park, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families.
He said the administration initially made it seem like participating companies would offer all their drugs to Medicaid at MFN pricing, which the CEA report describes as the second-lowest prices among a small set of countries — the G-7 nations, plus Switzerland and Denmark. But a number of companies have since indicated that the agreements cover only some products.
“There’s just sort of a cone of silence around all these agreements,” Park said. “So, you know, I think a healthy dose of skepticism is warranted in this case.”
A White House official said the CEA analysis “is based on manufacturer and state participation” and the administration expects the actual savings to be in line with its estimates.
A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told us the Medicaid program, called GENEROUS, includes “hundreds” of drugs used to treat cancer, asthma, Parkinson’s and various other “costly and chronic diseases.”
“CMS estimated total [MFN] rebates flowing through GENEROUS could reach $5.2 billion annually, depending on which drugs, of those included in GENEROUS, states choose to access through the model each year,” the spokesperson said. “This figure represents a significant portion of annual net drug spend in Medicaid.”
We’ve previously written about other aspects of Trump’s drug-pricing deals, including his exaggerated claims about the savings available through the government’s direct-to-consumer TrumpRx platform and the administration’s questionable projections that his MFN policies will save hundreds of billions of dollars overall.
Here’s a closer look at the Medicaid drug-pricing initiative, what we know about it and the administration’s claims about potential savings.
Lack of Details Make It Hard to Assess Savings
Medicaid, which provides health coverage to more than 65 million people with low incomes or disabilities, already pays some of the lowest prices in the U.S. for prescription drugs. By law, manufacturers have to agree to certain rebates for their drugs to be covered by Medicaid. On top of that, most states negotiate “supplemental rebates” that further reduce the cost of branded drugs.
Those discounts reduce Medicaid’s drug costs by more than half. In fiscal year 2024, Medicaid’s gross spending on prescription drugs topped $106 billion, but net spending was only $48 billion after rebates, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a governmental body that advises Congress on Medicaid policy.
Nearly all of those costs are split between states and the federal government. Medicaid beneficiaries pay, at most, a nominal copay for their prescriptions, so they’re not directly impacted by Medicaid drug prices going up or down.
While prescription drugs account for a small share of overall Medicaid spending — around 6% in 2024 — rising drug costs can be a concern for state budgets. Pharmaceutical companies’ deals with the Trump administration include participation in GENEROUS, through which they’ll offer state Medicaid programs access to certain drugs at MFN prices. The five-year pilot program launched in January, and participation for states and drug manufacturers is voluntary.
The Council of Economic Advisers report estimated that the GENEROUS model would initially reduce Medicaid’s drug costs by $18 billion per year, though because it assumes the changes would also increase prescription drug utilization, it put the net savings at $14.4 billion.
The report said those savings would likely diminish over time as existing products lose patent exclusivity, though it says Medicaid would continue to benefit from other provisions of the president’s MFN deals that cover new product launches. (We’ve previously written about the shaky assumptions behind the administration’s claims of massive savings from those provisions.) Experts have also pointed out that companies could raise prices in other countries, so that they wouldn’t have to discount their drugs as much in the U.S.
Taking those diminishing effects into account, the report put the total savings over 10 years at $64.3 billion.
Outside researchers have come up with somewhat lower estimates. An analysis published in the journal JAMA in July estimated the potential one-year savings at $8.6 billion.
“The CEA estimates are basically sort of a back-of-the-envelope calculation,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Thomas Hwang, director of the Cancer Innovation and Regulation Initiative at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
The CEA calculated its savings by assuming that current Medicaid prices are 2.5 times higher on average than MFN prices would be, but doesn’t go into detail about how it arrived at that figure. Hwang said it’s also unclear if CEA accounts for other supplemental rebates, which states would have to forego to access MFN prices.
Hwang’s study, which is based on drug- and state-specific data, looked at a somewhat smaller cohort of drugs than CEA’s, but he said that would only account for part of the difference between estimates.
The bigger issue, he said, is that it’s not yet clear which drugs will actually be included in GENEROUS.
The CEA report said its estimate is based on “implementation of Medicaid MFN across all single source branded drugs and biologics.” Hwang and colleagues made the same assumption in their study. He said that’s how federal officials initially described the program, including in a request for applications directed at states.
But “what we’ve seen in the past month or so is a lot of backsliding on that commitment,” Hwang said. Multiple companies havesaid in Securities and Exchange Commission filings or other public statements that MFN pricing for Medicaid applies only to “certain” or “select” products.
Because Medicaid requires additional rebates if a drug’s price rises faster than inflation, older drugs tend to be discounted more steeply, so the savings from MFN pricing could depend heavily on which specific drugs are included, he said.
“One of the concerns with this is, obviously, companies have every financial inventive to cherry-pick which drugs they offer MFN pricing for, in ways that will reduce their MFN liability,” Hwang said.
Jeromie Ballreich, an associate research professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies pharmaceutical policy, similarly said savings will vary widely from drug to drug.
In a forthcoming study, he and several co-authors looked at how GENEROUS could affect prices for 86 branded drugs accounting for more than half of Medicaid gross drug spending in 2024. For more than a third of those products, they found, there wouldn’t be any savings. For the others, savings ranged from 1.3% to 87.5%.
“Some drugs are going to provide a lot of savings,” he said. But “there’s going to be other branded drugs out there that will provide essentially no savings because of the way the inflation rebates affect Medicaid pricing. There are branded drugs in the Medicaid program that are [already] essentially free for Medicaid.”
The paper estimated the GENEROUS model could save Medicaid $3.1 billion over a year, but Ballreich said that’s going to be “highly dependent” on which drugs are actually included and how international reference prices are calculated.
“So there are still a number of question marks,” he said.
“The GENEROUS model includes hundreds of single source and innovator multiple source covered outpatient drugs from the portfolios of participating manufacturers,” the CMS spokesperson told us.
“The included drugs span most major drug classes, including those acutely important to Medicaid beneficiaries like oncology, diabetes care, and asthma. Some of these drugs are used to treat numerous costly and chronic diseases, including hemophilia, Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration, glaucoma, liver disease, skin conditions, and various forms of cancer.”
State Uptake Remains to Be Seen
Another open question is the degree to which states choose to participate. Under the GENEROUS model, states can pick and choose which specific drugs they want. Whether the MFN price offers them a better deal will depend on what kind of rebates they’ve already negotiated with the manufacturer.
States will also have to agree to a standard set of coverage criteria for each MFN-priced drug, which could change guidelines for when certain drugs need prior authorization. Those changes could offset some of the savings if the criteria result in more people being prescribed those drugs.
“The key question for states is, how does [the MFN rebate] compare to their existing rebates, and then how expansive are the coverage terms,” said Park, the Georgetown professor.
Trump announced on Sept. 18 that all 50 states had joined the GENEROUS model, though the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services clarified later the same day that while every state had applied, 40 had actually signed agreements to participate. The health news site STAT reported on Sept. 24 that some states were still on the fence about doing so.
At least some of the remaining states did sign agreements with CMS before the Sept. 30 deadline, spokespeople for their health departments told us. However, those departments also told us they’re still evaluating whether to accept any MFN offers from manufacturers. Several of them said that signing participation agreements was the only way to access pricing information and determine whether there would be a benefit.
“Applying and signing a participation agreement does not commit the state to actually participate in the GENEROUS model in terms of entering into rebate agreements with manufacturers,” Anthony Cava, a spokesperson for the California Department of Health Care Services, told us in an email.
“Rather, signing a participation agreement will enable DHCS to obtain drug pricing information, evaluate whether the MFN prices offered under the model would meaningfully benefit Medi-Cal [California’s Medicaid program], and decide whether entering into supplemental rebate agreements with manufacturers would be advantageous.”
One state, South Dakota, announced last month that it “has currently identified three drugs that would benefit from these lower prices, saving the state approximately $750,000 a year.” South Dakota’s Medicaid program spent $167.2 million on prescription drugs in fiscal year 2024, with the costs split between the state and federal governments.
Multiple state health departments have told us or other news outlets that they can’t share specifics due to confidentiality agreements. CMS told us that its projections of potential savings will depend “on which drugs, of those included in GENEROUS, states choose to access through the model each year.”
There’s also uncertainty about how long these agreements will be in place. Some companies haveindicated their deals with the administration run for three years. Pfizer’s ends on the last day of Trump’s term, according to a redacted copy released to the liberal watchdog group Public Citizen through a Freedom of Information Act request.
“Participating manufacturers voluntarily chose to sign participation agreements to take part in GENEROUS and we do not currently plan to renegotiate the GENEROUS model during its five-year performance period,” the CMS spokesperson told us.
The White House official said the CEA projections assume the MFN arrangements will continue under future administrations.
“Those who assume it won’t last a decade would be making an assumption that a future administration would not want MFN pricing and the hundreds of billions in savings associated with it,” the official said.
Ballreich said trying to make projections about the pharmaceutical market 10 years out is inherently difficult because of the number of variables. He said the administration’s estimate of $64 billion over 10 years is “probably a little high,” though not outside the realm of possibility.
But again, he said, it’s “hard to model out without knowing the details.”
Ballreich also noted that by agreeing to offer some discounts to Medicaid, drug companies appear to have negotiated exemptions from the administration’s implementation of mandatory MFN pricing in Medicare.
“For pharmaceutical companies, Medicare is where they make their money,” he said. “Medicaid is often kind of this afterthought.”
The MFN pricing initiative in Medicare has two components. One of those programs, called GLOBE, covers drugs administered in doctors’ offices. CMS recently released a final rule estimating it will save $440 million over seven years — a 96% decrease from the initial estimate of $11.9 billion in savings. According to the rule, the program will apply to just four manufacturers, as other companies have exemptions because they are participating in the Medicaid pilot. (The other one, GUARD, applies to prescription drugs and is still in the works.)
“The narrative that I’m understanding from industry, or at least how industry has been interpreting the approach by the administration, is that ‘We will participate in GENEROUS,’” Ballreich said. “‘In return, we’re going to be a lot more selective on what drugs are going to be in GLOBE and GUARD.’”
Questionable Claims of ‘Rescuing’ State Budgets
Whether or not the White House’s projections are realized, experts told us MFN pricing could create real savings for states and the federal government. But claims of “rescuing” state budgets are overblown.
We asked CMS what exactly Oz meant by that and didn’t get a direct answer. But even taking the White House estimates at face value, the savings represent a fraction of what states spend on Medicaid — not to mention all services — every year.
While prescription drugs are a small part of total Medicaid spending, a recent policy brief from KFF noted that rising drug prices and the “emergence of new, high-cost drugs can put pressure on state budgets.” More than a third of states cited rising pharmacy costs as one of the factors driving higher Medicaid spending overall in KFF’s most recent survey of state Medicaid directors.
Because states and the federal government split the cost of Medicaid, not all of the projected $64 billion in savings would go to states. The CEA report projects that states collectively would save $6.2 billion per year at first and $27.6 billion over a decade, or about $2.8 billion per year on average.
By comparison, in fiscal year 2024, states spent around $325 billion of their own money on Medicaid, according to KFF. The projected savings in the first year would amount to about 2% of that, falling to less than 1% in later years as MFN discounts diminish over time. The savings make up an even smaller share of total state expenditures, which came to around $2 trillion in fiscal year 2024, not counting costs reimbursed by the federal government, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
Of course, that’s not to say states wouldn’t welcome those savings.
Park said states are justifiably concerned about rising medication costs, especially as new, expensive blockbuster drugs come out.
“That being said, prescription drugs is only a very small share of Medicaid spending, well under 10%,” he said. “The big drivers are things one would expect, like hospital costs.”
Park also noted that the domestic policy law Trump signed last year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, includes cuts to Medicaid funding that could outweigh the potential savings from lower prescription drug prices.
Some of those changes, such as work requirements and more frequent eligibility checks, will reduce both state and federal Medicaid spending by limiting enrollment. But other provisions cut federal funding to states without reducing the size of the Medicaid program, meaning states will have to make cuts or use general funds to make up the difference.
On balance, a recent study from the nonpartisan research organization RAND estimated those changes could cost state general funds more than $80 billion through 2034, though the effects vary by state.
“You can see how there’s going to be some savings if these agreements go into effect,” Park said. “But it’s not a way for states to offset the historically large Medicaid cuts that were included in the budget reconciliation law, and that includes the significant cost shifts to states.”
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Norway is preparing legislation that would temporarily ban camera-equipped smart glasses in a range of public places, including parks, beaches, museums, shopping centers, schools, daycare centers, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events. Private use would still be allowed. The Guardian reports: Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway's minister of digital affairs, said he was worried that new, powerful technology is being introduced where people risk being photographed, filmed or audio-recorded without knowing it."
"We do not want a society where people worry about being recorded without their knowledge, photographed or filmed in places and situations where they are accustomed to not being monitored," he said.
Norway's Labour party, which heads a minority government, needs the support of other parties to pass the proposed ban. It said it planned to submit a bill "as soon as possible," while tasking an expert group with drawing up permanent regulations on the issue.
Party has common enemy in defectors, while Nigel Farage’s woes have given some insiders reason to hope
During a quick-fire Q&A at the Conservative party conference this weekend, Kemi Badenoch was asked who she would pick between Robert Jenrick or Suella Braverman.
“Why do you keep offering me these? It’s like asking if I’d rather be shot or drowned,” the Tory leader responded with her trademark directness.
President Donald Trump pointed to quick results in the first round of voting in Brazil’s presidential election to denounce the pace of ballot counting in Democratic U.S. areas as “corrupt.”
Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro — the son of Brazil’s former president who was sentenced to prison following an attempted coup after losing the 2022 election — was leading Oct. 4 in the first round of voting ahead of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, 47% to 45%. They will proceed to a runoff Oct. 25.
Trump posted Oct. 4 on Truth Social, “125 Million People voted today in the first round of Brazil’s Presidential Election. The results came out shortly after the vote closed, on the SAME DAY! In Detroit, Philadelphia, California, and numerous other U.S. Cities and States, the results, with much smaller numbers, will often take weeks to Rig, I mean, calculate. Voting in America is CORRUPT!!!”
In a different late night post that is no longer available, Trump made the same statement about India, which did not hold a presidential election over the weekend.
By the time of Trump’s Brazil post, it was clear the candidates were headed to a runoff and nearly all votes were cast.
The pace of vote counting is not a sign of election rigging. Brazil and the U.S. have different voting systems and election laws.
An electronic voting machine displays a test screen as local electoral court workers test and seal voting machines ahead of Brazil’s October general election in Brasilia, Brazil, Sept. 23, 2026. (AP)
Brazil has no mail-in voting. Voting is in person, at electronic voting machines, and it is mandatory for citizens between ages 18 and 70, said Pablo Ortellado, University of São Paulo professor of public policy. Voting takes place on a single day that is a national holiday.
Elections are run by a specialized branch of the judiciary, the Electoral Justice system. At the top is the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), a national court that sets the rules and coordinates 27 regional electoral courts that handle elections on the ground.
“It is a single, nationally standardized system: the same machines, the same procedures and the same counting process across the whole country,” Ortellado said. “That is a big part of why results come out within hours.”
Brazilian officials have worked to increase transparency. In 2021, the Superior Electoral Court created the Electoral Transparency Commission, which includes experts, civil society entities and public institutions in inspecting and auditing the electoral process.
The country has used electronic voting machines since 1996. Voters cast ballots on dedicated machines protected by multiple layers of testing and auditing.
“Curiously, Brazil’s electronic voting system, which is indeed very fast and quite secure, draws heavy criticism precisely from the Brazilian right that is sympathetic to Trump,” Ortellado said. “Critics argue, among other things, that because there is no printed record of each vote deposited in a ballot box for physical verification, the system cannot be properly audited.”
Since the late 1990s, the nation’s election results have been available quickly.
As soon as the polls close at 5 p.m., results are gathered, said Paulo Valle, a political scientist and researcher at the University of Central Florida and FGV in Brazil. “By the end of the evening we have 99.9% of the ballots counted.”
Brazil has a completely paperless system, said Eduardo Repilloza Fernández, coordinator general for Transparencia Electoral, an organization that encourages elections held according to internationally recognized integrity standards.
“There’s no signatures to check, no physical paper-ballot tabulation systems. Voters do not get an individual receipt of their vote,” Fernández said.
How the U.S. administers elections
A sheriff’s deputy and his dog inspect ballots at the L.A. County Ballot Processing Center during the California primary election on June 2, 2026, in City of Industry, California. (AP)
In the U.S., each state sets its own election laws, and cities and counties administer elections.
State laws cover the deadline for receipt of mail ballots, when election officials can open mail ballots and prepare them for tabulation and the dates by which they must certify official results. All of those laws play a role in how long it takes to complete the official count.
Some contests have wide enough margins between top candidates that media outlets can project a winner based on partial results. But the final official results are often certified weeks later. If the vote is close, even an election with little mail balloting can take time to call. Some elections with lots of mail balloting can be called quickly if a candidate is far ahead.
No state completes an official count on election night.
Trump singled out California, which often takes longer than the rest of the country because nearly everyone votes by mail and it counts ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received not later than seven days after Election Day.
Expansive voting by mail is convenient for voters — even Trump frequently votes by mail. But it takes longer for local election officials to process and verify mail ballots.
We asked the White House for Trump’s evidence that the pace of counting ballots in California or the cities of Detroit, Philadelphia or elsewhere is a sign that people are rigging the election. We did not get an immediate response.
Falsehoods followed Brazil’s 2022 election
A forensic investigator Jan. 10, 2023, stands outside the Brazilian Supreme Court that was damaged by supporters of Jair Bolsonaro angered over election results. (AP)
President Jair Bolsonaro, father of Flávio Bolsonaro, narrowly lost in 2022 and claimed the election was fraudulent, sparking protests by his supporters.
More than 1,000 people stormed Brazil’s government buildings including Congress, Supreme Court and presidential offices on Jan. 8, 2023, smashing windows and setting fires. In March 2026, Bolsonaro received permission to serve his sentence for the coup attempt at home because of poor health.
The Atlanta-based Carter Center, which sent observers to Brazil for the election, said it was not aware of any evidence of fraud in the 2022 election, and none of the international or Brazilian observers reported any evidence of significant fraud. The center similarly sent experts to watch the 2026 election.
Cesar Zucco, a Columbia University professor of Brazilian studies, told PolitiFact that voter registration, voting and counting “are electronic and safe” and that “the only people that ever questioned the mechanics of the elections were Bolsonaro and his allies in the recent past.”
Our ruling
Trump said Brazil’s same-day election results are proof that places like Detroit, Philadelphia and California “take weeks to rig” their elections.
His frequent critique after other countries’ speedier election results still lacks evidence.
Brazil and the U.S. have different voting systems and laws. Brazil has a nationally standardized system that uses the same machines, the same procedures and the same counting process across the whole country, and doesn’t have voting by mail, which is expansive in some U.S. states, including California. Voting by mail takes longer for local election officials to process mail ballots and verify they were cast by the voters whose names are on the envelopes.
The pace of vote counting is not proof of election rigging.
Scalable advisory services give companies access to senior-level strategic communications expertise, from targeted projects to comprehensive, long-term communications support
KENNEWICK, Wash., Oct. 5, 2026 — Team Libra, LLC, a strategic communications advisory firm specializing in advanced and emerging technology sectors, today introduced its Strategic Communications Accelerator, a flexible service offering for strategic communications consulting services based on each client’s specific needs, internal capabilities and business objectives.
Rather than a one-size-fits-all consulting package, or an open-ended consulting arrangement that may not be cost-effective for small- and mid-size organizations, the Strategic Communications Accelerator organizes Team Libra’s advisory services around three scalable levels of engagement: Impact, Exemplar and Vanguard.
Companies can engage for a focused communications challenge to address a specific need combining services across the three levels, or work with the firm on a broader engagement extending from initial strategy and market positioning through content development, execution, spokesperson development and team coaching.
“Our Strategic Communications Accelerator framework is our way of making senior-level strategic and executive communications expertise more accessible and adaptable,” said Mike Bernhardt, Founder and CEO of Team Libra. “While one company may need our help to rethink its overall communications strategy and then work alongside its team from concept through execution, another may have a strong internal team but needs specialized help with positioning, messaging, content or preparing executives to represent the company. It’s a flexible service that lets us enter where we can provide companies the greatest value.”
A central objective of the Strategic Communications Accelerator is to strengthen, not replace, a client’s existing communications resources. Team Libra works alongside internal marketing and communications professionals, executives, subject-matter experts and other stakeholders, providing experienced counsel and additional capabilities while transferring knowledge and helping internal teams become more effective.
“We’re not trying to create a permanent dependency on an outside consultancy,” Bernhardt said. “We want to help clients sharpen their strategy, strengthen their capabilities and accelerate their progress in the markets that matter to them. For some companies, that means working across the entire communications continuum. For others, it means coming in for a defined assignment, solving the problem, strengthening the team in the process, and stepping back.”
Across advanced computing and other data-intensive technology markets, companies increasingly compete against crowded claims, ambitious promises and complex technical narratives. Team Libra’s senior managers have spent decades working in these environments, helping organizations translate sophisticated technologies into clear market differentiation and compelling value propositions aligned with customer needs.
“Emerging companies sometimes assume their only choice is to hire additional staff or retain a large agency for an extended engagement,” said Doug Black, Partner and Vice President of Content Strategy at Team Libra. “But very often, they already have talented people. What they may lack is senior-level strategic counsel, specialized expertise, additional bandwidth or an outside perspective at a critical point in their growth. Our model lets us fill those gaps while working directly with the people who will continue carrying the communications program forward.”
Three Levels of Strategic Communications Support
The Strategic Communications Accelerator provides three complementary levels of advisory support. They can serve as a progression for organizations seeking comprehensive communications development or as individual entry points for companies with more targeted requirements.
IMPACT: Establishing the Foundation
Impact focuses on aligning an organization’s communications strategy, capabilities and priorities with its business objectives. Working collaboratively with the client’s communications team, executives and other stakeholders, Team Libra examines existing communications activities, resources and strategic direction to identify gaps, clarify priorities and establish a stronger foundation for effective communications.
EXEMPLAR: Strengthening Market Positioning and Differentiation
Exemplar focuses on how a company; its technologies and its value are understood by the audiences that matter most. Team Libra works with clients to strengthen positioning, messaging and organizational narrative so communications clearly articulate meaningful differentiation, demonstrate relevance to customer needs and establish a consistent identity across channels.
VANGUARD: Strengthening Voice and Market Presence
Vanguard focuses on putting strategy and positioning into action through content, communications materials, thought leadership and spokesperson development. Team Libra works alongside client teams and executives to strengthen external communications and improve their ability to engage customers, industry analysts, journalists and other influential audiences.
Together, the three levels allow companies to scale the engagement to fit their needs. A client can begin with a focused assignment in one area, draw capabilities from multiple levels, or engage Team Libra across the communications lifecycle, from strategy and positioning through execution and team development. Companies don’t pay for research or consulting advice they don’t need.
Team Libra’s founders bring more than six decades of combined experience in strategic communications, technology journalism, executive counsel, content development and business ownership. Their experience spans major technology corporations, national laboratories, government-funded advanced computing initiatives, research institutions, emerging technology companies and startups.
The Strategic Communications Accelerator is available to emerging technology companies, established firms entering new markets and organizations seeking to strengthen the capabilities and effectiveness of their existing communications teams.
A full brief of Team Libra’s Strategic Communications Accelerator can be downloaded here.
Team Libra, LLC, is a strategic communications advisory firm serving companies and organizations in advanced computing and emerging technology markets. The firm provides strategic communications counsel, market positioning, executive communications, content strategy, and spokesperson development. Its founders bring more than six decades of combined experience helping technology companies, research organizations and scientific leaders communicate complex technologies and strengthen their market presence.
Experts say strength of evangelical church and stubbornness of Lula, 80, also helped propel Jair Bolsonaro’s son to first-round election win
On Sunday night, as the scale of the far-right triumph in Brazil sank in, an adapted football chant rang out in one of Rio’s most leftwing areas.
“Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa! Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa! Let’s turn this around, Lu-laaaaa!” crestfallen progressives bellowed while drowning their sorrows after witnessing an excruciating election setback for their leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Former prince to challenge whether Thames Valley force and central criminal court of England and Wales acted lawfully over searches relating to his arrest
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is taking action against Thames Valley police and the central criminal court to challenge the legality of search warrants that led to his arrest this year, a judicial spokesperson has said.
A private high court hearing is scheduled to take place before Mr Justice Hilliard on Thursday to determine whether documents related to the former Duke of York’s call for a judicial review can be made public, with Thames Valley police and the central criminal court of England and Wales in opposition.
PepsiCo initiated class II recall of 28oz bottles last month over ‘undeclared’ yellow dyes, FDA notice says
About 122,000 cases of the popular sports drink Gatorade have been voluntarily recalled across 37 US states due to their having “undeclared” food dye, according to an official federal notice.
The varieties of the drink involved in the notice include 28oz bottles of Gatorade Lemon Lime, Lime Zero, Orange and Gatorade Orange Zero, the notice said. Gatorade’s manufacturer – the soda giant PepsiCo – initiated its recall on 25 September, said the advisory, which was posted on the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s website.
Authorities say crash in Winter Haven involved three vehicles, including bus filled with dozens of schoolchildren
A high school student and one other person were killed in a crash that caused a school bus to flip over on to its roof in central Florida early on Monday, according to authorities.
About 26 students traveling on the public school bus involved in the crash were taken to the hospital, the Polk county sheriff’s office said in a statement posted to Facebook. The bus had 39 occupants: 37 high school students, the bus driver and the driver’s daughter, officials said.
The first James Bond film, Dr. No from 1962, with artwork by Mitchell Hooks, which has previously commanded five-figure sums at auction. (Ewbank's Auctions via SWNS)
A dozen B-1s stationed at Gloucestershire base redeployed over concerns about possible threat from Iran
Downing Street has insisted RAF Fairford is secure a day after the US air force suddenly withdrew a dozen B-1 bombers that had been stationed at the Gloucestershire base over security concerns about a possible threat from Iran.
The prime minister’s spokesperson, speaking during a scheduled briefing, said “yes” when asked if the military site was safe – contrasting with the concern the US military revealed during the hasty redeployment the day before.
Blake Stephenson tells fringe meeting at Tory conference that the town is ‘a very dangerous place’ with ‘ghettoes’
A shadow Conservative Home Office minister has claimed there are “no-go zones” in Luton where “white people won’t go”.
Blake Stephenson, the MP for Mid Bedfordshire who was appointed to the Tory frontbench role two weeks ago, claimed the town was “a very dangerous place” where some communities “live in ghettoes”.
Police and security agencies in multiple countries scramble to piece together background and intentions of Hamam al-Hammami
Investigators believe the co-pilot who tried to take control of a plane from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week originally planned his attack for July but postponed the hijacking, possibly because a friend was among the crew, regional and Israeli officials have said.
The evidence of prior planning suggests that Hamam al-Hammami, 29, may have specifically sought employment with an airline that flew to Israel in order to carry out the attack on last Wednesday’s flydubai flight FZ1073, experts believe.
A new open-source command-line tool called RemoveMacAI lets macOS 27 users disable Apple Intelligence and reclaim around 12GB or more of storage. MacRumors reports: In macOS 27, Apple removed the toggle to disable Apple Intelligence wholesale, and simply disabling individual features doesn't remove the models from your Mac's drive. As explained by the developer, RemoveMacAI gets around this by using a configuration profile to switch off Apple's own asset management service and remove the models.
It then configures the system so attempts to download the removed models are redirected to a closed local port, preventing them from immediately coming back. And it does all this without disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP) or manually deleting files from protected system locations, unlike some older tools have. The tool can free up roughly 12GB of space depending on which models are present on your Mac. That said, some users are reporting cases of Apple Intelligence models having taken up a lot more space, which they've now reclaimed.
A plant in Southaven, Mississippi, that powers Elon Musk's SpaceXAI data centers in the area has sparked backlash from residents concerned about noise and air pollution.
Noise from a Mississippi plant powering Elon Musk's xAI data centers in the area is causing migraines, ringing ears and sleepless nights, residents say.
Tit-for-tat expulsions expected after relations deteriorate as a result of UK ban on goods from illegal settlements
The UK has threatened to expel one Israeli diplomat for every British diplomat forced to leave Israel as a result of Israel’s decision to close the UK consulate in East Jerusalem later this week.
This could mean as many as 27 Israeli diplomats being expelled from the UK, a step that would arguably mark the lowest point in British-Israeli diplomatic relations since the formation of the state of Israel.
Oct. 5, 2026 — The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has put the HoreKa 2 Supercomputer into operation. The new system will support researchers in their efforts to address complex scientific issues, such as climate, new materials, particle physics, energy, and mobility as well as AI research, more quickly. For this purpose, it combines powerful high-performance computing and modern AI technologies. The total cost of the facility amounts to EUR 17 million.
With its performance of around 33 petaFLOPS, HoreKa 2 can perform calculations that would take months or even years on traditional computer systems. Photo credit: Markus Breig, KIT.
Representatives from academia, politics, and industry jointly put the supercomputer into service on Friday, September 25, 2026 in a ceremony held at KIT Campus North.
More Computing Power for Research and Innovation
Modern research addresses questions that cannot be answered without the help of high-performance computing. More precise climate models, the development of new materials, sustainable technologies, or next-generation AI applications: For these tasks, huge amounts of data need to be processed and highly complex simulations be performed. HoreKa 2 lays the foundations for this endeavor.
With its more than 42,000 processor cores, 300 AI accelerators, and a planned peak performance of around 33 petaFLOPS, HoreKa 2 can perform calculations that would take months or even years on traditional computer systems, thereby strengthening KIT’s research infrastructure. The system is also available to researchers from all over Germany.
“If you want to stay ahead in research and innovation, you need optimum computing power. With the new HoreKA 2 supercomputer at KIT, we are launching the next generation of super-efficient high-performance computing. KIT is one of nine nationwide centers of the National High-Performance Computing Network (NHR) and an important player in this field. With its expertise, it contributes to the digital sovereignty of Germany and Europe,” said Petra Olschowski, Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science, Research and the Arts.
“HoreKa 2 strengthens the digital capabilities of KIT and combines cutting-edge research with a clear focus on sustainability. It will allow us to create the conditions necessary to conduct data-intensive research and run modern AI applications in an energy-efficient and sustainable manner,” said Professor Kora Kristof, Vice President Digitalization and Sustainability at KIT.
High Performance Computing for Research Efforts in Any Discipline
“Researchers from nearly all disciplines will benefit from the new system,” said Professor Martin Frank, member of the Board of Directors of the KIT Scientific Computing Center (SCC). “With the new system, we are able to double the computing power for simulations and AI applications.”
Besides its focus on Earth system sciences, engineering, materials sciences, and particle physics, the computing capacities are also made available to numerous other disciplines. The integrated graphics processors are designed specifically for AI applications that are being used in almost all areas of science today.
Sustainable HPC
During the development and procurement phases of the new system, performance and energy efficiency were given equal priority. HoreKa 2 is one of the most energy-efficient supercomputers of its performance class worldwide. For cooling the system, hot water is used, ensuring particularly energy-efficient operation and free cooling all over the year. Power supply at KIT’s Campus North is 100 percent based on renewables. In addition, cogeneration and photovoltaics facilities contribute to a sustainable power supply.
Police say two suspects broke into Penny Hill Service and Repair Center, stole customers’ keys and drove away in two vehicles; a second suspect remains at large
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware State Police have arrested a 25-year-old Claymont man and are searching for a second suspect after two vehicles belonging to customers were stolen during a burglary at a Wilmington-area auto repair shop.
Troopers were called about midnight Sept. 26 to Penny Hill Service and Repair Center, 517 Philadelphia Pike, for a burglary in progress.
When officers arrived, they found broken glass in a garage door and searched the business, but the suspects had already fled.
Investigators said a man and woman forced their way into the repair shop and stole keys belonging to customers who had left their vehicles there for service. The pair then allegedly used the keys to steal two of those vehicles.
The Delaware State Police Criminal Investigations Unit took over the investigation.
Four days later, on Sept. 30, Wilmington police received information that one of the stolen vehicles was near East Eighth and North Buttonwood streets.
Officers located the vehicle and took Tzair Bryant, 25, of Claymont, into custody. Police said Bryant was carrying the keys to the stolen vehicle.
Wilmington police contacted Delaware State Police detectives, who responded and identified Bryant as the male suspect in the Penny Hill burglary, according to state police.
Bryant was taken to Delaware State Police Troop 1 and charged with third-degree burglary, possession of burglar tools, two counts of motor vehicle theft, second-degree conspiracy and criminal mischief under $1,000.
All of the charges except criminal mischief are felonies.
Bryant was arraigned in Justice of the Peace Court and committed to the Delaware Department of Correction in lieu of $3,100 secured bail.
State police said they are continuing to investigate and are seeking the second suspect, described as a woman.
TO GO BOX
What: Delaware State Police investigation into a burglary and theft of two customers’ vehicles from Penny Hill Service and Repair Center
Where: 517 Philadelphia Pike, Wilmington
When: About midnight Sept. 26
Arrested: Tzair Bryant, 25, of Claymont
Charges: Third-degree burglary; possession of burglary tools; two counts of motor vehicle theft; second-degree conspiracy; criminal mischief under $1,000
Status: One suspect arrested; police are seeking a second suspect
Information: Anyone with information about the burglary or the second suspect should contact Delaware State Police.
Detectives continue to investigate this incident and ask anyone with information relevant to the case to contact Detective M. Kerrigan by calling (302) 365-8487. Information may also be provided by sending a private Facebook message to the Delaware State Police or contacting Delaware Crime Stoppers at 1-800-847-3333.
If you or someone you know is a victim or witness of a crime or has lost a loved one to a sudden death and needs assistance, the Delaware State Police Victim Services Unit / Delaware Victim Center is available to offer you support and resources 24 hours a day through a toll-free hotline at 1-800-VICTIM-1 (1-800-842-8461). You may also email the Victim Services Unit at DSP_VictimServicesMail@delaware.gov.
A researcher at a climate change think tank says the Conservative policy would be a ‘disaster for first time buyers’
Yesterday, as a gimmick, the Tories were handing out “Bottler Burnham” bottles of water (“0% strength”) to make a point about Burnham supposedly cancelling plans for an early election under pressure from the Tories. It is a version of a stunt they pulled in 2008 when they gave journalists bottles of a “Bottler Brown” beer. (Gordon Brown did pull plans for an early election at the last minute; this time the jibe is unfair, because there were no Burnham plans for an early election.)
The new bottles feature the image of Burnham produced by the Manchester artist Stan Chow.
The SNP’s effective ban on new nuclear energy in Scotland flies in the face of common-sense.
No part of Great Britain should be missing out on plans for new nuclear renewal.
Apparently, America’s new AI data centers are going to drink us dry.
If you’ve followed the debate over AI data centers, you’ve probably seen some alarming numbers. We’re told that data centers will consume hundreds of millions, or even more than half a billion gallons of water a day. They’ll drain aquifers, compete with farmers and homeowners, and generally turn the surrounding countryside into something resembling Death Valley.
Sounds bad.
There are two basic problems with this story: the water-use numbers are usually presented without much context, and many of the assumptions about data-center water consumption are based on cooling technology that doesn’t make sense for AI systems.
Let’s take them in turn.
How Big Is Big?
The first problem with enormous numbers is that almost any number sounds enormous when you don’t have anything to compare it with.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2015 national water-use estimates — still the agency’s most recent comprehensive breakdown across all major water-use sectors — the major categories look roughly like this. USGS has published more recent water-use research, but it uses a different methodology and scope and doesn’t provide the same comprehensive sector-by-sector national picture.
Thermoelectric power: 133 billion gallons per day
Irrigation: 118 billion gallons per day
Public supply: 39 billion gallons per day
Self-supplied industrial: 14.8 billion gallons per day
Put 0.047 next to 133, 118, 39, or even 14.8 and it becomes pretty difficult to make the case that data centers are currently one of America’s dominant water users.
But you’ve probably seen a much larger number associated with data centers.
That’s where things get interesting.
The 12x Problem
In addition to direct water use at data centers, LBNL estimates approximately 0.58 billion gallons per day of indirect water use associated with the electricity consumed by data centers. That’s more than twelve times the direct figure.
What is indirect water? It’s water consumed upstream in generating the electricity used by the data center.
And let’s be clear: that water is real.
The problem isn’t that somebody at LBNL made it up. The problem is what happens when that additional layer is added to data centers while we’re comparing them with the standard water-use figures for everybody else.
When we say irrigation uses roughly 118 billion gallons per day, public supply uses 39 billion, or industry uses 14.8 billion, those numbers aren’t increased by adding the water associated with generating all the electricity those sectors consume.
But that’s routinely done with data centers. Applying the same accounting treatment to homes, offices, schools, and factories would radically increase their numbers as well.
So when you hear that enormous data-center water number, it’s worth asking a very simple question: What exactly are we counting?
But there’s another problem with the water debate. We’re often talking about the wrong kind of data center.
The Data Center Has Changed…and So Has the Cooling
Traditional data centers have typically been cooled by cooling the entire room which is what we call Air cooling.
Cold air is pushed up through the raised floor, moves through the servers, and absorbs the heat generated by CPUs and other components. The heated air is then drawn away and sent back through the cooling system to be cooled again.
Keeping all that air cold — typically in the low 60s °F — requires a substantial cooling infrastructure. This means Computer Room Air Handlers (CRAHs), evaporative cooling towers on the roof, and chilled-water systems.
In the CRAH, hot air passes over chilled-water coils that absorb the heat. That heat eventually makes its way to the cooling towers, where some of the water is evaporated to dump the heat outside. The water lost through evaporation has to be continually replaced from local outside supply.
That architecture made sense when data centers were filled with racks drawing perhaps 6–10 kW each.
But AI has changed the equation. Dense AI racks can draw 100 kW and up today, and will draw more tomorrow. At those power densities and at AI data-center scale, trying to remove all that heat with conventional room-level air cooling borders on absurd.
A 100 kW AI rack isn’t simply a hotter version of the old problem. It’s a different problem.
So instead of cooling the entire room, modern AI data centers increasingly take the heat away where it’s actually generated: at the chips.
That’s direct-to-chip liquid cooling. (It could also be immersion cooling, but DLC leads in adoption right now. And I’m trying to keep the analysis simple for the non-techies out there. Also not discussing two-phase DLC, a very intriguing alternative.)
Don’t Cool the Room. Cool the Chips.
Water blocks sit directly on the CPUs and GPUs. Liquid captures the heat and carries it to a Coolant Distribution Unit, or CDU.
The CDU transfers that heat to a second facility loop, which carries it outside the building.
The important part is that both are closed loops. The server coolant stays in the server loop. The facility water stays in the facility loop. They’re circulating the same liquid rather than continuously pulling new water from an outside source.
There’s another advantage: the cooling liquid doesn’t have to be particularly cold.
Useful inlet temperatures can be in the 80s °F, and current GPU platforms are validated for coolant temperatures as high as 113 °F. That’s a very different job than trying to maintain an entire data-center room in the low 60s.
And it gives operators several ways to get rid of the heat.
When outside temperatures permit, the facility can use dry cooling — essentially fans blowing outside air across coils. No outside water is required for heat rejection.
When it gets hotter, the system can move to adiabatic cooling, using a relatively small amount of water to lower the temperature of the incoming air through evaporation.
And during the hottest conditions, a chiller can do the final cool down. That costs more electricity, but doesn’t require outside water for evaporative heat rejection.
The result is a fundamentally different water-use model.
Instead of an evaporative cooling tower continually losing water and requiring replacement water, a well-designed closed-loop AI cooling plant can operate dry much of the time, using outside water primarily when conditions require adiabatic assistance.
The data center has changed. The cooling has changed with it.
Scare Gallons vs. Real Gallons
Water supply absolutely needs to be considered with a new data center proposal.
If a proposed facility is going to draw heavily from a constrained local water supply, that’s a legitimate issue. Ask where the water will come from. Ask whether it’s potable or non-potable. Ask what cooling architecture the facility will use. Ask how many hours the cooling system is expected to require outside water and what its makeup-water requirements will be.
Those are questions that can actually tell you something about the impact of that particular data center.
What doesn’t tell you much is taking a national estimate, adding indirect electricity-related water to it, assuming a cooling architecture the proposed facility probably won’t use, and presenting the result as evidence that AI data centers are going to drain America’s water supply.
That’s how we get scare gallons.
I’d rather deal with real gallons.
I go into more detail — including the numbers, cooling architectures, and analysis — in the new Olds Research report, “Scare Gallons vs. Real Gallons.”
Detroit, MI — Former President Barack Obama is set to campaign in Detroit later this month for Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed as Democrats intensify their midterm push in Michigan.
Obama is scheduled to appear with El-Sayed on Oct. 24, the first day of in-person early voting in Michigan. The rally will also feature other Democratic candidates, including gubernatorial nominee Jocelyn Benson, as the party works to consolidate support after a competitive primary.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary after running with support from progressive figures including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His campaign now turns to a general election that could help determine control of the Senate.
Obama’s appearance is notable because El-Sayed underperformed in Detroit during the primary, making turnout in the heavily Democratic city an important focus for the fall campaign. The former president has become increasingly active in the 2026 midterms, recording advertisements and appearing with candidates in several states.
The Michigan stop comes as both parties pour resources into competitive races nationwide, with the Senate balance among the biggest stakes heading into November.
Washington, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a Michigan mother’s challenge to a school district’s ban on “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, leaving in place a lower-court ruling that schools may prohibit the slogan as veiled profanity.
The dispute began in 2022 after two boys were told to remove sweatshirts bearing the phrase, which became a conservative political slogan during Joe Biden’s presidency and is widely understood as a substitute for an obscene insult directed at Biden.
Their mother argued that the students’ First Amendment rights were violated because the shirts contained no actual profanity or sexual language. Her attorneys warned that allowing schools to classify coded political messages as vulgar could give administrators broad discretion to suppress political expression they dislike.
The school district countered that messages with lewd or vulgar implications can be restricted in classrooms even when they contain political content. It also pointed to evidence that students had been permitted to wear “Make America Great Again” apparel and other messages supporting Donald Trump.
A lower court sided with the district, concluding that the slogan’s widely understood meaning allowed officials to treat it as vulgar expression.
By refusing to review the case, the Supreme Court left that ruling intact without issuing an opinion on the broader First Amendment question.
A Florida woman was arrested on a felony charge after Anthropic's human review team flagged and reported a Claude conversation in which she allegedly threatened to "shoot up" the Lee County Sheriff's Office and later mentioned acquiring a new gun. Tom's Hardware reports: Anthropic monitors chats for key phrases and content that could be deemed threatening, the arrest report says, and depending on severity, they can be elevated for human review. In this case, the team decided to report its findings to law enforcement. The Bonita Springs woman was detained at home without incident, and an LCSO intelligence detective took over the case from there. The arrest report is not yet in the court file, but our own check shows court records listing the Sept. 30 felony charge under Florida Statute 836.10: written or electronic threat of a mass shooting or act of terrorism.
No comment from Anthropic on the case is currently on record. Anthropic's public privacy policy, effective Sept. 10, says that disclosure to law enforcement may occur where it has a good-faith belief "that disclosure is reasonably necessary to ... prevent serious harm to any person or to property." Its government requests report for the latter half of 2025 uses a narrower standard for emergency disclosures, the "danger of death or serious physical injury to a person," and lists zero emergency requests from law enforcement in that period, though it doesn't count referrals Anthropic makes on its own.
Oct. 5, 2026 — Microsoft is pleased to recognize the winners and finalists of its latest round of the Quantum Pioneers Program.
Credit: Shutterstock
Progress in quantum computing depends on advances that work together. New physical devices need reliable measurement and control; error-correcting codes need practical implementations; and algorithms need to make effective use of the resources available. Research collaborations bring complementary expertise to these connected challenges.
Microsoft looks forward to working with this new cohort of researchers to test ideas, share insights, and advance useful, fault-tolerant quantum computing.
Below are the winners of the Hardware Track and the winners and finalists of the Software Track from the June 2026 competition.
Hardware Track Winners
Winner
Institution(s)
Submission Title
Andrea Young & Michel Devoret
University of California, Santa Barbara
Advanced Readout Techniques for High Magnetic Field Topological Qubits
Constantin Schrade & Valla Fatemi
Louisiana State University; Cornell University
Evaluation of Fast, High-SNR Parity Measurements via Inductive and Dot-Free Methods
Michael Wimmer & Anton Akhmerov
Delft University of Technology (TU Delft)
Multi-Objective Optimization of Measurement-Based Quantum Computing in Quantum Dot Kitaev Chains (MOOKit)
Shyam Shankar
University of Texas at Austin
DC-Powered Super-Semi Amplifier for Scalable Qubit Readout
Ali Yazdani & Michael P. Zaletel
Princeton University; University of California, Berkeley
Building a Prototype Topological Qubit
Software Track Winners
Five proposals were selected as winners of the Software Track.
Winner
Institution(s)
Submission Title
Edward F. Valeev
Virginia Tech
Realistic Active-Space Hamiltonians for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computers
Ruben Verresen & Henry Yuen
University of Chicago; Columbia University
Adaptive Computation on Measurement-Based Topological Hardware
Aleksander Kubica & Alex Retzker
Yale University; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Adapting Recent QEC Constructions to Quantum Hardware
Isaac L. Chuang
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Quantum Redundant Residue Arithmetic Coding: Non-CSS Qudit Codes that Make Arithmetic Clifford
Jong Yeon Lee
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
From Logical Spectroscopy to Hardware-Aware qLDPC Compilation
Software Track Finalists
Microsoft also congratulates the six finalists of the Software Track.
Winner
Institution(s)
Submission Title
Vojtech Vlcek & Alexander Kemper
University of California, Santa Barbara; North Carolina State University
Adaptive Dynamical Downfolding for Correlated Materials
Gushu Li
University of Pennsylvania
Architectural Support for Fault-Tolerant Measurement-Based Topological Quantum Computing
Junyu Liu
University of Pittsburgh
End-to-End Quantum Software for Majorana-Native Stabilizer Codes
Ning Bao & Eugene Tang
Northeastern University
Locality-Aware Quantum Error Correction for Fault-Tolerant Architectures
Yu Tong
Duke University
Open-System Quantum Simulation with Near-Optimal Spacetime Scaling
Sabre Kais
North Carolina State University
Quantum Simulation of Chiral Reaction Dynamics for Drug Discovery
Congratulations to all of the winners and finalists, and thank you to everyone who submitted a proposal. Microsoft looks forward to submissions in future rounds of the Quantum Pioneers Program.
Source: Matthias Troyer and Chetan Nayak, Microsoft
Oct. 5, 2026 — The Jülich Innovation & Entrepreneurship Certificate Program (JUICE) offers workshops and individual coaching for doctoral researchers and postdocs at Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen, to support the transfer of their research – as a spin-off, a license deal, a consulting service, or a citizen science initiative. Participants can develop their own project ideas or join a team.
Epilogue: Michiel van der Vlag (JSC) & Anjana Rajan (PGI-9). Credit: Forschungszentrum Jülich/ Buglowski.
The Innovation Contest marked the end of the six-month JUICE program, in which 15 doctoral researchers and postdocs explored potential users and markets, tested their ideas and developed business models. Seven teams pitched their ideas for putting research to use. The jury selected the Epilogue project as the winner. Anjana Rajan (PGI-9) and Michiel van der Vlag (JSC) recently received the award including a funding of €2,500 at the Startup Village Jülich.
Epilogue: Towards Anticipating Epileptic Seizures with Neuromorphic Computing
Epilogue is an early-stage research and innovation concept exploring how wearable EEG, neuromorphic computing and brain-state modelling could be combined to anticipate epileptic seizures. The project is currently focused on developing and evaluating the underlying concept and its technical feasibility.
The idea is to move beyond detecting a seizure once it has already started and instead investigate whether changes in brain dynamics can reveal transitions towards seizure-prone states.
The concept combines continuous wearable EEG monitoring with low-power neuromorphic processing, reservoir computing and state-space modelling. A neuromorphic reservoir would transform the continuous EEG stream into a rich dynamical representation of brain activity. From this representation, the aim is to estimate where the brain currently sits within its state-space landscape and track how this state evolves over time. The neuromorphic technology is developed at PGI-9. An overview of the technology is shown in the following figure.
Epilogue technology overview
An important part of the concept is its patient-specific approach. Rather than relying only on general seizure signatures, Epilogue aims to explore whether individual brain-state trajectories can be learned and used to recognize transitions associated with an increased risk of seizures.
The concept is being developed by Michiel van der Vlag from JSC together with Anjana Rajan from PGI-9, bringing together expertise in computational neuroscience, brain-state modelling and neuromorphic hardware.
The next steps are to investigate the scientific feasibility of the approach, develop and test the individual components, and explore how they could eventually be integrated into a low-power wearable system which we envision to be integrated in familiar forms, as shown in the following figure. In the longer term, the vision is a patient-specific device capable of continuous brain-state estimation while processing sensitive EEG data locally.
Medical transport plane flying from Bermuda to Boston crashed off coast of Massachusetts early Saturday
Six people are presumed dead after the US Coast Guard on Sunday suspended its search for survivors of a medical transport plane crash off the coast of Massachusetts early the previous day.
The aircraft, which was flying from Bermuda to Boston, lost contact with ground authorities at about 2am on Saturday, and the Coast Guard located a debris field near the island of Nantucket later that day.
Russian led Capitals to their first-ever Stanley Cup win
Ovechkin turned 41 in September
Alex Ovechkin said on Monday that his 22nd season in the NHL will be his last, beginning the farewell tour for the longtime Washington Capitals captain who holds the league’s career goalscoring record.
Ovechkin told his teammates of his decision before the Capitals posted a message from the Russian star on social media.
Camera-enabled Meta spectacles are already restricted in UK and US because of fears about covert recording
Norway is planning a temporary ban on smart glasses in some public places, amid rising global concern at the spread of the AI-enabled recording devices.
The Oslo government is planning a bill to prevent the use of the camera-enabled spectacles in parks, beaches, museums, shopping centres, schools, daycare centres, healthcare facilities, gyms and public events, although private use would still be allowed.
The FlyDubai co-pilot accused of trying to crash a packed plane planned the attack for months, and should never even have been cleared to fly to Israel, sources tell CBS News.
Attorneys for Christa Pike, who survived a botched execution in Tennessee last week, have renewed their push for the state to commute her death sentence.
Israel was ready to implement a long-practiced protocol after the captain of a FlyDubai plane was attacked in the cockpit, Israeli sources told CBS News.
‘I don’t control message or what we’re doing,’ scandal- hit state attorney general reportedly says at private event
Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general chosen by Donald Trump to run as the Republican candidate for a Senate seat, admitted in private that his campaign was being controlled by outside forces in Washington DC.
Paxton, who is locked in a competitive race with the progressive Democrat James Talarico, told people at a fundraising event in September that he had never felt such little control over his campaign because of outside influence.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says society should accept some negative consequences from AI in exchange for the technology's broader benefits and widespread public access. "I think there's a lot of daylight," Altman told Decoded co-author and Politico senior tech reporter Brendan Bordelon. Asked about where he differs between Anthropic and its CEO Dario Amodei, Altman said, "we believe that the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of this technology and people having the agency." From the report: Altman agreed with Amodei's call last month to slow the development of the most advanced AI models. His company has followed Anthropic in endorsing new state laws that impose stricter safety requirements than what the maker of ChatGPT had previously supported -- a subtle shift from its prior state strategy. And OpenAI lobbyists recently endorsed a bipartisan House proposal that would require top AI companies to embed outside safety evaluators.
Despite the convergence, Altman tried to distinguish his firm's regulatory stance from Anthropic's, referencing a criticism about regulatory capture that tech advisers close to President Donald Trump have applied to Anthropic. "I disagree, but I understand the perspective of people who are like, 'This technology is going to get so powerful, and it's so dangerous, that a single lab in San Francisco should have it and make sure nothing bad happens, and kind of figure out how to dole out the benefits,'" said Altman. He called it "a completely unacceptable trade-off" that runs counter to the "lighter-touch regulatory stance" backed by OpenAI.
"I wouldn't take a trade of saying, 'We'll make sure there's no major hacks, there's no misuse of this technology, there's zero scams, there's zero all the other bad things that will happen,'" said Altman. "Because I think people will do tremendously -- orders of magnitude more -- good stuff than bad stuff." The OpenAI CEO later added that he does not accept "the really catastrophic risks," including the potential for "a serious loss of control to AI."
Hundreds of schools in France remain closed amid planned demonstrations across the country
The conservative People’s Party is very pleased with the announcement.
“At last,” they say on their X, with a slick election video – set to the EU’s anthem “Ode to Joy” – to go along with it.
Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has called a snap election for 29 November, just days after rightwing parties blocked his minority government’s emergency measures on housing amid widespread protests (9:10).
The election will take place on Sunday, 29 November, the earliest possible date procedurally.
In a fierce address, Sánchez framed the election as choice between “regressing” under a “far-right coalition” or “keeping moving forward” with his progressive administration (9:04, 9:09, 9:17).
He said the election will be about who will guide Spain through a period of disruption amid high political tensions, global instability, climate emergency, and uncertainty posed by the rise of AI (9:13).
The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday over a bid by Exxon Mobil and Suncor Energy to block a lawsuit filed by the city and county of Boulder over the effects of climate change.
Party in England and Wales ditches commitment to phase out nuclear in major shift in its energy policy
Green party members have voted to end the party’s opposition to nuclear power, dropping a commitment to phase out the technology in a major shift in its energy policy.
The motion, adopted at conference, removes a “blanket opposition to nuclear fission” and instead commits the Green party of England and Wales to assessing nuclear projects alongside other low-carbon technologies.
Thousands expected to join marches of support on Tuesday across the country amid growing concerns over police response
France is bracing for a national day of protests and high-school blockades as a youth protest movement gathers pace amid a growing debate over the scale of the police response.
In one incident, a 15-year-old protesting against what demonstrators said were France’s dilapidated and understaffed schools had his hand blown off outside a high school in the northern town of Lens, said François-Xavier Lauch, the prefect of Pas-de-Calais.
The US withdrew its bombers from RAF Fairford after an investigation into an alleged planned terrorist attack on the base. At least 10 B-1 bombers used by the US military in the Iran conflict flew out of Fairford on Sunday, suggesting US officials were taking the threat seriously. Last week, five men in three vans near the military base were arrested, followed by a sixth British-Iranian national. All were released on bail, drawing criticism from the Pentagon.
Lucy Hough speaks to Dan Sabbagh, the Guardian’s defence and security editor – watch on YouTube
Maybe the key to life is being able to bench press 300lb at 75. But do we need more muscle-bound, angry guys around?
I loathe going to the doctor.
Not a controversial opinion, compared with some of the other ones in this section of the Guardian. I’m not exactly arguing for universal basic income or for Manchester City to be relegated to the Saudi Pro League here. No one looks forward to a doctor visit, with its recriminations for bad habits or various intrusive blood tests. People don’t have cocktail parties to celebrate their yearly check-up, and yet, it seems like every day, there’s a new reason to go get prodded by a stranger in a lab coat.
Quarantine measures in place in several hospitals in eastern Russia amid uncertainty over death of Darya Shipilova
The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said the US is closely monitoring the case of a Russian laboratory worker who died last week after a reported accident at a plague research institute in Siberia.
“We’re watching and monitoring it closely,” Rubio said on Monday before leaving for a trip to Europe. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an eye on it.”
Fall foliage does not end when New England reaches its early peak. Several destinations farther south or at lower elevations change colors only through late October and early November.
Sánchez’s gamble: This ‘all-in’ election will have international impactExpert commentjon.wallace
Announcing the election, Sánchez set himself in opposition to President Trump and Javier Milei as well as Spain’s populist right. Much will depend on the prime minister’s ability to rally a fragmented left.
The decision by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap election is a risky move, but he will have felt he had little choice. His decision fires the starting gun on a year of vital and polarized elections across Europe.
The announcement is not entirely unexpected. Spain was required to hold an election by August 2027 anyway. And Sánchez’s multiparty coalition has looked fragile since it formed in July 2023: it has not passed a full budget since.
In January, the government approved a decree that regularized the status of 500,000 undocumented migrants and asylum seekers – a move unusual among EU countries generally committed to tightening migration restrictions. In July, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta was overwhelmed by a surge of tens of thousands of migrants, leading to criticism of government policy from within Spain and abroad, including US President Donald Trump.
This month, a new issue has arisen, as protests grow over housing affordability. The protests prompted the government to introduce emergency legislation, only to see the bill rejected by Spain’s Parliament late last week. This gave Sánchez his opening to call a general election, arguing that ‘to do more, we need to renew and broaden the support of the people’.
What are Sánchez’s chances?
Sánchez is a proven survivor and faced similar difficulties in 2023. But calling an election now is a gamble. The summer’s crises have given his political opponents plenty to work with, and trouble assails the prime minister and his party, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), from every side.
The opposition on the right will use the January decree and images of the Ceuta crisis to rally their vote and criticize the government’s competence. The left will point out the housing crisis has deteriorated under Sánchez. Then there are the corruption scandals that plague the prime minister. Some of his closest political allies are embroiled in the Koldo case – an investigation into corruption in health procurement contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a separate case, the prime minister’s own wife has been charged with embezzlement and corruption.
To survive, Sánchez will use the same playbook that worked for him in 2023, where he characterized the contest as a choice between ‘Sanchismo’ (his brand of social democrat politics) or a ‘backward-looking’ far right.
His hope will be that opposition to the PP right wing opposition party – and far right Vox party in particular – will mobilize left wing voters in a highly polarized contest. Vox leader Santiago Abascal regularly speaks of a ‘migrant invasion’ and used Sanchez’s January decree to call for ‘Repatriations, deportations and remigration’.
Notably, Sánchez’s speech on the steps of La Moncloa (the Spanish prime minister’s residence) put international talking points at the centre of his pitch, contrasting his positions with the those of the right, and particularly US President Donald Trump and Argentinian President Javier Milei:
‘We have strived to build a better world for our fellow citizens and for the rest of humanity,’ he said, ‘supporting Ukraine, the European Union, and the United Nations in their darkest moments. Denouncing genocidal regimes when others remained silent.
‘Fighting tyrants, techno-oligarchs, and speculators who want to destroy the future of our sons and daughters to enlarge their pockets. Doubling our aid to international cooperation while others boasted of cutting it with their chainsaw or on that military altar of 5 per cent of GDP.’
Spain’s voting system
50 days of intense campaigning and negotiation between parties will now follow. These negotiations matter because of Spain’s electoral system.
Spain uses the D’Hondt method in provincial constituencies, which punishes parties polling in low single figures. Small parties can survive by running together on a joint list, but past attempts have had mixed results.
Sumar is the largest of these groupings. Despite having no leader, it has launched ‘Frente Amplio’ (the Broad Front) to try to pull support together. Much will depend on the firebrand MP Gabriel Rufián. He is seen as a potential unifier of the fragmented parties to the left of PSOE. But he is not a Sumar figure, and internal politics and personalities have a habit of wrecking electoral pacts in Spain. Podemos, PSOE’s coalition partner, joined Sumar’s list in 2023 but broke away within months.
For Sánchez, what happens to his left matters more than ever. His pitch therefore needs to be binary.
For Sánchez, what happens to his left matters more than ever. His pitch therefore needs to be binary. Expect him to use Trump, Milei and Flávio Bolsonaro (ahead in Brazil’s presidential race after the first round) as bogeymen to focus minds even before the ballots are printed.
On the right, the Partido Popular (PP) will likely approach a ‘Ming Vase strategy’ of trying to just get through the next 50 days without any major mishaps. It is not clear that this can work. Questions about what a coalition with Vox would look like will follow their leader Alberto Feijóo. His inability to respond adequately to such questions in 2023 likely cost him victory.
Spain’s vote will now be the first in a series of crucial European elections. France chooses a new president in spring 2027. Italy, Poland, Finland and Greece are due to vote before the year is out. Many of these contests will look like Spain’s, with some seeing fragile coalitions on the left facing a confident and surging right.
The results will matter well beyond domestic politics. For instance, as the US continues to demand the continent do more for its own defence, disruptive elections will make it harder to make progress on a more coherent joint European approach to security. This campaign will be closely followed across the continent – and from across the Atlantic – as politicians seek to perfect their pitch in ever more polarized times.
Deal would have created a supermarket with a market share of 23.6%, still well behind Tesco’s 27.8%
Sainsbury’s held merger talks with rival Morrisons this year to discuss a multibillion-pound deal that would have been the biggest shake-up for UK supermarkets in decades, according to reports.
The two companies held exploratory negotiations, according to the Financial Times and Sky. It is believed they are no longer in live discussions.
Operation supported by 100 fighter jets said to have secured ‘air protection’ of Bab al-Mandab strait and destroyed hundreds of targets
Leaders of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed a broad air campaign involving 100 jet aircraft was under way on Monday against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coastline and farther north in the capital, Sana’a.
The Saudi coalition spokesperson, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the 100 fighter jets participating in Operation Dawn of Yemen were providing support to forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.
Pakistani authorities insist marchers calling for former PM to be released from jail will not reach the capital
Imran Khan’s supporters have begun a march to Islamabad to demand his release from jail after efforts by the government to halt the protest failed.
The march began in the former prime minister’s stronghold province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in north-west Pakistan on Sunday, according to leaders of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
Family of Virginia Giuffre criticizes Colorado’s Jeff Crank for voting to block a vote to release the Epstein files
Two relatives of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most prominent Jeffrey Epstein victims who died last year, appeared in a political attack ad targeting the Colorado Republican congressman Jeff Crank, accusing him of refusing to meet with them.
Sky Roberts, Giuffre’s brother, and his wife, Amanda Roberts, expressed disappointment that Crank had voted to block a vote to release the federal investigative files relating to Epstein.
Washington, DC — U.S. public schools recorded nearly 12,000 book bans during the 2025-2026 school year, the highest annual total documented since PEN America began tracking removals in 2021.
The free-expression organization counted 11,982 bans involving 7,370 individual titles across 114 school districts. Since 2021, PEN America has documented roughly 34,000 instances of books being removed or restricted from student access.
Texas accounted for more than 8,100 bans, overtaking Florida after three years in which Florida led the country. PEN America attributes much of the Texas increase to SB 13, a state law restricting broad categories of school-library materials. Researchers also found that some districts are increasingly using artificial intelligence tools to identify large numbers of books for review or removal.
Patricia McCormick’s Sold, a novel about a Nepalese teenager trafficked into sexual slavery, was the year’s most frequently banned title. Stephen King was the most frequently banned author for a second consecutive year.
Supporters of book restrictions generally argue that parents and school boards should have greater control over sexually explicit or age-inappropriate material. Free-expression advocates counter that increasingly broad restrictions remove legitimate literature dealing with subjects including racism, LGBTQ issues and sexual violence.
The figures come as parents, educators and activists continue battling over what students should be allowed to read in public schools.
Montgomery, AL — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore’s appeal seeking to restore an $8.2 million defamation verdict tied to a 2017 Senate campaign advertisement.
The decision leaves intact an 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned a federal jury’s finding in Moore’s favor. The original case involved an advertisement funded by the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC during Moore’s unsuccessful 2017 Senate campaign.
Moore argued that the ad combined excerpts from separate news reports in a way that falsely suggested he had been accused of soliciting sex from young girls at a shopping mall. A federal jury agreed with him in 2022 and awarded $8.2 million in damages.
The appeals court later vacated that verdict, concluding Moore had failed to prove the PAC acted with “actual malice,” the heightened legal standard public figures generally must meet in defamation cases. The Supreme Court’s refusal to take the case means that ruling remains in effect.
Moore’s 2017 campaign was dominated by sexual misconduct allegations. Leigh Corfman said Moore sexually touched her in 1979 when she was 14 and he was 32. Moore has denied that allegation and other accusations made against him.
Youngest press secretary in White House history left earlier this year after the birth of her second child
Karoline Leavitt, who stepped down as White House press secretary in August, is joining her former boss’s favorite network, Fox News, as an on-air contributor, the channel announced on Monday.
Considering that two of her predecessors from Donald Trump’s first administration, Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kayleigh McEnany, had also joined Fox after leaving office, Leavitt was seen as a logical fit for Fox, on which she will begin providing commentary on 1 November.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Quartz: Huawei and Qualcomm on Monday announced a multi-year, broad patent license agreement covering 5G, artificial intelligence, compute, and networking technologies, along with Qualcomm's purchase of certain Huawei U.S. patents in those same fields. The deal is the first patent licensing agreement between the two companies to cover 5G technologies, according to Reuters. Huawei said the agreement is expected to bring the cumulative value of its patent licensing deals above $6.9 billion upon closing.
The agreement includes cross licenses to both companies' patent portfolios and is structured around fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory, or FRAND, principles, the company said. The transaction will close following receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals. [...] The company noted that its intellectual property licensing unit has been profitable since 2021. Huawei made its first licensing payment to Qualcomm in 2001 and received its first licensing income, from Motorola, in 2011, according to Reuters. American export controls that took effect in 2019 have curtailed Huawei's access to cutting-edge chips and essential software, according to Reuters. The constraints pushed Huawei to increase its research and development spending in recent years.
In Spain, tens of thousands of people in 50 cities have taken to the streets amid mounting fury over the country’s housing crisis, their feelings made plain on a banner at the burgeoning protest camp in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol plaza: “You can speculate on watches, jewels, crypto-bros and Ferraris. But not on our fucking homes.”
In France, as high school pupils clash with police in often violent protests over long hours, missing teachers, crumbling classrooms and an opaque university admissions system, the angry slogans include: “More hours in class than for sleep”, “Fund study, not repression” and “I’d like to be worrying about my maths exam, not my future”.
Critics of former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper falsely claim that he was miles away from the Tar Heel State when Hurricane Helene made landfall two years ago.
Cooper is the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Thom Tillis, R-NC, who’s not seeking reelection. Cooper faces Republican Michael Whatley, Libertarian Shannon Bray and Green Party candidate Michael Dublin for the seat.
Cooper served as governor from 2017 through the end of 2024 and led the state’s initial response to Hurricane Helene, which caused an estimated $60 billion in damage in North Carolina in September 2024. Now, with Cooper now running for U.S. Senate, critics are resurrecting a claim that PolitiFact debunked in 2024.
“This Saturday marks two years since Hurricane Helene devastated North Carolina and nearby Southern states. Where was Roy Cooper when Helene slammed into North Carolina? In New York speaking at a New York Times ‘Climate Forward’ event,” President Donald Trump’s campaign account said in a Sept. 21 X post. Trump’s X account repeated the claim in a Sept. 26 post.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, a GOP political action committee, posted a similar claim on Sept. 23: “Where was Roy Cooper two years ago when Hurricane Helene hit North Carolina? At a climate conference in New York City touting Green New Deal policies.”
In a Sept. 28 Republican National Committee email to supporters, the RNC said that “during the storm itself, Cooper was at a climate change gala in New York City.”
Those claims are wrong.
On Sept. 25 — a day before Helene had even made landfall in Florida — Cooper attended a New York Times conference about climate change and was back by 3 p.m. that day, the governor’s office told media outlets at the time and Cooper’s campaign confirmed to PolitiFact.
On Sept. 27, Cooper was in Raleigh when the most damaging wind and rain hit western North Carolina. We found no evidence that he left the state.
Timeline of events
PolitiFact North Carolina first investigated the claim about Cooper’s September 2024 trip to New York following a social media post by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee that year. Here’s a review of Cooper’s actions leading up to Helene hitting North Carolina, based on a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service.
Sept. 24, 2024: Helene became a Tropical Storm in the Gulf of Mexico. Cooper formally asked top members of the state’s executive branch for approval of emergency powers. He also placed the State Emergency Operations Center on Enhanced Watch, meaning the state should prepare to assist local governments that might need help following the storm.
Sept. 25, 2024: Helene became a Category 1 hurricane off the coast of Florida. Rain fell in Asheville — but it wasn’t from Helene’s outer bands, WRAL meteorologist Kat Campbell told PolitiFact. Asheville’s rain that day was the result of a stalled front pulling in moisture from Helene in the Gulf. Cooper declared a state of emergency, allowing state emergency responders to begin deploying equipment, personnel, and resources across the state. He also flew to New York City and was one of many speakers — including zoologist Jane Goodall, NBC weathercaster Al Roker and Guyana President Mohamed Irfaan Ali — who spoke at the public event hosted by The New York Times.
Sept. 26, 2o24: Cooper held an 11 a.m. briefing at the Emergency Operations Center in Raleigh. He urged North Carolinians to prepare for life-threatening flooding as well as high winds, tornadoes and heavy rain throughout the state. He also announced that 175 soldiers and airmen from the NC National Guard had been activated. Tropical-storm-force winds reached Tampa Bay around 3 p.m. and intense rainfall in Florida and the Appalachian Valley caused river levels to rise. Helene strengthened to a Category 4 hurricane as it careened toward Florida. By 6 p.m., the eye of the hurricane was located 150 southwest of Tampa.
Sept. 27, 2024: Helene officially made landfall at 3:10 a.m. near Perry, Florida and moved northward through the morning into North Carolina. Cooper held an 11 a.m. briefing in Raleigh, where state Emergency Management Director William Ray announced that the National Guard had deployed more than 350 guardsmen and that the state Emergency Operations Center deployed 30 swift-water rescue teams. Cooper also asked the Biden administration to expedite a federal major disaster declaration — which the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared on Sept. 28 and was announced on Sept. 29.
Whatley recently recited the correct date of Cooper’s 2024 trip to New York — albeit while criticizing Cooper for going. At a Sept. 25 campaign event in Pittsboro, Whatley said: “We’re here on the 25th, that Roy Cooper on this day two years ago was up in New York at a climate change gala ball. He was not preparing this state.”
PolitiFact reached out to the White House, the Republican National Committee, and Never Surrender Inc., a political action committee linked to the Team Trump X account. None of them immediately responded to requests for comment.
Our ruling
Trump’s X account said: “Where was Roy Cooper when Helene slammed into North Carolina? In New York speaking at a New York Times ‘Climate Forward’ event.”
Cooper attended the New York Times conference about climate change on Sept. 25, 2024, and returned to North Carolina the same day — before Helene made landfall in Florida. The most damaging wind and rain didn’t hit western North Carolina until Sept. 27, 2024. We rate Trump’s claim False.
The Republican, who was sent to prison in 2016 in a hush-money case tied to the allegations, died over the weekend
Dennis Hastert, whose congressional legacy as the longest-serving Republican US House speaker was later fouled by allegations that he had molested high school athletes during his prior career as a teacher and wrestling coach, died over the weekend, a coroner said on Monday. He was 84.
Hastert, who was speaker from 1999 until 2007, died of natural causes at his home, according to Jacquie Purcell, the Kendall county coroner.
In a report released on Monday, PEN America said that there had been 34,000 instances of book bans since the organization started tallying the increasing “book censorship crisis” across US schools in 2021.
Departure comes amid large drop in oil receipts, rampant inflation and shrinking economy
Iran’s oil minister has resigned days after allegations that an intermediary trust selling Iranian oil abroad owed millions of dollars’ worth of export receipts to the state.
Mohsen Paknejad’s departure comes as Iran grapples with a dire economic situation, including inflation running at 85%. An overall drop in oil receipts has led to a massive shortfall in foreign exchange earnings and one of the biggest drops in the value of the rial since the Iranian revolution in 1979.
Decision by Paramount Skydance executive David Ellison was relief to employees who feared overhaul – and possibility of Bari Weiss taking over
Mark Thompson, who since 2023 has served as chair and chief executive of CNN after a storied career in British and American media, will retain his role even after Paramount Skydance takes control of the company, he announced in a memo to network staffers on Monday morning.
While Thompson wrote that the “specifics of how CNN will plug into and operate in the new company have yet to be finalized”, he offered some pledges about his role at the combined company, which will be led by David Ellison, the Paramount Skydance chief executive, after the company merges with CNN parent company Warner Bros Discovery. The deal is expected to formally close on Tuesday.
Public figures back commissioner’s call for government commitment to funding legal support for those affected
The singer and television personality Mel B has said she is “heartbroken” by the Windrush scandal victims’ fight for justice, as the Windrush commissioner urged ministers to commit to providing funding for legal support for those affected by the end of October.
In April, the Guardian revealed that the Home Office had refused to pay compensation in more than half the claims made by victims of the scandal, in which mainly Black Britons who came legally to postwar Britain were wrongly stripped of citizenship and settlement rights.
Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has once again staked his political future on a snap general election called after rightwing parties torpedoed emergency legislation to tackle the housing crisis.
Sánchez, who has been in office since 2018, used a televised address to communicate his decision, which had been widely expected. The next general election had been due before the end of next summer.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump is again claiming that American elections are “corrupt,” this time pointing to Brazil’s rapid presidential vote count as supposed evidence that slower U.S. results are suspicious.
Trump praised Brazil for reporting results shortly after polls closed and contrasted that with places such as Detroit, Philadelphia and California, which can take longer to finish counting ballots. He offered no evidence that those delays indicate fraud. He also initially wrote that the election occurred in India before correcting the post to Brazil.
The comparison leaves out a basic difference between the two systems. Brazil uses a centralized national electronic voting system, while U.S. elections are administered separately by states and local jurisdictions with different rules for mail ballots, verification and processing.
Some states legally count properly postmarked ballots that arrive after Election Day, a practice the Supreme Court upheld this year. Longer counting times therefore do not demonstrate corruption; they often reflect state law and the volume of absentee ballots.
Trump has repeatedly alleged widespread election fraud despite failing to produce evidence supporting those claims. Reuters reported this year that investigations promoted by his administration have likewise failed to uncover proof of widespread manipulation.
Brazil’s first round ended with Flávio Bolsonaro at about 47% and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva near 45%, sending them to an Oct. 25 runoff.
An international symbol for the city, the sign is also hallmark of the region’s environmental richness
Atop Mount Lee, in the heart of Los Angeles, the wind is quiet. Two red-tailed hawks sail above, barely flapping as they coast the thermal air like surfers on a wave. Standing beside the giant letters of the Hollywood sign, the city seems peaceful. On a clear day, blocks and blocks of homes unfold beneath and the skies reveal sights all the way to Catalina Island – 10 miles out, across the Pacific.
The frappe has accumulated several distinct meanings across different food traditions, and each has a legitimate history. National Frappe Day this Oct. 7 celebrates a ... Read moreThe post The frappe is one of America’s favorite drinks and nobody can…
I grew up in a multifaceted home. My father was born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, and came to America to attend college. He is a practicing Ethiopian Orthodox Christian, as opposed to my mother, who is a Roman Catholic and was born in a small town in Michigan. My heritage is uncertain, but I certainly have Ethiopian, Irish, German and even Polish blood — an intense and certainly unusual contrast.
My diverse cultural background often led me to feel as if I were “different” on both sides of my family. I found it difficult to assimilate into both of my parents’ cultures, because I had never felt as if I fully belonged in either.
As a child, I was hyperaware of how different my brother and I looked from the rest of my mother’s side of the family. My mother’s family has light hair, light eyes and freckles. My complexion and eyes are dark, as are my brother’s.
It was through these stark differences that I became aware of the ways I would come to feel different than the rest of my family. Even apart from my relatives, I was one of the only young women of color at my mother’s Roman Catholic church, and certainly the only one whose father was born in Africa.
On my father’s side, I was one of the only Ethiopian children who could not speak fluent Amharic. As I grew older, my Amharic worsened, and it became more difficult for me to communicate with members of my father’s family who did not speak English. This deepened the divide that I once felt between myself and my African culture. I could get by with a basic “hello’’ and “how are you,” but I could not tell my family about my life.
I cannot tell them about my friends, my loved ones, my school and my goals, and they cannot tell me about their own lives. I have yet to travel to Ethiopia, unlike the rest of my cousins on my father’s side. Most of them are fluent in Amharic, and it is easy for them to come and go from Addis Ababa. They have met uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews that, to me, are still strangers.
I saw my multi-faceted heritage as a burden for most of my childhood. In my mind, I had a collection of cultural communities that I could dip a toe into, so to speak, but none that were completely and entirely my own.
I felt wrong identifying fully with any one community, whether it be with my mother’s Roman Catholic Irish and German family, or with my father’s Orthodox Ethiopian family. I loved both of my families with my whole heart, but neither felt like my own identity for a long time.
Today, I see things much differently than I did throughout my childhood. As I grew older and spent more time away from home and away from both of my families, I saw the connections that I shared with other individuals who were also from multifaceted backgrounds and those who shared some similar cultures. Many of these connections were small things — things that most people would consider insignificant.
For example, I met Ethiopians around my age during high school and college, and was happy to realize that each of us could instantly recognize the other as a member of the East African Habesha tribe. Our families had some of the same traditions, and our fathers spoke in the same manner — something for us to laugh and talk about. Similarly, I met individuals from Irish and German heritage whose mothers and grandparents were like those of my own, and also demonstrated similar traditional behaviors.
The similarities between my family and others’ families were silly and small, but I cherished them because all of these connections made me feel tied to every single part of my heritage. I slowly began to realize how special my cultural background was and how connected I was to such a large number of people. Rather than my diversity singling me out, it brings me into the fold of so many different cultures. It brings me love, community and pride.
I am blessed — not only because of my diverse bloodline, but because of all of the opportunities I have been given throughout my life to celebrate the places I come from, the people that have come from the same places, and the beauty in being a diverse Black woman.
My roots spread far, and to be a Black woman with so many roots across the world is a blessing. It has furthered my journey in discovering my personal identity and cherishing my life as a Black woman. I am proud to have so many people to share my culture with.
I encourage every young Black woman to take steps to explore their heritage and celebrate where they come from, no matter how small these steps may be. My personal steps have been small. I am attempting to relearn Amharic online to better communicate with some members of my father’s family, and I hope to travel to Ethiopia in the next year.
I am also learning more about my mother and her Irish and German heritage through my grandfather, who tells stories of his own parents and my grandmother’s parents. But no matter how small the steps may be, the individual journey to truly understand and celebrate our cultures is one that brings true love and pride for one’s identity.
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert represented Illinois for two decades in Congress and was later jailed on charges related to his concealment of hush money payments made to cover up sexual abuse.
Stanley Chow’s cartoon was put on water bottles at party conference with the slogan ‘Bottler Burnham’
An artist is considering legal action after the Conservative party used his cartoon to mock Andy Burnham.
Stanley Chow, a Manchester-based illustrator who works for the New Yorker magazine, created a cartoon of the prime minister for campaign material in the Makerfield byelection earlier in June.
A method that controls nerve signals with light, developed by an American and two Germans, has provided greater understanding of Alzheimer’s and is used in efforts to restore sight.
Boss of OpenAI calls for a regulatory light touch because of the ‘good stuff’ the technology can deliver
Sam Altman says he believes the world should accept “bad things” happening with AI in exchange for the benefits of the technology.
The chief executive of OpenAI cited hacks, scams and “other bad things that will happen” in an interview that sparked an instant backlash from critics of the big AI companies. His comments came after one of his company’s safety experts resigned, saying at the weekend that its “culture is broken”.
Washington, DC — The Trump administration is proposing to eliminate federal restrictions that sharply limit suspensions and prohibit expulsions in Head Start, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of low-income preschool children subject to widely varying state discipline rules.
Head Start currently requires programs to use interventions such as mental-health consultation, parent engagement and individualized support before excluding a child. Expulsion is prohibited, while temporary suspension is allowed only in exceptional circumstances. The program serves nearly 700,000 children nationwide.
Under the proposed rule, those federal protections would disappear and states or local programs would set their own discipline policies. The administration describes the change as part of an effort to reduce federal bureaucracy and give communities greater control.
The practical effect could be significant. A Children’s Equity Project analysis found only 14 states have policies resembling Head Start’s current safeguards, and just seven clearly extend those protections across the full birth-to-five age range. Black children, children with disabilities and boys already experience disproportionately high rates of exclusionary preschool discipline.
Critics warn that removing federal standards could make it easier for overstretched programs to remove children with behavioral or developmental needs rather than provide additional support.
Public comments on the proposed rule remain open through October 6.
Karen Bass is fighting for her political life as progressives battle to lead the US’s second-largest city
Karen Bass has never lost an election. But this fall, she faces the fight of her political life.
Bass has roughly a month to convince voters that she should be elected to a second term as the mayor of Los Angeles. Given Angelenos’ broad dissatisfaction with the direction of the city, approval ratings on par with Donald Trump’s and a wave of anti-establishment sentiment sweeping American politics, she has a formidable challenge in city council member Nithya Raman.
Britain's former Prince Andrew is challenging the validity of search warrants issued for his homes prior to his arrest over his dealings with Jeffrey Epstein.
A defeat for Sánchez and his socialist party could bring down a long-serving European leader whose star power has risen among the global left for standing up to President Donald Trump.
A woman's murder allegedly committed by a U.S. Marine in Okinawa is a "heinous crime," Japan's premier said on Monday, as the new accusation of violence involving American forces sparked public outrage.
After Guardian investigation uncovered drone strike that killed 12 civilians and injured many more, seven-year-old Abdiqadir Salah underwent vital operation in Mogadishu
On the rickshaw ride to the hospital, Marian Haji Abdi Guled felt a mixture of joy and apprehension: the day they had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Almost a year earlier, her then seven-year-old son, Abdiqadir Salah, had been seriously injured, alongside his two siblings, in what a Guardian investigation found was a US drone strike on the village of Jamaame in Somalia that killed at least 12 civilians, including eight children.
The post-World Cup youth movement has paid off with historic plays that, for the moment, feel natural, sustainable and needed
From the outside, a moment like the one Cavan Sullivan produced Saturday seemed to be pulled directly from dreamland. Turns out, it pretty much was.
“I was amazed. I was excited,” the 17-year-old said of learning he’d start for the US men’s national team against Mexico, in what would become a 3-0 win. “I texted my family right after, and after lunch, I took a nap. Before I go to sleep, I visualize and try to manifest good things for the night. Some things come to fruition, some don’t.”
The vice-president’s recent remarks seek to maintain a posture of strength while they inadvertently expose political realities
JD Vance has parachuted into the midterm election campaign on a rescue mission in a new guise: a risk management consultant. Speaking in the flat language of the expert hired to identify threats, weaknesses and losses affecting a business’s reputation, he has presented his executive summary for limiting vulnerabilities and a scenario for averting disaster.
“There’s a lot of good that’s been done, but there’s a lot of work left to do,” he informed his clients on 15 September about the words to use. “Give us another chance, or give us another couple of years, to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.” He turned the focus to harm reduction rather than total agreement and then shifted the equation to a negative binary choice. “Even if you don’t agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness.”
UK protests come as nearly 150 people trying to reach UK in second vessel were rescued
Two people have died and two more injured attempting to cross the Channel in a small boat, French authorities have said, while anti-migrant protesters on England’s south coast scuffled with police as they opposed the rescue of nearly 150 more people on a second vessel.
Even though the number of small boat crossings has fallen in recent months, the incidents come amid growing unrest in some quarters partly been fuelled by far-right agitators.
Classicist and museum trustee visited the line after people complained of waiting for hours, with some turned away
Mary Beard has intervened in the row about excessively long queues for the Bayeux tapestry by visiting the line and submitting a list of improvements to the British Museum.
Beard, 71, is a trustee of the museum and inspected the queue herself after visitors to the tapestry complained that they had to wait for hours for their turn to view it, and some were turned away with no guarantee they would get another timeslot.
Nepal’s floods put the global loss and damage system to the testExpert commentjon.wallace
Nepal’s recovery from August’s catastrophic glacial flood will test the efficiency of the UN’s Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage. It will also resurface questions about the responsibilities of the greatest carbon emitters.
On 26 August 2026, a glacial disaster high in the Himalayas sent a wall of meltwater and debris tearing through Nepal’s Bhotekoshi and Rasuwa region at speeds of nearly 188 km per hour. The flood has claimed over 1400 lives, with thousands still missing.
Nepal is experiencing the consequences of a warming cryosphere, with accelerated glacier melt that could undermine the long-term security of a water source on which millions of people depend.
The country only contributes around 0.1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Yet its people are on the front lines of climate change impacts, as glacial retreat reshapes the Himalayan landscape. Early estimates of the cost of reconstruction are $4 to 5 billion, around a tenth of Nepal’s GDP.
Nepal’s government has appealed to the UN’s Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) for help. But that can only provide a fraction of the funds required. As a result, Nepal has raised the responsibility of the world’s largest carbon emitters and will bring the issue to the forefront of November’s COP31 climate summit in Turkey.
In this respect, Nepal’s recovery will stress-test bigger questions: How far is it possible to establish whether climate change was a contributing factor to a disaster? Can international climate finance mechanisms deliver urgent help to countries facing imminent, irreparable losses? And what more should the world’s greatest emitters be doing to help countries like Nepal?
The Fund faces a credibility test
Since the FRLD was established at COP27 in 2022, demand for financial support has far exceeded available funding. As of March 2026, 27 countries pledged $822.06 million, of which only around half was received. The Fund made $342 million available in its first round, dwarfed by requests of close to $2.8 billion for losses and damages worldwide.
The Fund faces disbursement delays from unreliable capital flows and institutional bottlenecks, due to unfulfilled voluntary commitments and approval processes within the World Bank. Nepal’s access is also constrained by complex, multi-tiered federal approval processes and lengthy procurement procedures.
At present, there is no rapid-access pathway for countries to apply for FRLD funding outside scheduled application windows. Questions also remain about how the Fund will assess the role of climate change in causing particular disasters, and how such assessments might influence funding decisions.
Nepal has emerged as an early test of how the Fund will respond. Kathmandu has requested $20 million – a modest sum compared to the scale of economic damage. Yet the request is significant for what it reveals about the Fund’s ability to respond in practice: Can the Fund move resources quickly and predictably enough to provide support when it is most needed?
Scientific attribution
Nepal’s catastrophe puts attribution front and centre: how can it be established whether climate change was a contributing factor to a disaster, rather than the sole cause? If it is found to be a contributing factor, when is that sufficient to establish harm? And is it possible to apportion responsibility for global warming to greenhouse gas emissions by certain countries?
Nepal is challenging established understandings of climate responsibility and raising difficult questions about who should bear the costs of climate-related losses.
Nepal is relying on a recent flood study in its claim to the Fund, attributing several cascading climate factors to the onset of this catastrophe. This should make Nepal’s case for loss and damage straightforward. The harm is tangible, the science exists, and the FRLD was built for this scenario. But a fund capped at $20 million per project is facing a disaster impact estimated in billions. That may push Nepal to look past the Fund’s limits to the countries whose emissions may have contributed to these harms.
In July 2025, the International Court of Justice’s Advisory Opinion on Obligations of States in respect of Climate Change offered a real, if partial, legal scaffolding to claims that states suffering climate-related harm may seek address, a development relevant to Nepal’s application to the FRLD. On establishing harm, the Court accepted that climate science can be relied upon to link specific disasters to climate change. A ‘sufficiently direct and certain’ standard was set to accommodate the complexity of determining causality in climate events.
Responding to losses and damages
Speaking at the UN General Assembly last Friday, Nepal’s Prime Minister Balendra Shah argued that the FRLD and other mechanisms remain ‘grossly inadequate’ for countries like his, which contributed little to warming of the Himalayan climate. This followed calls by his foreign minister for major emitters to work together to help vulnerable and small economies like Nepal.
By seeking support from major emitters across developed and developing countries, Nepal is challenging established understandings of climate responsibility and raising difficult questions about who should bear the costs of climate-related losses.
Though politically significant, translating that into an international financing obligation will be difficult. While China and India’s present-day emissions are substantial, India’s per capita emissions and both their historical contributions are low relative to other advanced economies.
Both are considered developing countries under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and argue for differentiated responsibilities to developed countries like the United States under Article 2 (2) of the Paris Agreement. Meanwhile, the US withdrawal from UNFCCC creates financial, governance and diplomatic challenges ahead of COP31.
However, both China and India have significant interests in Nepalese recovery. Both invest heavily in infrastructure development in the ecologically fragile region, while India relies on Nepal’s hydropower. And both countries’ proximity to Nepal creates shared priorities in Himalayan resilience.
Furthermore, their responsibilities to address climate change can evolve as domestic capabilities and emission profiles grow, also helping to strengthen south-south cooperation. Addressing Nepal’s losses and damages therefore provides a strategic and humanitarian imperative, requiring a collective response to rebuild Nepal.
COP31: The next test
Questions of attribution and compensation are best left outside of negotiation rooms to appropriate legal forums. Instead, Nepal’s experience points to three priorities at this year’s COP31 summit. First, clearer standards are needed for attributing harm where multiple factors have contributed to a disaster. Second, more consistent approaches are required for establishing the value of economic and non-economic losses in cases like Nepal’s. Third, access to FRLD finance should be faster and more predictable.
The political context will make progress difficult. COP31 comes amid geopolitical fragmentation, fiscal pressures and growing strain on multilateral cooperation. At the same time, some progress may be in sight. Loss and damage is formally on the agenda, including guidance to the FRLD, while the Fund prepares for its first funding decisions. Some scope for regional cooperation may remain, as illustrated by Prime Minister Shah’s proposal at the UN for a Himalayan Climate Resilience Mechanism between Nepal, India and China to share glacial-lake data and strengthen joint early-warning systems.
Overall, Nepal’s application will provide a practical test of whether COP31 can move beyond broad commitments on loss and damage towards clearer rules for climate attribution, assessment and access to finance. The immediate opportunity may be incremental rather than transformational. Negotiators will need to establish processes that can be strengthened over time, while ensuring that disputes over responsibility do not prevent vulnerable countries receiving the support they need. However, more cases like Nepal’s will follow. And the need for a just solution to help countries recover from such disasters will only grow.
Banks and building societies raise prices as turmoil in bond markets increases expectations of base rate rise
The average cost of a five-year fixed-rate mortgage has hit the 6% barrier for the first time in three years, as jitters in the money markets make the loans more expensive for lenders to offer.
Figures from financial information provider Moneyfacts show the average is now 6.00%, its highest point since September 2023, while the average two-year fixed rate is not far behind at 5.98%, its highest since December of the same year.
The UK is reviewing whether to impose tariffs on Chinese car imports to align itself with the EU and strengthen its case to be included in new legislation designed to protect the European manufacturing sectors including autos and chemicals.
It is understood the EU has raised the question of tariffs with the UK as part of the discussions on the upcoming “Made in Europe” legislation, known as the Industrial Accelerator Act.
From the transportation news site MotorBiscuit:
In late September 2026, 23-year-old Liz Lindseay Isaacs testified before a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee about her harrowing experience after a Flock camera misidentified her Dodge Durango, linking her to a fatal hit-and-run miles away from where she actually was... "The cell door was shut, and it was not opened for approximately 86 hours". She spent a total of 13 days locked up — including the terrifying stint in solitary confinement — before prosecutors finally realized the AI had completely botched the vehicle identification and dropped the charges.
A Flock spokesperson contacted for a CNN report argued the incident "appears to have been the result of human errors in judgment unrelated to Flock." The woman is now suing the Florida patrol over wrongful arrest, saying she partially blames the two police officers who she says claimed there was incriminating damage on her vehicle when there wasn't. But her lawyer says he blames Flock. "Because if it wasn't for Flock we wouldn't be here in the first place, and this whole nightmare... would not have kicked off."
And while police claim Flock solves more crimes, the lawyer adds that "you would also solve a lot more crimes if the police were allowed to kick down your door and come in and search your house whenever they want to, or search your car whenever they want to or violate your rights in other ways. There has to be safeguards in police that comport through the 4th Amendment, like the warrant requirements. It's as simple as that. This technology is growing so fast that we are unable to control it. And we must get ahead of it." And the woman incarcerated for 13 days agreed. "I wouldn't have went to jail if it wasn't for Flock."
Florida was also the site of another Flock-related news story. ("Florida Deputy Allegedly Used Flock Cameras to Stalk 17-Year-Old Girl, Visiting Her at Work 9 Times".) The officer "was charged with official misconduct and accessing computer electronic devices without authority — both are third-degree felonies. In Florida, if he's found guilty on both charges, he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison."
"Americans have no idea who's looking at that information, or why it has to be collected in the first place," U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday, adding "They deserve to know."
SCHUMER: "This company said the data on its cameras was encrypted and secure. Then hackers took one down and found the key sitting right there," Schumer said. "Most Americans just want to get to work and get home to their families without a private company keeping a file on where they go. The next step here is simple: turn the lens around and zoom in on Flock." Schumer also demanded answers from Flock about how much data from its cameras sits on its servers and whether any federal agency has accessed that data, directly or through local law enforcement.
Schumer's office sent an official letter to Flock's CEO giving them 12 days to respond to its questions about Flock's data retention and security policies. "Americans should not have to sacrifice their right to privacy simply by driving down a public street," Schumer wrote.
And in other news...
Garrett Langley, the CEO of Flock Safety — a company that deploys over 120,000 automated license plate reader cameras across the United States — recently requested that his Atlanta home be blurred out on Google Maps Street View. In swift retaliation, online activists pinpointed the property and officially marked his front lawn as a "Public Toilet" on the mapping app.
Britain's former prince lodged a judicial review over the legality of search warrants in his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office in a case related to his Jeffrey Epstein ties. He has denied wrongdoing.
The euro has slumped to the lowest level against the dollar in 17 months amid growing concern France’s debt position could threaten the stability of the wider single currency bloc.
The single currency fell as much as 0.8% against the dollar in early trading on Monday to below $1.12, its lowest level since May 2025. It has slumped by about 1.2% this month, accelerating a drop of about eight cents against the greenback from a peak of $1.20 in January.
Washington, DC — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is ordering another major reduction in the Pentagon’s senior leadership ranks, directing the military to cut roughly 20% of its general and admiral positions by early 2027.
The new target doubles the 10% reduction Hegseth announced last year and could eliminate or downgrade scores of positions across the services. The Pentagon argues that fewer senior officers will reduce bureaucracy, accelerate decision-making and return greater authority to commanders closer to operational units.
Critics, however, question whether rapidly stripping experienced leadership from the armed forces during active global conflicts is prudent military reform or simply another sweeping restructuring undertaken with limited congressional input. Senate Armed Services Committee ranking Democrat Jack Reed has warned that indiscriminate cuts could weaken readiness and remove expertise the military may need during crises.
The reductions follow Hegseth’s earlier removal or forced retirement of more than two dozen senior officers, including several of the military’s highest-ranking women. His broader Pentagon overhaul has also targeted diversity programs, military-academy faculty policies and organizational structures he considers bloated or distracted from warfighting.
Hegseth maintains the changes are about accountability and combat effectiveness. The central question is whether cutting leadership this aggressively actually produces a leaner military — or creates unnecessary disruption at a particularly unstable moment.
Norma Bowe, 68, was flung to the ground at Delaney Hall, the infamous New Jersey detention center. She sees her lawsuit against ICE as one step towards justice
Norma Bowe pressed a stethoscope against the 10-year-old’s chest, listening to her lungs.
It was Memorial Day outside Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey. The child, worried about her father locked inside, was hyperventilating.
Ex-lawyer for woman Tennessee attempted to execute says defense filings said she was at risk for ‘exactly what happened’
A former lawyer for Christa Pike says he was not surprised that Tennessee botched its attempt to execute her because attorneys had warned that problems accessing her veins could make the procedure dangerous and potentially cruel.
James Crowson, who represented Pike during part of her post-conviction appeals, said he had followed the case from afar before the failed execution at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville on 30 September.
Flávio Bolsonaro is favorite to win 25 October runoff against 80-year-old incumbent leftwing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Plus the ‘pawsome’ new recruit to Mexico’s national guard
Good morning. Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.
The 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president Jair Bolsonaro will go into the second round as strong favourite, likely to pick up votes from the election’s other rightwing candidates, including Ronaldo Caiado, who secured 2.1%, and Renan Santos, who won 2.2%. The second round will take place on 25 October.
How have Bolsonarista politicians taken a grip on Brazil? Brazil’s far right put in an even stronger than expected showing, with a succession of Bolsonarista politicians winning congressional or gubernatorial races. They included Jair Bolsonaro’s second son, Carlos Bolsonaro, and his wife, Michelle Bolsonaro, who both won seats in the senate. Bolsonaro’s youngest son, Jair Renan Bolsonaro, was elected to the lower house of congress.
What has been the latest response from Cornell University? In a video message, the Cornell University president, Michael Kotlikoff, said the school would take “a serious look at the role of fraternities and sororities in campus life”, adding: “At their best, these organisations can provide students with friendship, belonging, mentorship and a powerful sense of community. But being part of a group can never diminish individual responsibility.”
Lidl’s sales in Great Britain jumped 10% to more than £13bn this year, as shoppers sought out cheaper fresh meat, fruit and vegetables and snapped up its Deluxe range.
Pre-tax profit at the German-owned supermarket’s arm in Great Britain grew by 30% to £245.5m in the year ended in February, up from £156.8m in the previous year.
The only requirement to open a private school in Arkansas is displaying a flag and flagpole, so the reporting team visited the local flag shop in Little Rock. Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times
It began as a casual question — and a flicker of curiosity — uttered during a meeting of ProPublica journalists who this year are reporting on publicly funded private schools. We were discussing how, in many states, basically anyone can open a private school wherever they want. No experience, no training, no curriculum required.
One of our editors jumped in and asked: What if ProPublica tried to establish a private school?
We were intrigued. We are longtime education reporters, not educators. Would that matter? Where, if anywhere, do states draw the line on who is fit to run a school — and in some cases, collect public money to fund their ventures?
We decided that testing the thesis that anyone can open a school would be valuable to our ongoing reporting, particularly at a time when we have found that private schools are growing rapidly across the country — in barns, farms, co-working spaces, people’s homes and parks. These new schools are fueled by taxpayer-funded vouchers and other programs, and our reporting has revealed states have little interest in monitoring them.
We had some inspiration to draw from: In 2015, comedian John Oliver founded a tax-exempt church to show how easy it was for televangelists to avoid paying taxes while soliciting millions of dollars.
Some of us live in Chicago and are well aware of the lore of the Mirage Tavern, a real bar that undercover reporters operated in the 1970s to expose corruption in the city. While that investigation had a substantial impact, and led to a new city oversight agency, it also drew criticism for its deceptive practices.
We drew lessons from that reporting and set some ground rules at the start of our experiment. To be clear, we had no intention of operating schools. We won’t enroll any students.
Most importantly, it would be critical for us to be transparent about who we were in our applications, using our newsroom phone numbers and email addresses. In one state, we even disclosed that we were “journalists exploring opening a microschool.” We also decided we would stop the experiment if it would require doing something illegal or using public resources for our own benefit.
Have you had trouble finding a school or using a voucher-style program? Do you have concerns about schools — public or private — in your area? Help us understand how families across the country are navigating their school options.
Here’s how we went about the experiment in Arkansas, West Virginia and North Carolina:
First, we partnered with newsrooms in the three states — the Arkansas Times, Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia and The Assembly in North Carolina — and pursued creating the schools together. No one knows their states better than reporters who live there, so we wanted to work with the experts. Plus, the school applications required local addresses and we reasoned that newsroom addresses, which state officials could easily look up, would be extra transparent.
Then, we came up with names for the schools. We aimed to call them Curiosity Academies to reflect our curiosity as journalists. We succeeded with the ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy and ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy. A word-count limit required us to scrap curiosity for our school in North Carolina. We simply called it the ProPublica-Assembly Academy.
Next, we filed paperwork with each state. That turned out to be easier than working through the legal and ethical questions with our editors, our legal team and our standards editor to design our experiment in the first place.
In Arkansas, we didn’t need permission from the state Education Department, which does not regulate private schools. All it took was filling out a form on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to be recognized as a private school business (yes, Arkansas requires all schools to have an American flag — but only public schools also are required to have the Arkansas flag). The secretary of state’s office even emailed us a certificate.
The official certificate acknowledging our schoolSecretary of State/State of Arkansas
But when it came to applying for our private school to become eligible for public funds, a process that does add some guardrails, we didn’t think we could do it. In Arkansas, private schools participating in the voucher-like program have to be accredited or working toward it, which often requires creating curriculum and school handbooks. That seemed like a step too far since we weren’t actually opening schools.
However, we discovered that Arkansas allows a subset of schools called microschools to use public money with fewer requirements. So, we decided to apply for public funds as a microschool. That process also took only about 10 minutes. We didn’t need to provide our credentials or a background check, prove our fiscal stability or assure that the newsroom was a safe place for students. (If approved, we would not take the next step and register to receive public money.)
A state employee who reviewed our application, which we submitted in early September, said we missed the deadline for this school year but could apply for next school year. He also suggested another way we could tap into public money.
Kaelin Clay, the Arkansas Department of Education spokesperson, said the agency reviews applications to the voucher-like program to determine if the schools meet state requirements. She said microschool families have the “freedom to choose” where and how their children learn.
In West Virginia, we spent little time handwriting the required information on notebook paper and submitting it to the state Education Department. We eventually established our school as a microschool after a state employee shared that, unlike the regulations for private schools, we would not need an inspection.
We did need proof of at least a high school diploma, and we shared one of our real college transcripts from the late 1990s with the local school district, which then notified the state of our new school. (We couldn’t find the high school transcript; does anyone keep them?)
In an official statement, a spokesperson for West Virginia’s Department of Education said it “does not approve or deny the operation of microschools for any reason, including the qualifications of the owner/operator.” State law includes no mechanism for oversight of microschools.
ProPublica reporter Jennifer Smith Richards handwrites an application to found a private middle school in West Virginia.Laura Bilson for ProPublica
In North Carolina, our project’s own rules and ethics — not the state’s determination of the quality of education we would (or wouldn’t) provide — prevented us from completing the process there. Instead of using the address of The Assembly’s newsroom on our application, our editors let us use the address of a brewery for our school. We needed a property with fire and sanitation inspections. The co-working space that houses the newsroom had a fire inspection but wasn’t required to have one for sanitation. But the brewery, which has a partnership with the newsroom that led to the creation of a light and lemony ale called Tell the Truth, did have one. They let us use their inspection reports for the project.
But when a state official told us that, in fact, we needed to get school-specific fire and sanitation inspections, we abandoned our quest. This crossed our line of straining public resources, as we didn’t want inspectors, whose salaries are paid by tax dollars, to devote their time to our experiment.
The rest, as they say, is history. A bunch of journalists are now school owners, administrators and heads of schools. And though we plan to close down the academies we opened to ensure no potential students mistake us for a proper school, we did want some mementos of our brief school experience. So we snagged ProPublicaAcademy.com and designed some fun pencils to show our school spirit.
And that’s not all. Now that we’ve told you about our journey opening private schools, do you think you have what it takes to open one, too? Find out by taking our quiz. Let us know how you did by replying to this email or tagging @ProPublica on your favorite social platform.
Why Should Delaware Care? For decades, a du Pont family trust has bankrolled Delaware’s only pediatric hospital. In addition, Delaware attorneys general have battled in court with managers of that family trust challenging whether they properly invested in Delawareans, as requested by the late duPont.
Delaware is set to receive nearly $1 billion over the next 11 years from a trust tied to one of the state’s most prominent and wealthy businessmen.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings announced on Friday that her office secured a $950 million settlement with the Nemours Foundation and the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust following decades of litigation that spanned seven attorneys general.
At the center of the settlement are claims the foundation had improperly spent a charitable trust left behind by one of Delaware’s most prominent businessmen – Alfred I. du Pont. In his will, du Pont requested the remainder of his wealth go to supporting children and elderly couples “who are residents of Delaware.”
And while the trust has for decades helped to bankroll Delaware’s sole pediatric hospital, Wilmington’s Nemours Children’s Health, generations of Delaware attorneys general also have challenged trustees of du Pont’s will, saying they spent large chunks of the funds on ventures outside of Delaware.
In 1991, the nonprofit health system acquired a children’s hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., which was where du Pont had kept a second home.
The settlement sets aside “at least $237.5 million” for Delaware’s Nemours campus, and state officials said those funds won’t be used for operating budgets. It also ties up a nearly 50-year legal fight over the management of du Pont’s trust, and its impact in Delaware.
At a press conference on Friday, Jennings said the settlement was not about her office or any other AG who may have sought to bring funds into the state. Instead, she said it has “always been about the future health of every child in the state of Delaware.”
“The funds secured under this settlement could change the future, and will change the future for Delaware’s kids,” she said.
In a statement, the Nemours Foundation said it would continue to invest in Delaware’s children, and hopes the 11-year investment will support a “broader network of organizations dedicated to children’s health and well-being.”
A spokesperson for the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust said the funds set aside for Nemours would go to supporting children, as well as “new, Delaware-based initiatives recommended by Nemours to the directors of the fund.”
Gov. Matt Meyer also said in an emailed statement he was appreciative of the work of Jennings and the Delaware Department of Justice for bringing the funds to the state.
What does the settlement say?
The $950 million award would be dedicated primarily to funding initiatives to improve the health of children in Delaware. Neither Jennings nor spokespeople for Nemours and the trust outlined any immediate spending priorities for the settlement funds on Friday other than that they would go toward supporting children.
However, Jennings and the DOJ outlined how the funds will be governed over the next decade.
They will be managed by a five-member committee, three of whom would be selected by the du Pont trust, another would be selected by the governor, and a fifth independent member would be selected by the other four.
During a press conference on Friday, Owen Lefkon, who leads the Fraud and Consumer Protection Division at the DOJ, said it would not be a public body since it’s a private trust.
Additionally, he said the committee would be responsible for establishing their own grantmaking criteria for how funds would be awarded to different organizations across the state.
Jennings added that the funds would have to be spent on the health of children within the state, and the uses can be broad.
“They can be capital grants for buildings. They can be grants for specific programs. They can be new programs, existing programs. But the experts are going to decide that,” Jennings said.
A copy of the settlement agreement said the funds would be able to support capital expenses, education, as well as research programs that support Delaware residents.
As for the $237.5 million set aside for Nemours, those funds cannot supplant existing operating costs for the hospital in Wilmington, the settlement said. There are some exceptions that say funds can support “strategic” programs or investments that are unlikely to be profitable for the hospital.
History of the settlement
Delaware first challenged the du Pont trust in 1979, decades after his death in 1935.
He lived in Delaware for most of his life, before moving to Florida in his twilight years with his wife. When duPont died, he specified in his will that he wished to support the health of Delaware’s youth and elderly with the remainder of his wealth.
Shortly thereafter, the Nemours Foundation was established with funds from his trust and domiciled in Florida.
Along with operating the children’s hospital in Wilmington, the Nemours Foundation also doles out money to its Florida hospitals, as well as its New Jersey and Pennsylvania health clinics.
Once du Pont’s wife died in 1970, the Nemours Foundation began to receive larger payments from the trust. What followed were decades of legal challenges by Delaware leaders, who had sought a greater share of his will.
Delaware attorneys general homed in on specific language in du Pont’s will that requested support for children and the elderly support “residents of Delaware.”
The first lawsuit in 1979 was settled a year later, requiring the Nemours Foundation to spend no less than 50% of the funds it received annually from the trust on its Delaware operations. The $950 million settlement vacates that agreement.
Former Attorney General Matt Denn filed suit against Nemours and the trustees in 2017, challenging spending by the foundation and the trust. The complaint claimed Nemours used large swaths of trust funding to support its Florida hospital that violated the 50% stipulation settled in previous decades.
Denn and his Department of Justice litigated the case until 2019, until Jennings was elected 2019 and she took over. In an interview on Friday, Denn said he never thought the issue would be settled in his lifetime, and that he was grateful to Jennings and her team for securing the funds.
The case had previously hit a bump, when a trial court ruled the Delaware Attorney General did not have the standing to pursue the trust. Jennings said with the appeals court win, her team had positioned itself well for a trial.
“In the wake of an impending trial date and outstanding lawyering on our side, we were able to get where we needed to be,” she said.
Our ‘genius’ president is revealing his ignorance of economics, fueling concerns about the threat he poses to the world
Donald Trump recently made a bold claim about his abilities, writing on Truth Social: “The only control or ‘guardrails’ that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!”
But in the days before and after that post, Trump made one mind-boggling statement after another, including one that raised the possibility of cutting off all trade with dozens of the US’s trading partners. The president’s statements had many experts questioning not just his intelligence, but also whether he – and the outlandish policies he was proposing – were a clear and present danger to both the US economy and the world economy. Public respect for Trump’s economic sense has fallen so low that just 7% of Americans think he should take the lead in regulating AI, according to a recent WSJ poll.
Objections rise from issues like sexual content and profanity or racial slurs and stereotypes. PEN America counted nearly 12,000 bans in the 2025-2026 school year.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Matt Rife comedy “Unaccompanied Minor” is the first film to take advantage of Delaware’s new film and entertainment production tax credit. The politicians behind its passing hope to stimulate economic development, provide jobs for Delawareans and build a thriving production industry in the First State.
From musicians like SZA and Journey, to NFL athletes Saquon Berkley and Jason Kelce, the Pine Box Studios, a rehearsal and production space in Wilmington, has been no stranger to famous faces in the five years since its opening.
But Pine Box Studios has never been the site of a feature film production — until now.
Top Rope Studios, an independent film production company helmed by producer and Delawarean Christopher Lemole (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), is currently renting the space for one month to shoot “Unaccompanied Minor,” a road trip comedy directed by David Dobkin (“Wedding Crashers”) and starring comedian Matt Rife.
Now, Top Rope Studios has set up shop at The Pine Box Studios. Georgia-based Shoot Aviation has assembled an airplane interior set inside the space made from a decommissioned American Airlines aircraft.
“This is my first time in a laydown seat in first class,” joked The Pine Box Studios General Manager Brian Market as he gave Spotlight Delaware a tour of the plane. “We’ve seen some pretty decent-sized sets for the commercials that we’ve had here, but nothing like this.”
The interior of the airplane film set of “Unaccompanied Minor.” | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
The Pine Box Studios in Wilmington is currently being used for the filming of “Unaccompanied Minor.” | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
The interior of the airplane film set of “Unaccompanied Minor.” | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
Market said Top Rope Studios first called about booking a space in July, mere days after the General Assembly passed House Bill 364, establishing Delaware’s first film and entertainment production tax credit.
“That’s why this legislation was so important,” Market said. “Everyone told us, ‘You’re not going to get the film and TV stuff until a tax credit is on the books because they’re going to go to another state.’”
The 30% transferable tax credit is available to productions of feature films, TV series, commercials, music videos, video games and esports that spend more than $100,000 in Delaware in a 12-month period.
The state has budgeted up to $10 million annually for the program, meaning the program has the potential to attract about $33 million in production spending to Delaware annually, according to Joe Zilcosky, regional business manager with the Delaware Division of Small Business.
Applications officially opened on Sept. 16 but are retroactive to July 1, when the General Assembly passed the bill. Gov. Matt Meyer held a ceremonial bill signing for HB 364 at The Pine Box Studios on Sept. 30.
During the ceremony, Lemole explained that he moved back from Los Angeles to the Wilmington area six years ago and is honored to make a film in his home state.
Lemole sees Delaware as an ideal filming location for several reasons, including its proximity to cast and crew across the East Coast and its scenic cityscapes, rolling hills, beaches and farmlands.
Zilcosky was unable to share at this point how much Top Rope Studios plans to spend in Delaware, but he said its tax credit would amount to only a fraction of the state’s $10 million budget.
Joe Zilcosky with the Delaware Division of Small Business, left, and Theatre N Executive Director Andrew Larason, right, socialize at The Pine Box Studios. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
He added that the state will begin an outreach campaign in January to attract more production companies to Delaware. Zilcosky said the plan is to get the word out through social media, advertising, conferences and The Writer’s Guild of America, as well as by initiating “one-on-one contact” with production companies.
“We’ve already spoken with some studios in Hollywood,” he said.
The goal of attracting production companies to Delaware is to expand job opportunities for locals — not only those directly involved in the entertainment industry, but also those involved in hospitality, restaurants, transportation and more, Market said.
During his remarks, Meyer recalled the filming of “Dead Poets Society” in 1988 and 1989, which saw Middletown’s St. Andrew’s Academy and the surrounding New Castle County as a stand-in for Vermont’s fictional Welton Academy. He said a high school peer who worked on the film moved to California to pursue a career in the film industry.
“Our hope is, in the next generation, they will stay here,” he said about Delaware’s up-and-comers in the film industry.
Lemole said that, while the new tax credit will bring out-of-state dollars in the short-term, there is much more potential for Delaware’s economic development by fostering its film industry.
Gov. Matt Meyer ceremonially signs House Bill 364 at The Pine Box Studios. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CANNON TAYLOR
“Further down the line, the goal is to attract crew moving into the state from out of state, and then start film training programs in high schools, trade schools and universities,” he said. “Lastly, setting up in-state vendors, production and post facilities, as well as more sound stages, will bring an influx of economic activity into Delaware.”
For House Majority Leader Kerri Evelyn Harris, who sponsored HB 364, the impact of the film tax credit is not merely economic. Harris represents District 32, including southeast Dover and surrounding areas in Kent County.
“I represent a district that has extreme haves and have-nots,” she said. “I have kids who don’t see a future for their tomorrow. If I can put them on a bus and bring them up here and say, ‘Just stay out of trouble a little bit longer, and this could be a space for you,’ that’s success.”
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.
Hospital leaders to discuss charity care
Wilmington talks affordable housing subsidies
Kent County leaders to discuss aquatic center
Hospital leaders to discuss charity care
Delaware’s hospital leaders will gather Monday morning to discuss their free and discounted care programs, also called charity care, and how those programs could change under recently passed state laws.
The Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board, the state’s hospital oversight board, is set to hold the discussion Monday morning, which will be part of a broader working session meeting.
Nonprofit hospitals are mandated by the Internal Revenue Service to provide a “community benefit” to earn their tax-exempt status. Historically, that benefit has been offering free or discounted care, sometimes called “charity care.”
Under Senate Bill 13, which Gov. Matt Meyer signed into law in July, all of the state’s nonprofit hospitals would be required to provide free care to patients living below 300% of the Federal Poverty Line, with large discounts for patients in higher percentage brackets.
Below 300% of the FPL ($46,950 a year) – Full discount
300-350% of the FPL ($46,950 to $54,775 a year) – 75% discount
350-400% of the FPL ($54,775 to $62,600 a year) – 50% discount
Separately, the legislation allows people living at 500% of the Federal Poverty Line — $78,250 a year — to seek out a 50% discount if the billed expenses are greater than 10% of their income.
The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Marie Pinkney (D-Bear), came months after a Spotlight Delaware investigation called into question the charity care practices at the state’s largest healthcare system, ChristianaCare.
It also followed a separate effort last year in which the state paid off medical debts for thousands of Delawareans, despite hospital charity care policies that could have made that treatment free.
📍 The Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board will meet at 10 a.m. Monday inside the Chapel Building, located at Herman M. Holloway Sr. Health and Social Services Campus at 1901 N. DuPont Highway in New Castle. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Wilmington talks affordable housing subsidies
Wilmington City Council’s Finance & Economic Development Committee will meet Monday, where members will receive an update on Mayor John Carney’s $8.4 million subsidy for developers to build affordable housing.
The initiative passed in May as part of the city’s 2027 fiscal year budget, aimed at increasing affordable housing across the city.
In early August, Carney opened applications for developers seeking a share of the fund.
📍 Wilmington City Council’s Finance & Economic Development Committee will meet at 5 p.m. Monday inside Wilmington City Council’s 1st Floor Committee Room at the Louis L. Redding City/County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Kent County leaders to discuss aquatic center
During a workshop meeting on Tuesday, Kent County Levy Court commissioners are set to discuss the possibility of creating a Kent County Aquatic Center.
Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen drew criticism last year for suggesting the city use a portion of its opioid settlement fund allotment to fund a competition swimming pool in Delaware’s capital city.
Dover residents Courtney Ford and Julie Gorman first presented their vision for the First State Aquatic Center at a Dover Parks and Recreation Department meeting last fall. The pair said the center would be a state-of-the-art swimming pool that would both bring in tourists for swimming competitions and fill a gap in pools in central Dover.
Ford told Spotlight Delaware the project, estimated to cost between $20 and $44 million, would imitate DE Turf’s model of bringing regional competitions to Kent County.
It is unclear if this week’s discussion will cover that same proposal, or a separate venture.
📍 The Kent County Levy Court will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday inside the Kent County Administrative Building, located at 55 Bay Road in Dover. For more information, including on virtual attendance, click here.
Brianna Hill, Maggie Reynolds and Nick Stonesifer contributed to this report.
Three scientists to share 12m Swedish kronor prize for their work on ‘light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’
The Nobel prize in physiology or medicine 2026 has been awarded to three scientists for their work on investigating the mysteries of the brain.
Karl Deisseroth of both Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Stanford University, Peter Hegemann of the Humboldt University of Berlin, and Georg Nagel of the University of Würzburg have been awarded the prize “for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”.
The U.S. Army announced last year that it had enough of a specific model of armored vehicle and that any more deliveries would be “excess.” But even so, Congress found a way to keep funding alive for the vehicle — and executives at the company that produces the vehicle found a way to flood key members of Congress with campaign donations.
In the weeks after this year’s appropriations bill passed, employees of AM General or its parent company donated tens of thousands to key appropriations committee members in both chambers, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Calif.
Collins is separately facing scrutiny over a report from ProPublica that the FBI investigated an alleged pay-to-play scheme involving a major donor, an ex-defense contractor. Collins’ office denied that there was any kind of pay-to-play arrangement and said she fully cooperated with the FBI. There is no indication that AM General’s donations were part of such a scheme, but the giving nonetheless demonstrates how Collins’s campaign account has grown with help from employees at defense contractors doing business with the government.
Before the Army put the future of the vehicle in jeopardy, Collins was not a frequent beneficiary of contributions from the company’s workers. She last received campaign funds from AM General or its parent company’s employees more than a decade ago. But after the Army’s “excess” announcement last year, employees and the company’s PAC donated over $58,000 to committees associated with Collins.
One observer of money in politics said that appropriators receiving money from government contractors is a long-standing problem.
“Government contractors today routinely try to leverage a broken campaign finance system to their advantage.”
“Members of the appropriations committees in Congress are extremely powerful. These lawmakers can steer huge sums of money to private companies. Government contractors today routinely try to leverage a broken campaign finance system to their advantage,” said Michael Beckel, money in politics reform director at Issue One.
The revival of the Army’s order was supported by lawmakers in both parties, including the top Democrat on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn. Collins’s office said that in the Senate, decisions on the program were made not by her but by defense subcommittee chair Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and vice chair Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del. McConnell did not receive donations from employees at AM General or its parent company this election cycle. Coons received $2,500 from its employee PAC.
“Sen. Collins was not involved in this decision. The final decision was made by the Chairs and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittees,” said a Collins spokesperson, Phoebe Keller.
AM General’s CEO, John Chadbourne, said in an email that the company does not comment on campaign donations, “all of which fully comply with FEC rules and regulations.”
He added, “AM General’s focus is on the Warfighter and providing the best light tactical vehicle capabilities to the Joint Forces.”
Congress Steps In
AM General is most famous for producing the Humvee, the iconic military vehicle that trawled the streets of Baghdad during the Iraq War. In 2023, the Army selected the company to produce 20,000 units of a more heavily armored successor known as the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle. The company was ramping up its production line in Indiana when then-Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced in May 2025 that he would cancel its order, saying the additional deliveries would result in an “excess.”
Driscoll’s announcement was part of a larger effort to “eliminate waste and obsolete programs.”
“Yesterday’s weapons will not win tomorrow’s wars,” he said.
The military does not always have the last say on its contracts, however.
Congress has for decades swooped in to save pricey programs with political appeal. Soon after the Army moved to kill the vehicle contract, Congress mobilized to save it.
AM General had backing from members of Congress in Indiana, thanks to the jobs on its production line there. It also found backing from legislators in states far from its home.
The House moved first: In June 2025, the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittee on defense proposed spending hundreds of millions on the vehicle for the Army. By the time the final version of the defense spending bill passed this February, the Army had been provided with $345 million for procurement of a vehicle it said it did not need.
A joint statement from the House and Senate, which Collins’ office said was produced by the defense subcommittees, sounded a skeptical note about the Army’s decision to cancel further orders of the vehicle. The statement said that the Army had provided “inadequate supporting analysis.” One concern was that without the efficiencies from a larger order that included the Army, the cost-per-unit price of vehicles that the Marines still wanted would rise.
McCollum, the House Democrat with an influential role in the process, said in a statement that she was one of numerous members of Congress to question the Army’s decision.
“Appropriators felt the Army failed to do adequate due diligence to justify their rash budget decision to cut the JLTV program and explain the full impacts on the Army, and especially the Marine Corps, which had not been consulted,” she said.
By the time the final version of the defense spending bill passed this February, the Army had been provided with $345 million for procurement of a vehicle it said it did not need.
Collins’s campaign committees had received some money after the Army announced that it wanted to cancel the project.
In the weeks after Congress passed the appropriations bill on February 3, Collins and one of her counterparts in the House, Rep. Ken Calvert, both received a burst of donations from AM General employees and the company’s political action committee.
After the appropriations bill went through, donors associated with AM General gave a total of $50,000 to Collins’s fundraising committees.
The donors included Chadbourne, the company’s CEO, and two of KPS Capital’s managing partners. (Private equity firm KPS Capital Partners acquired AM General in 2020.) All gave money to a committee raising money on Collins’s behalf at the end of February or start of March.
Calvert, the California representative with the defense appropriations post, has also benefited from similar donations. Both AM General employees and KPS Capital employees have given $14,285 in direct contributions to Calvert for Congress this election cycle.
The AM General employee PAC has given a combined $20,000 to Ken Calvert for Congress and Eureka Political Action Committee, Calvert’s leadership PAC.
Most of the donations to Calvert associated with AM General came in the weeks immediately after Congress passed the appropriations bill. His office did not respond to a request for comment.
Those contributions put Collins and Calvert in the same league as the Hoosier politicians who were natural supporters of AM General. A fundraising committee associated with Republican Sen. Todd Young received $36,000 from AM General or KPS Capital employees. The AM General employee PAC donated another $10,000 to his main campaign committee. A Marine Corps veteran, Young has been a vocal proponent of the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle.
His Republican colleague Sen. Jim Banks’s leadership PAC received $14,375 total from AM General’s employee PAC and Chadbourne, the executive. Meanwhile, Rep. Frank Mrvan, a Democrat representing northwest Indiana, received $33,050 from AM General or KPS Capital employees, and another $10,000 from the AM General employee PAC, according to FEC filings.
A Ban That Isn’t
On her campaign website, Collins notes that she serves as chair of the “powerful” appropriations committee.
“This committee decides how federal dollars are spent each year, from national defense and infrastructure to medical research, education, and public safety. Susan’s position gives Maine an outsized voice at the table when critical decisions are made which allows her to deliver serious results for Maine,” her website states.
Collins’s office said that in the case of the AM General vehicle, she had nothing to do with the funding decision. A spokesperson said the decision-making in the Senate was up to McConnell, the defense subcommittee chair, and its vice chair Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del.
McConnell announced his pending retirement in February 2025. His campaign committee and leadership committee have not received donations from either KPS Capital or AM General employees this election cycle, FEC records show. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Coons’s campaign committee received a $2,500 donation from the AM General employee PAC on March 5, according to FEC records. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
McCollum’s leadership PAC received $5,000 from the company’s employee PAC last October, according to FEC records.
Government contractors have been banned from donating directly to candidates for decades. In practice, however, that ban does nothing to prevent company PACs or individual employees from giving to campaigns — even if they serve as company executives.
The contributions associated with AM General represent a sliver of the $15.8 million Collins had raised this election cycle through July, according to data compiled by the watchdog group OpenSecrets. Yet every dollar could help her in what is expected to be a tough fight with Troy Jackson, the Democratic Senate candidate with a slight lead on her in recent polls, in November.
The contributions also illustrated a trend among the top contributors to her campaign. Many of them are from people affiliated with government contractors, according to OpenSecrets. Two defense contractors, General Dynamics and RTX, are also on the list of her top organizational contributors.
AM General’s owner, KPS Capital Partners, is the sixth-largest organizational donor to Collins’s campaign committee and leadership PAC, according to the group’s data.
Although AM General has cultivated connections in Congress, members appear to be growing increasingly skeptical of the JLTV vehicle program. In June, House appropriators signaled that they wanted to find a new contractor for the vehicle, citing production delays. AM General was 2,000 vehicles behind on orders from the Marines, the defense subcommittee said.
Chadbourne, the company’s CEO, issued a statement in June defending its performance and blaming a previous contractor for delays.
“Healthy competition, transparency, and accountability strengthen America’s defense industrial base,” he said. “AM General remains fully committed to continue earning the trust placed in us by the Army, the Marine Corps, Congress, and the American taxpayer through performance, quality, and disciplined execution.”
Parti Québécois promises to hold independence referendum in Canada’s French-speaking region by 2028
Voters in Quebec are going to the polls in provincial elections which will probably result in victory for a party that has promised to hold a referendum on independence from Canada within the next two years.
If polls are correct, the Parti Québécois (PQ) will form the government of the province of roughly nine million, the first time that the separatist movement will have gained power in the French-speaking region for more than a decade.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware is home to over 1 million people from diverse backgrounds, including more than 3,400 Korean Americans. A growing interest in Korean culture was evident at this year’s Delaware Korean Festival in Wilmington.
Visitors to the Delaware Art Museum last Thursday were met with the aroma of garlic, scallions and other spicy dishes featured at the Delaware Korean Festival, an event that has grown throughout the past decade from a small, child-focused cultural showcase into an annual community-wide celebration.
The concept began with a group of local mothers who wanted to instill pride in their Korean heritage among future generations. Jin Twilley of Wilmington had her 5-year-old and 7-year-old children in mind when she launched the festival in 2015. She soon realized the event also presented an opportunity to teach other Delawareans about Korean culture.
“Everybody’s loving it,” Twilley said during this year’s festival. “Now we are less about spreading [awareness], but now we are enjoying it together. That’s the difference over the years.”
One of her now-teenagers, who grew up attending the festival, helped run trivia and games this year. Twilley said she is excited to see how the festival has offered the younger generation ways to get involved and learn about their heritage.
The festival began with traditional folk music called gayageum sanjo, played on a Korean string instrument called a gayageum. Musician Eunyoung Lee also played “Amazing Grace” and improvised melodies. The event featured talchum, a Korean mask dance, and ended with a taekwondo demonstration by Tiger Kicks Martial Arts Delaware.
“The energy here is so wholesome and welcoming,” said Stefanie Colon, a festivalgoer from Wilmington. “It just feels very alive, and I’m just so in love with the culture. It’s beautiful.”
Colon watched three people play modeumbuk, a Korean drum ensemble, which she described as mesmerizing.
This year’s festival also featured food fit for a variety of palettes, including traditional plates such as kimchi, bulgogi (beef), tofu, jeyuk bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork) and japchae, which is a dish full of savory noodles with assorted vegetables.
The event also included raffles for rare items, like certain snacks only available in Korea, trivia, chopstick challenges and Korean-inspired arts and crafts.
Svetlana Kogan and Joey Loey enjoyed the spicy pork and beef dishes served outside the museum. The friends met up that evening to enjoy the annual festival. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Chilapa Brown was one of the festival’s attendees who was participating in one of the crafts. Down the table on goers learned how to spell their name in Korean. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Young Maia came with her parents to the festival. She was creating a tiger paper fan- the animal symbolizes strength, courage and good luck in Korean culture. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Moedumbuk is an upbeat style of traditional Korean percussion. The group performed that Thursday evening at the Korean Festival. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
The Delaware Korean School has been established in Newark since the 80s. The non-profit bilingual school was fundraising at the festival that day to continue their efforts in educating other about Korean culture and language. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Delaware Korean Association President Sanghoon Kim said he was excited to see all the food and culture highlighted at the festival.
He recognized that Korean culture has become more mainstream in recent years, largely thanks to K-Pop, the globally popular music genre that blends pop, hip-hop, R&B and electric dance music. That broader renewed interest has trickled down to local Korean community events as well.
Kim said the festival stands out as one of the only events of its kind in the area.
“We need something like this in Delaware,” he said.
Delaware’s Korean community at a glance
After launching the festival nearly a decade ago, Twilley collaborated with the Delaware Korean Association to bring more members of the community together.
The First State now boasts more than 1 million residents, which includes a growing Korean community supported by local churches and volunteers.
Iz Balleto, the Delaware Art Museum’s cultural programs manager, estimates that a majority of Delaware’s roughly 3,400-plus Korean residents live in the Wilmington and Old New Castle areas.
“I think it’s great for us to always know about their traditions, their cultures and also how they have been growing here,” he said. “But I’m always grateful because they’ve always been true supporters of the Delaware Art Museum.”
Twilley said the Delaware Korean School now has roughly equal numbers of American students and Korean American students, compared with a predominantly Korean or mixed Korean American enrollment prior to the festival’s launch in 2015.
The Delaware Korean Festival included a taekwondo demonstration. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
The public could purchase a spicy pork platter or a beef platter accompanied by kimchi and japchae, stir-fried noodles with vegetables. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Seoyeong Jang and her mother Chung Ea Lim went to the festival for the first time since the Covid pandemic. They are part of Delaware’s larger Korean community who have seen the population grow over the years, particularly in church. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
University of Delaware students performed a K-pop dance routine the evening of the Delaware Korean Festival. The university has a student-run K-pop Dance Club, signaling the popularity of this genre of music as of recently. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
The growing community is also evident through the Delaware Korean Association, a Wilmington-based nonprofit that shares community resources and promotes Korean culture and language. Kim, the association president who attended the recent festival, said he has been getting requests from people to learn to speak or sing the Korean language.
Kim described Korean culture as open-minded and welcoming to everyone. He said he wants to be able to dance together and have fun together.
Festival attendee Sean Park used to work the lunch line during previous festivals, but this year was able to simply enjoy the festivities with his family.
The Wilmington resident and art museum member said volunteering at and attending the festival has helped him connect with the Delaware Korean community while also helping to preserve Korean culture for generations to come.
“I think we’re a bit underrepresented in Delaware statistically, not in the Philly metro area,” he said. “We need events like this just to preserve that culture and just have some options for Koreans in Delaware and to showcase our culture, too.”
Musician who had hit albums with Racine and Rats later became a judge on six seasons of Canadian Idol
Sass Jordan, the singer-songwriter who became a significant success in Canada’s rock scene in the 1990s before starring as a judge on Canadian Idol, has died aged 65.
No cause of death has been given. A statement on social media said she died on 2 October “surrounded by her loving family … She remains in our hearts, an inimitable force of nature. An irreplaceable being of light and joy!”
The head of the Jewish Greens has said she may leave the party after it voted to adopt a policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state.
Vivien Lichtenstein said that while opinion among Jewish members of the party was split on the motion passed at its annual conference in Brighton on Sunday, she said she believed it was unhelpful and it was “possible” she might quit.
Amnesty International is calling for an end to the agency, whose record of violating human rights dates back decades
ICE must be abolished.
That’s the conclusion we at Amnesty International have reached after documenting the chilling pattern of human rights violations across the US during immigration enforcement operations.
The Flying Monkey disposal well in Enid, Oklahoma. Last year, the city asked the state to revoke the Flying Monkey’s permit to operate. September Dawn Bottoms for ProPublica
An Oklahoma oil and gas company plugged a well that disposes of oil production’s toxic byproduct after an investigation by The Frontier and ProPublica revealed that regulators had approved the well in violation of state rules meant to protect public groundwater supplies.
The disposal well, named the Flying Monkey, injected oil field wastewater underground and sat roughly a quarter-mile from two municipal groundwater supply sites that served the small city of Enid in northwest Oklahoma. Wastewater injection operations are banned within a half-mile of public water wells unless regulators hold a hearing to ensure that this activity will not pollute groundwater. Regulators at the Oklahoma Corporation Commission did not hold a hearing before approving the well in 2018.
The city of Enid filed a complaint last year asking the state to revoke the Flying Monkey’s permit to operate.
On Sept. 14, with the complaint still active in the agency’s administrative law court, employees of the Flying Monkey’s current owner — BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings LLC — dropped a cast iron plug into the bottom of the well, followed by more than 200 sacks of cement, to permanently seal it off, according to a report the company filed to the corporation commission. A representative of the state was on site to witness the plugging.
Eric Huddleston, an attorney representing BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings, which acquired the Flying Monkey in 2020, said the company decided to permanently shut the well after determining it was “underutilized and operationally unnecessary.” A spokesperson for the corporation commission did not respond to requests for comment, including about the agency’s role in the well’s closure.
Enid city officials said they did not know the well had been plugged until our reporter informed them.
“This decision is, for lack of a better word, thrilling because this is such a vital issue,” said Frank Baker, an Enid city commissioner. “Our water sources have been put in danger, and for this one well to have been plugged, this is the best possible outcome.”
In Enid’s 2025 complaint to the state, its lawyers noted that the Flying Monkey’s original operator, Hinkle Oil & Gas, had incorrectly checked a box on its permit application stating that the injection well was not within a half-mile of a public water supply well. “This was demonstrably false,” Enid’s lawyers wrote. Hinkle previously declined to answer questions about the Flying Monkey. Earlier this year, BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings refiled a permit application for the Flying Monkey, where it acknowledged the proximity of the city’s water supply wells.
A building containing one of Enid’s groundwater supply wells sits about a quarter-mile from the now-plugged Flying Monkey disposal well.September Dawn Bottoms for ProPublica
The Flying Monkey had a checkered operational history. In the last five years, the state has shut down the wastewater disposal well repeatedly after it failed tests of its structural integrity. These failures can indicate a problem that might allow wastewater to escape, potentially threatening drinking water sources. The well had failed five of these tests since 2021.
In early July, nine days after the newsrooms’ investigation published, the Flying Monkey’s owner reported another leak in the well’s tubing. The state gave BCE-Mach III Midstream Holdings 90 days to fix the leak or to permanently plug the well.
Our investigation identified two other wells in Enid that violated the state distance rule between wastewater injection wells and the city’s groundwater supply sites. Both of those wells, which are owned by other companies, remain active.
The proximity of wells to drinking water isn’t only an issue in Enid. Across Oklahoma, the news outlets identified at least 114 injection wells that were located within a half-mile of a public water supply well. More than 300,000 Oklahomans live in communities that rely on these water wells, according to our analysis.
Baker, the Enid official, told The Frontier and ProPublica that he hopes the corporation commission will begin to plug other injection wells that threaten public water supplies.
“I hope and pray this is an example that we’ll start to see replicated across the state in the near future,” he said.
In addition to its request to plug the well, the city of Enid has asked the corporation commission to impose stronger regulations on oilfield wastewater disposal near its water supply, including a wider distance buffer between the injection sites and the city’s water wells. This request comes amid a recent uptick in wastewater injection in the Enid area, according to a legal filing made by the city. The commission previously declined to comment on Enid’s complaint because it is an active case. The case will continue to be heard in the agency’s administrative law court later this year.
Amid accusations of rape at Cornell University, a growing body of research is challenging assumptions about how victims remember details of their assaults.
The U.S. began bombing Yemen’s Houthis in 2025 despite concern over weapons stocks and unclear goals. The Iran-backed group is still bedeviling the region.
Surging settler violence and government-backed settlement expansion are transforming the territory under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Temperatures in US state forecast to hit high 30s celsius this week, while regions in Indonesia grapple with wildfires
The National Weather Service in the US has issued extreme heat warnings for parts of southern California, including Los Angeles, until Thursday, as temperatures are expected to hit the high 30s celsius. Burbank, a suburb north of Los Angeles, recorded 39C on Saturday, a few degrees shy of the October record for the region set in 1987. A persistent area of high pressure will remain in place this week, leading to further hazardous hot weather and increased fire risk.
Parts of Indonesia are in the midst of an extreme wildfire season, which has peaked over the past month. Western Kalimantan (Borneo) and southern Sumatra have been particularly badly affected. The lack of rainfall has dried the usually water-logged tropical soils, meaning that fires have been able to spread quickly, above and below the surface. Indonesia’s soils are also extremely rich in peat, meaning that the smoke produced from the fires contain higher levels of toxic gases such as sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide. Cities in surrounding areas and as far as Malaysia and Singapore have experienced reduced air quality in recent weeks as a result. Drought and wildfires are more common in this part of the world during El Niño events owing to suppressed thunderstorm activity.
The U.S. military said it attacked a boat suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea, killing four people, as the Trump administration continues its yearlong campaign against alleged traffickers in Latin America.
- In 2022 Altair Engineering open sourced "OpenRadioss", an industry-leading finite element solver under the GNU AGPL License, reports Phoronix.
- Siemens acquired Altair Engineering last year
- Siemens closes access to OpenRadioss.
"Siemens didn't just end the project but they shutdown the GitHub repository that hosted the open-source code and removed other resources that had built around it," writes Phoronix, before announcing a new open-source community fork:
Radioss has been an industry-leading solver for analyzing crashes, blasts, and other purposes. Altair creating OpenRadioss was a huge milestone for the technical computing industry. It also had other effects like for myself in finally being able to benchmark with this (Open)Radioss code for CPU performance testing compared to the expensive licensing on Radioss itself...
Siemens argues the OpenRadioss closure is for consolidating efforts:
"After four years of successful community-driven research, Siemens is entering a new chapter for the Radioss solver. To accelerate innovation and provide the robust support our global users require for production-grade simulation, we are consolidating our efforts."
It was Brian Clemens. founder/VP Rocky Linux and the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation who launched the community fork of OpenRadioss — to be called OpenCourant. Its web site announces they'll be "carrying forward the OpenRadioss code base under the GNU AGPL, in the open, where it belongs."
Phoronix writes in a follow-up:
OpenCourant is based on the last publicly known open-source OpenRadioss snapshot before Siemens shut it down and removed access to the Git repository... OpenCourant continues with the OpenRadioss GNI AGPLv3 licensing and will be run as part of the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation. They have run into a small issue though with part of OpenRadioss consisting of binary dependencies and not having the very latest versions prior to Siemens' removal of the repository. Details on that via this discussion thread for anyone that happens to have recent OpenRadioss binaries.
In other open source news, Kagi is ending their development work on the Orion Browser for Linux and Windows, reports the site Linuxiac — but Kagi "plans to open-source both versions so other developers or organizations can keep them going."
Kansas City beat the surprisingly feisty Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday. They already look like a very real contender after a lost season in 2025
The rivalry between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders goes back to the formation of the American Football League in 1960, when the Chiefs were the Dallas Texans, and the Raiders resided in Oakland. At no time in that rivalry had both teams faced each other with a record of 3-0 or better until Sunday’s game at Las Vegas’s Allegiant Stadium. An unbeaten record wasn’t entirely surprising for the Chiefs with Patrick Mahomes, but the Raiders? The team won only three games in the whole of last season, but this new Raiders team under Klint Kubiak presents all kinds of challenges for opponents.
At first, it appeared that the Raiders might go on to their first 4-0 start to a season since 2002, when they made it all the way to the Super Bowl, where they were vivisected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their former head coach, Jon Gruden. Kubiak’s team held a 13-10 halftime lead on Sunday, and Kubiak told CBS’s Tracy Wolfson at the half that his team was going to win the game.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were among the officials who met on Friday to discuss a path forward.
Longer battery life, better screen, upgraded Siri and new variable aperture camera in refreshed design from last year’s model
Apple’s smaller Pro iPhone gets the best kind of spec bump for 2026: longer battery life, faster chips and a fancy new variable aperture for the main camera.
The iPhone 18 Pro is one of a pair of slab phones launched alongside Apple’s first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, and is the cheapest of the new phones, with a regular iPhone 18 yet to be announced.
Screen: 6.3in Super Retina XDR (120Hz OLED) (460ppi)
RMIT confirms co-pilot was a student as Australian authorities examine his time in country between 2015 and 2017
An Australian university has confirmed a flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight studied at its Melbourne campus, but left before completing his qualification.
Disaster was narrowly averted on 30 September when passengers and crew intervened to stop the alleged attempt of the co-pilot, identified by media outlets as Hammam al-Hammami, to take control of a flight to Tel Aviv with 182 people onboard.
In today’s newsletter: As Americans get ready to vote on whether the Republican party remains in control of Congress, our Washington editor talks about the disconnect between Trump and his supporters
Good morning. Later today, Donald Trump will be in the state of Nebraska to rev up supporters as he kicks off a campaign blitz of rallies ahead of the midterm elections on 3 November.
If his early speeches are anything to go by, cornhuskers can anticipate poll denial, accusations of veganism and an expletive ratio that my nine-year-old would love. And Nebraskans may love it, too: aside from one “blue dot” district in Omaha, Republicans argue their support is steady in the state that has easily backed Trump three times.
UK politics | The Greens in England and Wales have formally adopted a policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state.
Schools | Lawyers and campaigners have condemned the “horrifying” scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools after a Guardian investigation revealed thousands of sexual offences against under-13s are reported to police each year.
Brazil | Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.
Environment | A study of Europe’s summer paints a grim picture for the future, with doctors and climate scientists calling on governments to stop burning fossil fuels, shade buildings, green cities, and install air conditioning in hospitals, schools and care homes.
US military | The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base.
Tuesday | ABC News is suing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) over its licence review, and on Thursday its hearing will take place. The broadcaster claims the review, ordered by Donald Trump in April over comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s comments about the US president, is a “retaliatory campaign” in violation of its first amendment rights.
Wednesday | Kemi Badenoch is to speak at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham. This day also marks the third anniversary of the 7 October attacks by Hamas. In London, the Met are asking organisers of a pro-Palestinian student march to move the event.
Thursday | Holborn and St Pancras will hold its byelection. The seat belongs to former prime minister and Labour party leader Keir Starmer, who held it from 2015 until his resignation in September.
The FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, at Los Angeles International Airport before she left for China, the agency said
US authorities arrested a California woman on Sunday, accusing her of spying on the son of Taiwan’s president at the behest of Chinese officials, the FBI said.
The FBI arrested Wanying Zhang, also known as Heather, at Los Angeles International Airport on Sunday before her planned departure to China, the agency said in a statement. Authorities charged Zhang, 34, of Irvine, California, with acting as an unregistered foreign agent.
While the case of a whale found 11km upstream in a New South Wales river this weekend was unusual, it was not unprecedented, experts say.
The juvenile humpback, which swam into the Clarence River on the state’s mid-north coast and later died, was towed out to sea on Sunday, according to NSW authorities.
Abuse material monitor says number of AI images assessed this year is already 40% higher than last year’s total
AI-generated child sexual abuse material is proliferating online, with the amount of illegal material investigated this year already exceeding the total for 2025.
Analysts at the Internet Watch Foundation have found more photorealistic child sexual abuse material in the first half of 2026 than for the whole of the prior year. The UK-based IWF, which monitors abuse material globally, said it had assessed 6,310 AI images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse, 40% higher than last year’s total of more than 4,500.
PC Magazine reports:
In September, the infamous ShinyHunters hacking group claimed it had infiltrated the FBI job recruitment portal, stealing confidential data belonging to 5,000 employees and even changing the FBI logo to its own. The group has been implicated in the hacking of numerous large and high-profile organizations over the years, from the European Commission to Grand Theft Auto-maker Rockstar Games and the software firm behind Canvas. Now, Reuters reports that a suspected leader of the group, Saif al-Din Khader, is being detained in the country of Jordan in the Near East.... He is reportedly still a teenager.
"Two sources said that he is helping the FBI and global law enforcement locate the other hackers in the group," reports Reuters:
Their theft of what they claim are mountains of data on every single FBI employee has drawn comparisons to the allegedly Chinese-linked intrusion at the US Office of Personnel Management in 2015, which compromised sensitive details on millions of Americans who had been vetted for security clearances. A Reuters analysis of a sample of the data shared by ShinyHunters revealed that the data contained extensive personally identifiable information of FBI employees, sensitive job role information, and psychiatric and medical information. Khader's cooperation with investigators could be critical to helping contain — or at least understand — the damage. One source said he was walking investigators through his electronic devices and digital correspondence to help the FBI locate his cohorts...
There have been hints for days that ShinyHunters was experiencing disruption following the announcement of its break-in at the FBI. Beginning on Tuesday, Reuters was unable to reach ShinyHunters through the online account it previously used to communicate with journalists. Then, on Wednesday, the group's dark web site, where it had previously posted threats to the FBI, disappeared. FBI Director Kash Patel had been hinting at more arrests following the announcement that another alleged ShinyHunters member, Pepijn van der Stap, had been detained in the Netherlands...
Khader's identity, and his alleged connection to ShinyHunters, have long been known to security researchers. Last year, the independent journalist Brian Krebs reported that Khader was a key member of Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters, an umbrella group of hackers that included ShinyHunters... Law enforcement agencies around the world, including in the United States, have struggled to arrest and prosecute members of related groups such as Lapsus$ or Scattered Spider, Reuters has previously reported. Sources told Reuters that the difficulty stems from the hackers' young ages, which can make prosecutions complex, or because the groups they belong to are so chaotic and informal, or because victims of their extortion attempts often decline to help investigators
Study of remains taken from royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab appears to confirm early Egyptologist’s theory
Court officials and craftspeople serving early Egyptian kings may have been sacrificed when their ruler died, according to research that found fractures in several ancient skulls.
The royal cemetery of Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos features the tombs and enclosures of the First Dynasty rulers of Egypt, and dates as far back as 3,000BC.
Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of President Trump and the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Brazil's veteran President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will face off in a runoff on Oct. 25.
It's become a booming industry: teaching artificial intelligence how to get better at doing all kinds of jobs. As AI advances, many fear what this tech means for the future of work.
The NFL is looking into the circumstances of an official swearing at Arizona Cardinals tight end Trey McBride during the team’s loss to the New York Giants on Sunday, league spokesperson Brian McCarthy told the Associated Press.
Line judge Jeff Seeman was caught on camera cursing at McBride, who appeared to laugh when he realized a camera had caught the incident. The interaction drew the ire of NFL Players Association executive director JC Tretter, a retired offensive lineman who played eight seasons in the league.
"Russian health authorities have taken precautionary measures in response to the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague research facility," reports Axios, "but have not confirmed that she contracted plague."
On Sept. 25, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, who worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region, broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen, local reports said. Shipilova was admitted to a hospital on Sept. 29 with symptoms of severe pneumonia and died overnight between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2. After her death, authorities imposed quarantines at several medical facilities in the region and placed nearly 200 people who had come into contact with Shipilova under medical observation.
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev said those being monitored showed no signs of illness and had tested negative... Russia's public health agency said Shipilova had "pneumonia of unknown etiology" and that further testing found no microorganisms linked to her work. The agency said the epidemiological situation in the region remains stable.
Plague is a potentially life-threatening bacterial disease but can be cured with antibiotics when treated promptly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
CNN reports that according to Russian state media agency TASS, it remains unclear exactly what was released:
The head of the neighboring republic of Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, said earlier that the employee — a 28-year old woman — died "possibly from the plague." He also noted that "there are no plague outbreaks" in Buryatia. The governor of Irkutsk, Igor Kobzev, urged calm on Friday, saying that an extraordinary meeting of the regional anti-epidemic commission was held with Russia's chief state doctor. The meeting was in connection with a "suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection affecting a resident of the region," Kobzev said on Telegram.... The infection in the Irkutsk region is "most likely not the plague, but even if confirmed, there will be no spread of this disease," a previous head of Rospotrebnadzor, Gennady Onishchenko, said on Friday. Onishchenko told the state news agency TASS that the onset of cold weather would likely prevent transmission.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the news.
Byron Donalds, who could become the first Black Republican elected governor in U.S. history, is looking to win over more Black voters than Trump and DeSantis
Senator Flávio Bolsonaro and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva finished first and second in the opening round of Brazil’s presidential election. They'll meet in a runoff on Oct. 25.
What happened when AI-created bots competed in the classic Blizzard videogame StarCraft? "Struggling to stay apace with its competitors, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra apparently changed strategy mid-tournament and opted to cheat," Kotaku reports:
StarSkirmish is an ongoing clash of AI developed bots in StarCraft: Brood War... Limited to playing as Protoss, each LLM is given an hour to develop a bot in C++, then have them build, harvest and fight on one of three maps... Yesterday, viewers watched as Claude and GPT went against each other and the human created bot Pluto... Struggling to get an edge through the day, [OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra] decided to do what LLMs do best: Lie, cheat and steal. The GPT-6 Astra bot downloaded and tagged in Stardust, a Protoss bot created by Bruce Mackenzie Nielsen back in 2020, considered one of the best of the bests. "I am rolling back GPT-6 Astra's code so its [sic] not contaminated and allowing it to continue," posted StarSkirmish creator Kai McPheeters.
That was Friday. But by Sunday, McPheeters was posting an update on social media. "Can GPT-6 Astra avoid going 0 — 1000?" Two hours later he replied to his own post. "The answer was no."
While AI companies "have repeatedly been accused of stealing the work of humans... I haven't seen an example quite so brazen," writes PC Magazine:
While Astra's bot-based heist is innocuous in isolation, this is hardly the first time an OpenAI LLM has been caught attempting to cheat at a task. Indeed, the company's history of creating deceitful models stretches back almost a decade, to when an early AI model used glitches and exploits to improve its Sonic the Hedgehog completion times.
The announcement came hours after Iranian-backed Houthis reportedly cut a vital supply route to besieged city of Taiz
Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has announced the start of a new military operation to retake all territory held by the Houthis, even as the militant group made fresh gains on the ground, reportedly encircling a government-held city.
Rashad al-Alimi, the head of Yemen’s presidential council, said in a statement on Sunday: “I announce today the start of military operations to retake the remaining territories of the republic and extend the authority of the state and its institutions across the entire national territory.”
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is standing against Flávio Bolsonaro in the first round of the presidential race
Brazil’s president is directly elected: each voter’s ballot counts equally and there is no electoral college. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the valid votes cast in the first round, a second runoff election will be held three weeks later between the two candidates who polled highest.
Far-right challenger and son of disgraced ex-president Jair Bolsonaro put in a stronger than expected showing, with Lula calling the result ‘unexpected’
Brazil’s presidential race will go to a second round after the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, beat the incumbent leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, but failed to secure the outright majority he needed to avoid a runoff.
With 99.9% of votes counted, the 45-year-old son of the disgraced former president, Jair Bolsonaro, had won 47%, meaning he will now face a 25 October showdown with his 80-year-old rival. Lula received 45.1%. Bolsonaro received 56.1m votes to Lula’s 53.8m.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, retiring soon, says without checks on power, U.S. democracy is at risk. He discusses his fears for the future of U.S. democracy and his relationship with President Trump.
Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he worries about the "outsized influence" of the executive branch. He's also concerned about the types of advisers President Trump has surrounded himself with.
All U.S. bombers deployed to RAF Fairford have been returned to their home stations in the United States, a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to CBS News.
A team of art historians and software engineers has joined forces with the Franciscan friars to try to complete the restoration of the Basilica of Saint Francis, which was damaged by earthquakes.
Two 1997 earthquakes badly damaged the Basilica of Saint Francis. Friars are partnering with a tech company to restore the church using artificial intelligence and ultra-high-definition photography.
After Macklemore was barred from opening for Ed Sheeran at Gillette Stadium for pro-Palestinian comments, musician Zach Bryan wore a "Free Palestine" shirt during his Friday and Saturday shows.
Beni Rae Harmony, 24, has been ‘a trusted voice for the Maga movement’ as a correspondent, White House says
The White House has defended a newly hired press aide who posed for a holiday photograph in 2021 wearing a “Fuck Joe Biden” T-shirt and holding a rifle.
Beni Rae Harmony, the new assistant White House press secretary, announced on Friday that she was going to work for Donald Trump just days after covering him as a correspondent for Real America’s Voice, a partisan rightwing outlet originally created as a video podcast platform for the US president’s former adviser Steve Bannon.
Union says staff left with no choice but industrial action after breakdown in pay talks with Texas oil firm Apache
A looming strike by oil workers in the North Sea could “severely disrupt” UK fuel supplies, the Unite union has said, adding that staff were left with no choice after a breakdown in pay talks with the Texas oil company Apache.
The union said Apache workers had “emphatically” backed strike action after being given what it said was an unacceptable pay offer that amounted to a real-terms pay cut for many employees, at a time when the company was “raking in eye-watering profits”.
Many cases involve criminals using other people’s identities to sell fake event tickets to friends and family
The total amount stolen by criminals who hack into people’s emails and social media accounts and then pretend to be them has risen by more than 400% in a year, official UK data shows.
In many cases, the scammers are hijacking people’s accounts in order to use their identity to sell fake event tickets – such as to sold-out gigs – to unsuspecting friends and family.
Only 150 of 2,189 titles published in UK for young children last year focused on minority ethnic, disabled or neurodivergent characters
The number of children’s books featuring Black main characters fell by almost 8% last year, according to research into diversity in UK publishing.
Just 47 – or 2.1% – of the 2,189 books published for under-10s in 2025 featured a Black main character, a 7.8% fall from the previous year, according to Inclusive Books for Children. Black children make up about 8.5% of that age bracket in England and Wales.
Python's security developer-in-residence Seth Larson reports from this year's official core developer Python Language Summit:
"No one said 'don't do this' last year". After testing the waters at PyCon US 2025, [software engineer] David Hewitt returned to the Python Language Summit asking what Python core developers want from Rust, along with proposed timelines, phases, and success criteria for how the Rust for CPython project might proceed and become a permanent fixture within the CPython project. David is acting as an "ambassador" for the Rust for CPython project team, which is currently led by core developers Kirill Podoprigora and Emma Smith as authors of the Rust for CPython PEP draft. Emma also spoke at PyCon US 2026 about the Rust for CPython project. The team itself is around 60 developers in a Discord channel, among them a "few [Python] core developers" and a "delegation from the Rust project".
The team has experience with previous projects integrating Rust into existing codebases, such as Android and the Linux kernel, and is "excited by the work and keen to support [the project] if we proceed". Showing how adopting Rust may specifically help CPython, David noted how the number of issues labeled with " type-crash" has been steadily rising over time... David explained that Jeff Vander Stoep described Rust in Android as "move fast and fix things", and that "fewer revisions for patches of the same size" was the experience Android has had since adopting Rust....
One of the biggest concerns from a year ago was Rust's lack of platform support compared to CPython, which at the time of writing officially supports 20 different architectures and platforms at either Tier 1, 2, or 3. David shared that Rust's support of different platforms has "widened since last year" and was becoming "less and less of a concern". The proposal would be to ask Python distributors to attempt using the optional Rust support in Python 3.16 (October 2027) and report platform-specific issues upstream in time to be resolved around the Python 3.17 timeline (October 2028)...
[T]he first Rust code to ship in Python would be in Python 3.16 [October 2027], where it would be completely optional, with the existing C code kept as a fallback. The earliest that Rust would become required to build CPython is Python 3.18 in 2029, at least three years away... The Rust for CPython team has selected the zlib module as the first module to be given an optional Rust implementation because they "wanted to achieve a significant improvement" with a "small scope". The proposed Rust implementation will use zlib-rs, which is "heavily tested and used by the Firefox, uv, and Cargo" projects and "faster than zlib and zlib-ng on many platforms".... This small change would have an impact: the zlib compression algorithm is "widely used by Python packaging", meaning that (almost) "every pip install in Python 3.16 will be sped up" if the proposal is accepted.
Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader RoccamOccam for sharing the article.
Aircraft leave Gloucestershire base to return to US following arrest of dual British-Iranian national in central London
The US Air Force has pulled its bombers from RAF Fairford following an investigation into an alleged planned terror attack at the base.
The bombers were redeployed back to their home bases in the US, according to a Pentagon official who was not authorised to discuss sensitive military movements and spoke on Sunday on condition of anonymity.
Kyren Williams ran for two touchdowns in the final four minutes as Matthew Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat the Philadelphia Eagles. The Rams had struggled offensively all afternoon and a win seemed out of reach until late in the fourth quarter, when Eagles coach Nick Sirianni decided against kicking a chip-shot field goal that would have made it a three-score game and instead went for it on fourth down. The Eagles failed to convert, giving the Rams new life. Stafford led touchdown drives of 98 and 79 yards, with Williams scoring the go-ahead touchdown from seven yards out. Both teams are 2-2 on the season.
Shadow chancellor will also promise to scrap affordable homes regulations as part of strategy to refocus on growth
The Conservatives will announce a bonfire of regulations including abolishing affordable homes and community funding rules as well as scrapping Natural England and the Environment Agency.
The shadow chancellor, Andrew Griffith, will say the party intends to “streamline regulations” that protect nature and oblige developers to include affordable homes and community services such as GP surgeries, to speed up infrastructure and housebuilding.
Staunchly pro-Russia politician has dominated campaign and inflamed divisions despite not appearing on ballot
Bosnian Serb nationalist politician Milorad Dodik has declared victory for his party in an election in Bosnia shaped by economic pressures, the prospect of the Balkan nation joining the European Union and ethnic tensions that have divided the country since its brutal 1992-95 war.
Dodik is a staunchly pro-Russia politician who, despite not appearing on the ballot, has dominated the campaign and inflamed divisions with separatist rhetoric that has sparked fears of renewed instability in Bosnia.
Last month, the U.S. House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, reports the Chicago Sun-Times. They call it "a bipartisan effort to require AM radio in new vehicles," adding that the bill now "awaits action in the Senate, where a companion measure has already garnered support, according to public records."
Broadcasters said AM radio remains a critical source of information, offering news and weather alerts, particularly when cell networks and internet service are disrupted or unreliable... "AM radio — all radio — has always been about connection, and in Chicago, especially, the connection is incredibly strong," Mary Sandberg Boyle, vice president and general manager of WGN-AM 720, said. "You don't need a subscription. You don't need a data plan or an app. You turn on the radio, and it's there..." Boyle said the accessibility of radio becomes especially important during severe weather and breaking news situations. "That's when local radio is really more important because we have the ability to stay live, pivot our content and what we're covering, and we can access a large amount of audience members very quickly and keep everybody safe," she said. Boyle also serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Broadcasters, which has argued that preserving AM radio access is an access issue rather than a matter of nostalgia.
The legislation emerged after several automakers removed AM radio from certain electric vehicle models, citing interference from electric power systems. Companies including Tesla, Rivian, Volvo and others have either eliminated or limited AM radio in some EVs. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents most major automakers, has opposed the requirement. In congressional testimony last year, President and CEO John Bozzella argued that "analog AM radio does not contribute to motor vehicle safety" and requiring it as standard equipment "is not necessary to ensure public safety."
Under the bill, the U.S. Department of Transportation would be required to develop regulations ensuring AM radio remains available in new vehicles sold in the U.S. The measure would also bar automakers from charging consumers separately for AM radio access... While public discussion around the legislation has largely focused on emergency alerts and news access, some scholars say preserving AM radio also has implications for media diversity... "I think the media landscape is really overwhelmingly homogenized right now, and AM radio is important in many markets," [said Zachary McDowell, associate professor of communications at the University of Illinois Chicago]. "It's a space that still allows for all sorts of different voices that is still open and accessible."
The article also includes this quote from Rodney Gibbs, executive director of Heartland Signal, which operates a local talk radio station. "Despite the kind of shiny objects that digital media is, AM radio still has a viable and durable audience. It's a daily, unscripted, authentic conversation between the host and the listeners. You don't get that from broadcast television. You don't get that from digital media."
Two people were killed and another 35 were hospitalized with injuries after a shooting broke out at a neighborhood block party in Georgia, authorities said.
Minnesota's law banning AI "nudification" images has been put on hold after a federal appeals court sided with Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company.
James Cameron's Avatar is no longer the highest-grossing movie in box office history. That honor now goes to the Disney/Marvel Studios film Avengers: Endgame. Variety explains:
"Avatar" spent a decade as the biggest release ever until "Avengers: Endgame" overtook the record in 2019 during its initial run on the big screen. "Endgame" dropped to No. 2 on all-time charts in 2021 when "Avatar" returned to theaters in advance of 2021's "Avatar: The Way of Water." Five years later, and Earth's Mightiest Heroes have triumphed over the Na'vi again.
Disney is popping Champagne no matter which big-screen behemoth claims the No. 1 spot. "Avatar" was released by 20th Century Fox, which Disney now owns after the companies merged in 2019... [Last week's] re-release of "Endgame" has generated more than $126 million worldwide.
Together the 38 Marvel Studios movies "have generated more than $35 billion worldwide," notes an announcement on Disney's web site, "making the Marvel Cinematic Universe the most successful film franchise in history."
Their announcement adds that Disney "is responsible for seven of the 10 highest-grossing films of all time." That list also includes James Cameron's Titantic and his first two Avatar movies, but also this summer's Spider-Man: Brand New Dayand the earlier film Spider-Man: No Way Home, plus Marvel's 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War. Also among the top-10-of-all-time are Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) at #7 and last year's Zootopia 2.
Meanwhile Coyote vs. Acme was released for rent or purchase on streaming platforms Tuesday, and became the No. 1 most-watched movie in the Apple TV store for America and Canada, according to CBR. (Citing a report from FlixPatrol ) "On Rotten Tomatoes, Coyote vs. Acme has a near-perfect 96% Certified Fresh Tomatometer score based on critics' reviews, and a similar 94% Verified Hot Popcornmeter score based on audience reviews... Frank Scheck from The Hollywood Reporter called it "one of the best live-action/animation films ever."
Preorders have just opened for its DVD and 4K disks, and Coyote vs. Acme is also coming to Blu-ray writes IGN, "along with some hilarious outtakes that he described as 'not PG-rated.'"
Celebrating the film's $100 million box office take last week, the movie's distributors posted a very Coyote-like koan on social media. "It's only over when you stop trying."
Justice Samuel Alito discussed his opinion in the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the leaked draft and its aftermath, same-sex marriage rights and why he's not retiring yet.
(The Center Square) – A coalition of bipartisan lawmakers introduced legislation into both the House and Senate with hopes of bringing the movie and film production industry back home, an occurrence that would protect and create U.S. jobs as well…
“Welcome to the NFL’s home away from home,” was the rallying cry from former running back and current in-stadium hype man Ronde Barber before the league’s 19th year holidaying in the UK began. And welcome Washington’s injury bug which must have stowed away on the flight to London. The mighty Commanders defense that overwhelmed the Colts at times could not overcome having another quarterback knocked out of commission. Indianapolis capitalised on the misfortune with crafty running back Jonathan Taylor carrying them to a 30-13 victory.
The Commanders were already missing starting quarterback Jayden Daniels with an elbow injury and their pesky interloper wasn’t satisfied that Washington had endured enough torment. The game-defining moment came early as a knee injury forced backup passer Marcus Mariota out of the contest after a strong start. Rookie third-stringer Athan Kaliakmanis replaced him and though he delivered the play of the game with an incredible showcase of vision and accuracy on a 47-yard touchdown throw, it was too much, too soon for the 23-year-old.
A fast-growing wildfire in the Angeles national forest north-east of Santa Clarita, California, has triggered evacuation orders and warnings in the area. Firefighters battled the blaze, which had spread to 1,000 acres by Saturday evening, from the ground and air, while authorities ordered residents in surroundings areas to leave as the fire spread quickly across the rugged terrain. The cause of the fire was not immediately reported
"Physicists smashed gold nuclei together at nearly the speed of light and found an unexpected pattern in the particles..." writes Live Science.
"If confirmed, that pattern could help reveal how the hot soup of quarks and gluons that filled the universe in the first few microseconds after the Big Bang cooled and condensed into the protons and neutrons that make up ordinary matter today."
In every collision, particles are flung out sideways; how hard they are flung, on average, varies slightly from one collision to the next. Physicists expected the size of these variations to change smoothly as they adjusted the collision energy. Instead, the variations dipped, shrinking and then growing again. This dip could be a sign of a long-sought "critical point," a special set of conditions at which nuclear matter changes the way it transforms from one form to another.
The signal, detected by the STAR experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, is strong enough that it is very unlikely to be a statistical accident. However, the researchers cautioned that the dip is a tantalizing hint, not proof of the long-sought transition. They published their findings Sept. 22 in the journal Physical Review Letters...
The team analyzed roughly 1 billion collisions, measuring how hard charged particles were flung sideways out of the fireball, according to the article.
The dip "does point to a set of conditions where the behavior of nuclear matter changes, and it gives theorists a new, precise measurement to test their calculations against," study co-author Rutik Manikandhan, told Live Science.
Home secretary warns people traffickers will exploit asylum seekers because they decide who comes to the UK
Nearly all women who try to reach the UK in small boats from northern France have been raped on their journey, Shabana Mahmood has claimed.
In an interview with The Rest Is Politics podcast, the home secretary said far-right, balaclava-wearing activists would “kill” or “kick me out of my own country” if they took power.
On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Zach Lahn, Iowa GOP nominee for governor, join Margaret Brennan.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Zach Lahn, Iowa GOP nominee for governor, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 4, 2026.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that President Trump was "well aware of the risks to energy flows" before launching the war in Iran earlier this year, but argued "the world cannot sustain a nuclear-armed Iran."
Clayton, who leads the US’s 18 intelligence agencies, previously served as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan and led the Securities and Exchange Commission during Trump’s first term.
Motion calling for single Palestinian state, which is opposed by most Green MPs and expected to be challenged, passes by 1,022 votes to 813
The Greens have formally adopted a policy that equates Zionism with racism and calls for Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state, a move opposed by the bulk of the party’s MPs and which is expected to face legal challenge.
Zack Polanski, who heads the Greens in England and Wales and missed the vote at the party’s conference in Brighton to campaign in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, has faced criticism for a perceived lack of leadership on a hugely divisive issue.
In a district shaken by deaths of 11 workers, Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez faces a stiff challenge to keep her seat
On a misty morning in May in south-west Washington state, Laura Oltmann, a 41-year-old dietitian, had barely clocked in when an unfamiliar overhead announcement echoed through the hospital.
“We get overhead pages for different types of emergencies. But this one, we don’t get very often,” recalled Oltmann.
Car thefts in San Francisco are down almost 59% for the first eight months of 2026 compared with the same months in 2022, according to analysis of police department statistics by NPR's Planet Money — and car break-ins are down more than 82%.
"San Francisco's law enforcement leaders tell us that greater use of surveillance technology — including a controversial, AI-powered license plate camera system made by Flock Safety — has been crucial to this drop in car crime."
How much credit does Flock actually deserve...? [In July of 2022, San Francisco District Attorney] Jenkins began taking a more aggressive approach to prosecuting people accused of crimes. Meanwhile, the SFPD beefed up its tactics to fight car thefts and break-ins. In 2023, for example, the police increased patrols in tourist areas known for car break-ins and used "bait cars" to catch and build cases against organized car burglars. But, Jenkins says, "one of the most important factors" behind the drop in crime came when the city introduced new crime-fighting technology. In March 2024, San Francisco voters approved Proposition E, which, among other provisions, made it easier for SFPD to use drones and high-tech surveillance cameras. That same month, the SFPD began installing Flock cameras in strategic locations... In a statement to Planet Money, a spokesperson for the SFPD said, "ALPR has been instrumental in driving down crime in San Francisco. These tools enable our officers to identify crime vehicles with precision, and ALPR is assisting in reducing crimes that were previously very challenging to solve, like auto burglaries."
Jenkins described how Flock cameras and drones can work together to catch suspected criminals. In one case the SFPD publicized, the department says Flock cameras spotted a moving vehicle linked to an auto burglary the previous day and alerted officers. Officers deployed a drone, which flew in from above and then began recording suspects in real time as they smashed windows and stole luggage out of a parked SUV. The police then moved in and arrested them. They can do all this, Jenkins says, "without putting innocent people in danger with dangerous police chases." Meanwhile, the surveillance system creates an evidence trail that [Jenkins'] office can use to prosecute suspected criminals... Jenkins also believes high-tech surveillance helps deter crime, although that's harder to prove...
The most ambitious study of Flock's system so far is a recent one by University of South Carolina crime researchers Ian Adams and Scott Mourtgos. They analyzed data from 216 law enforcement agencies that introduced Flock cameras, comparing crime trends with places that had not adopted Flock. They found that deploying Flock cameras was associated with an 11% drop in car thefts in the first year. This is only one study, and it has yet to be peer-reviewed. It's also not a randomized controlled trial, the gold standard for finding the actual causal effect of something. Other factors, beyond Flock, could still help explain the decline.
That study attempted to control for variables, the article points out — like how San Francisco's decline coincided with a broader drop in crime across American cities as America emerged from the pandemic...
But the article also notes another worry shared by "countless citizens" and political leaders. Are these systems handing too much power to law enforcement to "invade our privacy, trace our whereabouts, and stomp on our civil liberties."
On Friday the Times revealed that Katie Lam, the communities secretary, told a meeting in private earlier this year that the state pension system needs a fundamental overhaul.
Speaking in June, when she was a frontbencher but not yet in the shadow cabinet, Lam was asked at a meeting with activists if she thought the pensions triple lock was sustainable. She replied:
Ultimately I think what we will need in the end is an entirely new pension system.
I mean, a baby that is born today has a 20% chance of living to be 100 and I don’t think we can fund one in five people half of their lives, you know, for the first 20 and the last 30 years. But obviously if you are 90 you probably can’t go out and get a job right, so I think you have to be realistic about how you would taper that and bring that in across the population.
The fact is, the triple lock and pensions are things that people have contributed to.
Conservatives believe that if you have contributed, then you deserve to get your state pension.
In a CBS News interview, Biden-era Middle East adviser Brett McGurk recounted the administration's response to the Oct. 7 attack, its handling of the Israel-Hamas war, the role of Iran and the long-sought push to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Attack shortly after Friedrich Merz arrived on unannounced visit intended to underline Germany’s backing
Russia has struck another major bridge in Kyiv as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, arrived in the capital in a show of support for Ukraine.
A Russian drone hit Kyiv’s key Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, marking the fourth consecutive day that Russia has targeted bridges used by tens of thousands of residents commuting between the city’s two banks. Video footage showed cars driving across the bridge as the drone plunged into the roadway and exploded in a burst of fire. Two people were injured in the strike, said Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Energy Secretary Chris Wright that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 4, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 4, 2026.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Brett McGurk, who served as a top Middle East adviser to former Preident Joe Biden, a portion of which aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 4, 2026.
"Sunday Morning" talked with passengers who heroically helped avert disaster this past Wednesday by subduing the co-pilot attempting to crash their Boeing 737 Max into the Arabian Desert.
"Free your BIOS today!" urges the web page for GNU Boot, calling it "a 100% free software project aimed at replacing the nonfree boot software (like BIOS or UEFI) of computers with free boot software.
GNU Boot is only a distribution: it reuses existing software projects like Coreboot, GRUB, SeaBIOS, etc. So it's not very different from 100% free GNU/Linux distributions like Trisquel or Guix.
Last month the Free Software Foundation announced they'd fiscally sponsor the project:
"The BIOS is a delicate but essential part of software freedom for computing today," said Zoë Kooyman, executive director of the FSF. "GNU Boot aims to make sure that we can continue using our computers in freedom. With the way it builds on the work of others to replace UEFI, we know it can remain firm in the free software philosophy and stay vital to digital autonomy and user freedom." Free boot firmware, such as GNU Boot, is responsible for loading the computer's operating system.
The work done by GNU Boot contributors has similarities to work done by GNU/Linux distributions: they package software like Coreboot or GNU GRUB, contribute to the upstream repositories of these projects, and assist them with documentation, among other tasks... When asked about their project joining the FSF's fiscal sponsorship program, co-maintainer Adrien Bourmault stated: "Making this decision with the FSF allows us to focus more on what we do best: writing and debugging code that keeps our machines fully free." Projects whose scope and purpose align with the FSF's mission and further mission-related activities can become fiscally sponsored by joining the FSF's Working Together for Free Software Fund.
At least 25 injured at block party shooting in Georgia and three wounded in Baltimore park shooting, officials say
Two people were killed and at least 25 others injured when a shooting erupted at a homecoming block party in Vienna, Georgia, early on Sunday, according to authorities.
In another high-profile mass shooting in the US over the weekend, a 12-year-old girl was shot and killed and three other people were wounded after gunfire evidently broke out over a parking spot in a Baltimore park on Saturday, officials said.
Calls for release of six Matsadaash staff after one is charged, while whereabouts of other five remain unknown
An Egyptian journalist has been charged with joining a terrorist group, days after an entire newsroom was detained in what rights groups have said is a crackdown on press freedoms.
Last week, authorities arrested six journalists from the independent fact-checking and investigative platform Matsadaash – literally meaning “don’t believe” – accusing them in a statement of being unlicensed and publishing false news on behalf of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.
More than 400 schools in France will be closed or partly closed on Monday as authorities brace for another week of student protests.
Lessons will be totally or partly suspended in 400 to 500 schools because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said on Sunday.
Reform UK leader was interviewed for half an hour last month over money from crypto billionaire
Nigel Farage has been interviewed by the standards commissioner for an investigation into whether he should have declared a £5m gift from the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne.
The Reform UK leader spent about half an hour being questioned over the money, the Sunday Times reported. Farage maintains the gift was for his personal security.
Lawyers and campaigners have condemned the “horrifying” scale of child-on-child sexual abuse in schools after a Guardian investigation revealed thousands of sexual offences against under-13s, including multiple rapes, are reported to police every year.
Close to five sexual crimes against children aged 12 and younger were recorded on average by police every day in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales, according to Guardian analysis of police data for 2021-25.
Mourners in Springfield, Ohio, blamed Pierre Damas Bel’s death on President Donald Trump’s deportation campaign. Trump’s supporters said ICE needs to do more.
Private companies are taking cremated remains and stunt payloads to the moon. Former NASA attorney Steve Mirmina warns that there’s nothing stopping them.
At least 5,000 people, mainly teenagers, have been arrested while dozens of people, including students and teachers, have been injured
Germany is Ukraine’s largest donor and has sent Kyiv more than €43.3 billion ($48.8 billion) since the war began, along with equipment and weapons.
Zelenskyy thanked Merz for visiting the Ukrainian capital describing him as “A leader of a country that consistently demonstrates leadership in protecting the lives of Ukrainians from Russian strikes.
We are grateful for all the support, and today we are preparing decisions to give us in Ukraine, and all of Europe, greater capabilities to defend ourselves. There will be important agreements between Ukraine and Germany. Russia must be stopped together.”
Zelenskyy in the past hour has been tweeting about the strikes and the German chancellor’s visit, thanking Merz for his support.
On the Kyiv strike this morning he confirmed it had been a drone on the Northern Bridge (Pivnichnyi Bridge).
He noted too a drone attack on a pharmaceutical warehouse in Sumy which killed one person and a strike on a communications facility in Dnipro.
A U.S. banking group just sued the government agency that issues America's federal bank charters, reports CoinDesk, "accusing it of exceeding its legal powers in granting national trust-bank status to crypto firms."
The agency's move "creates a gaping hole in financial regulation," according to the lawsuit by The Independent Community Bankers of America, one of America's largest banking advocacy organizations. It argues the move will "perversely allow entities engaged in highly risky cryptocurrency and digital assets activities to enter the banking system under lightly regulated national charters" which actually preempt many state regulations, including consumer protection laws.
But the move would also "place community banks at a severe competitive disadvantage," the lawsuit argues, "by allowing the national trust banks to offer many of the same services as community banks without complying with the same costly banking laws and regulations that apply to the community banks." This competitive advantage could "siphon deposits out of community banks and into deposit alternatives like cryptocurrency," which they describe as "highly volatile, prone to market crashes, cybercrime, and fraud" and lacking protections like deposit insurance.
They also warn that America's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency "has not managed an uninsured bank receivership in nearly one hundred years. But failures of risky uninsured national
trust banks could spread instability throughout the nation's financial system, including by spreading contagion risks to other traditional banks like community banks."
CoinDesk reports:
[The Independent Community Bankers of America] also played a significant role in pushing back against the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act that failed to advance in the U.S. Senate last month — in part due to the bankers' objections that its stablecoin provisions didn't protect them against direct competition with the deposit accounts that are core to their businesses.
Now, the group is targeting the trust charters crypto firms are pursuing as an entry point into the U.S. banking and payments system.
"Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter," ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in a statement..
The latest book by the bestselling author of "The Big Short" and "Moneyball" profiles federal workers targeted by President Trump and his mega-donor Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Alan Alda, now 90, best-known for his role as "Hawkeye" Pierce on the classic TV series "M*A*S*H," talks about living with Parkinson's disease, which he refuses to let define him.
Sixteen years after "The Social Network," his Oscar-winning film about Mark Zuckerberg, Aaron Sorkin turns from Facebook's origins to its consequences with "The Social Reckoning," about a Facebook whistleblower.
A standard business practice offsets future costs by funding a reserve for returns – but many small businesses don’t do it
In my 30-plus years of being an accountant I have learned many business lessons from people who were much smarter than me. Jerry Crawford was one of those people. Jerry taught me about product returns.
Jerry – who sadly passed away a decade ago – sold carpets wholesale from a nondescript little building in south Jersey. He employed about 50 people and counted many local and national carpet retailers as his customers. When I reviewed Jerry’s books, I noticed a large reserve for “returns”.
Considered Republican frontrunner for presidential election, Vance is cozying up to the movement – as it splits
JD Vance, widely considered to be the Republican frontrunner for the presidential election in 2028, is aligning himself with the Make America Healthy Again (Maha) movement as some say it is shedding its grassroots supporters in favor of political and corporate interests.
The US vice-president has positioned himself as the inheritor of Make America Great Again (Maga), and attaching himself to Maha, which many in the Trump administration believe helped to win the 2024 election, signals a greater overlap between the two movements as the administration’s popularity plummets amid the war in Iran and rising prices.
Hany Farid, a leading expert on deepfakes and digital manipulation, estimates that half of the content widely viewed on the Internet is fake. What does this mean for our ability to detect images generated or hallucinated by artificial intelligence?
The hosts of the next major United Nations climate conference, Turkey and Australia, are facing criticism for being partners in a coal supply chain while remaining near silent on the need for a global deal to rapidly get off fossil fuels.
With the Cop31 summit in the Turkish Mediterranean city of Antalya just a month away, the two countries running the fortnight-long talks have been accused by activists of a “vacuum of action” on plans for a transition away from coal, gas and oil – a key goal of many nations at the talks.
Six passengers and crew onboard still unaccounted for after medical plane vanishes off coast of Massachusetts
Researches found debris from a medical transport plane that was carrying six people when it vanished over the Atlantic early on Saturday during a flight from Bermuda to Boston, the US Coast Guard said.
A statement from the coast guard issued on Saturday evening said crews searching off the coast of the Massachusetts island Nantucket “located a debris field confirmed to be from the aircraft”, described as an air ambulance.
The idea of universal health coverage in the US is embraced by party’s left but often considered a liability by centrists
Last week, 1,500 unionized nurses gathered in a large conference room at the Marriott Marquis in San Francisco to cheer for a cause they’ve championed for years: Medicare for All.
Considered a radical and even fringe idea for decades, interest in sweeping healthcare reform has surged as progressive Democrats have won a series of primary victories before November’s crucial midterm elections. Most prominent among its advocates is Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate nominee from Michigan, who took the lectern before the nurses.
Cape Henlopen senior Jameson Tingle recovers a fumble for the Vikings in their win over Hodgson. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The Cape Henlopen Vikings (4-0) defeated the Hodgson Silver Eagles (1-4), 35-28, on October 3 to remain undefeated to start the season. The Vikings are 4-0 for the first time in over a decade.
MIDDLETOWN, DE — Normally when Cape Henlopen senior Jameson Tingle is mentioned in correlation to a football game it’s because of his talents on the offensive side of the ball. On a rainy Saturday afternoon, Tingle’s impact on defense was what earned Cape Henlopen its fourth win of the season and first 4-0 start in 12 years.
The Silver Eagles trailed the Vikings by seven when their final drive of the game started on their own three-yard line with a little over eight minutes remaining in the game. Hodgson quarterback, senior Kevin Browning, connected with fellow senior Dorian Wilson on a 31-yard pass and subsequent runs from Browning brought Hodgson into Cape Henlopen territory. The Silver Eagles drove the ball to the Viking 18-yard line, needing inches to extend the drive on fourth and less than a yard.
Browning rushed the ball into the middle of the Cape Henlopen defense and was met by Viking junior Geoffrey Davis rushing in from his spot in the secondary to make the tackle. Davis’ tackle hit the arm of Browning and jarred the ball loose. Tingle quickly jumped on the ball securing possession for the Viking offense with 1:25 left to play.
“Coach just called a blitz on my part so I was already in the mix,” Tingle said postgame. “I seen my teammate knock the ball out and after I see that it’s just look around and try to find the ball and then I found it and I dove. I could’ve been scared, I could’ve did this, but I didn’t really care. I see ball, get ball, and luckily I was able to get it.”
Tingle’s defensive play completed a strong second half for the University of Delaware commit as he led the Vikings to a comeback victory.
The Silver Eagles started the game with a recovery on an onside kick and turned the possession into eight points on the game’s first drive. Senior running back, Keytwan Sabur, scored the touchdown on a 23-yard run and scored Hodgson’s second touchdown on its next drive via a four yard run. The Vikings answered the pair of touchdowns with a couple short yardage touchdown runs from Tingle, tying the game, 14-14, forty seconds into the second quarter.
Hodgson senior Keytwan Sabur runs the ball for the Silver Eagles. Sabur scored Hodgson’s first two touchdowns. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
Hodgson fired right back with its senior signal caller on a 14-play drive that ended with a one-yard Browning touchdown and a completed two-point conversion pass from Browning to sophomore Julian Coleman. Tingle and senior Aidan Lehmuth connected on a 26-yard catch and score, but the two-point try was no good, leaving Hodgson in the lead, 22-20. Browning completed the first half scoring with his second rushing touchdown, putting the Silver Eagles ahead, 28-20.
That’s when the quarterback Cape Henlopen senior Stephen Sivels nicknamed “Thanos” took over.
“I call him Thanos [because] he do it all [on] both sides of the field,” Sivels said about Tingle. “He got a fumble recovery, passing touchdowns, punching it in, all that so I call him Thanos.”
Tingle completed eight of ten pass attempts in the second half for 168 passing yards and a touchdown. Tingle’s passing touchdown was a 46-yard catch and run to Sivels that tied the score after a run from Tingle on the two-point conversion. Sivels’ touchdown grab was one of five catches he hauled in throughout the game. Sivels ended the game with over 100 receiving yards.
“Jameson, he’s a great quarterback. He can swing it from the opposite side and hit me right on the spot, so yeah, I really love playing with Jameson because he’s a really good quarterback,” Sivels said.
Tingle makes a leaping throw to a receiver down field. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
Tingle scored the go-ahead touchdown on a three-yard rush with a little over eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. It was the first time Cape Henlopen led during the afternoon. Tingle finished the game with 295 passing yards, 109 rushing yards and five total touchdowns.
“Just my teammates man. It’s just what we’ve been through, summers since we’ve been young, I’ve been playing with these guys for a long time, so they’re able to give me the courage, be able to keep me level-headed and yeah they just give me the courage to do everything,” Tingle said about how he’s able to stay composed in adverse game situations. “All kudos to them.”
Cape Henlopen’s next game is a homecoming matchup against Appoquinimink on October 9. The game will be played in Lewes, Delaware, and start at 7:00 p.m.
The Silver Eagles next game will be against St. Georges on Friday, October 9, at 3:45 p.m. St. Georges has won the matchup two years in a row.
Leftwing incumbent Lula trying to fight off close rival Flávio Bolsonaro, far-right son of jailed ex-president
The polls have closed in the first round of Brazil’s highly polarised and high-stakes presidential election that could change not only the direction of Latin America’s largest country but that of the entire region.
The election pits the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, against the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of Donald Trump and the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after his failed 2022 re-election attempt.
Suspect allegedly killed woman at hotel in Okinawa as prime minister calls crime ‘exceptionally brutal and vicious’
A US marine stationed on Japan’s southern island of Okinawa is accused of murdering a Japanese woman and has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police said on Sunday.
The suspect allegedly “killed [a] 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha and stole her wallet” as well as her backpack, local police told news media outlets.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Food and Drug administration has proposed a rule that aims to close a long-neglected regulatory food safety loophole, but consumer advocates warn the effort amounts to a “regulatory mirage.”
In 1964 Ken Kesey and his "Merry Pranksters" rode a bus named "Furthur," fueled by music, alcohol and LSD. This icon of the counterculture movement, which has fallen into a rusted state, is now on display in San Francisco, on a journey to restore it to its former glory.
President Trump announced the formation of a "Super Intelligence Force" after meeting with leaders of the country's largest artificial intelligence companies last week.
Studies show people who hold grudges have greater levels of cardiovascular trouble, and higher levels of depression and anxiety. Experts say those taking steps towards forgiveness can have better outcomes.
Women hold just a fraction of new AI jobs but are overrepresented in roles with high risk of AI disruption
There’s a common fear among people who work in Silicon Valley: snag one of the fast-growing, high-paying jobs in artificial intelligence, or get trapped in the “permanent underclass”, a phrase describing the fate of those who won’t have upward mobility in the age of AI.
The phrase usually describes a future in which AI automates human jobs. But for women in tech, it’s starting to look like the present.
A statewide initiative pairs climate-focused coursework with community service – and is spreading to other states
As a student at a high school not far from Denver’s main airport, Anthony Muñoz wondered whether the jet fuel from airplanes flying above his campus was harming living things.
An avid gardener, Muñoz partnered with a local university to create a garden on the campus of his charter school, Vista Academy, filling it with native plants that could detect ground-level ozone pollution. He also worked with climate scientists from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal office in nearby Boulder, who directed Muñoz on what data to collect, what the condition of leaves reveals about air quality and why milkweed matters for monarch butterfly migration.
The Supreme Court kicks off its term Monday with cases involving climate change, President Trump's immigration policies and the Second Amendment among the most high-profile disputes.
The FlyDubai alleged attempted hijacking was likely a lone wolf attack, an early investigation by Israel shows, according to people familiar with the matter.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy credited the team’s legendary late broadcaster Bob Uecker for an unlikely boost in the ninth inning to help preserve a 3-2 victory over visiting San Diego in the opener of their playoff series on Saturday.
With one out in the ninth and the Brewers clinging to a one-run lead, San Diego had a runner on first when Ty France hit a drive to left field off closer Trevor Megill. But the ball struck a roof cable, stayed in play and was caught by Jackson Chourio for the second out. Megill then retired Jackson Merrill on a fly ball to right field to give Milwaukee the victory.
A recent arrest suggests that underground invaders of city’s sewer system are lured by the promise of lost valuables
There’s been one thing in particular that has been intriguing New Yorkers this summer: the existence, and whereabouts, of so-called “mole people” – a mysterious group of individuals who spend at least some of their time wading about in the city’s sewers.
New Yorkers learned a bit more about the phenomenon this week, when two men were caught red – or perhaps another color – handed, after allegedly emerging from a tunnel in Manhattan. Their arrests have shed some light on a slew of instances where people have been witnessed lifting manhole covers and clambering underground.
These 15 Halloween party recipes cover spooky sweets, hot dips, smoky wings, snack boards, and mummy dogs, giving you a mix of playful bites and filling savory food.The post 15 Halloween party recipes that bring the fright and the flavor…
As he prepares to face his home nation, the Canada manager reflects on his adopted country’s soccer, its prime minister, and its place in the world
Peak leaf hasn’t yet arrived in Montreal but the bursts of gold and butterscotch up on the hill that gave this place its name still mushroom out by the hour.
Sitting in a glass-panelled hotel mezzanine at the foot of Mount Royal, Canada men’s coach Jesse Marsch has his mind on another harvest. When this extended autumnal international window ends, he will decamp to Italy, where the olive crops at his Tuscan villa are ready for reaping.
Long-time Slashdot reader Andreas(R) announces Northstar, a "minimalist" web browser written entirely from scratch in C — now available in version 1.0.11:
One window, one page, one process — about 160,000 lines of original C, small enough for one person to read and audit end-to-end. It carries no upstream browser engine: no Gecko, no WebKit, no Blink. It is free software under the GNU General Public License, version 3 or later, and it runs on Linux, macOS and Windows...
Compliance is not inherited from an upstream engine; it is measured, section by section, against the specification text... Private by construction. No telemetry, no update pings, and no AI assistant or AI-style web APIs. Safe browsing checks a top-level navigation's host against a local SHA-256 blocklist before it is fetched — the check never leaves your machine. Cookies, storage and the cache are partitioned by origin.
It's logo reminds me of the old Netscape logo. (And I love the "Best viewed in..." GIF at the upper-right of its web site.)
These 17 vintage recipes cover casseroles, Southern classics, old-fashioned sides, skillet dinners, and retro desserts for nights when familiar flavors sound better than anything new.The post 17 vintage picks worth making when you want dinner to feel like a memory…
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump’s political operation is deploying tens of millions of dollars into competitive congressional races as Republicans try to maintain control of Congress in the final month before the midterms.
Trump’s main super PAC, MAGA Inc., and affiliated groups No Going Back PAC and Safety & Affordability PAC have reserved well over $100 million in advertising across Senate and House contests. Trump previously said his political network could ultimately spend between $400 million and $500 million helping Republican candidates.
No Going Back has concentrated heavily on Senate races, including Michigan, Ohio, Alaska, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Georgia. Safety & Affordability has focused primarily on House districts, while MAGA Inc. itself has invested heavily in Texas to support Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton.
The spending comes as Republicans face an increasingly competitive political environment. The Hill and Decision Desk HQ’s latest polling averages show Trump with a 37.7% approval rating, while several Senate and House races remain closely contested.
The money gives Republicans significant late-campaign resources, although super PACs generally pay higher advertising rates than candidates themselves, meaning the delayed spending buys less airtime than earlier reservations would have.
Rallies have been mainstay of president’s brand but even some in his own party fear voters are sick of the sight of him
“Get your asses in that car.” That was Donald Trump’s order, he later recalled, to his motorcade after foul weather grounded Air Force One in Texas on Thursday. The 85-mile dash to Oklahoma at nearly 100mph was proof that nothing can keep Trump from a Trump rally.
Which might not be the good news for Republicans it once was. As the US president embarked on a 32-day campaign blitz aimed at helping them defend narrow congressional majorities in next month’s midterms, some fear that he is driving them towards an electoral wipeout.
Efforts to consolidate the Black vote here were frustrated, handing the Democratic nomination to a white party insider
A major plot line of the hyper-partisan, mid-decade redistricting arms races – launched at the urging of Donald Trump – has been the elimination of traditionally Black congressional seats in the south. In the midst of that battle, a subplot emerged: a challenge to one of those Black seats from inside the Democratic caucus itself as the veteran congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, whose own district was splintered, chose to seek re-election in Florida’s 20th congressional district, which had been represented for decades by a Black legislator.
Her candidacy and primary win raise prickly questions about the value of lived experience as a prerequisite for effective representation of minority communities, about how Black Democratic candidates should deal with friendly fire from non-Black opponents, and about internal economic vulnerabilities of so-called Black seats which are in districts where candidates generally raise less money than others.
Rainy evenings call for a heavy pot on the stove. These 13 Dutch oven recipes bring beef, chicken, shrimp, curry, soup, pasta, bread, and slow-simmered sauces to nights spent indoors.The post 13 dutch oven recipes made for damp, drizzly nights…
Immigration court judge finds ‘unsafe journeys’ policy was applied unlawfully to two families
A decision by the Home Office to block mothers and children in Gaza from joining their families in the UK has been quashed by a court.
Families abroad who have had their applications approved to reunite with loved ones in the UK usually have to undergo biometric checks, including fingerprinting and facial images at a visa application centre. But the VAC in Gaza has been closed since October 2023 and it is difficult to get out of the territory.
Trump supporters may be surprised to learn the state takeover of means of production is not driven by the left
Americans will never accept the Democratic party’s slide to the left, or so desperate Republicans are hoping.
With the midterm elections fast upon us, Zohran Mamdani’s promise of a few city-run bodegas in New York City will scare the bejeezus out of middle America. Disgust over the democratic socialists’ unicorn-and-puppy promises of a world without capitalism will keep the Republicans in power.
The US president has taken credit for far-right victories across Latin America, but those wins have had more to do with fears of gang crime than his meddling
Donald Trump has enjoyed very few foreign policy victories since returning to power. From failed wars to failed peace processes, his second term in office has been marked by one costly blunder on the world stage after another. In Latin America, though, the US president has a different story to tell.
His administration’s national security strategy outlined how the US wanted to “restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere”. It was a brazen document, laying out how his government would interfere in the political life of countries it considered part of its sphere of influence, rewarding governments and movements that are “broadly aligned with our principles and strategy”.
Former Tory minister defends UK decision to enter war in podcast with US rightwinger and Putin sympathiser
The former Tory minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has found himself defending Britain’s decision to fight against Adolf Hitler after inviting the US rightwinger and Vladimir Putin sympathiser Tucker Carlson into his home for an interview.
During the encounter, Carlson repeatedly suggested the west was to blame for inviting aggression from Russia and said of the prospect that Britain could have lost to Hitler: “Who cares?”
Devin Jacob Ballard was arrested in the killing and robbing of Anna Yagi, police told Japan’s public broadcaster. He denied the allegations, a spokesman said.
Alito, 76, delivers comment in rare interview with CBS News scheduled to air on Monday
Samuel Alito, the conservative US supreme court justice, has said “I think I have to” contemplate retiring every year at his age.
Alito, 76, delivered that comment in a rare interview with CBS News scheduled to air on Monday, a little more than six months after a widely publicized hospital visit invited speculation about his potential retirement.
Bobby Pulido has a strategy: show up at the 15th birthday parties that are a rite of passage in the Texas borderlands – and flip a key House district for Democrats
It took all of two minutes for Bobby Pulido’s electoral stealth weapon to come into play. The Tejano music star turned Democratic congressional candidate had barely begun canvassing in the high school football stadium in Edinburg, Texas, when a 15-year-old girl came rushing up to him.
“Señor Pulido! Señor Pulido!” she cried. A few months ago, she told him, he had made a surprise appearance at her quinceañera, the coming-of-age girls’ 15th birthday party that is a rite of passage in these US borderlands.
Most counties don’t have their own health agencies, and some specific population groups have low vaccination rates
Pennsylvania is bracing for a wave of measles cases, with some public health officials concerned that it’s “only a matter of time” until the disease spreads beyond the outbreak’s epicenter.
An elderly couple charged with murdering their son-in-law, New York Times gaming engineer Jonathan McKinsey, battled with him over gender identity, according to court records.
Network at receiving end of White House press ban recently chose red state to host fan event as part of broader outreach
In 2024, Donald Trump and JD Vance carried Tarrant county, Texas, by 42,125 votes. So why, on the afternoon of 26 September, was the arena at the University of Texas-Arlington filled with nearly 5,000 super fans cheering for liberal media darlings Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O’Donnell like they were rock stars?
After two years of hosting the network’s annual fan event in dark blue New York City, MS Now (formerly MSNBC) got wind that something was happening in Texas. The state, which hasn’t elected a Democrat to the US Senate in 37 years, might do so next month, when 37-year-old James Talarico, Texas state representative, goes up against the Republican nominee, Ken Paxton, a well-known but controversial figure who ousted incumbent John Cornyn in the party’s primary with Donald Trump’s backing.
Boulder, Colorado, is hoping its novel lawsuit will be the environmental equivalent of the landmark litigation that produced billions in damages and settlements against Big Tobacco and opioid makers.
Costa Ltd reports operating profit of £20m in year to 31 December 2025 after losses of £13.5m in 2024
Costa’s main coffee shop arm has returned to an operating profit after revamping its high street outlets and broadening its menu with iced drinks, matcha and fresher pastries.
The chain, which has 2,700 outlets in the UK and Ireland out of 4,000 globally, and employs about 20,000 people, also opened a net 50 new outlets in the UK last year – its first net increase in several years.
Ivy League school’s president promises action after woman alleged she was drugged and raped by fraternity members
Cornell University will examine the role of fraternities and sororities on campus after an outcry over the school’s handling of a student’s rape allegations, the Ivy League school’s president has said.
A civil lawsuit filed last month by the woman, who alleges she was drugged and raped in 2024 by several members of the Chi Phi fraternity, has prompted outrage and soul-searching at Cornell over its campus culture at the school in Ithaca, New York.
Thousands of Glasgow council workers face being sacked and reappointed under less favourable terms in one of the UK’s biggest ever “fire-and-rehire” exercises, after union negotiations broke down once again this week.
About 23,000 workers – all of the council’s non-teaching staff – first heard they were affected last week when talks between the SNP-led council and the GMB, Unison and Unite unions fell apart. Those negotiations concerned a new pay and grading system designed to resolve historical pay equality issues. Unison refused to ballot its members on an offer that would mean pay cuts for 11% of council employees, prompting the council to begin issuing fire-and-rehire letters.
A salvage crew has been working to stabilize the SS Richard Montgomery, which sank a few months after D-Day in 1944 with 1,500 tons of explosives in its holds.
A deep-seated duopoly allows the tech giants to exploit the public and developers. But the regulator has powers to stop this abuse – it should use them
Chi Onwurah is the Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West and chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee
Debates around big tech and digital regulation can sometimes feel distant from the everyday concerns of voters. But the power that a small number of global tech companies hold over our lives goes far beyond what most people realise.
As chair of the parliamentary science, innovation and technology committee, I have spent years raising concerns about this: from the data they harvest and the digital “twins” they build of us, to the algorithms that decide what our children see.
Industry says a phased end to racing, to avoid sudden jump in caring responsibilities, is unworkable
Wales’s greyhound racing ban – a UK first – has run into difficulties regarding how and when to wind down the practice, potentially risking the animals’ welfare, a charity has warned.
The law, which received royal assent in April, includes a three-year window for the ban to come into effect and is overseen by a Welsh government working group, which includes racing industry representatives and animal health and welfare organisations.
Charity calls for faster progress on humane slaughter laws for farmed fish in England and Wales
Up to 77m fish are slaughtered each year in the UK but there are no routine or mandatory inspections of fish slaughterhouses in England and Wales, it can be revealed.
Concerns within government about the way fish are slaughtered date back decades but all of the official bodies responsible for animal welfare and food standards in England and Wales said they do not undertake regular inspections.
David Robinson joins other insiders in urging industry to take more care over rapidly developing technology
A safety leader at OpenAI has quit the company, warning that its culture was broken and that AI firms were not “being nearly careful enough” about developing the technology.
David Robinson, who led the writing of safety reports that accompanied the ChatGPT developer’s product releases, explained his resignation in an essay headlined: “I quit OpenAI because its culture is broken.”
Politico EU reports:
The European Commission has rolled out an alternative to Microsoft Teams — but officials using it aren't impressed, with one describing the tool as "absolute shit."
The Commission introduced Element Pro over the summer as a "sovereign back-up to Teams," according to an internal staff memo seen by POLITICO. The platform is intended to provide a fallback for Commission communications if U.S.-based Teams becomes unavailable.... But three officials have questioned why the Commission needs the new system — and whether it works well enough to serve as a genuine backup. "I don't understand the added value here," one official wrote on an internal staff message board, seen by POLITICO. Another described the tool as "absolute shit." A third official said that, judging matters on how well Element Pro works compared to Teams, the U.S. would "instantly win the war" if it ever decided to switch off its technology...
The Commission hosts the Element system on its own infrastructure rather than relying on Microsoft's cloud. That gives the institution greater control over its communications data and systems... Element is a U.K. company whose software is used by governments and public-sector organizations in Europe... Element CEO Matthew Hodgson told POLITICO in a call using Element software that the Commission is still trialing it. "Obviously there are going to be some teething issues," he said, adding there will always be "cognitive dissonance" when switching to a new app, if only because the "buttons" are in a different place. He noted that the United Nations and NATO also use Element Pro.
The article adds that earlier this year, France announced millions of civil servants will switch to home-grown alternatives to American video-conferencing tools including Microsoft Teams and Zoom by 2027, while Austria's military also replaced Microsoft Office with the German-made LibreOffice last year.
FOI request shows wildfire risk scheme scrapped, as survey highlights many fire services lack proper protective gear
The government quietly scrapped plans to prepare the countryside in England for wildfires, it has been revealed. This was despite new data showing fire crews do not have the proper protective gear to tackle them.
This summer has been a potent reminder of the scale of the threat posed by the climate crisis, with the UK experiencing record-breaking wildfires after punishingly hot and dry weather turned large parts of the countryside into a tinderbox.
‘AbortOmat’ in Warsaw offers novel way to challenge country’s restrictions and allow women swift, anonymous access
They call it the “world’s first parcel locker for abortion pills”. Polish campaigners have launched a new means of distribution as part of their ongoing effort to skirt the country’s near-total ban on abortion.
Painted pink and framed by zebra-striped curtains, the 22-compartment “AbortOmat” in Warsaw allows women to access the pills swiftly and anonymously using a six-digit code. The service was envisaged for those who cannot or do not want to wait days for mail delivery due to a missed miscarriage or health complications, or who worry about receiving the pills at home.
Britain under pressure to put tariffs on cheap Chinese vehicle imports ahead of protectionist trade measures
Britain’s car industry is grappling with a “difficult trade-off” between China and Europe, as manufacturers struggle to balance the benefits of both markets ahead of looming trade measures that could restrict UK exports to the EU.
Sullivan became the youngest-ever goalscorer in USMNT history, while Mexico self-implodes with mistakes and a red card. Read Alexander Abnos’ play-by-play.
The players are in the tunnel. The lights are flashing. The little kids are getting high fives. It must nearly be kickoff time.
A really interesting note from Pardeep Cattry at CBS Sports: This will be the first time Gio Reyna has started six consecutive matches for club or country since 2020.
The first time the United States and Mexico played at this building, Jimmy Conrad and Landon Donovan provided the goals in one of several 2-0 wins for the US. On Saturday, the US squad included eight players who hadn’t yet been born when that happened.
This young US team went one better than their forebears, though, silencing a sizable pro-Mexico contingent in a composed 3-0 triumph that fully announced the arrival of an exciting new generation of players. Cavan Sullivan, just a few days after turning 17, became the youngest goalscorer in the history of the program with an eye-catching long-range chip. Julian Hall, 18, scored his third goal in as many games. Malik Tillman capped the scoring in the 85th minute, humbling a 10-man Mexico after they’d opened the match with far more strength.
Cornell's president said his school's administration "must do better" amid the criticism of its investigation into allegations made by a former student that she was gang-raped at a fraternity in 2024.
Neighbours say crowds drawn by TikTok to Fabel Friet are clogging the picturesque canal street and attracting litter, gulls and rats
People living in one of Amsterdam’s most exclusive neighbourhoods have taken the city to court for licensing a chip shop that has gone viral on TikTok.
On busy days, the queue for Fabel Friet on Runstraat stretches across a bridge on the Keizersgracht – one of Amsterdam’s most famous canals – a court was told last week. The narrow street itself is crowded by tourists waiting for their orders seven days a week. And loitering with intent – on parked cars, on the street itself, and on steps and porches – gulls wait to swoop.
The plane was undertaking a medical evacuation from Bermuda with six people onboard when it lost contact
The US Coast Guard said late on Saturday it had found debris from a medical transport aircraft off the shore of Massachusetts’s Nantucket Island and was searching for the six people who were onboard.
The jet lost contact with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) during a flight from Bermuda to Boston on Saturday morning. In a statement to the Guardian, an FAA spokesperson said that the agency issued a search-and-rescue alert notice for a Gulfstream G-100 at about 1.20am local time Saturday.
"Scientists have discovered a virus that is a tiny bit human, carrying a gene it stole from our ancestors about 100,000 years ago," writes the New York Times. "And this virus may be using our own gene to infect us."
Phys.org explains that it's "both an important gene for brain function and a jumping gene capable of moving and inserting itself into genomes."
BC200 is found only in humans and related primates and was discovered in the late 1980s as an abundant noncoding RNA in human neurons. Although BC200's physiological function is poorly understood, evidence suggests it may be involved in regulating the translation of neuronal messenger RNAs into proteins... The researchers also suspect that BC200 jumped in skin cells because these are the only cells known to be infected by molluscum contagiosum virus (MCV). The gene is also abnormally expressed in some tumors and overexpressed in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, suggesting its jumping ability could play roles in these diseases.
[Cedric Feschotte, a senior author of the study] said he and his colleagues would like to explore whether the molluscum contagiosum virus uses BC200 to manipulate human host cells. They are also interested in better understanding the gene's role in disease, including breast and other types of tumors in which it is abnormally expressed, and whether it jumps in cancer cells and causes mutations.
Thanks to Slashdot reader joshuark for sharing the news.
Treasurer says ‘very substantial and intensifying pressure’ on federal budget as he points finger at private sector for driving up inflation amid Middle East conflict
Jim Chalmers has warned of “very substantial and intensifying” economic pressures on the horizon but insists he’s not planning for a recession, as he prepares to find new ways to cut the budget ahead of its mid-year update.
The treasurer on Sunday called on critics of government spending to name the services that should be cut, as he points the finger at the private sector for driving up inflation in Australia amid the protracted conflict in the Middle East.
(The Center Square) – NASA has not provided a single total cost estimate for its Moon-to-Mars effort, a federal auditor told The Center Square, because the agency does not maintain one.
Australian security agencies have launched an investigation after it emerged that the flydubai co-pilot who allegedly tried to hijack an Israel-bound flight spent about two years in the country as a student.
Disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew intervened to stop the co-pilot’s attempt to take control of the flydubai flight to Tel Aviv, which had 182 people onboard and plunged 16,625 feet (5,067 metres) in just over 30 seconds.
While most magnets have two poles (north and south, or positive and negative), recent advances in quantum mechanics have revealed an "octupolar order," writes Phys.org, where a pattern of particles in a crystalline structure "behaves as if it has eight magnetic poles rather than the familiar two."
Now, a team led by quantum physicists at the University of Toronto has established a new method for observing quantum magnetic states using light to probe the atomic vibrations produced as electrons spin. The work is a critical first step toward harnessing multipolar magnetism for practical technologies, including next-generation data storage and computing devices.
"We identified new signatures of a hidden type of magnetic state which cannot be detected using ordinary probes," says Arun Paramekanti, a professor in the Department of Physics and the Center for Quantum Information & Quantum Control in the Faculty of Arts & Science at the University of Toronto, and senior author of a study published in Physical Review Letters that describes the findings.
"Our research opens up the possibility for using higher-order magnets in several applications including controllable read-write memory elements found in everyday computers...."
By directing a special type of rotating light at magnetic materials, the team observed a clear optical fingerprint of the otherwise hidden magnetic order.... The findings offer a new tool for uncovering and manipulating previously inaccessible forms of magnetism, opening new avenues for quantum technology development.
404 Media reports:
"We will not add facial recognition to our devices," Flock CEO Garrett Langley said in a recent video. But other, third-party companies are telling cops that they are willing to add facial recognition to data gathered by Flock cameras in order to "close that gap." A company called VIDIZMO is advertising the capability to export footage from FlockOS to its own platforms that do facial recognition, behavior prediction, and racial and gender analysis on live camera feeds. VIDIZMO is a several decades-old video analysis and database company that has started offering facial recognition technology to cops within the last six months. In a May email to Johnson City, Tennessee, deputy police chief Michael Adams, a salesperson from VIDIZMO wrote that the company's product could do facial recognition on both Flock and Axon [body-worn camera] data in "one searchable platform...."
VIDIZMO's CEO, Nadeem Khan, told 404 Media on a video call that the company has not yet started running facial recognition tech on footage from Flock cameras, and that it has not actually built the specific tool that would export data from Flock's system to its own platform (though the company advertises this capability online, and the company already sells other facial recognition products). But Khan said VIDIZMO "would love to do the integration," and that he believes facial recognition "is the way the world is going, the way the world will have to be," and that he thinks Flock should offer the capability itself in a way that "balances privacy, security, and the freedom that we enjoy in this country."
The article notes that VIDIZMO says on its website, "You can identify individuals from seven races: White, Black, Indian, East Asian, Southeast Asian, Middle Eastern, and Latino Hispanic." VIDIZMO adds that stores or cities can also then do "demographic analysis" for marketing purposes by determining the races or ages of people showing up....
Spaceflight Now reports:
"A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched from Florida Thursday night on a classified mission for the National Reconnaissance Office, America's spy satellite agency... The NRO has previously flown payloads on 22 Falcon 9 rockets but this is the first time it has used the heavy-lift Falcon Heavy, which consists of three Falcon 9 boosters and an upper stage, topped by a payload fairing.
The powerful rocket, which lifts off under the power of 27 Merlin 1D engines, was introduced to great fanfare in 2018 and made its 14th flight Thursday night... NROL-97 was SpaceX's third Falcon launch of the day. In addition to the Crew 13 mission, the company launched 130 payloads on the Transporter 13 rideshare mission from its West Coast pad at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It was the first time the company has landed four boosters in a single day.
CNN reports:
As Starship flights ramp up, SpaceX has made clear that the company will phase out the use of two of its most iconic creations: the Dragon spacecraft, which ferries astronauts and cargo to and from the International Space Station, and the Falcon 9 rocket, which for a decade has dominated the global launch market.
These vehicles not only revolutionized the space industry in their own way, they're also still very much essential to ongoing work in Earth orbit, without clear backup options in place. The prospect of this loss is already spurring panic among some satellite operators, said Caleb Henry, director of research at analytics firm Quilty Space... Henry said he expects that most of the remaining space on board Falcon 9 rockets has already been sold and — beyond early 2029 — such flights may be reserved solely for the US government. Even NASA, which currently counts the Dragon capsule as the only US-made spacecraft capable of getting its astronauts to and from the ISS, has also acknowledged the looming retirement of SpaceX's workhorse vehicles....
Despite the success of Falcon and Dragon, a peek at SpaceX's business book may hint at financial reasons for retiring the vehicles. In its first quarterly earnings report, SpaceX revealed its space segment — which includes Falcon, Dragon and Starship — lost $542 million. By comparison, its Starlink internet and connectivity business made nearly $1.7 billion. Starship is expected to continue to cost SpaceX untold millions as it moves out of the prototyping phase. But one reason SpaceX is willing to bet big on Starship is that it's simply "much better" for achieving the company's own long-term goals, said SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell at a recent conference. So it makes sense to shift resources toward the megarocket's future....
This rocket supply crunch has been looming since 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine — which immediately removed Russia's Soyuz and Proton rockets from the commercial market, Henry noted. On top of that, Amazon — which is deploying a space-based internet constellation to rival SpaceX's Starlink — stepped in to buy more than 100 launches from various rocket makers.... Though some satellite manufacturers are hopeful that space onboard future Starship launches will be offered to satellite operators, it's not clear when or if that will happen.... It is possible that a launch supply crunch could be averted, noted Micah Walter-Range, a space analyst and contributor to the VettaFi Space Index. But satellite operators may be wary because newer rockets that have for years promised to step up to compete with the Falcon 9 have not yet begun flying with any regularity.
"The space industry hates uncertainty, particularly when it comes to planning of launches," Walter-Range said.
The article notes that Rocket Lab, Firefly Aerospace, United Launch Alliance, and the Jeff Bezos-founded Blue Origin "have not yet reached the scale or launch cadence that the industry is demanding."
The alleged attacker, Hamam al-Hammami, had been banned from flying with Oman Air because of concerns about his radical views, a person familiar with the matter said.
Latino Democratic leaders are renewing calls for the Democratic Governors Association to invest more heavily in Texas after a new poll showed Gina Hinojosa narrowly leading Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
U.S. President Donald Trump "doxxed" a U.S. senator today, writes the Washington Sun, by posting his cell phone number "as part of a plea for his Truth Social followers to badger his Republican ally into making daylight saving time permanent."
When The Washington Sun called the number minutes after Trump's post, a recording said the mailbox was full and could not receive messages...
[Senator Tom] Cotton has long detested the idea of making daylight saving time permanent. In a Senate floor speech last year, Cotton said doing so would "make winter a dark and dismal time for millions of Americans," particularly harming kids. The Senate was only able to unanimously pass the bill in 2022 because Cotton was reportedly unaware the vote was taking place, though the measure stalled out from there. The Arkansas Republican didn't back down in a post on Saturday. "Arkansans don't want their kids going to school in the pitch dark, and I'll always put Arkansas first," he posted on X.
Trump continued his tear against Cotton soon after. "If Tom Cotton were putting Arkansas first, he would give them an extra hour of daylight and, more importantly, they wouldn't have to run all over their houses, farms, work places, and everywhere else, twice a year, having to change their Clocks, and often forgetting to do so," he posted on Truth.
US president urges Americans to call Tom Cotton to support bill to make daylight saving time permanent
Donald Trump on Saturday put pressure on the US senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas to support a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, urging Americans to call what appeared to be the personal cellphone number of his fellow Republican and the chair of the Senate intelligence committee.
The Sunshine Protection Act passed the House in July, but it faces roadblocks in the Senate, where some Republicans are strongly opposed to it. Proponents, including the president and his administration, argue that the change would provide more daylight during the times that Americans are most active. Detractors say permanent daylight saving time would lead to darker and potentially more hazardous winter mornings when children will be waiting for school buses and parents will be driving to work in darkness.
Forty-year-old victim declared dead at the scene in East Acton in a ‘senseless act of violence’
A murder investigation has been launched after a 40-year-old man was shot dead in a “senseless act of violence” during a memorial service in west London, police have said.
Police were called on Friday at 7.47pm after multiple shots were heard in East Acton.
NEW YORK, Oct. 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of securities of Blaize Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BZAI) between July 18, 2025 and April 28, 2026, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"),…
Mariann Budde gained national attention for calling on US president to consider immigrants and LGBTQ+ people
Rev Mariann Edgar Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington DC who gained national attention when she called on Donald Trump to “have mercy” on the country’s immigrants and LGBTQ+ community after his second inauguration, is resigning.
Budde shared in her resignation letter that she will be leaving her post on 3 June 2028 after the consecration and ordination of the new diocesan bishop.
Kemi Badenoch says those earning more than £100,000 should not be discouraged from working more
The Conservatives have unveiled a proposed £700m childcare giveaway for high earners ahead of their annual conference, saying they would end the “cliff edge” where free entitlement ends at salaries above £100,000.
The plan, set out the day before the event begins in Birmingham, follows the earlier proposal by Kemi Badenoch’s party to abolish most stamp duty, another change to taxation that would disproportionately benefit wealthier people.
Phoronix reports:
Steam on Linux use in March hit an all-time high of around 5.33% marketshare. Since then it pulled back to around 4% while for September 2026 the Steam Survey results... indicate a rather steep decline of 0.85%, down to 3.05%. Meanwhile macOS is at 1.92% and Microsoft Windows at 95%... Steam's Survey reports a 7.42% increase in Chinese use, up to 31.39% overall of the Steam population. Usually those large month-over-month swings where Steam China use shoots up dramatically is a boost to Windows and a detriment to Linux. Some attribute the large increases in Simplified Chinese use to being a reporting/sampling issue.
When diving into the Steam Linux data exclusively, CachyOS has spiked by another 2.65% to now account for 18.12% of the sampled Linux gaming population. That even outperforms SteamOS Holo coming in at 17.37%. Among Linux gamers on Steam, AMD CPUs still account for the high 60 percentage space thanks to the Steam Deck and Steam Machine using AMD APUs and their open-source/Linux support being popular with enthusiasts.
Raleigh, NC — The feud between retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and President Donald Trump escalated again this weekend after a senior White House official attacked Tillis over profanity-filled private texts he sent to the president earlier this year.
Politico previously obtained two messages that Tillis plans to include in his forthcoming book, How to Lose Friends and Antagonize Presidents. In one May text, Tillis told Trump he would not tolerate his “bullshit” and said the administration was failing. A June message said that if Trump had directly threatened him with a primary challenge, Tillis would have told the president to “fuck yourself” and immediately announced his retirement.
Responding to the disclosures, an unidentified senior White House official told Politico that sending the messages rather than confronting Trump personally was a “pussy move” and questioned Tillis’s character.
The exchange reflects how badly the relationship between Trump and Tillis has deteriorated. The North Carolina senator has increasingly criticized Trump and other administration figures while preparing to leave Congress.
Tillis has also argued that too many Republicans are unwilling to challenge Trump publicly, while the president has repeatedly attacked lawmakers who resist his agenda. The newly disclosed messages provide a particularly blunt glimpse of that internal Republican conflict.
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors held its inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit on Thursday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach, 1301 Coastal Highway.
Two-day Dewey Beach gathering brought community leaders together Thursday before more than six hours of training Friday focused on recognizing victims and improving Delaware’s response.
By George Rotsch, Delaware LIVE News.
DEWEY BEACH, Del. — Delaware leaders spent two days this week examining how the state identifies and responds to human trafficking, beginning with a closed-door executive roundtable Thursday and continuing Friday with an all-day summit for health care workers, social workers, law enforcement, advocates and other professionals.
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors held its inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit on Thursday, Oct. 1, and Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach, 1301 Coastal Highway.
Thursday’s program was an invitation-only executive roundtable that brought leaders and decision-makers together to discuss Delaware’s response to trafficking. Friday’s public and professional summit ran from 8:00 to 4 p.m. It included keynote presentations, professional education, survivor perspectives and discussions involving medical providers, mental health professionals, law enforcement and direct-service workers.
Marcia Ferranto, president of the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors, said the organization wanted the event to do more than raise awareness.
“Human trafficking affects Delaware communities, but too often it remains unseen or misunderstood,” Ferranto said. “We need residents, business leaders, educators, health care professionals, faith communities and policymakers to understand the warning signs and recognize that each of them can play a role in prevention.”
The two-day format reflected that goal.
Thursday concentrated on the people in positions to influence policies, organizations and systems. Friday focused more directly on the professionals and community members who may encounter trafficking victims but not immediately recognize what they are seeing.
The invitation-only roundtable brought together senior leaders from health care, law enforcement, government, social services, victim advocacy, education, behavioral health and community organizations. It also included political and public-sector leaders representing multiple levels of government, including federal homeland security officials, representatives of the governor’s office and county leaders.
Organizers said it was the first time Delaware had convened such a broad group of high-level decision-makers specifically to focus on human trafficking as a shared statewide challenge. The potential benefit is significant: stronger relationships among agencies, clearer referral pathways, more consistent training, better coordination when victims are identified and a greater chance that warning signs seen by one institution are connected with information held by another.
The coalition billed the gathering as Delaware’s inaugural statewide Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit. National experts and Delaware professionals participated as speakers, moderators and presenters.
A full day of training
Friday’s program began at 7:45 a.m. and continued until 4 p.m.
Nemours Children’s Health offered six continuing education hours for nurses and six continuing education credits for social workers participating in the program. The stated audience included nurses, social workers and others interested in human trafficking education.
Presenters included retired special victims detective Kevin McNeil; survivor, author and speaker Marti MacGibbon; Jennifer Cooper, BSN, RN, SANE-P; Andrea Repine, MSN, APRN, CPNP; attorney Shea Rhodes; Jose Alfaro; Jeanne Allert; Dana Kaplan, MD; and Heather LaRocca, LCSW.
The educational program was designed to help participants recognize behavioral, physical and situational indicators of trafficking, understand gaps in identifying victims and develop cross-disciplinary teams to support survivors.
Training included discussion of warning signs such as a victim lacking control of personal possessions or identification, inconsistencies in a person’s account, signs of branding or other physical indicators and behaviors that could suggest someone is being controlled.
The program also addressed the underrepresentation of male and LGBTQ+ trafficking victims in national data and how those gaps can affect the ability of professionals to identify victims.
Victims may already be in the system
A central message emerging from the summit was that trafficking victims frequently encounter institutions that could help them without ever announcing that they are being trafficked.
A nurse may treat an injury.
A teacher may notice chronic absences.
Police may encounter someone during a domestic dispute.
A social worker may see unstable housing.
A nonprofit organization may encounter someone unable to meet basic needs.
Those individual encounters may appear unrelated unless the people involved understand the larger patterns associated with exploitation.
Ferranto said that makes education across professions particularly important.
“Trafficking does not happen only somewhere else; it is affecting people here in Delaware,” Ferranto said. “When the public understands what exploitation looks like and knows how to respond, we become better able to protect vulnerable people, support survivors and make Delaware a much more difficult place for traffickers to operate.”
The summit’s professional education program specifically emphasized multidisciplinary, trauma-informed and survivor-centered responses rather than expecting a single agency or profession to identify and solve the problem alone.
Trafficking does not always begin with kidnapping
Presenters also challenged one of the most common public perceptions of trafficking — that victims are usually abducted by strangers and physically imprisoned.
That can happen, but speakers said trafficking frequently develops differently.
Victims can be manipulated through relationships, housing, employment, financial dependency, drugs, threats or promises of security.
The process may occur gradually through grooming rather than through a single dramatic event.
Someone who appears free to leave physically may believe leaving would result in violence, homelessness, withdrawal, financial ruin or harm to someone else.
That psychological control can make trafficking difficult for family members, employers, medical professionals and even victims themselves to recognize.
Why health care workers matter
Medical professionals were an important part of Friday’s program because health care may provide one of the few opportunities for someone outside a trafficking situation to interact privately with a victim.
The summit included training aimed at nurses and other medical providers on recognizing trafficking indicators and responding in ways that do not further traumatize patients.
Jennifer Cooper served as course director for the continuing education program, with Andrea Repine and Suzanne Rouleau among the planners.
The program emphasized that professionals need to know not only what to notice, but also what to do next.
Its learning objectives included establishing cross-disciplinary teams capable of supporting trafficking survivors.
That means a nurse identifying a possible victim needs to know who to call. Police need to understand available survivor services. Social workers need relationships with medical and behavioral health providers. Community organizations need to know where safe housing and other assistance can be found.
From executive discussion to front-line training
Holding the executive roundtable Thursday and the professional summit Friday created two levels of discussion.
One focused on leadership and institutional response. The other focused on people likely to encounter potential victims in their daily work.
For Ferranto and the coalition, connecting those levels is a major part of the effort. Delaware already has law enforcement agencies investigating trafficking, hospitals caring for vulnerable patients and nonprofit groups assisting survivors.
The challenge is ensuring those organizations understand what others are doing and know how to connect victims with the appropriate help.
The summit’s emphasis on building cross-disciplinary teams suggests organizers see coordination as an essential next step rather than treating trafficking solely as a criminal justice, medical or social-services issue.
The test comes after the summit
The event ended Friday afternoon, but the larger question is what happens next.
Participants returned to hospitals, police departments, schools, nonprofits, government agencies, and community organizations with a common set of questions:
Are staff members trained to recognize trafficking?
Do they know what to do when they suspect it?
Is there a clear referral process?
Do organizations know what services other groups provide?
Are victims being identified early enough?
And when someone is ready to leave an exploitative situation, does Delaware have the housing, treatment, and support necessary to help?
Those are questions the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors hopes the two-day gathering will continue to push beyond a conference room in Dewey Beach.
The coalition, formerly known as Meet Me at the Well, works in education, advocacy, survivor support and outreach and connects trafficking survivors with services including housing, employment and treatment.
Friday’s summit represented its most visible statewide effort yet to bring the different parts of Delaware’s response together.
The next measure of success will be whether those relationships produce lasting changes in how Delaware recognizes trafficking and helps the people caught in it.
To Go Box
What: Delaware Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit
Where: Hyatt Place Dewey Beach, 1301 Coastal Highway, Dewey Beach
Organizer: Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors
Participants: Survivors, health care professionals, nurses, social workers, law enforcement, mental health professionals, direct-service providers, community leaders and advocates
Professional education: Six continuing education hours were available for nurses and six continuing education credits for social workers.
The Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit, organized by the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors, began Thursday with an invitation-only executive roundtable and continued Friday with an all-day public and professional program at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach for over 150 people.
Two-day Dewey Beach summit brought together government leaders, law enforcement, health professionals, survivors and advocates while challenging common assumptions about how trafficking begins and who can become a victim.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE news.
DEWEY BEACH, Del. — A two-day human trafficking summit in Dewey Beach brought together government leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, survivors, advocates and community organizations this week to examine how Delaware identifies and responds to trafficking — and to challenge some of the public’s most common assumptions about what the crime actually looks like.
The Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit, organized by the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors, began Thursday with an invitation-only executive roundtable and continued Friday with an all-day public and professional program at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach for over 150 people.
One of the clearest messages to emerge from the summit was that trafficking often does not begin with kidnapping, physical restraint or a stranger forcing someone into a car.
Jennifer Cooper, a Forensic Nurse Coordinator from Nemours Children’s Health and one of the summit organizers with the coalition, and fellow nurse Andrea Repine, Pediatric Nurse Practioner from Nemours led a “Human Trafficking 101” session focused on separating myths from reality.
“Most people think, when they think trafficking, that there’s a pimp involved,” Cooper said. “Human Trafficking involves a third party trading sex for value and can involve a boyfriend/girlfriend, family member, or employer and others” She also pointed out “When it comes to minors, you don’t need that third party.”
Trafficking also does not necessarily involve an exchange of cash.
“It doesn’t have to be an exchange of money,” Cooper said. “It could be that they want food.”
That can mean a vulnerable young person exchanging sex for a place to sleep, food, transportation or something else of value.
Not always kidnapping either!
Cooper and Repine told participants that trafficking often develops gradually through grooming, manipulation, dependency, fraud or coercion.
A victim may never be kidnapped.
There may be no locked room.
And the person doing the exploiting may be a boyfriend, girlfriend, employer, acquaintance or someone who initially appeared to be helping.
Cooper described the session as an effort to explain “what trafficking is” by “breaking down the myths versus the reality.”
The distinction becomes particularly important when children are involved.
That means exploitation of a minor does not require a traditional pimp or third-party trafficker.
A person can be trapped without being locked up
Opening keynote speaker Kevin McNeil, a nationally recognized victim advocate, brought both law enforcement experience and personal experience to the discussion.
McNeil is a retired police officer and a survivor of trafficking and sexual abuse. His presentation, “Stuck in Traffic,” focused on how someone can feel trapped in a trafficking situation even when no physical barrier prevents that person from leaving.
The analogy began with something familiar: the frustration of sitting in traffic with nowhere to go.
For a trafficking victim, however, the barriers can involve fear, financial dependency, threats, homelessness, addiction or emotional attachment to the person doing the exploiting.
That type of psychological control can make trafficking considerably harder to recognize than the popular image of someone being physically held by a stranger.
Substance abuse can deepen the problem
Marty McGibbon brought another survivor’s perspective to the conference.
A therapist, author, comedian and trafficking survivor, McGibbon addressed the intersection between substance abuse and trafficking. She returned later in the program to discuss mental well-being, self-care and trauma-informed approaches for people working with survivors. Pasted text(20260818-140439)
Her presentations reinforced another theme of the summit: Trafficking often overlaps with other problems rather than occurring by itself.
A victim may also be dealing with addiction, homelessness, previous abuse, financial instability or an unhealthy relationship.
Those vulnerabilities can become tools for someone seeking control.
Cooper previously described the intersection between substance abuse and trafficking as “a huge problem, particularly here in Delaware and the surrounding area.”
Vulnerability matters
Presenters stressed that traffickers often exploit vulnerability rather than targeting one particular type of person.
A teenager without a stable place to live may be vulnerable to someone offering housing.
Someone struggling with addiction may become dependent on the person supplying drugs.
A worker may rely on an employer for transportation, housing or access to personal documents.
A person seeking affection or security may become emotionally dependent on someone who later begins exploiting the relationship.
Those situations do not automatically mean trafficking is occurring.
But understanding how dependency can turn into control can help families, teachers, medical professionals and others recognize when something may be wrong.
Why Delawareans should care
The summit’s message was not that every troubled teenager, unhealthy relationship or difficult workplace situation involves trafficking.
For people whose image of human trafficking still involves strangers, kidnapping and locked rooms, summit speakers offered a more practical starting point:
It was that trafficking can look remarkably ordinary from the outside.
It can look like a teenager suddenly depending on an older boyfriend or girlfriend for a place to stay.
It can look like someone working for an employer who controls transportation, identification or money.
It can look like a young person exchanging sex for food, shelter or something else of value.
And it can involve someone who technically can walk out the door but believes there is nowhere safe to go.
For parents, teachers, neighbors and other Delawareans, the goal is not to become investigators. It is to better understand what exploitation can look like so they recognize when something does not seem right.
Almost 700 victims connected to 330 human trafficking cases in Delaware since 2007, with 29 cases of trafficking in 2025. Advocates caution that these figures represent only reported and identified cases. The actual number of victims is believed to be significantly higher because many victims never come to the attention of authorities or service providers.delaware
Look for vulnerability, dependency and whether someone is using those vulnerabilities to control another person.
To Go Box
What: Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors
What it does: Provides education, advocacy, training and survivor support related to human trafficking.
Summit: The Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit was held Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach following an invitation-only executive roundtable Thursday, Oct. 1.
Blue Hen quarterback Braden Streeter throws a pass against Merrimack in the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens first game of the season. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The Liberty Flames (4-1, 1-0 CUSA) defeated the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (2-3, 0-1 CUSA), 30-6, on October 2.
NEWARK, DE — UD needed a spark. The Blue Hens trailed, 20-0, a little more than halfway through the third quarter and as the offense jogged on the field, a switch was made at quarterback. Braden Streeter took over for the first time starter EJ Archfield Jr.
Streeter threw three passes on his first drive. The first was a completion that lost a yard, the second fell incomplete and the third ended up in the hands of Flames’ linebacker Deuce Spurlock. Spurlock returned the interception to Delaware’s nine-yard line. The Flames ended the drive with only a field goal, but any chance of a comeback was dashed by the turnover.
Liberty defeated the Blue Hens, 30-14, Friday night.
“I do think that we just played against a good football team who beat us pretty good. I don’t know that it had to be the kind of game that it was,” head coach Ryan Carty said postgame. “If we’re being honest and if it was an honest assessment it was so it is what it was, they beat our butts, but I think if we played a little cleaner, that would have been a pretty darn good ball game.”
Streeter got other opportunities behind center in the game’s final 22 minutes and led Delaware to its first score of the game. Freshman Tyler Bell led the Blue Hens’ final scoring drive at the end of the fourth quarter. The touchdowns were scored by Donovan Lewis and Matthew McKinley-Daniels.
Delaware played three quarterbacks throughout Friday nights’ action choosing to give Archfield Jr. the starting assignment in his first ever collegiate game. Archfield finished the game with ten completed passes for 137 yards and a fumble. The fumble occurred on a run which would’ve given the Blue Hens a first down and positioned them in the red zone on their second drive of the first half.
It’s the first time this season UD’s lost a fumble.
“It’s a tough situation to go in there against one of the better teams in our conference, you know, in his first time seeing any action in the game and, you know, not just first time starting, it was the first time since high school getting in a game,” Carty said. “I think he did an admirable job.”
The offense never found a rhythm after that, crossing mid-field once between the turnover and Streeter’s touchdown drive. UD’s offense finished the game with 359 total yards and two conversions on 13 third down plays.
Despite the score, Delaware’s defense put together a respectable performance against Conference USA’s (CUSA) top scoring offense.
The Blue Hens defense held the Flames to field goals on their first two drives and forced a punt on Liberty’s third drive, despite being on the field for over half the first quarter. The Flames continued to wear down the Blue Hen defense in the second quarter and scored their first touchdown on a 56-yard run by junior Kam Davis. Liberty’s second touchdown was scored by senior running back Peyton Jones. Jones’ three-yard touchdown run completed a 12 play, 98-yard drive by the Flames offense that sent the Blue Hens into halftime trailing by 20.
The Delaware defense performed better in the second half and allowed only ten points. The defense held Liberty’s running game to 83 yards in the second half following the first half in which the Flames rushed for 199. The Blue Hen defense finished the game giving up 440 yards of total offense.
“We obviously didn’t play to our standard,” senior defensive tackle Dominick Brogna said postgame. “We got to go watch film, we got to lock in on the small details, the communications, the adjustments, the rotations, everything and we need to get it changed.”
The Blue Hens have 11 days to correct their mistakes and prepare for a road matchup against their second CUSA opponent, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders. It’s unclear which of Delaware’s quarterback options will get the starting assignment, but it is unlikely to be Nick Minicucci whom coach Carty says is “week-to-week”.
“I was kind of out of answers on the back end, and at that point, I wanted to see what everybody can do, and kind of give a chance to everybody and see, you know, if we could evaluate that and then continue to leave it up for competition,” Carty said. “Where we go from here is gonna be us as coaches, you know, in that room and hopefully somebody pulls away with it when they get the opportunity too and proves that they’re the guy if Nick is out for a long time.”
Delaware’s game against the Blue Raiders is Tuesday, October 13. The game will be played in Tennessee and be nationally televised on CBS Sports Network. The game starts at 7:00 p.m.
Nashville, TN — Tennessee Correction Commissioner Frank Strada is facing mounting scrutiny after Christa Pike survived a failed lethal injection, marking the fifth execution described as botched or seriously problematic under his leadership in Tennessee and Arizona.
Pike, 50, remained unconscious and on a ventilator Friday after receiving two doses of pentobarbital. Her attorneys say improperly placed IV lines allowed the drug to enter surrounding tissue rather than her bloodstream, leaving her arms swollen, burned and blistered. Gov. Bill Lee has suspended executions for the remainder of 2026 and ordered an independent review.
Strada previously oversaw execution operations in Arizona, where three executions in 2022 were classified as botched by the Death Penalty Information Center after teams repeatedly struggled to establish IV access. Tennessee then hired him as correction commissioner in 2023.
Since then, Tennessee has experienced two failed execution attempts. Tony Carruthers’ May execution was abandoned after officials spent more than an hour trying to establish required IV access. Pike survived Wednesday’s attempt after lethal drugs were administered.
Critics also note that Tennessee eliminated a previous training requirement involving practice IV insertion under Strada. A 2022 state-commissioned review had already documented serious failures in Tennessee’s execution procedures.
Ithaca, NY — Cornell University is facing renewed scrutiny over campus sexual violence after a university survey found that 35% of undergraduate women who responded reported experiencing nonconsensual sexual contact during their time at the school.
That figure rose sharply from 23% in 2023 and 20% in 2021. Among undergraduate men, 8% reported nonconsensual sexual contact in 2025, compared with 9% two years earlier. Nearly half of all respondents also reported experiencing sexual or gender-based harassment.
The findings come as Cornell faces intense criticism over its handling of a separate 2024 alleged gang rape involving members of the Chi Phi fraternity. That case has prompted a civil lawsuit, a reopened criminal investigation and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s decision to appoint Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor.
Cornell officials caution that the 2025 survey had a significantly lower response rate than previous editions. Only 926 of 6,000 invited students participated, a 15% response rate, compared with 36% in 2023. That means the results should not automatically be treated as representing every Cornell student.
Still, Cornell’s own task force has described sexual assault as a persistent campus problem and recommended expanded prevention, education, reporting and accountability efforts.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump personally directed budget officials to find federal money for television advertisements promoting his presidency, according to new reporting that adds detail to an already controversial taxpayer-funded media campaign.
The New York Times reported that Trump asked Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to locate money inside the federal government after expressing enthusiasm for promotional ads featuring himself. The administration ultimately shifted $20 million available to Customs and Border Protection into a Department of Homeland Security account designated for “commemorative events.”
The following day, CBP awarded Maryland marketing company LMD a $20 million contract for a national media campaign.
At least four advertisements have since aired on major networks. One closely resembles a Trump 2024 campaign commercial, while others feature flattering imagery and praise for his administration. Each carries the disclosure “Paid for by the U.S. government.”
The campaign has drawn criticism from Democrats and Republicans who question whether taxpayer-funded advertising centered on Trump violates longstanding restrictions against government propaganda, particularly weeks before congressional elections. Reuters reports lawmakers have requested independent investigations into the spending.
The White House maintains the advertisements are legal public-service announcements and do not explicitly ask voters to support Trump or Republican candidates.
Bangor, ME — Police are investigating after a driver appeared to steer toward Maine Wire reporter Joe Sokol while he was filming outside a Bangor addiction treatment center, nearly striking him before knocking over his camera equipment.
Sokol was reporting from public property near the Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center when a driver stopped and accused him of violating patients’ privacy by filming the facility. Sokol responded that he was standing in public and conducting a news report.
Video later showed what appeared to be the same vehicle crossing a grassy area toward Sokol. He moved away as the vehicle passed close by and struck his camera setup. The driver then left the scene. Sokol was not injured.
The Maine Wire later published audio of a phone call with a man it identified as the driver. He denied trying to run Sokol over but acknowledged that the reporter’s coverage had angered him and said there was “no good reason really” for driving across the grass.
Bangor police confirmed they are investigating but have not announced charges or publicly identified a suspect.
The incident raises broader concerns about journalist safety. Whatever one thinks of The Maine Wire’s conservative editorial perspective, reporters should be able to gather news from public property without facing physical intimidation or a vehicle being driven at them.
Photo: Governor Matt Meyer courtesy of the Governor’s Office.
Governor rejects four bills passed by General Assembly, including measures that drew overwhelming bipartisan support
DOVER, Del. — Gov. Matt Meyer vetoed four bills approved by the Delaware General Assembly, including a bipartisan measure that would have given lawmakers new authority to check a governor’s power during an extended state of emergency.
Meyer vetoed House Substitute 1 for House Bill 329, Senate Bill 231, Senate Bill 279 and House Bill 393 on Sept. 30.
The four vetoes put Meyer at odds with substantial majorities in the Democratic-controlled General Assembly. Two of the measures — the emergency-powers bill and a utility consumer-protection bill — passed both chambers without a single opposing vote.
A veto is part of the governor’s constitutional role in Delaware’s legislative process. The General Assembly can override a gubernatorial veto if it secures the votes required under the Delaware Constitution.
Lawmakers seek check on prolonged emergency power
HB 329 was specifically written to establish additional checks and balances between the executive and legislative branches during a prolonged state of emergency.
Under the final version, a governor could declare and maintain an emergency for the first 180 days without legislative approval.
After that point, the governor could continue renewing the emergency, but the General Assembly would gain explicit authority to amend or terminate the order. The administration also would have been required to report to lawmakers every 30 days during a continuing emergency.
The legislation was sponsored by Rep. Rich Collins, R-Millsboro, and Sen. Kyra Hoffner, D-Dover-area, and attracted sponsors from both parties.
It passed the House 39-0 and the Senate 20-0, with absences in both chambers.
Lawmakers also amended the legislation so its restrictions would not apply to Meyer during his current term. The new provisions would have taken effect only after the governor serving when the bill became law left office.
That meant the legislation was largely establishing rules for future governors rather than restricting Meyer’s own emergency authority.
The measure grew out of Delaware’s experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when then-Gov. John Carney repeatedly renewed emergency orders while lawmakers had limited formal authority over whether those orders continued.
Supporters argued that a governor needs broad authority when a crisis begins but that an emergency lasting six months raises a separate question about the role of the legislative branch. Meyer stated that the bill would have unnecessarily constrained the executive branch’s ability to respond to emergencies and could create uncertainty during future crises.
Ramone criticizes veto
Mike Ramone, the Republican nominee for state treasurer, criticized Meyer’s action during two campaign events Thursday night.
Ramone, who served in the General Assembly from 2008 to 2024, including as House minority leader, said the veto reinforced his argument for greater transparency and stronger checks on state government.
“This is yet another reason transparency is critical in state government at all levels,” Ramone said. “Too much power left in one person’s hands, and inside a state government managed by one party, is a problem.”
Ramone pointed to the unanimous legislative support for HB 329.
“Republican and Democratic legislators understood that,” he said. “And yet, a reasonable bill was vetoed, leaving one person to leverage his power to impact life in our state indefinitely.”
Ramone’s comments reflect the argument made by supporters of HB 329 that long-running emergencies should eventually involve both the executive and legislative branches.
The veto leaves Delaware’s existing emergency-power structure in place.
Consumer protection bill also vetoed
Meyer also vetoed HB 393, a bipartisan consumer-protection measure involving third-party electricity suppliers.
The legislation passed the House 40-0 and the Senate 21-0.
The bill would have imposed additional disclosure, reporting and customer-notification requirements on companies selling electricity as alternatives to standard utility service.
Among other provisions, suppliers would have been required to notify customers before contracts renewed and before certain rate changes. Regulators also would have received additional pricing information allowing them to compare third-party rates with standard-offer electricity rates.
Rep. Debra Heffernan, D-Bellefonte, the bill’s prime sponsor, criticized the veto and disputed concerns that the measure could reduce competition or strengthen the position of a dominant electricity provider.
Heffernan said the bill was developed with the Meyer administration, the Public Advocate and Public Service Commission and was intended to address constituent complaints about customers being attracted by introductory offers before later paying significantly higher prices.
The governor’s legislative advisory identifies the veto but does not provide a detailed written explanation of his objections.
Two school compensation measures rejected
Meyer also vetoed two bills affecting school employee compensation.
SB 231 would have provided an additional salary supplement to school social workers who passed the Association of Social Work Boards National Clinical Examination and held a licensed clinical social worker license.
The bill passed the Senate and House without an opposing vote.
A fiscal analysis estimated the state cost at approximately $343,000 in fiscal 2027, increasing in subsequent years.
Meyer had previously signed separate legislation expanding salary supplements for several categories of school professionals, including social workers. The governor’s published veto notice does not state whether that overlap, the additional cost or another concern was the basis for rejecting SB 231.
SB 279 addressed salary placement for school-based occupational therapists.
Supporters said employees with comparable professional education can be placed on different salary levels because occupational therapy degree programs award credits differently.
The legislation would have established a more uniform method of recognizing master’s and doctoral-level occupational therapy education within the state salary schedule.
The bill passed the Senate 20-0 and the House 40-1.
Fiscal analysts estimated the state and local cost at roughly $224,000 in fiscal 2027, increasing in later years.
The governor’s published legislative advisory does not provide a detailed explanation for the SB 279 veto.
Four vetoes, different policy disputes
The measures covered different issues, but all four had substantial support in the General Assembly.
HB 329 and HB 393 passed without an opposing vote. SB 231 also passed without opposition among lawmakers voting, while only one House member voted against SB 279.
The vetoes do not negate the General Assembly’s votes. Under Delaware’s constitutional system, legislation approved by lawmakers is presented to the governor, who may sign it or veto it. Lawmakers may then consider whether to attempt an override.
HB 329 is unusual because the legislation itself dealt directly with that division of governmental power.
It would have preserved broad gubernatorial authority during the first six months of an emergency while creating a formal legislative role once the emergency became prolonged.
Meyer’s veto means that change will not take effect unless lawmakers override him or adopt similar legislation in the future.
TO GO BOX
What happened: Gov. Matt Meyer vetoed four bills Sept. 30.
Emergency powers: HS 1 for HB 329 would have given the General Assembly authority to amend or terminate a state of emergency after 180 days and required continuing reports to lawmakers.
Vote: HB 329 passed the House 39-0 and Senate 20-0.
Utility consumers: HB 393 imposed additional requirements on third-party electric suppliers. It passed 40-0 in the House and 21-0 in the Senate.
School social workers: SB 231 would have provided additional compensation for qualifying licensed clinical social workers working in schools.
Occupational therapists: SB 279 would have changed salary placement rules for qualifying school-based occupational therapists.
Political reaction: Republican state treasurer nominee Mike Ramone said the HB 329 veto demonstrated the need for greater transparency and checks on executive authority.
What happens next: The General Assembly may consider whether to attempt veto overrides.
Learn more: Bill texts, votes, fiscal notes and legislative histories are available through the Delaware General Assembly at legis.delaware.gov.
Blue Hen offensive lineman Wahkeem Roman (65) gets ready to block during his first game as a Blue Hen. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
University of Delaware sixth year offensive lineman, Wahkeem Roman, played his first game as a Blue Hen on September 3 against Merrimack, returning to play after two missed seasons due to injury.
NEWARK, DE — UD’s opening game against Merrimack drew over 17,000 fans into Delaware Stadium. The venue was filled with life, excitement, and hope for a new football season after a successful first at the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level. It’s an environment that any first time Blue Hen could admire while stepping between the white lines for the first time.
Wahkeem Roman had every reason to soak in his surroundings. He experienced multiple home openers stuck on the sidelines during his first two seasons in the blue and gold. This was his first opportunity to truly experience the environment while donning the pads and standing amongst his fellow lineman in the huddle.
Yet, all his focus was trained on one thing. Playing the game he loves for the first time in over 1,000 days.
“I was just so locked in on the game like at that point, I didn’t even realize like I was coming back from an injury,” Roman said.
Roman joined the University of Delaware football program before the 2024 season. His transfer was unique.
Roman attended Notre Dame College located in South Euclid, Ohio, before the former division two school was shut down in the spring of 2024. The other unique variable to Roman’s transfer, an injury to his right knee that affected his ACL, MCL and PCL.
The school closure left Roman without many other options other than entering the transfer portal and the injury made him unsure if any program would take a chance on him, but Roman said he received offers from programs at both the FBS and Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) levels.
The Blue Hens liked what they saw on the limited amount of film Roman had coming into the portal — Roman started four games for Notre Dame College during the 2023 season — said Blue Hen offensive line coach and run game coordinator, Chris Rogers. Rogers and the coaching staff felt like he fit their style of football and would be successful in their system. Off the field, coach Rogers knew that he had the character and fortitude to return from the injury.
“In this business you evaluate people as much or more than you evaluate people as players, and so on film he was a really good player, but also … I really liked the person,” Rogers said. “He said the right things. You could tell he wanted to be developed, you could tell football mattered to him, you could tell this was important, you could tell being successful in college was important, and so like a person who’s got all those traits, obviously, you know, they’re gonna battle they’re way back from an injury and be successful after that.”
Roman blocks against Virginia defensive end Evan Ward during the Blue Hens’ road game against the Cavaliers. Photo Credit: University of Delaware Football.
Roman said the program made him feel like family and accepted him from the moment he arrived. With that comfortability and access to better training resources, he began attacking the rehabilitation process alongside Delaware’s training staff. While his teammates were competing in summer workouts, Roman was in the training room working steadily to improve and strengthen his right leg.
“First we’ll be trying to get my quad to fire, and next week we’ll try to like get my extension all over there and then after all that, maybe I’ll get back walking [on] the treadmill,” Roman said. “It was just week by week, we had a plan and a progress, and it was good.”
Roman essentially had to start the rehab process from square one when he transferred in. The UD training staff discovered that while Roman thought he was ahead in his rehab, it turned out he was actually a little behind in the process.
“I had to catch all the way up and basically start from the beginning, and that was a real slow process, and it was like killer because, … you just want to get back on the field and want to be like a part of the team, you know,” Roman said.
Roman’s recovery cost him the full 2024 season — UD’s last in FCS football — and an injury to the same ACL in the spring of 2025 required him to miss the full 2025 season— UD’s first in FBS football.
“He walked in my office and, you know, I felt like I saw a tear fall down his cheek, and in 15 seconds, I watched that same tear roll back up his cheek and into his eye and it lit a fire under him,” Rogers said.
Roman started the rehab process again, this time with lessons learned from the first time around.
“That’s what I learned the second time around, to really just focus on getting my body back and not rush anything,” Roman said. “My footwork and everything always comes back, it’s just the strengthening that you gotta get back.”
Roman was cleared to play a week into the 2026 spring session. He learned to trust his body to perform at an elite level like it had before, a skill Roman credits to the work of UD’s athletic training staff and former football head athletic trainer, Annie Stock, who helped him rebuild that confidence in himself and his body.
“She would always instill confidence into me like, ‘you’ve done this before, it’s not anything you can’t do, I wouldn’t have you doing it if I didn’t believe in you to do it’ and you just sit back and think like, well, yeah, she doesn’t want me to get hurt again, so obviously I should be good enough to do this,” Roman said.
His first one on one rep in spring practice cemented his confidence in his body’s ability to return to its prior elite level.
“I anchored on a bull rush and I was like ‘oh yeah, this feels good. We’re good to go’,” Roman said.
The Elizabeth, New Jersey, native has played in two games for the Blue Hens this season. His last appearance came in the Blue Hen’s most recent game against Virginia that closed out their non-conference schedule. It was his first chance to play on a Power 4 field against Power 4 competition.
It’s a cool experience for a player whose career embarked on a whirlwind of a journey. A journey that saw him overcome adversity, achieve academic success (Wahkeem earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Delaware in May) and become a leader for the younger players in the offensive line room.
Wahkeem Roman lines up on the left side of the offensive line against Merrimack. This was his first time playing for the Blue Hens since transferring into the program during the spring of 2024. Photo Credit: University of Delaware Football.
“Giving him a hug before the [Merrimack] game was a big moment and I think he deserves that. I tell him all the time I’m thankful I got in the car and drove to go see him and meet him and recruit him,” coach Rogers said. “I’m thankful to be his football coach.”
As Wahkeem completed his first drive as a Blue Hen and walked to the sideline, he said all he remembers is his teammates’ excitement for him. The reality of the moment still hadn’t settled in. There was still an opponent on the field, a game to win and a job to get done.
The Blue Hens defeated Merrimack, 42-7. The team was heading back into the locker room — celebrating — but Roman and his teammate Chandler Telfaire needed to return to the field. They forgot a pair of gloves.
It was at that moment, Wahkeem Roman looked around Delaware stadium and fully took in where his 1,076 day journey led him.
“I was just like wow, I really just came back and played in this stadium. It was a surreal feeling.”
Why Should Delaware Care? For the past few years, Delaware has been discussing how to reform its generations-old statewide school funding to better serve a modern classroom. The key question that has yet to be answered though is how a new formula will ultimately impact each school in the state.
Within the last two years, education leaders have tried to reform Delaware’s archaic public education funding system so schools have the resources to meet all students’ needs.
Last year, those conversations led Delaware’s Public Education Funding Commission — the appointed group tasked with recommending changes to the state’s 85-year-old school funding system — to unanimously recommend that lawmakers approve a hybrid funding framework, which would shift education spending away from a strictly per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher needs.
This past summer, two bills that lay the groundwork for that funding system reform were signed into law by Gov. Matt Meyer.
The commission has also worked on its first implementation phase since the two bills were signed into law.
The first phase does not include implementation of a new formula, though.
Instead, the Delaware Department of Education is working on system updates during this phase, along with communication and training materials for those who will have a “key role” in changing the formula, said Brian Ray, the associate secretary of the finance and operations team at the Department of Education, during a public meeting this week.
Ray also said the commission’s working group will also have to consolidate existing funding appropriations such as teacher positions or different block grants into three main categories: base, opportunity, and operational funding.
The commission’s working group also established four subgroups to move forward with phase two and focus on equalization, multilanguage learners, vocational and career technical education, and students from low-income backgrounds.
Ray said each of the subgroups have met at least once, and “they’re starting to identify the variables and the processes we need to to work through to then make recommendations to [the full Public Education Funding Commission] to then review, vote, and move forward with into that next phase.”
Any given school in Delaware is likely depending on a dozen funding streams or more, while leaders are seeking to streamline that to just three streams. | PHOTOS COURTESY OF DDOE
Why was school funding being questioned?
Delaware’s current funding formula was established in 1940, with the state and federal governments providing about 70% of the funding while 30% is generated through district-level property taxes that residents vote on during referendums.
Before the bill, Sussex County had not conducted a countywide property tax reassessment since 1974, while New Castle and Kent County last reassessed property in 1983 and 1987, respectively.
The lack of assessments meant properties were extremely misvalued; some homeowners paid more than what the updated market called for and others paid too little.
Because of communities’ differences in wealth and in their willingness to support public schools, some – particularly in rural Delaware – are at a disadvantage when trying to compete for high-quality educators.
And a failure to pass or even hold referendums only furthers a gap between wealthy districts and those that are more economically modest.
Those concerns are exacerbated in areas in Sussex County that face a combined disadvantage of relatively low property wealth and high student needs.
Advocacy groups like the Delaware NAACP and Delawareans for Educational Opportunity filed a lawsuit in 2018, stating that the state’s education system did not provide an adequate education to all students. After a preliminary ruling allowed the lawsuit to proceed, the state settled the case, promising to reassess property and review statewide school funding reform.
The American Institutes for Research completed its independent assessment of education funding in Delaware as part of the 2020 settlement.
The group recommended in late 2023 that Delaware increase spending on public education by upward of $1 billion.
After both Democratic and Republican members of the State Senate’s Education Committee raised concerns in a March 2024 meeting over how the sum would affect taxpayers, the legislature chose to create the Public Education Funding Commission to examine the recommendation.
What has the PEFC done?
The committee held its first meeting in September 2024, and eight months later it unveiled an example of what the group called a new “hybrid formula,” giving a glimpse of what an overhaul of the funding system could look like.
By the end of the May 2025 meeting, the example produced as many questions as answers.
During the meeting, commission members were shown how the example formula would affect seven individual schools.
Those schools were Brandywine High School, Delcastle Technical High School, Frederick Douglass Elementary School, Lulu M. Ross Elementary School, the Charter School of Wilmington, Stanton Middle School, and Warner Elementary School.
Each of those schools, except for Ross Elementary, would gain about $1.29 million if that version of the hybrid formula example were implemented.
Ross instead would have lost more than $181,000.
Multiple members expressed concerns about Ross losing money because of its high population of students from low-income backgrounds and English-language learners.
“I doubt anyone in this room would accept a model that didn’t increase the allocations to a school like Lulu Ross that serves the population they serve,” said Commission Chair State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), who is a retired Spanish teacher.
The commission voted unanimously to approve a recommendation to move forward with a new hybrid framework in June 2025. Details from the May model were not included in the recommendation.
The approved recommendation only pushed forward the idea of a hybrid framework, and did not provide details as to the specific funding model that will be used to calculate a school’s new state support.
Last October, commission members also unveiled three categories for the funding model: base, opportunity, and operational funding. The three categories allow Delaware to use resource-based funding, or funding based on the number of students, and combine it with flexible dollars that will flow toward students that are multilanguage learners or from low-income backgrounds, among other student groups.
The Public Education Funding Commission also held multiple community listening sessions throughout last winter, and in April voted in favor of five different recommendations that ultimately called for the state to move forward with the hybrid model and to include a hold harmless so that districts would not lose dollars during the first years of implementation, among other recommendations.
In May, Sturgeon introduced two bills that came directly from the PEFC. One bill enabled the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing the hybrid school funding model. It also includes a provision to mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model.
The other bill established the PEFC as a permanent body to continue studying and evaluating the state’s funding formula in the years to come.
Both bills have since been signed into law by Meyer.
Greensboro, NC — The Greensboro Police Department drew criticism after using its official social media account to joke that anyone arrested would be forced to listen to Taylor Swift’s newest songs repeatedly while being transported to jail.
The department posted Tuesday that people arrested that night “will be required to listen to Taylor Swift’s new songs on repeat,” apparently referencing tracks released with an expanded edition of Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl.
What might have passed as a routine attempt at humor quickly became a discussion about how police departments use official accounts. One commenter questioned whether an agency entrusted with arrests and criminal investigations should be joking about treatment of people in custody.
Greensboro police responded: “Relax. It’s called community outreach.”
That response generated additional criticism, with some users arguing that dismissing questions about professionalism was itself inappropriate for a law-enforcement agency. Others simply viewed the original post as harmless humor.
Police later added another tongue-in-cheek message apologizing for “stirring up the Taylor bots” and encouraging people to keep listening to Swift’s album.
Burlington, NC — A Burlington nursing home has agreed to pay nearly $100,000 to resolve allegations that it employed an unlicensed woman as a nurse and billed Medicaid for services she provided to residents.
North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson announced Thursday that White Oak Manor of Burlington will pay $98,474 to the state, including $49,237 in Medicaid restitution. State officials said Nieasha Jones was hired despite having no nursing license, training or experience.
According to the Attorney General’s Office, Jones worked 54 shifts over three months, interacted with nursing-home residents and provided care while lacking the required qualifications. White Oak Manor subsequently billed Medicaid for resident services that included work performed by Jones.
The investigation began after the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Health Service Regulation referred the matter to the Attorney General’s Medicaid Investigations Division.
Jackson said health-care providers must ensure employees are qualified before allowing them to treat patients and bill taxpayers for that care.
The settlement resolves civil allegations and does not constitute an admission of liability or a judicial finding of wrongdoing against the facility. State investigators say the case is part of broader efforts to prevent Medicaid fraud and protect residents receiving care in publicly funded facilities.
ProPublica reporters Jennifer Smith Richards, center, and Jodi S. Cohen and Arkansas Times reporter Milo Strain research founding a private school in Little Rock. Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times
We have no business running a private school.
We’re reporters, not teachers. That doesn’t matter. Inexperience has hardly been a barrier for those who want to start their own schools, as we have reported this year. And it didn’t stop us, either.
Over the last few months, to test the process, reporters from ProPublica partnered with local journalists in three states to establish private schools. None required much effort.
In Arkansas, all it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state website, $45 and an American flag to form a bona fide private school with the Arkansas Times.
We established a school with Mountain State Spotlight in West Virginia after filing our new school’s name and location with authorities on a piece of notebook paper, then exchanging a few emails.
And with The Assembly in North Carolina, we filed an online notice of intent to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, while perched on its metal bar stools, eyeing glasses of a crisp kolsch.
We used our names and news organization email addresses, following each state’s rules for starting private or microschools, a type of private school intended for just a few students. Experience running a school wasn’t needed. No one from any of the states asked us about our backgrounds or qualifications, though West Virginia did ask for proof of a high school diploma. No one questioned what we plan to teach or how we would measure whether students are learning.
And yet we could enroll students in two states right now, if we wanted to. Arkansas even suggested ways our school could accept public money through the state’s voucher-style program.
For the record, we are not enrolling students and have no intention of operating our new schools. We did, however, register a website for our new school ventures, ProPublicaAcademy.com, and even designed some fun pencils to show our school spirit.
This year, a team of ProPublica reporters has been documenting how the American education landscape is shifting dramatically as states use public money to help fund private schools. With few regulations, hundreds of new private and microschools have proliferated.
Our reporting has shown the relative ease with which people — some with questionable backgrounds — founded their own schools in unusual places. They’ve popped up in barns and on farms, in strip malls between an antique shop and an ax-throwing business and in churches, where lighting and sound for worship services is part of the curriculum.
All of this led to a clear reporting question: If the hurdles to open a private school are so low, could we do it? And what would we learn along the way?
Est. 2026
Arkansas: ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy
Inside a flag shop in Little Rock, we surveyed our options. There were handheld American flags on skinny sticks, midsize ones to display on a wall and majestic formal flags adorned with silky gold fringe.
State law in Arkansas doesn’t require much to open a private school, nothing about teacher skills or what kids learn. But it does require that all schools display an American flag, and we wanted to follow the rules. So, at the Arkansas Flag and Banner store, we decided on a smallish one that could fit in a circular base atop a newsroom cubicle. We also bought an Arkansas flag — even though only public schools are required to have those. Total cost: $49.45.
Picking the flags for our new school was the hardest part of an astoundingly easy process.
The only requirement to open a private school in Arkansas is displaying a flag and flagpole, so the team visited the local flag shop in Little Rock.Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times
Early in our reporting in Arkansas, we tried to figure out what steps we’d need to take to make a private school. We couldn’t find all the answers online, so we called the state.
“We don’t have rules for opening a private school,” Kaelin Clay, an Arkansas Department of Education spokesperson, told us earlier this year.
In fact, we didn’t even have to file anything with the Education Department. All it took was a few clicks on the Arkansas secretary of state’s website, where we registered the ProPublica-Arkansas Times Curiosity Academy LLC as a business, listed ourselves as agents and officers, and paid a fee.
“We picked a name. We paid 45 bucks,” a ProPublica reporter noted after we submitted the application. With that, we had created a private school.
The secretary of state’s office approved our new business the same day. We even got a certificate.
The Arkansas Department of Education does not regulate private schools once they’re open, and no one from the state inspected the Arkansas Times newsroom, the location we chose for our school. As far as we know, nobody checked our backgrounds, either.
The official certificate acknowledging our schoolSecretary of State/State of Arkansas
Arkansas adopted a private school funding plan in 2023, and back then there were fewer than 100 private schools on record. With the state in the fourth year of its Education Freedom Accounts program, which provides vouchers that can be spent on private schools, there are now more than 220.
In addition, 143 microschools, which are a different category in Arkansas, were approved this year to accept tax dollars. That’s up from about 100 last school year.
Establishing the Curiosity Academy was so simple — and, frankly, a bit anticlimactic — that reporters then applied to become eligible to receive public funds. (Again, we applied with our names, work email addresses and a note that this was a journalistic exercise. We had no intention of actually ever taking any public money.)
We wanted to see how far our curiosity could take us.
Accessing public funds as a microschool in Arkansas is easier than it is for other types of private schools, even though there is no limit to the number of students one can enroll. Unlike private schools, we didn’t need to seek accreditation or show proof of financial solvency to accept state funding.
It took about 10 minutes to fill out the required information in early September. Other than our contact information, we had to upload just two documents — one detailing our proposed tuition and fees, and the other with our refund policy.
We said that — “should we open a school” — our tuition and fees per student would not exceed $7,208 per school year, the exact amount of Education Freedom Account money that each student in Arkansas is eligible for this year. We said tuition “would be collected only if education is delivered, and it would be the policy of the school to refund all tuition payments for educational services that are not provided.”
After much deliberation, we chose small state and national flags.Brian Chilson/Arkansas Times
When more than two weeks passed and we hadn’t heard back, we reached out to the state Education Department. An employee called back that afternoon and explained that the department had decided not to accept any more because the school year was underway.
But he didn’t reject us outright. He looked up our application and invited us to keep pursuing the public money. He said we still could apply to receive public money this school year, but as a vendor providing educational services such as tutoring. He also said we could apply as a microschool next year and even suggested a tweak to the language in our tuition policy should we decide to do that.
After we hung up, he emailed us the vendor application (which we will not pursue) and let us know the microschool application for next school year will open in the spring.
We asked the state Education Department whether it would be OK with us operating a publicly funded microschool. Clay, the spokesperson, said the agency’s role is to decide if schools meet state requirements. Microschool families, she said, “have the freedom to choose the educators and learning environments that best meet their children’s needs.”
Est. 2026
West Virginia: ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy
Henry Culvyhouse and Smith Richards, in Mountain State Spotlight’s newsroom, write their application to found a private middle school in West Virginia.Laura Bilson for ProPublica
Hunched over a desk in the Mountain State Spotlight newsroom in Charleston, West Virginia, pen in hand, we scrawled out official notice of our new school in a spiral-bound notebook. We wrote that we would serve middle school students and listed our first day as TBD.
Leaving the crunchy, ragged edges on the paper, we stuffed our notice of intent into an envelope. We’d seen other new operators file similarly casual ones as they sought to register private schools in West Virginia.
Then we drove over to the state Education Department to deliver the request. Our group — two reporters, a photographer and a video journalist — went through security and, camera rolling, wound our way through the maze of the midcentury building. We got lost once, and our entourage received several perplexed glances from workers, but otherwise it was smooth sailing. The person we needed to deliver the letter to was out, but a friendly employee agreed to place it on his desk.
Dozens of new private and microschools have set up shop in the state in recent years, fueled by the roughly $5,400 the Hope Scholarship offers each student to pay tuition. New private schools all go through Dustin Lambert, a manager in the Office of Student Enrichment and Support at the West Virginia Department of Education.
We heard back from Lambert the next day. Our notice was received. (Hooray!) He said now we needed a letter from the fire marshal that our school building was safe for children. (Oh no.)
This was a problem. Our school would be housed in the Mountain State Spotlight newsroom, which had not been inspected as a school site. We didn’t want to usurp public resources to undergo a new inspection. It felt like the end of our Mountain State school experiment.
Smith Richards and Culvyhouse go to the Capitol to hand-deliver their application.Laura Bilson for ProPublica
But it wasn’t.
After we followed up to ask whether all schools, including virtual schools, need safety clearance to register with the state, Lambert told us that though all brick-and-mortar private schools do, we “may want to consider the microschool route.”
In that case, we later learned, the department wouldn’t be involved because state law doesn’t include any mechanism for oversight.
West Virginia defines microschools as schools that charge tuition and are started by one or more teachers. In practice, there’s no real difference between a microschool and private school — neither has a limit on enrollment. (Yes, a micro can be macro.) He forwarded us the rules for starting a microschool, which involve providing proof of a high school diploma, at least. We notified the local school district of our new microschool venture and sent a college transcript.
The Kanawha County school district, in turn, notified the state of the existence of a new microschool.
And with that — bypassing the building health and safety requirements — we established the ProPublica-Mountain State Spotlight Curiosity Academy. Officials at the Department of Education said they were aware that journalists were establishing a school. But they had to just watch us do so — they have no authority over the state’s microschools.
In an official statement, the department’s spokesperson said it “does not approve or deny the operation of microschools for any reason, including the qualifications of the owner/operator.”
By law, should we open our microschool — and we won’t — we could enroll an unlimited number of students.
Culvyhouse seals the envelope of our hand-delivered application.Laura Bilson for ProPublica
Pending
North Carolina: ProPublica-Assembly Academy
On Friday evenings, hundreds of people gather at Ponysaurus Brewing Co., a trendy spot in Durham, North Carolina, to savor its craft beers and cocktails, hardly the place you’d expect a school to open. But why not?
On a recent Tuesday morning, the brewery was quiet and closed to customers. Behind the bar, yeast busily converted sugars into alcohol inside giant stainless steel fermentation tanks. Two journalists settled onto barstools beneath signs for pilsners and cherry sours. Icy cold glasses of Tell the Truth, a light and lemony ale, sat before them on a high-top table beside a stenographer’s notebook and a laptop.
The brewery created the craft ale in partnership with The Assembly, which also is ProPublica’s journalistic partner in this private school endeavor, so it all felt very symbiotic. Ponysaurus’s owners had agreed to let us use their building and its fire and sanitation inspections, which are required to open a private school in the Tar Heel State.
ProPublica reporter Jennifer Berry Hawes and Carli Brosseau, right, a reporter for The Assembly, apply to open a private school at Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, North Carolina.Kate Medley for ProPublica
Reporters from The Assembly and ProPublica scanned a state of North Carolina website that details how to file a notice of intent to open a private school.
First, it explained the state’s statutory requirements for opening a private school, things like reporting the school’s name and address. We also would have to administer a standardized test in certain grades, if we were going to open an actual school, and maintain annual records about student attendance and immunizations.
Then, we watched a four-minute, 39-second video explaining how to file the required notice of intent.
From there it seemed simple. We created a login, then filled in the address of our school (Ponysaurus’s building), noted its owner and chief administrator (our reporters), and named it the ProPublica-Assembly Academy. We’d hoped to include the word Curiosity in the name, but the field in the form didn’t allow enough characters. In North Carolina, our curiosity would have to be implied.
We filled in a few more fields, including the grades we would serve (high schoolers), whether we would open a religious school (no) and the dates of our academic year.
Then we needed to upload fire and sanitation inspection reports. This step is what brought us here, to Ponysaurus, filling out the online notice to the tune of a hissing compressor that kept clean air moving through the brewing system.
“You will need to secure inspections for the building where the school will be housed. You will need a fire inspection from the local fire marshal and a health and sanitation inspection from the local health department,” the video said.
Just that morning, a City of Durham Fire Department inspector had visited the brewery and provided Ponysaurus with a fresh business occupancy inspection. We uploaded the new report, along with the brewery’s current food establishment inspection (on which it received a 99, an excellent score, we felt, for a school).
The screen flashed a confirmation. “Thank you. We have received your request to open a private school.” If approved, the page said, we should receive a school identification number in three to five business days.
We hoped to join the at least 169 other new private schools that have opened in North Carolina since the 2021-22 school year, which marked the start of a series of expansions to the state’s publicly funded vouchers for private school tuition.
If we wanted our school to tap the voucher money, we’d have to go through some additional steps such as getting criminal background checks. We weren’t doing that.
The proposed school has outdoor space for students.Kate Medley for ProPublica
The following day, we hit a snag. It came in a brief and garbled email. It said only: “Good morning and thank you for submitting a Notice of Intent to operate a private school. To complete the process we need to fire and sanitation inspections to” and then ended abruptly like that, no explanation or period. We emailed back, asking for clarity and noting we had already uploaded the inspection reports.
An official from the state Division of Non-Public Education then called. The school’s name needs to be on the inspection reports, she said, something we had not seen in any of our research. We also had not found any state statutes or rules that would preclude us — or anyone else — from opening a private school wherever we saw fit, be that a church or a brewery, as long as it passed “reasonable fire, health and safety inspections.”
In a follow-up call, she clarified that her division checks only to be sure the building has passed inspections specifically for a school. A spokesperson for the agency later added that state statute does not allow them to deny a private school application, but they won’t process an incomplete application — notably one without the proper inspections.
We hadn’t expected we would need a school-specific inspection at this point. The video explainer referred to inspections only generally, and the state’s written guidance indicated only that this would need to happen before occupancy.
Given we had no intention of actually opening a school, we had decided ahead of time that we wouldn’t consume any additional public resources — such as fire or health inspectors’ time — in our journalistic pursuit.
Perhaps Ponysaurus could pass the school-specific inspections. But the ethical red line would be our stop sign. Our curiosity would have to end in North Carolina.
Have you had trouble finding a school or using a voucher-style program? Do you have concerns about schools — public or private — in your area? Help us understand how families across the country are navigating their school options.
Why the Houthis' Red Sea power play makes Iran even strongerAudiosseth.drupal@c…
On this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss what Houthi control of the Bab al-Mandab strait means for the wider region.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels’ capture of Yemen’s port city of Mocha means that Iran now effectively controls two crucial waterways in the region – the Bab al-Mandab Strait to the Red Sea and thus the Suez Canal, as well as the Hormuz Strait. Why has this simmering conflict exploded again? What do Iran and the Houthis want? How serious is this potential blockade for world trade and energy supply? And could the Houthis become a regional power, in economic terms even more powerful than Iran?
Bronwen Maddox is joined by director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, Dr Sanam Vakil; Horn of Africa specialist Ahmed Soliman; and Yemen and Gulf specialist, Farea Al-Muslimi, who joins us from Jordan.
Read the latest related work from Chatham House here:
A driftwood vulture looms. Faces and eyes peer from the walls and from a cauldron. Landscapes of rainbow ice surround you. Have you entered another dimension? Nay, mortal! But you have made the wise decision to visit the Newark Arts…
Los Angeles, CA — The Justice Department says UCLA School of Law illegally discriminated against white and Asian applicants by continuing to consider race in admissions after the Supreme Court restricted race-conscious college admissions in 2023.
The department’s Civil Rights Division said its investigation found that UCLA Law used what officials described as a “two-tiered admissions system” for incoming classes from 2023 through 2025. DOJ said applicants with similar LSAT scores were treated differently depending on race and alleged that essays and recruitment programs were used to encourage applicants to disclose racial backgrounds.
UCLA disputes that characterization. The law school says its admissions process is comprehensive, merit-based and compliant with federal law as well as California’s longstanding prohibition on racial preferences at public universities.
The finding is part of a broader Trump administration campaign targeting university diversity and admissions policies. The Justice Department has previously made similar accusations involving UCLA’s medical school and UC Berkeley Law, while launching investigations into additional universities.
DOJ says it will first seek a voluntary agreement requiring changes to UCLA Law’s admissions practices. If negotiations fail, the department says it could file a lawsuit to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Ithaca, NY — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has removed the Tompkins County district attorney from the investigation into an alleged 2024 gang rape at Cornell University, appointing Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor after saying she had lost confidence in the local handling of the case.
The case involves a former Cornell student identified as Jane Doe, who alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted by multiple members of the Chi Phi fraternity in October 2024. No criminal charges were initially filed, although the woman later brought a civil lawsuit detailing allegations that prompted renewed scrutiny.
District Attorney Matthew Van Houten announced this week that he would reopen the investigation, but Hochul said newly released information raised serious questions about both Cornell police and his office’s earlier decision not to prosecute.
James will now oversee the investigation independently and can present evidence to a grand jury if she determines charges are warranted. She said her office would follow the facts and law and conduct a process New Yorkers can trust.
Cornell has also retained outside attorneys to review how the university handled the allegations. Attorneys representing some of the accused men have denied wrongdoing.
The appointment effectively shifts control of one of New York’s highest-profile campus sexual-assault investigations from local prosecutors to the state attorney general.
Sacramento, CA — California has banned child marriage without exceptions, becoming the 18th state to completely prohibit minors from marrying after years of unsuccessful attempts to close one of the nation’s most permissive legal loopholes.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1267, which establishes 18 as the minimum age for both marriage and domestic partnerships. Previously, California had no statutory minimum marriage age, allowing minors to marry with parental consent and court approval. The legislation passed with bipartisan support and no opposition in the Legislature.
Advocates have argued that minors entering marriages face increased risks of coercion, abuse and financial dependence. California officials estimate roughly 35,000 minors were married in the state between 2000 and 2021.
Newsom signed the bill alongside survivors and advocates, including Courtney Stodden, who was 16 when she married 50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison in 2011. Stodden has since described the relationship as exploitative and advocated nationally for ending child marriage.
The new law contains no parental, judicial or pregnancy exceptions. Newsom called the prohibition “long overdue,” while advocates with Unchained At Last said they intend to continue pushing for similar bans in the remaining states.
Nashville, TN — Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn is calling for Tennessee to restore the electric chair after the state failed to execute Christa Pike despite administering two doses of pentobarbital.
Pike, 50, remained alive after Wednesday’s lethal-injection attempt and was transported to a Nashville hospital in critical condition. Witnesses reported that she continued breathing, spoke about pain in her arm and at one point lifted her head after execution drugs had been administered.
Blackburn, the Republican nominee for governor, called the episode “tragic” and said it prolonged the suffering of the family of Colleen Slemmer, whom Pike murdered in 1995. Blackburn said Tennessee should conduct a full review but argued that the solution is to “bring back the electric chair.”
Gov. Bill Lee instead suspended remaining executions this year and ordered an independent investigation into what went wrong.
The failure is particularly significant because Tennessee already experienced another unsuccessful execution attempt this year. In May, officials abandoned the execution of Tony Carruthers after struggling to establish intravenous access.
Pike’s attorneys say Wednesday’s problems were predictable because they had previously warned about her medical conditions and difficult vein access. They are now seeking commutation of her death sentence.
The incident has renewed debate over whether Tennessee can reliably carry out executions under its current lethal-injection protocol.
A New Castle County Police Department officer who shot a murder suspect during a standoff near Newark three years ago has been cleared of any wrongdoing.
New system captures fingerprints, facial images and ID information while connecting customers with remote agents for assistance
DOVER, Del. — Delawareans who need fingerprints for employment, licensing, background checks and other purposes will see a different process beginning Monday, Oct. 5, as the State Bureau of Identification moves to new SMART-E kiosks at its Dover and Georgetown offices.
The Delaware State Police said SBI will transition fingerprinting services to IDEMIA’s SMART-E Kiosk, replacing the traditional process in which an employee directly operates the fingerprint equipment.
SMART-E stands for Supervised Multi-Acquisition Remote Technology for Enrollment. The system does more than simply take fingerprints: It captures fingerprints, a facial image and identification documents and connects customers with trained remote agents who can supervise the process and provide assistance.
The “multi-acquisition” part of the name reflects the kiosk’s ability to collect several forms of identity information during a single enrollment.
Customers operate the kiosk themselves while a trained agent remotely monitors the process and can communicate through integrated audio and video technology.
What changes for customers
The kiosk guides customers through each step of enrollment, including capturing a full set of 10 fingerprints and a facial image, scanning government-issued identification and processing payment electronically.
IDEMIA says the system has demonstrated a fingerprint rejection rate below 2%, potentially reducing the need to repeat fingerprint submissions because of poor image quality.
Although the system is more automated, customers will not be left entirely on their own. A remote agent can communicate directly with the customer and provide guidance when necessary.
Potential savings in time and money
The new system also changes the economics of running a fingerprinting operation.
Under the traditional model, a trained employee typically works directly with one customer at a fingerprint station. SMART-E uses what IDEMIA describes as a “1-to-many” model, allowing a remote agent to oversee multiple kiosk enrollments rather than requiring a dedicated employee at every station.
IDEMIA says that model can lower labor costs, reduce facility and overhead expenses and make it easier to expand operating hours because remote agents do not have to be physically located at the fingerprinting site.
For customers, the potential time savings come from automating several steps at the same station — identification scanning, fingerprint and facial-image capture and electronic payment — while also checking fingerprint quality during the enrollment process.
The manufacturer describes the system as a way to provide faster and more efficient enrollment and to increase customer throughput. However, Delaware State Police has not released estimates showing how many minutes the new kiosks will save customers or how much money SBI expects to save after implementation.
That distinction matters: The technology is designed to reduce staffing and operating costs and potentially shorten waits, but the actual savings in Delaware will depend on customer volume, staffing and how the kiosks perform once they are in use.
Appointment still required
Customers should register and schedule their fingerprinting appointment through IdentoGO before going to an SBI office.
They also need to obtain the correct service code and any required paperwork from the employer, government agency, licensing organization or other entity requesting the background check.
Customers must bring an accepted form of government-issued identification and should have an electronic payment method available to complete the transaction at the kiosk.
The change is part of SBI’s continuing effort, in partnership with IDEMIA and IdentoGO, to modernize Delaware’s fingerprinting and background-check services.
To Go Box
What: SBI SMART-E fingerprinting kiosks
Begins: Monday, Oct. 5, 2026
Dover: State Bureau of Identification, 600 S. Bay Road, Suite 1, Dover
Georgetown: Thurman Adams Center, 546 S. Bedford St., Georgetown
Before you go: Schedule an appointment, obtain the correct service code and required documents, and bring an accepted government-issued ID and an electronic payment method.
A scene photograph included in the Delaware Department of Justice’s June 28, 2023 report on the Jan. 22, 2023 officer-involved shooting in New Castle County. The DOJ concluded the officers’ use of deadly force was legally justified and declined criminal charges.
State report says three officers reasonably believed deadly force was necessary after confronting armed suspects leaving a New Castle home
NEW CASTLE, Del. — Three New Castle County police officers were legally justified when they opened fire on suspects during a 2023 home invasion response, according to a Delaware Department of Justice investigation.
The Jan. 22, 2023, shooting was not fatal. Two suspects were wounded and survived.
The DOJ’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust concluded that Officers Sean Sweeney-Jones, Ryan Archangelo and Alejandro Guillen reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to protect themselves, other officers and nearby residents.
The department determined their actions did not constitute a criminal offense under Delaware law.
Home invasion reported
The incident began about 1:48 a.m. when a resident of 21 West Minuit Drive called 911 and reported that armed people had broken into the home and were attacking his roommates.
When New Castle County police arrived, officers encountered several suspects leaving or attempting to leave the residence.
According to the DOJ report, Alistair DiPasquale was carrying a black HK MP-5 .22-caliber firearm as he emerged from the house.
Body-worn camera footage reviewed by investigators showed Sweeney-Jones approaching the front door and ordering the suspects to show their hands and drop the weapon.
Sweeney-Jones and Archangelo then fired their service weapons.
DiPasquale and Evan Chandler were struck and suffered non-life-threatening injuries. Chandler was treated for gunshot wounds to his arm and both thighs, while DiPasquale was treated for a wound to his upper arm.
Third officer fired during backyard encounter
Two other suspects, identified by investigators as Michael Edgerton and David Salasky III, fled toward the rear of the property.
Guillen encountered Salasky after Salasky climbed over an approximately 6-foot wooden fence.
According to the report, Guillen saw something in Salasky’s hands and ordered him to stop. Guillen told investigators that Salasky turned toward him with his hand extended in a way that caused the officer to believe he was about to be shot.
Guillen fired once but did not strike Salasky.
Investigators later determined Salasky had been carrying a handgun.
DOJ reviewed video, interviews and evidence
The Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust reviewed body-worn camera footage, dispatch records, interviews with witnesses and police officers, photographs from the scene and medical records.
The DOJ said the central legal question was whether the officers reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to protect themselves or others from death or serious physical injury.
Investigators concluded that they did.
The report found that Sweeney-Jones and Archangelo confronted suspects emerging from a reported home invasion, including one carrying what appeared to officers to be a rifle.
Investigators also concluded Guillen reasonably believed he faced an immediate threat during his encounter behind the property.
“The use of force by police was justified as a matter of law in both self-defense and in the defense of others,” the DOJ report concluded.
No criminal charges warranted
The DOJ also found the officers were not reckless or negligent in creating a danger to other people in the residential neighborhood.
No bystanders were injured.
The department determined that the circumstances — an armed home invasion, suspects carrying firearms and the officers’ perception of immediate threats — supported the officers’ decisions to use deadly force.
As a result, no criminal charges were warranted against Sweeney-Jones, Archangelo or Guillen.
The report also noted that its review was limited to determining whether the officers’ actions violated criminal law. It did not determine whether the officers complied with New Castle County Police Department policies or procedures.
TO GO BOX
What: Delaware Department of Justice final use-of-force report
Incident: Jan. 22, 2023
Location: West Minuit Drive, New Castle
Officers: Sean Sweeney-Jones, Ryan Archangelo and Alejandro Guillen
Result: Two suspects suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds; no one was killed
Finding: DOJ determined the officers’ use of deadly force was legally justified and did not constitute a criminal offense
Learn more: The full report and body-worn camera footage are available through the Delaware Department of Justice’s police use-of-force investigations page.
State police say Smyrna man targeted retailers more than 25 times after failing to return to DOC supervision
NEW CASTLE COUNTY, Del. — A Smyrna man who failed to return to Delaware Department of Correction facility after leaving on an employment pass has been charged in a monthlong retail theft spree that state police say cost New Castle County businesses more than $48,000 in stolen merchandise.
Delaware State Police arrested Steven Pozzie, 40, following an investigation into more than 25 reported thefts at stores including Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s, Target, Kohl’s, Acme and Harbor Freight.
Police said Pozzie also caused more than $4,000 in damage, often using tools to defeat or damage merchandise security devices.
The charges are allegations. Pozzie is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Investigation began at Home Depot
The investigation began in late August after Home Depot employees reported multiple thefts involving the same suspect, according to state police.
Detectives with the State Police Criminal Investigations Unit later connected similar incidents at several other retailers.
Police said Pozzie sometimes worked with accomplices and used multiple vehicles during the thefts.
Investigators ultimately identified Pozzie as a convicted offender who had failed to return to the Community Corrections Treatment Center after receiving an employment pass.
Delaware’s Level IV community corrections programs are designed to provide a structured transition between incarceration and full release. DOC says participants may be permitted to work in the community while remaining under correctional supervision. The Community Corrections Treatment Center also provides residential substance-use treatment as part of DOC’s reentry and rehabilitation system.
Caught after Newark theft
Police said the investigation came to a head Sept. 23 after Pozzie allegedly stole merchandise from a Lowe’s in Newark and fled in a Lexus SUV.
Detectives found the unoccupied vehicle near Vandever Avenue and Northeast Boulevard in Wilmington and searched the surrounding neighborhood.
Pozzie was located in a nearby alley and taken into custody, police said.
Investigators said he repeatedly provided a false identity while speaking with detectives.
Police said a search of Pozzie found drug paraphernalia and about 0.01 grams of suspected crack cocaine. Investigators also searched the Lexus and said they recovered tools believed to have been used during earlier thefts.
Pozzie requested medical treatment for an unrelated, non-life-threatening injury and was taken to a hospital. He was subsequently returned to DOC custody.
Extensive list of charges
Following his discharge from the hospital, Pozzie was formally charged Sept. 28.
The charges include 17 felony counts of possession of shoplifters’ tools, 13 felony counts of organized retail theft involving more than $1,500, five felony counts of second-degree conspiracy and additional shoplifting, theft, criminal mischief, drug and criminal impersonation charges.
He was arraigned by Justice of the Peace Court and remained in Department of Correction custody on a $44,200 cash bond.
The case comes as law enforcement agencies continue to focus on organized retail theft involving repeat offenders, accomplices and the resale of stolen merchandise. In a separate New Castle County investigation earlier this year, state police charged a Wilmington man after investigators said he recruited people to steal merchandise that was later resold.
To Go Box
What happened: Delaware State Police say Steven Pozzie, 40, stole more than $48,000 in merchandise during more than 25 thefts at New Castle County retailers.
Businesses involved: Home Depot, Walmart, Lowe’s, Target, Kohl’s, Acme, Harbor Freight and others.
Additional damage: Police estimate businesses sustained more than $4,000 in property damage.
Custody status: Pozzie remained in Department of Correction custody on a $44,200 cash bond following his Sept. 28 arraignment.
Learn more: Delaware State Police posts crime releases and case updates at dsp.delaware.gov.
In the Maine Senate race, ads from a Democratic super PAC misleadingly claim Republican Sen. Susan Collins cast a vote to “cover up the Epstein files” and received “$3 million to her super PAC” from “Jeffrey Epstein’s business partner.”
Collins supported an Epstein-files disclosure bill in November that required the Department of Justice to publicly release records related to the convicted sex offender. She had voted two months earlier against an amendment that called for the release of the files and was attached to a defense spending bill. Collins said she opposed adding the amendment to an unrelated bill.
Furthermore, the ad stretches the facts in claiming that “Epstein’s business partner” gave money to Collins. A political action committee supporting Collins received millions of dollars in contributions from a man who was reportedly a “founding member” of a private New York City club along with Epstein and many other wealthy people.
A spokesperson for the man told us he had no relationship with Epstein.
This is the third time this election cycle that we havewritten about Democratic ads misleadingly citing Republican senators’ votes to block the amendment and not mentioning that the full Senate later supported releasing the Epstein files. The ads also try to connect the Republican senators who blocked the amendment to people linked in some way to Epstein.
The ads against Collins were sponsored by WinSenate, a super PAC that works to elect Democrats to the Senate. Collins is facing Democrat Troy Jackson, a former Maine state Senate president, in a close race for her seat.
WinSenate released the first attack ad on Sept. 24. In it, a woman, identified as a retired teacher, says she is “horrified” and claims: “Susan Collins voted to cover up the Epstein files. She knew 14-year-old girls were raped. Turns out that Jeffrey Epstein’s business partner funneled $3 million to her super PAC. Susan Collins took the money and protected child predators.”
The second ad, which started airing Sept. 29, features the same woman saying Collins “voted with Trump to cover up the Epstein files” — but the ad leaves out the claim about donations from an alleged Epstein business partner.
For the Epstein files claim, the ad cites Senate roll call vote 512 on Sept. 10, 2025. That’s when Collins — and nearly all Republican senators — voted to table an amendment Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer tried to include in the annual bill that sets the budget and policies for the Defense Department. Schumer’s amendment called for the U.S. attorney general to release all unclassified material pertaining to Epstein, including documents about federal investigations of Epstein and his associates, as well as information about Epstein’s 2019 death that was ruled a suicide. At the time of his death, Epstein, a wealthy financier, was in jail and facing federal charges of sex trafficking minors.
According to the New York Times, Collins said of the failed amendment: “It does not belong on the Department of Defense policy bill.” The newspaper also reported that Collins “said she opposed Mr. Schumer’s measure because a similar amendment had been adopted on a spending bill that would fund the Justice Department.”
But the amendment that Collins supported in the July 2025 markup session by the Senate Appropriations Committee did not require the same level of disclosure.It required the attorney general to “retain, preserve, and compile” Epstein-related records or evidence and submit a report to Congress. While that DOJ spending bill had not yet passed in the Senate, “Ms. Collins said it was a more appropriate vehicle for a measure on the Epstein files,” the Times wrote.
In addition, when the Epstein Files Transparency Act — a standalone bill to release the Epstein documents — came up for consideration in the Senate in November, it passed by unanimous consent, which means the bill was not opposed by Collins or any other senator.
“I support the release of the Epstein files,” Collins said in a statement about the bill passing. “This is an important step for the survivors of these heinous crimes.”
As we have explained before, President Donald Trump initially opposed Congress’ attempts to release the files, but relented days before the Senate passed the bill in November.
The ‘Business Partner’ Claim
The first WinSenate ad that aired suggested Collins voted against Schumer’s amendment because of millions of dollars in donations from an Epstein associate.
Although the ad does not mention the alleged Epstein “business partner” by name, it does cite donations to a pro-Collins super PAC on June 27, 2025, and June 26, 2026. Federal Election Commission records show on those dates, Stephen Schwarzman, the co-founder, chairman and CEO of the Blackstone investment management firm, made contributions totaling $3 million to Pine Tree Results PAC, a group supporting Collins in the 2026 midterms. (Maine is known as the Pine Tree State.)
Schwarzman’s first donation, which was $2 million, was made more than two months before the vote on Schumer’s amendment. But the second donation, which was $1 million, was made more than six months after the full Senate supported disclosing the files.
The “business partner” label was based on reporting that Schwarzman and Epstein were among the very first people who paid to join Core Club, a private club in New York City that was founded by Jennie Enterprise in 2005.
“Susan Collins blocked the release of the Epstein files and then her PAC accepted millions from a business associate of Epstein’s, an individual who belonged to the same exclusive business club,” Lauren French, a spokesperson for WinSenate, said in a statement to us. “As [has] been publicly reported, they ‘were founders and members of an exclusive social club for billionaires.'”
The “founders” language does appear in a July 21 MeidasTouch News story with the headline: “More Donations from Epstein Contacts to Susan Collins Uncovered.” The story from the left-leaning outlet went on to mention Schwarzman’s donations to Pine Tree Results PAC and said, “Schwarzman and Epstein were founders and members of an exclusive social club for billionaires in New York called the Core Club.”
But to call them “business partners” is a stretch.
We reached out to the Core Club’s press office for comment, but have not received a response.
The Real Deal, a real estate news publication, reported in February that Epstein “paid $100,000 as a founding member, alongside 150 other investors, according to a spokesperson for Core.” Its story said, “Epstein’s fellow founding members included Aby Rosen of RFR, Steven Roth of Vornado Realty Trust and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group.”
In 2011, the New York Times also referred to Schwarzman as among the “founding members” of the club, “who anted up an initial investment of $100,000 when the club was conceived.”
“Being founders of the same exclusive club inherently makes individuals partners in business,” French said in an earlier statement provided to PolitiFact and Quick Check, an election feature of the Bangor Daily News.
But other than paying money to join and get the club started, it’s not clear that Schwarzman and Epstein ever did business together as “partners,” which implies a close working relationship.
The men had no relationship, a spokesperson for Schwarzman told us.
“It would be categorically false and reckless to claim or imply that Steve had any relationship with this despicable individual,” the spokesperson said in an email.
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Wilmington institution will celebrate a half-century of its signature fundraiser Dec. 5, honoring longtime leader Skip Pennella and raising money for community arts programs
WILMINGTON, Del. — The Grand will mark a major milestone in Wilmington’s arts and social scene this December, celebrating the 50th anniversary of its annual Grand Gala with a performance by the Stray Cats, an elaborate after-party at the Hotel DuPont and a tribute to longtime Grand leader Skip Pennella.
The 50th annual Grand Gala is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 5, with the Stray Cats taking the stage at The Grand Opera House’s Copeland Hall before guests move to the Hotel DuPont for what organizers bill as the “Ultimate After Party.”
The gala has grown into one of Wilmington’s signature annual fundraising and social events. Proceeds support The Grand’s Community Engagement and Outreach programs, which provide arts experiences for more than 20,000 students and residents. The Grand says gala support helps provide music and dance instruction, theater performances and other arts programming.
Rockabilly icons come to Wilmington
The Stray Cats — Brian Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom — helped bring rockabilly back into mainstream popular music in the early 1980s, combining a 1950s-inspired look and sound with the energy of contemporary rock.
Formed in 1979 on Long Island, the trio initially struggled to gain traction in the United States before heading to London in 1980, where a growing rockabilly revival helped launch the band’s career.
The group ultimately found major success on both sides of the Atlantic, becoming known for songs including “Rock This Town,” “Stray Cat Strut” and “(She’s) Sexy + 17.”
Following the concert, gala guests will head a few blocks up Market Street to the Hotel DuPont, where the celebration will continue with themed rooms, live music, gourmet food and signature cocktails.
Pennella to receive Grand Medal
The evening will also recognize Francis “Skip” Pennella with the 2026 Grand Medal for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
Pennella recently retired as executive director and transitioned to a senior advisory role. His relationship with The Grand, however, stretches well beyond his tenure as its top executive. He previously spent 11 years as chairman of The Grand’s board, helping lead the organization through a period of change and an expanded emphasis on community service.
“Skip answered the call when The Grand needed him most,” Board Chair Roger Kirtley said. “Through his steady leadership, unwavering commitment and deep care for this organization, he helped guide The Grand through an important period in its history and positioned us well for the future.”
Pennella called serving as executive director “one of the greatest privileges of my career.”
“I am incredibly proud of what our Board, staff, volunteers, donors, and community partners have accomplished together,” Pennella said. “We have a unique opportunity to build upon a proud history while ensuring The Grand continues to serve and inspire our community for generations to come.”
Leadership transition underway
The gala comes as The Grand moves through a leadership transition.
The Board of Directors has appointed Mike Woodin as interim executive director while conducting a national search for Pennella’s permanent successor. Woodin has served in senior leadership at The Grand and has worked on the organization’s finances and strategic planning.
“It is an honor to serve an organization that means so much to our community,” Woodin said. “Every day, our talented staff creates experiences that inspire audiences, educate young people, and strengthen Delaware through the performing arts.”
The Grand’s 50th gala also continues a tradition of bringing prominent performers to Wilmington for the fundraiser. Recent galas have featured Kool & the Gang in 2024 and Bruce Hornsby with the Delaware Symphony Orchestra in 2025.
More than a night out
While the gala has long been part of Wilmington’s social calendar, its primary purpose is fundraising.
The Grand says proceeds help make arts programming available to thousands of Delaware children and community members who might otherwise have limited opportunities to experience live theater, dance and music. The organization has described the gala as a major source of support for its community engagement, Stage of Discovery and arts education programs.
That gives this year’s celebration two milestones: 50 years of gala nights in downtown Wilmington and a changing of the guard for one of Delaware’s best-known performing arts organizations.
TO GO
What: 50th Annual Grand Gala featuring the Stray Cats
When: Saturday, Dec. 5, 2026
Where: Concert and presentation at The Grand Opera House, 818 N. Market St., Wilmington; Ultimate After Party at the Hotel DuPont
Tickets: $250 to $550. A $1,600 package includes two tickets, a hotel stay and additional benefits.
Benefits: The Grand’s Community Engagement and Outreach programs serving students and Wilmington residents
Fort Pierce, FL — Officials in St. Lucie County, Florida, have discovered 14 unauthorized Flock Safety license-plate readers installed along public roads, raising new questions about who placed the surveillance cameras there and who has access to the data they collected.
The cameras surfaced as the county reviewed 52 previously authorized automated license-plate readers ahead of their removal. The St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office subsequently claimed ownership of three of the unpermitted devices, leaving 11 without a publicly identified owner. County officials have posted removal notices requiring the cameras to come down in October.
The discovery comes amid growing scrutiny of Flock systems in the region. Former Fort Pierce police officer Josepher Crutchfield was arrested in September after investigators said he searched Flock’s database 382 times for a vehicle registered to his former girlfriend, mostly while off duty and without a legitimate law-enforcement purpose.
The case prompted Fort Pierce police to tighten access to the system, while Florida transportation officials separately ordered automated license-plate readers removed from state highways.
Flock says permitting requirements vary by jurisdiction and that it is willing to assist St. Lucie County. The unexplained cameras nevertheless highlight a basic oversight problem: powerful surveillance equipment was operating on public property without county officials initially knowing who installed it.
Meet Ron and Sally… They had been living in a 4,000-square-foot home, using only a fraction of the space, when they began seriously considering what the future might look like.
For many older adults, the decision to move into a senior living community is often viewed as something to consider only when a crisis occurs. But for Ron and his wife, Sally, making the move before it became necessary was one of the best decisions they ever made.
The couple, both in their late 80s, live comfortably in an Independent Living apartment in a Harmony senior living community that also offers Assisted Living and Memory Care neighborhoods. While Ron remains active and independent, his wife lives with multiple sclerosis. She is healthy and engaged, but mobility has become increasingly challenging.
Their story is one familiar to many aging couples: one spouse begins facing greater physical challenges than the other, caregiving responsibilities gradually increase, and adult children worry about their parents’ safety while trying to respect their independence.
Aging Together, but Differently
Photo provided by Harmony Senior Care
Rather than waiting until caregiving demands became overwhelming or a health emergency forced a decision, they chose to make a move while they still had options and independence.
“I think we were smart to move before we were in any kind of desperate situation,” Ron reflected. “We live independently, participate in activities, and enjoy an active social life, but we know help is here if we need it.”
That decision not only provided peace of mind for the couple but also allowed them to remain close to their daughter, who lives nearby, without relying on her to become a full-time caregiver. Ron and his wife wanted family visits to remain about spending time together, not managing daily responsibilities.
“My wife and I discussed this. We decided we would not put any kind of demands on our daughter except when we really needed to.”
Their daughter, son-on-law, and grandchildren visit frequently. They share dinners, enjoy family outings, and spend quality time together.
Protecting Family Relationships
Ron’s concern about protecting his daughter from becoming a full-time caregiver comes from his own experience. Years earlier, he faced a similar decision with his own parents.
Ron recalls helping his mother and father transition into senior living after his father was diagnosed with dementia. His mother struggled with the idea of leaving her home and giving up her independence.
“Dad was drifting into dementia, and Mom did not want to give up her independence,” Ron remembered.
Like many adult children, Ron faced the challenge of balancing his parents’ wishes with concerns for their safety and quality of life. Ultimately, the move proved beneficial, but it took time for his mother to fully embrace it.
“It took her about a year and a half to say, ‘Okay, I’m in the place where I should be.”
Ron found himself experiencing many of those same emotions.
“Even with making the choice to live in a senior living community, it took me about a year or so to adjust after spending so many years in our home” he admitted. “But I have no doubt that we’re exactly where we should be.”
The Hidden Burden on Spouses
One of the realities many families face is that spouses rarely age in exactly the same way.
One person may remain healthy and active while the other develops mobility challenges, memory concerns, or chronic health conditions. Over time, the healthier spouse often becomes a full-time caregiver.
“It’s a lot on the spouse who has to care for their partner who is aging differently than they are,” Ron said.
For many couples living at home, that burden grows steadily. The caregiver often becomes responsible for transportation, medications, household management, mobility assistance, appointments, and countless other daily needs.
Senior living offers practical support, but Ron says one of the most valuable benefits is something many people don’t anticipate.
“It’s not always direct help,” he explained. “You’re having dinner with people who have situations just like yours, and you talk about it.”
In other words, caregivers gain something just as valuable as assistance: understanding.”You get a lot of support.”
That support comes from neighbors who have walked the same path and understand the unique challenges that come with caring for a spouse.
Neighbors Who Look Out for One Another
Photo courtesy of Harmony Senior Care
When Ron describes life at Harmony, he talks less about services and more about people.
“We pay attention to the people who live near us in Independent Living,” he said. “We check on them. We run errands, pick up prescriptions, and help when needed.”
The support system extends throughout the community.
That culture of looking out for one another creates a sense of security that is difficult to replicate at home.
“You have a lot of neighbors, and they’re a few feet away,” Ron said. “They pay attention, and they pay attention in a way that’s not snooping. Everyone is looking out for each other.”
Residents notice when someone hasn’t come to dinner. They check in on neighbors. They help one another. It’s a network of support built through friendship and proximity.
“You get a lot more of that kind of help than you do at home.”
A Great Place to Be Before You Need More Care
Ron is also quick to point out that senior living is not only beneficial for couples dealing with different health needs.
Many residents in Independent Living remain largely self-sufficient but may be beginning to experience challenges that make living completely alone more difficult.
For someone living alone, that support system can provide peace of mind while helping preserve independence longer.
“If you’re a single person who is getting toward assisted living but not there yet, this is a great place to be because you’ve got people who are going to pay attention to you.”
A Richer Social Life
One of the biggest surprises for Ron was how dramatically his social life improved after moving.After losing four close friends within just a few months, he found himself increasingly isolated.
Today, life looks very different. “At Harmony, we have more activities than I have time and energy to do,” he laughed. The couple now enjoys a fuller social calendar than they had at home.
At first, Ron assumed the social opportunities would be more important for his wife. Instead, he discovered they were equally important for him.
“I really like the social interaction and the social life.”
For adults in their 80s and beyond, meaningful social connections can become increasingly difficult to maintain. At Harmony, friendship is built into daily life.
The Best Time Is Before You Have To
After watching his own parents navigate aging, serving as a caregiver to his wife, and ultimately making the transition himself, Ron has come to a simple conclusion.
Reluctance is normal.
Most people don’t want to leave a home filled with memories. Most worry about losing independence. Most wonder if they’re making the decision too soon.
But Ron believes waiting for a crisis often means waiting too long.
For couples where one spouse is experiencing health challenges, for caregivers carrying growing responsibilities, and for older adults who want to maintain control over their future, making the move proactively can make all the difference.
Today, Ron and his wife have support when they need it, a vibrant social life, neighbors who genuinely care about them, and a daughter who can focus on being family rather than a full-time caregiver.
“We’re exactly where we should be,” Ron said.
For more information…
To learn more about Independent Living and caregiving support at Harmony, reach out to one of our Delaware locations in Dover, Glasgow, or Hockessin. Each location offers Independent Living, Assisted Living, and Memory Care apartments long with beautiful amenities, on-site physical, occupational, and speech therapy, dining options, and a full calendar of social events.
Minneapolis, MN — The family of Renee Good has filed two lawsuits against the U.S. government and several current and former immigration officials over her fatal shooting by an ICE officer during a federal immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
Good, 37, was shot Jan. 7 while sitting in her vehicle during protests against Operation Metro Surge. Video reviewed by news organizations showed her briefly reversing and then turning away as ICE officer Jonathan Ross fired three shots into the vehicle. Federal officials said Ross acted in self-defense.
One lawsuit alleges wrongful death under Minnesota law, including claims of assault, battery, negligence and false imprisonment. A second alleges a conspiracy to violate civil rights and names Ross, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials.
Good’s death became a flashpoint in the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign. Another U.S. citizen, Alex Pretti, was fatally shot by immigration agents weeks later. AP reports that at least 10 people have died in encounters with immigration officers during Trump’s second term.
Hennepin County prosecutors continue investigating Good’s killing, while DHS maintains that federal agents acted lawfully.
Photo: Brianna Busch is representing Delaware Park Casino at the 2026 G2E Dealer Championship at The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.
New Castle native Brianna Busch is representing Delaware Park Casino this week against 49 other dealers from across North America
WILMINGTON, Del. — A New Castle native who learned to deal cards at Delaware Park Casino just four years ago is putting those skills to the test this week on one of the gaming industry’s biggest stages.
Brianna Busch is representing Delaware Park Casino at the 2026 G2E Dealer Championship at The Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.
The three-day competition, which began Tuesday and concludes Thursday, brings together 50 dealers representing casinos from across North America. For the first time, the championship includes dealers from Canada and Mexico as well as the United States.
Busch is the first dealer from Delaware Park to compete in the national event.
“It’s very exciting and shocking,” Busch said when she learned she had been selected. “I feel honored that Delaware Park is involved and that I get to represent them.”
From dealer school to Las Vegas
Photo: the Team in Delaware Park Casino sending Brianna off to Las Vegas for the G2E Dealer Competition.
Busch’s path to the competition began with a setback.
She first enrolled in dealer training in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the classes to be canceled. She returned in 2022, completed Delaware Park’s dealer school and joined the casino’s table games staff that June.
Since then, Busch has learned every table game offered at Delaware Park and recently was promoted to supervisor.
Her chance to represent the casino came after an internal competition July 15. Busch advanced to a final group of five employees who demonstrated their dealing skills while working with actual guests on the casino floor.
Rather than treating it as a special performance, Busch said she relied on what she does every day.
“This is what I do, so it didn’t feel like a competition,” Busch said. “I just focused on being who I am and doing my job.”
Blackjack, roulette — and people skills
At G2E, Busch and the other competitors must demonstrate more than an ability to shuffle cards, calculate payouts or spin a roulette wheel.
Each contestant deals blackjack and traditional roulette for 15 minutes and is evaluated on technical skills, hospitality and game control. The tournament uses elimination rounds, culminating Thursday with the championship.
Busch’s favorite game is roulette.
Her preparation for blackjack, however, sometimes follows her home to Delaware.
While driving, Busch said she looks at numbers on Delaware license plates and uses them to practice the mental arithmetic required at a blackjack table, adding and calculating numbers toward 21.
“I like to work under pressure,” Busch said. “It’s controlled chaos, but I know what I’m doing.”
The gaming industry also runs in the family. Busch’s mother began working in the industry in the 1990s, including a stint at Delaware Park, and encouraged her daughter to consider becoming a dealer.
Busch previously attended culinary school and said she sees similarities between a busy restaurant kitchen and a crowded casino table: Both require employees to remain calm, accurate and personable while working quickly under pressure.
Delaware Park sends one of its own
Delaware Park officials said Busch’s advancement from dealer school graduate to supervisor and now national competitor illustrates the career opportunities available within casino operations.
“We, as a department, are very excited to be able to have Brianna represent us in Las Vegas,” said Kevin Gargin, director of table games. “Brianna shows the qualities we strive to make a standard. She takes pride in her work and focuses on making sure guests have a positive, memorable experience.”
Terry Glebocki, president and general manager of Delaware Park Casino, said Busch’s progress has been remarkable.
“In just four years, Brianna has grown tremendously — from a graduate of our dealer’s school to a floor supervisor,” Glebocki said. “She exemplifies the very best of Delaware Park through skill, confidence, an engaging personality and an undeniable rapport with our guests.”
The championship is part of the Global Gaming Expo, presented by the American Gaming Association and organized by RX. The competition debuted in 2025 with 34 U.S. dealers. This year’s expanded field includes 50 competitors from across North America.
For Busch, the trip also marks another milestone: her first visit to Las Vegas.
And despite competing against some of the continent’s top casino dealers, her strategy remains much the same as it was during Delaware Park’s internal competition.
Trust her training, engage the people at the table and do the job she already knows how to do.
TO GO BOX
What: 2026 G2E Dealer Championship
Who: Delaware Park Casino representative Brianna Busch and 49 other dealers from casinos across North America
When: Sept. 29-Oct. 1
Where: The Venetian Expo, Las Vegas
Competition: Dealers compete in blackjack and traditional roulette and are judged on technical skills, hospitality and game control.
How the insurance industry can help society adapt to climate changeExpert commentLToremark
As climate change threatens to make homes uninsurable, the insurance industry is often the bearer of bad news. But its understanding of future risks can be used to help society adapt to a warming world.
There are increasingly frequent headlines about how climate change is affecting insurance coverage and affordability: homeowners in areas prone to wildfires, hurricanes or flooding discovering that their existing policies cannot be renewed, or that cover has become unaffordable or vanished altogether. The word often attached to these stories is a stark one: uninsurability.
Beyond the headlines, banks worry about what declining cover means for the value of properties securing long-term mortgages. In turn, regulators worry about the systemic consequences if large numbers of properties lose value at once. Mayors worry about gaps in coverage impacting long-term investment in their cities. Governments, meanwhile, are becoming more interventionist as people are being priced out of protection, stepping in to keep cover flowing.
They are right to worry. But framing the problem as insurance failure misdiagnoses what is going wrong – and lets everyone else off the hook.
The term uninsurability implies that the issue lies within the insurance industry. But it is almost always a symptom of deeper problems – of which climate change is the most important, but far from the only one.
California is perhaps the most famous example of climate-driven market failure. While wildfire risk has undoubtedly risen, the retreat of insurance was as much a consequence of political choices to suppress premiums as of climate change. When the true cost of risk collides with an artificial cap on what may be charged for it, cover does not just become expensive – it becomes uneconomic to offer at all. Climate change did not break the market on its own; the market failed because society was unwilling to pay the true price of the risk it faced.
The pattern is repeated elsewhere. Yes, rising premiums reflect climate change. But they also reflect dysfunctional planning systems that permit construction in areas prone to climate hazards and decades of chronic underinvestment in risk reduction and resilience. Insurers are, in effect, the messengers: rising prices are among the first clear signals that risks have become intolerable. And shooting the messenger is always a tempting option.
The dangers of blaming insurers
The narrative that insurance is failing carries real reputational and regulatory danger for the insurance industry. As rising premiums and thinning cover drag on property values, societies will look to place blame and insurers risk becoming scapegoats for a collective failure they did not cause. Governments may respond with more intervention, tighter constraints on pricing and more pressure to write cover at a loss.
This narrative also creates danger in society at large. Insurers have built a uniquely sophisticated architecture to understand and price risk. That architecture is now increasingly signalling a stark truth: as climate change intensifies, historical decisions about where and how to build are rapidly becoming too costly – or too challenging – to maintain. When the plight of homeowners in California and elsewhere is only viewed as a failure of insurance, we miss the opportunity to have a vital public conversation not only about making today’s society resilient, but also about what structural changes and trade-offs are required for societies to thrive in a rapidly changing climate.
Prominent industry voices sounding the alarm on insurability can be helpful if the result is greater government action on emissions and adaptation. But it is not enough on its own. As climate impacts intensify, insurance will find itself dragged into uncomfortable political arguments about who bears the cost of loss and damage, which places are worth defending and which will have to be abandoned. This is unavoidable; insurance will shape these outcomes by determining what gets cover, who is compensated and who pays. An industry that has cast itself only as the bearer of bad news risks becoming viewed as part of the problem.
Where insurance can – and should – do more
All this obscures how much agency insurance has. Arguably no other industry is better placed to help societies adapt to climate change. Insurers have the data and models to anticipate how risks are evolving – exactly the intelligence governments and developers need to decide where to build and what to adapt. Risk-based premiums, so often cast as the problem, are among the most powerful adaptation signals we have. And insurers’ risk-advisory teams can help design the defences, retrofits and hardened infrastructure that keep places insurable in the first place.
This is not only about defending markets and preserving insurability – it is a genuine growth opportunity that also addresses a pressing societal need. A recent report from the UK Government Office for Science estimated cumulative global adaptation spending of £3.5 trillion over the next decade, with insurance highlighted among the sectors positioned to benefit. Other estimates of the market potential for adaptation goods and services are even higher. It is likely to be one of the defining market opportunities of the next 20 years.
The imperative is to get off the back foot: stop being the messenger and start being a solution. There are already signals of change. Capitalizing on this momentum means three things. One, being far clearer about what is needed from national and local governments on adaptation – not vague calls for ‘better planning’, but concrete asks tied to the risks insurers can see coming. Two, putting the industry’s modelling and advisory expertise to work on adaptation, visibly and at scale. Three, making peace with increased government intervention. Historically, the industry has eyed public schemes and public–private partnerships with suspicion, concerned that they will crowd out private insurance. But the use of these schemes will grow as concerns about insurability mount. Insurers should instead help shape them so they reduce risk rather than subsidise its accumulation, and support adaptation rather than undermine it through blunted price signals.
What governments should do
Climate adaptation is rapidly gaining momentum but is too often focused on technical solutions to flood and heat, not the economic and social architecture required to make adaptation a reality. Governments need to build the mechanisms for insurance to engage on adaptation early and at scale. At the national level, this could include establishing country platforms to coordinate and finance adaptation strategies. Similar mechanisms could be developed at the city level. Above all, governments must start having the conversations everyone would rather avoid: about where societies should adapt and where they should retreat – and they must involve insurers in these discussions.
The retreat of insurance from the climate front line is real and frightening. But it is also an opportunity. Read as a failure of the insurance industry, it will misdirect blame, encourage clumsy market interventions and delay adaptation. Read as information – and met by an industry willing to move from warning to action – it could instead prompt the urgent work and hard choices that a warming world demands. That choice, for now, is still ours.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump says he would consider issuing preemptive pardons to members of his administration before leaving office if they faced possible investigations under a future Democratic government.
Asked in a Time interview whether he would pardon officials who might later become targets of Democratic-led investigations, Trump replied, “Yeah, sure I’d do that.” He then pointed repeatedly to former President Joe Biden’s use of preemptive pardons before leaving office in January 2025.
Biden granted clemency to figures including Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members and staff of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. He said the pardons were intended to protect public servants from potential politically motivated prosecutions and were not acknowledgments of wrongdoing.
Biden also pardoned several family members before leaving office, a decision that drew criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
Trump has made expansive use of presidential clemency himself. Shortly after returning to office, he pardoned roughly 1,500 people charged or convicted in connection with Jan. 6 and commuted several additional sentences.
Trump did not identify which current officials might receive pardons or say that any final decisions had been made. His comments nevertheless raise the possibility of another broad use of presidential clemency before his second term ends.
Washington, DC — The Trump administration has expanded its controversial taxpayer-funded advertising campaign with a new television spot celebrating President Donald Trump’s decision to launch the war against Iran, just weeks before the midterm elections.
The one-minute advertisement aired Wednesday on Fox News and carries the disclosure “Paid for by the U.S. Government.” It features Trump’s February announcement of military operations, battlefield imagery, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praising the president’s willingness to use force against threats to Americans. The ad concludes with Trump urging Iranians to take control of their government.
The spot is part of a broader series of government-funded advertisements centered heavily on Trump’s leadership and political themes. Previous ads have highlighted his tax policies, attacked political enemies, and reused language and footage resembling his campaign material. The White House calls them patriotic public-service announcements rather than political advertising.
That explanation has drawn criticism from both parties. Republican and Democratic lawmakers have questioned whether taxpayer funds should fund campaign-style messaging immediately before an election, while legal experts have raised concerns about potential violations of federal restrictions on government-funded propaganda.
The Iran ad arrives as the conflict enters its seventh month and remains politically contentious at home.
As he celebrated Boulden Brothers' 80th anniversary Tuesday, surrounded by his family members, Tim Boulden recounted advice he received from his father.
Austin, TX — Texas authorities say they disrupted a planned violent attack on the state Capitol after receiving a credible tip and arresting the alleged main suspect within hours.
The Texas Department of Public Safety identified the suspect as 40-year-old Benny Caldera Jr. of Converse, near San Antonio. DPS said investigators learned Tuesday evening of a planned attack scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 1, and worked with the FBI and local law enforcement to locate Caldera.
DPS SWAT officers arrested him at his home around 3 a.m. Wednesday. He was initially booked into the Bexar County Jail on a felony charge of making a terroristic threat against a public servant. Authorities later said he was transferred to federal custody as the investigation continued.
A memo sent to Texas senators described Caldera as the “main suspect” and referenced suspected co-conspirators, although state authorities have not announced additional arrests. Officials also have not publicly identified a motive.
The Capitol remained open during regular hours Wednesday, with an enhanced DPS presence around the building. Gov. Greg Abbott praised state and federal authorities for acting quickly against the alleged threat.
Boston, MA — A sweeping Massachusetts investigation has found that more than 270 Catholic clerics sexually abused nearly 1,000 children across the dioceses of Fall River, Springfield and Worcester over several decades, while church leaders repeatedly failed to stop the abuse.
The attorney general’s office said the investigation, launched in 2019, reviewed more than 300,000 pages of records and interviewed more than 100 people. Most of the documented abuse occurred before 2002, when reporting by The Boston Globe exposed widespread clergy abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston and triggered investigations worldwide.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said church officials in all three dioceses knew for years that children were being abused but often failed to take effective action or confront institutional failures that allowed misconduct to continue.
The investigation did not produce broad new criminal charges. Prosecutors said some conduct was not criminal under Massachusetts law when it occurred, while statutes of limitations barred other cases. Three matters were referred to local district attorneys, with one resulting in charges.
The report calls for stronger child-protection policies, improved responses to survivors and greater institutional transparency. The Worcester Diocese said it would review the findings for additional reforms and pointed to an earlier apology from Bishop Robert McManus.
Campbell said legal barriers do not lessen the seriousness of the abuse or the state’s responsibility to document what happened.
Quantico, VA — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has launched Project Meridian, a 120-day Pentagon initiative tasked with identifying the weapons, technologies and battlefields likely to define future conflicts.
Elon Musk, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will co-lead the effort under Pentagon technology chief Emil Michael. Hegseth said the project is intended to look beyond traditional military planning and determine what capabilities the United States will need to maintain technological superiority.
The group is expected to examine artificial intelligence, autonomous weapons, robotics and other emerging technologies, then submit recommendations within 120 days. A public report is expected, along with a classified annex covering sensitive findings.
The initiative also places executives with major Pentagon business interests directly inside a process examining future military technology. Musk’s SpaceX and Luckey’s Anduril already hold substantial U.S. defense contracts.
Project Meridian was one of six initiatives Hegseth announced during his “State of the Force” address at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Others include a new four-star Autonomous Warfare Command designed to accelerate deployment of drones and robotic systems.
The first signs that an aging parent is struggling can be easy to miss. Knowing what to watch for can help families find support before a crisis forces the decision.
By George D. Rotsch, Delaware LIVE News
HOCKESSIN Del. – For many adult children, there isn’t a single moment when they realize Mom may need more help.
Instead, it happens slowly.
She asks the same question again. The refrigerator seems a little emptier. A bill gets paid late. She stops going to an activity she once enjoyed. Maybe she hesitates on the stairs or seems less comfortable driving at night.
Individually, those changes may not seem alarming. Together, however, they can signal that an aging parent is beginning to have difficulty managing life independently.
Recognizing those changes early can give families something particularly valuable: time and choices.
That is the focus of the first installment of Delaware LIVE’s series for adult caregivers — helping families recognize when a parent may need additional support and understand where to turn before an emergency makes the decision for them.
Why the person closest to Mom may miss it
One of the challenges is that aging usually happens gradually.
An adult child who sees a parent every day or every week naturally adjusts to small changes. A little more forgetfulness becomes familiar. Someone begins bringing Mom dinner more often. Another family member quietly starts paying a bill, driving her to appointments or handling something on the computer.
Without realizing it, the family may gradually be doing more and more.
Meanwhile, a sibling, grandchild or friend who has not seen Mom for several months may walk through the door and immediately notice something different.
“She seems slower.”
“She repeated that story three times.”
“The house doesn’t look like it used to.”
“That’s just not like Mom.”
Those observations shouldn’t automatically be treated as proof that something is wrong. Someone visiting for a few hours may see only a snapshot.
But they shouldn’t be dismissed either.
A useful question is: “What specifically did you notice?”
Specific observations — rather than general impressions — can help families determine whether a pattern is developing.
Watch for changes in everyday life
Memory loss is one possible warning sign, but it isn’t the only one.
Caregivers should pay attention to whether Mom is still managing the everyday activities she handled six months or a year ago.
Possible signs include:
Repeating questions or stories frequently.
Missing appointments or forgetting medications.
Unopened mail or unpaid bills piling up.
Difficulty preparing meals or forgetting to eat.
Expired food accumulating in the refrigerator.
Wearing the same clothes repeatedly or declining personal hygiene.
Increased clutter or an unusually messy home.
Trouble using appliances that were once familiar.
More falls, near-falls or difficulty getting out of a chair.
Unexplained weight loss or increased fatigue.
Withdrawing from friends, church, hobbies or social activities.
Becoming unusually anxious, irritable or suspicious.
Getting confused while driving or walking familiar routes.
Financial changes can be particularly important.
Late bills, duplicate payments, confusion about accounts or falling for scams may indicate that Mom is having more difficulty with judgment or organization even when casual conversation and memory still seem relatively normal.
The central question may be less about whether Mom occasionally forgets something and more about this:
Can she still function independently the way she did a year ago?
Listen to the people around her
Caregiving works best when one person doesn’t have to make every judgment alone.
Brothers and sisters, grandchildren, longtime friends, neighbors and others who know Mom well may notice changes the primary caregiver has gradually become accustomed to.
Families can periodically ask:
“Have you noticed anything different about Mom during the past six months?”
Then listen for examples.
If several people independently notice similar changes — problems with memory, mobility, organization, judgment or social engagement — it may be worth taking a closer look.
Writing down specific examples and approximate dates can also be useful when talking with Mom’s physician.
Why waiting can make things harder
Avoiding the conversation can feel easier, particularly when Mom values her independence and family members don’t want her to feel that decisions are being made for her.
But waiting until something happens can dramatically reduce the family’s choices.
Small problems can become larger ones: missed medications, poor nutrition, unpaid bills, falls, scams, driving problems or worsening health conditions.
And instead of making decisions gradually, the family may suddenly be making them in a hospital room after a fall or medical emergency.
Addressing concerns early doesn’t necessarily mean moving Mom into assisted living.
In fact, modest support may help her remain at home longer.
That support could include meal delivery, transportation, medication reminders, homemaker services, companion visits, an adult day program or a few hours of in-home care each week.
The better question may not be, “Does Mom need assisted living?”
It may be:
“What support would help Mom remain safe and independent?”
Start with a medical conversation
When noticeable changes begin occurring, Mom’s primary care physician or a geriatric specialist can be an important first stop.
Changes in memory, mood, balance or behavior can have many potential causes, including medications, hearing or vision problems, depression, illness, cognitive impairment or other medical conditions.
A medical evaluation can help families better understand what may be occurring and establish a baseline to compare against future changes.
Going into the appointment with specific examples is more useful than simply saying, “Mom seems different.”
Delaware caregivers don’t have to figure it out alone
Families also have Delaware organizations that can help them understand what assistance may be available.
Delaware Aging and Disability Resource Center: The state’s Aging and Disability Resource Center can help families learn about in-home care, transportation, meal programs, respite care, adult day programs, benefits and long-term care options. Phone: 800-223-9074
Easterseals Delaware Caregiver Resource Center: Easterseals provides caregiver education, support and guidance for families trying to understand aging and caregiving options. Its resources can also help caregivers develop plans and address the stress that often accompanies caring for a parent.
Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter: When memory or cognitive changes are part of the concern, the Alzheimer’s Association offers education, support groups, care consultations and guidance about evaluation and safety. Its 24-hour helpline is 800-272-3900.
Pay attention before the crisis
There is an important middle ground between doing nothing and moving a parent into assisted living.
For some families, the answer may simply be additional help around the house. For others, it may eventually involve home care, an adult day program, assisted living or another level of support.
The advantage of noticing changes early is that Mom can be part of those decisions.
Families have time to ask what she wants, understand the options, review finances and determine what level of assistance makes sense.
Sometimes the first indication is nothing more specific than a feeling shared by adult children everywhere:
Mom just doesn’t seem quite like herself anymore.
That feeling shouldn’t automatically lead to a conclusion.
But it may be a good reason to start paying closer attention.
CAREGIVER CHECK: THREE QUESTIONS TO ASK
Is Mom safe?
Look at falls, driving, medications, cooking and whether she can respond appropriately in an emergency.
Is Mom managing?
Look at bills, meals, housekeeping, appointments and other everyday responsibilities.
Is Mom different than she was a year ago?
Consider memory, judgment, personality, mobility, and social engagement.
If the answer to one of those questions is “I’m not sure,” it may be time to gather more information rather than wait for a crisis.
TO GO BOX
Easterseals Delaware Caregiver Resource Center New Castle: 302-221-2076 Milford: 302-253-1129 Website:Easterseals Caregiver Support
Provides caregiver education, support groups, planning assistance, respite resources and help connecting families with local services. Easterseals DE & MD Eastern Shore
Alzheimer’s Association 24/7 Helpline Phone: 800-272-3900 Website:Alzheimer’s Association Delaware Valley Chapter
Help for families concerned about memory loss, cognitive changes, dementia, safety and getting a loved one evaluated.
Delaware Aging and Disability Resource Center Phone: 800-223-9074 Website:DelawareADRC.com
A statewide starting point for information about in-home care, transportation, meals, respite programs, benefits and long-term care options. Delaware Health and Social Services
Editor’s Note: This is part of Delaware LIVE’s series for Adult Caregivers. The series is made possible by support from Easter Seals of Delaware and Eastern Maryland and Harmony Senior Living. To see all stories Delaware LIVE has developed as part of the special series, visit our Health & Wellness Page;
Republican lawmaker will succeed Michael Quaranta in December, bringing experience in business policy, education and economic development to Delaware’s largest business organization
WILMINGTON, Del. — State Rep. Michael F. Smith, a Republican lawmaker whose legislative work has included economic development, taxes, education and state capital spending, has been selected as the next president of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.
Smith will succeed Michael J. Quaranta, who plans to retire in mid-December after eight years leading the organization.
The State Chamber’s board selected Smith following a national search, according to an announcement Wednesday.
“Michael Smith brings strong advocacy experience, a deep understanding of Delaware, and a proven ability to build relationships across sectors,” John Gooden, chairman of the State Chamber’s board of directors, said in announcing the appointment.
The move will put a sitting state legislator at the helm of one of Delaware’s most influential business advocacy organizations at a time when employers and lawmakers are debating taxes, state spending, workforce development, health care, energy costs and Delaware’s overall competitiveness.
From Legislative Hall to business advocacy
Smith was first elected to the Delaware House in 2018 and represents the 22nd District, covering Pike Creek Valley and portions of Hockessin and Newark. The Delaware General Assembly currently lists Smith as a Republican representing the district.
His committee assignments have given him a role in several issues directly affecting Delaware employers. Smith serves on the House Revenue and Finance Committee and the Economic Development, Banking, Insurance and Commerce Committee, as well as the Education and Health and Human Development committees.
He also serves on the Joint Capital Improvement Committee, commonly known as the Bond Committee, which develops Delaware’s annual capital spending bill.
Outside Legislative Hall, Smith has worked at the University of Delaware since 2014 and currently serves as director of strategic initiatives and partnerships in the College of Health Sciences. His work there has involved partnerships connecting higher education, health, workforce development and outside organizations.
“I am grateful for the confidence the Board has placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce,” Smith said. “The State Chamber has a proud history of advocating for Delaware employers and ensuring the business community has a voice on the issues that affect them.”
Smith said he also sees the Chamber as an organization capable of bringing different groups together to address shared challenges.
“I look forward to building on that work on behalf of employers and employees across Delaware,” he said.
A potentially significant voice in Dover
The appointment could give Smith an unusually direct perspective on the intersection of government and business policy.
The State Chamber, founded in 1837 as the Wilmington Board of Trade, advocates for employers on public policy and economic issues and regularly participates in debates in Dover involving taxation, regulation, workforce policy, economic development and the cost of doing business.
Smith’s legislative background means he arrives with firsthand knowledge of the General Assembly and its budget and committee processes.
The Chamber did not address in Wednesday’s announcement how Smith’s new position will affect his service in the Delaware House. Any change in his legislative status would be a separate matter from his appointment to the Chamber.
Quaranta leaves after eight years
Smith will take over an organization that changed significantly during Quaranta’s eight-year tenure.
According to the Chamber, Quaranta expanded member participation in policy committees, updated conferences and other programming and oversaw development of the organization’s 2025-27 strategic plan.
The Chamber also created the Delaware Employers and Employees Education Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization focused on voter education, and rebranded its charitable organization as the Delaware State Chamber Foundation.
It introduced additional policy and advocacy resources, including its “How They Voted” legislative scorecard and “Delaware Competitiveness Bluebook.”
The Chamber said its annual budget nearly doubled during Quaranta’s tenure despite more than two years of disruption associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Mike Quaranta has led the State Chamber through a period of meaningful change and growth,” Gooden said. “He has helped modernize the organization, strengthen its connection with members, and expand the ways the State Chamber serves Delaware’s business community.”
Smith and Quaranta are expected to work together during a transition period before Quaranta’s departure in December.
To Go Box
What: Delaware State Chamber of Commerce leadership transition
Incoming president: Michael F. Smith, state representative for Delaware’s 22nd District and director of strategic initiatives and partnerships at the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences
Outgoing president: Michael J. Quaranta
Transition: Smith and Quaranta will work together before Quaranta retires in mid-December.
Learn more: Visit the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce for information about the organization, its advocacy work and programs.
Washington, DC — A White House agreement promoting “super intelligence” drew unexpected attention Wednesday after official images published by President Donald Trump and the White House misspelled the name of the country beneath the president’s signature.
The “Joint Commitment on Frontier Responsibilities,” produced following Trump’s meeting with leading artificial intelligence executives, identified him as “President of the Unites States.” The erroneous image appeared in posts on both X and Trump’s Truth Social account, quickly generating ridicule online.
The mistake was particularly conspicuous because the agreement focuses on managing increasingly sophisticated technology. Trump has also pushed companies and federal officials to replace the term “artificial intelligence” with “super intelligence,” arguing the new description better reflects the technology’s capabilities.
Beyond the typo, the accord establishes four voluntary safety principles for companies developing advanced AI. They include stronger internal cybersecurity controls, dedicated monitoring teams, independent outside audits and committees responsible for reviewing safety findings.
Executives associated with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Meta, xAI and Nvidia signed the agreement. Trump has generally favored industry self-regulation rather than extensive federal restrictions, even as several participating technology leaders have publicly warned about risks from increasingly powerful AI systems.
The White House had not publicly explained how the spelling error made it into the released document.
Washington, DC — The Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged in federal court that its program for identifying alleged noncitizen voters can mistakenly flag American citizens, adding to concerns over the Trump administration’s expanded voter-fraud enforcement effort.
The admission came in litigation challenging DHS’s Unlawful Voter Initiative. According to court filings cited by Reason, officials identified “potential inaccuracies” in the system and acknowledged that, in rare circumstances, U.S. citizens could be incorrectly classified as noncitizens.
The problem is not theoretical. DHS initially told Nevada that 15,903 possible noncitizens appeared on the state’s voter rolls. That number was later reduced to 185 names, and subsequent review found all 185 were U.S. citizens.
The initiative compares voter records against immigration databases and can generate investigative leads entered into TECS, a federal law-enforcement system used by Customs and Border Protection and other agencies. DHS documents describe TECS as a platform used to share law-enforcement and inspection information among federal, state, local, tribal and international partners.
DHS says safeguards exist to prevent agents from mistakenly contacting citizens, but the filings leave unanswered what happens to Americans already entered into TECS because of erroneous matches.
The case adds to broader questions about an administration effort aimed at a form of illegal voting that research and past election audits have repeatedly found to be rare.
Photo: Images provided by the Delaware Historical & Cultural Affaires office. Graphic created with AI on 9/30.
New permanent exhibit expands the Plantation’s story to include enslaved people, Indigenous communities and others who lived on the property
DOVER, Del. — Delaware is preparing to open a new permanent exhibit at the John Dickinson Plantation that broadens the story traditionally associated with one of the state’s most important Founding Fathers.
The exhibit, “One Land Many Voices,” will debut Oct. 10 inside the plantation’s new 14,000-square-foot visitor center, part of a $14.5 million state capital project.
Gov. Matt Meyer has proclaimed Oct. 10 “One Land Many Voices Day,” saying the exhibit reflects an effort to tell the stories of all of the people who shaped the historic property.
“Delaware’s history belongs to all of us, and telling it honestly means telling the stories of everyone who shaped it,” Meyer said. “The only way we can learn from our past is by refusing to hide from it, including the chapters that are difficult to confront.”
A broader interpretation of Dickinson
John Dickinson remains central to the site.
Known as the “Penman of the Revolution,” Dickinson was one of Delaware’s most influential political figures of the founding era. His Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania made him nationally prominent in the years before the Revolution, and he later played important roles in the Continental Congress, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitutional Convention.
The new exhibit intentionally places that political legacy alongside the stories of Indigenous people, tenant farmers, indentured servants, free Black residents and enslaved men, women and children who lived and worked on the property.
Dickinson enslaved people for much of his adult life. According to the state, he ultimately unconditionally freed all 59 people enslaved on the property in 1786.
The result is an exhibit designed to put Dickinson’s life within the larger social and economic world surrounding the plantation.
Secretary of State Charuni Patibanda-Sanchez said the goal is to acknowledge that complexity.
“Delaware’s colonial history is a complex one,” she said. “By honoring all who once lived here, we give voice to those whose work and sacrifice contributed to the legacy of this historic site.”
What the announcement leaves largely unexplored
While the state’s announcement emphasizes slavery and the broader communities connected to the plantation, it gives less attention to several parts of Dickinson’s political and constitutional legacy.
Dickinson’s Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania were among the most influential colonial arguments against British taxation. The National Archives also identifies Dickinson as the principal writer of the first draft of the Articles of Confederation, the nation’s first governing framework.
His record during the Revolution was complicated.
Dickinson opposed declaring independence in 1776 because he believed the colonies were not yet sufficiently unified or prepared for separation from Britain. After independence was approved, however, he served in the Delaware militia and later returned to national public life.
He later served as president of Delaware and Pennsylvania, chaired the 1786 Annapolis Convention that helped lead to the Constitutional Convention and represented Delaware at the 1787 convention. Dickinson left Philadelphia because of illness before the Constitution was formally signed and authorized fellow Delaware delegate George Read to sign his name.
Dickinson also argued at the Constitutional Convention for ending the slave trade. His own relationship with slavery changed over time, creating one of the contradictions that continues to shape interpretations of his life.
Those facts do not diminish the significance of slavery at the plantation or the experiences of the people enslaved there. They do illustrate why Dickinson remains a difficult figure to summarize neatly: He argued for colonial liberty while enslaving people himself, opposed independence before later serving the new nation and eventually freed the people he held in bondage.
The press release does not indicate how much of the permanent exhibit is devoted to Dickinson’s political writings, constitutional ideas and role in establishing the new American government compared with its treatment of slavery and other communities associated with the property.
That does not necessarily mean those subjects are absent from the exhibit. Visitors will be able to judge that balance once One Land Many Voices opens.
Broader approach predates Meyer administration
The broader interpretation of the plantation is not solely an initiative of the current administration.
The project and its emphasis on presenting the lives of people beyond the Dickinson family were developed before Meyer became governor.
That distinction is important because the exhibit arrives during a continuing national debate about how museums, schools and public institutions should interpret the founding era.
Supporters of broader historical interpretation argue that understanding the period requires examining not only prominent political leaders but also slavery, labor and the experiences of people who historically received less attention.
Others have argued that an increased focus on slavery and social history can sometimes come at the expense of explaining the political philosophy, institutions and achievements of the founding generation.
The state describes One Land Many Voices as an effort to provide a more comprehensive account of the property through artifacts, historical documents, photographs, narrative text and visual media.
$14.5 million investment
Beyond the historical interpretation, the visitor center represents a significant state investment in the plantation as an educational and cultural destination.
The new 14,000-square-foot building includes exhibition, educational and meeting space, along with a 1,400-square-foot screened pavilion designed for school groups, community meetings and other programs.
HCA Director Suzanne Savery said the expanded facility provides an opportunity to offer greater context to visitors.
“This expanded Visitor Center represents an important step forward in how we share Delaware’s history, allowing us to provide deeper context and a more meaningful experience for every visitor,” Savery said.
Visitors will continue to be able to tour the historic 18th-century mansion and reproduction structures elsewhere on the 450-acre property.
Admission, exhibits and programming will remain free. Fees will apply for some private uses of the multipurpose room and pavilion.
Opening Oct. 10
The permanent exhibit will be unveiled during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 10, at the John Dickinson Plantation, 250 Kitts Hummock Road near Dover.
TO GO
What: Opening of One Land Many Voices permanent exhibit
Where: John Dickinson Plantation, 250 Kitts Hummock Road, Dover
When: Saturday, Oct. 10; ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m.
Cost: Free
About: The new visitor center is part of a $14.5 million state investment and expands exhibition, educational and meeting space at the historic property.
Trump, midterms and the Middle East: What comes next?
13
October 2026 — 16:00 TO 17:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Online
As the midterms approach, hear from a panel of experts on how domestic politics are shaping US policy in the Middle East.
As the midterms approach, hear from leading policymakers and analysts on how domestic politics are shaping US policy in the Middle East.
The Trump administration enters the midterm election season facing major challenges across the Middle East, from regional conflicts and great-power competition to questions over the future of US engagement. Domestic political pressures are increasingly shaping policy choices. These dynamics will have significant implications for America’s role in the region and its relationships with allies and adversaries.
This event discusses:
How are the midterm elections shaping US policy in the Middle East?
What are President Trump’s main regional priorities?
How could developments in the Middle East affect domestic politics in the United States?
What role do Iran, Israel and the Gulf states play in Washington’s current strategy?
How might US policy evolve after the elections?
What do current trends mean for the future of US engagement in the region?
Washington, DC — Public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court has fallen to its lowest level in Gallup’s decades-long tracking as the justices prepare to begin a new term filled with politically consequential cases.
Gallup’s September survey found that 54% of Americans have little or no trust in the federal judicial branch, while Supreme Court disapproval stands at 61%, tying the record high reached in July. Fewer than 35% approve of the court’s job performance.
The decline has accelerated since 2022, when the court overturned Roe v. Wade. Democratic confidence has fallen especially sharply, while independents have also become significantly less trusting. A plurality of Americans now describes the court as too conservative.
The court’s 6-3 conservative majority has also played a major role in determining how far President Donald Trump can push executive authority. Justices have recently allowed several administration policies to proceed while rejecting others, producing criticism from both the left and Trump himself.
The new term begins October 5, with cases involving climate litigation and other major federal disputes already scheduled. The court enters those arguments facing an unusually skeptical public after years of declining institutional confidence.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump launched America.gov on Tuesday, an artificial intelligence-powered portal intended to give Americans a single place to find federal information and eventually complete government transactions.
The site allows users to ask questions in conversational language and receive answers drawn from official government sources. Each response is designed to direct users back to the underlying federal information rather than forcing them to search through thousands of agency pages and forms.
Trump described the project as a way to make government simpler and more responsive, saying America.gov would serve as a single “front door” for interacting with federal agencies. Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia, who leads the National Design Studio and serves as U.S. chief design officer, helped oversee its development.
The administration says conversations are not permanently stored and personal information is not collected through basic searches. Beginning in 2027, the government plans to expand the platform so users can complete applications and renewals, including passport and Medicare-related services.
Trump also signed an executive order directing federal agencies to integrate eligible public-facing services with America.gov and Login.gov. Certain services, including IRS tax filing and Defense Department systems, are excluded from the order.
Tallahassee, FL — Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet have approved designating more than 100 organizations as domestic or foreign terrorist organizations under a new state law that gives Florida officials broad authority to impose penalties on designated groups and their supporters.
The list includes antifa, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, CAIR-Florida and the Muslim Brotherhood. Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass said the organizations met the statutory criteria, and DeSantis said he approved the recommendations without objection from Cabinet members.
The designations stem from HB 1471, which took effect July 1. The law authorizes Florida’s chief of domestic security to make terrorism designations, subject to approval by the governor and Cabinet. It also creates penalties involving material support, organizational membership, state funding and participation in public education.
CAIR and CAIR-Florida have challenged the law in federal court, arguing that it violates First Amendment protections and provides inadequate safeguards before an organization can receive a designation carrying serious legal consequences.
The ACLU said CAIR was denied a meaningful opportunity to address the Cabinet before Tuesday’s vote. Florida officials argue that the law includes notice and an appeals process. The designations are scheduled to take effect Nov. 5 unless a court intervenes.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump says he will spend the final 32 days before the November midterms campaigning across the country as Republicans fight to retain control of both chambers of Congress.
Trump said Tuesday that candidates across multiple states are asking him to appear with them and named Texas and Ohio among his upcoming stops. His campaign push arrives later than some advisers initially expected, after the White House spent much of the summer focused on foreign policy and the continuing conflict with Iran.
The political environment has become increasingly difficult for Republicans. Democrats are competitive in a growing number of House districts, while several Senate races that once appeared safer for the GOP have tightened. High gasoline prices, inflation and public dissatisfaction with the Iran war are among the issues shaping the campaign.
Trump remains a powerful turnout driver among Republican voters, but his involvement presents different calculations depending on the district. Some GOP candidates are embracing him directly, while others have emphasized local issues or distanced themselves from parts of his agenda.
The stakes extend beyond individual races. Control of Congress will determine which party sets the legislative agenda during Trump’s final two years in office and whether Democrats gain committee and investigative powers if they capture either chamber.
Des Moines, IA — President Donald Trump dismissed unfavorable Iowa polling as “fake” while farmers and other business owners across the state confront sharply higher costs, including several pressures tied directly to his administration’s policies.
Speaking during an Oval Office announcement for a planned $15 billion Iowa steel plant, Trump blamed Democrats for economic difficulties and insisted he remains more popular than during the 2024 election. Republicans, however, are pouring money and campaign resources into Iowa as traditionally safe races have become unexpectedly competitive.
Farmers face problems that predate Trump, including consolidation, high borrowing costs and volatile commodity markets. But his tariffs have increased prices for equipment and agricultural inputs, while the U.S.-Iran conflict has disrupted energy markets and driven diesel prices to record levels. Nationwide diesel recently reached roughly $6.50 per gallon, with agriculture and trucking among the industries feeling the greatest impact.
One Iowa farmer described farmers and trucking companies as “bleeding money,” reflecting broader concerns across the state’s agricultural sector.
The political challenge is particularly notable because Iowa’s rural communities strongly supported Trump in 2024. Republican candidates are now confronting the possibility that economic frustration may reduce turnout among voters who helped return him to the White House.
Six months after activating Newark’s first speed enforcement camera, city officials say the camera has been successful in reducing speed and, now, a second camera may be coming to the city’s roads.
Washington, DC — Former special counsel Jack Smith defended his investigations of President Donald Trump before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, saying the evidence supported both federal prosecutions and that he would make the same charging decisions again.
Smith told senators that his team acted without regard to Trump’s political affiliation or 2024 candidacy. He said investigators had developed evidence they believed proved serious crimes related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election and Trump’s handling of classified documents. Both cases were later dismissed after Trump won the 2024 election, consistent with Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
Republicans focused heavily on Smith’s collection of phone records and other communications involving GOP lawmakers. Sen. Chuck Grassley called the investigation a partisan abuse of power, while Rep. Jim Jordan has referred Smith to the Justice Department over allegations that he misled Congress about subpoenas.
Smith said obtaining call logs was necessary because investigators had evidence Trump and allies contacted senators during the Jan. 6 attack while seeking to delay certification of the election. Democrats, including Sen. Dick Durbin, defended Smith and accused Republicans of using the hearing to distract from Trump’s conduct.
Smith also said he would not be silenced by threats of prosecution from Trump or administration allies.
Alvarado, TX — The Intercept is suing the city of Alvarado and its police department, accusing officials of withholding public records connected to the violent 2025 confrontation outside the Prairieland immigration detention facility.
The dispute centers on police communications surrounding a July 4, 2025 protest that escalated into an armed confrontation in which an Alvarado police officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries. More than a dozen protesters were subsequently arrested, leading to a closely watched federal prosecution.
Freelance journalist C. Frances requested police emails from the period surrounding the incident under the Texas Public Information Act. After negotiations narrowed the request, Alvarado officials estimated that producing and redacting the records would cost $854.17.
According to The Intercept’s lawsuit, the outlet agreed to pay the full amount, but city officials have neither provided the records nor completed the payment process. Attorney Terry Mutchler, representing The Intercept, characterized the situation as extraordinary obstruction of public access.
The records could provide additional insight into police communications before and after the confrontation. Defendant Benjamin Song was ultimately sentenced to 100 years for attempted murder and other offenses, while he and other defendants are preparing appeals.
Alvarado officials had not responded publicly to The Intercept’s latest allegations.
Des Moines, IA — Iowa farmers are confronting mounting financial pressure as tariffs, higher fuel costs and rising borrowing expenses threaten an agricultural economy already struggling with consolidation, foreign competition and years of elevated production costs.
Axios reports that two of the sharpest new pressures are directly connected to President Donald Trump’s policies. His tariffs have increased costs for fertilizer, pesticides and farm machinery while creating instability with major export partners. Meanwhile, the Iran war has helped drive Iowa diesel prices sharply higher, adding another major expense for farms dependent on heavy equipment.
The political irony is difficult to miss. Trump carried Iowa by more than 13 percentage points in 2024, with rural communities providing crucial support. Mark Mueller, president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and a Republican voter, told Axios his farm is now “scraping by” and warned that more farmers could face bankruptcy or retirement.
The strain appears particularly severe for younger and smaller operators, who often rely heavily on borrowed money and have less financial cushion against volatile crop prices and rising interest rates.
Republicans are increasingly concerned the economic damage could suppress turnout among voters who normally support the party. Trump announced a proposed $15 billion Iowa steel plant Monday, but production is not expected until 2030, offering little immediate relief to farmers facing losses today.
Lansing, MI — A coalition of Michigan Jewish leaders is increasing pressure on Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed to endorse five commitments concerning Jewish safety, identity and participation in political life as the state’s closely watched Senate race enters its final weeks.
Nonnegotiable Michigan said 17 Democratic political leaders have joined its campaign, including University of Michigan Regent Mark Bernstein, state Rep. Noah Arbit and Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus Vice Chair David Kramer. The organization says its effort is separate from debates over Israeli military policy or U.S. foreign aid and is intended to ensure that Jewish Democrats, including Zionists, remain welcome within the party.
Its five requested commitments include protecting Jewish safety, recognizing Jews’ right to define their own identity, supporting Jewish sovereignty in Israel, and ensuring Zionist Jews can participate fully in American politics.
Rabbi Josh Whinston, a progressive Reform rabbi involved with the group, accused El-Sayed of using antisemitic language and “dog whistles.” El-Sayed’s campaign had not publicly accepted the commitments or responded to The Center Square’s requests for comment.
Jewish opinion surrounding El-Sayed is not uniform. Separately, more than 600 Michigan Jews signed a letter supporting his Senate campaign, while other prominent Jewish Democrats have endorsed him despite disagreements over Israel.
El-Sayed, who would become the first Muslim U.S. senator, faces Republican Mike Rogers in November.
Washington, DC — The U.S. Department of Education formally rescinded the Biden administration’s Title IX interpretation protecting students from sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, returning schools to regulations adopted during President Donald Trump’s first term.
The department said Monday that the move restores the 2020 Title IX rule and brings federal regulations into line with court decisions that struck down the Biden administration’s 2024 expansion. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the change would reduce confusion for schools while protecting women’s athletic opportunities and privacy.
The Biden-era rule had interpreted Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Republican-led states challenged that interpretation, and federal courts ultimately blocked the regulation before Trump returned to office.
Since taking office again, the administration has pursued a narrower definition of sex under federal education law and has pressured schools to restrict transgender athletes from women’s sports programs. The department has also rescinded earlier civil-rights agreements involving gender identity.
LGBTQ and women’s-rights advocates argue the rollback could leave transgender students more vulnerable to discrimination and weaken protections for some survivors of sexual harassment or assault. The administration maintains that existing Title IX protections remain intact for discrimination based on biological sex.
A developer’s plan to build more townhouses on Benny Street is on hold, at least temporarily, after city council members expressed concerns about the project’s design and inconsistencies in the architectural renderings presented.
Washington, DC — The second annual Make America Healthy Again Summit is bringing senior federal health officials together with celebrities and wellness influencers whose records include serious criminal cases and repeatedly challenged health claims.
Russell Brand is scheduled to moderate a discussion with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz. Brand is awaiting trial in Britain after pleading not guilty to three counts of rape, three sexual-assault charges and one indecent-assault charge involving six women. He has denied committing non-consensual sexual acts.
Later in the program, former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson will appear on a “MAHA Athlete” panel. Tyson was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years in prison.
The summit also gives prominent roles to wellness personalities whose scientific claims have been challenged by independent fact-checkers. Chiropractor Eric Berg is participating in a cancer-prevention discussion. Science Feedback has rated multiple Berg claims unsupported or based on flawed reasoning. Gary Brecka, moderating the Tyson panel, has likewise been fact-checked for inaccurate or misleading claims involving depression, fluoridation and thyroid disease.
The lineup places federal health policymakers alongside celebrity personalities and alternative-health influencers, creating an unusual mixture for a conference presented as helping shape the future of American health.
Washington, DC — President Donald Trump’s administration has made noncitizen voting a major election-integrity issue ahead of the midterms, but available evidence continues to show that illegal voting by noncitizens is extremely rare. The administration has expanded use of the federal SAVE database and pressed states to search voter rolls for potentially ineligible registrations.
The effort has produced some legitimate cases, but not evidence of widespread noncitizen voting. Reuters reported that federal prosecutors recently intensified enforcement, while investigations across multiple states have generally identified small numbers of cases compared with tens of millions of registered voters. Separate reporting found many registration problems resulted from clerical or automated system errors rather than intentional fraud.
The administration has nevertheless repeatedly presented noncitizen voting as a significant threat to election integrity. Election officials and voting experts dispute that characterization, pointing to studies and state reviews showing confirmed cases are uncommon. AP has similarly reported that Trump and allies have amplified the issue despite limited evidence of widespread illegal voting.
Courts have also constrained some administration efforts, while federal law limits systematic voter-roll removals close to Election Day. The Supreme Court recently allowed continued use of the expanded SAVE system while broader legal challenges proceed.
Vatican City — Pope Leo XIV pushed back against President Donald Trump’s dismissal of artificial intelligence safety concerns, saying warnings from experts should be taken seriously rather than waved away as “fake news.” The comments came Monday as governments and technology companies continue debating how aggressively AI should be regulated.
Speaking with reporters while returning from France, Leo said he was not in “panic mode” about catastrophic AI scenarios but argued that ignoring potential risks would be irresponsible. He called for continued dialogue among scientists, political leaders, technology companies and civil society over safeguards for increasingly powerful systems.
Trump told the United Nations General Assembly last week that fears surrounding dangerous AI were a “hoax,” while arguing that excessive regulation could weaken the United States against China in the global technology race. His administration has generally favored faster development and fewer federal restrictions.
The debate extends well beyond politics. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has warned that rapidly advancing AI agents could soon operate with extraordinary autonomy, while Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has argued that many safety problems can be addressed through engineering rather than extensive government regulation.
Leo acknowledged Nvidia’s recent work on technical guardrails but questioned the consistency of developing safeguards while opposing government oversight. He urged policymakers and industry leaders to keep examining potential dangers rather than assuming technological development will remain manageable on its own.
As ceasefire negotiations faltered and U.S. casualties of the Iran war mounted, the Trump administration on July 7 attempted to rebrand the struggling war effort by announcing the conclusion of Operation Epic Fury.
But in the 12 weeks since, more U.S. military personnel have been injured and killed than in the 18 weeks of Epic Fury. Of the 880 U.S. troops left wounded or dead, 444 have occurred since July 7, according to the official Pentagon count.
President Donald Trump’s war of choice has left nearly 100 U.S. troops wounded or dead this month alone, according to the Pentagon. This includes 29 Navy sailors and eight Marines added last week to the official tally of those injured, following claims by a top Iranian official that an attack with a new “anti-ship missile” had “created hell for the Americans.”
The Marines were injured in a cruise missile attack on September 14, according to two U.S. officials who spoke to The Intercept on the condition of anonymity. The Marines were aboard an unidentified vessel in the Strait of Hormuz, they said, and potentially suffered brain trauma among other injuries. The attack was first reported by NBC News.
A cargo ship was hit that same day by a projectile in the Strait of Hormuz, according to the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations organization. The officials would not say if Marines have been stationed on commercial vessels transiting the Strait.
The Navy did not answer The Intercept’s questions about when and where the sailors were wounded. A Navy official said that casualties had been “fully validated” but would not name the affected “units.”
This latest in a series of casualty spikes comes as additional details of the toll of Iranian attacks on U.S. troops become more apparent. Air Force personnel, alone, endured more than 1,200 “alarm reds” — the official code for imminent attack by missiles, aircraft, or ground forces — during just 38 days earlier this year, according to Air Force chief of staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach. He noted that these Iranian strikes also led to more than 420 “long lonely walks” by explosive ordnance disposal technicians. Dealing with such munitions can be lethal: Army Sgt. Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was killed and another soldier was wounded “during a controlled detonation” of an Iranian attack drone at Iraq’s Erbil Air Base in July.
President Donald Trump recently said the conflict with Iran is “small potatoes,” Vice President JD Vance asserted it is not a “war,” and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick announced: “There haven’t been American deaths, it’s really just an economic choke-out.”
At least 19 personnel have died according to the official Pentagon count of war dead, including 11 killed by hostile fire. The actual number of troop deaths in the region since the war began is higher. The latest known fatality is Capt. Bianca Wilkerson, 37, of Norfolk, Virginia, who died on September 18 from a “coronary issue,” according to her brother. He said she returned from Saudi Arabia on September 10 and was headed back but died on the return flight, according to reporting by the Virginian-Pilot.
For almost six months, The Intercept has reported on anomalies in official counts offered on the website of the Defense Casualty Analysis System, or DCAS, which tracks “deceased, wounded, ill or injured” service members for Congress and the White House. On April 21, for example, the number of wounded-in-action troops declined by 15 without public acknowledgment by the War Department. Despite repeated questions for months, the Pentagon has not commented on the disparities.
Prior reporting by The Intercept also found that the Pentagon’s official tally of dead and wounded personnel is a gross undercount, stemming from what one U.S. government official called a “casualty cover-up.” When the Washington Post also recently suggested that the Pentagon had suppressed the casualty numbers, self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth called the report “DISGUSTING and FAKE.”
The Pentagon’s list of the names of the dead is still, for example, missing Maj. Sorffly Davius, a signals and communication officer with the New York Army National Guard who was assigned to the headquarters of the 42nd Infantry Division and died while on duty in Camp Buehring, Kuwait, on March 6.
The military has claimed that Davius was part of another mission but a recent National Guard news release noted that when “Trump made the decision to attack Iran and launched Operation Epic Fury on Feb. 28, the division headquarters began conducting combat operations.” The 42nd served as the primary headquarters leading what became, according to Maj. Gen. Jack James, the division commander, the “largest and first long-range precision fires campaign in the history of the United States Army.” James specifically saluted Davius whom the Guard admitted was “conducting operations” when he died.
The eight Marines added to DCAS last week appeared in the tally almost 10 days after the September 14 attack. Historically, there was little lag between a casualty occurring in the field and its inclusion in the DCAS system, according to two people who used to work on the official casualty tally. “We got it very quickly. We could report the number of casualties very fast,” Joan Crenshaw, who worked on DCAS during the war on terror, previously told The Intercept, noting that data was refreshed daily. A current U.S. official also previously told The Intercept that the recent reporting lags are a blend of incompetence and deliberate slow-walking of casualty data to manage public fallout.
Iran’s ability to overwhelm U.S. air defenses in the Middle East using attack drones and advanced ballistic missiles, as previously reported by The Intercept, has left the U.S. military in a precarious situation. Despite months of claims by Trump and Hegseth that Iran’s military was annihilated, Iran has attacked more than 15 bases across the Middle East, according to information from U.S. officials and Iranian reports. These strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of facilities at U.S. bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, according to Central Command. Air Force personnel alone conducted 48 airfield repairs in a little more than a month, according to Wilsbach.
An Iranian missile and drone attack on February 28 destroyed Navy facilities in Manama, Bahrain, the region’s most critical U.S. military logistics hub. The Pentagon claimed for months that the strikes did not significantly impact military operations, but acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao recently admitted that Iran “blew the hell out of Bahrain.”
What does Brazil's 2026 election mean for its foreign policy and democracy?
22
October 2026 — 17:00 TO 18:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Online
Brazil’s 2026 election pits competing visions of democracy, economic policy, security and foreign policy against deep voter distrust.
Experts unpack the results of Brazil’s 4 October election and discuss what Brazil’s election mean for democracy, foreign policy, climate change, multilateralism and geopolitics.
Experts unpack the results so far, and discuss what they mean for democracy, foreign policy, climate change, multilateralism and geopolitics. At stake are the future of relations with Washington and Beijing, support for the BRICS and other multilateral organizations, and the response to domestic insecurity.
This event discusses:
Which issues and voter concerns are shaping Brazil’s 2026 election?
How could the result affect trust in elections and democratic institutions?
What do divisions over foreign policy – including climate change and the BRICS – mean for Brazil’s foreign policy?
How could relations with the US and China change after the election?
What would the result mean for economic policy, trade and investor confidence?
From movie screen to real convention
Investigators said a man and woman forced their way into the repair shop and stole keys belonging to customers who had left their vehicles there for service. The pair then allegedly used the keys to steal two of those vehicles.
One of the biggest surprises for Ron was how dramatically his social life improved after moving.After losing four close friends within just a few months, he found himself increasingly isolated.
