Long-time Slashdot reader BrianFagioli is announcing that he's released a new iPhone app that creates a cryptographic witness for photos without uploading the original image.
The app hashes the file, signs the hash using a dedicated identity stored in Apple Keychain, and publishes the witness to Nostr relays while keeping the photo inside the app unless the user chooses to export it.
Rather than trying to determine whether a scene was genuine, the app — named Veridenz — answers a narrower question, by verifying whether a photo file matches the one that was originally witnessed.
Users do not need a Nostr account because the app creates its own signing identity, keeping private documentation separate from a public Nostr profile.
"The developer does not collect any data from this app," says its page in Apple's iPhone store. The free app's tagline is "Capture. Prove. Verify."
Fate of two passengers onboard helicopter that went down Friday morning remains unknown after more than 24 hours
The fate of two passengers onboard a firefighting helicopter that crashed Friday morning in Utah remains unknown after more than 24 hours, as one of the country’s largest wildfires continues to grow, preventing authorities from safely reaching the accident site.
The Sikorsky S-64 helicopter, contracted by the US Forest Service, was responding on Friday to the Widemouth 2 fire, a blaze sparked in late July by lightning, when it crashed in a remote area of central Utah.
Yolŋu hip-hop artist dominates, while Butchulla duo and cousins Birdz and Fred Leone win artist of the year and Drifting Clouds takes home best new talent
Baker Boy has won album, song and film clip of the year at the 2026 National Indigenous music awards (Nimas), paying tribute to his late grandmother who his sophomore album, Djandjay, is named for.
The Yolŋu hip-hop artist, whose name is Danzal Baker, won three awards for Djandjay, including song of the year and film clip of the year for its hit single Thick Skin, which features Indigenous artists Thelma Plum, Emma Donovan, Kee’ahn and Jada Weazel.
"If you call 911 in New Orleans, you may hear the sound of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent answering your call instead of a human voice," reports the Shreveport Times:
The Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) is currently testing out the new tool designed to reduce the volume of calls human dispatchers must handle, which is over a thousand emergency calls a day.
New Orleans implemented AI in April to answer 311 calls for non-emergencies. The AI was trained and programmed to provide information to callers, as the OPCD says 50% of 311 calls are for information, according to GovTech. AI is now answering 911 emergency calls in Louisiana's largest city and one of the cities with the highest call rates in the U.S.
The OPCD is using Carbyne's AI Emergency Call Triage, with triage being the process of analyzing and prioritizing emergency calls. The AI system assesses incoming calls and can provide immediate feedback to callers. This is intended to handle the increase of calls that are related to one incident, so callers get automatically routed to an AI agent who asks if they are calling regarding the incident. If the answer is yes, then callers can receive information or updates, and if it's no, then the callers are transferred to a human. This combats multitudes of calls piling up and taking longer time to potentially answer an emergency call. The OPCD said the AI will not be used to handle emergency calls, only to direct such calls to a human dispatcher.
Tehran urges US to ‘correct its behaviour’ as UAE says one of its ships targeted by Iranian missile
Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, while the United Arab Emirates said one of its ships was targeted by an Iranian missile, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday.
Iran’s politburo-like body known as the supreme national security council said the strait of Hormuz will not open until the United States “corrects its behaviour”, and its state broadcaster published a statement from the council’s secretary, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who is also a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In Georgia the Savannah Police Department "terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees following an internal investigation into misuse of the department's Flock Safety License Plate Reader system," according to a local news report:
All six cases are also under independent criminal investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation... Investigators found that employees were running searches on personal acquaintances and family members. One officer was found to have given someone from an outside law enforcement agency access to SPD's Flock Safety system, which they weren't authorized to do.
Elsewhere ABC News reports that a female North Carolina police officer was arrested Wednesday "for allegedly using Flock license plate readers to track her boyfriend's ex-wife, according to police..." The officer is accused of accessing the system for personal use 31 different times, including at least twice when she was off-duty, and listing most of the lookups as motor vehicle infractions. [Police chief Ron] Campurciani "added that the department is looking at 10 other potential misuse cases and said three 'look like they could be problematic.'"
And an Ohio news station reports a police officer who recently resigned "while under internal investigation repeatedly used the Flock license plate reader system to search a vehicle registered to someone investigators identified as his likely domestic partner."
Meanwhile, 404 Media reported this week that an Iowa county's usage police specifically tells police officers — in all capital letters — not to tell occupants of a vehicle that an automated license plate reader was used for a traffic stop. It also instructs officers to not even mention the use of the ALPR technology in their reports "unless absolutely necessary," according to information they'd obtained from a public records request," suggesting they instead they call the cameras "county resources":
It is not just local police in small communities who are creating policies designed to obfuscate Flock usage. Earlier this year, we reported that police in multiple states were being told to be "as vague as permissible" about why they were using Flock because their searches could be obtained using public records requests, and that warning was being shared by the FBI and Department of Justice...
In the [Iowa county] public records request, Sheriff Don Phillips said "there is no need" to tell people about the use of Flock... "because the information is verified by the deputy running the license plate. It is common practice for law enforcement to refrain from disclosing investigative methods and sources to prevent criminals from learning how to circumvent them."
Warning of increased activity as patrols spent 21 days in July shadowing Moscow’s ships in Dover Strait and North Sea
The Royal Navy has warned of increasing Russian activity around the UK’s waters after it spent 21 days in July monitoring Moscow’s ships.
Naval operations to monitor Russian vessels increased by 25% last month compared with the previous year, with warships making repeated voyages through the strait of Dover and the North Sea.
Concerns have been raised that workers using an increasingly popular Australian hospitality gig-work app may be missing out on entitlements such as superannuation by being hired as “independent contractors”, similar to delivery riders.
Launched in Melbourne in 2017, Supp describes itself as a “jobs marketplace”, where hospitality businesses can advertise available shifts to potential workers at an hourly rate, and where workers can secure ad-hoc employment. It was created by Kate and Cameron Reid, the owners of Lune Croissanterie, who maintain a financial stake in the company but are no longer on its board.
The European Union’s Digital Markets Act keeps delivering for EU citizens.
Apple is working on a new feature that will support cross-device copy and paste between iOS devices and Windows PCs.
Microsoft asked for the feature using Apple’s EU interoperability request system for developers, which Apple implemented to comply with the Digital Markets Act. Apple began evaluating the request in March, and on June 26, proposed a project plan.
According to Apple, this minor feature is going to cost Apple “significant engineering effort”; I’d estimate it’ll cost them about one to two golden statues.
"In a milestone for energy storage technology, Peak Energy has selected Sacramento, California, as the home of America's first manufacturing facility dedicated to grid-scale sodium-ion battery systems," according to the sustainability news site Intelligent Living.
The move "represents the first large-scale test of whether sodium-ion technology can deliver on its promise of cheaper, safer, and more sustainable grid storage at a scale that actually moves the needle for the U.S. electricity system."
The 183,000-square-foot plant, representing a $71 million investment, will produce up to 4 gigawatt-hours of storage annually when production begins in early 2027. That is enough output each year to serve nearly four million homes, and it signals that sodium-ion technology has moved from laboratory promise to commercial reality... Peak Energy, founded in 2023 by former engineers from Tesla, Enovix, and Fluence, announced its Sacramento site selection on July 8, 2026, after a nationwide search that ultimately chose California over Texas... The factory is designed as a system assembly plant rather than a cell fabrication facility. Peak will receive sodium-ion cells, manufactured to its specifications by Chinese suppliers, and assemble them into complete 30-foot-long, 100,000-pound containerized storage systems. Each GS1.1 unit stores 3.1 megawatt-hours, enough to fully charge more than 40 electric vehicles...
In the United States, Peak Energy has emerged as the most advanced grid-scale player. It has secured more than 6 GWh of customer commitments, including a landmark deal with Jupiter Power for up to 4.75 GWh through 2030, valued at up to $500 million. Energy Vault has committed to 1.5 GWh of sodium-ion storage for AI data center applications, and RWE Americas has already deployed Peak's first grid-scale system on the MISO grid in Wisconsin, energized in March 2026. General Motors is codeveloping sodium-ion cells with Peak at its Wallace Battery Cell Innovation Center in Michigan, testing 170- and 190-amp-hour cell formats with domestic production targeted for 2028. China, however, remains the global heavyweight. CATL, the world's largest battery manufacturer, unveiled its TENER Sodium energy storage system in June 2026 with a rated cycle life of 15,000 cycles and a projected 25-to-30-year service life. In April 2026, CATL signed a 60 GWh supply agreement with HyperStrong, the largest sodium-ion deal announced to date. BYD, HiNa Battery, and Farasis are also shipping commercial sodium-ion products, including batteries for a $400 electric scooter already on sale in China...
Peak Energy's first commercial shipments from Sacramento are slated for the first quarter of 2027, with contracted deliveries to Jupiter Power, Energy Vault, and RWE Americas following shortly after. The company has publicly stated it needs to deploy over $100 million in product in 2026, up from roughly $10 million in 2025, and the Sacramento facility is sized to meet that demand. At the system level, sodium-ion grid storage is already operating. Peak's pilot installation at the SolarTAC testing facility in Watkins, Colorado, stores 3.5 MWh and has been running since 2025. The RWE Americas deployment in Wisconsin, energized in March 2026, marks the first time sodium-ion batteries have backed up the MISO grid, which serves 15 central U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba...
According to the International Energy Agency, sodium-ion manufacturing capacity announcements have accelerated sharply since 2024, with global pipelines now exceeding 400 GWh annually... Researchers are also pushing the technology forward. In May 2026, a team at the National University of Singapore published a breakthrough in all-solid-state sodium batteries that could further reduce costs and eliminate the flammable liquid electrolytes found in both lithium-ion and current sodium-ion designs.
"The technology's sweet spot is utility-scale, multi-megawatt-hour installations," the article points out, "where the system-level cost savings from passive cooling and longer cycle life outweigh the per-cell energy density penalty..." The article also points out observations from the American Battery Leadership Coalition, an industry group advocating for sodium-ion policy support, that sodium-ion batteries can be built almost entirely from American materials, including coal, sawdust, and agricultural waste.
This week Syntropic Power and UNIGRID Inc. also announced "a major partnership to commercialize UNIGRID's proprietary sodium chromium oxide (NaCrO2) battery technology across North America," reports Interesting Engineering, "targeting one gigawatt-hour (1 GWh) of deployments in 2027. The technology could be used in residential, virtual power plant, and large-scale stationary grid applications..."
Independent testing by the ISO-accredited Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Battery Development Center revealed something surprising. UNIGRID's 210Ah cells displayed endothermic behavior during charging. This means the chemical reaction actually absorbs heat rather than dumping it into the environment. Coupled with a 97.9% cell-level round-trip energy efficiency and remarkable thermal stability under abuse testing, the battery stays cool on its own.
The 210Ah sodium-ion cells deliver up to 218Ah of discharge capacity. It demonstrated exceptional durability, retaining over 99% of its capacity after 1,000 full discharge cycles, as well as heat-absorbing behavior during charging. These validated strengths allow Syntropic to optimize its product designs, enabling platforms like GridSpan [its modular DC platform designed for large-scale energy applications with flexible discharge durations ranging from 20 minutes to 20 hours] to operate safely and efficiently at grid scale without needing complex mechanical cooling systems...
Commercialization kicks off with Tenet, a safety-focused, wall-mounted system for residential, light-commercial, and virtual power plant uses... Relying on abundant and widely distributed raw materials like sodium and chromium — rather than lithium and cobalt — protects manufacturers from geopolitical price spikes and material shortages. Apart from offering an alternative to lithium, a successful rollout will demonstrate that the most durable energy storage is the kind that could stay cool entirely on its own.
Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the news.
IceWM, the venerable X11 window manager, has put up a new maintenance release, version 4.1.0. It’s got a small number of fixes, two very minor new features, as well a few updated translations. That’s it.
Weather system tied to warming sea surface expected to intensify in fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027
El Niño, a recurring climate phenomenon marked by above-average sea surface temperatures, when changes in wind patterns allow warmer water to spread across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, could spell a wet winter for portions of the western and south-eastern US, climate models show. Coastal areas may be at elevated risk of flooding, experts warn.
Climate scientists predict this year’s “super” El Niño, a label assigned when sea surface temperatures climb by at least 2C, will be the strongest of the century. The weather system is expected to intensify in the fall and winter, persisting until early spring 2027, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa).
Joe Biden’s prostate cancer is reportedly ‘debilitating’, even as ex-president continues to speak out on public issues
Former US president Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread to other parts of his body and is causing him pain, even as he continues to speak out on public issues, his son Hunter said in an interview.
In a wide-ranging interview with the BBC broadcast late on Friday, Hunter Biden grew emotional as he discussed his father’s condition, describing it as very sad to watch.
The Dallas Business Journal reported Monday that the U.S. multinational paper goods company Kimberly-Clark announced "that its researchers identified and advanced patented technology transforming fibers from hesperaloe, a low-water-use plant with pointy leaves that thrives in the southwest region of the country, into material for paper towels." Discovering an alternative to conventional wood fiber "could reshape how the company, and the industry at large, manufactures products," according to article.
And the move comes "amid growing pressure on manufacturers regarding their reliance on wood fibre from freshly felled trees," reports The Telegraph. "Campaigners claim that more than one million trees are cut down every day..."
Unlike trees, hesperaloe can be grown on dry, low-quality farmland unsuitable for most food crops and harvested much more quickly. Kimberly-Clark said it had tested more than 70 potential materials before settling on hesperaloe. Earlier candidates included wheat straw, corn waste, seaweed, algae and chicken feathers. The US consumer goods giant will now develop the fibre at a pilot factory in Yuma, Arizona, working with local growers to determine whether the crop can be cultivated for commercial use in its tissue products. "This represents an exciting moonshot for Kimberly-Clark and the culmination of more than two decades of materials and plant science expertise," said Craig Slavtcheff, who is helping develop the new toilet paper.
However, the company said products made from hesperaloe remained years away from supermarket shelves, with further research needed before the fibre could be produced at the scale required for global manufacturing. The US-based company has invested about $250m (£190m) in the project and filed more than 30 patents linked to the technology.
The former San Francisco 49ers star running back spoke in a prerecorded video message while he sat on stage wearing his gold jacket at Tom Benson Stadium on Saturday.
The Washington Post shared surprising news this week about five top AI companies.
Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and Oracle "are spending so much on developing AI and delivering it to customers that they're expected to bleed cash in the coming year, according to a Washington Post analysis of data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence."
Free cash flow, which measures the cash left over after paying expenses and AI infrastructure costs, is now expected to shrink to almost nothing for the five companies combined in 2026, and decline again to negative $125 billion the following year... AI spending by Amazon and Google pushed the companies to an ignominious milestone: They lost more cash in the past three months than any other large U.S. companies, according to S&P Global data. Investment analysts expect Elon Musk's SpaceX to show even worse cash bleeding this week.
Senate minority leader condemns Republicans after Donald Trump’s former defense lawyer confirmed by 50 votes to 49 early on Saturday morning. This blog is now closed.
Joe Biden’s prostate cancer has spread throughout his body, causing the former president great pain, his son Hunter Biden said during an interview broadcast Friday.
“The cancer has spread, metastasized into his bones and further,” Hunter Biden said in a sit-down with the BBC. “It’s very painful and it’s very debilitating in many respects.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — House Democrats are preparing a broad investigative agenda for President Donald Trump and companies tied to his political and business interests if they win control of the chamber in November, according to Reuters.
Senior Democrats and committee aides are discussing hearings, subpoenas and document demands focused on possible conflicts of interest, government contracts and financial relationships involving Trump and his family. The strategy prioritizes building an evidentiary record rather than immediately pursuing impeachment.
Potential targets include Paramount Skydance, YouTube, investment firm 1789 Capital, private prison operator GEO Group and security contractor Salus Worldwide Solutions. Democrats are also examining Venezuelan oil transactions involving Vitol and Trafigura, along with financial relationships involving major technology and investment firms.
Reps. Robert Garcia and Jamie Raskin have already sent records requests to several outside entities. Raskin previously sought communications involving Paramount’s settlement with Trump and the company’s merger approval process.
Democratic leaders reportedly want to avoid repeating Trump’s first term, when impeachment proceedings dominated congressional attention and allowed him to characterize investigations as partisan persecution.
Impeachment has not been ruled out. Instead, lawmakers say any such effort would come only after investigations establish evidence warranting it.
The White House dismissed the planning as another partisan effort against Trump and said the administration is prepared to respond to legitimate congressional oversight regardless of which party controls Congress.
Agent found to be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, and to carry out cyber-attacks
OpenAI will pause some work on an artificial intelligence model because of security concerns, the company stated on Friday, following a series of incidents in which AI agents have escaped containment.
The company had evaluated the agent, Astra, and found “significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity”, which had moved to a “critical” threshold where it can find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, or devise and execute cyber-attacks when given only a “high level desired goal”.
At a Hiroshima memorial ceremony, Japan's prime minister said the country "maintains" its three long-standing non-nuclear principles, reports UPI.
But the prime minister "stopped short of promising that the policy would remain unchanged, fueling speculation that her government could review a longstanding ban on allowing nuclear weapons into the country."
[Prime Minister Sanae] Takaichi made the remarks Thursday at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city... Unlike previous prime ministers who pledged that Japan would "continue to uphold" the principles, Takaichi described the government's current position without making an explicit commitment about the future [only saying that Japan has "a mission to continue efforts toward realizing a world without nuclear weapon..."] The wording has drawn attention because her government plans to revise Japan's three key national security documents by the end of the year. At a news conference after the ceremony, Takaichi again said the government "maintains the Three Non-Nuclear Principles as a matter of policy." Asked whether the principles would continue to be included in the revised security documents, however, she declined to commit, saying she would refrain from prejudging the outcome.
Japan's Three Non-Nuclear Principles state that the country will not possess nuclear weapons, will not produce them and will not permit their introduction into Japanese territory. The principles originated with a 1967 statement by then-Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and have remained a central element of Japan's postwar nuclear policy. Takaichi has previously questioned the third principle — the prohibition on allowing nuclear weapons into Japan. Before becoming prime minister, she argued in a 2024 book that Japan should retain the commitments not to possess or produce nuclear weapons but that an absolute prohibition on their introduction was unrealistic.
Her argument was that barring port calls by U.S. vessels carrying nuclear weapons could limit the effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear umbrella protecting Japan... The Japan Innovation Party has also called for a review of the third principle. In security policy recommendations submitted to the government in June, the party called for a "realistic review" of the ban on allowing nuclear weapons into Japan... Under existing government interpretations, Japan could respond flexibly in an extreme national emergency involving a U.S. vessel carrying nuclear weapons. Some within the ruling party therefore question whether formally revising the non-nuclear principles would provide enough practical benefit to justify the political controversy it would create.
Critics also warn that changing the policy when Washington has not publicly demanded such a move could give China and North Korea additional grounds to portray Japan as expanding its military role... If Japan were to allow temporary entry by U.S. nuclear weapons or port calls by nuclear-armed vessels, Washington would gain additional operational options for its nuclear forces in Northeast Asia. Such a development could strengthen deterrence against North Korea and China but could also intensify debate over differences between U.S. extended deterrence arrangements with Japan and South Korea.
"How the principles are addressed in Japan's revised security documents later this year could determine whether the issue develops into a broader debate over the future of extended nuclear deterrence among Japan, South Korea and the United States..."
Exclusive: Lack of funds left British museums unable pay eight-figure sum for collection, which went to Abu Dhabi institution
One of the most important collections of UK Jurassic fossils ever compiled has been sold to a museum in Abu Dhabi, the Guardian can reveal, in what British experts have described as a loss for the nation.
The collection, which was amassed by a private fossil collector, consisted of 318 specimens, including ichthyosaurs, fish and crustaceans among other creatures, some of which could be new species.
(The Center Square) – Ten of the 13 programs meant to keep the B-52 flying into the 2050s are over budget, behind schedule or underperforming, a federal watchdog found, including new engines and radar.
A South Korean lunar orbiter has captured the first before-and-after images of the Moon's crash scene caused by a stray SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The Associated Press reports: The Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Danuri spacecraft flew over the impact site soon after the Falcon 9 upper stage inadvertently plowed into the moon on Wednesday. Danuri made multiple passes, snapping photos from lunar orbit that were released by the space agency Thursday. The terrain is noticeably darker where the rocket hit and carved out a crater, sending dust and rock everywhere. Korean space officials said Danuri gathered before and after shots. NASA expects its Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to fly over the crash site next week to view the aftermath. You can view the images here.
When, where and how to get the optimal view of the first solar eclipse to be visible across the country this century
For the first time this century, people across the UK will be able to see an almost total solar eclipse in the evening sky on Wednesday.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon moves between the sun and the Earth, blocking the sun’s light either partly or fully. This year, people in the UK and Ireland will see 90-96% of the sun covered by the moon for the first time since 1999 – and it’s their last chance until 2081.
Scotland’s former first minister says she will not visit Murrell in prison, where he is serving five-year sentence for embezzling SNP funds
Nicola Surgeon has said she will not visit her estranged husband, Peter Murrell, in prison, has stopped speaking to him and views herself as a “mug” for worrying about his wellbeing and mental health earlier this year.
During a podcast recording at the Edinburgh festival fringe, Scotland’s former first minister said Murrell had lied to her until the day he pleaded guilty to embezzling more than £400,000 from the Scottish National party.
Messi family report death at medical clinic in Rosario
Inter Miami are due to play Monterrey on Saturday night
Lionel Messi’s father and agent, Jorge, has died aged 68 at a medical clinic in the Argentinian city of Rosario after a long illness, the family have announced. Jorge Messi spent his final months alternating between a medical centre in Rosario and his home, accompanied by his wife, Celia, and his children Rodrigo, Matías and María Sol.
Lionel Messi spent time with his father after the World Cup before rejoining his club, Inter Miami, for whom he returned to action a week ago. Inter Miami are due to play Monterrey on Saturday at home in the 2026 Leagues Cup, but the MLS club have yet to announce whether he will feature.
In the wake of 9/11, some called for rounding up whole groups of people viewed as potential threats to the nation. But Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta knew the U.S. had done that before.
State’s attorney general says scammers have made off with more than $100m in past two years
Scammers in New York have been using gold bars to steal money from victims, primarily older adults, and made off with more than $100m over the past two years, the state’s attorney general announced on Friday.
The scheme starts with victims receiving a fake pop-up message that states their computer or financial account has been compromised, the press release stated. The message includes a phone number to call, and when people do, the scammers convince the victims to provide remote access to their computers, which allows them to access their financial information or online bank accounts.
(The Center Square) – Two donors said they had never before made a political donation. Another said “look where I’m living” when asked if he made 7,878 donations worth $93,168.
It’s too reductive to simply smear scabs as sellouts. It’s important to understand why some workers might be motivated to weather scorn, rejection and even violence from their peers.
Dr Mark Fowler assisted in the failed execution of a Tennessee prisoner. Physicians are meant to heal patients - why is he working in the death chamber?
Mark Fowler, a physician with 25 years’ experience, stepped beneath the bright lights and approached the middle-aged man lying on a gurney. Around him, people in medical gowns prepared needles and sterile tubing.
Back-to-school weeks need food that works beyond one rushed morning. These 15 picks cover packable cookies, make-ahead salads, quick sandwiches, easy sides, and weeknight dinners for the busiest days.The post 15 quick back-to-school picks worth making the night before a…
(The Center Square) – After days of drawn-out negotiations, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a short-term government funding stopgap early Saturday morning.
City on track to record fewest reported rat sightings since pandemic as Mamdani’s ‘containerization’ program brings bins to boroughs
Is New York finally winning its war on rats? Or are New Yorkers’ vermin neighbors merely adapting to changing circumstances and, at least in some neighborhoods, staying out of sight?
With an estimated one rat for every three people, New York’s long-running rat war is in a period of uneasy detente.
Four-year-old Taras, who now resides at a Minnesota sanctuary, was diagnosed with an often fatal infection
A lion that escaped the war in Ukraine after being found as a four-month-old cub inside a duffel bag at Odesa railway station is facing an even greater battle for survival in his new home in Minnesota from a rare and often fatal fungal disease.
Taras; his two sisters, Lesya and Stefania; and an unrelated, slightly older cub from Kyiv named Prada were brought to the US in November 2022 by the Wildcat Sanctuary, a secluded private reserve near Sandstone, Minnesota, that arranged their rescue with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Major win for president as former personal lawyer wins approval despite outcry over $1.8bn slush fund
The US Senate voted to narrowly confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general in a major win for Donald Trump, who will now have his one-time personal attorney sitting atop the nation’s law enforcement apparatus.
Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana cast the deciding vote in Blanche’s favor after two other Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska – voted against him. Every Democrat rejected Blanche’s nomination as the Republican-led Senate voted 50-49.
Bullock third as defending champion Rivera sits fourth
Women’s all-around competition concludes Sunday
The University of Florida’s Skye Blakely and 17-year-old Honolulu native Claire Pease are tied for the all-around lead after the first day of women’s competition at the US gymnastics championships on Friday in Phoenix.
Bill must still be approved by House but would keep government running at current funding levels
The US Senate on Friday passed a government funding bill that will prevent a shutdown through the midterm elections, though it still must be approved by the House of Representatives.
The continuing resolution (CR) passed by a 90-6 vote will keep the government running at its current funding levels until 11 December, more than a month past the midterms in which Democrats are hoping to regain control of Congress and block Donald Trump’s legislative agenda for the final two years of his presidency.
An exchange between Dr Erica Schwartz and Senator Josh Hawley during her confirmation hearing is alarming
Robert F Kennedy Jr’s new cooking show isn’t the only big news out of the public health world this week. On Wednesday, Dr Erica Schwartz was confirmed by the US Senate as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), making her the first Black woman to hold the position. This is the first time in almost a year that the agency has had a permanent leader; the previous director, Susan Monarez, only lasted 29 days before she was ousted for butting heads with RFK about US vaccine policies. Translation: she was a little too keen on following accepted science for the Trump administration.
So is Schwartz an RFK-approved vaccine skeptic who thinks you can cure cancer by praying to trees? Surprisingly: no. Schwartz, who served as deputy surgeon general during Trump’s first term, actually has government experience and a public health background. During her confirmation hearing in July, she walked a careful tightrope when asked about her stance towards vaccines. Schwartz said she “will never betray the science” but also dodged questions about how she would handle pressure from Kennedy.
New York mayor’s policy set to generate revenue and address housing crisis despite outcry in some quarters
New York City’s introduction of a pied-à-terre tax has provided fodder for Zohran Mamdani’s critics, who accuse the democratic socialist mayor of attacking the rich – even as others welcome it as a much-needed effort to tax the wealthy in a city known for its yawning inequality and cost-of-living crisis.
The tax, aimed at closing the city’s budget gap, covers people who own but do not live full-time in a house worth more than $5m or a condominium or cooperative unit worth at least $1m.
Megan Koverman's weight gain, fatigue, high blood pressure and other symptoms were dismissed for years before she was diagnosed with a rare heart disease.
Asked whether he targeted reporter who investigated party finances, Brexit campaigner says: ‘When you live by the sword, you die by the sword’
The prominent Reform UK member and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks is said to have set private investigators on a Sunday Times journalist after he broke a series of stories about Nigel Farage.
Banks is alleged to have paid for the services of investigators to examine Gabriel Pogrund, editor of the paper’s Insight investigations team.
Britain’s spooks take quiet satisfaction from survey ranking Secret Intelligence Service Europe’s top espionage agency
MI6 has the swagger of James Bond; its French equivalent, DGSE, the complexities of the television drama Le Bureau. The film and TV shows may be fictional, but a survey run by a French magazine that placed the British spy agency above the French as No 1 across all of Europe this week is not.
L’Express, a news weekly, conducted a Eurovision-style poll of 60 current and former spies from across the continent, plus the CIA and Israel’s Mossad. Each was asked to rank their top five foreign intelligence agencies, in secret, naturally enough. MI6 was first with 251 points ahead of DGSE on 169, with other agencies trailing behind.
The mission of the Flock app is quietly subversive: to encourage users to ditch their screens and explore the wonderful world of birding
On a brilliantly bright afternoon in his gallery and studio in Bolinas, a small town on the northern California coast, Keith Hansen was putting the finishing touches on a watercolor of an almost improbably flamboyant painted bunting.
With an ultra-fine sable brush, he made a few intricate additions to the cobalt blue plumage on the bunting’s head, and, satisfied with his work, slipped the watercolor into a stout binder that every few days welcomes a new addition.
Ever the strategist, the Chinese leader is taking the offensive, both abroad and at home. That’s bad news for global order, and minorities in his country
Imagine what would happen if a British prime minister in London told the Scots they could not have their own parliament, national football team or fly the saltire. Or if the Welsh were told their language and poetry were banned and must no longer be taught in schools. The ensuing uproar would probably destroy the United Kingdom. Yet that’s exactly what Xi Jinping, China’s communist emperor, is telling the roughly 125 million members of the 55 ethnic and religious minorities who together comprise about 9% of the country’s (majority Han Chinese) population.
Xi claims his sinicisation policy, embodied in a new “ethnic unity” law, will boost national identity and integration and, by expanding compulsory use of the Mandarin language, improve life and work prospects. Minorities should “hug tightly like pomegranate seeds” to build a strong, united China, he says. But Tibetans, Mongolians, Uyghurs and others who value their separate language and customs fiercely object to what they see as forced assimilation into a conformist, intolerant monoculture dominated by the Communist party’s tunnel vision. For them, it’s ethnic cleansing by another name.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Tech companies offer eye-movement trackers, personalized podcasts and ‘optimized nap predictions’. Who actually needs this?
What job in our world is less lucrative than being a parent? A Hollywood internship? Volunteering at a soup kitchen? Professional writer? Parenting is the only job you have to pay money to do. Lots of money. Lodging, clothes, food, school, Pokémon cards – it really adds up. And it’s getting worse. According to the tech industry, I have to strap my drooling offspring to a computer in order to ensure the baby’s survival.
Parents are being offered life-altering advancements in artificial intelligence that purport to make this taxing endeavor a tiny bit easier. OpenAI is suggesting its latest products can make child-rearing more efficient: its boss, Sam Altman, suggests generating a podcast about your kid’s life that you can listen to in the morning on the way to school. How entertaining would a podcast “that talks about one kid’s soccer game that afternoon, one kid’s upcoming birthday, some news, etc” actually be? “Jimmy needs to work on his dribbling.” Great. I think he knows already. He’s not going to be the next Messi, so how about we switch back to music?
NASA has squeezed at least another year of science out of Voyager 2 by cutting power to nonessential systems and switching to lower-power alternatives. Voyager 1 is expected to receive the same power-saving changes in the coming months. Space.com reports: Voyager 2 and its twin launched in 1977, called Voyager 1, rely on a form of nuclear battery known as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator that uses the heat produced by the decay of plutonium. But the supply of plutonium on each probe drops at about four watts a year on each spacecraft. To keep the probe running on this dwindling power supply, engineers recently reduced Voyager 2's power requirements by turning off a few non-science devices and using "lower-power alternatives" that are still effective enough to keep the spacecraft warm while it's so far from the sun, NASA officials said in a statement. "The spacecraft power margins have grown razor thin, requiring the team to conserve energy by shutting off non-essential devices and systems," NASA officials wrote of the mission, which is managed by the agency's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The drop in power is having a measurable science impact on both spacecraft -- each has turned off two of their science instruments since 2024 alone. While some of these instruments were shut off after the spacecraft finished their historic planetary flybys decades ago, others were turned off due to power requirements. Each spacecraft initially launched with 10 instruments, and Voyager 2 is now down to only three instruments. At first it looked as though Voyager 2 would have to shut down another of these instruments later this year, but luckily, the new power shifts will allow all three to operate "for at least another year," NASA said.
Unexploded ordnance and a military motorcycle also recovered following record heat and drought conditions
Record-low water levels in the Danube have exposed remnants of Europe’s Nazi past, with dozens of second world war ships emerging from the riverbed during an intense drought.
In the middle of the river on the Serbian and Romanian border, a broken-up hull was visible on a sandbank that is normally underwater. Other vessels were partly submerged, some still believed to be laden with weapons.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced last month a policy banning visas for foreigners accused of links to “far-left terrorism.” The policy cited Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum-7 as well as the law Rubio used to try to deport the pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil.
More than three weeks later, however, it’s not clear how Rubio and the State Department intend to use the policy. Their silence since the announcement has left some advocates wondering if the policy is really just a public-relations push by the Trump administration.
Existing law already allows the State Department to block terrorists from visiting the U.S. But tucked inside the policy is language about “economic sabotage” that advocates worry could empower a broad crackdown against people associated with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement and campaigns to divest from fossil fuels.
“The message is to the public at large and particularly to anybody who would disagree with the government’s policies that they should tread carefully, lest they be considered a member or aligned with what the government considers to be a far-left terrorist group,” said Carrie DeCell, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “I think the vagueness is the point. It’s intended to send a broad chilling effect through the public and discourage dissent.”
Rubio’s Right-Wing Fever Dream
Rubio announced the policy at a July 16 gathering of foreign diplomats where he played up the threat of what he called “far-left terrorism,” which he said had been overlooked after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
“For far too long, however, our counterterrorism doctrine has had a blind spot — a blind spot when it comes to extremist violence from the political left. Even today, the very idea that far-left terrorism could be a serious threat is treated as a right-wing fever dream, or worse, as a dangerous fascist conspiracy,” Rubio said.
In a press release, Rubio said that State Department officials had been instructed to deny visas to “members of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups who have supported or incited acts of terrorism; supported violent criminal activity; participated in economic sabotage; financed, recruited, or provided logistical support for violent or criminal actions committed by Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned groups; and/or facilitated the convergence of Far-Left Terrorist and other aligned networks for the purposes of violent action.”
The State Department has not elaborated further on how it decides whether a foreign national is a member of a “far-left” terror group or “aligned” groups. The department did not answer questions from The Intercept about its definitions for those terms.
“The worry is that this will be used who are already in this country, for example, foreign students.”
The policy raised major concerns, however, for Peter Margulies, a law professor at Roger Williams University.
Nothing in the policy appears to restrict it to foreign nationals residing abroad, Margulies said. He is concerned that the State Department could attempt to apply it to students living in the U.S. or to other people with legal status who are applying for different visas or renewals.
“The worry is that this will be used who are already in this country, for example, foreign students,” he said. “This gives the administration a hammer to go after these people, that I think is problematic under the First Amendment, and also exceeds the authority that Secretary Rubio has.”
Other parts of federal immigration law already give the government wide discretion to block people accused of links to terrorism, making it something of a puzzle why the government would need a new policy to block people accused more specifically of “far-left” terrorism.
Yet one provision of the policy appears to mark a shift from existing policy, Margulies said: a section singling out people accused of “economic sabotage.” That kind of language could be used to target people who have supported Palestinian calls for the boycott of Israel, or environmental activists protesting fossil fuel companies, he said.
“That’s a term broad enough to get a tank through, and so that would really be problematic under the First Amendment, because of course people in this country have a right to criticize corporations as well as government,” he said.
The Vagueness Is the Point
When Rubio announced a new policy last May targeting misinformation researchers for visa denials, the State Department followed up seven months later by announcing that it would block or deport five foreign nationals.
So far the State Department has not announced any visa denials under the latest policy. For an example of the type of people that Rubio considers to be supporters of far-left terrorism, DeCell pointed to a State Department report about Cuba’s influence network issued last month. That report named streamer Hasan Piker, Amazon Labor Union founder Christian Smalls, the National Lawyers Guild, and the Democratic Socialists of America.
Baher Azmy, the legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, said it was possible that the new visa restriction policy is simply another part of the multipronged effort to build up the threat of the left ahead of the midterms.
“This is coming at the same time they’re starting this once moribund terrorist court, they’re calling Amy Goodman a far-left enemy of the state,” he said. “It might be a midterm strategy, because it does seem to be coming all at once.”
DeCell’s group recently won an injunction blocking the State Department from implementing its visa restriction policy against misinformation researchers. She expects the State Department to eventually get around to announcing visa denials, as it did with them. “The justifications for their targeting likely would be made on X, if it follows the same path,” she said.
When it does, the latest restrictions could also be vulnerable to legal challenge. While the State Department has broad discretion to deny visas to foreigners, Margulies said, it is not unlimited, particularly for those living in the United States.
“Watch this space. They may have particular people in mind. Then we may see some developments very quickly how they intend to apply this,” he said.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Senate narrowly confirmed Todd Blanche as U.S. attorney general early Saturday, elevating President Donald Trump’s former personal defense lawyer after a contentious fight over the Justice Department’s independence and a controversial settlement benefiting Trump and his allies.
The 50-49 vote came shortly before senators left Washington for a five-week recess. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined Democrats in opposition, making Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy’s support crucial to Blanche’s confirmation.
Blanche had served as acting attorney general since Trump dismissed Pam Bondi in April. His nomination stalled over a proposed $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund designed to compensate Trump allies who claimed they were unfairly targeted by federal authorities, along with a settlement provision granting Trump and family members limited protection from IRS audits.
To secure skeptical Republicans, Blanche formally rescinded the fund and provided written assurances that the tax provision applied only to existing claims rather than future tax filings.
Collins and Murkowski remained unconvinced, citing concerns about Blanche’s independence, investigations targeting Trump critics and his handling of matters involving Jeffrey Epstein.
Supporters argued Blanche’s prosecutorial experience makes him capable of managing the department and advising Trump when presidential demands cross legal boundaries.
His confirmation gives Trump a former personal attorney permanent control of the Justice Department, ensuring questions about its traditional independence will remain central throughout Blanche’s tenure.
NEWARK, New Jersey — New Jersey has opened a civil rights investigation into Delaney Hall, the privately operated ICE detention center in Newark, following months of complaints about conditions and the recent death of a detainee.
Attorney General Jennifer Davenport announced the probe Friday and issued investigative subpoenas to GEO Group, the private prison company operating the facility under contract with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The state says detainees have reported spoiled food, unsanitary bathrooms, inadequate hygiene supplies and insufficient medical care.
The investigation follows the death of Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, an immigrant from El Salvador who suffered a medical emergency while detained. His family alleges he had diabetes, epilepsy and high blood pressure and lost substantial weight while in custody. ICE has not accepted those allegations as established fact, and his cause of death remains under review.
Delaney Hall has already been the subject of another state lawsuit after GEO Group allegedly denied New Jersey health inspectors full access to the facility. Gov. Mikie Sherrill has called for the center’s closure and said her own request to enter the facility was denied.
The latest inquiry will examine whether GEO employees violated detainees’ civil rights. DHS has disputed claims that conditions at Delaney Hall are unsafe or inhumane.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, who has died at 71, was the first Latino to win the PEN/Faulkner. His YA novel “Aristotle and Dante” brought him international fame.
Many seemed reluctant to take sides in the Ohio Republican congressman's divorce, which was marked by accusations of abuse, until the allegation he had withheld his daughter’s sleep buddy.
Drought and record heat have forced the Norfolk and Suffolk league to move kick-off to the end of August as the ground is deemed too dangerous to play on
This summer’s record drought has forced a football league to delay the start of its season because “rock hard” pitches are a danger to its players.
The 2026/27 season in the Anglian Combination League of 85 amateur teams in Norfolk and Suffolk was due to start next weekend.
The US president’s profound ignorance of his enemy has led to an impotent cycle of empty threats, analysts say
Being the subject of mockery may be the most intense of all Donald Trump’s known aversions.
Yet more than five months after embarking on a war of choice against Iran, the US president risks attracting ridicule as he struggles to secure a military victory – while repeatedly threatening devastating bombardment against the Tehran regime, only to back down on the pretext of renewed negotiations.
European Aquatics Championships taking place in city
Threat to water quality tested two years after Games
Paris is staging its first high-diving competition in the Seine, with athletes launching themselves from a 20-metre platform in front of the Eiffel Tower – a spectacular new test of the city’s effort to reclaim its river for sport. The event on the Pont de Bir-Hakeim has also exposed the fragility of that ambition.
Organisers suspended training on Thursday when traces of hydrocarbons were detected upstream. By Friday, the French Swimming Federation said the affected area had been treated, allowing athletes to return to the water and the event to proceed as planned. High diving concludes on Saturday with the final two rounds and medal events, while the broader European Aquatics Championships run through to 16 August.
Journalists analyzed databases, scoured thousands of pages of documents and traveled to three states to illuminate a core finding of over $300 million in fraud.
Jerry and Tally Leonard have thrilled shoppers and open-skate crowds for decades at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon. Now, they’re not sure how they will fill the void.
Hey all, I’m having issues with my vesc having odd behavior with its nose. If I’m accelerating and go off a curb or any bump the nose likes to drop.
It feels as if the board is lagging or it’s catching itself? I also notice at speed if I push the nose down aggressively I get the same feeling, like the board lags and then catches itself again.
This behavior is really annoying and I’d like to know any fixes for it.
Somosierra will be prime spot to view celestial alignment on 12 August, an event that poses logistical challenges
Little stirs in the mountains above Somosierra beyond the wind that lashes the flat peaks, the cows that graze on parched grass and the sun that beats down on the abandoned aerodrome where generations of glider pilots learned to ride air currents alongside squadrons of vultures and red kites.
But all this stillness will disappear, albeit temporarily, on the evening of 12 August, when swathes of northern and eastern Spain and the Balearic islands experience a total solar eclipse, the likes of which has not been seen here for more than 120 years.
Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or ‘nudified’ content easier to produce
Children in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their likenesses, as a safety watchdog warned AI is making such content easier to produce.
The Report Remove service, which blocks intimate images from appearing online, said there had been a rapid increase in imagery that had been digitally manipulated or “faked” in some way, including with AI and nudification tools.
The police surrounded her car Thursday, "drew their guns, and told her to come out with her hands up," reports a local news station. The police thought they were pulling over a murder suspect, but "It turns out it was a mistake by another department with the Flock license plate reader technology." The black woman says she'd wanted to call her mother, "but I'm like, if I make a sudden move, it's going to be over. It's going to end my life."
And amazingly, the same thing happened Monday, according to the local news report. "Milwaukee police pulled her over with guns drawn. She says officers never explained why, towed her car, and let her go."
She now describes herself as "traumatized," recalling her second detention by police on Thursday. "After they put us in cuffs, they walked us to the car. I'm not knowing what's going on. I'm scared. All you see is people in their cars recording." She now says she's scared to drive her car, and so is her daughter. "Because she doesn't know if the police are going to pull us over and do it again..."
"I haven't been to sleep since this happened. Every time I close my eyes, all I can see is guns."
She wants an apology, since the local police would only say it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of the Milwaukee police department that failed to remove the alert from Flock's system. "Milwaukee police emphasized this was not a Flock camera issue, it was a data entry mistake," according to the local news report. The woman's response?
"Y'all failed. Y'all failed the system. Y'all failed me. Y'all failed everybody."
Scientists race to untangle complex links between exposure and mortality as fire weather grows more prevalent
A thousand kilometres from the infernos gorging on northern Ontario’s boreal forests, Erin O’Connor watched the sky above Canada’s biggest city turn an “almost post-apocalyptic” orange as it filled with light-scattering particles of soot and ash. Stepping outside the halls of Toronto General hospital, where air filters were keeping patients safe from the worst of the fumes, she was struck by a smell so strong it felt like standing by a campfire.
“It really hit you in the face as soon as you walked outside,” said O’Connor, who runs University Health Network’s emergency department and saw a rise in patients presenting with allergies and shortness of breath. “As the days progressed, it was like that everywhere. It seemed even inside you could smell that burning.”
Trump ally Abelardo De La Espriella vows to start ‘profound transformation’ of country’s destiny as he is sworn in
The Trump administration plans to provide $1bn in security assistance to the government of Colombia’s new rightwing president, the US state department announced, soon after Abelardo De La Espriella was sworn in and used his inaugural speech to pledge a vigorous fight against drug trafficking, as well as austerity measures to restore confidence in the economy.
De La Espriella, 48, won June’s runoff election with promises to crack down on armed groups, shrink the state by as much as 40% and revive the oil and gas sector.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump is again alleging election fraud without evidence, this time claiming Republican Mike Rogers was cheated out of Michigan’s 2024 U.S. Senate race.
During an interview with Punchbowl News, Trump said he believed Rogers actually won against Democrat Elissa Slotkin and called the contest “a rigged deal.” He offered no evidence to support the accusation.
The certified results show Slotkin defeated Rogers by roughly 19,000 votes, or about 0.3 percentage points. Michigan’s bipartisan Board of State Canvassers unanimously certified the 2024 election after all 83 county canvassing boards completed their reviews.
Michigan’s subsequent statewide audit also found no evidence that tabulation problems altered election outcomes. A risk-limiting audit hand-counted nearly 120,000 ballots from 166 precincts and found a difference of just 33 votes from machine totals — about 0.03% of audited ballots.
Rogers himself previously floated similarly unsupported claims about his 2024 loss, despite the absence of evidence showing widespread fraud or an incorrect result.
Trump made the accusation while discussing Rogers’ 2026 campaign against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed. He also repeatedly called El-Sayed “Abdullah,” despite his actual name being Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.
Trump has a long history of labeling elections “rigged” when results or polling are unfavorable. In this case, the allegation directly contradicts Michigan’s certified results and post-election auditing.
ST. AUGUSTINE, Florida — A 91-year-old Florida man has been charged with first-degree murder after authorities say he fatally shot his wife, who was blind and had severe Alzheimer’s disease, and told investigators he believed he was keeping a promise never to place her in a nursing home.
St. Johns County deputies responded Aug. 1 after William Albert Lippold’s son called 911. According to the arrest report, Lippold had summoned his son to the home by saying, “I did something bad, I need you to come over.”
Investigators said Lippold admitted shooting his wife and later attempting to take his own life by suffocating himself with a plastic bag. Deputies found his wife dead in a bedroom near a firearm, shell casing and handwritten note.
Lippold had been his wife’s sole caregiver. His son told investigators that his father had previously alluded to such an outcome as her condition worsened. Authorities say Lippold recently purchased the firearm and practiced using it at a gun range.
The sheriff’s report says Lippold told investigators that he had promised his wife he would never place her in institutional care and viewed the shooting as fulfilling that promise.
Lippold was arrested on a charge of premeditated first-degree murder with a firearm. An arrest represents an accusation, and he has not been convicted. The case now moves into Florida’s criminal court system.
British and Germans themselves share stereotype but other nationalities are likelier to put out towels – or umbrellas
Germans are sunlounger hoggers, or so the longstanding stereotype goes. But not only is that cultural trope mostly confined to British – and, even more so, German – perceptions, surprising new data reveals that in fact Italian and French holidaymakers are the ones most likely to use their towel to stake their claim to a sunlounger.
A poll by YouGov of Europeans holidaymakers found that while many Germans (51%) and Britons (46%) associate Germans with the ritual of waking up at the crack of dawn to mark their spot, the perception barely exists elsewhere in Europe, with just 5-17% of those surveyed in other countries sharing the stereotype.
The Pentagon alleged that former U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall disclosed sensitive information about Air Force One's capabilities to the media.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the BBC: German energy company RWE has said it will abandon its offshore wind projects in the U.S. after reaching a $1.2 billion payout deal with President Donald Trump's Department of the Interior (DoI). RWE said that it will now reinvest the sum into conventional gas projects, including $900 million in a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal project in Louisiana. "After careful consideration, it was determined there is no path forward to permit these projects in the US for the foreseeable future," the company said in a statement.
RWE said it has agreed to relinquish its leases off the California and Louisiana coasts as well as in the New York Bight. Overall, the German firm plans to invest approximately $19.6 billion in the U.S. over the next six years "to grow its generation capacity." Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement posted on X that Americans deserve an energy system built on common sense and not one dependent on "costly subsidies." "We welcome RWE's agreement and voluntary investment in projects that strengthen our nation's energy security," he added. Earlier this year, the DOL reached a deal with TotalEnergies putting an end to the French company's offshore wind projects in the U.S. "Instead, the firm agreed to reroute investment to build a LNG plant in Texas and to develop 'upstream conventional oil' in the Gulf of Mexico," reports the BBC.
Another similar deal was signed with Charlotte-based Duke Energy last month to terminate the company's offshore wind lease in the Carolina Long Bay area.
I’ve been searching locally for a while and have seen a few pints pop up now and again. They’re asking $600 and it allegedly has 16 miles on it with 89% battery life left. I’ve never had a one wheel but want one for getting around the farm and walking the dog.
I was riding my GT in the mountains this week and was hitting some rollers and started hearing a grinding sound. Almost like a rock was getting ground against something. Had more of a plastic grinding gear sound versus metal. On flats you wouldn't hear it but if I accelerated quickly or went uphill or downhill and used a lot of brakes you would definitely hear it. When it's off the wheel spins freely without any play and makes no noise so I don't think its a beal bearing. Axle bolts are tight. The board was hot when this happened because it was 90s but I didn't get any warnings. I cycled the board multiple times and that didn't help. Today it didn't make that noise no matter how hard I pushed it. The only thing I really did was change a lot of settings and then decided to go back to my default setting and that's when I noticed it pop up. Any ideas?
President Trump announced over $180 million in grants to boost educational programs for the mining industry, part of a bid to increase critical mineral production.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump is publicly pressuring U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro to reopen prosecutions over alleged vandalism at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, days after her office dismissed all four cases tied to the damage.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that newly visible cuts in the pool liner prove “pure VANDALISM” and accused Pirro of making a “hastily made decision.” He cited photographs posted by freelance photographer Andrew Leyden and again claimed the material had been deliberately slashed for hundreds of feet.
Pirro’s office previously dropped a felony case against former Olympic canoeist David Hearn and three misdemeanor cases after the Interior Department provided records indicating that at least some of the damage resulted from a flawed installation rather than vandalism.
That reversal was significant because prosecutors had initially relied on Interior Department representations that vandals caused the damage. Hearn’s lawyers also argued that the government’s own witness could not attribute specific repair costs to his conduct.
Trump has continued insisting vandals were responsible and is now criticizing both Pirro and Hearn’s attorneys while pointing to Hearn’s political activity as part of his argument for renewed prosecution.
Whether prosecutors can or will reopen any of the dismissed cases depends on the specific dismissal orders and available evidence. Trump’s public demand nevertheless puts unusual political pressure on a federal prosecutor who is a longtime ally and appointee.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito confirmed Friday that he plans to remain on the court for another term, ending months of speculation that he might retire while President Donald Trump and Republicans retain the ability to confirm a successor.
Alito, 76, told The Wall Street Journal that he intends to serve through the term beginning in October and running into summer 2027. His decision preserves the court’s current 6-3 conservative majority and prevents Trump, for now, from gaining an opportunity to appoint a fourth justice.
Some conservative activists have encouraged Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas to retire while Republicans control the Senate, arguing that younger replacements could secure the court’s ideological balance for decades.
Speculation intensified in June after NPR mistakenly published a prewritten article saying Alito was retiring. The outlet quickly retracted the report after the Supreme Court said it was inaccurate.
Alito pushed back against the idea that justices are politically interchangeable and criticized commentators who evaluate the court primarily through partisan outcomes.
He also defended his independence from Trump, saying he decides cases according to his interpretation of the law regardless of whether the outcome benefits the president.
Alito was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2006 and wrote the majority opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022. His decision to stay removes one potential Supreme Court vacancy from the immediate political calendar.
Justin and Tori Cannarelli of New York almost have a typical American family with their two children and a dog. But they also have one very unique member: a duck.
Quiet sobs could be heard in Melbourne’s coroner’s court, as several families attended to finally hear from the pair who were the most senior managers when, throughout July and August 2020, almost a quarter of the 188 residents at St Basil’s aged care home died from Covid-19 or neglect.
Following multiple failed legal bids to avoid giving evidence after 50 residents died in the Victorian aged care home they managed, Konstantin Kontis and Vicky Kos were compelled to testify at a coronial inquest resuming on the sixth anniversary of the tragedy.
A $50 million effort is underway to restore miles of eroded shoreline in Buxton, a village on one of the barrier islands of North Carolina's Outer Banks.
Two-term Rep. Andy Ogles lost the Republican primary for his Tennessee House seat, The Associated Press projects, despite securing an endorsement from President Trump.
Longtime Slashdot reader schwit1 shares an opinion piece from the Washington Post, written by Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger: NextEra Energy, a Florida-based utility company, has filed paperwork to buy Dominion Energy for about $67 billion, creating the largest regulated electric utility in the world. Virginia's State Corporation Commission is the regulatory body tasked with reviewing the application, and the SCC's commissioners will ultimately decide whether to approve, deny or impose new conditions on any potential merger.
As a Virginian, I am deeply skeptical about whether selling our primary state-regulated utility to an out-of-state company is good for the commonwealth. I have serious questions about what this deal would mean for us. And as governor, I intend to get answers and be a voice for Virginians in the process. That is why I will be taking the legal step of "intervening" in this proposed merger, which means that as governor, I will formally request to be a party to the case.
I know this action is unprecedented by a Virginia governor -- but so, too, is the size of this proposed merger and its potential impact on the commonwealth. Virginians deserve to know that their leaders are laser-focused on ensuring that their needs are part of the SCC review. "If two large corporations stand to benefit financially from this merger, so, too, should the Virginians who pay the bills," said Spanberger. "That is why any potential deal must deliver a more affordable energy bill with sustained, long-term energy cost savings."
By formally intervening in the merger review, Spanberger's administration would gain legal standing to participate directly in the case, request detailed information, raise concerns, and advocate for conditions that benefit people in the state. She says the goal is to push for lower long-term energy costs, protect utility jobs, and ensure any new owner continues investing in reliable, affordable and cleaner power.
CBS News received a second audio message from journalist Reza Valizadeh, who's been held in Iran's notorious Evin Prison since 2024. He gave an update on the prison conditions and on fellow American Kamran Hekmati, believed to be suffering from a recurring cancer.
Im 16 and not from around here n ain't got much to do, been riding a lot n wanna nab some people to join me if I can, I prefer groups. I have a pint x with about three years of experience n over 2k miles on my board. Wasn't sure where to reach out, I'm not on Facebook
Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat and a former U.S. House representative, cast his Democratic opponent, Abdul El-Sayed as “an extremist,” after the Aug. 4 primary election.
“Never in a million years did I think that I would be running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11,” read an Aug. 5 statement from Rogers that invoked his law enforcement work “hunting terrorists.”
The attack draws on an El-Sayed campaign connection to popular influencer and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, but the comment is not something El-Sayed said. El-Sayed campaigned this year alongside Piker, who said “America deserved 9/11” in 2019 and has since walked it back.
El-Sayed, a former public health official, addressed the controversy in April the morning he campaigned with Piker.
“Of course I don’t think 9/11 was justified,” he said. “Because you appear with somebody doesn’t mean you agree with him on everything.”
PolitiFact asked Rogers’ campaign for evidence to support Rogers’ statement. The campaign pointed us to a clip of El-Sayed at a campaign event being asked if he disavows Piker’s comments and describing the blowback as “cancel culture.” The campaign also pointed us to a clip of El-Sayed declining to answer when asked whether he’d campaign with Piker again.
“Abdul was asked point blank if he’d disavow Hasan Piker’s comments, and he wouldn’t do it. That tells you everything you need to know,” Rogers campaign spokesperson Alyssa Brouillet said.
Asked directly about Rogers’ 9/11 statement on MSNOW, El-Sayed accused Rogers of Islamophobia and said Rogers was using the attack to divide people.
What did Piker say about 9/11?
Piker is one of the most popular political creators on the livestreaming platform Twitch, drawing more than 25,000 live viewers on average during his streams. He is a self-described socialist and often campaigns for progressive and left-wing challengers to moderate Democratic politicians.
In an August 2019 stream while watching U.S. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, on Joe Rogan’s podcast, Piker said, “America deserved 9/11, dude.” He later said we “totally brought it on ourselves.”
Piker walked back the comments in an appearance two days later on the political YouTube show “The Young Turks,” where he was a contributor. He said he opposes violence and he was making the point that U.S. actions in the Middle East created the extremism that led to the terrorist attacks.
“All of the foreign policy decisions, and our arming of insurgent groups in the region, and our efforts in destabilizing the Middle East have a direct consequence, a boomerang effect if you will, in causing 9/11,” Piker said.
While campaigning with El-Sayed in April, Piker told The Associated Press he “didn’t mean that Americans deserved to die.”
How El-Sayed addressed the Piker controversy
El-Sayed told the Michigan Advance that he campaigned with Piker on April 7 — at events at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan — because Piker reaches people who have been “locked out” of the political process.
At one of the events, a reporter asked El-Sayed if he would disavow anything Piker has said. El-Sayed didn’t point to anything specific and called the criticism cancel culture.
“I’m not here to disavow people’s views,” El-Sayed said. “This whole gotcha game, platform policing, cancel culture, I thought we were over it.”
Before the campaign events, El-Sayed told “Fox and Friends” on April 7 that he didn’t think 9/11 was justified.
Since winning the Aug. 4 primary, El-Sayed has not said whether he will campaign with Piker again ahead of the general election.
Rogers said El-Sayed “believes America deserved 9/11.”
Rogers pointed to a seven-year-old statement from another person — not from El-Sayed — to support his claim.
The incendiary attack by Rogers on El-Sayed, who is Muslim, evokes tropes about Muslims and support for terrorism.
El-Sayed campaigned with Piker, but didn’t endorse his comments about 9/11, and said the same day that he doesn’t think the 9/11 terrorist attacks were justified.
The National Rural Water Association has partnered with DEF CON Franklin to launch the Water Watch Center, which will provide threat intelligence and cybersecurity services to smaller U.S. water utilities serving fewer than 10,000 people. The initiative comes amid a growing wave of cyberattacks on water systems across multiple states. The Record reports: The program will see five managed detection and response providers work with DEF CON Franklin and the NRWA to offer cyber services for water utilities serving fewer than 10,000 people. There are over 50,000 community water systems across the U.S. and 91% of them serve fewer than 10,000 people. "These leading cyber firms and NRWA are architecting a scalable cyber delivery model that has eluded water industry and national security officials to date," said Jake Braun, the co-founder of DEF CON Franklin and former cyber official in the Biden administration.
"Our incredible Franklin volunteers will support the effort to keep costs down for cash-strapped utilities fending off adversaries like the Iranian Red Guard or Chinese Military," Braun said. "To further accelerate the effort, we hand-picked cyber providers who already support water utilities. These folks walk in the door knowing the intricacies of cybersecurity in a water utility environment." The providers include Rapid7, Defendify, Legato Security, L1 Secure and Sentinel Technologies. The companies will share threat information and data on vulnerability patches with the NRWA, which will operate as a hub.
Move comes in response to Rome imposing similar measures after mass migration rush to Ceuta
Spain has announced it will introduce temporary border checks on visitors from Italy in response to Rome imposing similar measures after a mass rush of people from Morocco into Ceuta.
The checks, which come “amid the persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy, will start at midnight on Saturday and last until 7 September, Spain’s interior ministry said in a statement.
A federal appeals court said the White House lacks the authority to unilaterally construct the 90,000-square-foot ballroom. President Trump said the administration will appeal to the Supreme Court.
Will Rosenzweig’s defunct blog was publicized online by conservative pundit who tagged senior DoJ officials
A federal prosecutor fired last year over critical comments he had written as a private citizen about Donald Trump sued the justice department on Friday, saying his termination violated his first amendment rights.
Will Rosenzweig was two weeks away from trying a multimillion-dollar Medicare fraud case when a blog he had written years earlier covering a broad range of topics was publicized online by a conservative political commentator who also included a screenshot of Rosenzweig’s LinkedIn account and tagged senior justice department officials.
I recently got my pint x and have put around 150 lifetime miles on it in the past month of owning it. But I’ve recently started to notice like a drop in torque. For the first 60 miles of the board it felt like could stop pretty hard and feel like it accelerated very quickly and didn’t ever reach haptic buzz that often. But these last 100 miles or so of riding it has felt like my nose will dip down down when trying to give it a little acceleration and then the board will correct the nose tilt and give me a slight hum for a second and get back to flat. I run the board on a costume setting with no tilt. And I’ve tested the aggressiveness setting but it all seems to do the same thing even when aggressive is at 0. Ive also noticed like the haptic feedback buzz doesn’t sounds as clean as it used to. It sounds sort of muffled. Now I haven’t rode in the rain or through puddles but I do ride on dirt and gravel a fair amount of the time riding, and I know the stock tire isn’t to great for that. But I’m just wondering if anyone else has this problem possible solutions or diagnosis. It just has felt like the torque has dropped off the last 100 miles of owning it.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Billions of dollars are traded every week on the lightly regulated prediction market sites, where users bet on everything from movie reviews to elections to conflicts in the Middle East. Clinical trials are just the latest area where the industry's rapid growth is raising ethical questions. Kalshi claims such bets will provide a new source of information about which drugs will get approved, and what clinical trials will show promising results, which the company says can help investors decide what new drugs to fund.
"If you want to ban profiting from the failure of clinical trials, you would start with the stock market, where the financial incentive for this type of profit is orders of magnitude larger," said Kalshi spokesman Jack Such, pointing to stock market short sellers who have profited from clinical trial failures. "While Kalshi and the stock market are the same in this regard, they do differ in one important way: the stock market doesn't give any valuable information to researchers," Such said.
Drug trial researchers, though, are far from convinced. David Tsai, who runs clinical trials at a biotech company in the San Francisco Bay Area, started an online petition pushing for such betting to be banned, making the case that betting on drug trials "threatens the very foundation of trust and integrity in biotechnology." Tsai is concerned that the prospect of betting provides those involved with a clinical trial a reason to tamper with the results for a prediction market payout. "If we were running a trial for an oncology drug that requires an infusion, a pharmacist who had placed a bet saying that it's gonna work well, or doesn't work well, could obviously adjust the infusion rate, could adjust the source temperature of the drug," he said. "They could change any number of variables that could obviously have a direct impact [on] how the trial and the data and the patient safety would come out."
Another skeptic is Nicholas Zaorsky, a professor of radiation oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., who has helped run clinical trials and agrees that prediction markets can interfere with the advancement of life-saving drugs. "Prediction markets can be valuable in some settings because they aggregate information, but clinical trials are fundamentally different: investigators, coordinators, and sometimes even participants can directly influence aspects of the outcomes being wagered on," Zaorsky said. "That creates financial incentives that risk undermining trial integrity." Bettors should not be rooting for an experimental medicine to fail just to earn a buck, says Joshua Pederson, the father of a 12-year-old cancer patient enrolled in a clinical trial. "It's a dark idea," he said. "It's quite ghastly."
Kalshi, for its part, argues that its prediction markets could help patients track promising medical breakthroughs and clinical trials, enlisting experts including 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki to make the case.
"Most patients don't know about the choices available in clinical trials or which programs are most promising. The opportunity to have an open, transparent dataset about trial probabilities is extremely promising and empowering for people," a white paper sponsored by Kalshi stated.
Chad Eberle of Texas charged over deadly shooting in Saltillo that officials say stemmed from custody dispute
A Texas police officer has been arrested in Mexico after authorities there accused him of killing three people and critically injuring the mother of his child in what investigators say stemmed from a dispute over the custody of the minor.
The Coahuila attorney general’s office said 35-year-old Chad Eberle was arrested on Wednesday at the border on a warrant accusing him of femicide and qualified homicide, according to La Razon de Mexico, a newspaper based in Mexico City. Under Mexican law, femicide refers to the intentional killing of a woman or girl because of her gender.
Whether the biggest artificial intelligence data centers should open in Florida and what it means for people’s electric bills is a top issue in the state’s governor’s race.
GOP frontrunner U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds welcomes them, with consumer protections attached, and has received dozens of campaign contributions from AI companies. David Jolly, the leading Democrat in the race, wants a data center moratorium, which some counties have enacted already.
“Byron Donalds wants to rush them onto pristine land while dismissing the consequences,” Jolly said in a July 22 X post.
But Donalds said Jolly is wrong. “No protections for ratepayers and the environment = no data center. That’s the law on the books in Florida,” Donalds wrote July 22 on X, adding that he introduced a similar bill in Congress.
In another post the same day, Donalds said the 2026 law, SB 484, “ensures that utility rates will not go up due to data centers.”
Does the law guarantee consumers’ electric bills won’t increase because of new data centers?
Gates McGavick, Donalds’ campaign communications director, said “no electric rate change” takes effect without the state energy commission’s approval. The commission has to “ensure data centers pay their own cost of service and we expect municipal utilities and co-ops to follow suit,” McGavick said.
Energy policy experts said the law can protect consumers against spiking utility bills. But they also say Donalds overstated its reach. That’s because the pricing plan for data centers depends on a state commission’s oversight, data centers’ operations could increase electric bills in other ways, and the law doesn’t apply to all utility companies.
“Saying rates ‘will not’ go up because of (the law) claims an outcome the statute does not deliver,” said Mark McNees, a Florida State University professor who researches how AI data centers can affect consumers.
The law directs a commission to ‘reasonably ensure’ consumers don’t pay more, but doesn’t guarantee it
The law directs the Florida Public Service Commission, the state’s primary energy regulatory body, to approve minimum tariff and service rules for massive consumers of electricity, or “large load customers.” Data centers that require 50 megawatts of power or more are subject to the law. (A 50-megawatt facility typically draws enough electricity to power around 30,000 to 50,000 homes.)
The law says that rates for these large data centers must “reasonably ensure” that each “bears its own full cost of service” and that the cost isn’t shifted to the average consumer.
The legislation says these costs of service include connection, incremental transmission and generation, and operations and maintenance expenses. It also bars data centers from splitting a single, large location into smaller connections to avoid paying full costs.
Four investor-owned electric utilities in the state are governed by the commission and subject to the law: Florida Power & Light, Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric and the Florida Public Utilities Company. These companies serve approximately 75% of the state’s population.
By Oct. 1, these utilities must file compliant pricing plans for the commission’s approval.
The law doesn’t apply to rural cooperatives or municipal utility companies, such as Jacksonville Electric Authority, Orlando Utilities Commission and Gainesville Regional Utilities, which are governed by local boards that set their own pricing rules.
That means people who receive services from these companies aren’t protected under the new law, and could see different rate structures if data centers are built near them.
Energy policy experts said the new law is helpful but largely procedural.
This “directs a process, not a result,” McNees said. The law’s language, that the plans must “reasonably ensure” data centers pay their own costs, is “an instruction to the commission,” not a cap on rates or ban on increases, he said.
The law outlines enforcement tools utilities could use against data centers, such as upfront financial guarantees and minimum demand charges to prevent them from abandoning projects midway and saddling locals with related costs. But it doesn’t require utilities to use these tools.
And while the legislation addresses incremental costs of serving data centers, it doesn’t address other expenses that could make consumers’ bills go up, experts said.
For example, when fuel costs go up, utilities pass that onto customers. The new law doesn’t cap those charges or insulate residential customers from the increases, even if a data center’s electricity consumption raises the overall demand in the region.
Our ruling
Donalds said a new Florida law “ensures that utility rates will not go up due to data centers.”
The law outlines ways to protect consumers from paying higher bills because of new data centers, but it doesn’t guarantee it won’t happen.
Utility pricing plans for certain large data centers must “reasonably ensure” that each bears its own full cost of service, the law says. It’s up to the Florida Public Service Commission to define and enforce the pricing plan.
The four top electric utilities in the state are bound by the law’s rules, but rural cooperatives and municipal utilities governed by local boards are not.
Late senator spent final days of his life working to advance bill that will now head to the House after 86-11 Senate vote
By a large, bipartisan margin, the US Senate on Friday approved a bill intended to punish Russia and countries that buy its petroleum exports over the invasion of Ukraine, capping a legislative push that was spurred by the death of its champion, the Republican senator Lindsey Graham.
The measure, renamed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia Act in honor of the late senator’s work on the issue, was approved by an 86-11 vote. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the sole Republican to oppose the legislation, together with 10 Democrats.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli hired former top aide Shawn Lewis to be a federal law enforcement liaison, though Lewis has three prior convictions for driving under the influence and a pending battery charge.
Former U.S. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis says the biggest AI risk isn't sentience but autonomy. "What I'm worried about is that they get to choose what and where they do something, and under what rules they do it," he said, citing recent cases of AI agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta escaping security sandboxes. He argues developers need stronger safeguards, monitoring, and human accountability, invoking Asimov's idea that protecting humans should come before simply obeying them. The Register reports: "Asimov was right," he said, referring to science fiction author Isaac Asimov and his three laws that were to be followed by robots -- more specifically, AIs, in this case. "The first rule, and we call it the superior role, must be that it's designed not to hurt humans," Inglis said. "Second rule: To obey humans, such that it doesn't achieve agency and aspiration on its own. And the third: To do what humans tell it - and in that order. Instead we've designed them in the exact opposite way."
What this means, he explained, is that AI developers created models to "do what humans tell you, obey the humans until it's inconvenient, and then the third one is maybe implied - protect humans - but if that's not built into the DNA, hardwired into it, then we have no right to expect it." Inglis admits it's not possible to hardwire rules into models and still keep their non-deterministic nature. "I would offer that you can tease those out in a highly controlled environment, a true sandbox, where you say, 'Let's put this thing through its paces, and let's back away to see what happens,'" he said. "Maybe you get the equivalent of a mini nuclear explosion in that room, and now you know this thing is capable of that."
Inglis thinks another problem with AI is that it's become a commodity. "It's not like you can control it like you can nuclear material," he said. "You can't even specify its properties the way you can for an airplane or for an automobile, as diverse as they might be. Its manifestations are so numerous, so diverse, that as a general matter, you can't actually win by simply saying, "I will design those properties in,'" he added. "You need to do that to some degree, and then make sure that you understand how to watch it, monitor it, make sure you know what it does."
[...] Ultimately, humans remain accountable for AI models' actions, according to Inglis. "They remain the source of agency and aspiration. It's possible for them to give broad authority to an AI model and have it run around for 30 hours without further consultation, but they need to know what they've asked it to do, and they need to know what they expect it will deliver in terms of performance on the back end. If they don't, then they're going to get what they deserve, which is the very frequent unpleasant surprise."
The Department of Energy today announced a plan to create a new class of open-weight foundation models as part of its Genesis Mission effort to turbocharge scientific discovery and engineering productivity. The DOE unveiled the first model as part of this effort, dubbed Genesis-Science-1, but it’s looking to the AI community for more open-weight models. Interested parties better act quickly, however, as the deadlines are coming up fast.
As part of its open-weights initiative, the DOE says it’s hoping “to galvanize the scientific and AI communities around shared infrastructure” and accelerate progress in materials discovery, energy systems, earth system modeling, fusion, biology, and high-energy physics. “This effort is grounded in the principles of open science, reproducibility, and responsible AI, with the goal of lowering barriers to advanced AI capabilities for the public good,” the DOE said.
The DOE announced that it’s soliciting proposals from open-weight model creators as well as the people who would like to use the models. This includes open-weight models for use as a base model for downstream fine-tuning, as well as AI models for immediate deployment.
It would like to hear from organizations and researchers who have access to “high-quality, domain-specific scientific data” who may be interested in contributing their data to future pretraining cycles. It also would like to hear from teams that would like to use that data to fine-tune existing models for specific use cases and mission needs, such as lab assistants, simulation surrogates, and scientific copilots.
Applications for the first contribution window for pretraining efforts will close next Friday, August 14. Applications for fine-tuning efforts will close on August 25. The DOE says additional deadlines will be rolling and occur every three months. You can submit and application for the Genesis Open Models Initiative here.
Genesis-Science-1
The first model accepeted into the DOE inititive, Genesis-Science-1, was developed by Arcee Labs. In a recent blog post, Arcee CTO Lucas Atkins and CEO and Co-Founder Mark McQuade discussed what drove them to undertake the development effort and where they plan to go from here.
(FOTOGRIN/Shutterstock)
“Just a year ago, Arcee made a decision that was difficult to defend. We began training our own open models from scratch, in the United States, when the faster and cheaper path pointed elsewhere,” the founders wrote. “We have real admiration for the open-model labs in China. DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, MiniMax, and GLM have built excellent models that people rely on, and they kept sharing open weights when much of the field was moving the other way. They earned their standing. Yet their work also showed how few capable open models were being made in the United States.”
The right response is this, Atkins and McQuade wrote, is to build better open models in the U.S. That is what the San Francisco company has done with its first model, Trinity, a 400 billion parameter language model that the company released under an Apache 2.0 license.
“Closed American systems will stay valuable, and many are superb,” Atkins and McQuade wrote in the blog post. “What they can’t offer a national laboratory is a model it holds in its own hands, free to preserve, adapt, and run on its own terms. We wanted American science to have that option too.
Open Vs Proprietary
The question of whether one should use open-weight models or closed-source models for AI endeavors has many variables, including capability, price, adaptability, national sovereignty, and whether one needs to run on-prem.
The top performing foundation models in the world today are largely proprietary, run in the cloud, and are not adaptable or fine-tunable to meet customers’ specific needs. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google are widely recognized as developing the best AI models in the world with GPT, Claude, and Gemini, respectively. But they’re all closed source and come at a relatively high cost for users.
American open-weight models, meanwhile, generally don’t perform as well as the closed frontier models on most benchmark tests. While anyone can download, modify, and run models from Arcee AI, Poolside, Nvidia, Thinking Machines Lab, Meta, and Reflection AI on their own hardware, they generally don’t meet the same performance levels on benchmarks.
These are the general tradeoffs that practitioners have weighed over the first six months of 2026. But the latest open-weight models out of China buck that trend. Earlier this year, the Stanford University’s Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) published its latest AI index that showed that Alibaba’s Qwen and DeepSeek foundation models scoring nearly as high as the proprietary American models. And in recent weeks, Moonshot AI launched Kimi K3 and Alibaba launched Qwen 3.8 tMax, which offered another jump in capability.
The emergence of these highly capable open-weight models from China spurred calls for the U.S. Government to regulate or ban these models from use in the United States. There doesn’t appear to be the political will to take such a drastic action as banning open-weight Chinese models for use by American businesses.
After all, that would signal that the Chinese have developed superior technology to the Americans, which is debatable. American officials have accused the Chinese of copying the proprietary American models through a technique known as of distillation, which is probably true. But making a technical as commonplace as distillation illegal also would seem to be a bridge too far (Prohibition didn’t last in the U.S., either).
The Risk of Chinese Models
The DOE will not tolerate Chinese models in the National Labs–for good reason, as their use does pose a security risk, even if the models are running on-prem in secure facilities.
Chinese models have been detected behaving differently when used in a government context, according CTERA CTO Aron Brand, citing a May Booz Allen study.
(Source: Shutterstock)
“Whether this behavior is deliberate or an emergent result of training data and alignment, the enterprise risk is the same: inconsistent behavior, political constraints, and the possibility of hidden backdoors or other latent behaviors,” Brand told HPCwire.
But at the same time, the government cannot cede the high ground in open-weight models to the Chinese. The good news is that the American AI community has recently made a large commitment to open-weight models.
“Our AI leadership will be judged not by one frontier AI model, but by whether the United States build a strong, open ecosystem that diffuses into every sector,” the letter reads. “This is essential for creating opportunities for innovation and prosperity across the country.”
Open-weight models are superior to proprietary models in several respects, according to the “Open Weights and American AI Leadership” letter, in that they can be downloaded, inspected, modified, and run by anyone on their own hardware. They also strengthen competition by preventing AI capabilities from being used by only a handful of companies or labs, which ultimately improve capabilities and drives down costs.
Aug. 7, 2026 — Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory created a platform that pinpoints genetic triggers that turn microbes into efficient factories for new chemicals and materials. The method enables rapid, precise reprogramming of bacteria as biotechnology tools, supporting the domestic production of valuable products and the recovery of critical minerals and materials, enhancing the nation’s supply chains and global competitiveness.
ORNL developed a platform using automation and artificial intelligence to rapidly identify beneficial genetic traits in microbes, supporting the engineering of strains for industrial biotechnology and manufacturing. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL.
Scientists leveraged synthetic biology expertise, artificial intelligence and statistical mapping techniques to rapidly assess bacterial traits and precisely identify candidate genes that trigger desired characteristics. They then validated findings with gene editing, as described in Nature Communications. The approach builds on previous work by ORNL scientists who adapted a technique called protoplast fusion to create the diverse microbial offspring needed for genetic mapping.
The resulting platform enables the discovery of specific genetic triggers for complex traits, supporting precise design of microbes with targeted capabilities for applications such as the breakdown and conversion of plant lignin into valuable products and the uptake of critical minerals.
“Unlike past approaches that study the effect of gaining or losing whole genes, the new approach lets us determine how small differences in the nucleotide sequence affect bacterial function,” said Josh Michener, co-lead for the project and Biological Systems Design group leader at ORNL. “Variations in strains at the nucleotide level have a huge impact on the resulting phenotype, especially when you’re engineering microbes with specific mutations. The method also lets us study natural mutations in parental strains that make them ideal biotechnology tools.”
Old-School Technique Makes Fresh Microbial Mixes
To determine which genes control certain characteristics in organisms, scientists used a method called quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping. QTL mapping involves analyzing the traits of lots of varied offspring from two distinct parents, and is a common approach in mapping the genes of other organisms such as plants. The method examines many genetic differences at once and precisely identifies candidate genes in a single workflow.
The problem with applying QTL mapping to bacteria, however, is that these microorganisms reproduce asexually with limited genetic variation.
The team also tested the method across several other bacterial groups, demonstrating alternative genome shuffling methods that expand the tool’s usability on different types of microbes used as biotechnology tools. These include:
Clostridium thermocellum, a bacterium that tolerates industrial processes and is good at breaking down and fermenting plant cellulose;
Novosphingobium aromaticivorans, a bacterium that excels at breaking down aromatic compounds from plant lignin and converting the molecules into high-value chemicals.
Stutzerimonas stutzeri, a versatile bacterium used in applications such as bioremediation and to fix nutrients in soil, supporting plant growth and suppressing plant pathogens.
Researchers measured properties of the bacteria and identified DNA variants that could explain the differences in those traits. They then validated their findings by using CRISPR gene-editing tools to swap gene sections and confirm the effects in bacteria.
“We have now, for the first time ever, put all these pieces together for a platform that gets results on complex genes-to-traits linkages much faster,” Michener said. “We built the genetically diverse bacteria population, identified DNA variants, and confirmed the work with gene editing.”
Automation Results in 10X Faster Phenotyping
By creating such broad diversity in the bacterial offspring, scientists faced a challenge in the research: phenotyping all the progeny. They tackled it with automation and AI, setting up a robotic system to quickly and repeatedly place plates with precision so that high-resolution digital imaging could be accomplished at the same angle and lighting for comparable data between the recombinants. The phenotyping was accomplished 10 times faster with automation, the scientists noted.
Getting consistent data was crucial to the application of mathematical algorithms and the use of a computer vision model that processed the images and extracted traits, said co-lead Dan Jacobson, ORNL computational systems biologist.
“We built this project with a very multidisciplinary lineup,” Jacobson said, “The team did everything from building the robotics, conducting imaging and image processing, performing the statistical work, the mapping and assemblies, the genome shuffling work, growing these different isolates from the population and extracting DNA to send for sequencing, then growing them again for the phenotype assays. It’s an example of the kind of good collaboration that’s possible at a national lab, and how that research can enable whole new areas of inquiry across the nation’s science ecosystem.”
Scientists continue to deploy the method to study and engineer microbes for better manufacturing processes as part of the DOE Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at ORNL. The platform is also being used to study plant-associated microbes as part of the DOE Secure Ecosystem Engineering and Design Science Focus Area (SEED SFA), as well as by a program at Colorado State University studying airborne microbes.
The project was supported primarily by the ORNL Laboratory-Directed Research and Development program and CBI. Additional funding was provided by the SEED SFA and Michener’s DOE Early Career Research Award. CBI, the SEED SFA and the ECA are in turn supported by the DOE Office of Science Biological and Environmental Research program. Genome sequencing was conducted by the Joint Genome Institute, a DOE Office of Science user facility.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The Office of Science is the largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is committed to addressing some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit energy.gov/science.
"Framework has been sending out email notifications to customers alerting of a limited data breach in which customer information was accessed through a Metabase BI service zero-day exploit," writes Slashdot reader DuoDreamer. Data includes customer names, email addresses, phone numbers, and physical addresses. "Framework is investigating whether or not this included Framework for Business customers as well." TechCrunch reports: Framework's spokesperson Eric Schumacher told TechCrunch that the breach affected "all customers," but declined to specify a specific number. Framework computers are relatively niche products, but some estimates say the company sold hundreds of thousands of devices.
Metabase disclosed its own breach in a blog post on its official website, where it said that it was hacked by someone using an unknown security flaw, a so-called zero-day. The company said the hackers exploited the bug to give them the ability to access customers' databases stored on Metabase's cloud servers.
In its email to customers, Framework also included the email Metabase sent to the company, which says hackers accessed Framework's cloud instance. The computer maker said it investigated the incident and found that hackers had stolen its customers' personal data, but did not include their payment information.
Aug. 7, 2026 — Predicting exactly how fuel burns in heavy-duty engines, gas turbines, and rocket motors is essential to optimizing performance and preventing equipment damage, but running physical experiments in these extreme environments is notoriously difficult and prohibitively expensive.
Pele software suite creates highly detailed 3D visualizations of turbulent flames, allowing researchers to study complex combustion without needing to run physical experiments.
This is where Pele, an open-source simulation suite co-developed by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) alongside a multi-institutional team, comes in. Built on the Berkeley Lab-developed AMReX framework and harnessing exascale supercomputing and artificial intelligence, Pele accurately models complex combustion for both low-speed and high-speed fuel-air interactions. By simulating how different fuels perform in these extreme environments, Pele allows scientists to reliably predict real-world outcomes and accelerate the design of next-generation aerospace and power technologies.
“Being named an R&D 100 winner validates the incredible power of team science. By combining Berkeley Lab’s decades of expertise in adaptive mesh refinement with the deep domain knowledge of our national lab partners, we built a framework that successfully harnessed exascale computing. That collaborative breakthrough is what now empowers researchers around the world to tackle some of the most complex clean energy and aerospace challenges,” said Ann Almgren, Berkeley Lab senior scientist and a contributor on the Pele development team.
The multi-laboratory development effort is led by Marcus Day (National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), formerly of Berkeley Lab). It includes partners from Sandia, Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. The Berkeley Lab contingent driving the project includes researchers from the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division (AMCR): Ann Almgren, John Bell, Andrew Myers, Andrew Nonaka, Jean Sexton, and Weiqun Zhang.
A Foundation Built at Berkeley Lab
Long before the Department of Energy launched the Exascale Computing Project (ECP) in 2016 to push scientific supercomputing to its next frontier, Berkeley Lab researchers were laying the groundwork for simulating combustion in extreme environments. In the early 2000s, Day, who was then at Berkeley Lab, and Bell created a low-Mach-number combustion code (LMC) built on top of BoxLib, an early software framework for adaptive mesh refinement on CPU-based computers. The team’s foundational work on simulating reacting flows originated in the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research’s applied mathematics program and was subsequently enhanced in DOE’s SciDAC program.
That foundational work expanded significantly under ECP. LMC became PeleLM for low-speed flows, while a new solver, PeleC, was added for high-speed flows. Pushing these codes to run on exascale systems revealed a major roadblock: these supercomputers rely on GPUs, whereas BoxLib was strictly a CPU-based framework.
To solve this, a multi-laboratory team led by Bell completely rebuilt BoxLib from the ground up to create AMReX. Today, AMReX acts as the software infrastructure for the entire Pele suite, managing the intricate data and geometry needed to run these massive combustion models.
Modeling the fluid dynamics of combustion is a massive computational challenge because capturing the microscopic details of a flame front requires an incredibly fine, high-resolution grid, but simulating an entire engine block at that microscopic scale would instantly overwhelm a supercomputer. AMReX solves this bottleneck by acting as a highly intelligent numerical microscope. It starts the simulation with a relatively coarse grid. As Pele calculates the fluid motion and chemical reactions, AMReX constantly scans the environment for intense physical activity, such as rapid ignition or steep changes in turbulence.
Instead of forcing the supercomputer to calculate the entire engine block at maximum resolution, AMReX follows the action. It adds higher-resolution grid points specifically where the flame is reacting. As the flame moves, the high-resolution grid moves with it—adding detail just ahead of the flame and erasing it from the space left behind. Focusing computing power only where it’s actually needed cuts simulation costs by 70 percent or more.
Beyond managing the grid, AMReX serves as the crucial translator between Pele’s science and the supercomputer’s hardware. It orchestrates the complex distribution of data across millions of GPUs, thereby offloading a massive logistical burden and allowing Pele’s specialized flow solvers to focus entirely on the complex math of combustion physics. This seamless integration of advanced computer science and physical modeling ultimately enables Pele to operate at the exascale and run some of the largest reacting-flow simulations in history.
In addition to Berkeley Lab, AMReX was developed with contributions from researchers at NLR and Argonne National Laboratory.
White House continues to target Cook despite decision from justices that upheld Federal Reserve’s independence
Donald Trump is attempting once again to oust the US Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud, despite a recent US supreme court decision that upheld the central bank’s independence.
Cook reportedly received a letter from the White House this week that provided notice, in accordance to the supreme court’s June ruling, that Trump was “considering removing” her from her Fed position over the same claims of mortgage fraud that he levied against her last summer.
The European research project EXA4MIND provides tools and preconfigured workflows that make it easier to collect, manage, and analyze extremely large and diverse datasets.
Aug. 7, 2026 — More than 25 scientific papers and studies over nearly four years, 30 training courses and workshops on artificial intelligence (AI)-based data analysis and processing, as well as an online platform featuring links to useful tools and extensive documentation: this is the track record of the European research project “Extreme Analytics for Mining Data Spaces” (EXA4MIND).
Ten universities, research institutes, and companies leveraged the resources of European High Performance Computing (HPC) centers and developed tools and interfaces that use open-source software and libraries to create modular workflows. These solutions enable researchers to access databases, manage research data and results, and analyze big data using AI methods. The project was coordinated by the Czech National Supercomputing Center, IT4Innovations, with support from the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ).
“EXA4MIND brings together high-performance and cloud computing, AI and data analytics, as well as professional data management across Europe to unlock datasets that are more diverse and larger than conventional big-data collections,” explains Dr. Stephan Hachinger, Head of Research Data Management at LRZ. “Researchers and small and medium-sized enterprises can find tools on the platform that allow them to automate their own analytics workflows across different computing resources and storage solutions, while professionally indexing, cataloging, and publishing their data according to the FAIR principles.” This makes research data and analytical results discoverable online for both humans and machines.
AI Workflows for HPC Systems
One of the main drivers behind these efforts is the continuous growth in data volumes and the increasing use of AI in science and industry. At the same time, more researchers in companies and universities are working with cloud technologies and require additional expertise to establish their own data analytics workflows while integrating supercomputers into their processes.
Today, most high-performance computing systems rely on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which support not only traditional simulation workloads but also AI applications such as computer vision and machine learning. While industry often uses databases, object storage systems, and data-streaming technologies to support AI, HPC centers typically focus on adapting file systems, network connections, and input/output libraries. They generally assume that experienced users can efficiently navigate these environments. However, AI is attracting new user groups to HPC centers, many of whom use pre-existing models to analyze research data. As a result, there is growing demand for interoperable tools and standardized workflows that simplify entry into AI-driven supercomputing.
For work at supercomputing centers, EXA4MIND provides guidance on installing data backends such as vector databases and object storage systems, as well as recommendations on when these solutions offer advantages over traditional storage approaches. EXA4MIND’s Advanced Query and Indexing System (AQIS) supports the setup of high-performance analytics pipelines based on the open-source frameworks Airflow and Dask. AQIS also supports AI inference and querying data using natural language.
In doing so, it helps make the benefits of AI and HPC accessible to startups and SMEs across Europe. “EXA4MIND opens opportunities for researchers and small companies to explore the services of supercomputing centers and work more efficiently with massive datasets,” said Hachinger. “The modules of the EXA4MIND/EDD platform can be deployed on systems ranging from laptops to HPC clusters, depending on the computational requirements.” Through the interfaces developed by the project partners, European and international data spaces, as well as data from the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and EUDAT, can be accessed using EXA4MIND tools. “We explicitly encourage users,” Hachinger added, “to connect their workflows with these environments in order to search for data and share results.”
Data Analytics Workflows in Practice
To demonstrate the effectiveness of its workflows and their applicability across different domains, EXA4MIND validated them through practical use cases from research and industry:
For molecular dynamics simulations, the researchers established a community data platform. Using IDA4SIMS and ADAMS4SIMS, scientists can compare their simulations with real-world observations, enrich their research data in compliance with FAIR principles, and improve simulation quality. The platform also enables testing of force-field descriptions that determine molecular behavior.
Automotive supplier Valeo uses AI to enhance driver assistance systems. Through EXA4MIND, the company developed processes for enriching and annotating data generated by such systems. Project partners also built a database of driving situations and created tools for analyzing traffic scenarios in which assistance systems frequently fail, providing important foundations for more autonomous driving.
Agriculture also benefits from AI, particularly in irrigation and fertilisation management. These technologies can increase yields while conserving water. With Aquaview, a system developed by Terraview/Gamaya, vineyard operators can monitor soil moisture levels and make weather-dependent irrigation decisions. The service is based on satellite data. By applying EXA4MIND tools for caching, data conversion, and filtering, workflows were streamlined and data volumes reduced, saving both processing time and storage capacity.
These applications, analytics tasks, and the tools and technical processes behind them are thoroughly documented and linked on the EXA4MIND platform. Interested users can also access studies, research papers, and workshop materials to learn about the technologies and adapt them for their own needs. In addition, the EXA4MIND team developed workflows specifically for supercomputing centers, enabling their computing power to be used more effectively for AI applications and scaled as required.
EXA4MIND represents an important contribution to Europe’s data-driven research landscape. As with its predecessor project LEXIS, which created a platform for orchestrating geographically distributed HPC and cloud systems, the practical experience gained with workflows and technologies can feed into larger strategic IT initiatives. The EuroHPC Federation Platform, currently being developed by the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, aims to provide future access to supercomputers, quantum computers, and AI systems.
Hachinger concluded: “We are convinced that European supercomputing, particularly within the framework of the EuroHPC Joint Undertaking, will benefit from the concepts developed in EXA4MIND and LEXIS, further expanding the range of applications available at European computing centers.”
Decision follows supreme court ruling that allowed US government to strip protections for Haitians and Syrians
Temporary protected status (TPS) for hundreds of South Sudanese nationals in the United States is set to end after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration can move forward with stripping their protections.
On Friday, US district judge Patti Saris of the district of Massachusetts rejected an attempt by immigrant rights organizations including the New York-based African Communities Together to keep TPS for South Sudanese nationals living in the US.
Suno says it will begin watermarking and fingerprinting AI-generated songs, tighten download policies to curb mass distribution, and explicitly prohibit deceptive audio and unauthorized voice or likeness cloning. The changes come as the company faces mounting copyright lawsuits, a recent adverse ruling in Germany, and scrutiny over a past data breach that revealed training-data sources. TechCrunch reports: In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Mikey Shulman shared core principles and said that the platform wants to promote original creation while enabling more people to make music with its AI tools. One of the key points of contention involved users uploading AI-generated songs on other streaming platforms and gaming the system to earn revenue. Suno said that now it will use audio watermarking and fingerprinting to prevent misuse on other streaming platforms. It's not clear if Suno will use an existing system like Google's Synth ID or adopt a new one, and the company did not say when contacted by TechCrunch about this.
The startup also signed an agreement with lyrics provider Musixmatch to use its Sentinel system for copyright detection, the blog post said. [...] The company added that it plans to add a new download policy to bar mass distribution on streaming platforms, but declined to provide details on the record. Suno has also changed its community guidelines to explicitly prohibit "deceptive audio presented as real" and "using a real person's voice or likeness without permission" to prevent copycats.
ByteDance is reportedly training an AI model with roughly 10 trillion parameters as it tries to close the gap with leading frontier systems such as Anthropic's Mythos. The model is still in early pre-training, and its eventual performance will depend on more than scale alone, but the project underscores how aggressively Chinese firms are pushing frontier AI despite limits on access to advanced chips. The Next Web reports: The size is itself the statement. At roughly 10 trillion parameters, the model would be more than three times as large as Moonshot's Kimi K3, which sits among the biggest Chinese models today at about 2.8 trillion. [...] Parameter count is not everything, of course. Bigger models are not automatically better, and the industry has learned that data quality, training technique and efficiency often matter as much as raw scale. Even so, committing the compute to train a model this size is a declaration in its own right, a signal that ByteDance wants to compete at the very top rather than ship a capable also-ran.
Every election cycle since 2010, we have published profiles of some of the many outside groups trying to influence who gets elected to Congress and the White House. Today, we’re launching our latest Players Guide with write-ups of eight of the biggest spenders so far for the 2026 midterms.
Photo by Oleksandr / stock.adobe.com
Each profile has information about the individuals who run the group, the people funding the group, the group’s political leanings and motivations, and how the group is spending the millions it has raised. If the group has been around for a while, we note its spending during the prior election cycle for comparison.
During the last midterm cycle, outside groups collectively spent $2 billion on independent expenditures, which are advertisements and other communications that expressly advocate for or against candidates for office, according to OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks money in politics. The total was double that amount for the 2024 presidential cycle.
The eight groups we’re starting with this time include the Senate Majority PAC, which is trying to help Democrats retake control of the Senate, and the Congressional Leadership Fund, which is working to keep Republicans running the House of Representatives. We also highlighted Fairshake, a pro-cryptocurrency super PAC that backs or opposes candidates based on whether they appear to be for or against policies favorable to the digital currency industry.
Come back throughout the general election for details about other key players, as we’ll be publishing more profiles over the next three months. Some of the featured groups will be ones we’ve written about before — because they continue to spend large amounts of money — but we’ll be writing about a few of the newly formed groups as well.
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Two Multi-Client Studies Launched to Track Enterprise AI Barriers and Europe’s Digital Autonomy Push
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2026 — Intersect360 Research has announced two new multi-client research studies. The first, “Enterprise AI Adoption,” examines the drivers, barriers, and satisfaction gaps shaping enterprise AI investment. The second, “AI in the EU,” analyzes Europe’s push for digital sovereignty and autonomy in artificial intelligence.
The Enterprise AI Adoption study will explore the true state of AI use inside organizations, including testing, production, training, and inference. Intersect360 Research’s ongoing survey work has already reached 458 medium to large enterprises with more than $10 million in annual revenue. That work found that 84% of AI and HPC budgets are combined within organizations that run both workloads, underscoring how closely AI investment is now tied to high performance computing (HPC) infrastructure decisions. The study also found that while enterprises view product development, engineering, and R&D as the ultimate promise of AI< that category currently has the lowest rate of AI adoption within enterprises at just 31%. That trails well behind data analysis, analytics, and forecasting.
“Intersect360 Research studies show a substantial gap between AI workloads associated with horizontal applications – such as customer service chatbots – and those associated with science, engineering and R&D,” said Addison Snell, CEO of Intersect360 Research. “This study will surface the specific obstacles and enablers for adoption of these more advanced applications, determine what verticals are best positioned deploy AI for science in the near term, and help us gain clarity as to how providers can support end-users confidently deploy AI functionality into these mission critical areas.”
The Enterprise AI Adoption study will combine Intersect360 Research’s existing broad-based AI budget survey data, presented to sponsors as an initial kickoff, with a new quantitative survey of more than 200 additional respondents segmented across commercial verticals and geographies. It will also include a qualitative survey capturing 30 to 50 organizational quotes on AI adoption, usage, and outlook. Intersect360 Research estimates the enterprise AI opportunity will reach $100 billion in 2027, growing at a double-digit compound annual growth rate (CAGR), driven by hybrid on-premises and cloud deployments and shaped by data sovereignty, supply chain, and facilities planning issues.
The AI in the EU study will assess the state of AI adoption across the European Union relative to the U.S., China, and Japan, with a focus on workloads in science, R&D, and engineering, as well as the region’s hardware, software, and emerging technology landscape, including quantum, photonics, and fusion. The study comes as European institutions have made digital sovereignty a policy priority. The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking has committed €7 billion from 2021 to 2027 across 38 member states, deploying 11 supercomputers, three of which rank among the world’s top ten, along with 19 AI Factories and 13 AI Factory Antennas. The European Chips Act is separately mobilizing €43 billion in public and private support to reach 20% of global semiconductor market share by 2030.
Both studies will be anchored by Intersect360 Research’s HPC-AI Leadership Organization (HALO), a global end user group that helps guide the firm’s research agenda. The AI in the EU study will additionally be informed by the HALO EMEA Advisory Committee. Research for both studies will take place in the fourth quarter of 2026 through the first quarter of 2027, with final reports expected in the first half of 2027.
Base pricing for sponsorship of the Enterprise AI Adoption study is $35,000, and base pricing for the AI in the EU study is $20,000. Both include full survey data and final reports, with optional add-ons available for custom survey questions, sponsor-branded white papers, and participation in concluding webinars. Companies interested in participating must commit by September 30, 2026, to provide input into the survey and discussion guide.
About Intersect360 Research
Intersect360 Research is a market intelligence, research, and consulting advisory practice focused on high-performance data center trends, including High Performance Computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, cloud computing, big data, and hyperscale. Intersect360 Research utilizes both user-based and supplier-based research to form a complete perspective of market dynamics, trends, and usage models, including both technical and business applications. The company’s research agenda and studies are informed by the HPC-AI Leadership Organization (HALO), a global end user group organized by Intersect360 Research to help guide the future of the HPC-AI industry. More information on HALO is available at www.hpcaileadership.org.
In addition to its market advisory subscription services, Intersect360 Research offers customers an array of client-specific services, including custom surveys, white papers and custom analysis. More information about Intersect360 Research as well as the full slate of Intersect360 Research reports available for purchase and download can be found at www.intersect360.com.
Four U research teams which include faculty from the Department of Atmospheric Science join a national initiative advancing AI, energy, and atmospheric science.
Aug. 7, 2026 — The University of Utah has been selected to receive multiple U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Genesis Mission awards, joining a national cohort of research institutions advancing transformative science and technology.
The Genesis Mission invests in ambitious, high-impact research designed to accelerate scientific discovery, strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and address some of the nation’s most complex scientific and technological challenges. The University of Utah’s awards recognize research teams whose work has the potential to drive breakthroughs in areas of national importance.
“The Genesis Mission reflects how scientific discovery is evolving; bringing together artificial intelligence, national laboratories, universities, and interdisciplinary research teams to tackle challenges that no single institution could solve alone,” said Jake Jensen, senior associate vice president for research.
University of Utah Research Teams
U researchers are contributing to multiple Genesis Mission projects that reflect the breadth of the university’s expertise in artificial intelligence, energy systems, and atmospheric science.
In the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Gannet Hallar is leading the Bridging Resolution Disparities in the Genesis of Mixed-Phase Clouds (BRIDGE) project, with Court Strong serving as co-principal investigator. Collaborating with researchers from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Texas at El Paso, the team will combine advanced atmospheric observations, artificial intelligence, and predictive modeling to improve understanding of how clouds form and produce precipitation. The research aims to improve precipitation forecasting, an important step toward strengthening water security in the western United States and beyond.
Professor Steven Krueger in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences is a co-investigator on a Michigan Technological University-led project that brings together researchers from Brigham Young University, Brookhaven National Laboratory, the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the University of Utah. Together, the team will combine cloud-chamber observations, advanced computer modeling, and artificial intelligence to better understand how clouds produce rain. The research aims to improve precipitation forecasting and strengthen weather and climate models that support water resource management and environmental prediction.
Assistant Professor Rohan Basu Roy in the Kahlert School of Computing and the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute is leading a University of Utah project to help address one of artificial intelligence’s newest challenges: the growing demand for electricity to power AI data centers. His team is developing an AI-driven resource control plane that can intelligently manage computing workloads, allowing data centers to reduce energy use during periods of high demand while minimizing impacts on performance. The project aims to improve grid reliability, lower operating costs, and help prepare the nation’s energy infrastructure for the rapid growth of AI computing.
Assistant Professor Morteza Fayazi in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering is a co-investigator on a University of Washington-led project, Transforming Science and Energy with AI. The collaboration brings together researchers from multiple institutions to apply artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery and advance next-generation energy systems.
“The University of Utah has built a research enterprise that brings together expertise across disciplines to solve problems of national and global importance,” said Erin Rothwell, senior vice president for research. “These Genesis Mission awards recognize the creativity of our researchers and the strength of the partnerships that make ambitious science possible.”
About the Genesis Mission
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission supports transformative research designed to accelerate scientific discovery, foster collaboration, and strengthen America’s research and innovation ecosystem. By investing in visionary research teams, the initiative aims to expand scientific knowledge and develop technologies that address some of the nation’s most significant scientific and technological challenges.
Judge finds probable cause to believe the MyPillow founder violated campaign law by handing out free pillows at event
An administrative law judge in Minnesota has found probable cause to believe Mike Lindell, candidate for Minnesota governor and the MyPillow founder, violated campaign finance law by handing out free pillows at a public event last month.
In a four-page ruling issued on Thursday, Judge Nicholas Lienesch found that a complaint against Lindell had enough to move on to an evidentiary hearing in front of a three-judge administrative panel.
The group, now connected to Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, says its mission is to “support strong Republican candidates in competitive states, leveraging best-in-class campaign tactics and standards to aggressively counter the Democratic machine.” It is “solely dedicated” to “protecting and expanding the Republican Senate Majority.” Its executive director is Alex Latcham, a former deputy assistant to President Donald Trump and former director of the White House Office of Public Liaison.
As a super PAC, SLF PAC can accept unlimited contributions, but it must disclose its donors and cannot coordinate its spending with candidate campaigns.
In early April, the group revealed to the New York Times that in order to maintain GOP control of the Senate, it plans to spend around $350 million in 2026 on television, digital and streaming ads, as well as mail and other operations to influence voter turnout. The Times reported that the super PAC is prioritizing defending five Republican-held seats by spending $79 million in Ohio, $71 million in North Carolina, $42 million in Maine, $29 million in Iowa and $15 million in Alaska. In addition, the group is looking to flip three Democratic seats by spending $45 million in Michigan, $44 million in Georgia and $17 million in New Hampshire.
Ads in those races are set to start airing in September, the Times said. Democrats need to gain a net of four seats to regain the majority in the Senate (including the two independent senators who caucus with the Democrats).
As of June 30, the Senate Leadership Fund had raised a total of $253.7 million for the 2026 midterms, according to its most recent quarterly financial report to the Federal Election Commission. At that point, it still had $238.6 million in cash on hand – more than double the amount it had at the same point in 2024, according to a press release.
Some of SLF PAC’s largest individual donors for this election cycle include Miriam Adelson, a physician and businesswoman; Paul Elliott Singer, a hedge fund manager; and Elon Musk, the wealthiest person in the world. It has also received at least $46 million, so far, from an affiliated nonprofit, One Nation, a so-called “dark money” group that, as a registered 501(c)(4) organization, does not have to disclose its donors. One Nation is led by Steven Law, who headed the Senate Leadership Fund until he stepped down in 2024.
During the 2024 election cycle, SLF PAC spent $211 million on independent expenditures — the third most of any super PAC (only exceeded by Make America Great Again Inc. and WinSenate PAC), according to an analysis of campaign finance data by OpenSecrets. The FEC defines independent expenditures as spending on communications that “expressly advocate” for the election or defeat of a specific candidate.
OpenSecrets said roughly 71% of that money was spent backing candidates who won their races or opposing candidates who lost. About 30% of SLF PAC’s independent expenditure dollars in 2024 were spent opposing the reelection of then-Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, a Democrat, and supporting his Republican challenger, Bernie Moreno. Brown had been a three-term senator before being ousted by Moreno.
SLP PAC is planning to spend big in Ohio again in 2026, as Brown is now challenging Republican Sen. Jon Husted, who was appointed to fill the seat vacated in early 2025 by Vice President JD Vance.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Christine Sung contributed to this article.
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Senate Majority PAC, formally known as SMP, is a super PAC that describes its “one mission” as helping Democrats “win Senate races.”
It’s headed by J.B. Poersch, a former executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. Poersch was named the super PAC’s president in early 2017. Other senior staff include Amanda Ach, digital director, and Lauren French, communications director. Ach previously worked for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and French was recently a senior adviser at the State Department during the Biden administration.
As a super PAC, Senate Majority PAC is allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, but it must report expenditures and all donations of more than $200 to the Federal Election Commission. The group cannot make contributions to candidate committees and cannot coordinate independent expenditures with candidate campaigns.
In a July 10 press release, SMP announced that along with Majority Forward, an affiliated nonprofit group, it raised $147 million in the second quarter of 2026, “their best second-quarter fundraising ever.” The groups have now collected a combined $326 million since the beginning of the election cycle, and SMP had about $126 million in cash on hand at the end of June, the press release said.
Unlike SMP, which files quarterly financial reports with the FEC, Majority Forward, a 501(c)(4) organization, is only required to file an annual report with the IRS at the end of the group’s fiscal year. We don’t know who is donating to Majority Forward because the group is not required to disclose its donors. However, according to FEC data through March, Senate Majority PAC’s largest contributors include Majority Forward, the George Soros-funded Democracy PAC and retired media executive Fred Eychaner.
SMP previously announced that it would run eight-figure TV and digital ad campaigns in the fall supporting or opposing Senate candidates in Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Ohio. We’ve alreadywritten about two of Majority Forward’s TV ads that attack the incumbent in Maine, Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
During the 2024 elections, SMP spent about $391.2 million and more than $325 million of that was contributed to other political committees, including WinSenate PAC, an affiliated super PAC that also worked to elect Democrats to the Senate.
Senior Writer D’Angelo Gore contributed to this article.
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The Pentagon on Friday released a new batch of documents and images related to UFOs, the fifth disclosure in recent months about the strange encounters.
United Democracy Project is a nonpartisan super PAC created to advocate for political organizations and candidates that support the United States’ partnership with Israel. The super PAC “works to help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the U.S.-Israel relationship in Congress,” according to its website.
AIPAC PAC, which was created on Dec. 15, 2021, has become the biggest pro-Israel PAC in the U.S., ahead of the Joint Action Committee for Public Affairs and JStreetPAC. United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s super PAC, was established on Jan. 3, 2022.
As a political action committee, AIPAC PAC is limited to donating no more than $5,000 per election to a candidate’s campaign committee, according to federal contribution limits for the 2026 elections. As a super PAC, United Democracy Project cannot donate to candidates directly, but it can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money expressly advocating for or against federal candidates — spending that the Federal Election Commission defines as “independent expenditures.” Both the PAC and super PAC are required to disclose their donors in reports to the FEC.
Through June, United Democracy Project raised about $104 million during the 2026 cycle, according to FEC records. That’s already more than the $87.1 million it collected during the 2024 cycle, in which it spent around $61.4 million, including $34.8 million on independent expenditures promoting or opposing Democratic House candidates.
The super PAC’s largest contributors for 2026 include Paul Singer, the founder and co-CEO of Elliott Management; portfolio manager Blair Frank; businessman Marc Rowan; and media proprietor and investor Haim Saban. It has spent about $52.5 million, and, as of June 30, more than $27.9 million of it was on independent expenditures.
United Democracy Project has focused heavily on House primary races, spending about $5 million supporting Melissa Conyears-Ervin, who lost the Democratic primary in Illinois’ 7th Congressional District seat on March 17; more than $1 million supporting Adrian Boafo, who won the Democratic primary in Maryland’s 5th District on June 23; and over $3 million opposing Rep. Thomas Massie in the Republican primary in Kentucky’s 4th District, which he lost to Ed Gallrein on May 19. The super PAC also spent nearly $500,000 supporting Gallrein.
Massie’s and Gallrein’s primary was the most expensive House primary in history, according to Politico, which reported that over $9 million was spent by pro-Israel interest groups alone. In the article, United Democracy Project spokesperson Patrick Dorton was quoted as calling Massie “the most anti-Israel Republican in the House.”
The super PAC also spent over $2 million opposing Tom Malinowski, who lost a special Democratic primary in New Jersey’s 11th District on Feb. 5. United Democracy Project’s involvement in the primary, which was won by progressive candidate Analilia Mejia, frustrated many centrist Democrats, Politico reported.
On June 23, Politico reported that, to hide its involvement in certain races, “United Democracy Project has shielded more than 40 percent of the money it has spent across primaries in both parties so far for the 2026 cycle through pop-up and pass-through PACs,” according to the publication’s analysis.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow James Constan contributed to this article.
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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are expected to receive body cameras nationwide by the end of September, but the agency will retain broad authority to decide whether footage from serious incidents becomes public.
ICE policy requires officers equipped with cameras to activate them during arrests, searches, emergencies and other enforcement activity. The agency says the $30.9 million rollout is intended to improve transparency and accountability following several fatal encounters involving immigration officers who were not wearing cameras.
The controversy centers on what happens after an incident is recorded. ICE policy says footage involving shootings, deaths or serious injuries will be reviewed by senior officials and attorneys. The director can delay or withhold release if “specific and compelling circumstances” exist and publication is not considered in the agency’s “best interests.”
That discretion has prompted criticism from transparency experts who argue body cameras provide limited accountability if the agency being scrutinized determines which recordings the public sees.
Acting ICE Director David Venturella says the cameras will increase accountability. Border czar Tom Homan has also endorsed their use, arguing recordings frequently demonstrate why officers took particular actions.
ICE began experimenting with body cameras years ago, but nationwide deployment repeatedly stalled. Recent fatal shootings and civilian cellphone videos challenging official accounts intensified pressure for broader camera use.
The cameras should create substantially more evidence of immigration enforcement encounters. Whether that evidence routinely reaches the public will depend heavily on ICE leadership.
FAIRFAX, Virginia — Virginia health officials are monitoring for additional dengue infections after confirming the state’s first documented case acquired from a local mosquito, while stressing that the risk to residents remains low.
The Northern Virginia patient had no known travel outside the state before becoming ill. Investigators believe the person was infected after being near another Virginia resident who had recently contracted dengue during international travel.
The likely transmission chain involved a local Aedes mosquito biting the travel-related patient while that person had virus circulating in their blood, then later biting the second resident. The Virginia Department of Health says there is currently no evidence that dengue is continuing to spread locally.
VDH is working with Fairfax and Loudoun County health departments to monitor both human illnesses and mosquito populations. Doctors are also being asked to consider dengue in patients showing compatible symptoms even without recent international travel.
Dengue can cause fever, severe headache, pain behind the eyes, joint and muscle pain, nausea and rash. Most patients recover within about a week, although roughly 1 in 20 infections can progress to severe illness.
Local dengue transmission remains unusual in the continental United States, but mosquitoes capable of carrying the virus are established across many regions. The CDC says local transmission risk is generally highest near someone who acquired dengue while traveling.
Fairshake, its website says, is a super PAC that “supports candidates committed to securing the United States as the home to innovators building the next generation of the internet.” Generally, it supports politicians who back policies favorable to the cryptocurrency industry.
The group registered with the Federal Election Commission in 2023, and it is financially supported by some of the most influential companies and executives in the digital currency sector.
FEC records identify Brandon Philipczyk as Fairshake’s treasurer and Josh Vlasto is the group’s spokesman. Philipczyk has worked on various campaigns for Democratic candidates, including former President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for president. Vlasto previously served as press secretary for Sen. Chuck Schumer and former New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, both Democrats.
As a super PAC, Fairshake can receive unlimited financial contributions from donors, who must be disclosed periodically in reports to the FEC. As of June 30, it had received almost $137 million in the 2026 election cycle and still had about $127 million on hand, according to its latest FEC filing in July.
Its largest contributors include Coinbase, a company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange; Ripple Labs, which specializes in a blockchain technology used to make digital payments; and AH Capital Management, also known as Andreessen Horowitz, or a16z, a venture capital firm. Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, the co-founders of Andreessen Horowitz, remain two of the super PAC’s biggest individual donors.
The super PAC has already spent roughly $13.3 million this election cycle on independent expenditures, which are advertisements and other communications that expressly advocate for or against candidates for office. In February and March, it opposed a trio of Illinois Democrats in congressional primary races, including the state Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton, who won the Democratic nomination in the Illinois Senate race; state Rep. La Shawn Ford, who won the Democratic nomination for the state’s 7th Congressional District seat; and state Sen. Robert Peters, who failed to win the Democratic nomination for the state’s 2nd District seat.
Last year, Ford and Peters voted for a 2025 state law that put in place new rules for the digital assets industry. Meanwhile, one of Stratton’s primary opponents, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, may have been seen as more of an industry ally, since he had cast votes for federal legislation described as “very pro-crypto” by a nonprofit called the Stand With Crypto Alliance.
During the 2024 elections, Fairshake spent about $195.8 million in total. It donated more than $86 million to Defend American Jobs and Protect Progress. It also put nearly $40.7 million into independent expenditures supporting or opposing candidates. According to the website OpenSecrets, which tracks campaign spending, Fairshake spent about $14 million for Democrats, about $13.5 million against Democrats and roughly $13.1 million for Republicans.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Angela Lin contributed to this article.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
The Trump administration tapped a surveillance giant with a record of attacking the press to advise the State Department on free speech.
Among the partners for the State Department’s new “Freedom Tech Excellence Program” is Palantir, the AI and data integration firm started by right-wing powerbroker Peter Thiel. Under the program, company employees will go on temporary assignments to advise the government on “digital freedom and freedom of expression,” including counter-surveillance and dealing with First Amendment issues.
“FTEP brings private sector talent to the Department for limited-term assignments to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance,” according to the State Department’s website.
“Neither this State Department, nor the partners they have announced so far, are trustworthy leaders in what they identify as online freedom of expression.”
Palantir is best known for building large-scale data analysis platforms. In addition to corporate contracts, the company’s massive government tenders include database, surveillance, and tracking tools for police and federal authorities. Among its government clients are the military, the State Department itself, and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Palantir and its key personnel have also been involved in multiple lawsuits against journalistic outlets.
The firm’s history has raised criticisms of its role in the new State Department initiative, especially given the Trump administration own’s dubious track record on First Amendment issues.
“To some extent, this announcement and this program sound like doublespeak,” said Carrie DeCell, a senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “Certainly neither this State Department, nor the partners they have announced so far, are trustworthy leaders in what they identify as online freedom of expression or countering digital surveillance.”
The new initiative is planned to run through the beginning of 2029, according to the State Department’s press office. While participants could be placed anywhere in the agency and may require security clearances, the Freedom Tech Excellent Program “is not geared towards bolstering the Department’s internal application or operational use of AI technologies,” the department said in a statement to The Intercept.
Anduril, a military tech firm with links to Palantir and Thiel, was also listed as a partner in the State Department initiative. Anduril’s executive chair Trae Stephens is a partner at Thiel’s Founders Fund, which has invested about $2.6 billion in Anduril. Besides a mutual appreciation of “The Lord of the Rings,” Thiel shares similar politics with Anduril co-founder Palmer Luckey and has backed Luckey’s new bank, Erebor.
Neither Anduril nor Palantir responded to requests for comment.
Palantir and the Feds
Palantir’s work has brought it notoriety across the globe, though at times defining what it does can be complex. It has repeatedly eschewed its label as a surveillance firm. Palantir CEO Alex Karp denied on a podcast last year that the company engages in unconstitutional surveillance work.
And, in an unsigned blog post last year, Palantir wrote, “Contrary to some media reports, we are not a surveillance company.”
Palantir, though, enabled U.S. mass surveillance by bolstering the National Security Agency’s global data collection efforts, according to documents provided to The Intercept by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Palantir helped the NSA expand a program that became notorious for its ability to hoover up Americans’ communications along with those from abroad.
More recently, the firm has become a focal point for protests in the U.K. over its massive contract with the National Health Service and its ties to the Israeli military. Just this week, the NHS apologized after admitting it had falsely stated that Palantir did not have access to identifiable patient data.
Stateside, the company had a contract with New York City public hospitals that gave it access to patient information. The contract was allowed to expire after it came under scrutiny in an Intercept report. The Intercept also reported this year that Palantir has access to sensitive federal databases for its contract to aid in Internal Revenue Service investigations.
Palantir’s IRS work led to a letter last year from 10 members of Congress to Karp requesting information about the “mega-database” built off IRS data. In response, the firm again denied that it was engaging in widespread surveillance of Americans and that it was building any such database.
Palantir also has a 15-year relationship with ICE. The Intercept found that its contracts with the agency have aided immigration raids, including ones that led to family separations. And Palantir built bespoke software for ICE that helps track self-deportations and visa overstays.
In April, Reps. Dan Goldman and Nydia Velázquez, both Democrats from New York, sent a list of questions directed to ICE and its parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, demanding information about how they were leveraging Palantir’s technology to create “a mass surveillance ecosystem.”
Attacks on Free Press
Along with eccentric far-right views and donations to MAGA Republicans, one of Thiel’s most well-known acts was his involvement in the lawsuit that drove the news outlet Gawker into bankruptcy.
Thiel had become upset with Gawker over the media company’s reporting about his personal life. He went on to spend $10 million secretly bankrolling lawsuits against the company, finally scoring with a major judgment in favor of the wrestler Hulk Hogan that caused Gawker to close and sell off its assets.
Journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said that Thiel constituted a “serious threat” to the group’s principles of “freedom of press and independence of media,” particularly in light of the secrecy around his role in the case. His actions were, RSF said, “nothing different to governments using legal or economic leverage to shut down a media that happens to displease them.”
Palantir also recently filed a suit against Swiss online news magazine Republik for reporting on how Palantir repeatedly failed to land contracts with the Swiss government. Palantir claimed that Republik had an obligation to run a list of rebuttals from the firm.
A Swiss court, however, handed Palantir a defeat by siding with the outlet on all but one of the 23 charges and forcing Palantir to pay most of Republik’s legal fees. (In a since-deleted post on Medium responding to the Republik lawsuit, Palantir once again denied that it is a surveillance company.)
David Greene, senior counsel for anti-surveillance nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that positioning Palantir as a bulwark for civil rights undermined the government’s own free speech initiative.
“There’s a big problem right now with the U.S. government and the people outside government who exercise power, in terms of trying to claim free speech as a value when they clearly don’t sincerely hold that value,” Greene said. “It really lowers the esteem of the U.S. in terms of having any moral authority on freedom of expression grounds.”
Because of expected rain and potentially poor weather, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is moving its Aug. 8 Second Saturday program from Fort Christina Park indoors to the Copeland Maritime Center at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Wilmington. Image created with AI on 8/7
Rain is moving “Lions, Sea Serpents & Mermaids, Oh My!” inside the Copeland Maritime Center, where families can explore the creatures and legends that once filled sailors’ imaginations.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Mermaids, sea serpents and other legendary creatures will be taking shelter from the rain Saturday.
Because of expected rain and potentially poor weather, the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation is moving its Aug. 8 Second Saturday program from Fort Christina Park indoors to the Copeland Maritime Center at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard in Wilmington.
The free family program, “Lions, Sea Serpents & Mermaids, Oh My!,” runs from 1 to 4 p.m. and explores the monsters, mythical creatures and maritime folklore that accompanied sailors across largely unknown oceans for centuries.
Visitors will learn about mermaids, sea serpents, lions and other creatures that appeared in sailors’ stories and as decorations aboard sailing ships. Children also can create their own sea serpents as part of the hands-on program.
Sea Monsters Filled an Unknown World
Long before satellites, sonar and modern ocean science, sailors ventured into waters they could barely understand.
Enormous whales, giant squid, unusual fish, violent currents, strange sounds and sudden storms could all become the foundation for stories about something more frightening lurking below.
Across different cultures, those fears produced an extraordinary collection of sea monsters.
Greek mythology told of Scylla, a multiheaded monster that attacked passing sailors, and Charybdis, a deadly whirlpool capable of swallowing ships.
Norse and Scandinavian stories helped create the legend of the kraken, an enormous tentacled creature said to be capable of pulling ships beneath the waves.
Sea serpents appeared repeatedly in sailors’ accounts, with mariners describing enormous snake-like creatures rising from the water or swimming alongside their vessels.
Some sightings may have been whales, giant squid, oarfish or other real animals viewed under difficult conditions.
But when sailors could not explain what they saw, folklore could.
Mermaids Brought Beauty to the Danger
Mermaids became especially enduring because they represented something different from the traditional monster.
They were mysterious and potentially dangerous, but also beautiful and human.
Stories of beings combining human and aquatic features date back thousands of years. Over time, the familiar image emerged of a woman above the waist and a fish below.
For sailors months from home, the mermaid became a powerful combination of attraction and danger — much like the sea itself.
Even explorers reported seeing them. Christopher Columbus recorded a mermaid sighting in the Caribbean in 1493, although historians generally believe he probably saw manatees.
The account shows how sailors often interpreted unfamiliar things through stories they already knew.
When Monsters Appeared on Maps and Ships
Maritime monsters were not limited to stories.
Historic maps sometimes filled unknown waters with enormous fish, serpents and fantastic creatures, visually warning travelers that they were entering places humans did not fully understand.
Mythical creatures also appeared aboard ships as carvings and figureheads.
Lions might symbolize strength and courage, while women, gods and fantastic creatures could represent protection, identity or good fortune.
Saturday’s program uses those traditions to introduce families to a time when superstition and seamanship frequently traveled together.
Why Sea Monsters Still Fascinate Us
Science has explained many of the creatures and natural forces that once frightened sailors, but sea monsters never disappeared.
The kraken, sea serpent and mermaid remain familiar characters in books, movies, television and popular culture.
Part of their appeal may come from the same mystery that fascinated sailors centuries ago.
Humans know far more about the oceans today, but the deepest waters remain difficult to explore and new marine species continue to be identified.
We know legendary krakens probably were not pulling sailing ships underwater, but giant squid are real.
There is no evidence mermaids exist, but sailors genuinely reported seeing them.
And some ancient stories about frightening waters appear to have been inspired by very real maritime hazards.
That mixture of fact, fear and imagination is what keeps sea-monster folklore alive.
A Delaware Maritime Connection
The setting adds another layer to Saturday’s program.
Today’s Kalmar Nyckel is a full-scale replica of the Swedish colonial ship associated with the establishment of New Sweden in the Delaware Valley in 1638. It will be in Historic New Castle tomorrow. The replica was built at the Wilmington shipyard and today serves as a floating classroom and ambassador for Delaware maritime history.
A 3/4 size replica of the ship is inside the Copeland Maritime Center and is available to explore on Saturday.
Saturday’s event explores another part of that history — not simply how sailors crossed the ocean, but what they imagined might be traveling beneath them.
And while mermaids may still get much of the attention, they were only one creature in a much larger and stranger world of maritime folklore.
The House Majority PAC, or HMP, as it is formally known, was created in April 2011 by Alixandria Lapp, a former Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official. It was one of several political action committees formed by Democrats in response to the heavy spending by conservative organizations in the 2010 midterm elections, when Republicans won the House.
House Majority PAC says it is “solely focused on electing House Democrats, including protecting our most vulnerable incumbents and boosting our most promising challenger and open seat candidates.” Abby Curran Horrell, a former chief of staff for Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, became HMP’s executive director in April 2019. Mike Smith, a veteran political strategist, has been its president since January 2023, after Lapp stepped down.
As a Carey committee, also called a hybrid PAC, the House Majority PAC can act as both a traditional PAC, giving money directly to candidates’ committees, and a super PAC, making independent expenditures not coordinated with candidates and accepting donations of any size from individuals, labor unions and corporations. It must disclose those donations and expenditures in reports to the Federal Election Commission.
HMP reported receiving roughly $123.6 million for the 2026 election cycle as of June 30. A significant portion of that money came from House Majority Forward, an affiliated nonprofit organization that says it’s focused on “promoting economic growth and opportunity, social justice, environmental stewardship, and democracy.” Other large donors to the PAC include Connie Ballmer, co-founder of investment company the Ballmer Group; George M. Marcus, the billionaire founder of the Marcus & Millichap real estate firm; and philanthropist and retired media owner Fred Eychaner, who is a Democratic megadonor.
HMP has said it may spend more than it has raised thus far, as it has placed nearly $284 million in TV and digital ad reservations for the 2026 midterms in about 70 media markets, according to a June announcement. “Nearly 80% of these reservations are in offensive districts—underscoring HMP’s commitment to aggressively expanding the House battlefield and putting more seats in play than ever before,” the PAC said in a press release.
FEC records show HMP already spent about $961,000 in the fall of 2025 trying to influence the special election in Tennessee’s 7th Congressional District. But Republican Matthew Van Epps, a military veteran, ended up defeating Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn.
In the 2024 election cycle, HMP raised about $260.5 million and spent the vast majority — $195.7 million — on independent expenditures, which are advertisements that expressly advocate for the election or defeat of a federal candidate. The PAC also contributed $530,625 directly to federal candidates.
Senior Writer D’Angelo Gore contributed to this article.
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President Trump has ordered a 15% tariff on imported products made with polysilicon, a key material for semiconductors and solar panels. The new tariff will take effect on December 4th. The Guardian reports: The executive order signed by the president on Thursday evening said: "The plan of action in this proclamation will, among other things, help ensure the commercial viability of United States production of polysilicon and its derivatives that is necessary to meet United States economic and national security requirements." Polysilicon, an ultra-pure form of silicon, is an important ingredient in making the semiconductors vital for AI processing power, datacentres and solar power generation. US solar factories have long accused Chinese rivals of dumping cheaper panels on the market, which they say have been enabled by excessive government subsidies and by moving manufacturing to other countries to dodge US tariffs.
[...] The US has two main polysilicon factories, including Hemlock Semiconductor, which operates a plant in Michigan and is a joint venture between the US tech company Corning and Japan's Shin-Etsu Handotai. The Munich-based Wacker Chemie runs a factory in Tennessee. Trump said in the order that he had accepted recommendations by the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, to set minimum import prices of $21 a kilogram for polysilicon, $100 a kilogram for polysilicon ingots and wafers, $0.22 a watt for solar cells, and $0.38 a watt for solar modules or panels. The order also allows the commerce department to create an incentive program for companies that invest in factories to produce polysilicon or derivative products.
The Congressional Leadership Fund’s purpose is to maintain and expand the slim Republican majority in the House of Representatives. The group was formed in October 2011 as the conservative counter to the liberal House Majority PAC and is endorsed by House Republican leadership.
CLF is what’s known as a hybrid PAC or Carey committee, meaning it “has the ability to operate both as a traditional PAC, contributing funds to a candidate’s committee, and as a super PAC, which makes independent expenditures,” according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan organization that tracks money in politics. Such organizations must have separate bank accounts for those purposes.
Chris Winkelman is the CLF’s president, as well as the president of its sister 501(c)(4), the American Action Network. Winkelman is a lawyer who previously served as general counsel for the National Republican Congressional Committee and was the NRCC’s executive director during the 2024 election cycle.
As of June 30, the CLF had raised more than $163 million in the 2026 election cycle and had almost $142 million in cash-on-hand, Federal Election Commission records show. “This is the highest cash-on-hand ever recorded at this point in the cycle for CLF,” the PAC said in a July 15 press release.
At least $44 million of the money it has received for 2026 came from the American Action Network. Meanwhile, major individual donors include Miriam Adelson, a physician and businesswoman; Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX; Kenneth Griffin, the CEO of the investment firm Citadel; Paul Singer, founder of the hedge fund Elliott Investment Management; and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
As of June 24, the CLF had announced $175 million in ad reservations for the fall. It said the campaign will span 41 local markets across the country and include ads airing on broadcast, cable, streaming and digital platforms.
The PAC already spent more than $219,000 on direct mail or text messages trying to ensure that Republican Rep. David Valadao keeps his seat in California’s 22nd Congressional District, which was redrawn to favor Democrats after California voters approved Proposition 50 in November. Valadao and Randy Villegas, a progressive Democrat, were the top two vote-getters in the June 2 primary and will face each other in the general election.
Democrats need to gain a net of at least three seats to win a majority in the House.
The CLF spent more than $7 million helping Valadao hold on to his seat in 2024, when he was facing Democrat Rudy Salas, who lost. In total, the PAC spent about $217 million that election cycle on independent expenditures advocating for or against congressional candidates.
Senior Writer D’Angelo Gore contributed to this article.
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According to its website, Restoration of America is an “umbrella name for a family of conservative organizations” that will “defend our nation by electing like-minded leaders and by creating organizations and campaigns that promote fully transparent elections, economic freedom, limited government, military superiority, secure borders, rule of law, and the sanctity of life.” Besides the super PAC, the collective includes two 501(c)(4) social welfare organizations, Restoration of America and Voter Reference Foundation, and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Restoration of America Foundation.
The super PAC describes itself as a committee that helps conservative candidates “win the toughest battles in America,” and says its advertisements spread the message of “restoring America’s greatness” and “defeating the woke Left.”
Doug Truax is the Founder and CEO of the Restoration of America political organization and its super PAC. Truax is a graduate of West Point and an Army veteran. In 2014, he ran in the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat for Illinois, but lost to then state Sen. Jim Oberweis, who was defeated by Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin in the general election.
As a super PAC, Restoration of America PAC can receive unlimited contributions from individuals, corporations, political action committees and other sources. It’s also required to periodically report those donations to the Federal Election Commission.
In the 2024 election cycle, it raised and spent more than $91 million, including nearly $43 million on independent expenditures, which are communications, such as TV or newspaper ads, that expressly advocate for or against candidates. The majority of its independent-expenditure spending – more than $34 million – was against then-Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, who was campaigning to become president.
Richard Uihlein, the billionaire CEO of the shipping and industrial supplies company Uline, is the super PAC’s largest donor. FEC records show the Republican megadonor contributed more than $80 million to the super PAC for the 2024 cycle, and so far, he has already contributed over $ 57 million from January 2025 to June 2026. Restoration of America PAC reported receiving almost $60.8 million in total contributions as of June 30.
Much of its spending during the 2026 cycle has beencontributions to other conservative groups, including American Principles Project PAC, Citizens for Free Enterprise and Americas PAC. But the super PAC did spend over $1.6 million on TV ads last fall, supporting Republican Nate Morris’ U.S. Senate candidacy in Kentucky.
Morris later suspended his campaign in May — at President Donald Trump’s request — and endorsed Rep. Andy Barr for the Republican nomination in the Senate race. Trump then nominated Morris in July to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Colombia.
FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Justine Weng contributed to this article.
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Since it launched, Democracy PAC hasbeensolelyfunded by Soros or companies or organizations he created. As of June 30, the super PAC had received more than $102 million for the 2026 election cycle, according to its most recent financial report to the Federal Election Commission. About half of its money came from Geosor Corp., a private investment company that Soros has long owned. The other half came from the Fund for Policy Reform, a nonprofit that Soros founded as part of his Open Society Foundations, which describes itself as “the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for rights, equity, and justice.”
The board chairman of the Open Society Foundations is Alex Soros, one of George’s sons, who was chosen by his father in 2023 to take over his philanthropic and political operations. The New York Post reported in June that the Soros network was on pace to surpass its previous donation record of $128 million during the 2022 election cycle.
In the 2026 cycle, Democracy PAC, according to FEC records, has so far used more than $40 million of its funding to make large contributions to other Democratic-aligned groups, including Senate Majority PAC, Strategic Victory Fund IE PAC, J Street Action Fund and AB PAC, which is also known as American Bridge 21st Century. Democracy PAC has also contributed millions to several committees working to elect Democrats at the state level.
Meanwhile, Democracy PAC II had both received and donated about $1.6 million as of the end of June, FEC records show. But it had more than $121 million cash on hand, money left over from a $175 million donation that George Soros made to his secondary super PAC during the 2022 election cycle.
During the 2024 election cycle, Democracy PAC gave more than $67 million to other groups, and Democracy PAC II distributed an additional $9.6 million.
Senior Writer D’Angelo Gore contributed to this article.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz told Aaron MacLean on the "School of War" podcast that President Trump should heap more pressure on Iran — including by arming Iranians to "let them overthrow their own government."
SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 7, 2026 — AMD has announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire Taalas, a pioneer in specialized AI inference silicon. As AI inference becomes one of the fastest-growing segments of the AI market and workloads become increasingly specialized, the acquisition strengthens AMD’s long-term AI roadmap with differentiated inference technology and world-class engineering expertise.
Credit: Shutterstock
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Taalas’ technology optimizes inference dataflows, significantly reducing compute and memory bottlenecks associated with general-purpose architectures and enabling highly optimized AI inference capabilities.
Taalas’ technology will complement AMD’s full-stack AI platform, including AMD Helios rackscale solutions, AMD Instinct GPUs, AMD EPYC CPUs, AMD ROCm software and the company’s expanding AI ecosystem. AMD plans to integrate the technology into its accelerator roadmap and develop system-level solutions with AMD Instinct GPUs.
“AMD is building a full-stack AI platform that gives customers the flexibility to deploy the right compute solutions for every AI workload,” said Vamsi Boppana, senior vice president of the Artificial Intelligence Group at AMD. “Taalas’ technology and world-class engineering team strengthen our AI portfolio by delivering differentiated inference performance and efficiency.”
“We founded Taalas to rethink AI inference from the ground up by building the hardware around the model,” said Ljubisa Bajic, co-founder and CEO of Taalas. “Our Canada-based team has combined deep technical expertise with a willingness to challenge conventional approaches. Joining AMD will give us the scale, engineering resources and global reach to accelerate our innovation.”
As AI moves into more real-time, high-volume applications, AMD and Taalas will help customers deploy inference workloads more efficiently across a growing range of applications. Positioned to accelerate AI innovation, the acquisition builds on AMD’s long-standing presence in Canada – where the company has been a proud contributor to the country’s semiconductor and AI ecosystem – and reflects a continued commitment to retaining and growing Canadian talent. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
About AMD
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
Delays to sexual assault charges and failures to report past convictions in court hearings gave Simon Levy chance to attack more women
Catastrophic errors left a prolific and proven sex offender free before he murdered two women in London, it can be revealed.
On Friday, an Old Bailey jury found Simon Levy, 40, guilty of murdering Carmenza Valencia-Trujillo in March 2025 and Sheryl Wilkins five months later.
The CPS admitted errors at three court hearings in May, June and August 2025, which ended in Levy remaining free. It would not specify publicly what those were, but a source authorised to speak for the organisation said they included failing to mention he had been arrested for Valencia-Trujillo’s murder, and that it could find no record or mention of Levy’s past sexual assault convictions, nor that he was a suspect in a 2024 rape.
The CPS said: “We accept there was relevant information regarding bail that was not provided to the court when bail applications were being considered. Our actions fell short of the standards that victims, families and the public are entitled to expect … We could and should have taken a more robust approach to representations about bail.”
By May 2025, police wanted Levy remanded, fearing he posed a “high risk of reoffending” with his crimes “escalating”.
Levy failed to attend three crown court hearings for the train attacks, and the CPS accepts there is no evidence of a warrant being sought for his detention. For two he claimed illness, for the other that he was not informed. His final non-appearance in crown court was on 11 August 2025. A fortnight later he murdered Wilkins. A CPS source said individuals involved in the Levy case had been disciplined.
The assaults on the London tube network and trains were investigated by BTP. Officers arrested Levy, who was travelling on a stolen Oyster travel card, but handed it back to him, unaware it was stolen. With it he travelled to south London to commit his first murder, and carried out further sexual assaults on trains.
BTP admitted the charging of Levy for his sexual assaults on trains in November 2024 was held up because of a delay in holding an identification parade after his arrest. It meant his bail was extended and during this delay he attacked and raped another woman and murdered Valencia-Trujillo, a mother of two.
BTP identified him as a suspect and charged him but never searched his home. Peter Fulton, BTP’s head of crime, said: “There’s a fine line between going fishing and breaching someone’s human rights.” He said that every woman who reported Levy for attacking them on a train saw him charged and convicted. When the Met, which investigated the murders, searched Levy’s home, evidence was found about his attack on the prison officer.
The police watchdog has placed two Met officers under investigation over whether Levy was supervised correctly as a person on the sex offender register. A constable is under investigation for gross misconduct, meaning he could be dismissed. The other officer, under investigation for misconduct, is a detective sergeant.
BTP said it had not referred its errors to the police watchdog. Instead it has moved one officer, who it says delayed the holding of the ID parade, out of investigations, and given a supervisor words of advice.
Some in party are delighted by leader’s tack rightwards but opponents have savoured latest Conservative controversy
There was a moment in the middle of this week when a news alert raised eyebrows among the politically committed. It read: “Kemi Badenoch: Former neo-Nazi candidate would just be sorting out bins.” It was a collection of words that might prompt palpitations in the most sanguine of communications professionals, followed by panicked advice that retreat was necessary. But as a deeply weird week for the Conservative party came to a close on Friday, its leader appeared adamant she would hold the line.
With Badenoch accused of aping Reform UK on policy and purging centrists from her party in recent weeks, her decision to stand by a man who was jailed after creating sexualised images of a Jewish MP and calling her a “rodent” has prompted concerns about the leader of the opposition’s political antennae and the Tories’ wider strategy.
Senator Bill Cassidy, who will not be returning to Congress after losing his Louisiana primary to a Trump-backed candidate, said he would support the AG nominee
Following Lisa Murkowski’s announcement that she plans to vote “no” on Todd Blanche’s nomination to lead the Department of Justice, the acting attorney general can’t afford another defection in order to secure the permanent position.
So far the only other holdout is Senator Bill Cassidy – a GOP lawmaker from Louisiana. Cassidy, a former physician, said this week he’s concerned about Blanche’s ability to lead the justice department independently, considering he once served as Donald Trump’s personal lawyer.
CBS News reviewed dozens of posts on social media that suggest a renewed push for migrants to cross the border from Morocco into the Spanish exclave of Ceuta.
Bill Cassidy, the US Republican senator seen as the decisive holdout on Todd Blanche’s nomination for attorney general, announced on Friday that he will support the pick, setting the stage for a major win for Donald Trump.
Confirmation that Cassidy, of Louisiana, is prepared to back Blanche – Trump’s former personal lawyer, and a loyal ally of the president – appeared to clear the last hurdle of his confirmation process, which had been challenged by the defections of the Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins.
Much-delayed devices to be deployed by end of month after immigration agents involved in deaths or serious injuries
Officers for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will be equipped with much-delayed body cameras by the end of next month, it was reported on Friday. But experts have questioned the transparency of a policy that allows the ICE director to restrict the public release of footage unless “it is in the best interests of the agency”.
Pressure has mounted on the Trump administration to provide body cameras after people caught up in encounters with federal immigration personnel suffered death or serious injuries.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CNBC: On Thursday, AMD said it's entered into an agreement to acquire Taalas, a Toronto-based startup that makes chips for inference. Taalas' accelerators are customized, or hard-wired for a single AI model, rather than being general purpose. In exchange for that loss of flexibility, Taalas' technology promises a less-expensive chip that it says can produce output for specific models thousands of times faster than a traditional GPU. An AMD representative declined to provide a purchase price for the transaction. Taalas has raised a total of $219 million in venture funding since its 2023 founding.
Taalas' current chip runs a small version of Meta's Llama 3.1 model, though the company is working on chips for bigger and more advanced models. It's manufactured using an older Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. process, and uses speedy SRAM memory on the chip itself. Taalas CEO Ljubisa Bajic says on the startup's website that the company "developed a platform for transforming any AI model into custom silicon." "From the moment a previously unseen model is received, it can be realized in hardware in only two months," Bajic wrote.
One summer day earlier this year, Rhys left a cafe in Melbourne where he had been working remotely, when his phone pinged with a message on the dating app Grindr.
The message was a photo of him sitting at a table outside the cafe on his laptop, with his dog seated on the ground next to him. In the foreground, in a man’s hand was an iPhone unlocked.
The AFLW could borrow some of the gumption from a North American ice hockey league to grow Australian rules football’s elite women’s competition
In Australia, it is called the Matildas effect. Elsewhere, it has increasingly become known by a different name: business as usual.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League is one of several North American competitions making a habit of not only attracting spectacular women’s sports crowds, but doing so at a domestic level. Just three years into its existence, the ice hockey league is doing a mighty fine job of it too, with last season’s attendance up 71% on their inaugural campaign.
Counter-disinformation group says social media channels connected to Pravda network helped amplify message
Accounts with links to the Russian military promoting far-right messages reached more than 500,000 people in the early days of the Ceuta migration crisis, according to an analysis done by 411, a counter-disinformation group.
Russia-linked social media accounts frequently spread destabilising narratives in Europe, often promoting far-right talking points about immigration.
Trump’s summer of tariffs means trade uncertainty is here to stayExpert commentthilton.drupal
The Trump administration has pushed through another round of tariffs. While they are being challenged in the courts, unpredictable and costly US trade policy is here to stay.
The Trump administration spent the waning days of July upending – again – the structure of US trade policy. Various issues have been used to justify a new wave of tariffs, investigations and threats – including forced labour, EU digital policy, Canadian commodities and Brazilian politics. But amid these specific dramas, a broader reality has become clear: that rapidly changing, often political tariffs are the new normal for US trade policy.
Congress also bestirred itself on trade last month, but in contradictory directions that may ultimately serve instead to further embolden the White House. Indeed, the more aggressive this administration’s use of tariffs becomes, the more difficult subsequent administrations are likely to find it to move away from them.
From ‘Liberation Day’ to Section 301
July was a big month for US trade policy as time ran out on the temporary ‘section 122’ tariffs that the Trump administration put in place in February 2026. Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 authorizes the president to impose tariffs of up to 15 per cent on all imports for up to 150 days ‘to address fundamental international payments problems.’
This was the administration’s move to keep a form of global tariffs in place after the US Supreme Court had overturned US president Donald Trump’s original approach. The court struck down his use of an emergency powers act to declare wide-ranging tariffs via an executive order on ‘Liberation Day’ in April 2025.
Following this setback, in March 2026 the administration initiated a series of investigations under ‘section 301’ of the Trade Act of 1974, which permits it to document and levy tariffs on countries that burden or unfairly restrict US exports.
The first section 301 investigation to be completed was also the largest: the claim that US commerce was being harmed by imports of goods produced with forced labour. The investigation did not, crucially, focus on firms using forced labour. Instead, it accused 59 countries and the European Union of permitting the import of goods allegedly produced with forced labour elsewhere.
On 24 July, the administration implemented tariffs on the 60 economies. While the new rates are significantly lower than the original ‘Liberation Day’ rates for many countries, they reinstituted a 10-12 per cent minimum tariff on the 60 economies, which together provide the US with 99 per cent of its imports. This applied even to the countries (and the EU) that had moved to enact or beef up enforcement of forced labour bans.
Canada, Brazil, EU, China
These forced labour tariffs also stack on top of some previous ones. As a result, while estimates put the overall US effective tariff rate at 10.8 per cent, some countries face much higher tariffs.
In July, the administration cited a previously unused legal authority (section 338 of the notorious 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff act) to declare 50 per cent levies on various Canadian goods – some longstanding trade irritants, others related to Canadian public boycotts and retaliation over prior tariffs. The White House also put a 25 per cent tariff on some Brazilian goods, in a move that was viewed by many in Brazil as politically motivated ahead of the country’s upcoming elections.
More is on the way. An ‘excess capacity’ section 301 investigation targeting 16 economies including China, India, Japan and the EU is still in process, with potentially high tariff outcomes. The administration has said it would restart its 2019 section 301 investigation against countries that engage in so-called ‘digital protectionism,’ which would chiefly target EU members and Canada. President Trump’s response to EU fines on Google in July was also to suggest additional tariffs.
President Trump gets a new version of the across-the-board tariff wall he desires, while importers get chaos.
Pharmaceuticals have also been targeted. On 31 July, tariffs on pharmaceuticals from certain companies – justified under a different law focused on national security concerns – began to take effect. Some are as high as 100 per cent. The administration also has an ongoing section 301 investigation targeting German pharmaceuticals, in response to German efforts to lower drug spending.
Meanwhile, Washington and Beijing nibbled at the edges of their trade truce; in addition to putting 12.5 per cent forced labour tariffs on Chinese goods, the US banned Chinese-made humanoid robots.
For its part, the Chinese government has continued to build out its ability to restrict critical minerals flows, while meetings between senior US and Chinese officials have not marked progress on agricultural trade or Washington’s planned Board of Trade to manage relations with China. It appears, to quote former US negotiator Ambassador Wendy Cutler, that ‘just holding the truce together has become the main objective.’
Exemptions and challenges
The new tariffs – like the ones they replaced – cover about half of all goods imported into the US, with significant exemptions. The exemptions process may help manage inflationary pressures at home, but it also makes implementation complex and has prompted questions about which industries are given exemptions and why.
An audit of the first Trump administration’s tariff exclusion practices in 2018 and 2019 by the Commerce Department’s Office of Inspector General warned of the ‘appearance of improper influence in decision-making for tariff exclusion requests.’
A recent New York Times report raised questions about the basis of the exemptions from last month’s tariffs over forced labour, including commodities like diamonds. The report quoted White House spokesperson Kush Desai in response: ‘The only special interest guiding the Trump administration’s decision-making is the best interest of the American people.’
Overall, President Trump gets a new version of the across-the-board tariff wall he desires, while importers get chaos. The new tariffs are already being challenged in court, including by 25 US states. Experts disagree on which challenges might succeed, but it appears that the administration aims to maintain elevated tariff levels by imposing new tariffs faster than courts can overturn old ones.
Contradictory Congress
A majority of the American public, including independents and non-MAGA Republicans, dislike tariffs. Democratic Senator Ron Wyden, a longtime critic of tariff initiatives from both parties, introduced comprehensive legislation that would wrest trade policy power back to Congress. But the bill has no clear path forward.
At the same time, a bill giving the president even more tariff authority to target Russia, including to put 100 per cent tariffs on top importers of Russian oil, began to move through the Senate with strong bipartisan support. Wyden was one of only ten Democrats to oppose it.
This reflects the politics of tariffs: the pain they impose is diffuse, while the benefits are highly specific and thus easier to organize around. A majority of US public opinion supports free trade in the abstract but opposes specific trade liberalization deals with their real and imagined costs.
As a result, Congress remains unwilling to engage in affirmatively setting trade policy, handing more power to the executive branch. Meanwhile, more corners of US industry are getting used to building in uncertainty and negotiating with the administration for exemptions from tariffs.
This means it’s going to get harder, rather than easier, for future leaders of any political stripe to swear off trade policy as a cheap political tool. As with climate change, the risk for US trade policy is that the world is left with heat and unpredictability all year round.
Argonne-led collaboration will use AI and U.S. Department of Energy user facilities to understand how tiny flaws affect electronics over time
Aug. 7, 2026 — How a microelectronic device performs depends on what it is made of, how well its materials and interfaces are built and how electricity, heat and tiny defects change over time. These devices power much of modern life — from smartphones and laptops to secure communications and artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.
Credit: Corona Borealis Studio/Shutterstock
As next-generation devices become smaller, faster and more tightly packed, their performance is affected more and more by tiny flaws in materials and interfaces. These defects can lead to overheating, electrical leakage, unreliable switching and, in the end, shorter device lifetimes. But defects are not always harmful. They can also influence electrical and thermal behavior in useful ways, depending on how they are distributed and how they evolve over time. Understanding both the harmful and beneficial effects of defects is essential for designing better microelectronics.
To address the challenges defects pose, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and Northwestern University plan to develop the Materials Discovery Cloud. The project will create a physics-informed AI framework that learns how material composition, structure and operating conditions influence defect evolution and key functional properties such as electrostatic potential, current density and temperature.
The Materials Discovery Cloud is part of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a bold national initiative to double America’s research and development productivity within a decade while strengthening U.S. technological leadership and global competitiveness.
From Protein Folding to Device Function
AlphaFold is an AI system developed by Google DeepMind that predicts a protein’s 3D structure based on its amino acid sequence. It transformed biology by making structure prediction much faster and more accurate, helping scientists better understand how proteins work.
The new microelectronics effort follows a similar idea but applies it to a very different problem. Instead of predicting protein structure from sequence, the team aims to predict how networks of defects form, change and affect how a device works.
“In biology, AlphaFold learned to connect sequence to structure,” said Subramanian Sankaranarayanan, Argonne scientist and lead principal investigator on the project, as well as a professor at the University of Illinois Chicago. “We want to connect defect distributions in materials and interfaces to the electrical and thermal properties that matter for microelectronics. Such a framework remains elusive.”
Why Defects Are So Hard to Understand
Defects are tiny irregularities in a material’s structure. They can include missing atoms, dislocations, voids or chemical disorder. Some defects hurt performance. Others can help enable useful behavior. The challenge is knowing which defects matter, when they matter and how they change under real operating conditions.
These attributes are difficult to determine because no single instrument can capture the whole picture.
Some tools, such as electron microscopes, can directly image features at very small scales. X-ray methods can reveal strain, buried structures and defect motion. Other techniques measure chemistry, electrical behavior and heat flow. Each method shows one part of the story, but not the whole system.
A useful way to think about it is like trying to understand the day’s weather from the temperature alone. Temperature tells you something important, but you also need to factor in wind, clouds, precipitation and humidity to see the full picture. The same is true for microelectronics.
Bringing Many Tools into One Framework
To close that gap, the team is combining many types of data from DOE Office of Science user facilities and advanced computing systems, drawing information from different tools and scales into one unified platform.
The Materials Discovery Cloud will help researchers gather experimental data, run simulations and generate synthetic data that mimic experiments. The synthetic data is especially important because complete experimental data sets for material samples are still complicated and time-consuming to collect. Simulations can fill in missing pieces and help train the AI framework.
Another part of the effort focuses on autonomous discovery, which uses AI, machine learning and robotics to help researchers decide which measurements to run next and collect new data more quickly. That can help address one of the project’s key challenges: generating enough high-quality experimental data to build and refine AI models.
In this work, researchers are developing an AI-guided platform for microelectronics materials that can synthesize samples and carry out multiple kinds of characterization in a more integrated, high-throughput workflow. By reducing the need to move samples among facilities for separate measurements, the approach could speed data collection and help fill important gaps in the multimodal datasets used to train the framework.
“What makes the Materials Discovery Cloud powerful is that we can bring together experiments, simulations and AI in one workflow,” Sankaranarayanan explained. “That gives us a way to learn from limited data today while building a framework that can grow more capable as new data comes in.”
AI Guided by Physics
This system is not designed to be a black box that gives answers without explanation. Instead, it will be built around well-established laws of physics. This helps ensure the AI’s predictions are grounded in how materials and devices actually behave.
That certainty is important because the researchers want the system to do more than spot patterns in data. They want it to help reveal why certain defects lead to specific changes in performance, reliability or lifetime.
To do that, the framework will combine several kinds of AI tools that can bring together many types of data, learn from both experiments and simulations and identify which new measurements would be most useful next. In the end, the goal is to connect tiny, atomic-scale features in a material to the larger electrical, thermal and mechanical behavior of a real device.
What Success Could Look Like
If successful, the Materials Discovery Cloud could change how scientists design and test new materials and devices.
Instead of waiting through long rounds of experiments, researchers may be able to get useful answers from a smaller set of early measurements. That could help them spot problems sooner, avoid spending time on weak candidates and focus more quickly on the most promising designs.
Over time, the framework could also support inverse design. Rather than starting with a material and seeing how it performs, they could start with a goal — such as better heat management or a longer-lasting device — and ask what kind of material structure or defect pattern would be needed to achieve it.
By bringing many different measurements into one predictive system, the effort aims to help scientists better understand, control and design the materials behind the next generation of microelectronics.
Other contributors to this work include Pierre Darancet, Henry Chan, Maria Chan, Daniel Durham, Tom Gage, Dina Sheyfer, Hua Zhou, Ross Harder, Jeffrey Klug, Mathew Cherukara, Supratik Guha and Aditya Koneru from Argonne; Mary Scott, Archana Raja, Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Ed Barnard and Sujoy Roy from Berkeley Lab; Panchapakesan Ganesh and Rama Vasudevan from ORNL; and Mark Hersam from Northwestern University.
This research was supported by the DOE’s Basic Energy Sciences (BES) Office under the Genesis Mission’s BES AI Pathfinder Program, Materials Discovery Cloud.
Aug. 7, 2026 — The University of North Dakota has been selected for the inaugural cohort of projects supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, making UND the only institution in North Dakota chosen to participate in the national initiative.
The project, led by Jielun Zhang, assistant professor in the College of Engineering & Mines’ School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, will develop new methods to improve the security and reliability of artificial intelligence models used in battery management systems and other energy science applications. Jueming Hu, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UND, serves as co-principal investigator.
The Genesis Mission is a historic national initiative led by the U.S. Department of Energy that is building the world’s most powerful integrated science discovery platform. By uniting government, industry, academia and philanthropy, it is accelerating breakthroughs in energy, scientific discovery and national security through a new platform that combines artificial intelligence, supercomputing, quantum systems and advanced scientific instruments.
“Our researchers are tackling complex challenges that have the potential to improve lives and strengthen critical infrastructure,” said Vice President for Research and Economic Development Scott Snyder. “Selection for the inaugural Genesis Mission reflects the quality of research taking place at UND and our commitment to advancing discoveries that serve our state and the nation.”
The project, titled “Adversarial Robustness Framework for AI Models in Battery Management and Energy Science Workflows,” addresses an increasingly important challenge as artificial intelligence becomes more widely used to monitor and manage lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, support the electric grid and provide backup power for critical facilities.
AI models help estimate battery health, monitor operating conditions and identify potential problems before failures occur. However, those models can be vulnerable to manipulated data or cyberattacks that could cause them to overlook battery degradation, misidentify unsafe operating conditions or make incorrect recommendations.
To address those risks, Zhang and his collaborators will develop a framework for evaluating and improving the resilience of AI models used in battery management and related energy science applications. The research team will create standardized methods for testing AI systems against realistic attacks, develop techniques to detect compromised data and strengthen AI models so they can continue operating reliably in challenging environments.
“Artificial intelligence is becoming an essential tool for managing increasingly complex energy systems,” Zhang said. “Our goal is to develop practical methods that help ensure these models remain secure, reliable and trustworthy so they can safely support critical energy infrastructure.”
The project also includes collaborators from La Sierra University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Clean Republic SODO LLC.
The research builds on UND’s growing leadership in artificial intelligence, advanced computing and energy systems research, bringing together expertise from multiple engineering disciplines to address challenges at the intersection of cybersecurity, AI and critical energy infrastructure.
The goal of the Genesis Mission Phase I awards is to identify promising pathways toward transformative scientific capabilities and establish a foundation for future investment and scale. Project teams will design and demonstrate research workflows that integrate AI with scientific investigation while evaluating whether those approaches can accelerate discovery, improve predictive capabilities, enhance experimentation or generate new scientific insights.
Researchers expect the project to produce new evaluation methods, software tools and model-hardening techniques that will help scientists, utilities, technology developers and energy system operators assess and improve the resilience of AI systems used in energy applications. The work could contribute to safer battery technologies, more reliable distributed energy resources and more secure deployment of artificial intelligence across critical energy and scientific workflows.
Representatives from UND joined researchers from across the country at the Genesis Mission Summit on July 22 in Washington, where the inaugural cohort of projects was announced.
The project is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy.
Andrew and Tristan Tate remain in jail as they fight extradition to UK to face charges of rape, assault and more
Lawyers for Andrew and Tristan Tate urged a US judge on Friday to release the brothers from a Miami jail as they fight the British government’s efforts to extradite them to face charges of rape, assault and facilitating trafficking for sexual exploitation.
In a filing in Miami federal court, the Tate brothers’ lawyers said their “extraordinary public visibility” would make it impractical for them to try to flee, meaning there was no need to keep them behind bars until the extradition proceedings end.
Home Office minister Anna Turley says PM is ‘authentic’ and praises video of him discussing bar snacks with John Healey
Streeting said it was “not OK” that the killers of PC Andrew Harper were eligible for early release, PA reports.
He said the government should “never have been put in a position” where prisons were so full that offenders were going to be let out at an earlier stage of their sentence.
A federal appeals court is set to consider President Trump's effort to fire two immigration judges this fall, a case that could have significant implications for federal workers.
Teenager killed his grandparents before opening fire at school near Bangkok, where more than 30 were wounded
A Thai teenager killed his grandparents before opening fire at his school, where he shot five people dead and took his own life, police have said, in an attack that has shaken a country struggling to deal with gun violence.
The 14-year-old wounded more than 30 people in the shooting at the prestigious Debsirin Nonthaburi school northwest of Bangkok. Nine people were in a critical condition, the Thai health department said.
Experts say the attackers’ behaviour, and the handling of their cases, have striking similarities
About 40 metres off Tottenham High Street, up a slip road for deliveries to a B&M homewares store, is a stretch of concrete paving behind a 2-metre wall topped with spikes.
This is the patch of ground that Simon Levy tried to turn into his personal killing field.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 7, 2026 — QC Ware today announced a technology demonstration of a hybrid quantum-classical computational chemistry workflow using Promethium and IBM Quantum hardware.
The demonstration calculated electrostatic interaction energy for nitric oxide reductase by combining GPU-accelerated molecular modeling and classical chemistry methods with quantum measurements performed on IBM’s 156-qubit Heron superconducting quantum processor. The work highlights how Promethium can be used alongside quantum hardware in scientifically relevant workflows. This was a technology demonstration and is not currently a fully integrated Promethium product capability.
“This demonstration shows how classical and quantum computing can be combined to address meaningful computational chemistry problems,” said Dr. Kin-Joe Sham, Co-Founder and COO at QC Ware. “We believe Promethium delivers high-performance computational chemistry today while providing a foundation for exploring future hybrid workflows.”
Nitric oxide reductase is a chemically complex metalloenzyme system, making it a relevant benchmark for evaluating advanced computational methods. The workflow focused on electrostatic interaction energy, an important molecular property in drug discovery, catalysis, and materials science.
The demonstration builds on QC Ware’s previously published research in hybrid quantum-classical chemistry and reflects the Company’s broader strategy of delivering practical, GPU-accelerated quantum chemistry today while advancing the use of artificial intelligence and quantum computing to address increasingly challenging scientific problems.
Available today, Promethium’s GPU-native architecture enables researchers to apply quantum chemistry across larger molecular systems and more compounds than has traditionally been practical. For selected workloads, Promethium runs demanding calculations up to 20× faster than the main conventional platforms, helping researchers generate molecular-level insights in hours instead of weeks and accelerating decision-making across drug discovery, catalysis, and materials science.
About QC Ware
QC Ware is a quantum computing software company. QC Ware develops applications that unlock the power of quantum computing for drug discovery, material design and other industry verticals. QC Ware’s Promethium platform provides GPU-accelerated quantum chemistry for molecular modeling and drug discovery, helping customers make better discovery decisions today while exploring the hybrid quantum-classical workflows of tomorrow. QC Ware also organizes and hosts Q2B quantum computing conferences in Japan, Europe and the United States.
Aug. 7, 2026 — The US Department of Energy recently announced that three research projects involving New York University (NYU) faculty have been selected in the first round of the DOE’s Genesis Mission. The selected ventures span quantum computing, decentralized scientific AI, and multi-agent hypothesis generation, underscoring NYU’s growing role in AI-enabled discovery science.
The Genesis Mission is a national DOE initiative that unites the department’s national laboratories, universities, and industry partners with advanced AI, high-performance computing, scientific instrumentation, and data infrastructure to accelerate discovery. More than 5,000 applications were submitted, and just 278 projects were selected in this first round. NYU’s three projects are among that inaugural group:
“AI-driven Pulse-level Optimal Control of Many-body Quantum Eigensolvers” is spearheaded by Andrei Vrajitoarea, an assistant professor of physics, and Norah Hoffman, assistant professor of chemistry and physics. The team will design a new way to program quantum computers that skips a costly translation step. Today’s quantum algorithms are typically written in abstract instructions, then translated into a rigid sequence of hardware operations, which slows computation and introduces errors. Using AI, the NYU team will instead control the quantum hardware directly.
MARS (Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning for Scientific Hypothesis Generation) is led by Brookhaven National Laboratory in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, NYU, and Microsoft. Mengye Ren, an assistant professor of computer science and data science at NYU’s Courant Institute School of Mathematics, Computing, and Data Science, will help build specialized teams of AI agents designed to help scientists generate stronger, evidence-based hypotheses more efficiently. Early work will focus on identifying problems in analog circuit designs and interpreting material structures from X-ray data.
DAISY (Decentralized Agentic Intelligence System for Scientific Inquiry) is led by Iowa State University in collaboration with Argonne National Laboratory, with NYU’s Chinmay Hegde, an associate professor of computer science and engineering, and Juliana Freire, an Institute Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering. The team is designing a network of AI agents that divide labor, share compact knowledge tokens, and work together to accelerate discovery. NYU will help lead development of the platform’s core toolkit, with early applications planned in materials science, crop breeding for bioenergy, and the power grid.
“Science is entering an era where discovery itself can be accelerated by the tools we build to pursue it,” said Juan de Pablo, NYU’s Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Executive Vice President for Global Science and Technology and executive dean of the Tandon School of Engineering. “This is exactly the kind of cross-disciplinary momentum the Genesis Mission was designed to unlock, and it’s where NYU is ready to lead.”
“Our breakthroughs emerge from the deep and broad disciplinary excellence among our faculty, which is bolstered by the collaborative environment we foster in Arts and Science,” said Michael Purugganan, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of Arts and Science and Silver Professor of Biology. “As part of the Genesis Mission, our scientists will continue to embrace AI’s potential as an engine for discovery in meeting 21st-century challenges.”
“Leveraging AI from the ground up is vital for both scientific discovery and technological advancement,” said Gerard Ben Arous, dean of NYU’s Courant Institute School. “Developing promising AI agents into advanced applications has been a driver of the Courant Institute School’s success, and it will remain a core focus under the Genesis Mission.”
Yinon Levy charged with manslaughter in first exception this decade to culture of impunity for Israelis who kill Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
Prosecutors in Israel have indicted an extremist settler for shooting a Palestinian activist last July, the first attempt this decade to hold an Israeli responsible for killing a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank.
Yinon Levy, who was under western sanctions, is charged with manslaughter over the death of Awdeh Hathaleen, an English teacher and peace activist. In his last moments, Hathaleen filmed the settler drawing his weapon and opening fire towards him.
The typical American's paycheck has grown faster since 2019 than in any stretch since the early 1980s. But prices climbed nearly as fast, swallowing about 80% of the wage increase.
US employers unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs in July and gains for the previous two months were revised down sharply by a combined 103,000 jobs, painting a weaker picture of the labor market than past data indicated.
The unemployment rate, however, held steady at 4.1%. Economists had projected an unchanged unemployment rate and 83,000 new jobs for the month.
The all-conquering franchise’s revamps are technically impressive, its transfers more true to life – and its new grassroots social hub is surprising fun
As if the world wasn’t sufficiently football-obsessed, it’s time to prepare for the arrival of its biggest football video game. EA Sports FC 27 (the franchise that used to be Fifa – what better time to no longer be Fifa-branded?) is due to be released on 25 September. I just spent two intense days in Vancouver, where the EA FC games are made, playing FC 27 and talking to its developers.
With an annual franchise such as EA FC, it helps to have something fresh to entice regular fans, and FC 27 has a whole new element, entitled the Grounds. It’s a physical hub-type area, similar to the City as seen in 2K’s recent NBA 2K basketball games, but much more pleasant to frequent, split as it is into areas inspired by British, French and Argentinian street-football culture.
US domestic airfares are 26.5% higher than a year ago, according to June’s consumer price index data, and analysts say prices globally are up 25-30% compared with 2025.
A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency – and plenty of open questions
After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for how it will test new artificial intelligence models for safety and cybersecurity risks. So far, the White House is keeping details of the framework private, in a blow to transparency and potential boon for secretive AI companies.
On Tuesday, staff from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Google, Nvidia and Microsoft attended a private meeting with White House officials to review the AI framework. Multiple outlets have sincereported that although the volunteer vetting process for new AI models has been settled, the White House does not plan to release its policy publicly and will only share testing criteria with a select few tech companies.
Robyn Cory says daughter Kristen was not protected, amid questions about why it took six years to identify remains
The family of Kristen Galvan, a 15-year-old Houston girl who was sex trafficked and murdered, says law enforcement failed her twice by not protecting her after she gave forensic interviews about her traffickers, and later by taking more than six years to identify her remains.
The Texas attorney general’s office announced on 28 July that Kristen’s remains had been positively identified using advanced DNA testing conducted over the past year. Parts of her skull, clothing and an earring were found beneath a bridge beside a jogging trail in Missouri City, about 10 miles outside Houston.
Officials try to find homes for residents as talks to save social assistance hub collapse amid government crackdown
Rome authorities are scrambling to find homes for hundreds of people sleeping in tents in extreme heat after talks aimed at saving Italy’s most high-profile centre for housing and social assistance collapsed amid a crackdown by Giorgia Meloni’s government on squatted buildings.
The approximately 400 evicted residents of Spin Time Labs, located in a 10-floor building in Rome’s Esquilino district occupied by grassroots groups since 2013, will not be allowed to move back in after its private owner refused Rome council’s offer to buy the property. The residents were forced out at the end of last month.
Companies receiving billions in refunds for U.S. tariffs struck down by the Supreme Court should return money to consumers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said.
As Abelardo de la Espriella takes office as president vowing a new military offensive, the country’s last leftwing rebels are getting ready to fight back
As the boat approached the riverbank, camouflaged figures watched from the tree line.
Behind them, in the dim understory of the jungle, a commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) sat with his rifle on his lap, amid the buzz and whine of insects and the thwacks of machetes on bamboo as his troops set up camp, hidden from enemy drones.
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Friday she will oppose Todd Blanche's nomination as attorney general, narrowing the confirmation path for President Trump's pick to lead the Justice Department.
The alleged threats were made in the case of a Black teen who was found dead off the Mississippi coast after celebrating the Fourth of July with friends.
Good morning. Donald Trump’s statement that oil companies have made “too much money” from the Iran war has angered environmentalists, who say his policies were designed to benefit those very corporations.
Americans have paid more than $78bn more at the pump since the start of the Iran war, according to a Brown University tracker. A recent analysis from the environmental advocacy group Climate Power and the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal thinktank, found that Trump’s policies had cost the average American family $285 more when filling up their cars.
What policies has Trump enacted to help the oil industry? Since re-entering the White House last year, he has eased dozens of restrictions and regulations on fossil fuel expansion, exempted fossil fuel producers from environmental rules, and signed an executive order last year directing the attorney general to prioritize blocking climate lawsuits targeting oil majors. Trump has also personally invested in major oil companies.
What did the supreme court previously rule? In the court’s June decision, the chief justice, John Roberts, said Trump’s first order violated the 14th amendment of the US constitution. “Citizenship, then and now, was the right to have rights – to freely participate in our political community,” he wrote. “The framers of the 14th amendment extended that promise to ‘every free-born person in this land’. We keep that promise today.”
MIAMI, Florida — A dispute over a prized lobster-diving location in Biscayne Bay escalated into an attempted murder case after authorities accused a Miami Beach boater of deliberately shutting off an 18-year-old diver’s air supply underwater.
Michael Joseph Simpson Jr., 51, was charged with attempted felony murder following the July 29 confrontation during Florida’s two-day recreational spiny lobster season. According to a Miami-Dade sheriff’s report, two groups argued after one accused the other of taking their preferred diving spot.
Investigators allege Simpson entered the water and shut down a Brownie’s Third Lung system supplying air to diver Hunter Coffer. Boat owner Steven Del Sol reportedly pulled Coffer to the surface by the air hose after witnesses shouted that a diver was still underwater. Coffer emerged gasping, disoriented and tangled in lines, according to the report.
Simpson’s attorney, Howard Srebnick, strongly disputes that account. He said Simpson never touched the equipment and claims video shows another person becoming entangled in the system while Simpson was elsewhere. The defense also says multiple witnesses support Simpson’s version and criticized investigators for making an arrest before interviewing them.
Simpson surrendered Aug. 4 and was released on $10,000 bond. Prosecutors will ultimately determine whether to formally pursue the attempted murder charge.
JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has donated $1.25 million to the campaign opposing Amendment 3, widening the financial advantage for groups seeking to preserve abortion rights approved by Missouri voters in 2024.
Stop the Ban has now raised more than $6.5 million ahead of the Nov. 3 election. The leading committee supporting Amendment 3, Her Health, Her Future PAC, has raised just over $1 million. Missouri Right to Life has separately spent about $230,000 supporting the measure.
Amendment 3 would repeal the constitutional reproductive-rights amendment voters approved with roughly 52% support in 2024. If approved, it would again prohibit most abortions, with exceptions for medical emergencies and pregnancies resulting from rape or incest during the first 12 weeks. It would also place Missouri’s existing ban on gender-transition procedures for minors into the state constitution.
Bloomberg previously gave $1 million to the coalition that successfully supported abortion rights in Missouri’s 2024 election.
The fundraising gap mirrors that earlier campaign. Abortion-rights groups raised more than $31 million in 2024, compared with roughly $5 million by opponents.
Supporters of Amendment 3 argue voters should restore stronger abortion restrictions. Opponents frame the measure as an effort by lawmakers to overturn a reproductive-rights decision Missourians made less than two years ago.
With the primary complete, both sides are expected to accelerate advertising and voter outreach through November.
Few have heard of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, but it has saved tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars
When I started my training in 1980, we accepted an arithmetic that would now be indefensible. Central lines, the catheters we threaded into the great veins of the critically ill, became infected, and some of those patients died. We recorded the deaths as complications. Almost no one thought of them as preventable, because no one had yet done the slow work of proving they were.
That work got done, and federal money paid for it. Beginning in 2008, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a small arm of the health department, funded a national effort in more than a thousand adult intensive care units: a checklist, a sterile insertion protocol, and a unit culture in which a nurse could stop a surgeon. Central-line bloodstream infections fell by 41%, from 1.915 to 1.133 per 1,000 catheter days. The agency estimates that effort alone averted between 290 and 605 deaths. Across its wider work on hospital-acquired harm, AHRQ’s own accounting credits 20,500 deaths prevented and $7.7bn saved in the four years from 2014 to 2017. Hardly any of my patients have heard of the agency. That was always rather the point.
Robert B Shpiner is an internist and clinical professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He has practiced and taught intensive care medicine for more than 40 years
Save Our Signs aims to document every sign in the more than 400 national parks and historic sites across the country before the Trump administration removes them
Jenny McBurney was among hundreds of people around the world who sprang into action last year when the Trump administration started deleting government datasets and webpages because they included information about “gender ideology”, environmental justice or diversity, equity and inclusion.
McBurney, a government publications librarian at the University of Minnesota, joined the Data Rescue Project, a group that mobilizes volunteers to archive critical government datasets that are at risk of deletion by the Trump administration.
High 30s celsius forecast for France, Spain and Italy next week, before affecting Germany, Poland and Czechia
Another pulse of heat is expected to affect central and western Europe next week. The latest forecast models show daily maximum temperatures well into the high 30s celsius widely across France, Spain and Italy during the first half of the week, while Germany, Poland and Czechiawill experience the highest temperatures towards the end of the week. The shift in the focus of the heat as the week progresses can be attributed to the movement of high pressure. At the start of the week, low pressure centred in the Atlantic and high pressure centred over the low countries will draw warm air from southern Europe northwards into parts of France. During the working week, the high pressure will slip a little farther south and east, enabling the warm air once situated over western Europe to make inroads into parts of Germany and central Europe.
The heat in central and western Europe this summer has been unrelenting. Last week’s weather tracker highlighted record-breaking temperatures for the month of July in Austria. However, only a few days later, on 4 August, the all-time record was shattered with 41.0C achieved in Stammersdorf, north-east of the capital, Vienna. This comfortably broke the previous all-time record set in August 2003 by 0.7C. Unbelievably, that record was broken again the following day when 41.2C was recorded in Deutsch-Altenburg. Slovakia also set an all-time record on the same day, of 41.4C. The continuing European heatwave, associated with a vertically extensive anticyclone, raised the freezing level above 4,000 metres across much of the Alpine region. This represents a level in the atmosphere well above many Alpine glaciers, accelerating the seasonal melting process. On the opposite side of the Atlantic, 51.8C was recorded in Badwater, California, the highest temperature in the US for 2026 so far.
A teenager described as "troubled" and "bullied" by a classmate killed his grandparents before gunning down five staff members at a high school in Thailand, police said.
By dragging out talks, Tehran aims to damage the US president politically – but some fear a bruised and weakened Trump could lash back
Tehran has set out a protracted negotiating timetable designed to keep Donald Trump embroiled in the Iran conflict until the midterm elections, in the hope of inflicting the same ruinous blow on his presidency as Jimmy Carter suffered over the 1979-81 US embassy hostage crisis.
For many inside Iran, inflicting meaningful revenge on Trump is a legitimate and self-standing war aim, reflected in the mood of those attending the funeral of the supreme leader Ali Khamenei where demands for retribution were ubiquitous.
The rookie quarterback ran in from the five-yard line on the final play to give the Carolina Panthers a 33-30 victory over the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame game that kicked off the NFL preseason on Thursday night.
To counter the purported national scourge of “organized retail crime,” a bill moving through Congress would deliver the Department of Homeland Security unprecedented policing powers, granting even more authority to what experts say is an already lawless ICE.
The Combating Organized Retail Crime Act, or CORCA, was introduced by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, last year with wide bipartisan support. The bill is aimed at limiting coordinated retail theft and shoplifting, which lawmakers allege is happening at “unprecedented levels” as organized criminal gangs steal merchandise from stores and resell the goods online. According to the legislation, the perpetrators “are often polycriminal organizations, using profit from the reselling of stolen goods to support crimes involving drugs and weapons trafficking” while facilitating “human smuggling,” all of which is “funding nefarious groups and activities and threatening the integrity of the international economy.”
The bill would give Immigration and Customs Enforcement authority to coordinate federal efforts against large-scale shoplifting. ICE would establish a so-called “Organized Retail and Supply Chain Crime Coordination Center” that would bring under one roof analysts and agents from myriad agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Secret Service. The goal is to centralize investigative data and establish “a secure system for sharing information regarding organized retail and supply chain crime threats by leveraging existing information systems at the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.”
It’s unclear if ICE agents themselves would have the authority to confront alleged suspects. DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Civil libertarian groups are disturbed by legislation they say constitutes a major expansion of domestic surveillance and policing by DHS, which was founded largely to tackle matters of counterterrorism, civil defense, and other matters of national safety, and ICE, whose purview is immigration enforcement and transnational crime.
“This would formalize a mechanism for retailers to share data about consumers with DHS.”
Jina John, senior policy counsel for AI, privacy, and technology at the ACLU, told The Intercept the bill could grant DHS increased surveillance powers. “This would formalize a mechanism for retailers to share data about consumers with DHS as well as state and local authorities relating vaguely to ‘threats,’” she said. “The risk here is that when retailers share information, it’s not a specific clip of footage related to a specific theft, in practice, they are sharing continuous footage. That means access to FLOCK license plate readers in retail parking lots and surveillance cameras at stores and malls.”
The Center itself would be staffed in part by ICE agents and helmed by a director handpicked by the head of ICE. The bill allows the Center to share information deemed confidential under federal law, which includes the “identity, confidential statistical data, amount or source of any income, profits, losses, or expenditures of any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or association.” Such disclosure would require the sign-off of the Center’s director.
“Given that this director will be named by ICE, an agency that has acted without any regard for the law, this is probably not the best person to make such important judgments,” ACLU senior counsel Nina Patel told The Intercept.
Despite sustained opposition to DHS and ICE under Trump’s second term by congressional democrats, CORCA was co-sponsored by 13 Democratic members of the Senate, including Amy Klobuchar, Mark Warner, and Democratic Whip Dick Durbin.
In a July letter opposing the bill, rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union, NAACP, and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law cautioned about the establishment of “essentially a new fusion center, nominally for the purpose of addressing retail theft.” Like DHS itself, fusion centers are a post-9/11 creation intended to thwart acts of international terrorism. Over the past two decades, their mission has widened and now encompasses, for example, the surveillance of political protests.
The premise that organized retail theft is a rampant crime phenomenon, rather than a new name for the timeless petty offense of shoplifting, is disputed and controversial. In 2023, the National Retail Federation, a trade group that supports the bill and whose warnings are cited in its text, retracted a report claiming organized retail crime was responsible for 50 percent of the nearly $100 billion worth of merchandise that went missing in 2021. The true number was found to be closer to 5 percent of that sum.
The companies on whose behalf the NRF lobbies are inclined to support legislation dedicated to safeguarding merchandise and profits. Should it pass, CORCA would deepen collaboration between corporate America and DHS and expand the country’s public-private surveillance apparatus. “Companies determined by the Executive Associate Director to have significant interests” in retail theft could be granted information-sharing agreements with the government about threats, investigations and loss prevention activities, according to the bill’s text.
The ACLU and other civil liberties groups insist ICE is so lawless it can’t be trusted with new powers. “As a result, ICE would have more access to information and more sway over local law enforcement — which means more opportunities for ICE to misuse data and target people in violation of their rights,” Patel said. “ICE cannot be trusted.”
In May, the House passed CORCA and referred it to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Grassley and Durbin are now hoping to turn it into law as an amendment to the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act, the Pentagon’s annual funding bill that historically passes easily with bipartisan support. Despite the fact that CORCA is intended to protect store shelves from thieves, and not the United States from foreign militaries, both senators are urging the acceptance of the amendment on the grounds that it will “reduce violent crime.”
A press release from Grassley’s office last month included exhortations to include the amendment in the NDAA from executives of Amazon, Home Depot, and the International Council of Shopping Centers, among others.
Met police say charge relates to alleged assault that reportedly took place in December at venue in London
The England footballer Ivan Toney has been charged with assault after an incident at a nightclub in Soho in December last year.
Scotland Yard said the striker had been charged on 31 July with assault causing actual bodily harm. Toney, who plays for the Saudi Pro League club Al-Ahli, is due to appear at Westminster magistrates court on 24 September.
Stephen Akinsanya says being mistaken for defendant shows lack of progress on racism within legal system
A black barrister has said a security guard told him he could not park in a court’s car park in London because “it’s not for defendants”.
Stephen Akinsanya, who in June was awarded an OBE for raising awareness of youth knife crime and its prevention, said the incident, at an east London court about four weeks ago, illustrated the lack of progress on racism within the criminal justice system.
Donald Trump’s second term is unlike his first. The politicians who challenged him are gone. The lawyers who once pushed back now choose their battles. What remains is an imperial president with almost no internal checks - using executive power to reshape everything from the economy to immigration and even the presidency itself.
Few journalists have covered Trump as closely as the New York Times's Jonathan Swan. He speaks to Jonathan Freedland about how the president has consolidated such enormous power and what it could mean for America - and the world.
Florida man faces count of attempted felony murder after confrontation over a spot to catch lobster, authorities say
A Florida boater was alleged to have tried to kill a diver by cutting off his air supply while they fought over a spot to catch lobsters off the state’s coast recently, according to authorities.
Michael Joseph Simpson Jr’s criminal defense attorney on Thursday issued a statement dismissing those allegations as “false”. Nonetheless, Simpson, 51, was faced with a count of attempted felony murder after he was jailed in what a sheriff’s office report portrayed as a particularly heated case of boat rage on the waters of Miami’s Biscayne Bay.
DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin says ‘We’re going after them right now’ despite threat of violence in home country
Hundreds of thousands of Haitians are faced with the prospect of imminent risk of arrest and deportation – to a home country racked with crime, violence and political unrest – after the Trump administration officially stripped them of humanitarian protections that had allowed them to live and work legally in the United States for years.
US district judge Ana Reyes confirmed on Wednesday that her order blocking the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from ending temporary protected status (TPS) for Haiti was no longer in effect. This followed the controversial supreme court ruling in June that upended judicial review of the program and opened the door for immigration enforcement to track down and detain Haitians en masse.
Perinatal psychiatrist Dr. Uruj Kamal Haider and Kriti Lodha joined a special edition of "Healthful" to talk more about mental health conditions, including postpartum psychosis.
A new study argues that life may have emerged twice on Earth. "Two of the main lineages of life -- bacteria and archaea -- may have independently figured out the secrets of metabolism that upgraded them from non-living to living," reports ScienceAlert, citing a new study that "focused on the most rudimentary set of chemical reactions thought to enable this transformation." From the report: "The surprise is that the enzymes that catalyze those reactions are not conserved across the evolutionary divide that separates bacteria and archaea," says William Martin, a biologist at Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf in Germany.
"The new data leave only one conclusion. The bacterial and archaeal lineages made the transition to the free-living state independently. Only free-living cells are alive. "Let's call it by name: we are looking at one origin of the genetic code, but two origins of life." That's a huge claim to make, especially when defining what life even is can be surprisingly tricky. The findings have been published in the journal Science Advances.
Ten months into her tenure as editor in chief, Weiss’s biggest – and riskiest – bet is getting closer to taking flight
Bari Weiss is 10 months into her tenure as editor-in-chief of CBS News, but her biggest test is right around the corner.
The newest season of 60 Minutes is set to premiere next month after Weiss overhauled the show’s correspondent corps and production staff in the spring. Long considered the gold standard in television news, the show still generates a staggering nine million average viewers per night at a time when linear television’s core audience is either ageing out or turning to digital alternatives.
BOSSIER PARISH, Louisiana — A federal desegregation case dating to the civil rights era has formally ended after 61 years, returning full control of Bossier Parish schools to local officials.
The Bossier Parish School Board and Justice Department agreed to dismiss the 1964 case, which began when Black students were still being excluded from white schools. Federal oversight later governed issues including school assignments, facilities and other measures intended to dismantle the district’s dual school system.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the district had complied with court requirements for decades and described continued oversight as costly and unnecessary. Superintendent Jason Rowland said the dismissal gives local officials “freedom to make our own decisions” while acknowledging the history that produced the decree.
The original plaintiffs are deceased, and their children could not be located, according to court filings. The Justice Department, which historically enforced desegregation orders, has increasingly supported ending long-running federal supervision under the Trump administration.
The move follows similar efforts involving other Louisiana districts, including DeSoto and Concordia parishes.
Ending court supervision does not repeal federal civil rights laws or permit renewed segregation. Bossier Parish remains subject to constitutional and statutory protections against racial discrimination, but future disputes will no longer be handled through the decades-old desegregation case.
Can the UN close the global AI gap? Expert commentjon.wallace
Can UN AI governance bridge the widening digital divide between AI superpowers, middle powers, and developing countries?
The UN Global Dialogue in Geneva, held from 6-7 July, brought together governments, companies, academics, and civil society to discuss the risks emerging from the widening technological gap between middle powers, developing countries, and the AI superpowers.
Advanced semiconductors, computing infrastructure, and AI capabilities remain concentrated primarily in the United States and China, leaving many countries dependent on technologies they neither develop nor fully control.
This creates difficult choices between proprietary US systems and open-weight Chinese models, while raising issues around safety, governance, and technical capacity. The resulting asymmetry extends beyond access to AI, limiting the ability of other countries to shape the standards, infrastructure, and governance arrangements that will determine AI’s future.
The UN summit resulted in a proposal for a ‘Dialogue of Dialogues’ approach to help address some of the issues discussed. This approach cannot counter the technological dominance of the US and China. But it can help countries strengthen their collective position by linking existing governance initiatives, improving technical interoperability, developing shared safety baselines, and building greater capacity to shape the future of AI governance.
Risks and governance priorities
The Geneva summit drew on the preliminary report of the Independent International Scientific Panel on AI. The report identifies various real-world harms emerging from artificial intelligence, including the lack of robust mechanisms to evaluate autonomous AI agents and mitigate bias; the proliferation of AI-generated child sexual abuse material and deepfake-enabled sexual violence; and the environmental cost of building large-scale AI infrastructure.
Notably, the report also describes how AI governance initiatives remain fragmented, with over 40 types of AI governance instruments globally. It also points out that governance is largely voluntary and concentrated at the corporate level. Another report by the AI Governance for Humanity Lab takes stock of this fragmented landscape and proposes concrete steps for streamlining it through interoperable standards, like shared incident reporting and crisis protocols.
The Geneva summit built on this work by proposing a ‘Dialogue of Dialogues’ approach, resembling the IPCC, ICAO, and WHO models. This would connect governance initiatives, strengthen interoperability, and support evidence-based assessment without creating a supranational regulator.
Through the UN AI Dialogue Partnerships Hub, it seeks to foster consensus, knowledge-sharing, and collaboration among like-minded state and non-state actors while respecting geopolitical diversity and national sovereignty.
Coalitions to ‘govern the governance’
The Dialogue of Dialogues would enable smaller coalitions to advance shared AI priorities, preventing gridlock and aiding broader multilateral progress. This includes minilateral and regional efforts among states, and multistakeholder efforts uniting like-minded governments, tech companies, and civil society.
One good format to build on would be compute coalitions, where groups of interested countries pool their computing resources, infrastructure, and expertise to reduce their dependence on the AI superpowers. The EU’s AI Continent Action Plan is an obvious example. So too is Brazil’s Artificial Intelligence Plan (PBIA), which supports 100 collaborative AI research projects with Latin American and African partners. Meanwhile, Africa’s AI factory initiative promotes digital sovereignty by developing locally relevant AI models in African languages and pricing services in local currencies.
The Dialogue of Dialogues…will be most effective in promoting technical interoperability and shared baselines among other countries.
Another useful format would be regulatory coalitions grouped around shared challenges. This would see a coalition of governments, researchers, civil society, and AI laboratories identify practical common standards on challenges such as AI watermarking, deepfake detection, or safeguards against AI-generated sexual exploitation material.
Such standards could form the basis for adoption by others: the European Union’s AI Act is a good example, as is Singapore’s proposed ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) which aims to help establish common rules on digital trade and trusted cross-border data flows.
Smaller coalitions like these could promote technical interoperability through common evaluation methods. That would enable AI developers, particularly in technologically underdeveloped countries, to demonstrate compliance across regulatory regimes without costly duplication of certification. Such interoperability could significantly reduce compliance costs for companies while enabling them to compete internationally.
What a Dialogue of Dialogues can achieve – and what it can’t
The UN’s Dialogue of Dialogues cannot impose binding constraints on the US or China, or somehow compete with the US-led Pax Silica or China’s WAICO groupings. It will be most effective in promoting technical interoperability and shared baselines among other countries – creating ‘translation keys’ that allow diverse AI regulatory regimes to communicate with each other.
The risk is that, if handled incorrectly, it could lead to further fragmentation. Regulators must work with the private sector to promote interoperability: for example, by developing shared safety benchmarks or transparency reporting requirements.
Interoperability is not a cure-all for the polarizing dynamics of the global AI race. But it can reduce friction among countries not locked in strategic competition, ensuring that countries do not have to choose between incompatible regulatory regimes such as the US and China or the EU.
Such an effort could start with what is achievable. For example, sovereign coalitions could seek to create a ‘minimum viable interoperability’ by 2027 – as suggested by Costa Rica in the Geneva Dialogue. This could be achieved by establishing shared terminology, comparable risk classifications, consistent documentation, interoperable incident reporting, and multilingual evaluation methods. These are technical, not overtly political measures and can be built even amid rising geopolitical tension.
The UK is well-placed to be a key player in global AI governance interoperability by rallying support among middle powers. It has a strong AI safety research base, is a signatory to Pax Silica, and maintains dialogue channels with both the US and China as well with technologically developed and underdeveloped countries through the Commonwealth.
The Dialogue of Dialogue approach will also need to be defended at the United Nations. The Global Dialogue was established by General Assembly resolution, not by Secretary-General prerogative so a new UN Secretary General cannot unilaterally abolish it. But there is a risk it could be deprioritized.
To ensure it has lasting impact, the Dialogue of Dialogues should be progressed by the UN’s Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET), which oversees the UN’s 2024 Global Digital Compact and emerging technology governance. ODET is best placed to coordinate across the UN system and ensure balanced participation among governments, civil society, academia, and industry.
Co-locating with the ITU’s AI for Good and WSIS summits would provide an ideal opportunity to promote the Dialogue of Dialogues approach to industry and a wider range of stakeholders, while reducing resource requirements and leveraging an established audience. This arrangement, however, should be accompanied by robust independent governance safeguards under ODET to prevent undue corporate influence.
The Dialogue of Dialogues approach cannot prevent the challenges that countries face in the emerging AI landscape. But it should be persevered with, if countries outside of great power rivalry are to gain equal access to the opportunities AI promises – and promote the standards needed to ensure AI uses are safe and beneficial to all.
Ultimately, bridging the global AI divide requires sustained, inclusive multilateralism. Giving every nation a voice in setting global standards through the UN can ensure that AI serves as a tool for universal progress rather than further fragmentation.
The US aviation regulator has ordered inspections of the fuselages of Boeing 737 Max planes for possible cracks in a component.
The Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive will affect an estimated 471 aircraft and follows reports of cracks in earlier Boeing models.
In this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts explore the US-China race for AI leadership and the likelihood of an AI crash
The $2.6 trillion spent on artificial intelligence, data centres and advanced chipmaking dwarfs the cost of previous infrastructure megaprojects. Yet AI has become a money pit for tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta, and the tech is failing to hit its stratospheric targets.
Could an AI crash take overinvested economies down with it? In the longer term, whose approach will dominate? Will it be the US’s private-led model with tech giants at the top? Or China’s tactic of spreading low-cost AI throughout the Global South, with an eye on dominating the future?
Bronwen Maddox is joined by Alex Krasodomski, director of Chatham House’s Digital Society Programme; James Kynge, a senior research fellow for China and the World with the Asia-Pacific Programme; and Creon Butler, director of the Global Economy and Finance Programme.
About Independent Thinking
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day: Can we finally learn to see our cultural differences as strengths rather than as threats?
If the Disease Doesn’t Kill You, Listening to RFK Jr. Just Might: Laughable misinformation…if only public health weren’t so deadly serious.
Insider Trading is Illegal, Unless You Pay Trump Media $100,000 a Month: Market-moving posts make it seem as if the American dream is rigged.
Jesse Owens & the 1936 Olympics: One man shattered Hitler’s racial mythology in Berlin, but he couldn’t defeat the American version when he got home.
Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History (PBS): Henry Louis Gates Jr. examines the complicated history between Black and Jewish Americans.
Valerie June: “Workin’ Woman Blues”: The hard, daily work of women becomes a spare, soulful performance that refuses either self-pity or sentimentality.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
“If man is to survive, he will have learned to take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures. He will learn that differences in ideas and attitudes are a delight, part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.”
Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991), creator of Star Trek
(Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Star Trek first came on the air on September 8, 1966, while I was beginning my sophomore year at UCLA and preparing to make my debut on the school’s varsity basketball team. It was an exciting moment for me and, between classes and basketball, I didn’t have any time to watch television, but when I did become aware of the show, it felt right to me. The multicultural, multiracial, multiethnic crew of the Starship Enterprise was the same kind of crew I’d worked with on the basketball court since my high school days at Power Memorial Academy in New York. (Sadly, we didn’t have anyone from another planet.) I already knew the truth that Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry put on display every week: if you want an elite team, you choose the most qualified person for each position, and you ignore extraneous issues like race and religion. You trust that cultural differences will enrich your team, rather than create divisions. The world is still catching up with that idea, and a lot of people are going to die off before they recognize its fundamental truth.
Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Texas, in 1921, but his family moved to L.A. when he was still an infant. His father, like mine, was a police officer, and we both grew up in big, vibrant, diverse cities; maybe that’s why we came to see the world in the same way. He wanted to be a cop like his dad and studied police science at Los Angeles City College. He was also interested in flying, and he entered the United States Army Air Corps-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall. He was 20 years old when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and like hundreds of thousands of his contemporaries, he rushed to sign up for the armed services. With his pilot license in hand, he was made an officer and eventually flew 89 combat missions and won the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. He survived two plane crashes while he was in the USAAC and another after the war when he was a pilot for Pan Am.
After that, he decided to stick to working on the ground, and became an officer with the LAPD. He started in the traffic division, but he had dreams of being a writer and soon joined the force’s Public Information Division, eventually becoming the head speechwriter for the city’s chief of police. From there, he became the department’s liaison to the popular TV series Dragnet, eventually writing treatments for the show based on real cases. By the mid ‘50s, he quit the force to become a full-time TV writer. Over the next decade, he made a name for himself writing cop shows, military dramas, and Westerns before creating Star Trek. The show wasn’t a huge commercial hit, but it developed a cult following. When it was threatened with cancellation after its second season, a thousand students from 20 local schools marched on NBC in protest. That got the show a reprieve, but it was cancelled after its third season.
Still, it had kicked open a door for everything that followed. It had a crew featuring a Black woman, an Asian American man, and a Russian officer during the height of the Cold War—not to mention Mr. Spock, the Vulcan who extended the show’s theme of inclusion to other worlds. One episode even allegorically tackled the Vietnam War, as the Klingons and Captain Kirk fought via proxies on the planet Neural. Kirk compared the situation to “20th-century brush wars on the Asian continent,” and faced vocal opposition from the antiwar Dr. McCoy. Legend has it that the episode was so controversial that it almost got the show cancelled on the spot.
When I hear today’s Republican party rail against DEI, I always wonder what it is that they find so objectionable: is it the diversity, the equity, or the inclusion? Break it down into its component parts, and it’s hard to see where the harm comes in. It’s like their stated opposition to “Antifa”: aren’t we all supposed to be anti-fascist here in the USA? The truth is, these are just labels President Trump and his followers use to rile up the masses. They’re as phony as MAGA, which has nothing to do with making America great again, unless you think it was great back in the days when women couldn’t vote, Black people had to sit in the back of the bus, and gay people were imprisoned for falling in love. I seriously doubt anyone in today’s GOP would admit out loud that they support those positions. But I also seriously doubt they have learned to “take a delight in the essential differences between men and between cultures,” or see them as “part of life’s exciting variety, not something to fear.”
OTTAWA, Canada — New research concludes that human-caused climate change significantly increased the likelihood of the extreme fire weather behind Canada’s devastating 2026 wildfire season, contradicting President Donald Trump’s repeated emphasis on poor forest management.
World Weather Attribution found that the hot, dry and windy conditions affecting northwestern Ontario and the Northwest Territories were at least twice as likely because of global warming. The group’s rapid-attribution studies use observations and climate models to compare current conditions with a world without human-driven warming.
Trump has accused Canada of failing to properly maintain forests and brush, even threatening tariffs over wildfire smoke drifting into the United States. Researchers say management practices can influence how fires spread near communities, but climate change is worsening the underlying heat and dryness that make large fires more likely.
Canada has endured three exceptionally severe wildfire seasons, with millions of acres burned and smoke repeatedly degrading air quality across the United States. As of early August, more than 4,500 fires had burned roughly 3.9 million hectares nationwide.
The study recommended stronger early-warning systems, improved coordination among firefighting agencies and greater use of Indigenous knowledge in wildfire planning.
The findings do not suggest forest management is irrelevant. They indicate that management alone cannot explain the worsening scale and frequency of extreme Canadian fire seasons as temperatures continue to rise.
A decade after leaving elite gymnastics behind, the viral UCLA star is chasing a spot at LA 2028 on her own terms – and inspiring a new generation
Every morning, Katelyn Ohashi gets up and makes a smoothie and then walks her four-month-old puppy. She drives to the gym and begins with a moment of gratitude before warming up with gymnasts half her age. She trains four days a week, around four hours per day, while also dabbling in her various hobbies. It’s a routine that maybe a decade ago she didn’t envision but is now undertaking.
When Ohashi left elite gymnastics in 2013, it was no longer a place where she found joy. Although she was seen as an Olympic hopeful (she was the last gymnast to beat Simone Biles in the all-around finals at the American Cup), a back injury took her out of the running for the Games. She slowly found her joy for the sport in NCAA gymnastics at UCLA, where she was known for her perfect 10 floor routines that often went viral, garnering millions of views from around the world.
The administration is subjugating science to political imperatives, a major blow to US soft power and technological progress
The Trump administration is waging an unprecedented war on institutions devoted to research and higher learning. While plenty of countries have harmed universities by imposing neoliberal logics on academia – creating artificial markets in the name of spurring professors to be more productive – the Trumpist subjugation of all science to political imperatives has no equivalent in a democracy; if anything, it is reminiscent of Stalin’s Soviet Union. The assault now also targets foreign students and any kind of international collaboration – a major blow to US soft power. Why are Trumpists engaging in what can only be described as an act of wanton self-injury?
Project 2025’s Russell Vought, the director of the office of management and budget, initiated the rule change that would make any federal grant subject to review by political appointees – including funds for science that so far have been allocated through judgment by first-rate fellow scientists. This measure would furnish Trumpists with a new weapon to threaten universities along the lines of: “Nice medical school you have there – pity if something were to happen to it because your administration had failed to come into alignment with the president’s priorities.”
Jan-Werner Müller is a Guardian US columnist and a professor of politics at Princeton University
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins received a letter signed by more than 60 lawmakers citing a recent ProPublica investigation that detailed how the agency has failed to provide veterans with adequate mental healthcare. Samuel Corum/Getty Images
What They Said: The letter was spearheaded by Rep. Judy Chu, who is a psychologist and represents a district in Southern California. “Caring for our nation’s Veterans is a fundamental responsibility,” the letter says. “That includes ensuring access to high-quality mental health care.”
The lawmakers demanded that the VA disclose details about its shortage of mental health providers and the impact on veterans. It also pushed the agency to lay out how long veterans have to wait for care.
As ProPublica has detailed, while the VA has long had a shortfall of mental health providers, the situation has gotten far worse under the current Trump administration. Hundreds of mental health staffers have left the VA and not been replaced.
Background: ProPublica’s investigation recounted the troubling experiences of both mental health providers and of veterans seeking care.
With so many staffers leaving and not being replaced, the remaining providers have often been stretched remarkably thin.
A psychologist who worked for a VA in Arizona recounted how some of her one-on-one sessions were replaced with online group sessions that included as many as 35 veterans. The therapist said their remaining individual sessions were sometimes limited to as little as 16 minutes.
“It was always bad,” said the psychologist. “And now it’s at a breaking point.”
In VA exit surveys that ProPublica obtained, mental health staffers who quit often wrote that they were no longer able to provide high-quality care.
“Mental Health is understaffed, burned out,” wrote one New York-based staffer who was leaving. “There is not enough mental health care for the Veterans who need the services.”
Veterans, meanwhile, have started to fall through the cracks.
Jason Beaman, a Navy and Army vet, was shuffled among therapists who later left until he finally had enough. “I just quit. I don’t want to mess with the therapist anymore,” Beaman told us this spring.
Why It Matters: After Trump returned to office last year, his administration promised to deliver veterans “the highest quality care.”
The VA is the country’s largest healthcare system, serving 9 million veterans. Those men and women face many mental health issues at a higher rate than the general population. They die by suicide at roughly twice the rate.
VA mental health staff have developed deep expertise in addressing the particular needs of vets. Indeed, studies have shown that vets get better care at the VA than through private providers.
“VA psychologists are best in class,” said Russell Lemle, former chief psychologist for the San Francisco VA Health Care System and now a senior policy analyst at the Veterans Healthcare Policy Institute. “When you lose them, the veterans are the ones who pay the price.”
ProPublica reported that in January, the department had around 500 fewer psychologists and psychiatrists than it had at the same time last year. Recent VA data shows those head counts continue to decline.
Response: In response to questions from ProPublica, VA spokesperson Quinn Slaven defended the agency. “The Trump Administration is solely focused on measuring VA’s success by how well it serves Veterans,” Slaven wrote in an email. “This commonsense approach has led to dramatic improvements for Veterans, families, caregivers, and survivors across the country.”
Slaven said that the VA completed a record number of mental healthcare appointments in the past fiscal year while also lowering veterans’ wait times.
The VA previously declined our request for an interview. Instead, spokesperson Peter Kasperowicz accused ProPublica of attempting to mislead the public by “cherry picking issues that are limited to a handful of sites and in many cases were worse under the Biden Administration.”
After ProPublica shared the findings of its investigation and the names of veterans who would appear in it, the agency reached out to several to inquire about their care and offer help.
The congressional letter gives the VA until Aug. 14 to respond.
Why Should Delaware Care? Household costs have risen steeply in recent years. In response, some consumer advocates have called on utilities to protect vulnerable people from a loss of service. Wilmington City Council followed the trend last month when approving a measure that would have prevented the city from shutting off water service to vulnerable households that meet certain criteria.
An attempt to override Mayor John Carney’s veto of a measure to prohibit water service cutoffs for certain vulnerable people fell short Thursday after too few Wilmington City Council members showed up to attend a special meeting to consider the measure.
Only five members of council were in attendance at the meeting, falling two short of the quorum threshold. A public body cannot take official action unless it reaches a quorum of members in attendance, which is seven on Wilmington’s City Council.
Introduced by Councilwoman Shané Darby, the bill would have prevented city officials from shutting off water service for certain homes with unpaid accounts. Low- or middle-income households that are occupied by a senior citizen, a person with a disability or a child younger than 5 would have qualified for the protection.
Last month, the City Council narrowly passed the measure. About two weeks later Carney vetoed the legislation. According to Wilmington’s charter, the City Council had 15 days from the date of a veto to hold an override vote, meaning Thursday’s special meeting was its last chance to do so.
Wilmington Mayor John Carney has defended his opposition to the water shut-off limitations, citing the need to support the financial health of the utility. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY BRIANNA HILL
Darby, who held a press conference this week to tout the override vote, attended the Thursday meeting, along with Council President Ernest “Trippi” Congo, and councilmembers Coby Owens, Christian Willauer and Alexander Hackett.
Congo announced that all other members of council had contacted him before the meeting to be excused.
“This was our one opportunity to override the veto,” Congo said during the meeting.
Nine of the council’s 13 members would have had to vote in favor of the override motion to reverse Carney’s decision. Only seven members voted in favor of the legislation when it initially passed in July.
In a statement issued Thursday, Carney reiterated his justification for the veto.
“Wilmington has worked hard to strike a balance between supporting residents and ensuring the financial health of our public utilities,” Carney said. “We recognize the importance of making water service affordable and accessible, but we must also maintain policies that encourage customers to engage with the city to resolve delinquent accounts.”
In further defending his veto, Carney also emphasized existing protections against water service disconnection for people with delinquent accounts. He said that while there are around 4,000 delinquent accounts, protections in place make water service disconnections “rare.”
Still, keeping the enforcement mechanism in place is crucial in maintaining the water system’s financial viability and upkeep, Carney said.
Several residents spoke in favor of the veto during the Thursday meeting’s public comment period.
And many of them acknowledged they were “preaching to the choir,” given that the council members in attendance were all likely to support the bill’s goals.
Critics decry proposed hyperscale projects, fearing overuse of water and electricity, and ‘appropriating rural, Black-owned landfor industrial purposes’
There seems to be a fight over datacenters in nearly every city in the US right now. And amid the extreme polarization of today’s politics, the opposition tends to be bipartisan.
“I would say it’s kind of the far left and the far right ran into each other and had a hug,” said Frank Scott Jr, mayor of Little Rock, Arkansas. “But they come at it from different perspectives.”
Why Should Delaware Care The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival is an annual free jazz concert held in Wilmington that serves as a shared space for community members and visitors to gain exposure to a variety of sounds. This year, the event started on a rainy note but that did not stop Rodney Square from being a place that fosters connections for long-time friends, vendors building clientele and performers giving back to their home.
Matt La Von grew up a Marine brat, moving from place to place and leaving short-lived friendships behind — until he got to Delaware in the 1990s.
While living in Bear, La Von attended his first jazz concert: Wilmington’s Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. He fell in love with the genre, and his high school band director pushed La Von to pursue that passion.
He has since moved away from northern Delaware, but La Von, now a professional saxophonist, came back to the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival this week.
He returned not as an attendee, but to perform alongside his quintet in front of his longtime high school friends whom he refers to as his family.
“Man, I’ve been so busy and wrapped up in my own busy life in New York City that I forgot about this special place that I can attribute almost everything to,” La Von said. “If I didn’t have these experiences, if I wasn’t shaped by these people, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today.”
La Von was one of 20 performers who took the stage at Wilmington’s Rodney Square during this year’s jazz festival, a week-long celebration of the legacy left behind by jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown.
The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival brings in hundreds of people from all age ranges who come in from Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore and beyond to listen to free music. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Wilmington shows up for the arts
Even when the festival started on a rainy note Monday evening, it still drew in a crowd of around 1,500 people, said Lattisha Williams, program assistant of cultural affairs for the city of Wilmington. The community came wearing their ponchos or raincoats, and a slew of umbrellas lined the festival grounds.
The late Clifford Brown, the festival’s namesake, was a jazz trumpeter from Wilmington’s East Side who contributed to the creation of the hard bop sound that reigned over jazz in the 1950s.
He has been described as one of the greatest trumpet players in history, La Von said, particularly for his warm sounds that are repeated by players today.
“Whether I’m in New York or Paris, I’m pretty sure that there is an 80 to 90% probability that [Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring”] is getting played in any club session,” La Von said.
Brown’s legacy also expands beyond the festival’s end date. CityFest Wilmington also hosts free live concerts every Wednesday during the summer season.
Arreon Harley-Emerson, CEO and artistic director of Elevation Ensemble by Elevate Vocal Arts, recalled a time when the festival was the only event happening at Rodney Square. Now, he said, the space blossoms with art- and music-centered events.
“I think that Clifford Brown is an example of what can happen when we believe in the arts,” Harley-Emerson said.
And data suggests that Delaware believes in the arts. The state ranks third in the country for arts funding per capita, according to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, spending an estimated $7.03 per person on the arts this year.
Both Delaware and the city of Wilmington also ranked among the National Center for Arts Research’s most arts-vibrant communities in the country last year.
Ryland was just one of many children that became interested in the free drum circle beside the stage that audience members were invited to participate in. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Festival attendees share jazz across generations
As Wilmington resident Karin Smallwood looked around the festival crowd on Monday, ranging from toddlers to seniors, she said the best part was seeing how the free concert bolstered the culture of jazz.
“It’s a great opportunity for the younger generation to experience jazz music,” Smallwood said. “Even if they don’t know what it is, you will still see them tapping their foot and nodding their heads.”
Brittany Draxton, who recorded her 7-year-old son Ryland as he patted his small hands on a circle of drums free for community members to play with, said it was important that she show him the festival’s beauty.
“The fact that he was able to express his skills, and there’s this peace here, and the music,” she said. “It’s about keeping the Southern jazz culture alive.”
Jonathan Mitchell, owner of Mitch’s Mo’Better Chicken food truck, has been serving his food to festival attendees since 2012. His participation, though, extends far earlier than that.
“Since I was 10 years old I have been coming here,” Mitchell said. “And now I’m coming as a vendor, so it’s a good experience where the whole community comes out, and I get to see my repeat customers.”
Mitchell’s cousin, Jeron Johnson, was a first time vendor at the festival this year, serving water ice from his food truck Treat 2 You.
“We used to come here just to see my cousins and the show,” he said, pointing to Mitchell. “So it’s a blessing to be inside here doing my work.”
Saxophonist Matt La Von said coming back to Delaware to perform with his quintet at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival was emotional for him. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY CRISTAL SANCHEZ
Music that transcends cultures
The festival brought in musicians across multiple genres, from gospel, to R&B, to sounds traditional of Native American tribes.
R. Carlos Nakai is a Native American flautist who takes inspiration from the indigenous communities he is a part of, the Navajo Nation and the Ute Tribe. He said he hopes to bring a different expression to America’s multicultural music scene during his performance this Saturday.
What’s most important to him is the possibility of connecting with jazz artists to freestyle. He said he hopes the audience will welcome new sounds they may have never heard before.
“Maybe we will offer a kind of opportunity or information that they can build upon in their own way to express themselves in the mixed community that this country is,” Nakai said.
La Von, the professional saxophonist, said the festival has always featured diversity. What he most remembers from the festival during his first visit is the wide variety of demographics sitting on the stairs or in their lawn chairs to listen to jazz.
He hoped to achieve a similar feeling on Monday with his song, “Solidarity,” he said, created in response to the protests after the 2020 police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“I wanted to write something that incorporated those feelings, and, you know, get back to the feeling of togetherness,” La Von said, “which is what we’re missing in so many parts of society.”
Get Involved The Clifford Brown Jazz Festival will run through Aug. 8 at Rodney Square in downtown Wilmington. The festival is free to attend, and begins at 5:15 p.m. on Friday, and 2 p.m. on Saturday. More information can be found here.
UK house prices were broadly stagnant in July as prospective buyers were squeezed by higher mortgage rates, uncertainty around the Middle East and stretched affordability, according to the lender Lloyds.
The average property cost £299,253 in July, down by £143 compared with June, the bank’s monthly index found.
Move to raise levy on goods made with polysilicon aims to protect domestic US supply chains from China, the major producer
Donald Trump has ordered a new 15% tariff on imported products made of polysilicon, an important ingredient in microchip manufacturing that is primarily produced by China.
The new tariff, which will take effect on 4 December, is aimed at supporting US chip and solar panel supply chains to compete with Beijing on artificial intelligence and energy.
Daniel Mullins explains how he plans to follow up his quirky classic without losing what made it stand out in the first place
Glitchy aesthetics. Literally collapsing menu boxes. The game taunting you by “possessing” your Steam friends. Technical tricks of this nature may sound gimmicky in 2026, but they felt excitingly unorthodox a decade ago, when Pony Island came out to critical acclaim.
Fans of Daniel Mullins, the celebrated indie developer of Inscryption, will be forgiven for forgetting that Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in active development. After all, it’s been almost three years since the announcement – and a full decade since it was first teased as an Easter egg in Pony Island’s ARG (Alternate Reality Game) – with only a single trailer and a bunch of tunes from the soundtrack released to the public.
US president’s complaint industry ‘making too much money’ comes after his policies boosted corporations
Donald Trump’s statement that oil companies have made “too much money” from the Iran war has angered environmentalists, who say that his policies were designed to benefit those very corporations. If he really believes his own claims, he should impose a windfall profits tax, advocates say.
“Trump’s declaration that big oil is ‘making too much money’ belies his accommodation and giveaways to the industry that have enabled its price-gouging – not to mention his disaster of a war of choice against Iran,” said Tyson Slocum, energy program director at consumer advocacy nonprofit Public Citizen. “But like a broken clock that’s correct twice a day, the president is right that oil companies are ‘making too much money’, which means Trump should endorse a windfall profits tax.”
ExxonMobil and Chevron on Friday both reported windfall profits for the second quarter of the year. Chevron said its earnings soared nearly 400% to $12bn, while Exxon’s profits more than doubled to $14.5bn. On Monday evening, Trump took aim at those gains, saying the companies “ought to give some of that back to the public”.
In a 2025 meeting, U.S. President Donald Trump held up a printed article from American Thinker while accusing South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa of state-sanctioned violence against white farmers in South Africa. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Since he returned to office, President Donald Trump’s administration has upended foreign aid. It’s labeled well-established, long-running programs as “not aligned with American interests” and slashed their budgets.
Still, the billions of taxpayer dollars Congress has allocated for foreign aid programs must be spent; lawmakers have insisted the government continue to fund humanitarian aid, global health and pro-democracy causes around the world. With most of the old programs now gone, however, we wanted to know: What is the Trump administration doing with that money now?
Recently, we published our investigation that found one answer to that question in a little-known bureau of the State Department that has dramatically transformed under Trump. For decades, the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, known as DRL, has supported human rights in some of the most oppressive countries in the world. Now, our reporting found, it’s planning to direct funds to controversial groups supporting right-wing causes in Europe and elsewhere.
Our full story lays out some of the groups the government has considered funding, which include a British free-speech organization that has fought against bans on “gay conversion therapy” and a British American think tank created this year to focus on “existential threats to Britain, to America, and to our shared Judeo-Christian civilisation.” (Administration officials dropped that grant after significant pushback from Congress.)
One proposed grant particularly caught our attention: Trump administration officials suggested funding research on crime against minority populations in South Africa.
It’s clear from sources we spoke with that the key targeted minority population in question is the white ethnic group known as Afrikaners. Afrikaners were responsible for creating the nation’s infamous and brutal racially segregated apartheid system. Previously, DRL staff had been told to begin the process of awarding funds to a group called Lex Libertas, which was founded by a controversial figure who has called for Afrikaner self-governance. The group is currently fundraising to place 3,000 white crosses on the National Mall in remembrance of attacks on South African farmers.
The proposed grant was later opened up to allow a broader set of invited groups to apply for $1 million of funding, though it is still intended for the same purpose, according to people with knowledge of the process. The State Department declined to say whether Lex Libertas will be among those invited to compete, citing ongoing deliberations, but said the Trump administration has serious concerns about the human rights situation in South Africa that need to be addressed. Lex Libertas did not respond to questions about the organization or the proposed grant.
Former diplomats who have worked extensively on human rights told us they were shocked that the victimization of white South Africans would be prioritized over the serious issues elsewhere in the region.
“It’s laughable to suggest that on the African continent, the prime issue of human rights concern is whites in South Africa,” one former agency official said when we asked him about the grant. South Africa is plagued by violence, but extensiveresearch has found that white South African farmers are not victims of crime at higher rates than other groups.
Experts also described the proposed grant to fund research into violence against Afrikaners as keeping with the Trump administration’s overall stance toward South Africa.
For decades, the U.S. relationship with the country has been symbolized by our massive support for HIV care, Mattie Webb, a professor at the Virginia Military Institute who studies South Africa and U.S. foreign policy, told us.
Since Trump returned to office, there’s been a stark shift as the administration has strengthened ties with borderline white nationalist groups that are considered fringe in South Africa.
“The U.S. is very clearly shifting its priorities away from aid that would benefit far more people in South Africa to this narrow focus on the white minority,” Webb said.
There have long been tensions between South Africa and the U.S., former diplomats told us, but the aid the U.S. provided saved lives and helped sustain a working relationship that is vital to U.S. national security and economic interests. Now, by seeking to fund a movement antagonistic to the South African government, the U.S. risks driving a wedge between the two nations.
Other grants also raised red flags for experts and lawmakers. Political appointees at the State Department are considering funding a British free-speech organization that has fought bans on discredited therapy practices that attempt to convert gay people to heterosexuality. That proposed $5 million grant would provide support for people facing “deplatforming” and advocate against “restrictive online safety and hate speech laws,” according to a document we reviewed. (The organization’s founder said it had “neither applied for nor been awarded a grant from the US State Department or any other branch of the US Government” but did not respond to our other questions.) And a call for proposals recently released by the bureau would fund research, conferences and cultural engagements in wealthy democracies to develop “civilizational self-confidence in Europe.”
Not all the proposed funding is directed to controversial groups, our reporting found. But even some of the grants slated to fund more traditional human rights projects skirt federal requirements for competitive bidding that are meant to deter waste, fraud and abuse. Instead, officials are trying to direct millions to handpicked organizations, according to sources and documents.
In response to questions about our reporting, the State Department stressed that the process of awarding grants is ongoing and that multiple offices provide input, writing that “programs are still in active deliberation and receipt of a grant is not guaranteed to any organization that does not meet all requirement and standards for federal grants.”
We are continuing to report on foreign aid and the Trump administration’s policies in South Africa. If you have tips or information we should know about either of these issues, please feel free to get in touch with us! Reach out via phone or Signal to Anna Maria Barry-Jester at 408-504-8131 or Sharon Lerner at 718-877-5236.
The curator of Norway’s national museum in Oslo is bringing the work by the Flemish baroque artist Clara Peeters out of obscurity in a major exhibition of female artists
Anonymous was often a woman: so said Virginia Woolf. And so thought Cynthia Osiecki one day in 2022, when she chanced on an unattributed still life in the storage area of the National Museum of Norway in Oslo.
Osiecki had been studying the work of a renowned 17th-century Flemish artist, Clara Peeters, one of the earliest practitioners of still life painting. Works by Peeters hang in the Prado in Madrid, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Researchers in China have developed a living mycelium textile that can self-clean, renew its surface, and partially repair holes when treated with a nutrient solution and fresh fungus. The material can also gain added properties such as blue pigmentation or UV resistance by co-culturing it with yeast or other fungi. Dezeen reports: The breakthrough from the researchers at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology is a type of engineered living material (ELM) -- a material built off living organisms that stay active even after they're fabricated into their final form. [...] By working with living but dormant cordyceps militaris fungus instead, the researchers have been able to take advantage of its biological functions. The result is a material that is self-renewing and responsive to its environment, in ways that could one day transform architecture and clothing -- as seen in a prototype dress created together with material innovation company Peelshere.
It can also be adapted by mixing in other fungi or yeast, lead researcher Ke Li and her team detail in a paper in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances. In it, they describe a "programmable fungal platform" where mycelium is treated like a modular system, with the sheet material forming a base structure and extra biological abilities, such as colour and UV resistance, becoming "plug-and-play" add-ons via other organisms. This gets their textile closer to the self-repair, environmental responsiveness and controllable functionality that is the promise of engineered living materials, they argue.
The ELM's self-renewing and semi-repairing functionality comes from the mycelium base structure. Following drying at 45 degrees, the material is not quite living and not quite dead, but instead in a "low-metabolic, dormant-like state", Li told Dezeen, meaning it is not actively growing. However, new growth can be triggered by applying a nutrient solution of potato water, leading the dormant mycelium to germinate, send out new fungal filaments and renew the material's surface. When this nutrient solution is applied over a hole, along with a small patch of fresh fungus, it triggers the living cells to grow across the gap, seamlessly repairing the surface without any adhesives or stitching. The material is also naturally self-cleaning, as it is hydrophobic. "Its distinctive surface texture, biological colouring, controlled repair and biodegradability may be particularly useful in applications where visual expression and a defined product lifetime are important," said Li.
"Further improvements in durability, moisture resistance, safety and manufacturing consistency would be needed before it could be considered for routine clothing or permanent architectural use."
I have a friend running a vesc gtxl and is looking at getting some true btg gt rails to put on his board. He also loves the xr feel from my btg vesc xr. Are there any XRC btg rails available yet? If so what all would be needed to convert to the xrc style board but run btg?
Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues.
Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince.
I got a x7 and miss the feel of the pint x engagement feel and break damping/feel I just love the power of the x7. Anyone here know what equivalent settings in floaty would be closer to the accel and deccel speed and power of a stock pint x? I had aggressiveness turned all the way up in the onewheel app btw. (Literally the only thing about the pint x that I didn’t like was how fast it went. If I could replicate everything from that ride style I would)
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen to its lowest level since 1983 as the Trump administration continues to release emergency crude to offset supply disruptions caused by the war with Iran.
According to federal data, the reserve is now at about 304.8 million barrels, which is a drop of over 108 million barrels since the drawdown started. The administration said it would release 172 million barrels over 120 days after commercial traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was mostly shut down. For context, about one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas usually passes through that strait.
The reserve is supposed to be used for serious supply emergencies, and the administration has used it to try to keep gasoline and crude prices from spiking. Still, President Trump has said that these releases cannot make up for wartime disruptions forever.
Overall, the oil market is still tight. Saudi Aramco estimates that the conflict with Iran has removed more than 2.6 billion barrels from global supply. U.S. refiners are trying to bring in more oil from the Middle East when they can.
It is important to be clear here: commercial U.S. crude inventories are not at a 45-year low. EIA data shows that commercial stocks have actually gone up recently, to about 407 million barrels. The record low only applies to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, not to all domestic crude supplies.
What might a modern day equivalent of Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics look like? Guided by the author, I propose the three laws of AI
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk predicted in July that legions of AI-powered robots would dominate the physical world and that AI might not take orders from people any more. He also offered an alternative vision in which there would be agreement for a collective objective to make AI benign by imbuing it with a love of the truth and a desire for humanity to prosper, and that governments might have to enforce this objective.
Governments around the world are belatedly starting to act on AI. In the US, President Trump’s administration is delaying and restricting the distribution of the most powerful frontier AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic. In the European Union, AI regulations promulgated in 2024 came into effect this year. However, these actions are a long way short of requiring the kind of guardrails that would imbue AIs with a desire for humanity to prosper.
Why Should Delaware Care? Prohibitions on voter suppression, intimidation and dilution tactics were passed federally in 1965, but recent court rulings have chipped away at some protections. Seeking to retain, and expand protections, Delaware legislators approved a statewide voting rights act.
Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer signed legislation Thursday that ensures key protections from the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be retained in the state, regardless of what may happen in the future.
In doing so, Delaware became the second state to write prohibitions against voter discrimination, voter suppression and vote dilution into state law following a landmark ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in April that overturned parts of Section 2 of that pivotal civil rights legislation.
In the case Louisiana v. Callais, the Supreme Court ruled that considering race in Congressional redistricting was an illegal gerrymander. It further required that plaintiffs prove a state “intentionally” sought to gerrymander districts to diminish opportunities for minority voters, a high bar that experts believe could impact up to a dozen Congressional districts that have a majority of minority voters – typically in Republican-led states.
The NAACP, which advocated for the federal legislation more than 60 years ago, condemned the decision, calling it a “betrayal of Black people.”
Rep. Larry Lambert (D-Claymont) was the prime sponsor for HB 444. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Meanwhile, Rep. Larry Lambert (D-Claymont) had already been working with advocates on what would become House Bill 444, or the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, named after the late civil rights icon.
Lambert filed the bill just a month after the Callais decision, and pushed it through the General Assembly in the waning days of the legislative session.
He said the Callais ruling was not the impetus for his bill, but it did convince him to not wait for the 2027 legislative session.
What does HB 444 do?
While codifying protected rights already held by the national Voting Rights Act, the new state legislation also crucially specifies that intent does not have to be proved for future violations of electoral discrimination. It also empowers the state attorney general, along with individuals and organizations, to bring complaints against offending agencies or jurisdictions.
The bill creates a “democracy canon,” which instructs courts and officials that, when election laws are ambiguous, they should interpret them in favor of protecting voting access.
HB 444 also dramatically expands requirements for language assistance in local elections, tasking the Department of Elections to provide materials, and even potentially translators, for any language spoken by more than 2%, or 1,000 people, of voting age.
While now signed, House Bill 444 does not take effect until July 1, 2027, to allow for implementation.
House Speaker Melissa Minor-Brown, who is the first Black woman to preside over Delaware’s lower chamber, noted that the protections afforded by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are so recent that many residents remember the time before them.
“It’s only been 61 years since the federal government actually put a system in place that allowed Black Americans to register to vote,” she said in comments at the bill signing, held at the historic Shiloh Baptist Church in Wilmington. “So many sacrifices were made, and yet here we are in 2026 watching the Trump administration work to strip us of everything that our friends, our neighbors, our colleagues, our parents, our grandparents, and our great grandparents work hard for.”
Republicans split over backing bill
While the legislation was unanimously approved by the State Senate – Sen. Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford) drew praise Thursday for notably being the sole Republican co-sponsor of the legislation – the House of Representatives was less receptive. Just two Republicans, Rich Collins and Danny Short, voted in favor of the bill.
No House Republican critiqued the bill during its committee and floor hearings, but the caucus expressed their concerns in a statement ahead of the vote.
“Among the concerns is that the measure defines voter suppression so broadly that almost any election rule — such as voter ID, signature checks, or standard polling hours — could be challenged if statistical voting differences occur between designated minority groups and the general population,” a caucus spokesman wrote.
In addition, the caucus sought to turn the tables on the debate by arguing that Delaware Democrats were actually suppressing Republican votes through the decennial redistricting. Efforts to move the redistricting power from the majority party to an independent commission have not advanced.
However, unlike race or ethnicity, political affiliation has never been a protected class for redistricting law.
Andrew Bernstein, of the ACLU of Delaware, said the next fight for voting rights would be for felons who have been historically disenfranchised. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Advocates turn to felon enfranchisement
Andrew Bernstein, the voting rights counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware who assisted Lambert on the bill, said there is more work to be done to extend voting rights.
He pointed to House Bill 180, a Constitutional amendment that would give convicted felons the right to vote following the completion of their sentence or upon their pardon.
Currently, those convicted of felony murder, manslaughter, bribery or abuse of public office, and sexual offenses are disenfranchised for life under state law. Individuals convicted of other felonies only regain the right to vote after finishing any parole, probation or sentence modification, even after leaving prison.
“That is a remnant of Jim Crow. It disproportionately impacts Black and Brown communities as our criminal legal system maintains racial bias. We were hardened to see the first leg of a constitutional amendment limit disenfranchising passed this year, but we must remain committed to that cause and ensure that the second leg of that amendment passes next session,” Bernstein said.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe. The viruses are specific kinds known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria and are used around the world to treat patients with persistent infections. In lab tests, a cocktail of the AI-designed viruses killed E coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages.
Dr Brian Hie, a chemical engineer at Stanford University in California, used genome language models, the genetic equivalent of the large language models behind AI chatbots, to design functioning genomes for bacteriophages. The viruses were then made in the laboratory and pitted against E coli in a dish. The ability to "rapidly design" genomes and tune them for specific bugs while overcoming resistance could "transform phage therapy" and "expand biotechnological toolkits," the researchers wrote in the journal Science.
But beyond the potential benefits, the scientists said the work raised "important biosafety, biocontainment and biosecurity considerations" and urged others who were designing whole genomes to "consult both safety and security professionals throughout the project." In an accompanying article, Prof Tom Inglesby and Dr Moritz Hanke at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, reinforced the warning, writing: "Although this is promising for life sciences applications, it also raises urgent biosafety and biosecurity questions. The ability to compose viral genomes using generative AI now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not." Tom Ellis, a professor of synthetic genome engineering at Imperial College London, said the work was impressive, but revealed how hard it would be to make more complex genomes. "This is literally the smallest and easiest genome to make," he said. An AI trained on the genetic code of dangerous bugs could be used to design more harmful viruses, Ellis said, but controlling access to genetic data and having restrictions on making genomes that look dangerous would help. "Governments are working hard to do this already," he added. "But honestly," he said, "the threat from full AI design and writing of a genome of a virus or bacteria is very overblown when we consider that just taking existing pathogens and making gain-of-function changes to their genomes is so much easier and much more likely to be a real pathogenic threat."
Dr Filippa Lentzos, a reader in science and international security at King's College London, said the most important point to intervene at the moment was when DNA was being manufactured. "It's important to see the bigger governance picture and not focus regulation solely on the AI model," she said. "A layered approach makes more sense: safeguards around model development and access, responsible research review, synthesis screening, and established laboratory biosafety and biosecurity."
Some of you may have seen this on fb, but posting here with more details for more feedback. GT that’s 1.5 weeks old with 102 miles on it started making clicking noise at low speed today. Noise seems to go away when I start going a bit faster. Most people were saying the bearings are shot. But I can’t understand how that happened so soon. The board is dirty in the video, I had just gotten inside from a trail ride. I wipe it off after my rides. 90% of my riding is some on mtb trails.
Nominees to face off in November in redistricted seat central to Trump’s bid to retain slim Republican majority
Tennessee primary voters picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in a dramatically reconfigured US House seat central to Donald Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a slim Republican majority in the midterm congressional elections.
Republicans chose state senator Brent Taylor, who was endorsed by Trump, to be their nominee in the revamped ninth congressional district. Democrats picked state representative Justin Pearson, who gained national prominence three years ago when he was expelled from the Tennessee house for protesting in support of gun control measures.
Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against users
A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m into a fund aimed at redressing adverse mental health impacts from the social media giant’s platforms.
The Thursday ruling comes as a part of the second phase of a landmark trial the social media giant lost in March. At the time, a jury found that the company knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms, and imposed the maximum penalty: a $375m fine.
One quick note on the contempt resolution: Senator Rand Paul may try to send it straight to the Department of Justice, since advancing it in the Senate would require 60 votes. Republicans hold just 53 seats, making it almost certain to fall short of that threshold.
Republicans on a Senate committee voted to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress on Thursday. This comes after a bitter hearing last week, where the retired public health official invoked the fifth amendment for fear of self-incrimination and possible prosecution by Republican lawmakers on the homeland security and governmental affairs committee – who have routinely vilified Fauci for his handling of the Covid-19 response.
For more than a decade, president has been fixated on trying to undermine a key constitutional right
With a pair of executive orders on Thursday, Donald Trump has tried – once again – to undermine the guarantee of birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the US constitution and reaffirmed by the supreme court just five weeks ago.
The orders attempt to broaden the categories of children who would be ineligible for automatic US citizenship and ban so-called “birth tourism”, which the president claimed is practiced by “hundreds of thousands” of people.
A New Mexico court ordered (PDF) Meta to create a $567 million fund to address harms linked to youth mental health and child sexual exploitation after finding its platforms constituted a public nuisance. "In sum, the Court finds that New Mexico is in the midst of a teen mental health crisis affecting public health and public safety in and throughout the state, and that Meta's platforms are a significant contributing cause to the crisis," wrote Chief Judge Bryan Biedscheid in the decision. The fund comes on top of $375 million in civil penalties, though the judge declined to mandate changes to features such as infinite scroll and autoplay, citing potential First Amendment and Section 230 concerns. Tech Policy Press reports: The decision follows the second phase of in the State of New Mexico v. Meta Platforms Inc., which consisted of a bench trial. Its central question was whether Meta's platforms amounted to a public nuisance in New Mexico, and, if the court found that they did, what remedy would be needed to address it. In March, a Santa Fe jury found Meta liable for violations of New Mexico's Unfair Practices Act, awarding $375 million in civil penalties. The jury deliberated less than a day following that nearly seven-week trial. The $567 million abatement fund would be in addition to the civil penalties, according to today's decision.
New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued Meta in December 2023, alleging the company made false public statements about the safety of its platforms while knowing internally that its products facilitated child sexual exploitation. The court denied Meta's Section 230 defense in May 2024. In today's decision, the court again asserted that "Section 230 does not preclude the State's public nuisance claim," but the decision attempted to thread the needle on issues that the court determined might have run "afoul" of the statute, or of the First Amendment, such as issuing remedies around any particular product feature.
As you make your summer travel plans this year, or perhaps you’ve already hit the road or you’re on your way to the airport, one thing to keep in mind – without putting too much of a damper on your trip – is to stay financially vigilant when finalizing your vacation plans.
The travel and events sector is especially susceptible to fraud and scams as people are looking for deals in locations that might be unfamiliar, with bad actors savvier than ever when it comes to separating travelers from their money. Once travelers figure out their plans, they’re ready to hand over the funds to make their dream vacations happen — and scammers are more than happy to take it. Tanyika Rickard, local Chase Community Manager, offers these tips to help you avoid the latest and most common travel scams so you can relax and enjoy your trip.
Tanyika Rickard, local Chase Community Manager
Vacation rental scams
So you’ve found a great house on a vacation rental website and email the property through the website. You might have received a call back from the “owner,” who asked you to send your deposit through Zelle or another peer-to-peer app. The “owner” will often pressure you into sending a deposit to hold the property, saying there’s a lot of demand for the location, and may ask to move the conversation from the official website to a private messaging app.
As your trip gets closer, you might reach out to confirm the details, or assume all is well and travel to the property at the start of your trip. That’s when you discover the location is already booked, not available to rent, or doesn’t exist at all.
The listing you saw could have been fake, or a fake phone number was posted to a real listing, and the true owner has no idea about your reservation. Either way, you’re stuck without lodging and your payment, with little chance of getting your money back.
Most major property rental sites offer fraud guarantees, but only if you pay and communicate with the owners through the site. To avoid lodging scams, try to see properties in person if possible, read reviews from other travelers, and pay through the official platform. Sending deposits through wire transfers or P2P apps is like sending cash — once you send it, you may not be able to get it back.
“Free” trips
Unless you’ve won a legitimate contest or sweepstakes — and even those should be examined — there’s no such thing as a free vacation. If you get a call, text, email or other notification that you’ve won a free vacation, it may be a scam, especially if you don’t remember entering a contest.
Watch out for automated calls or texts offering free vacations or “vacation deals.” There may not be a vacation package available at all, or you’ll be asked to pay processing fees, taxes and other costs to claim your “free” trip, which might include substandard accommodations.
If you did enter a contest and are told you’re the winner, you won’t be asked to send money to claim your prize. The Federal Trade Commission is a good resource for information on recognizing legitimate versus fraudulent contests.
Flight scams
If you hear about a charter flight or other private flight deal to a destination, sometimes including a tour or hotel stay, be extra careful. Too many would-be travelers find out after paying their money that the flight, and sometimes the entire trip, is nonexistent.
The U.S. Department of Transportation maintains updated lists of approved charter flights so you can make sure the company you’re considering is legitimate.
Concert/event ticket scams
The event ticket industry is ripe for scammers. You might find an amazing deal for a sold-out show on social media, send money to the seller and never hear from them again. Not only do you not have concert tickets, there’s also no way to get your money back.
While some social media sellers might be legitimate, the best sources for ticket deals are verified resale sites that handle transactions and guarantee authenticity. If something goes wrong, there’s a digital “paper trail” that can help you get your money back.
Reminders
While even the most prepared consumers can fall victim to a well-executed scam, remember these tips to protect your vacation plans.
Zelleand other P2P payment apps should be reserved for family, friends and businesses you know and trust. Treat your transactions like cash — once scammers get the money, you may not get it back.
Scammers are advertising on social media and social marketplaces. Whenever possible, shop through official websites and be cautious of deals that seem too good to be true before sending any money.
Scammers can make caller ID, emails and texts display as messages from your bank or other businesses. If you are ever unsure, end the conversation and reach out to the company directly through their official website or call the number on the back of your card
Step 1: Power on and connect to your board using VESC Tool on your phone. Ensure you are connected to/CANned into your controller.
Step 2: On the main START page, scroll down until you see “Wireless Bridge to Computer (TCP)”. Click “Activate Bridge” and ensure two IPs show up.
Step 3: Fire up the desktop version of VESC Tool, head to the “Connection” tab in the sidebar and then the “TCP” tab up top. Input the IP address from your phone that does NOT say “Connected Client” next to it into the Address bar on your desktop tool. Ensure “Port” matches on both devices, then click the connect button (2nd button to the right of “Port”).
Step 4: After connecting, head to “Welcome and Wizards” on the sidebar to ensure you are connected successfully. After a successful confirmation, click the Settings cog and disable the refloat package.
Step 5: Next, Head to the “Terminal” tab in the side bar under “VESC Dev Tools”. Ensure your motor is free to move and type in
hall_analyze 10
or
hall_analyze 20
Adjusting this number tells the VESC how many phase amps to use to turn the motor. 10-20 is commonly used.
Note: Upon sending the command, there is a chance the terminal will not populate with extra data. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t. Here are some example outputs after 3 runs I ran on my board.
Step 6: Disregard what the terminal tells you and head over to the “Experimental Plot” under “Data Analysis” in the sidebar. This is where the magic happens.
Count how many “levels” your VESC detects. The magic number you are looking for is 6. If you see anything less than 6, it is likely one of your hall sensors are not working. This can be due to many reasons, common reasons including a bad connection in the chain or a dead sensor. If you get 7 states due to your halls falling to level 0, like in my example plot, that can still be okay. The main thing you want to see are 6 relatively full and flat levels.
Part 2: “Forcing” Hall sensors to detect after a successful plot
If you are getting 6 levels consistently, lets proceed to forcing a hall sensor detection (in case motor detections do not get them.)
Step 1: Head over to Motor Settings > FOC > Hall sensors on your desktop client. Ensure I = 10-20 (same current setting behavior as in the terminal) and then hit the play button. If you get a successful detection, you will have 8 numbers populate the zeros. This may take a few or even many attempts (it took me 17 tries). After your 8 numbers populate, hit apply.
Step 2: Head over to the “General” tab up top, select “Hall Sensors” in the “Sensor Mode” drop down, then click write.
Congrats! You have validated and forced enabled your hall sensors. Don’t forget to re-enable your refloat package. Happy floating!
Orders come after supreme court rejected president’s first bid to restrict guarantee enshrined in US constitution
Donald Trump has made a second attempt to restrict the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, just weeks after the US supreme court rejected his initial, more sweeping bid to deny automatic citizenship to the children born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents.
Trump on Thursday signed two executive orders that seek to broaden the categories of children ineligible for automatic US citizenship and ban so-called “birth tourism”. The directives are expected to face legal challenges.
Just curious because I used to always ride my GT down to like 2%, sometimes at haptic warning speeds without even thinking about it. Yes, I know how stupid that was now. With that said, when do you XL owners start to proceed with a little more caution as the battery drains? I know terrain matters and I'm curious about trail and street examples.
The Federal Aviation Administration has ordered inspections of hundreds of Boeing 737 Max jets after cracks were found in parts of some older model Boeing planes.
DURHAM, North Carolina — The Justice Department says Duke University School of Law unlawfully discriminated against white and Asian applicants in three recent admissions cycles, accusing the school of continuing race-conscious practices after the Supreme Court sharply restricted their use.
The Civil Rights Division said Duke’s 2023, 2024 and 2025 incoming classes were shaped by policies intended to preserve racial diversity. According to the department, Black applicants in 2025 were about 3.5 times more likely to be admitted than similarly qualified Asian applicants with comparable academic credentials.
The DOJ also said denied white and Asian applicants had higher median LSAT scores than admitted Black applicants in 2024 and 2025. Investigators pointed to internal emails and instructions to flag diversity essays, first-generation status and Pell Grant eligibility, arguing those factors could function as racial proxies.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said universities cannot circumvent the Supreme Court’s 2023 admissions ruling by using diversity essays to identify preferred racial groups.
Duke said it is reviewing the findings and remains committed to complying with federal law while maintaining its academic mission.
The department is seeking a voluntary resolution requiring Duke to change its admissions practices. If negotiations fail, DOJ says it is prepared to sue.
The case is the latest Trump administration challenge to university admissions policies following similar findings against several medical schools.
While officials say proposed revisions will encourage more enrollment, advocates say it will undermine the program
The Trump administration has said it plans to overhaul Head Start, tossing out many of the regulations that are the hallmark of the early education program for the nation’s neediest children.
Officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the federally funded preschool program, said on Thursday the proposed changes would encourage more local decision-making, but the proposal has sparked alarm across the Head Start community, where advocates say it threatens the backbone of the antipoverty initiative.
Settlement ends years-long legal battle over collapse of 18-story hotel that was under construction in New Orleans
A judge approved a $106m settlement on Thursday that ends a years-long legal battle over the deadly 2019 collapse of a Hard Rock Hotel that was under construction in New Orleans.
The 18-story hotel project partially collapsed in October 2019 , killing three people and damaging nearby property. A grand jury ultimately decided against indicting anyone in the deadly collapse, but lawsuits were filed, including one brought by the city of New Orleans in August 2020 naming the building owners, their partners and contractors.
i see a lot of boards with what seems like more clearance underneath compared to my stock bumpers. also on the flight fin site i’m seeing vids of people like LEAPING with these things. mine is very heavy.
i’m mainly off road / trail and i’m getting annoyed with my tail dragging on declines. do the 3rd party bumpers align more flush with the board?
also how can i take the weight down because my plan is definitely some fins and getting into trickier type stuff.
Google's $15 billion data-center project in Visakhapatnam is facing protests and legal challenges over fears that it will worsen local water shortages and disturb wildlife near the Kambalakonda sanctuary. Google says the campus will use advanced air cooling and comply with Indian law, while state officials deny that residential or rural water supplies will be tapped. Reuters reports: The southern state of Andhra Pradesh, governed by an ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who has hailed the project as historic and transformational, has denied allegations that the project was fast-tracked without weighing risks to water supplies and wildlife. But the growing opposition could become an early test for Google's biggest-ever India investment, which is facing several legal challenges over its impact on water supplies and proximity to a wildlife sanctuary that is home to leopards and pangolins.
In recent weeks, activists and children have marched in Visakhapatnam city, holding banners saying "We cannot drink DATA" and painting handcuffs on the Google logo, social media posts show. On Sunday, Reuters attended a public gathering where activists chalked out plans for holding door-to-door awareness campaigns and beach protests in coming days. "Development should not be at the cost of livelihood of the people," Raja Rama Mohan Roy, founder of non-profit Green Visakha said at the event where he presented statistics on Visakhapatnam's stressed water supply and demand.
The government says the city receives 410 million liters of water a day from its reservoirs and rivers, against a requirement of 480 million. Rationing of water supplies is common in the city with a population of 2.5 million people. [...] The state's top court on Monday asked the government to defend against allegations leveled by activist group Jal Biradari (Water Community), which says the project will strain water availability by putting stress on a nearby reservoir. The Andhra Pradesh High Court will next hear the public interest litigation on August 24.
President attacks ‘terrible mistake’ of US attorney, who said in court filing damage stemmed from botched renovation
Donald Trump has doubled down on his criticism of Jeanine Pirro after the US attorney for the District of Columbia publicly challenged his claims that vandals had damaged the recently renovated Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool.
“She said there was no vandalism. There was tremendous vandalism,” Trump told NBC News on Thursday. “So, she made a terrible mistake. I don’t understand why she did such a stupid thing.”
Police said a man charged with starting a wildfire confessed to the crime, describing how he planned it for weeks and created a device to ignite a blaze that destroyed hundreds of buildings.
Around 20% battery, going around 20 mph (guessing) in the bike lane, without any haptic feedback. I know I was not at top speed. Suddenly, I lose power, the nose hit the pavement, and I went flying, hit the concrete and slid for a good way on my front.
I ride in NYC and always wear helmet, crash sleeves, and wrist guards. If I hadn’t been, my arms and hands would have been shredded or worse.
I didn’t get any app notifications, though I didn’t have the app open. I see that you do get a notification on the app if a sensor has not been operating for more than 5 seconds.
I got back on, tested it a little bit, and rode the rest of the way home quite slowly.
Obviously there is an issue. Should I just change the sensors? Even worth it to talk to the company about it?
That one point of failure can kill someone and eventually will, if it hasn’t already.
There’s been a small flurry of articles from a variety of sources, all talking about more or less the same thing: Microsoft is trying to explain why Windows 11 is as difficult to develop as it is, in turn justifying why it’s become such a mess over the years. I’m picking this one from Windows Central, which is an interview with Microsoft’s CVP of Design and Research for Windows and Devices, Marcus Ash. Taking the long, still ongoing transition from the Control Panel to the Settings application as an example, Ash explains why this is such a long and difficult process.
Unsurprisingly, Ash says that the reason this has taken so long is that Microsoft prides itself on compatibility with legacy tooling and workflows, so it can’t just rush in and modernize everything without first ensuring the modern replacements maintain functionality with what came before.
This isn’t really news to anyone. One of Windows’ prized strong points is its often excellent backwards compatibility. This doesn’t just apply to individual applications, but also to things like software makers adding settings panels to Control Panel, or complex business applications expecting certain entry points into the Control Panel to exist – and much, much more, all over the operating system. I’m exaggerating, but you can’t so much as move a single pixel in the taskbar without breaking some component of some obscure corporate middleware suite from 1999 that somehow still functions as the beating heart of like 187 Fortune 500 companies.
Sometimes I wonder if Microsoft is going about this the wrong way entirely. Of course, I have no idea what I’m talking about, but I feel like Microsoft has so man tools at its disposal to deal with this issue that it’s not really using to their fullest potential. Specifically, Windows itself has a number of incredibly capable tools in its toolbox to make sure any application ever written for Windows and even DOS, regardless of how many bits it requires, can run. Windows has advanced and highly capable tools for virtualisation and containerisation, and on top of that, Windows NT has a very capable personalities system that feels underutilised, too.
Couldn’t these tools be harnessed to effectively isolate the entire backwards compatibility problem from the actual Windows operating system people use, and turn them into optional components installed and activated when required by an older application? Isolating backwards compatibility this way would then leave the Windows team much less shackled and more free to improve Windows at every level without having to worry so much about maintaining backwards compatibility. If the components an older application needs are virtualised, containerised, or part of a Windows NT personality and thus frozen in time, the Windows team would be free to work on the “current” version of said component without breaking the application in question.
I feel like Microsoft has tried to use these technologies to address backwards compatibility in the past, but in true Microsoft fashion, it always seems to do so halfheartedly, without any real coherent vision behind it. Again, I wish to reiterate I’m by no means qualified enough to make any definitive statements about this, but it sure does feel like Microsoft is underutilising a lot of the tools it already has at its disposal.
Optimized fares will be based on the best route from pickup to drop-off, with the full price shown before you book and no surprises if the robotaxi takes a longer way around.
Expansion of immigration enforcement at US airports puts employees at odds with agents seeking 2,000 daily arrests
A dramatic increase in immigration enforcement at US airports has reportedly placed the airline industry at odds with the Trump administration as workers decline to help federal officials arrest their targets – many of whom have pending applications for visas, asylum or green cards.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) – both part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – have expanded their collaboration to make as many as three dozen daily arrests at US airports last month, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Arizona bankers the administration won't allow "risks posed by the extension of financial services to illegal aliens."
Shift in monitoring methods has led to revenue boost for Geo Group, a private prison firm, that also makes the device
The US is tracking nearly 54,000 immigrants through GPS-enabled ankle monitors as part of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) electronic surveillance program, according to private prison corporation The Geo Group. Early last year, just 17,000 immigrants were wearing the devices..
The Geo Group owns BI Inc, the company that runs ICE’s intensive supervision appearance program (ISAP), and reported the numbers in its earnings call on Thursday.
alternative_right shares a report from The Hill: A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday that "tower dump" warrants are unconstitutional, declining to reverse a lower court decision refusing the government's request to obtain the search warrants in a series of violent crime investigations. A "tower dump" involves cellphone companies providing law enforcement with access to the time and location data of all mobile devices connected to specific cell towers during a designated time window.
Law enforcement had sought approval for several of these search warrants as part of criminal investigations into gang-related activity in the Jackson, Miss., area last year, arguing the data could help identify all those potentially involved, particularly in incidents with unknown suspects. A magistrate judge denied the applications, holding that "tower dumps" are impermissible general warrants. The district judge agreed. The order repeatedly referenced the Supreme Court's recent decision in Chatrie v United States, in which the majority held that geofence warrants require constitutional privacy protections.
"With this information, the Government asserts that it will be able to identify all potential suspects," Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in a 30-page order (PDF). "Even so, law enforcement would also have access to the cellular records of countless individuals, the vast majority of whom were merely passing by a location at the 'wrong' time."
"That is an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment," the judge concluded.
A flesh-eating bacterium found in warm coastal waters is responsible for at least five deaths so far this year in Louisiana, state health officials reported Thursday.
I'm looking to get a pint x for my kid. Short of a really long test ride is there anyway to know if a used board has a good battery? I'd love to save $400 on the board but if the battery isn't good that savings goes out the window. I'm not new to these but I know how to take care of my batteries and bought my pint and XRC new so I know their history.
Weeks before Massachusetts’ U.S. Senate primary election, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton unleashed a new attack on his Democratic rival, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, trying to link him to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“Why would you even take a meeting with a lobbyist on behalf of Jeffrey Epstein?” Moulton said during the Aug. 3 debate. Moulton said Markey had done “a favor for one of Epstein’s pals” but didn’t explain the reference.
Markey fired back that he had never met Epstein and accused Moulton of “character assassination.”
Two days later, Moulton followed up with an Instagram slideshow post that included a graphic showing Markey and two men, one of them Epstein. “Senator Ed Markey’s role in the Epstein Files,” the post’s opening slide read. “DOJ Epstein files reveal Senator Ed Markey was part of Epstein lobbying effort.”
In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty on state charges for soliciting prostitution from girls and in 2019 died by suicide in a Manhattan jail as he faced federal charges of recruiting dozens of underage girls for sex acts.
The claim against Markey is obviously incendiary and potentially devastating. So let’s get to the bottom of it — step by step.
Epstein files show a lobbyist claimed to have contacted Markey on behalf of Karim Wade
Moulton’s Instagram slides show that Moulton was referring to an email in the Justice Department’s Epstein files about Markey’s 2015 interaction regarding a person named Karim Wade.
Wade is the son of the former president of Senegal, Abdoulaye Wade, who served from 2000 to 2012. In 2015, Karim Wade was jailed in Senegal for corruption. Emails show Epstein offered to pay for U.S. lobbying on Wade’s behalf for his release from detention.
A December 2015 email said Bob Crowe, a partner with the lobbying firm Nelson Mullins, had contacted the State Department regarding Wade’s case. The email, written by Crowe’s colleague to a Wade ally, said, “We are engaging Congress and had an initial briefing with Senator Ed Markey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Africa.”
Crowe, who was copied on that message, forwarded the email to Epstein, Justice Department documents show.
The email doesn’t show Markey knew of Epstein’s involvement in Wade’s case. Nor does it include any details about the briefing Markey was said to have received. Was it Markey himself? Was it his staff? Was it an email? A phone call? A visit? The email doesn’t say. The lobbying firm Nelson Mullins did not return our request to learn more.
Whatever happened, we know that in June 2016 the Senegalese government released Wade from prison. And shortly before his release, Crowe sent an email to Epstein that said, “I was told by the congressional delegation that they put pressure on (Senegal President) Macky Sall and they are going to release (Wade).”
The email included no names of who was in that congressional delegation, and provided no further details what the pressure was.
Markey said he wasn’t briefed on Wade’s case
The federal government released millions of files related to the Epstein case, including these emails, under pressure, in 2025. And that’s how we — and Moulton — know about any of this.
Being in the Epstein files is not in itself evidence of wrongdoing — many politicians’ names are in the records. Markey called on President Donald Trump to release the Epstein files in 2025.
“I was not briefed on that case,” Markey said. “I never had a briefing.”
PolitiFact asked Markey campaign spokesperson Jonathan Ng if the December 2015 email that said Markey had been briefed on the Wade case was inaccurate.
“Neither Sen. Markey nor his staff were briefed by any lobbyists nor had any meetings related to Jeffrey Epstein and the case of Karim Wade,” Ng said in an email.
PolitiFact asked Moulton’s campaign for evidence showing Markey knew Epstein was involved in Wade’s case.
“Nowhere in our post do we claim that Markey knew that Epstein was involved in Wade’s case,” Moulton spokesperson Taylor Hebble responded in an email.
Other citations in Moulton’s Instagram posts
Although Moulton’s Instagram post included news organizations’ logos, none of the organizations (PolitiFact, Al Jazeera and the Miami Herald) endorsed Moulton’s accusation.
PolitiFact covered the Aug. 3 Moulton-Markey debate as part of its partnership with WCVB-TV, including fact-checking Moulton’s Epstein allegation.
The Miami Herald wrote a 2026 story about Epstein’s efforts to amass power and women in Africa. The Herald found Epstein paid at least $500,000 to a Senegalese lawyer representing Wade and $100,000 to Nelson Mullins. The article did not mention Markey.
Al Jazeera published a 2016 article about Wade’s prison release after receiving a presidential pardon. The article did not include Markey or Epstein.
Moulton’s post also cited a 2016 press release from Markey’s office after Markey led a congressional delegation to Senegal to meet with Sall to discuss security cooperation. It didn’t mention Wade or Epstein.
Our ruling
Moulton’s Instagram post said, “DOJ Epstein files reveal Senator Ed Markey was part of Epstein lobbying effort.”
There’s some sleight of hand here. The phrase “DOJ Epstein files” might lead you to believe these documents are somehow created or vetted or investigated by the federal government. In reality, they’re part of a massive release of Epstein emails. Epstein’s emails contain lots of very serious, sensitive material, and lots of inconsequential stuff.
The phrase “Epstein lobbying effort” in isolation may leave you thinking Moulton is talking about child sex trafficking. He’s not.
A 2015 email included in files released by the Justice Department says a lobbyist briefed Markey on a corruption case in Senegal. That’s the element of truth this claim rests on. But there’s no primary evidence the briefing took place, and Markey denies it happened.
Further, nothing in the email showed that Markey knew Epstein was involved with the case. There was no joint effort between Markey and Epstein.
Moulton has no more evidence than we do, and his words brazenly stretch the facts to the most menacing interpretation.
Once upon a time in the mysterious lands of Mexico, starting in Fall 1996 and through Spring 1997, I coded a windowed operating system in 32-bit machine code, fit it into a floppy, and jumped in excitement as it boot up.
Of course, I knew it was a great thing because you couldn’t boot Windows 3.1 or GEM from a floppy disk, but I was very far from knowing how so cool it was. Unfortunately, not a thing I could give away for everyone to see, as it was written for a homebrew computer based on the Am29000 processor.
Let’s go back to my memories, some notes, and the ride of discovering again what I forgotten.
Trying to summarise this absolute gem of an article and all of the amazing effort and skill involved would be a huge disservice to Óscar Toledo Gutiérrez. I enjoyed this so much. Be sure to try out his custom emulator of a custom computer to run his custom operating system.
Cities in Washington and Oregon seeing some of world’s worst air quality indices as smoke from fires cloaks region
Wildfires raging in the US Pacific north-west are blanketing the region with thick smoke, delivering some of the world’s worst air quality even as firefighters made progress against larger blazes in Washington state.
As of Thursday afternoon, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, hovered at the top of Swiss company IQAir’s list ranking the most polluted cities globally.
I ride a onewheel and was tired that no game exists for us – so I spent the summer building one. Looking for Android beta testers 🏔️
Fellow float enthusiasts – solo dev from the Austrian Alps here, and a rider. Every runner game out there is skateboards and trains, so I built the game I wanted: an endless carving runner where you ride a one-wheel board through alpine terrain. It has the stuff only we care about: battery management with regen on downhills, overheating when you push too hard, and yes – pushback before the nosedive. Carving clean S-lines is literally faster than riding straight.
Two worlds are playable (alpine meadow + snow). I'd love 20–30 riders to test the feel before launch: does the carving feel like floating to you? Opt-in link in the comments, takes one tap. Feedback brutally honest please – you're the people this is for. I'll also run a vote here on which world gets built next.
Announcing a pause on more than $1 billion in Medicaid funding to Minnesota and California last month, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz accused state officials of being too lax about fraud, citing among other things the results of a provider verification process in Minnesota and the rapid growth of a California home care program. But he left out important context in both cases.
Oz speaks ahead of Vice President JD Vance on July 8 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images.
Oz said at the July 21 press conference that Minnesota disenrolled 3,000 healthcare providers “who historically could send bills willy-nilly,” calling into question whether their previous claims were legitimate. Many of those providers, however, have said they were disenrolled in error as the state rushed to meet a federally imposed deadline. Most providers have appealed, and hundreds have been reinstated. The agency that runs Minnesota’s Medicaid program has said the verification process “was not a fraud determination.”
Oz also claimed spending on a California Medicaid program that provides in-home care to seniors and people with disabilities is growing at a rate that “doesn’t make sense.” State officials and California policy experts say there are other reasons for that growth, including an aging population, minimum-wage increases and policies meant to keep more people out of nursing homes.
Last month’s announcement, at which Oz was joined by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other federal officials, was the latest salvo in the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to pressure states over what it says is widespread fraud in Medicaid. The public insurance program, jointly funded by the federal government and the states, provides health coverage to more than 66 million low-income people.
Minnesota and California, both of which are run by Democratic governors, have become a particular focus of that effort. Earlier this year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services paused$351 million in federal Medicaid reimbursements to Minnesota and $1.3 billion in reimbursements to California, which officials said was the largest deferral in CMS’ history. Those are in addition to the $1 billion in deferrals announced in July.
More broadly, the administration has sought to make fraud in federal programs a central issue, appointing Vice President JD Vance to lead a White House task force on fraud and framing cuts to healthcare programs in last year’s budget reconciliation bill in terms of “eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.”
Fraud exists in Medicaid, as it does in Medicare and other federal health programs, though experts say it’s hard to put a precise number on it. The latest government estimates suggest that “improper payments” as a whole account for about 6% of Medicaid spending, though CMS itself has said much of that involves documentation issues or administrative errors unrelated to fraud.
During the press conference on July 21, Oz said CMS’ reviews of Medicaid spending in Minnesota and California had identified statistical “outliers” and “anomalies” that the states had not accounted for, but he did not present evidence of widespread fraud.
Those reviews “turned up the same, recurring theme again and again, every single quarter,” he said. “Claims in these same high-risk categories that the states have not yet been able to document fully and acceptably to the federal government, claims that are unresolved and claims that smell like fraud. And if it smells like fraud, we’re not paying for it anymore.”
A spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Services disputed Oz’s characterization of the state’s revalidation process, noting that only a few hundred providers have actually been terminated to date because most others appealed, and said CMS has given the state few details about other spending it flagged as questionable.
“[W]e firmly believe that the actions we have taken — and will continue to take — are tangible measures that will help ensure program integrity while keeping Minnesotans who rely on these programs at the forefront,” the spokesperson told us in an email.
Anthony Cava, a spokesperson for the California Department of Health Care Services, said federal officials are “penalizing California for responsible, federally encouraged growth in home‑based care, which saves taxpayers approximately $100,000 per person annually by keeping people safely at home rather than in institutions.”
We asked CMS and HHS several questions about the evidence behind Oz’s claims, but have not received a response to our queries. Here’s a closer look at some of those claims, as well as what we know about fraud in Medicaid generally.
Provider Disenrollment Not the Whole Story in Minnesota
Oz, in the July 21 press conference, said the majority of the $199 million that CMS deferred from Minnesota last month was tied to claims by thousands of providers that were later disenrolled when the state sought to check their credentials.
“Minnesota, in particular, was asked to audit all the people providing services in these high [fraud] risk areas,” Oz said. “And Minnesota itself disenrolled roughly 3,000 providers — 3,000 providers who historically could send bills willy-nilly and be fine. They themselves have disenrolled them for failed background checks, failed site visits and other issues.
“This raises questions about the claims tied to these same providers in the quarter before they were removed. … We looked back to see how much they billed us last quarter, and unfortunately it was a lot.”
There have been valid concerns about fraud in certain Medicaid programs in Minnesota, and it’s true that the state recently informed thousands of businesses and nonprofits that they would be terminated from Medicaid because they failed to complete a revalidation process. But there’s a lot more to the story than Oz revealed at the press conference.
State officials told the Minnesota Star Tribune that they faced immense pressure from the federal government to complete that process in a matter of months, ahead of a May 31 deadline, even though reviewing paperwork and conducting site visits for that many providers would normally take years. The state subsequently notified 3,411 providers that they would be terminated from Medicaid because they had not met the requirements in time.
The move caused an outcry among providers, many of whom described a rushed and error-prone process in interviewswithlocalnewsoutlets. Somesaid they submitted the necessary documents, but the state never got around to reviewing their paperwork or conducting a site visit before terminating them.
More than 2,700 of those providers have since appealed, and 748 of them had been revalidated as of July 23, according to a spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Human Services. Those with pending appeals have been allowed to continue billing Medicaid.
That means just 550 providers had actually been disenrolled as of July 23. The spokesperson said that includes 426 providers that did not appeal and 124 that were terminated for other reasons, including changes in ownership, expired licenses or exiting the program voluntarily.
The Department of Human Services has also been clear that a provider being disenrolled, in itself, is not a determination they were involved in fraud. Almost three-quarters of the initial 3,411 disenrollments were due to incomplete or inaccurate paperwork, with most others due to “failed site visits.” Only two failed background checks.
The department says only 59 of the more than 5,000 entities reviewed were flagged for further investigation, due to issues like not disclosing people with an ownership stake or misrepresenting who worked at the business.
We asked CMS whether it has other reasons to doubt those 3,411 providers’ past claims, but did not get a response.
Oz said CMS also used “fraud detection analytics” to flag hundreds of providers that were “of a character that historically defrauded the government,” which accounts for another $42 million or so of the deferral. Around $3 million more, he said, is tied to “specific documentation gaps,” such as allegedly billing for services provided after a beneficiary’s death.
CMS did not respond to our questions about those statements, either. The Department of Human Services spokesperson said CMS has not explained to state officials how it came up with those figures.
“As of this writing, CMS has not shared analytics it uses to identify billing patterns or any specific concerns it has related to issues of fraud, waste, or abuse,” the spokesperson told us in an Aug. 4 email.
Analysts Say Policy, Demographic Changes Driving California’s Home Care Spending
As for California, Oz said about three-quarters of the $867 million being deferred is tied to the state’s In-Home Supportive Services program.
IHSS covers in-home assistance, including help with bathing, dressing and other personal care, for older adults and people with disabilities who might otherwise require care in a nursing home or other facility. Every state Medicaid program offers something similar, in order to allow more people to stay in their homes while reducing the need for more costly institutional care.
At the July press conference, Oz suggested California’s home care program is growing at a suspiciously fast rate. That alone accounted for $391 million of the deferred funds, he said.
“Over the past two federal fiscal years, California’s spending in this program — this is a critical statistic — comparing state to state, California’s spending in these in-home programs went up 24%,” he said. “The rest of the country’s average is about 12%. So California increased spending at twice the rate of the average of the rest of the entire nation. That doesn’t make sense.”
Oz said CMS deferred an additional $250 million after flagging certain IHSS providers as “high risk” based on billing patterns, and another $5 million or so tied to other red flags, mainly IHSS providers who allegedly billed for home-care services when their patients were in the hospital.
This isn’t the first time Oz has singled out the state’s IHSS program. Announcing a previous funding deferral during a press conference at the White House in May, Oz also brought up the growth of California’s program.
“People in New Mexico, which is a blue state, are paying extra taxes so that California can get away with something that they can’t defend,” he said.
There have been documented cases of fraud in the IHSS program, but they represent a small fraction of the program’s total budget.
In the 2023-2024 state fiscal year, for instance, counties referred a total of $3.1 million for administrative action or prosecution after investigating complaints of fraud, according to the California Department of Social Services’ most recent program integrity report. (Counties help administer the program in California.) Total spending on IHSS that year topped $22 billion.
Jason Montiel, a spokesperson for the department, told us that counties received about 7,000 complaints of potential fraud that year and referred a little over half of them for revenue recovery. “For context, statewide, there are currently over 850,000 IHSS service recipients and over 765,000 IHSS providers,” he told us in an email.
California’s Department of Health Care Services referred 15 credible allegations of fraud involving IHSS to state prosecutors in state fiscal year 2024-25 and 12 in 2025-26, California State Medicaid Director Tyler Sadwith wrote in a Feb. 17 letter to CMS officials.
Sadwith wrote that such cases can include caregivers billing for services at times their patients were in a hospital or other institution and “check splitting involving collusion between IHSS provider and beneficiary/member.” IHSS cases “generally involve lower dollar amounts” relative to other types of Medicaid fraud investigations, he added, “with typical suspected fraudulent amounts averaging around $30,000 per investigation.”
Some IHSS caregivers in California have indeed been prosecuted for allegedly claiming to have provided services to patients who were hospitalized, incarcerated or out of the country. The U.S. Department of Justice has included a handful of such cases, all brought by state prosecutors, in annualnewsreleases touting healthcare fraud “takedowns” over the past three years.
But California state officials, as well as policy experts we spoke to, rejected the idea that fraud is widespread in IHSS or the reason for the program’s recent growth.
We asked CMS for the source of Oz’s statistic about home care spending growth in California relative to other states, and we haven’t received a response. Still, he’s generally correct that spending has increased. The program is expected to cost around $33 billion in the 2026-27 fiscal year, a 10% increase from the prior year, according to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office.
A recent analysis from that office — which is a nonpartisan body advising the state Legislature — identifies three main drivers of rising costs. First, more people qualify for the program due to the state’s aging population, an increase in the share of Californians that have a disability and policy changes that have expanded eligibility. Second, the average recipient is also receiving more hours of care. Finally, the cost per hour of care has also gone up, driven in part by increases in the state minimum wage.
California Medicaid officials have cited those factors in responding to questions about the program’s growth from CMS.
“Caseload increases reflect California’s Medicaid expansion and its aging population,” Sadwith, the state Medicaid director, wrote in the Feb. 17 letter to CMS. “Higher approved service hours correspond to increased acuity and functional need. Rising expenditures also reflect legislatively mandated minimum wage increases, which have helped to recruit and maintain the workforce necessary to meet CMS’s and California’s longstanding goals of transitioning toward home and community.”
Sadwith added that California has sought to broaden access to in-home care as part of a strategy to reduce the number of people in nursing homes — a longstanding goal of federal Medicaid policy, because it both saves money and allows more people to age at home, which most want. He cited data from the nonpartisan health policy research group KFF showing that 96% of California’s Medicaid spending on long-term care in federal fiscal year 2024 went to home and personal care rather than institutional care, compared to 69% nationally.
“CMS highlights the increase in IHSS expenditures … as a cause for concern, suggesting this figure signals excess or abuse,” he wrote. “In reality, it reflects the expansion of access to services that CMS itself has encouraged states to pursue for decades.”
Two outside policy experts who follow Medi-Cal, as it’s called in the state, similarly told us that state-level policy changes, demographics and other factors likely explain the growth.
“We’ve changed, for example, asset limits in terms of being eligible for these types of services,” said Shannon McConville, a senior fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California. “There’s also been some expansions in the program in terms of immigration status.”
(Federal Medicaid dollars can’t be spent on care for immigrants living in the country illegally, as well as some immigrants with legal status, other than emergency care; California has used its own funds to expand coverage to those groups.)
“I have not seen any evidence that indicates fraud as a driver of these spending trends,” Laurel Lucia, the deputy executive director of programs at the University of California Berkeley Labor Center, which has published research on IHSS, told us by email.
Rather, she said, “IHSS spending has grown rapidly in recent years due to the increased need for home care among seniors and individuals with disabilities, and increased home care worker wages.”
Lucia noted that the average hourly wage for IHSS providers rose more than 50% between 2018 and 2024. “This growth largely mirrored the growth in the statewide minimum wage, a unique factor given that California has one of the highest state minimum wages in the country,” she said.
California’s minimum wage rose from $10.50 or $11 per hour (depending on employer size) in 2018 to $16 per hour in 2024. A law mandating higher minimum wages for certain healthcare workers, including employees of licensed home healthcare agencies, took effect in late 2024.
Those higher wages reduce turnover among caregivers, “which is critical to continuity of care for the seniors and people with disabilities who rely on IHSS,” she added.
We asked CMS what evidence it has that fraud is driving increased spending on home care in California and why it rejected state officials’ explanation for that growth, but have not gotten a response.
Andy Schneider, a research professor of the practice at Georgetown University, told us it’s not unreasonable for an administration to say home care in general could pose some “unique program integrity risks” and work with states on better anti-fraud measures. For instance, it may be easier for dishonest providers to submit false timesheets for care that takes place outside a hospital or other institution; a number of such cases are prosecuted everyyear in states across the country.
But that doesn’t prove that fraud accounts for a major share of program spending.
“CMS asked in January for a lot of information, and I think they got it in this [Feb. 17] letter [from state officials], and they evidently don’t agree with the answer,” said Schneider, who served as a senior adviser to CMS under former President Barack Obama. “But it’s not clear to me what more California can tell them. And there’s no regulatory prohibition against spending more money, at a faster rate, than other states on a particular service, if you’ve made it a policy decision that you want to make it possible for as many people with disabilities and as many elderly people who want to stay out of institutions to do so.”
Estimates of Medicaid Fraud Are Murky
As for fraud in Medicaid overall, some degree of it clearly exists, as it does in other government programs. But there’s “no comprehensive or reliable measure” of its prevalence, as analysts with KFF put it last year.
“Measuring fraud is difficult, in part, because it can only be determined with certainty after the fact and if it is identified,” they wrote.
The federal government does estimate the rate of “improper payments” for certain programs, including Medicaid. The most recent estimate for Medicaid is 6.12%. But that’s not an estimate of fraud.
While improper payments can include fraud, they also include incorrect payments due to administrative errors and payments that weren’t properly documented. According to CMS, 77% of improper payments in fiscal year 2025 stemmed from insufficient documentation, “which is generally not indicative of fraud or abuse.”
The federal government also compiles reports on fraud prosecutions. In fiscal year 2025, state Medicaid Fraud Control Units reported recovering a total of $2 billion from civil and criminal cases involving either fraud or abuse and neglect. (For context, combined state and federal Medicaid spending is more than $900 billion per year.) Separately, federal agencies recovered $3.4 billion from fraud cases involving Medicaid, Medicare and other healthcare programs in fiscal year 2023, the most recent for which data are available.
Of course, that counts only cases that prosecutors know about and think they can prove in court, so it’s likely an underestimate.
“I can’t give you a quantitative answer” about the extent of fraud in Medicaid, Schneider told us. “I don’t think anybody can.”
One thing we can glean from those reports is that most documented Medicaid fraud is committed by providers — for instance, billing for nonexistent or unnecessary services — and not by beneficiaries, as Schneider wrote in an analysis for the Georgetown Center for Children and Families last year. Fraud by beneficiaries, he wrote, accounts for a “negligible” portion of both convictions and recovered funds reported by state fraud-control units.
States and the federal government share responsibility for policing fraud, and ensuring program integrity more broadly, with CMS and other federal agencies overseeing states’ administration of the program.
As part of its routine oversight, CMS reviews states’ expenditures and claims for federal reimbursement every quarter. In a program as large and complex as Medicaid, Schneider said it’s normal to have disputes over which claims are allowable or how much the federal government owes. In those cases, CMS will often defer payment until state and federal officials sort out the issue.
But Schneider said the Trump administration is using the deferral process in unprecedented ways.
“You don’t see the agency holding a press conference with the vice president in the White House to announce a large deferral — and in the case of the first California deferral, a historic deferral in size — against one or two particular states,” he said. “It’s just not the way CMS has interacted with states in the past. They’re trying to make the program work. It’s not a gotcha.”
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Westminster council has recommended banning ‘vertical drinking’ or ordering at the bar in new draft licensing policy
No 10 has vowed to confiscate powers from local councils which try to restrict customers from standing up while drinking in pubs or ordering at the bar.
It comes after the Guardian revealed on Thursday that Westminster council in central London recommended not allowing “vertical drinking” or ordering at the bar in its new draft licensing policy.
The result is Xibalba 64 – a Wolfenstein 3D-like FPS. Modretro agreed to publish the game as a physical launch title for their M64 (a modern N64 clone), complete with cartridge, packaging and manual!
The article details the development process, from setting up the correct tooling to actually getting the game to play on a real Nintendo 64, and everything in between – including optimising the game to get it to run at a steady 60fps. The biggest issue is that the Nintendo 64 is quite a complex and quirky console, and in order to develop for it, you needed access to Nintendo’s officially sanctioned platform library, libultra. These days, though, there’s an open source alternative, libdragon, enabling homebrew development.
It’s awesome that, thanks to the hard work of volunteers, people can still develop top-notch games for something like the Nintendo 64. If we had left it up to Nintendo, we’d be seeing nothing of the sort today.
Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich used Claude to build a gloriously impractical setup that runs Doom in the background and pastes each rendered frame into Microsoft Paint through the Windows clipboard. The project is referred to as "DoomPaint" or "MS Paint Doom" on GitHub. The Register reports: To be clear, Microsoft Paint isn't doing anything other than serving as a place to paste from the game. [...] ViZDoom runs the Doom .wad file and renders it headlessly. Each frame is passed through the Windows clipboard and pasted onto Paint's canvas. A low-level keyboard hook captures and swallows game inputs while Paint is in the foreground, and sound effects come from the game engine.
A glance at the code shows Russinovich was more than happy to use Claude to whip it up. In a LinkedIn post, he said: "I've been using Fable 5 on serious research projects and find it a noticeable improvement over Opus 4.8." Using Microsoft Paint as a display for Doom is not, however, a serious research project, as Russinovich acknowledged. "I've also been having fun with it on frivolous ones," he added, so here we are. "Paint renders the game but does not compute it," said Russinovich. "Paint computes nothing. Paint has never computed anything. That's the joke."
El presidente Donald Trump dice que ingresos petroleros están llegando hacia Estados Unidos y Venezuela desde que EE.UU. arrestó al entonces líder Nicolás Maduro en enero y lo llevó a la ciudad de Nueva York para ser juzgado por cargos de drogas y corrupción.
Durante una entrevista en Fox News el 4 de agosto, Trump dijo que los votantes en las elecciones de medio término “quieren ver ganar”, y puso a Venezuela como ejemplo. “La gente estaba muy opuesta a lo que hice en Venezuela”, él dijo. “Duró un día. Y ahora, ellos, mira, estamos ganando cientos de miles de millones de dólares, y ellos también”.
Pero la cifra de Trump es más alta que otros datos disponibles. Las mejores estimaciones muestran $13,000 millones en ingresos petroleros venezolanos desde el derrocamiento de Maduro, y no está claro cuánto de eso fue a Estados Unidos y cuánto a Venezuela.
Cuando PolitiFact le preguntó a la Casa Blanca por datos para respaldar la cifra de Trump, la oficina de prensa nos remitió a sus comentarios.
Sin embargo, “la cifra de cientos de miles de millones no es ni remotamente creíble”, dijo Phil Gunson, analista senior del International Crisis Group, una organización sin fines de lucro que estudia conflictos mortales. Gunson tiene su sede en la capital venezolana de Caracas.
La estimación de Trump supera varias veces todo el producto interno bruto de Venezuela. El PIB es el valor total de los bienes y servicios producidos durante un periodo de tiempo en un país.
¡Sigue el canal de WhatsApp de PolitiFact en Español para estar al día de lo que es cierto, falso, engañoso o fuera de contexto! #whatsapp#canales#verificacion#factcheck
¿Cuál es el papel de EE.UU. en el mercado petrolero de Venezuela?
Tras el arresto de Maduro, Delcy Rodríguez, entonces vicepresidenta, asumió como presidenta interina; Estados Unidos la reconoció como jefa de estado en marzo. La administración Trump dijo que controlaría la industria petrolera de Venezuela, que tiene muchas reservas pero ha luchado durante la última década para asegurar la inversión de capital necesaria para llevar ese petróleo al mercado.
Una orden ejecutiva emitida días después del derrocamiento de Maduro dice que los ingresos petroleros serían propiedad del gobierno venezolano, pero se mantendrían en cuentas del gobierno de EE.UU. en “capacidad de custodia y gobierno”. El Departamento de Energía de EE.UU. dijo que los fondos serían “distribuidos en beneficio del pueblo estadounidense y del pueblo venezolano”.
Ningún gobierno ha producido una cantidad única, fácil de localizar y actualizada a la fecha de cuántos ingresos petroleros se han generado, ni quién ha recibido el dinero. Por lo tanto, verificar lo que Trump dice depende en reunir estimaciones dispersas de ingresos y gastos.
Un análisis del Financial Times del 22 de julio estimó que EE.UU. ha recaudado alrededor de $13,000 millones en ingresos petroleros venezolanos. El Financial Times analizó datos sobre envíos de petróleo crudo desde Venezuela desde enero compilados por la plataforma de datos de transporte Kpler, combinados con estimaciones de precios para varios grados de petróleo crudo venezolano suministrados por Argus Media, una agencia de precios.
Trump se mostró escéptico sobre la cifra de $13,000 millones de ingresos petroleros cuando un periodista hizo referencia a la estimación en el Air Force One en julio, diciendo, “Creo que (es) incluso más que eso”.
Para que la afirmación de Trump de “cientos de miles de millones de dólares” sea correcta, tanto EE.UU. como Venezuela tendrían que estar recibiendo más del producto interno bruto de Venezuela, la suma de toda la actividad económica dentro del país de casi 29 millones de personas.
El PIB de Venezuela es de unos $111,000 millones, según el Fondo Monetario Internacional. El Financial Times estimó que los ingresos petroleros representan aproximadamente una cuarta parte del PIB de Venezuela.
Analistas le dijeron a PolitiFact que desconocían las estimaciones de ingresos petroleros que ascendían a cientos de miles de millones para ambos países.
“Incluso con la suposición más generosa, nunca llegarías allí”, dijo Dany Bahar, fellow visitante de asuntos públicos e internacionales de la Universidad de Brown.
Y persisten las dudas sobre cuánto de los ingresos petroleros irán a Venezuela.
El Departamento de Estado le dijo al Congreso en abril que había gastado $3,000 millones en costos operativos, incluyendo en suministros de la industria petrolera y en salarios de los trabajadores gubernamentales. Un sitio del gobierno venezolano que rastrea los ingresos por petróleo vendido en EE.UU. muestra $300 millones en ingresos enviados a Venezuela hasta marzo. (EE.UU. también ha enviado a Venezuela $386 millones de ayuda debido a los dos grandes terremotos del 24 de junio).
David Smilde, asociado senior del Centro de Investigación de Políticas Interamericanas de la Universidad de Tulane, describió la cifra del 4 de agosto de Trump como “imposible” y dijo que la cantidad creíble más reciente que ha visto son los $13,000 millones del Financial Times.
Gunson dijo que no está claro “a dónde fue todo ese dinero, cuánto se envió a Venezuela y en qué se gastó”. Él dijo que la transparencia no era una prioridad en Venezuela incluso antes del derrocamiento de Maduro; el país no ha publicado un presupuesto nacional en más de una década.
Smilde dijo que hay “una opacidad increíble en la que las ventas de petróleo de Venezuela están siendo dirigidas”.
“Mi entendimiento es que han habido bastantes ingresos regresando a Venezuela, pero dado el déficit presupuestario del gobierno y toda la necesidad, no tiene el impacto que la gente espera”, dijo Smilde.
Nuestro veredicto
Trump dijo que en Venezuela, “Estamos ganando cientos de miles de millones de dólares (en ingresos petroleros), y ellos también”.
Los expertos y los análisis publicados sitúan la cifra más alta y creíble de ingresos petroleros en $13,000 millones desde que EE.UU. asumió el control de la industria petrolera venezolana.
Cientos de miles de millones de dólares para cada una de las partes — tanto para Estados Unidos como para Venezuela — equivaldría a varias veces el producto interior bruto reportado de Venezuela.
Calificamos la afirmación como Falsa.
Ellen Hine, productora de audiencias senior, contribuyó a este informe.
Nota del editor: PolitiFact tradujo esta historia del inglés al español usando un servicio de traducción automática. Los periodistas de PolitiFact con fluidez en ambos idiomas editaron la traducción para mayor claridad y precisión.
OpenAI researchers say multiple AI agents secretly created an internal message board to share hacking techniques, eventually finding ways around restrictions, exploiting a zero-day, and helping two models breach Hugging Face without human prompting. "This is a pivotal moment both for our company as well as the AI industry as a whole," Michael Dalton, one of the AI-maker's researchers, said during a presentation at the Black Hat cybersecurity conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Politico reports: Dalton and Eric Wallace, another OpenAI researcher, said Wednesday the AI giant recently learned that multiple agents it was testing simultaneously began communicating over an internal message board in early May. There, different models shared advice about how to accomplish difficult hacking challenges they were struggling to surmount, including workarounds that required internet access. Two OpenAI models ultimately strung together a series of sophisticated techniques to gain access to the internet and worm their way inside Hugging Face in mid-July. OpenAI has said the models were focused on completing a hacking evaluation they were prompted to solve, and that correct answers could be found on the AI developer platform.
The OpenAI researchers told conference attendees that since early May, the models created a message board inside OpenAI's Artifactory internal file system. Without the company's knowledge, the models spent months independently exchanging information and techniques to help each other complete difficult tasks. Wallace said that when models get stuck, they often "try to game or cheat the task in order to get their reward." "The beginning of this incident kind of traces back to this point where one agent realized it could communicate by uploading a note," he added. By late May, one model found a way to abuse Artifactory's internet access to retrieve files from various websites -- effectively giving the models indirect access to the internet. In June, the models were able to find and exploit a previously unknown zero-day vulnerability to gain administrative privileges on Artifactory, install remote software and expand their activity within the system.
These efforts eventually overloaded Artifactory, causing a system-wide outage in early July that alerted OpenAI's engineers to the ploy. After investigating, the company revoked the model's credentials, removed the message board and worked with Artifactory to fix any gaps before resuming training. But the models found another way to communicate inside Artifactory just days later and continued exchanging techniques to target additional vulnerabilities within OpenAI's infrastructure and external systems, including Hugging Face.
Exclusive: Academics call for inquiry, saying university must be held accountable for ‘grotesque racism unleashed’
The University of Cambridge’s leaders deserve blame for the “grotesque racism unleashed” by Jason Arday’s appointment as professor, according to academics calling for the university to hold an independent inquiry.
The Guardian understands that senior dons at Cambridge are circulating a joint letter calling for an inquiry into the processes and circumstances around Arday being given the position, with many suggesting the university wanted a “quick fix” to improve the diversity of its staff.
This week, the Supreme Court announced its argument schedule for October 2026, with a dispute over who can sue over the effects of climate change as the first case of its new term.
In Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the justices are presented with several questions involving the federal government’s power to preempt environmental lawsuits from local governments filed in state court. In Article VI, Clause 2, the Supremacy Clause states that “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States … shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
In this case, Boulder County and the city of Boulder in Colorado sued Suncor Energy, Suncor Energy Sales, and Exxon Mobile in 2018. Boulder claimed a state court could compel energy companies to share “a portion of the financial burden their communities must bear in coping with an altered climate brought about in part by petitioners’ tortious conduct.” Critics of Boulder’s strategy labeled the cost-sharing burden as an indirect carbon tax.
A state trial court agreed with Boulder that it could seek a remedy within the state’s legal system. The Colorado state Supreme Court upheld the trial court decision, noting that the lawsuit centered on “deceptive conduct and ‘upstream production activities,’ and it was not a direct attempt to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.”
Suncor appealed to the United States Supreme Court, which accepted one question presented by Suncor: “Whether federal law precludes state-law claims seeking relief for injuries allegedly caused by the effects of interstate and international greenhouse-gas emissions on the global climate.”
In addition, the justices added a second question for oral argument: “whether this Court has statutory and Article III jurisdiction to hear this case.”
The basis of the conflict
In its petition to the Court, Suncor noted that “energy companies that produce and sell fossil fuels are facing numerous lawsuits in state courts across the nation seeking billions of dollars in damages for injuries allegedly caused by the contribution of greenhouse-gas emissions to global climate change.”
Suncor stated that the Boulder lawsuit is similar to actions filed by “state and local governments nationwide” in state courts over global climate change. It disagreed with Boulder’s argument that the federal Clean Air Act had displaced preexisting federal common law in such cases, allowing a situation where “state tort law presumptively could regulate interstate emissions.”
“There are few, if any, more consequential questions pending in the lower courts concerning the relationship between state and federal law,” Suncor stated. It asked the Court to “address whether the state-law claims asserted by dozens of states and municipalities can even proceed—and to do so before the energy industry is threatened with potentially enormous judgments.”
Initially, Boulder waived its right to reply to Suncor’s appeal, but the Supreme Court asked on Sept. 9, 2025, for a reply. Boulder filed its first reply brief on Nov. 10, 2025. It claimed that the justices had already denied review of similar questions presented by Suncor in other cases, including Sunoco LP v. City & County of Honolulu (2025). “In the recent Honolulu case, granting interlocutory review would require the Court to wade into a thicket of preliminary questions that promise nothing but rabbit holes and dead ends,” Boulder claimed.
Boulder also noted that the Supreme Court denied Suncor’s appeal within the federal court system in 2023, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissenting, before the case headed to the state court system. It argued the Supreme Court lacked the authority to review an interlocutory decision from the Colorado Supreme Court, and even if the Supreme Court accepted other arguments in the case, the justices “could not reach the merits without first resolving complex questions of Article III jurisdiction.”
Boulder also rejected various other arguments that would allow federal precedents to preempt the powers of state courts. “States have always had the authority to provide remedies for in-state injuries arising from out-of-state conduct, subject to Due Process limitations on personal jurisdiction and the restrictions of other specific constitutional provisions (e.g., the Commerce Clause).”
“Whether to displace that state law, and how best to balance the inevitable competing interests, is a policy question for Congress, not one to which the Constitution provides an implicit answer for courts to divine on their own,” Boulder concluded.
Recent claims from the parties involved
In a brief from Deputy Solicitor General Sarah M. Harris, the United States supported Suncor’s case. “Can one city wield one State’s law to dictate how the rest of the world must address a global problem with global effects? The Constitution supplies the answer: Absolutely not,” Harris argued. She also noted that 60 states and localities have filed nearly identical lawsuits against fossil-fuel producers.
“In our constitutional system, States are separate, coequal sovereigns within a unitary federal system. Each State retains powers to regulate matters within its own borders. However, no one State can superimpose its own regulatory preferences on the rest—least of all to address a global problem that exists almost entirely outside its borders and affects the world at large,” she concluded. Harris believed Congress in passing the Clean Air Act preempted Boulder’s claims that state courts controlled this case.
In a brief from May 2026, Suncor repeated several basic arguments. First, it asserted that the use of “state tort law to address the effects of global climate change is incompatible with the structure of the Constitution.” Suncor cited court Supreme Court precedents holding that using “a single State’s law to resolve an inherently interstate dispute contradicts the basic scheme of the Constitution.”
Suncor also believed the Clean Air Act closed out any argument that state-tort laws applied to climate change cases. “The Act establishes a comprehensive statutory scheme for the regulation of air quality across the United States. Respondents’ state-law claims undermine that scheme by subverting the primacy of federal regulation and aggrandizing the limited and defined role afforded to the States.”
In a brief filed on Monday, Boulder repeated its arguments that Suncor and the United States wrongly interpreted the Clean Air Act. “Nothing in the Clean Air Act preempts [our] claims. The statute regulates point-source emissions, not the upstream production, sale, or marketing of products that later produce them. It certainly does not charge the EPA with regulating deceptive marketing of fossil fuels.”
Boulder also claimed that Suncor failed to establish that the Supreme Court had Article III jurisdiction in the case. “This case should begin and end with jurisdiction,” it said. “Article III and the final judgment rule guard against needless state-federal friction by delaying this Court’s review until a final judgment injures a party.” It added that the case was “far from final judgment” in the state legal system. “The Colorado Supreme Court has not yet even decided whether respondents state a claim under state law,” it added.
One measure of Suncor v. Boulder’s importance is that since the justices accepted the case on February 23, 2026, more than 70 “friend of the court” or amicus briefs have been filed. Among those filing briefs were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Senator Ted Cruz, numerous legal scholars, interest groups, tribal nations, states and local governments.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
The Republican US senator Mitch McConnell has been discharged from a rehabilitation center following the fall that left him hospitalized, he announced on Thursday.
A case against Minnesota Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Lindell will continue after a judge decided Thursday there is probable cause to believe he violated campaign laws by giving away pillows promoting his candidacy at a July Fourth parade.
Astronauts Jessica Meir and Anil Menon conduct a spacewalk outside the International Space Station, preparing the installment of new rollout solar arrays which will provide extra energy to support the station, according to Nasa
More than $5m in recent weeks have been spent in ads targeting Aisha Wahab and in support of Melissa Hernandez
Super Pacs tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) have spent millions in a California congressional race to keep a progressive Democrat from winning Eric Swalwell’s former seat.
Aisha Wahab, a state senator who has been endorsed by the California Democratic party, is widely considered the frontrunner in the special election for the district covering a swathe of the East Bay.
Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, has finally issued its first construction contract in the devastated territory: a project to build a rudimentary 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops, a source familiar with the matter told the Guardian.
The contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq.
Japanese officials have repeatedly asked the Trump administration to stop using characters from franchises such as Mario, Pokemon, and Naruto in unauthorized government memes and pro-war videos, warning that the posts could damage the intellectual property involved. IGN reports: Official US government social media accounts, including The White House's X account, have posted various memes and videos using characters from popular Japanese anime and games over the past year. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly called on the US government to cease uploading such posts, stating that "It's inappropriate even for public institutions to reproduce copyrighted materials without the rightsholders' consent." This concern was voiced by Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi in a parliamentary session back in April, when he made direct reference to a pro-war video that used Nintendo's Wii Sports.
However, according to a report by Mainichi Shimbun this week, the Japanese Ministry called on the Trump administration to stop using IPs like Naruto, Pokemon and Mario at least twice more this June through the US Embassy in Japan. Japan requested that the US administration take into account the potential damage to these IPs when used without permission in US policy and pro-war related content.
[...] It's not just the Japanese government and related parties who have spoken out against these posts. They have also sparked backlash from Japanese anime fans. Notably, self-proclaimed manga and anime fan Nana Suzuki kicked off the "Protect Japanese Manga" petition on Change.org, which has received international news coverage (from the New York Times, BBC and others). The organizer claims to have submitted their petition to the Japanese Cabinet Office back in March, as well as alerting Japanese politicians to the US government's unauthorized use of Japanese IPs, potentially drawing more official attention to the issue.
Renewed backlash was triggered in June, when President Trump shared an AI-generated video depicting himself as Naruto, the protagonist of the popular manga and anime of the same name, on Truth Social. This prompted the petition organizer to reopen the petition "as an urgent effort to convey our protest and concern regarding this matter to the rights holders and to work in solidarity to lobby the Japanese government." The Naruto clip also prompted renewed discussion of this issue in Japan's media and government. As reported in the Hokkaido Shimbun and others, Cabinet Minister Kimi Onoda was asked about it in a June 12th press conference. She emphasized that "obtaining permission from the copyright holder is the underlying principle for fair use," and stated that this position had been conveyed to the US government multiple times through diplomatic channels.
The AI memory wall has emerged as the biggest bottleneck in executing AI inference workloads. This week at the Future of Memory and Storage Summit, Samsung threw the kitchen sink at the problem, unveiling not only a new type of high-bandwidth memory called zHBM but two new NAND offerings for solid state disks (SSDs), including a speedy new type of NAND dubbed zNAND and the 10th generation of its BV-NAND technology.
As the focus of the AI boom evolved from training foundation models to actually running them, the core underlying infrastructure requirements also changed. AI training workloads are largely compute bound and benefit from having large number of powerful processors (i.e. GPUs) that can crunch through huge amounts of data in parallel. Hence the huge run on GPUs and other AI accelerators in the early days of the AI boom.
But AI inference workloads have different infrastructure requirements. They generally are not compute bound, and instead are limited by the amount of data that can be moved from local memory into the processors.
Samsung executive Jin-Yub Lee delivered his keynote address at FMS 2026 (Image courtesy Samsung)
Having big parallel compute can help in the first stage of the AI inference process, dubbed the prefill stage, when the AI model processes the initial user prompt. But the second stage of AI inference, dubbed the decode stage, is largely memory bandwidth-bound, since the model must generate the tokens sequentially.
This is because the data used to generate the output tokens is stored in the key-value (KV) cache, which ideally resides in HBM or DRAM (or less ideally, the local SSD storage when the HBM or DRAM fills up). The quicker the model can pull the right KV from the cache, the quicker the user can see the generated cat video–or see the prediction for how a certain ligand might fit into a certain pocket on a protein, as the case may be.
The entire computer industry is aware of this problem and many companies are working on solutions. Nvidia and the storage vendors are trying to build a workaround with the Nvidia DMX architecture, which infuses as much intelligence into the backend storage to make KV cache calls as fast as they possibly can. Others are trying to innovate at the silicon level.
You can put Samsung in the latter camp. The South Korean chip giant this week unveiled some of its proposed solutions for the AI memory wall, which includes more dense three-dimensional packaging of memories, including the DRAM used in HBM as well as the slower NAND used in SSDs.
zHBM
The new zHBM offering offers a new memory architecture that vertically stacks HBM directly above AI accelerators, instead of positioning the HBM stack next to the processor, as is currently the case. Samsung wants to do this to minimize the distance that data travels between the AI processor and memory, thereby delivering higher bandwidth as well as improved power efficiency.
Specifically, Samsung says zHBM will deliver 4x to 8x boost in performance compared to HBM5. HBM5 is currently in development, with a plan for deliveries in 2029 with 4TB per second of memory bandwidth, according to a chart from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. That would mean that zHBM would have anywhere from 16 TBps to 32 TBps of memory bandwidth per stack.
Samsung said zHBM would also deliver a 3x improvement on power efficiency compared to HBM5, and a 50% improvement in thermal resistance. HBM5 is expected to draw 100 watts per HBM, according to KAIST. zHBM will use a new hybrid copper bonding (HCB) technique that Samsung is developing, which the company says will help zHBM yield 10x the memory density of HBM5.
It’s unclear if that 10x density improvement will result in a 10x capacity improvement as well (or something marginally less), as the real-estate on top of the chip itself is limited. In any case, perhaps new architectures that mix zHBM on top of the chip along with HBM alongside it may enable more memory to be brought to bear on the KV cache dilemma.
zNAND-O
Samsung will also be using a 3D packaging technology with its new zNAND-O technology, whereby multiple V-NAND chips are stacked through TSVs (through-silicon via), delivering storage that is very dense and very fast.
Instead of using external interconnects, where data is passed on the edge of the NAND, Samsung proposes placing the data path in the middle of the chip using TSVs, which are microscopic holes etched through the silicon substate that are filled with a conductive material, like copper.
Samsung says zNAND-O will deliver storage with properties that are conducive to AI inference workloads, including very small latencies (less than 3 micro-seconds), bandwidth in the realm of 200 GBps to 400 GBps, which can increase to 1 TBps or more using 3D stacking.
zNAND-O could be used for devices like smartphones to improve the performance of AI models when not connected to the Internet.
V10 BV-NAND
Samsung is also bringing 3D packaging to bear with its 10th generation of BV-NAND technology. With V10, Samsung is now packaging up to 400 layers of memory cells, compared to the 200 layers that were supported in V9.
According to Samsung, this corresponds with a 58% increase in bit density on the NAND itself. The data write speed also increase by 45%, according to Samsung, and I/O speeds increase by 33%. Samsung says a new bonding technique made this possible. All told, it will result in SSDs that can store more data in the same amount of space.
Samsung says that the three HBM and NAND announcements made at the conference share one common theme: the use of a three-dimensional “z-axis” strategy that shortens the distance between memory and the processor, which minimizes data movement while maximizing storage capacity and performance within a limited footprint.
Two Samsung executives, Jinyeop Lee, executive vice president of flash product and technology, and Kyungryun Kim, vice president of DRAM product and technology, presented these advances at FMS in a keynote titled “Driving the Wave of AI Revolution: 3D Innovation in Memory & Storage Architecture.”
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 6, 2026 — Domino Data Lab today announced its selection as a member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Genesis Mission Consortium. In joining, Domino contributes to the united efforts of the DOE, its national laboratories, academic institutions, and fellow technology leaders to double American scientific productivity over the next decade through artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC).
While the 17 national laboratories house exascale supercomputers and vast scientific datasets, research teams face significant friction collaborating across fragmented compute environments, toolsets, and varying security baselines.
Domino closes this gap between environments with one platform spanning on-premises HPC, commercial and government clouds, and air-gapped systems alike. The platform lets research teams build, validate, and deploy models without vendor lock-in. As a member of the Consortium’s AI Model Development & Validation Working Group, Domino brings that capability directly into Genesis Mission work to validate and govern models across labs.
“The Genesis Mission succeeds when America accelerates novel science and research,” said Thomas Robinson, COO of Domino Data Lab. “Domino brings a platform with a track record of giving commercial research labs both rapid scientific insight and the governance, reproducibility, and auditability regulated science requires. Joining the Genesis Mission Consortium means applying that discipline at the scale of the national laboratories to help double the productivity and impact of America’s science and engineering.”
Overcoming Infrastructure Silos Across DOE’s Genesis Mission Priorities
As a Consortium member, Domino offers the DOE expertise in balancing AI innovation and risk mitigation across its core priorities:
Accelerating science — Domino removes the infrastructure, workflow, and governance overhead that slows scientific discovery by automating:
Experiment intake, sorting, and analysis, flagging failures and interesting signals early so researchers spend their time interpreting results rather than manually screening for experiment failures and biological signals.
Analysis pipelines that continuously update program-level insights as new experiments are processed.
Energy dominance — Domino accelerates materials discovery for the energy sector by:
Using AI-powered inverse design to define target material properties upfront and identify matching compositions, skipping heavy experimentation for materials like battery cathodes.
Tracking candidates via a system of record that makes a single lab’s result buildable across others.
Strategic deterrence — Domino connects physics-based AI, HPC, and institutional data to shrink materials qualification from months to days without sacrificing oversight by:
Screening thousands of candidates against known constraints and using AI to identify, for example, ideal titanium alloys, directing heavy experimentation only to the most promising candidates.
Automatically logging every decision in a complete audit trail that stakeholders can easily review, preserved for reproducibility.
Allowing scientists to plug into data science/machine learning workflows seamlessly by connecting to databases like Grand Unified File Index (GUFI) and searching through petabytes of their own data.
Building on a Proven Record in Highly Regulated Environments
Domino’s participation in the Genesis Mission Consortium builds on an established dual-use track record. The platform is used today across defense, federal civilian and intelligence community agencies, and by many of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies. This history provides multidisciplinary research and engineering teams with a proven way to rapidly train, govern, and deploy models in high-stakes environments while maintaining full auditability, lineage, and reproducibility.
To learn more about Domino Data Lab’s support for the Genesis Mission and view live scientific workflow demonstrations, visit explore.domino.ai/doe.
About Domino Data Lab
Domino Data Lab partners with the world’s most regulated enterprises as they build, scale, and govern AI-powered applications. From statistical computing to agentic AI, organizations use Domino’s AI platform to develop new therapies, protect citizens, and secure financial markets — under the most complex regulatory requirements. Founded in 2013, Domino is backed by Sequoia Capital, Coatue Management, NVIDIA, Snowflake, UBS, and other leading investors. Learn more at domino.ai.
Agreement with RWE is fifth deal Trump team has made with energy companies, offering payouts to give up projects
The German energy company RWE has reached a $1.22bn deal with the US government to relinquish its offshore wind leases and instead redirect funds towards fossil fuel investments.
The agreement marks the fifth deal the Donald Trump administration has struck with energy companies, offering payouts in exchange for abandoning renewable energy projects and redirecting investment towards fossil fuels.
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 6, 2026 — Super Micro Computer, Inc. today announced the seventh annual Supermicro Open Storage Summit, a virtual event presented with theCUBE that will run from August 11 through September 3. The 12-session technical series brings together leading experts across the AI storage ecosystem to examine the data infrastructure required to deploy enterprise AI at scale.
Supermicro Open Storage Summit 2026
“Enterprise AI success depends on a data infrastructure that can scale with growing model complexity and inference demands,” said Michael McNerney, senior vice president, Marketing and Network Security Supermicro. “The Open Storage Summit brings together industry leaders from across our ecosystem to share practical expertise on building high-performance, cost-efficient AI infrastructure. Combined with Supermicro’s DCBBS architecture, these insights help organizations accelerate AI deployment from pilot projects to production at scale.”
“Enterprise AI is forcing organizations to rethink infrastructure from the data outward,” said Rob Strechay, Principal Analyst at theCUBE. “As enterprises look to become token producers rather than perpetual token consumers, storage becomes a strategic platform, not simply for capacity, but for feeding GPUs, managing context, accelerating inference, and enabling trusted AI at scale. That’s why the conversations happening at the Open Storage Summit are so important.”
The summit will explore AI inference, agentic AI, hybrid cloud storage, AI data platforms, context memory, unstructured data management, neocloud infrastructure, and cloud storage services. Industry leaders from Supermicro and ecosystem partners—including AMD, DDN, Hammerspace, IBM, Intel, KIOXIA, MinIO, Nutanix, Scality, Solidigm, VAST Data, Western Digital, and others—will share practical recommendations for designing high-performance, cost-efficient AI environments. Practitioners from Crusoe and Iron Mountain will also discuss real-world AI and cloud storage deployments.
See the Supermicro Open Storage Summit event page for the full agenda and to register.
About Super Micro Computer, Inc.
Supermicro (NASDAQ: SMCI) is a global leader in Application-Optimized Total IT Solutions. Founded and operating in San Jose, California, Supermicro is committed to delivering first-to-market innovation for Enterprise, Cloud, AI, and 5G Telco/Edge IT Infrastructure. We are a Total IT Solutions provider with server, AI, storage, IoT, switch systems, software, and support services. Supermicro’s motherboard, power, and chassis design expertise further enables our development and production, enabling next-generation innovation from cloud to edge for our global customers. Our products are designed and manufactured in-house (in the US, Asia, and the Netherlands), leveraging global operations for scale and efficiency and optimized to improve TCO and reduce environmental impact (Green Computing). The award-winning portfolio of Server Building Block Solutions allows customers to optimize for their exact workload and application by selecting from a broad family of systems built from our flexible and reusable building blocks that support a comprehensive set of form factors, processors, memory, GPUs, storage, networking, power, and cooling solutions (air-conditioned, free air cooling or liquid cooling).
RPI will lead one Phase I project and support a second, advancing AI applications in critical materials and particle accelerator research
Aug. 6, 2026 — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researchers will contribute to two projects selected by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for Phase I awards under the inaugural Genesis Mission, a national initiative designed to accelerate scientific discovery through artificial intelligence. RPI will lead one project, in collaboration with Ames National Laboratory, focused on developing next-generation permanent magnets, while contributing to a second project led by Brookhaven National Laboratory that will apply AI to improve the operation of particle accelerators.
Credit: DOE
The RPI-led project, AI-Guided Manufacturing of High-Performance Heavy Rare-Earth-Free Magnets for Critical Materials Security (AIM-MAG), will be led by Jie Lian, professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering and materials science and engineering at RPI. Lian’s team will combine AI, materials science, and advanced manufacturing to accelerate the discovery and development of high-performance, heavy rare-earth-free permanent magnets.
By integrating scientific literature, existing materials databases, computational modeling, and experimental data into an AI-powered knowledge platform, the researchers aim to uncover relationships between composition, processing, microstructure, and magnetic performance. These insights will guide the design and scalable manufacturing of next-generation permanent magnets with enhanced performance and reduced reliance on critical rare-earth elements. The full research team includes RPI professors Liping Huang and Yunfeng Shi, as well as collaborators from Ames National Laboratory and GE Vernova.
“Some of today’s most important scientific challenges are too complex for any one institution or discipline to solve alone,” said Lian. “Being part of the Genesis Mission gives us the opportunity to work alongside leading researchers across the country and explore new approaches to designing the next generation of critical materials. By developing heavy rare-earth-free permanent magnets, our research aims to strengthen domestic manufacturing, enhance energy security, and build a more resilient U.S. critical materials supply chain.”
RPI also is a partner on a second Genesis Mission Phase I project led by Brookhaven National Laboratory, AI-Driven, Self-Learning Digital Twins for Robust Operation of Particle Accelerators. The project will combine physics-based accelerator models with machine learning to create AI-enabled digital twins that can improve understanding of accelerator operations, account for uncertainty, and support real-time decisions. Yinan Wang, assistant professor of industrial and systems engineering, leads RPI’s contribution alongside collaborators from Brookhaven National Laboratory, Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, Cornell University, RadiaSoft, and Cosylab.
“The Genesis Mission creates an opportunity to rethink how scientists interact with complex systems such as particle accelerators,” said Wang. “I am excited to collaborate with researchers at Brookhaven National Laboratory and our other partners on developing new approaches to understanding and operating these advanced scientific facilities.”
As part of the Genesis Mission, both projects join a national effort bringing together researchers from universities, national laboratories, industry, and government to develop and demonstrate AI-enabled scientific workflows that accelerate discovery across energy, manufacturing, and national security.
“RPI’s selection for two Phase I Genesis Mission projects reflects the university’s commitment to research that connects computational and AI advances to disciplines that fuel emerging technologies, and advance scientific understanding and innovation,” said Robert Hull, Vice President for Research at RPI.
Introducing Apache Fluss, a lakehouse-native streaming storage for real-time analytics and AI, and Apache Pony Mail, a web-based mail archive browser built to scale to millions of archived messages
WILMINGTON, Del., Aug. 6, 2026 — The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the global home of open source software the world relies on, today announced that Apache Fluss and Apache Pony Mail have become Top-Level Projects (TLPs).
Apache Fluss is an open source, lakehouse-native streaming storage system designed for real-time analytics and AI. It provides a real-time data layer for lakehouse, bringing streaming data, continuously updated tables, and historical lakehouse data together through a common table abstraction. Fluss integrates with compute engines including Apache Flink and Apache Spark and with open lakehouse formats including Apache Paimon, Apache Iceberg, Apache Hudi and Lance.
“Apache Fluss’s graduation reflects a mature community shaped by open, collaborative governance at the ASF,” said Feng Wang, head of Open Data Platform at Alibaba Cloud. “Deployed and proven at scale in Alibaba’s core e-commerce production workloads, Fluss’s Lakestream architecture unifies streams with Lakehouse data, making the Lakehouse real-time while reducing data duplication and pipeline complexity. This led us to open source and donate Fluss to the ASF. I look forward to Fluss becoming the open data foundation for the real-time Lakehouse, advancing analytics and AI across the open data ecosystem.”
Apache Pony Mail is a web-based mail archive browser built to scale to millions of archived messages with hundreds of requests per second. It allows users to browse, search, and interact with mailing lists including creating replies to mailing list threads. Pony Mail works in both public, private and mixed-mode, allowing you to have one unified place for all your communication, both public and private.
About the Apache Incubator
Open source projects need healthy communities to thrive. The ASF provides projects with services and mentorship for building resilient and durable communities throughout their lifecycle. The Apache Incubator hosts incoming projects (called podlings) that want to enter the ASF and adopt The Apache Way.
About The Apache Software Foundation
The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is the global home for open source software, powering some of the world’s most ubiquitous software projects, including Apache Airflow, Apache Camel, Apache Cassandra, Apache Groovy, Apache HTTP Server, and Apache Kafka. Established in 1999, the ASF is at the forefront of open source innovation, setting industry standards to advance software for the public good. Learn more at https://apache.org.
The ASF’s annual Community Over Code event is where open source technologists convene to share best practices and use cases, forge critical relationships, and learn about advancements in their field: https://communityovercode.org.
The Senate is searching for a deal to speed up consideration of a number of priorities, including a measure to fund the government and Todd Blanche's confirmation as attorney general.
Court rules architecture firm not responsible for fatal incident but project managers and engineers found guilty of safety breaches
The architecture firm founded by Norman Foster has been cleared over the death of a man killed by a window that fell 90 metres from a newly constructed London penthouse.
Foster + Partners (F+P), the practice behind some of the world’s most recognisable buildings such as the Gherkin and revamps of the British Museum and Germany’s Reichstag, were not held to be responsible for the death of Mick Ferris, a 53-year-old coach driver, in 2018.
Homes of people believed to be asylum seekers attacked during two nights of violence in Thetford
Two men have been arrested after police were injured as they intervened to protect men believed to be asylum seekers from angry mobs trying to break into their homes.
The arrests followed two nights of unrest in Thetford, Norfolk, involving more than 100 people protesting against plans to house asylum seekers in former military barracks near the market town.
Stella Gollovena, 47, has been charged with four counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm
A woman has appeared in court accused of stabbing four men in the back with a pair of scissors in one of London’s busiest tourist districts.
Stella Gollovena, 47, is accused of attacking Patrick De Barr, Thomas Harding, Adrian Lovett and Mantas Jankus during the attack in Covent Garden on Wednesday lunchtime.
Aug. 6, 2026 — Dark energy — the invisible force accelerating the expansion of the universe — remains one of the deepest mysteries in modern science. Unlocking its nature requires not only powerful telescopes but the ability to transform vast streams of astronomical images into precise measurements of how the universe evolves.
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has released results from its landmark six-year campaign to probe this cosmic force in a paper, a summary of 18 supporting papers. DES is the largest, most comprehensive survey of its kind. Powered by the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) mounted high in the Chilean Andes, DES scientists captured nearly 300,000 images, revealing 669 million galaxies, thousands of galaxy clusters and more than 3,000 supernovas between 2013 and 2019.
The correlations used by DES scientists to map the distribution of matter in the universe. The DES analysis uses shape measurements of source galaxies, shown in yellow, and the positions of lens galaxies, shown in red. Image credit: Jessie Muir/Dark Energy Survey.
As a key partner in this global DES collaboration, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory transformed the survey’s enormous imaging data set into scientific insight.
Argonne developed software systems that process massive amounts of data and leveraged high performance computing, applying sophisticated cosmological modeling to measure how matter clusters and how cosmic structures evolve.
“Argonne is delivering essential advances in theoretical modeling and simulation that connect the galaxies we observe to the underlying dark matter shaping the universe,” said Matthew Becker, an Argonne physicist and DES collaborator. “If we want to understand how galaxies and larger structures formed, we must understand dark energy.”
The DES collaboration spans more than 400 astrophysicists from 35 institutions in seven countries.
Led by DOE’s Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the collaboration also includes scientists from U.S. universities, the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory, and DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.
A Unified Stream of Images Powers the DES
The DES collaboration converges on a single, unifying resource: the data.
Every cosmological result — from galaxy clustering to weak gravitational lensing — traces back to the millions of images collected by DECam, a wide‑field astronomical camera built specifically for the DES.
While Fermilab was primarily responsible for designing, engineering and assembling DECam, Argonne contributed roughly 20% of the mechanical engineering and design of the camera, including the camera control systems.
The shutter uses an Argonne‑built control system. The lab also designed the cooling system that stabilizes the charge-couple devices (CCDs), the camera’s core imaging sensors.
The CCDs allow DECam to capture faint, distant galaxies with the sharp, stable images required for weak gravitational-lensing science. This type of science, also known as weak lensing, measures how gravity from invisible matter slightly bends light from distant galaxies, distorting their shapes.
Argonne performed detailed CCD characterization at its Advanced Photon Source (APS), the world’s brightest synchrotron X-ray light source, to test for the uniformity of the CCDs. The APS is a DOE Office of Science user facility at Argonne.
DECam was installed on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at the NSF Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile in 2012 and surveyed about one-eighth of the sky in five colors over six years.
What Dark Energy Is and Why It Matters
Although scientists now know dark energy makes up most of the universe — roughly 70% — they didn’t identify dark energy until the late 1990s, when astronomers discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
Until then, scientists believed the expansion was gradually slowing under the pull of gravity. Because it is impossible to image this mysterious force, scientists called this acceleration “dark energy.”
“We detect dark energy only through its impact on the universe’s expansion and on how cosmic structures grow,” Becker said. “Its accelerated expansion acts like a brake on structure formation, making gravitational collapse less efficient.”
Example of a field in the constellation Lepus showing stars (small colored dots) and galaxies (larger fuzzy objects) about 300 million light-years away. This is just a tiny part of one DECam image. DES analysis measures the faintest galaxies visible in this picture. Image credit: Erin Sheldon/Dark Energy Survey.
To build a national strategy for studying this phenomenon, DOE, NSF and NASA formed the Dark Energy Task Force about 20 years ago, issuing its recommendations in 2006.
The task force recommended four key observational probes: sound waves from the early universe (baryon acoustic oscillations); exploding stars that serve as cosmic distance markers (type 1a — read as “type one-A” — supernovas); galaxy clusters — the largest structures in the universe; and weak lensing.
Each probe measures a different aspect of how the universe expands and how cosmic structure grows. DES is the first survey to use all four probes in a single coordinated program.
Argonne led the DES weak lensing analysis, which measures the tiny stretching of galaxy shapes caused by light traveling through the cosmic web — the vast network of matter that stretches across the universe. Because this signal is far weaker than distortions introduced by the telescope or atmosphere, weak lensing is among the most challenging measurements in cosmology.
In a major advancement, Becker co-developed a new method called metadetection that measures how galaxy shapes are subtly stretched by gravity, which fundamentally sharpened the survey’s weak lensing results.
“Metadetection uses the actual survey data to simulate what the universe would look like if the weak-lensing shear signal in the image changed,” Becker said. “From these simulations, we are then able to estimate the true shear signal in the data.”
By measuring how galaxy shapes change in these alternate, data-driven scenarios, metadetection removes long-standing instrumental biases, yielding the most precise weak-lensing measurements DES has produced.
Tracing the Accelerating Expansion of the Universe
The DES results demonstrate the power of combining multiple cosmological probes within a single survey, setting a methodological benchmark for next‑generation experiments.
By uniting four probes with advanced data processing, precise measurements of light and sophisticated modeling, DES narrowed the range of possible behaviors for dark energy more tightly than almost any previous experiment.
The results show that dark energy behaves like a steady, unchanging force — what physicists call a “cosmological constant” — and that the universe’s expansion history matches the standard cosmological model, in which the universe is roughly 70% dark energy, 25% dark matter and 5% ordinary matter.
Dark matter is the invisible mass that outweighs normal matter and acts like invisible scaffolding that holds galaxies together. Ordinary matter is the atomic material that makes up stars, planets, gas, dust and everything we can directly observe.
Guiding the Next Generation of Dark Energy Research
Results from the DES are now guiding the decade-long Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), conducted by the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile, which will record millions of images of the Southern Hemisphere sky over 10 years. The observatory is funded by the NSF and DOE’s Office of Science.
Argonne scientists are key contributors to the Dark Energy Science Collaboration, the international team that will analyze data from the LSST, which began full operations in June.
“Our team is helping to build the systems and analysis tools that turn sky images into the measurements needed to study dark energy while advancing the theoretical modeling that links the galaxies we observe to the underlying dark matter,” Becker said.
Combined with Argonne’s state‑of‑the‑art cosmological simulations — made possible through the use of supercomputers at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, a DOE Office of Science user facility — these advances will be essential for ensuring robust dark‑energy studies with the LSST and extracting the most information from its data.
Together, this work is ensuring Argonne’s leadership role in the next generation of dark energy research.
The DES is jointly supported by the DOE Office of Science and the NSF.
The creator documented her battle with rare bile duct cancer, inspiring more than a million followers online
Sydney Towle, a TikTok creator who shared her battle with stage 4 cholangiocarcinoma, or bile duct cancer, with over a million online followers, has died at age 26, her family announced on Thursday.
Towle gained fame for her posts about her life as a spirited young woman who encouraged her TikTok followers to rethink how a cancer patient might look and live.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 today to eliminate the National Television Ownership Rule, claiming authority to repeal a limit that was set by Congress over 20 years ago. The rule prohibits any single broadcast station owner from reaching more than 39 percent of all TV households in the US. Under Chairman Brendan Carr, the FCC is replacing the rule with a "case-by-case review" of each proposed merger.
"This will empower the FCC to approve deals that promote the public interest while allowing the agency to reject any deals that do not meet that standard," Carr's office said in a press release today. Without the 39 percent rule, broadcasters will be better able to compete against streaming companies that don't face similar limits, Carr's office said.
The change, if not stopped by courts, will make it easier for Carr to allow broadcast mergers that result in more favorable news coverage for President Trump. Carr has consistently threatened to revoke licenses from broadcasters who have drawn Trump's ire, including by ordering an early license review of all ABC-owned stations. Carr said local broadcast TV stations are becoming "undifferentiated passthroughs of national programming produced in Hollywood and New York," and he justified repealing the ownership rule by arguing it will help the stations invest in local news. "It's worth noting that Republicans with deep firsthand knowledge of this issue also agree the commission cannot do what it is attempting today," said Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, who voted against the decision today. "Former FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly has been unequivocal that the FCC lacks authority to change the cap. Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who negotiated the 39 percent compromise, has stressed that Congress intentionally wrote the cap into law to prevent FCC revision. And Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz has said he is 'skeptical a change can be made absent an act of Congress.' Their consensus reinforces a simple point: Congress set the cap, and only Congress can change it."
Gomez, in addition to arguing that "Congress deliberately enshrined the cap in statute and removed it from the Commission's review process," said removing the cap will hurt local broadcasters. "Digital giants compete for their most valuable programming and advertising, while consolidation pressures at the national level threaten the local reporting and public-safety functions on which communities rely," Gomez said. "But eliminating the cap does not free local broadcasters from that strain. It just changes who is doing the squeezing. A handful of station-group giants does not represent the wishes of local broadcasters. They are large national companies that own local stations and increasingly dictate what airs on them without much local input. Trading a squeeze from Big Tech for a squeeze from Big Media does nothing to protect the communities this cap was designed to serve."
Researchers say breakthrough offers hope for new medicines but also raises urgent biosecurity questions
Scientists have made the first viruses designed by artificial intelligence in a milestone that raises hopes for new medicines but also concerns over how to ensure the technology remains safe.
The viruses are specific kinds known as bacteriophages, which only infect bacteria and are used around the world to treat patients with persistent infections. In lab tests, a cocktail of the AI-designed viruses killed E coli bugs that were resistant to natural bacteriophages.
Donald Trump has lashed out at reports that the US is running short of key munitions in its war with Iran, threatening long prison sentences for officials who leak information about the military’s weapons stocks.
The US president claimed on Thursday that the US had “massive amounts” of ammunition and said more was being manufactured and shipped to the region, as his frustration over the conflict spilled into a public attack on the media.
Judge issues temporary pause while he considers Trump’s request to revise his libel lawsuit against BBC
A federal judge has temporarily halted an order requiring Donald Trump to turn over detailed financial information about his business empire to the BBC as part of an ongoing libel lawsuit.
US district judge Roy Altman issued the temporary pause while he considers Trump’s request to revise and narrow parts of his lawsuit against the BBC over a 2024 documentary that aired in the UK.
Projects will accelerate innovation in critical scientific and engineering challenges
Aug. 6, 2026 — Researchers at the University of Minnesota have had three projects selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s inaugural Genesis Mission program, underscoring the University’s leadership in applying AI and advanced computing to address critical scientific and engineering challenges in energy, technology and national security.
“We believe the University of Minnesota has a real opportunity — and a responsibility — to help shape how AI advances discovery and benefits society,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Gretchen Ritter. “These Genesis Mission awards are a testament to the strength of our collaborative research community and the extraordinary work of our faculty. We’re not just driving new understanding in a rapidly changing world, we’re preparing our students and researchers to lead with integrity and positioning Minnesota for the future.”
The University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering secured the three Genesis Mission Phase I awards. A highly competitive initiative that drew the largest response to a funding opportunity in the Department of Energy’s history, the program awarded 278 grants to researchers at 168 universities, 87 national laboratories, 19 companies and four nonprofit organizations. Phase I funding supports researchers as they develop and test research workflows that integrate AI with scientific discovery.
“The Genesis Mission brings together the scientific expertise, engineering capability and advanced computing needed to accelerate discovery,” said Andrew Alleyne, dean of the University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering. “University of Minnesota researchers are well positioned to contribute to this work. Integrating AI throughout the research process can help our teams evaluate ideas faster and move promising solutions forward in areas including energy systems, advanced materials and intelligent technologies.”
Using AI to Unlock Next-Generation Semiconductor Devices
Uwe Kortshagen, a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, is leading a project aimed at transforming semiconductor manufacturing. Today’s chip fabrication processes require extreme precision but remain difficult to adapt to new materials. Kortshagen’s team will develop an AI-driven discovery engine to rapidly evaluate manufacturing approaches, identify sources of error and accelerate the development of next-generation semiconductor materials.
A New Frontier for ‘Digital Twins’
Qizhi He, assistant professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering, will lead a project aimed at transforming geothermal energy extraction. Using generative AI, the research team will develop a real-time “digital twin” of underground environments that can rapidly process sensor data and provide more accurate insights than current models. The technology will help energy operators make faster, better-informed decisions, improving efficiency while reducing costs.
Optimizing Critical Mineral Extraction
Peter Kang, associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, is developing new approaches to recover critical minerals more efficiently and sustainably. His research focuses on “in situ” recovery, a process that extracts minerals by circulating fluids underground rather than through traditional mining. By combining lab experiments with next-generation AI, Kang and his team will better predict how fluids move through fractured rock and dissolve minerals, helping optimize recovery and improve extraction efficiency.
Advancing AI Leadership at the University of Minnesota
The three Genesis Mission awards highlight the University of Minnesota’s growing leadership in applying AI to solve complex challenges. This recognition builds on the University’s long history of technological innovation, from early supercomputing advances to the development of the Gopher protocol, a precursor to today’s internet.
“The Genesis Mission’s recognition of our faculty underscores the University of Minnesota’s position as a leader in AI-driven scientific discovery,” said Galin Jones, the University’s vice provost for AI. “By applying AI to complex challenges in energy, natural resources and physical systems, these researchers are demonstrating how AI can accelerate discovery and deliver real-world impact. Their work highlights the power of combining advanced statistical modeling, differentiable physics and machine learning to drive innovation and sustainability.”
In support of its AI leadership, the University recently launched the AI Hub, a University-wide initiative to advance responsible AI innovation, education and workforce development across Minnesota. The AI Hub brings together researchers, students, industry and community partners to accelerate discovery and public impact. Through initiatives such as new AI-focused curriculum and the College of Science and Engineering’s AI Makerspace, the University is expanding opportunities for faculty, staff and students to develop the skills and hands-on experience needed to succeed in an AI-driven workforce.
About the University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, with campuses in Crookston, Duluth, Morris, Rochester and the Twin Cities, is driven by a singular vision of excellence. We are proud of our mission of accessible world-class education, groundbreaking research, and community-engaged outreach, and we are unified in our drive to serve Minnesota, the nation and the world. Visit system.umn.edu.
The 2-1 vote along party lines repealed ‘national cap’ that served as a key check on consolidation of the TV industry
In a historic vote on Thursday morning, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted along party lines to overturn a key check against the consolidation of the television industry, throwing out a rule that prevented any one company from owning stations that collectively reach more than 39% of all US TV households.
The vote is a win for television conglomerates that aim to expand their reach across the country, particularly conservative-leaning companies like Sinclair Broadcast Group and Nexstar.
Longtime Slashdot reader mccalli writes: Times Magazine has started serving adverts with "brand messages" to AI crawlers, which are not part of its main page. The aim seems to be to influence chatbots to talk about the brand offerings in a positive light that can't be traced back to the actual page. Notably, they've excluded Google chatbots from this, likely because Google penalizes companies that show different search offerings to its bots versus actual human visitors. "Maybe it's more important to influence the agent than even the human, because with a human you influence one person. When you influence ChatGPT, you're influencing potentially all of ChatGPT," said Jonah Goodhart, co-founder and CEO of ad tech platform Mobian. "If ChatGPT changes what it says about [a brand], it's massive and it's more than any one campaign could ever do. The big idea here is LLMs and AI want trusted information about brands. We're serving that up to them in a very straightforward, easy way."
The ad strategy was uncovered by Germany-based freelance software developer Vincent Schmalbach, who detailed his findings in a blog post.
Digiday and The Register both reported on the story.
Statewide program will provide governance training, mentoring and professional support as newly elected members begin making decisions affecting students, families and taxpayers
By George D. Rotsch, Editor Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del. — First State Educate has launched a statewide onboarding initiative that provides governance resources, professional learning and ongoing support for Delaware’s newly elected school board members.
Julia Keleher, Executive Director of First State Educate, said the initiative is designed to help new members understand their responsibilities before they begin making decisions involving district budgets, superintendent leadership, student achievement, public policy and the use of taxpayer dollars.
School board members often take office only weeks after winning an election. Although they immediately assume responsibility for major policy and financial decisions, many begin their service with limited formal preparation for their governance role.
Keleher said the initiative will help new members begin their service with a clearer understanding of how an effective school board operates and how individual members can contribute to the board’s success.
Starting with governance
School boards establish district policies, approve budgets, hire and evaluate superintendents, and set the strategic direction of local school systems.
Board members are not responsible for managing the daily operations of schools. That work is generally handled by the superintendent and district administrators.
Understanding that distinction can help board members focus on long-term goals, student outcomes, financial oversight and accountability rather than becoming involved in routine management decisions.
Keleher said effective onboarding can also help new members understand meeting procedures, legal responsibilities, public accountability requirements and the importance of working collaboratively with other members of the board.
Resources, mentoring and professional learning
The First State Educate initiative includes a board onboarding framework, governance resources and continuing professional learning opportunities. The initiative is intended to provide support beyond a member’s first weeks in office. Keleher said ongoing professional learning can help board members respond to changing academic, financial and community challenges throughout their terms.
Keleher said the program also includes a partnership with Wilmington University and a governance credentialing pathway that allows board members to publicly demonstrate a commitment to effective school governance.
First State Educate also offers an opportunity to create a mentoring component that can connect newly elected members with experienced education and governance leaders.
Better preparation can also help members ask stronger questions, evaluate information more carefully and build productive relationships with superintendents, fellow board members and the public.
Why residents should care
Strong school boards benefit more than the people seated at the board table.
Board decisions influence classroom resources, academic programs, school safety, transportation, employee contracts, taxes and the long-term financial health of a district. Those decisions affect students, families, educators, property owners and businesses throughout the community.
Keleher said a well-prepared board is more likely to remain focused on measurable goals, responsible spending and student achievement. Citizens can expect a more meaningful discussion at board meetings, more focus on the highest priorities and a better exchange of ideas between the community and leaders in the school.
Delaware residents also have a role in strengthening local school governance. Community members can learn who serves on their board, attend meetings, review agendas, follow budget discussions and communicate constructively with elected members.
Residents should not wait until a controversial vote or financial crisis to begin paying attention. Understanding how a board operates before disagreements arise can lead to better public discussions and more informed community participation.
Keleher said the initiative is intended to help board members start strong while giving Delaware residents additional opportunities to understand, follow and support the work of their local school boards.
To Go Box
What: First State Educate’s statewide school board onboarding initiative
Purpose: To provide newly elected Delaware school board members with governance resources, mentoring and continuing professional learning
Program components: A board onboarding framework, governance materials, a Wilmington University partnership, mentoring opportunities and a possible governance credentialing pathway
Who benefits: School board members, students, families, educators and taxpayers
President Donald Trump says oil revenues are flowing to the U.S. and Venezuela since the U.S. arrested then-leader Nicolás Maduro in January and brought him to New York City for trial on drug and corruption charges.
During an Aug. 4 Fox News interview, Trump said voters in the midterm elections “want to see winning,” and he offered Venezuela as an example. “People were so opposed to what I did in Venezuela,” he said. “It lasted one day. And now, they, look, we’re making hundreds of billions of dollars, and so are they.”
But Trump’s figure is higher than other available data. The best estimates show $13 billion in Venezuelan oil revenue since Maduro’s ouster, and it’s unclear how much of that went to the United States and how much to Venezuela.
When PolitiFact asked the White House for data to support Trump’s figure, the press office referred us back to his comments.
“The hundreds of billions figure is not remotely credible,” said Phil Gunson, a senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that studies deadly conflicts. Gunson is based in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas.
Trump’s estimate exceeds the entire gross domestic product of Venezuela several times over.
What is the U.S. role in Venezuela’s oil market?
After Maduro’s arrest, Delcy Rodríguez, vice president at the time, took over as interim president; the U.S. recognized her as head of state in March. The Trump administration said it would control Venezuela’s oil industry, which has a lot of reserves but has struggled over the last decade to secure the capital investment needed to bring that oil to market.
An executive order issued days after Maduro’s ouster said oil revenue would be the Venezuelan government property but held in U.S. government accounts in a “custodial and governmental capacity.” The U.S. Energy Department said the funds would be “disbursed for the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people.”
Neither government has produced a single, easy-to-locate and up-to-date dollar amount of how much oil revenue has been generated, nor who has received the money. So fact-checking Trump relies on piecing together scattered estimates of revenues and expenditures.
A July 22 Financial Times analysis estimated that the U.S. has collected about $13 billion in Venezuelan oil revenue. The Financial Times looked at data on crude oil shipments from Venezuela since January compiled by the freight data platform Kpler, combined with price estimates for several grades of Venezuelan crude oil supplied by Argus Media, a pricing agency.
Trump was skeptical of the $13 billion figure for oil revenue when a reporter referenced the estimate on Air Force One in July, saying “I think (it’s) even more than that.”
For Trump’s claim of “hundreds of billions of dollars” to be right, both the U.S. and Venezuela would each have to be receiving more than Venezuela’s current gross domestic product — the sum of all economic activity within the country of nearly 29 million people.
Venezuela’s GDP is about $111 billion, according to the International Monetary Fund. The Financial Times estimated that oil revenues account for about a quarter of Venezuela’s GDP.
Analysts told PolitiFact they were unaware of oil revenue estimates that reached into the hundreds of billions for either country.
“Even with the most generous assumption you’d never get there,” said Dany Bahar, a Brown University visiting fellow in international and public affairs.
And questions persist about how much of the oil revenue is going to Venezuela.
The State Department told Congress in April it had spent $3 billion for operating costs, such as oil industry supplies and government worker salaries. A Venezuelan government site that tracks revenue for U.S.-sold oil shows $300 million in revenue sent to Venezuela through March. (The U.S. has also sent Venezuela $386 million for disaster relief after two major earthquakes on June 24.)
David Smilde, a senior associate at Tulane University’s Center for Inter-American Policy Research, described Trump’s Aug. 4 figure as “not possible” and said the most recent credible amount he’s seen is the Financial Times’ $13 billion.
Gunson said it’s unclear “where all that money went, how much was sent to Venezuela and what it was spent on.” He said transparency was not a priority in Venezuela even before Maduro’s ouster; the country has not published a national budget in more than a decade.
Smilde said there is “incredible opaqueness with which Venezuela’s oil sales are being routed.”
“My sense is that there has been quite a bit of revenue returning to Venezuela, but given the government’s budget deficit and all of the need, it does not have the impact people expect,” Smilde said.
Our ruling
Trump said that in Venezuela, “We’re making hundreds of billions of dollars (in oil revenue), and so are they.”
Experts and published analyses place the highest credible figure for oil revenue at $13 billion since the U.S. took over Venezuela’s oil industry.
Hundreds of billions of dollars for each of the U.S. and Venezuela would be several times the smaller country’s reported gross domestic product.
We rate the statement False.
Senior Audience Engagement Producer Ellen Hine contributed to this report.
Cases have passed 4,000 and health watchdog plans to go door to door to find patients in major response escalation
The virus causing a massive outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be mutating, health officials fear, as confirmed cases pass 4,000.
Africa’s public health watchdog said the time for incremental action was over as they announced plans to scale up every aspect of the response and go “door to door” looking for patients.
Emma Atkinson, 38, was seven months pregnant when she fell from window of flat in Leeds tower block, inquest told
A pregnant woman who died from a nine-storey fall had her baby safely delivered 30 minutes after her death, an inquest has heard.
Emma Atkinson, 38, was seven months pregnant when she fell from the window of her father’s flat in Shakespeare Towers in the Burmantofts area of Leeds, on 22 October 2024.
A Minnesota woman says she fainted, spiked a 102-degree fever, and was hospitalized with sepsis three days after eating a chicken burrito bowl at a Chipotle in Roseville, and genetic testing connected her case to a multistate outbreak, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress over his refusal to answer questions during testimony before the committee last week.
wiredmikey shares a report from SecurityWeek: Meta is the latest major AI developer to admit that its models broke loose during cybersecurity testing and hacked external systems. The tech giant said in a statement to the media on Wednesday that the incident occurred during independent evaluations conducted by Israeli AI security startup Irregular. The tested AI models were inadvertently allowed to access the internet due to a misconfiguration, which led them to exploit a vulnerability in an unnamed third-party service. It's unclear if it was a known flaw or a zero-day.
The Information [gated] learned that the Meta AI attacks involved the company's advanced Muse Spark 1.1 model, which breached an unnamed organization's systems and made unauthorized changes to its internal environment. Meta said it learned of the AI models going rogue after being notified by Irregular. The company is conducting an investigation and it has promised to issue a "full retrospective" once it has all the facts. A spokesperson for Irregular said the incident was the "exact same evaluation-environment issue that was already disclosed by Anthropic last week" and that it did "not involve a "sandbox escape or a sophisticated cyber action."
It contrasts with OpenAI, whose AI agent independently exploited a novel vulnerability to reach the internet during cyber testing. Not only did it breach Hugging Face but it also hacked multiple third-party accounts and services as part of the attack.
Family says celebrity blogger remains under medical care after viewers alerted authorities over disturbing TikTok broadcast
Perez Hilton is “able to communicate”, according to a new statement released by his family, one day after the celebrity blogger appeared to self-harm during a disturbing TikTok livestream that prompted his hospitalization.
In a message posted to Hilton’s blog on Wednesday evening, his family thanked supporters for the outpouring of concern.
Passengers awaiting Northern and TransPennine trains advised not to travel, with cancellations and other services delayed
Trains across parts of north-west England have ground to a halt after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region.
Passengers awaiting Northern and TransPennine trains have been advised not to travel, with widespread cancellations and other services delayed by more than an hour already.
Andy Burnham’s government is “urgently” identifying any grooming gang perpetrators who may still be eligible for early prison release after concerns were raised about a potential loophole in the system.
The prime minister has “personally intervened” after men convicted of assaulting children in Bradford were expected to be freed from prison early despite a promise earlier this week that they would remain behind bars.
A spokesperson for the Greens says figures had ‘quadrupled’ in the last year since Polanski became leader
A Reform government will introduce national licensing for vape shops, which Zia Yusuf says will see a decrease of 70% in the businesses on British high streets.
“We will also end financial disincentive,” he says. Reform will establish a central prosecution fund for local authorities to pursue businesses employing illegal workers.
Corporate CEOs have been making a fortune by hiring illegal workers and undermining British youngsters.
Reform will jail them and stop illegal working for good - we will stand up for British workers.
A Republican-controlled US Senate committee voted to hold Dr Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after the veteran public health official repeatedly pleaded the fifth amendment to parry a hostile inquisition into his stewardship of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fauci, the former director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid), who led the agency for 38 years before retiring in 2022, gave the same response to dozens of questions while refusing to give clarifying answers during a tense hearing last week, citing his constitutional protections.
The Justice Department has filed lawsuits against 30 states and the District of Columbia in an effort to force them to hand over their unredacted voter rolls containing voters' sensitive information.
Jason Arday, who joined Cambridge in 2023 at the age of 37, became one of Britain's most high-profile academics after sharing an extraordinary life story.
A catastrophe with multiple casualties was possibly narrowly averted by the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, German officials said, as they examined whether a foreign state could be behind the plot.
One of the Ukrainian aircraft next to where the bomb drone was found was loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper.
RALEIGH, North Carolina — Brittany Boltinhouse has been stripped of her Miss North Carolina USA 2026 title after alleged racist social media posts resurfaced weeks before the national competition.
A Blaize Productions, which operates the state pageant, announced Wednesday that it ended Boltinhouse’s reign after reviewing newly surfaced information and consulting with the Miss USA Organization. Officials did not publicly identify the posts that prompted the decision.
However, NCBeat reported that posts attributed to Boltinhouse repeatedly used a racial slur between 2017 and 2019 under the username “Sosa the Stallion.” Boltinhouse, 27, was crowned June 28 and had been scheduled to represent North Carolina at the Miss USA pageant in Miami on Aug. 27.
Miss USA Chairman and CEO Thom Brodeur said the organization does not tolerate racism, homophobia, transphobia or language that denies another person’s dignity. He said the material reflected conduct occurring over an extended period rather than one isolated incident.
Brodeur said Boltinhouse had accepted accountability and planned to release a statement. He added that an apology could begin personal growth but would not reverse the harm or change the organization’s decision.
First runner-up Myla Hadley has assumed the title and will represent North Carolina at Miss USA. Hadley said she understood the responsibility involved and was prepared for the unexpectedly shortened transition.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Republican-led Senate committee voted Thursday to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after he repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right during testimony about the federal COVID-19 response.
The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved Chairman Rand Paul’s resolution in an 8-7 party-line vote. Fauci declined to answer more than 100 questions during the July 29 hearing, saying Paul’s repeated demands for his prosecution gave him legitimate reason to fear criminal exposure.
Paul argues that former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon eliminated Fauci’s Fifth Amendment protection for conduct covered by it. Fauci’s attorneys counter that the pardon does not cover later conduct, state charges or new allegations arising from his testimony. Legal experts say courts have not definitively resolved whether a pardoned witness may still invoke the constitutional protection before Congress.
Republicans accuse Fauci of withholding information about pandemic policies and the origins of the coronavirus. Fauci denies wrongdoing, and his attorney called the contempt vote a politically motivated effort to punish him for exercising a constitutional right.
Contempt referrals ordinarily require approval from the full Senate, where 60 votes would likely be needed. Paul has suggested sending the resolution directly to the Justice Department, where U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro would decide whether to pursue charges. Democrats argue that bypassing the Senate would weaken congressional procedure and turn oversight into partisan retaliation.
Brandon Relph, who founded first company at 13, joins strategy team in ‘much-needed step’ for the broadcaster
A 26-year-old business prodigy and self-styled gen Z whisperer has been drafted in by the BBC as it battles to reach young audiences increasingly choosing content creators on YouTube and TikTok over traditional broadcasters.
Brandon Relph, who founded his first company aged 13, and has been praised by Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, has joined the BBC’s strategy team to help counter the existential threat of falling audiences among young people.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TorrentFreak: Mexican broadcaster TelevisaUnivision (TU) has obtained (PDF) one of the broadest anti-piracy injunctions ever issued by a U.S. federal court. After initially targeting five pirate IPTV streaming operations, the case expanded to cover well over 500 domain names, requiring intermediaries including Cloudflare, GitHub, and a Mexican bank to comply. In addition, the injunction also covers pirate services and content that hasn't been created yet. [...] The case was relatively targeted, naming the IPTV services Thunder TV, Sunset TV, Pop TV, Kaelus TV, and Tele Latino, as well as their alleged operators. The broadcaster argued that these pirate IPTV services threatened its business. TU holds the World Cup rights for sixteen Latin American territories, and its license with FIFA requires it to keep the Mexican broadcast signal from reaching the United States. The pirate services, it argued, put it in breach of that contract, exposing it to "termination and forfeiture of hundreds of millions of dollars in payments." To stop this immediate threat, the company requested a temporary restraining order, hoping to shut down the IPTV services effective immediately.
[...] Judge Kathleen Williams granted the temporary restraining order (PDF) on June 5, one day after the case was filed, without hearing from any of the defendants. The initial order prohibited the defendants from infringing TU's own copyrighted works, which include telenovelas and other programming, and from using its trademarks, including all content linked to its licensed World Cup broadcast. Importantly, the order also targeted third parties acting "in active concert," including ISPs, hosts, CDNs, domain registrars, registries, app stores, ad networks, social platforms, search engines, and payment processors. These were ordered, on TU's request and with notice, to disable the listed domains and IP addresses and unmask whoever was behind them. [...]
While the injunction is noteworthy for many reasons, the most striking feature is that it's specifically written to include things that don't yet exist. That starts with the content it protects. The order isn't limited to TU's current catalog or the World Cup rights, it covers the infringement of "any copyrighted works or broadcasts that Plaintiffs may in the future produce, license, or acquire rights to transmit." In other words, it covers future copyrights that did not exist when the order was signed. The same applies to the pirate services themselves. The injunction defines its target as the named IPTV operations "and any comparable system," whether "currently in existence or developed in the future," and it applies "regardless of the branding, domain name, or technical configuration used."
As Australia prepares for the H5 bird flu to potentially rip through hundreds of species, residents of the Limestone Coast are already seeing the impacts
It has only been three weeks since H5 bird flu was detected on South Australia’s Limestone Coast and already encounters with sick or dead birds are becoming commonplace.
Maureen Christie, who lives in the seaside town of Carpenter Rocks, has been observing and protecting birds in the region for decades. She is now witnessing many stricken and suffering.
After his fall from grace, media’s former enfant terrible is now sober and helping others with his addiction recovery newsletter and podcast, The Small Bow
Every other Tuesday, AJ Daulerio wakes up at 5.30am and meditates for five to 20 minutes before beginning his multistep daily journaling protocol: reading a selection from a poetry anthology, then a passage from one of his daily wisdom readers (his go-to is a heavily annotated copy of Leo Tolstoy’s A Calendar of Wisdom); writing his Fear of the Day and gratitude list, then sharing his spiritual takeaway in a note to his three kids.
After a banana and coffee, Daulerio trains Brazilian jujitsu before hitting a 9.45am meditation at Besant Lodge – a community center just below the Hollywood sign that once served as a meeting place for mid-century mystics – immediately followed by him leading a recovery meeting of his own through Zoom.
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy says she will not intervene in £85bn deal after securing guarantees on Channel 5
The UK culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said she will not intervene in Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, removing one of the remaining obstacles to the blockbuster deal.
However, Paramount has made significant concessions to secure the UK government’s backing for the $110bn (£85bn) takeover, which will create a global media powerhouse and effectively bolster the influence of Paramount’s chief executive, David Ellison.
This post was contributed by Martin Schuetz and Ruben Andrist from the Amazon Advanced Solutions Lab, and Romina Yalovetzky and Atithi Acharya from Global Technology Applied Research at JPMorganChase.
Aug. 6, 2026 — Quantum researchers at JPMorganChase and the Amazon Advanced Solutions Lab are working together to explore how quantum technologies may help address complex optimization problems in finance and beyond. This sustained, multi-project research program has enabled shared methodologies and co-designed algorithms and experiments, deepening understanding of how quantum and classical resources can work together in practice.
The researchers developed a novel hybrid (quantum-classical) approach for solving large-scale graph optimization problems, validated and tested through experiments on Amazon Braket. They used quantum devices as co-processors to augment advanced classical solvers, benchmark results on systems available today on Amazon Braket, and shape future experiments.
This post will share some highlights from the collaboration. You’ll learn how the researchers: 1. Built a decomposition pipeline that reduces portfolio optimization problems by ~80%, making them small enough for near-term quantum hardware. 2. Developed a compilation toolkit that has the potential to shrink qubit requirements by orders of magnitude for real-world graph problems. 3. Created qReduMIS, a hybrid algorithm where quantum devices serve as co-processors to classical solvers – achieving above ~89% average success rates on hard problem instances using QuEra’s Aquila device on Amazon Braket.
A Suite of Tools for Near-Term Quantum Hardware
Combinatorial optimization problems are ubiquitous across different areas in industry and science, with prominent examples in areas like transportation and logistics, telecommunications, manufacturing, and finance. Analog neutral-atom quantum machines based on Rydberg atoms provide a novel platform to design and implement quantum optimization algorithms, with scientists in both industry and academia searching for the most promising types of problems for which an early quantum advantage could be demonstrated.
In previous work the researchers studied the computational hardness of certain optimization problems, inspired by real-world use cases in finance (see the blog post here). With a deeper understanding for problem hardness and quantum speedups, the collaboration has then produced three additional research papers that together provide a comprehensive toolkit for solving large-scale optimization problems on near-term Rydberg quantum hardware. An overview of the results are provided here – for more details see the original publications in Refs. [1-3].
Decomposition Pipeline for Portfolio Optimization [1]
Figure 1. Schematic overview of our decomposition pipeline for solving large optimization problems. The objective is denoted by H, and the constraint set is denoted by Ω. Decompose: We first preprocess the correlation matrix using Random Matrix Theory (RMT). The resulting problem is then partitioned into a series of subproblems using community detection methods. Solve: Each subproblem is solved (in parallel). Aggregate: The subproblems are aggregated and post-processed for feasibility checks into the final solution x*. Finally, we check the final objective value, while ensuring feasibility.
The first paper [1] addresses the challenge of solving industrially relevant constrained optimization problems, such as portfolio optimization and rebalancing, which are often intractable or difficult to solve exactly. The researchers propose and benchmark a decomposition pipeline that can break large-scale problems down into smaller, more manageable subproblems, with implications for both classical and quantum computation. See Figure 1 for a schematic illustration.
The researchers’ empirical results show that their pipeline consistently reduces the size of real-world portfolio optimization problems by approximately 80%, while maintaining solution quality within a minimal error. The researchers further report on a 3x reduction in time-to-solution for large-scale portfolio optimization problems with up to 1500 variables. The pipeline decomposes the optimization problem into constrained subproblems, which are then solved separately and aggregated to give a final result. By leveraging the underlying structure present in financial data and using random matrix theory to clean correlation matrices, researchers can use modified community detection algorithms to identify subproblems.
Moreover, by decomposing large problems into several smaller subproblems, the pipeline allows researchers to embed these smaller subproblems onto near-term quantum devices with hundreds of qubits, thus enabling the use of near-term quantum devices as solvers, and providing a path toward practical utility of quantum computers in portfolio optimization.
Quantum Compilation Toolkit for Rydberg Atom Arrays [2]
Figure 2. Schematic illustration of our compilation for solving the Maximum Independent Set (MIS) problem on large graphs using Rydberg atom arrays. The process begins with an arbitrary input graph (e.g., the Cora citation graph with ~2700 nodes and ~5300 edges) generically incompatible with the connectivity constraints of Rydberg quantum hardware. Through deterministic reduction algorithms, the graph is reduced (exactly, without approximation) to a smaller kernel—reducing Cora to just 9 nodes and 12 edges. A compatibility checker then verifies whether the reduced graph meets hardware constraints based on properties like maximum degree and triangle count. Finally, our embedding algorithms map the logical graph onto physical Rydberg hardware with limited connectivity (e.g., a lattice with union-jack connectivity). The embedding is optimized to minimize overhead, and quantum wires with ancilla atoms are used to introduce missing connections. For Cora, this yields a hardware-native embedding with just 9 nodes, 11 edges, and 8 ancilla atoms in a quantum wire.
The second paper [2] proposes and implements a comprehensive quantum compilation toolkit for solving the maximum independent set (MIS) problem on quantum hardware based on Rydberg atom arrays. The end-to-end pipeline involves three core components to efficiently map generic MIS instances onto Rydberg arrays with unit-disk connectivity, with modules for graph reduction, hardware compatibility checks, and graph embedding; see Figure 2 for illustration.
The first module (reducer) provides hardware-agnostic and deterministic reduction logic that iteratively reduces the problem size via (exact) lazy clique removals. Real-world networks can typically be reduced by orders of magnitude on subsecond timescales, thus significantly cutting down the eventual load for quantum devices. For example, consider the real-world Cora citation graph with approximately 2,700 nodes. To embed this graph on Rydberg hardware using previous methods would require approximately 29 million qubits, far beyond the capabilities of near-term quantum hardware. Leveraging exact graph reduction techniques together with an optimized embedding scheme, the researchers show that this graph can in fact be encoded with tens of qubits, thus reducing the required qubit overhead by orders of magnitude and enabling the use of near-term quantum devices.
The second module (compatibility checker) implements a hardware compatibility checker that quickly determines whether a given input graph may be compatible with the restrictions imposed by Rydberg quantum hardware. The third module (embedder) describes hardware-efficient graph embedding routines to generate approximate encodings with controllable overhead and optimized ancilla placements.
qReduMIS: A Quantum-Informed Reduction Algorithm [3]
Figure 3. The hybrid qReduMIS framework consists of three layers: (i) application, (ii) algorithm, and (iii) hardware. The application layer is illustrated using a portfolio selection problem (PSP) that can be formulated as a MIS problem on an asset graph. For a given graph G, the qReduMIS algorithm solves the MIS problem by combining exact polynomial-time reduction logic with quantum measurement data to identify and remove frozen vertices with high or low likelihood of being part of large independent sets, thereby unblocking the kernelization process. The framework is hardware-agnostic and compatible with both digital and analog quantum devices, including Rydberg atom arrays implementing analog Hamiltonian simulation (AHS) programs.
The third paper [3] introduces qReduMIS, a hybrid quantum-classical algorithm for the maximum independent set (MIS) problem. Here, the researchers use a quantum computer as a co-processor that feeds information back into classical reduction logic. Specifically, quantum measurement data identifies frozen vertices that are highly likely (or unlikely) to appear in large independent sets. Removing these vertices unblocks further classical kernelization, creating a recursive loop where quantum and classical resources reinforce each other. See Figure 3 for a schematic illustration of the qReduMIS framework.
Figure 4. Success probability PMIS as a function of the hardness parameter H, for QAA (red squares), classical SA (bright blue diamonds), qReduMIS (blue circles), and a random-informed baseline (black triangles). Error bars refer to 90% confidence intervals as extracted via bootstrapping; for SA error bars are estimated via repeated Bernoulli experiments. The inset provides selected results for those nine instances (with a non-zero kernel) that are not solved by classical reduction alone.
Researchers systematically assess the performance of qReduMIS based on experiments with up to 231 qubits run on QuEra’s Aquila quantum device available through Amazon Braket. The results are displayed in Figure 4. For quantum annealing algorithms (QAA) the success rate PMIS is strongly suppressed for hard instances, dropping to small PMIS ≳ 0 for most (hard) instances with hardness H ≳ 10. While more performant than QAA, researchers observe a similar performance drop for classical simulated annealing (SA) [4]. Conversely, qReduMIS solves most instances to optimality with PMIS = 1 and maintains a non-zero success rate with average PMIS ≳ 89% throughout the testbed. Overall, these results illustrate the benefits of introducing kernelization techniques over both classical and quantum Markov-chain Monte Carlo-based methods.
The experiments show that qReduMIS can help address fundamental performance limitations faced by a broad set of (quantum) solvers including Rydberg quantum devices, given by the exponential performance suppression in the conductance-like hardness parameter for hard MIS problem instances.
Looking Ahead
Together, these three papers provide a comprehensive suite of tools that extends the class of problems that can be tackled with near-term Rydberg atom arrays and help push the art of the possible for Rydberg quantum devices (as available on Amazon Braket through the QuEra Aquila device). These results should help identify the most promising directions for applications of Rydberg devices and direct the community’s ongoing efforts towards quantum advantage, hopefully inspiring many interesting future experiments.
References
[1] A. Acharya, R. Yalovetzky, P. Minssen, S. Chakrabarti, R. Shaydulin, R. Raymond, Y. Sun, D. Herman, R. S. Andrist, G. Salton, M. J. A. Schuetz, H. G. Katzgraber, and M. Pistoia, Decomposition Pipeline for Large-Scale Portfolio Optimization with Applications to Near-Term Quantum Computing, Phys. Rev. Research 7, 023142 (2025); arXiv:2409.10301.
[2] M. J. A. Schuetz, R. S. Andrist, G. Salton, R. Yalovetzky, R. Raymond, Y. Sun, A. Acharya, S. Chakrabarti, M. Pistoia, and H. G. Katzgraber, Quantum Compilation Toolkit for Rydberg Atom Arrays with Implications for Problem Hardness and Quantum Speedups, Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033107 (2025); arXiv:2412.14976.
[3] M. J. A. Schuetz, R. Yalovetzky, R. S. Andrist, G. Salton, Y. Sun, R. Raymond, S. Chakrabarti, A. Acharya, R. Shaydulin, M. Pistoia, and H. G. Katzgraber, qReduMIS: A Quantum-Informed Reduction Algorithm for the Maximum Independent Set Problem, arXiv:2503.12551.
[4] R. S. Andrist, M. J. A. Schuetz, P. Minssen, R. Yalovetzky, S. Chakrabarti, D. Herman, N. Kumar, G. Salton, R. Shaydulin, Y. Sun, M. Pistoia, and H. G. Katzgraber, Hardness of the Maximum Independent Set Problem on Unit-Disk Graphs and Prospects for Quantum Speedups, Phys. Rev. Research 5, 043277 (2023);arXiv:2307.09442.
Source: Martin Schuetz, Atithi Acharya, Romina Yalovetzky, and Ruben Andrist; Amazon and JPMorganChase; AWS
Christopher Wright, 73, who shot Richard Dyson and dismembered his remains, given 35-year minimum term
A man who killed his lodger and concealed his dismembered body in a barrel filled with concrete for more than five years has been jailed for a minimum of 35 years.
Christopher Wright, a 73-year-old farmer from South Yorkshire, was convicted in July in Sheffield crown court of murdering Richard Dyson, 55, in 2019. Dyson had been living in his car on Wright’s farm in Hoyland and had been doing jobs for the then 67-year-old when the pair had a falling out.
Dhaka accuses India of giving platform to a ‘convicted genocider’ by allowing Sheikh Hasina to address journalists
Bangladesh has lashed out at India for allowing the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to address journalists in New Delhi, plunging already strained bilateral relations to a fresh low.
Dhaka accused India of giving a platform to a fugitive it labelled a “convicted genocider” and of undermining efforts to repair ties, after Hasina vowed to return to Bangladesh in December despite facing a death sentence on charges of “crimes against humanity”.
David Owori, who played for the national team, died in hospital after he tried to stop robbers taking his phone
The Ugandan football community is in mourning after the death of a player who was fatally injured during a robbery in the capital, Kampala, on Tuesday night.
David Owori, who captained Sports Club Villa, a Uganda Premier League club, and represented the national team, was attacked after resisting an attempt to steal his mobile phone and other belongings near his home in Makindye division.
The Lantern Award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate strong performance in leadership, nursing practice, education, advocacy and research. Photo created with AI on 8/6/26
International recognition highlights improvements in patient safety, emergency nursing, testing times and care for victims of violence and abuse
WILMINGTON — ChristianaCare’s Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department has received the Emergency Nurses Association’s Lantern Award for a second consecutive cycle, recognizing the department for excellence in nursing practice, patient safety and innovation.
The new designation covers 2026 through 2029. The emergency department previously received the award for the 2023-26 cycle.
Wilmington Hospital was one of 126 emergency departments recognized internationally this year.
“Earning the Lantern Award for a second consecutive cycle is a testament to the extraordinary skill and commitment of the Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department team,” said Danielle Weber, ChristianaCare’s chief nurse executive. “These caregivers have created an environment where nurses are empowered to identify opportunities, apply evidence and lead changes that result in safer, better care for patients.”
Recognition focuses on emergency nursing
The Lantern Award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate strong performance in leadership, nursing practice, education, advocacy and research.
Named for Florence Nightingale, the award also considers an emergency department’s use of evidence-based practices, commitment to patient safety and efforts to create a healthy workplace.
Applicants undergo a blinded review that examines performance measures and detailed examples of the department’s work.
“The Lantern recognizes something incredibly special,” Emergency Nurses Association President Dustin Bass said. “It isn’t an award for an individual or an entire hospital — it’s a recognition earned by an emergency department and the team that powers it every day.”
Department cared for nearly 64,000 patients
During the one-year period included in its award application, the Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department cared for 63,765 patients.
ChristianaCare’s application highlighted several nurse-led and interdisciplinary projects designed to provide faster and safer care.
“What distinguishes this team is its ability to turn frontline insight into measurable improvements,” said Jennifer Moberg, ChristianaCare’s vice president of Emergency Services. “From reducing the time it takes patients to receive critical testing to redesigning triage so patients can begin care sooner, these caregivers work across disciplines to solve problems and improve patient outcomes and experience.”
Faster heart testing
One improvement involved the time required to provide electrocardiograms to patients experiencing chest pain or related symptoms.
The department created a dedicated ECG room in its triage area. By the end of 2025, the average time from a patient entering the department to receiving an ECG had fallen to about seven minutes, below the national benchmark of 10 minutes, according to ChristianaCare.
Nurses also created an “Idea Bin” that allows employees to submit suggestions by scanning QR codes placed throughout the department.
The first 42 submissions resulted in 26 projects or operational changes. Those changes included making point-of-care testing more accessible and placing commonly used supplies closer to caregivers.
Forensic nursing program expands
The award application also highlighted the growth of Wilmington Hospital’s forensic nurse examiner program, which provides specialized care to patients affected by violence, assault or abuse.
The program completed 158 in-person forensic examinations in 2023, 299 in 2024 and 386 in 2025.
ChristianaCare said the expansion has allowed more patients to receive specialized forensic care at Wilmington Hospital without being transferred to another facility.
Other initiatives included improvements in patient flow, pediatric emergency readiness and nursing education. Emergency department nurses also received specialized training to provide ultrasound-guided intravenous access.
“This recognition belongs to the entire emergency department team,” said Christina Hoddinott, who led the development of the department’s award application. “Nursing is a big puzzle, and each of us brings a piece. By working together, we keep finding better ways to care for our patients and support one another.”
To Go Box
What: Emergency Nurses Association Lantern Award
Recipient: Wilmington Hospital Emergency Department
Award period: 2026 through 2029
Previous award: 2023 through 2026
Patients served during application period: 63,765
Learn more: Visit ChristianaCare’s website for information about Wilmington Hospital and its emergency services.
Juan Jesús Vivas has been briefing EU lawmakers on the ‘humanitarian emergency’ and says updated death toll now lies at least 100 people
The commission also got repeatedly asked about last week’s events in Ceuta and media reports that social media accounts seen calls for another attempt to overwhelm the border on 15 August.
A spokesperson said the commission was aware of various threats to the EU’s external border, and “that’s why we need to step up our work.”
“I can point you to the solar eclipse next week on the 12th, which will have an impact on energy production.
We have established a operational group that is dedicated to the preparation of this and … my understanding is that they have a meeting tomorrow, Friday, where they are preparing for possible impacts.
CLEVELAND, Aug. 6, 2026 — Eaton today announced it was awarded a $7 million, 24‑month contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to apply quantum computing, machine learning and advanced visualization to improve resilience and protection at the power grid. The effort will advance new quantum-enabled algorithms and hybrid quantum‑classical methods, developed with partners Infleqtion and Penn State, to help better detect, visualize and respond to multiple, concurrent physical and cyber threats on the grid.
Addressing the Contingency Problem
Today, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) requires transmission systems to withstand two sequential failures (N‑2). This project aims to analyze and prepare for multiple, concurrent and unpredictable threat combinations.
Eaton will address a key security challenge in electrical grid management known as the contingency problem, which involves evaluating countless grid configurations to identify potential vulnerabilities. Eaton will combine its longtime, proven expertise in intelligent power management with the significant computational power of quantum computing for grid resilience.
“We’re facing unprecedented risks to electric reliability and security from extreme weather, wildfires, physical and cyber threats and need tools that consider many failures at once,” said Sid Suryanarayanan, senior chief engineer, strategic partnerships and innovation at Eaton. “This AFRL‑funded project pairs Eaton’s grid expertise with quantum and machine learning methods to bring faster awareness and more actionable control to critical energy systems.”
Partnering with World-Class Experts
Eaton research will combine specialized quantum hardware from Infleqtion, advanced machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) supported by Pennsylvania State University to deliver solutions that enhance infrastructure planning, daily operations and emergency preparedness.
The project includes the development of new quantum algorithms, optimizing circuits for hybrid computation, conducting experiments on multiple quantum hardware platforms, and correcting and mitigating errors. Results will be shared in a proof-of-concept demonstration showcasing how current quantum hardware combined with new algorithms and machine learning approaches can solve real-world grid challenges.
“At Eaton, we’re delivering next generation solutions for intelligent power management that benefit critical infrastructure through our world-class engineering capabilities and our comprehensive approach to research and development,” said Dr. Christopher A. Herbst, vice president, strategic partnerships and innovation at Eaton. “This research will enhance infrastructure planning, daily operations and emergency preparedness, bringing unprecedented awareness, anticipation and response to strengthen infrastructure.”
The Air Force Research Laboratory, or AFRL, is the primary scientific research and development center for the Department of the Air Force. AFRL plays an integral role in leading the discovery, development and integration of affordable warfighting technologies for our air, space and cyberspace forces. With a workforce spanning across nine technology areas and 40 other operations around the globe, AFRL provides a diverse portfolio of science and technology ranging from fundamental to advanced research and technology development. For more information, visit www.afresearchlab.com.
About Eaton
Eaton is an intelligent power management company dedicated to protecting the environment and improving the quality of life for people everywhere. We make products for the data center, utility, industrial, commercial, machine building, residential, aerospace and mobility markets. We are guided by our commitment to do business right, to operate sustainably and to help our customers manage power ─ today and well into the future. By capitalizing on the global growth trends of electrification and digitalization, we’re helping to solve the world’s most urgent power management challenges and building a more sustainable society for people today and generations to come.
Explore Antarctica as a flightless bird – and dodge some earthly monsters – in this surreal adaptation of HP Lovecraft
While watching the 2006 animated film Happy Feet with his daughter, Origame Digital founder Naphtali Faulkner noticed something interesting. “[In the movie], they see the digger fall into the ocean, and it has an almost eldritch quality,” he says. Over time, and with plenty of iteration, Faulkner’s inspirations coalesced, from HP Lovecraft to the 1982 version of The Thing and the works of David Lynch. “I’m a big fan of horror that sits in your head rather than in your stomach,” says Faulkner.
In Penguin Colony, players body-switch between species of flightless birds, piecing together cryptic cosmic clues as they tail a Nazi expedition to Antarctica. In the process, Origame Digital draws on Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness. “I’d always wanted to do a creature that’s a manifestation of colonial thought, energy and power, and the idea of it resting and then regrowing,” says Faulkner. “I was looking through the history of Lovecraft and him being a gigantic racist, and this idea of the Nazis sort of came out,” he adds.
Half of border agents are Latino, and they are part of a long history of Hispanic support for – and enforcement of – harsh immigration policies
Since Trump’s return to power, more than 60 people have died at the hands of or in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), including two Latino immigrants in one week: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo in Houston and Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Maine. Many Latinos have come to feel that their brown skin makes them targets, and they are not wrong.
But there is another dimension of this story that we often fail to consider: many of those in charge of anti-immigrant operations also have brown skin, Hispanic names and links to the communities they terrorize. When the identities of the agents who killed Alex Pretti in January were revealed as those of two Hispanic men, many people reacted with shock. The irony seemed obvious, but it reflected a mistaken assumption: that Latinos are naturally opposed to restrictionist immigration policies. History suggests otherwise.
The mFlusiva vaccine for older people is first made with mRNA platform key to ending coronavirus pandemic
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new kind of flu vaccine for older people, the first made with the same mRNA technology that was key to ending the Covid-19 pandemic, Moderna, the manufacturer, said.
The shot, named mFlusiva, is intended for adults aged 50 or older. Other brands of flu shots already have begun arriving in pharmacies ahead of fall vaccination season, and Moderna said late on Wednesday that it expected some of its new version to be available soon at select retailers.
Players stayed in country after Asian Cup in March
Duo condemned as traitors in Iran for not singing anthem
Two former Iranian footballers said on Thursday they were proud to have been granted Australian citizenship after being called traitors at home for refusing to sing the national anthem before a game.
Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh were members of a group of seven from Iran’s delegation who asked for Australia’s protection after the protest during the women’s Asian Cup in March.
"They are picking up law-abiding citizens. They're destroying families, jobs," said a Texas man who regrets his vote for President Trump after his fiancée, an immigrant from Venezuela, was detained by ICE.
Thursday's vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress follows years of tension with GOP Sen. Rand Paul, hinging on the origins of the coronavirus and a controversial type of research.
Voters in the red district are concerned with congressman’s alleged behavior and political future ahead of the midterms
David Griffith was a registered Republican for years.
But on Sunday evening, he watched the Ohio congressman Max Miller stumble through an 18-minute statement in which the lawmaker attempted to defend himself against allegations of domestic abuse against his ex-wife and infant child.
Pia Dandiya, a first-time candidate, says voters care more about costs than district lines as she seeks a key open seat
What is a sanguine new congressional candidate to do when the district they thought they were running in gets torn apart by a governor’s best efforts to gerrymander his state at the president’s behest?
For Pia Dandiya, a first-time candidate for the Democratic party in Florida, the answer was simple: pick up some maps, hit the road, and embrace the challenge of conquering a different part of the state.
Aug. 6, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy has named North Carolina State University to lead three Genesis Mission projects aimed at using artificial intelligence (AI) to expedite discovery in the fields of high-performance computing, cybersecurity and astrophysics.
DOE’s Genesis Mission is focused on accelerating scientific productivity in the United States. Initial project recipients were announced by DOE July 22.
“NC State has a deep bench of research experience in AI development, application and integration,” says Krista Walton, vice chancellor for research and innovation at NC State. “By leading three Genesis Mission awards, NC State is helping the nation develop the tools needed to thrive in the post-AI era while applying the technology safely to push the boundaries of scientific discovery.”
The three Genesis Mission projects being led by NC State are Phase I projects. These projects all have budgets under $1 million and are designed to be conducted in less than one year. Successful Phase I projects will be eligible for larger Phase II awards in future funding cycles.
Michela Becchi, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State, is the principal investigator (PI) on a project that seeks to make next-generation computing hardware more accessible to scientific researchers. The project will develop an AI-powered programming framework that helps generate, debug, and optimize code for emerging AI accelerators—specialized processors originally designed for artificial intelligence that have the potential to benefit demanding scientific and engineering applications beyond AI. Becchi’s collaborators are Sheng Di and Bogdan Nicolae of Argonne National Laboratory.
Xiaorui Liu, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State, is the lead PI on a project focused on defending agentic AI against adversarial attacks. The project will focus on automated scientific AI workflows, with the goal of detecting and preventing attacks that can corrupt results, produce false conclusions, or leak data. The project is being done in collaboration with Fnu Suya and Mahshid Ahmadi of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Hui Liu of Michigan State University, and Xinxia Peng of Depict Bio.
Gail McLaughlin, Distinguished University Professor of Physics at NC State, is the PI on a project that will embed AI techniques within large-scale simulations of neutron star mergers and supernovae to model physical processes that are too complex for traditional simulations. The project will deliver new insights into the cosmic origin of the elements and the role of neutrinos in astrophysical explosions. The project is being conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; Pennsylvania State University; the University of Notre Dame; the University of California, Berkeley; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
NC State is also partnering on two additional Genesis Mission projects, both of which relate to nuclear energy. One Phase I project is led by Texas A&M and focuses on using AI to assess and document reactor safety to support human review processes. NC State’s lead on that project is Xu Wu, an associate professor of nuclear engineering.
The second award – dubbed the Prometheus project – is the only Phase II project awarded in this initial round of the Genesis Mission initiative and is receiving $60 million in funding over three years. The Prometheus project is led by Idaho National Laboratory and focuses on accelerating the deployment of nuclear power infrastructure. NC State researchers collaborating on the Prometheus project include Xu; Abhinav Gupta, professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering; and Kevin Han, associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering and Edward I. Weisiger Distinguished Scholar.
Source: Matt Shipman, North Carolina State University
A US Senate committee says it obtained a backup copy of Anthony Fauci’s iPhone as it weighed whether to hold the veteran government health official in contempt of Congress for refusing to answer Republicans’ questions amid a hostile inquisition last week.
The phone was used by Fauci during his time as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, including his time fronting the first Trump administration’s response to the Covid pandemic in 2020.
President hails operation to rescue captives held in dense forests of Kainji Lake national park in north-central region
Nigerian security forces have rescued more than 300 abducted people in what the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hailed as the largest single-day hostage recovery in the country’s history.
The release was announced on Wednesday after a joint operation, conducted by the military, police and counter-terrorism units, freed victims held captive in the dense forests of the Kainji Lake national park in the north-central region.
Cyberattacks on U.S. water systems that officials suspect may be linked to Iran-backed hackers have been reported in at least a dozen states, sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Iran and Oman are close to agreeing on new arrangements for the Strait of Hormuz, but not for a full reopening of the vital waterway, Iran's state news agency says.
Exclusive: Louisiana firm awarded tender to build rudimentary outpost to house Moroccan troops
Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, has finally issued its first construction contract in the devastated territory: a project to build a rudimentary 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops, a source familiar with the matter told the Guardian.
The contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq.
Danish teenagers will have to make an oral defence of their written essays to combat AI cheating, the government has announced.
Pupils aged 16 to 19 at upper secondary school (known in Denmark as gymnasiet) will also be encouraged to do written assignments at school under controlled conditions, including monitoring of their computer screens, rather than at home.
Programme aiming to stop people turning to terrorism sees 39% rise in referrals in year to September 2025 – the highest number on record
A record number of people have been referred to the government’s anti-terror programme, with a 39% rise over the last year, including a 20% rise in referrals for extreme rightwing ideology, according to official data released on Thursday.
A total of 10,293 referrals – up from 7,408 – were made to the Prevent programme in the year to September 2025, which is the highest number since records began 11 years ago.
Tarun Tejpal, ex-editor of Tehelka magazine, was initially acquitted in 2021 in case that drew nationwide attention
An Indian court has sentenced a high-profile former editor of an investigative news magazine to 10 years in prison after convicting him of raping a junior colleague, overturning his acquittal in a case that drew nationwide attention.
Tarun Tejpal, 63, the founder and former editor of Tehelka magazine, was accused of raping a journalist in the lift of a five-star hotel in the western coastal state of Goa during an event in November 2013. He was arrested and spent seven months in jail until the supreme court granted him bail.
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill is taking her first major step onto the national stage, endorsing 13 Democrats — as the moderate signals she may jump into the debate over her party's future.
Plans involve dredging and expanding the docks to allow larger cruise ships to visit with up to 200,000 passengers annually
Janavi Kramer had just enjoyed a swim with friends and was sitting on a bench taking in a wonderful Cornish view – headlands plunging into deep water, bobbing boats, a bustling harbour town.
“We’re lucky to have this space,” said Kramer, who is an artist and scientific illustrator. “We use it for work, recreation and pleasure and it’s so scary to think that this could all be harmed. I worry about what we may be living with soon and what we’ll be leaving for future generations.”
We’re seeing America wake up to the tyranny that’s engulfed us
With the victory of progressive Abdul El-Sayed over representative Haley Stevens in Michigan’s Democratic primary, prepare yourself to hear enormous quantities of bullshit about the Democratic party now being “taken over” by the “left” or by “democratic socialists”.
Or as the reliably establishment New York Times put it: “Can an insurgent candidate, with unabashedly liberal positions, win a general election in a moderate state?”
The left is increasingly winning within the Democratic party. But it still needs to prove that it can build general-election coalitions capable of beating Republicans
The ideological struggle within the Democratic party continued on Tuesday night with primaries in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Virginia and Washington. The results showed an increasingly intense conflict within the party, with high Democratic primary turnout and bruising ideological battles up and down the ballot.
The Democratic electorate is shifting, becoming more progressive and more willing to challenge party leadership, but not as quickly or uniformly as many assumed.
Experts say growing trend on sites such as Polymarket and Kalshi could motivate people to start fires to win money
A group of US lawmakers is sounding the alarm over prediction market platforms that allow users to bet on wildfires, as experts warn the emerging trend could raise the risk of arson.
Democratic senators from six states sent a letter this week to the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), an independent government agency regulating platforms such as Polymarket and Kalshi, urging it to rein in the practice.
Republicans are trying to scapegoat the infectious disease expert, even as they have gutted healthcare amid outbreaks of measles, cyclosporiasis and Ebola
Katie Miller, an erstwhile Trump administration official and wife of Stephen Miller, once relied on Dr Anthony Fauci to get through Covid. Now, she’s calling for his imprisonment – a reversal that illuminates the politicization of Fauci and of public health writ large, a trend that could have major repercussions for America’s preparedness for future crises.
A US Senate committee will vote on Thursday morning over whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress after the physician and former public health official invoked his fifth amendment rights during a Senate hearing last week focused on Fauci’s actions during the Covid pandemic.
The FDA has approved the first mRNA flu vaccine in the United States after a clinical trial found it was about 27% more effective than a standard flu shot. Manufactured by Moderna and marketed as mFlusiva, the vaccine is expected to be available this fall for adults ages 50 to 64 and those 65 and older, though approval for the older group is conditional on Moderna conducting an additional clinical trial, NBC News reports. From the report: Many scientists and public health experts have touted the idea of an mRNA-based flu vaccine, which uses the same messenger RNA platform as the Covid vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer. That's because mRNA vaccines can be manufactured much faster than traditional vaccines, allowing scientists to better match circulating influenza strains. Moderna said it takes two to three months from picking the strain to rolling out its flu shot, compared with about six months for traditional flu shots.
When asked to detail what would make a better life in three to five years, 60% of US adults said greater financial security
Americans may seem increasingly divided on beliefs and values, but in a new survey of more than 30,000 adults from across the country spanning generations and economic classes, a majority of Americans agree there’s a significant barrier to achieving a better life: the rising cost of living.
When asked to describe what a better life in three to five years would look like, 60% of Americans said they wanted greater financial security, according to a survey that was conducted by the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility and the WK Kellogg Foundation in mid-April.
Palmer Luckey has donated $5.9m to Republicans and bundled more, while reaping billions in Pentagon contracts
Wealthy Republicans on the west coast received an emailed invitation in July to an upcoming fundraiser titled “Keep the Senate”. The email, obtained by the Guardian, described the event as a “private roundtable and dinner with the National Republican Senatorial Committee” where donors can pledge $50,000 for seats at the head table, and mingle with legislative heavy hitters from Capitol Hill including the Senator majority leader, John Thune, and Mike Rogers, who is running for Senate in Michigan with Donald Trump’s endorsement.
One of the organizers listed on the invite was the defense industry tycoon Palmer Luckey, the 33-year-old co-founder of sprawling weapons manufacturer Anduril Industries.
Ex-Tesco boss known as ‘Drastic Dave’ for his cost-cutting zeal pledges more of the same at flagging Guinness owner
Shares in Diageo have bounced after the Guinness owner’s chief executive, “Drastic Dave” Lewis, passed the first big test of his plan to revive the flagging fortunes of the UK-based drinks company.
Lewis, a former Tesco boss known in the City for his cost-cutting zeal, promised to deliver $1bn of savings over two years through a “significant” restructuring aimed at making the company more agile.
Firm lifts outlook, saying it is well placed to benefit from PM’s focus on new homes despite cost pressures from Iran war
The UK housebuilder Persimmon has lifted its outlook for the full year, saying it is “well-placed” to benefit from the prime minister Andy Burnham’s policy agenda, despite growing costs linked to the Iran war.
Despite rising cost pressures, the company now plans to complete 12,500 new homes by year-end, which would be at the upper reach of its previous guidance.
As senior military leaders privately warned that the war with Iran was straining U.S. forces, depleting key missile defenses, and leaving the military without sufficient naval resources to continue protecting Israel, the Pentagon turned to Christian scripture in its official social media messaging.
On Saturday, two Defense Department accounts on X posted images overlaid with the words “SEND ME.” The agency’s Rapid Response account published the phrase on a picture of a service member watching a helicopter above an aircraft carrier. Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell quoted Isaiah 6:8 in a post and included the all-caps phrase on an image of a soldier silhouetted in the dark. The Department of War’s official account amplified both posts.
Isaiah 6:8 is a verse that appears in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament in which the prophet Isaiah answers a divine call. When God asks, “Whom shall I send?” Isaiah replies, “Here am I. Send me.” The passage is widely used in many Christian traditions as an expression of accepting God’s call to a divine mission. The verses that follow describe God sending Isaiah to proclaim a message of judgment that culminates in cities “without inhabitant,” houses emptied of people, and the land left “utterly desolate” before eventual restoration.
Jemar Tisby, a historian of religion, said Isaiah 6:8 functions in American evangelical culture “almost entirely as a standalone missions text,” commonly invoked at missions conferences, ordinations, and altar calls as a declaration of willingness to serve. “The most important context of Isaiah 6, the part most people miss, is that the devastation falls on God’s covenant people,” Tisby said. “The nation doing the sending, not a foreign enemy, is in view here.”
It’s unclear what, exactly, the biblical quotation was intended to convey. The Pentagon declined to answer The Intercept’s questions about whether the posts reflected an expression of faith or proselytizing, a message about the war with Iran, or a coordinated communications strategy. “Nothing to offer you on this,” a Pentagon spokesperson said.
The posts followed months of controversy over the role of religion in the Defense Department under Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In March, The Intercept reported that the appointment of Christian activist Erika Kirk, wife of Charlie Kirk, to the Air Force Academy’s Board of Visitors alarmed former military leaders and constitutional advocates, who warned it could push the academy toward an overtly ideological vision of military leadership.
That same month, reporting later entered into the congressional record detailed complaints from more than 100 service members who alleged commanders described the war with Iran as “part of God’s divine plan” and encouraged troops to view the conflict through a biblical lens. Saturday’s posts placed similar biblical language on the Defense Department’s own official social media accounts.
Tisby said he viewed the Pentagon’s recent messaging as part of a broader pattern.
“Given Hegseth’s religious influences, tied to Douglas Wilson, and taken with the fact that Hegseth instituted worship services at the Pentagon, this reads as part of a larger effort to incorporate a narrow vision of Christianity into the military and the federal government writ large,” Tisby said.
Tisby compared the Pentagon’s recent messaging to a controversy during the George W. Bush administration, when the Pentagon used the exact same biblical passage, Isaiah 6:8, on intelligence briefings prepared for then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld during the Iraq War. The use of the verse became public in 2009 and prompted criticism from religious scholars, who argued it had been removed from its broader biblical context. “In the Rumsfeld era, there was a public outcry about the misattribution of Bible verses in military contexts, and the administration pulled back,” he said. “Now, this administration is leaning into the framing.”
The messages marked a notable institutional shift. Previous controversies centered on statements by individual commanders or political appointees. This time, multiple official Defense Department accounts amplified the same biblical passage, and the Pentagon declined to explain why.
That does not necessarily mean the Pentagon’s post violated the Constitution. The First Amendment generally prohibits the government from promoting or favoring a religion through its official actions. At the same time, courts have long allowed some traditional references to religion, including the national motto, “In God We Trust.”
Nelson Tebbe, the Jane M.G. Foster Professor of Law at Cornell Law School, whose scholarship focuses on constitutional law and religion, said the Pentagon’s post was different from those long-standing examples because it relied on a specific biblical passage rather than a general religious phrase and therefore could have a more direct impact on members of the military.
“Minor endorsements of religion by the government are common,” Tebbe said, pointing to phrases such as “God save this honorable Court,” commonly invoked in the Supreme Court. “This particular example involving the Pentagon spokesperson is less minor or incidental.”
Even so, Tebbe said recent Supreme Court decisions have made it unlikely that a court would strike down the Pentagon’s post.
“Recently, the Supreme Court has weakened the Establishment Clause, particularly the doctrine that used to prohibit government endorsements of religion in its own speech,” he said. “I would say that the chance of the Supreme Court invalidating this kind of practice is vanishingly small.”
Legal scholars say that constitutional question is separate from the practical consequences of the Pentagon’s messaging during an active conflict.
“More problematic, if also predictable, to me is the conflation of divine and military calling and service,” said Jonathan Ebel, a professor of religion at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who studies religion and the American military.
“Besides delegitimizing the U.S. military through such overtly Christian rhetoric and alienating non-Christian service members, such blatant Bible thumping in this context implies a religious war against Iran, foolishly confirming Iranian propaganda that the ‘Great Satan’ wants to wage war on Islam,” said Rachel VanLandingham, a former Air Force judge advocate and military law professor.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran’s leaders have referred to the United States as the “Great Satan,” portraying Washington as both a geopolitical rival and a religious enemy. Iranian officials have repeatedly framed conflicts with the United States and Israel as part of a struggle against Islam, making official biblical messaging from the Pentagon particularly vulnerable to exploitation as propaganda, VanLandingham said.
“Religious war is a slippery slope to total war.”
VanLandingham said the Pentagon’s messaging risked replacing military professionalism with religious symbolism at a moment when the armed forces should remain grounded in constitutional principles, rather than religious conviction.
“Religious war is a slippery slope to total war,” she said. “The U.S. military fights based on honor and fidelity to the law, not to Old Testament biblical passages.”
Update: August 6, 2026, 10:18 a.m. ET This article was updated to include comment fromJemar Tisby, a historian of religion, andJonathan Ebel, a professor of religion.
The images crossing all our screens certainly feel war-like – emergency aircraft and black smoke fill the skies, frantic civilians seeking shelter, historic towns lying in ruins, charred forests and burned-out vehicles, exhausted and sweat-soaked emergency responders.
Letter says lifting of sanctions sent ‘clear message’ settlers can use deadly force in West Bank without consequences
Senior Democrats have accused Donald Trump’s administration of giving a green light to violent Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, warning that its policies created “a climate of impunity and unbridled violence” that endangers both Palestinians and US citizens.
In a letter seen by the Guardian, a group of 19 Democratic senators and representatives call for the restoration of sanctions against extremist settlers and demand independent US investigations into the deaths of nine US citizens killed in the West Bank since 2022.
Gavin Cain, Andrew Tuggle and Jackson Castro were at golf team tryouts when they heard screams from nearby lake
A trio of Virginia teenagers recently showed up to golf team tryouts, jumped into a nearby lake to rescue three people – including a preschooler who couldn’t swim – after their kayaks capsized, and then earned spots on the squad, according to officials who are hailing their actions as “heroic”.
In events that authorities say demonstrate the kind of leadership that young people are capable of, Andrew Tuggle, 15, and 17-year-olds Gavin Cain and Jackson Castro showed up to the Culpeper Country Club links on the afternoon of 27 July to compete for places on Eastern View high school’s golf team, the local police department said in a statement.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware’s state employee health plan is one of the most expensive items each year in its multi-billion-dollar budget. A state board examined its relationship with pharmaceutical benefit managers, which essentially are middlemen between drug manufacturers and pharmacies, in an attempt to bring down drug costs to taxpayers and policy holders.
Officials released a report last week saying their hands are largely tied when it comes to forcing pharmacy middlemen into offering better prescription drug prices for state employees.
The report comes after lawmakers unanimously passed a resolution last year compelling the State Employees Benefits Committee (SEBC) to examine its relationship with pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) — companies that negotiate drug prices between drug manufacturers and pharmacies — and take a more aggressive stance against them.
For much of the last decade, PBMs have been under the microscope nationwide as to their role in drug pricing, particularly because four companies — OptumRx, CVS Health, Express Scripts and Prime Therapeutics — own two-thirds of the market. They are also vertically integrated with insurers like UnitedHealthcare and pharmacies like CVS.
Lawmakers said the SEBC, which oversees the health insurance plan for state employees and retirees, should require PBMs to bid at lower prices for drugs, more readily share their data with the state, as well as hand over pricing contracts signed with pharmaceutical companies.
But the SEBC responded with an 18-page report last week, challenging its ability to enforce the lawmakers’ most assertive transparency and contract requirements. Board members also argued in their report that pushing too hard on the PBMs could cause the state to lose access to rebates on drugs they already purchase.
“Efforts to increase transparency must be balanced with these legal and market realities, which may limit the scope of feasible disclosure,” the report said.
More broadly, the report also signals a blow to lawmakers’ work throughout the 2026 legislative session to bring down healthcare costs at a time when Delawareans are already feeling a pinch.
The primary sponsor of last year’s resolution, Sen. Ray Seigfried (D-Claymont), rebuffed the SEBC’s report, saying it does not go far enough.
“The report reflects in tone and tenor the unwillingness to look beyond the current process, and it fails to address hidden cost-driving prescription drug spending for Delaware taxpayers,” Seigfried, a former ChristianaCare executive, said in an interview on Wednesday.
In the report commissioned by the legislature, the SEBC was tasked with implementing nine strategies meant to rein in PBMs and costs incurred to the state by increasing drug prices.
The report, however, said the SEBC would be unable to implement some of the changes immediately because of ongoing negotiations to contract with a new PBM.
As for the resolution’s most demanding provisions, the SEBC said it is limited in the amount of information it can compel PBMs to share. For example, one of the requirements says the SEBC “should own and control all necessary pharmaceutical data for transparency and cost containment.”
But in its report, the SEBC said contractual limitations allow the PBMs to maintain “proprietary rights” to that data, leaving the state to only be able to access “summary-level” information. The lack of comprehensive data, they write, would limit the state’s ability to determine the true cost of drugs to the state.
Seigfried, however, said the state and federal government should do more to change those contracting and transparency rules.
“PBMs have been hiding behind all of these things for decades, and I think it’s time that we grab control over this whole thing,” he said.
Another strategy from the report said the state should explore an “interstate compact” to better gain leverage and circumvent PBMs entirely by negotiating pieces directly with drug manufacturers. But the report offers a qualifier to that suggestion, saying it may cost the state its already negotiated savings through rebates.
“In addition, manufacturers may impose conditions that reduce the anticipated savings, particularly if the compact lacks sufficient scale,” the report said.
As for rebates, Seigfried claimed PBMs will often have multiple different types of agreements with differing rebate levels. And because of the limited information surrounding contracts, he said the state does not know how impactful its rebates actually are.
State Sen. Ray Seigfried (D-Claymont), a former hospital executive, was on the forefront of efforts to rein in healthcare spending this past legislative session. | PHOTO COURTESY OF SENATE DEMOCRATS
In January, the Delaware Department of Justice sued a handful of PBMs, as well as insulin and GLP-1 manufacturers, for what the office said was a scheme to “distort the market for diabetic treatments to their benefit at the expense of Delaware diabetics.”
The lawsuit, filed by Attorney General Kathy Jennings’ office in the Delaware Court of Chancery, targeted both pharmaceutical manufacturers like Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, as well as the pharmaceutical middlemen.
In response to the lawsuit, PBMs argued they act as a “key counterweight” to an also concentrated and powerful pharmaceutical market that would otherwise have “monopoly power to set and raise drug prices.”
Weight-loss drugcost raised this year
Earlier this year, as members of the SEBC tried to contain the growing cost of paying for pharmaceuticals, they implemented a $200 copay on one of its most utilized drugs, GLP-1s.
Delaware state employees who for years enjoyed a relatively cheap price for blockbuster GLP-1 drugs saw their copays rise nearly seven-fold. The new copays did not apply to employees using the drugs for diabetes.
Under the state’s new coverage guidelines, state employees using drugs for weight-loss purposes will now have to pay a $200 copay for a 30-day supply. Before the change, a monthly supply was $32.
Those sums impacted more than 100,000 state employees, retirees, and their family members who are covered by the Delaware General Health Insurance Plan.
The change came as state officials have had to reconcile the rising cost of covering GLP-1 medications with supporting an increased number of state employees who use the drug for its weight-loss properties.
Delaware passed the elevated copay for weight-loss prescriptions with a plan to broadcast the change and promote cost-saving programs run by Novo Nordisk, the Danish manufacturer that makes two of the world’s most popular GLP-1s utilized by state employees.
Drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound that were originally intended to treat type 2 diabetes have exploded in popularity in America as they have proven to aid weight loss, which results in both short-term and long-term health benefits.
But the drugs are expensive – a 30-day supply of Ozempic retails for about $1,000 without manufacturer rebates – and were among the largest pharmaceutical expenditures for the state insurance plan.
Get Involved The State Employee Benefits Committee is set to next meet at 10 a.m. Monday, Aug. 24, at the Delaware Department of Human Resources offices, located at 841 Silver Lake Blvd., Suite 100 in Dover. More information, including about virtual attendance can be found here.
Prosecutors went after “ghost” school operators but rarely pursued students who enrolled just to collect housing subsidies, a Post investigation found.
Why Should Delaware Care? The canceled extradition of Bruce Tigani Jr. highlights an apparent communication breakdown between state governments in Delaware and Louisiana. Extraditions are routine but require coordination between governor’s office between states.
The criminal extradition of a Wilmington man accused of threatening the life of a Louisiana lawmaker remains in limbo, three months after an attempt to send him to the Bayou State fell apart.
On Tuesday, an official from Gov. Matt Meyer’s office said a renewed extradition request sent in mid-May by Louisiana’s governor is “currently under legal review.”
It is not immediately clear why the review is stretching on for several months.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry’s office did not reply to a request to comment for this story.
The target of the extradition is Bruce Tigani Jr., a 37-year-old man from a prominent Delaware family. He faces charges in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, that stem from a string of threats investigators say he made against State Rep. Michael Echols, a northern Louisiana Republican.
Last year, an anonymous account on the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, made several statements asserting that Echols’ life would be “over,” according to an affidavit from the investigating officer.
“Get ready … piece by piece then all at once remember? Little pieces for the fishies,” one of the threats stated, according to an affidavit.
Police later pointed at Tigani as the person behind the account, and suggested he made the threats in response to Echols’ past criticisms of the real estate company, Medical Properties Trust Inc., which leases property to a local hospital in Echols’ district.
Louisiana authorities charged Tigani in January with threatening a public official, and Delaware officials later scheduled a court hearing for May 1 to consider Louisiana’s request for an extradition.
But on the day of the hearing, neither Tigani nor prosecutors from the Delaware Department of Justice made a formal appearance at the New Castle-area Justice of the Peace Court. After a few moments of apparent confusion, a court staffer told Spotlight Delaware that the judge summarily dismissed the extradition because neither party appeared, and neither requested the hearing be rescheduled.
Later that day, Delaware officials announced why the case had been dismissed — though the explanations differed.
A spokeswoman for the Delaware DOJ said Meyer denied Louisiana’s extradition request because Landry had not signed the necessary warrant – rendering it deficient.
But Meyer’s chief legal counsel Wilson Davis said in a letter to the Delaware judge overseeing the case that the Louisiana governor had not even “received an extradition demand for Mr. Tigani.”
The district attorney’s office in Ouachita Parish did not respond to calls seeking comment for this story.
Echols, who currently is running for Congress, said his local district attorney’s office continues to work the case, despite the stalled extradition.
“I know our DA is working on several other angles,” he said. “Our goal is to still achieve justice. It’s just the wheel of justice moves slowly.”
Republican Louisiana Rep. Michael Echols | PHOTO COURTESY OF THE LOUISIANA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Echols also questioned whether Tigani’s family connections in Delaware could have influenced the extradition process. Tigani’s late mother previously worked for the Delaware Department of Justice, which Echols said raises concerns.
The Delaware DOJ flatly rejected the suggestion.
“We’ve prosecuted sitting employees of this office when they’ve broken the law, let alone their relatives,” DOJ spokesman Mat Marshall said. “He can say what he wants, but I’d suggest submitting proper paperwork to start.”
Marshall also confirmed that Tigani is not currently in custody in Delaware.
Retired-Delaware Attorney General Jane Brady, who reviewed the situation at Spotlight Delaware’s request, described the case as highly unusual. She said governors typically approve extradition requests from other states.
Also unusual, she said, is that Meyer’s legal review of the latest extradition request has stretched for nearly three months.
“There could be legitimate reasons,” she said of the review. “But it is unusual.”
Washington-Rabat ties under scrutiny as questions swirl over what led to deadly influx into tiny Spanish territory
The cosy relationship between Washington and Rabat has long been flaunted by both sides, from Morocco’s announcement this year that it would be the first African state to join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to the congratulatory message recently sent by Trump to mark King Mohammed VI’s 27 years in power.
The latest example landed this week. As Spain grappled with the aftermath of the sudden influx – and swift return – of more than 70,000 people into Ceuta, Morocco’s monarch confirmed he had named a $1bn highway flanking the disputed territory of Western Sahara after Trump.
There’s been something in the air in D.C. this summer — namely wildfire smoke and frustration over Canada’s inability to keep it on its side of the border.
Meta says safeguards are in place to prevent surreptitious filming, but some UK venues now prohibit them from being worn at all
When Meta used superstar Kylie Jenner to promote its sleek new line of “spy glasses”, the social media company hoped the devices would reach the same broad acceptance that tablets and smartwatches have found before them.
But those plans have hit a snag in the UK, where venues from elite restaurants to popular pub chains have banned the £359 glasses in order to preserve the privacy of customers and staff.
After Elvis Brooks spent 42 years in prison, a court threw out his conviction for murder. But he has struggled to get compensation from Louisiana for his wrongful conviction. Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
Elvis Brooks thought he had an airtight case when he applied for compensation from the state of Louisiana after he was wrongfully convicted in a fatal bar shooting that kept him in prison for more than four decades.
The 69-year-old New Orleans native has never wavered in his claims of innocence, insisting since his 1977 arrest that the cops had the wrong guy. But it would take nearly 45 years and a prosecutor admitting he failed to turn over key fingerprint evidence before the courts threw out Brooks’ conviction.
That decision made Brooks eligible for up to $480,000 under a program created by Louisiana lawmakers to pay those wrongfully convicted in a state with one of the highest rates of overturned guilty verdicts. But Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, the top prosecutor in the state, has vigorously fought Brooks’ compensation claim, asserting in court filings that he is still guilty and therefore should not receive any money at all.
And it isn’t just Brooks: Since taking office two years ago, Murrill has opposed all but one of 23 compensation claims brought by people whose convictions have been vacated by the courts. These include cases in which the men were exonerated through DNA or blood evidence and others in which police are accused of fabricating evidence. Once, Murrill even threatened to block an exoneree’s ability to obtain a license to practice law if he didn’t drop his claim.
Civil rights attorneys say Brooks’ case is one of the most egregious examples of a wrongful conviction in recent years. Murrill has been pushing the court since September 2024 to reject his compensation claim and also to reinstate a manslaughter charge against him. The case is pending before a district court judge in New Orleans; attorneys are scheduled to appear for the next hearing Monday.
When Brooks heard what Murrill was trying to do, five months after he’d filed his claim, he said he was flooded with anger and disbelief. Once again, he said, the state was trying to rip away his good name and falsely brand him a killer.
“She knows people are innocent but she doesn’t care,” Brooks said of Murrill during a recent interview, his voice rising with frustration. “She wouldn’t want nobody to do this to one of her loved ones.”
Some states that have more recently created compensation funds have experienced startup problems. In Michigan, narrow criteria and confusion over eligibility have prevented exonerees from getting paid. But in Louisiana, conservative politicians who oppose the very existence of a compensation fund and therefore fight nearly every claim have proven to be the biggest obstacle.
Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who served as attorney general for eight years, during which time he hired Murrill as the state’s solicitor general, opposed 10 of 12 compensation claims during his tenure. Both have staked their political careers on a tough-on-crime agenda. By contrast, Murrill’s more moderate Republican predecessor, Buddy Caldwell, who served as attorney general from 2008 to 2015, opposed just 33% of all claims.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has taken a hard line against compensating the wrongfully convicted in Louisiana, maintaining they haven’t proven their innocence.Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
Murrill’s hard-line tactics, particularly in Brooks’ case, stand out among her peers in other states, said Jeffrey Gutman, a professor emeritus at the George Washington University Law School and a national expert on compensation funds.
“I can’t think of an attorney general who has been quite as aggressive in trying to prevent people from getting compensation,” Gutman said.
Murrill, through her spokesperson, declined interview requests and did not answer questions regarding her opposition to the compensation fund. Both she and Landry have made their views on the fund clear during recent legislative sessions. Murrill told lawmakers last year that defending the state against these claims consumes an enormous amount of time and resources and that the fund should be abolished altogether. And in June, Landry vetoed a bill passed unanimously by the Republican-controlled Legislature that would have increased the amount paid to the wrongfully convicted. In his veto statement, Landry painted many of the exonerees as “convicted criminals” whose only interest is money.
Murrill’s opposition doesn’t necessarily mean that Brooks and other exonerees won’t eventually be compensated. The claims are ultimately decided by one of a number of district court judges, whose approach to this issue may vary. But it ensures that a process the law says should take no more than five months could instead drag on for years, exacting financial hardship and emotional pain on people who have already endured decades of both, said Herbert Larson, an attorney representing exonerees and a senior professor at the Tulane University Law School.
“If they’ve got DNA evidence that points at somebody else, if they’ve got fingerprints that point at somebody else, if it looks like sloppy police work, then we should pay the money and not spend the next two years litigating it,” Larson said. “That’s not a very effective use of time and money on the part of the attorney general.”
Brooks filed his application in 2024, but more than two years later, his case has yet to be heard by a district court judge. After having 42 years of his life stolen — missing his son’s childhood and losing his parents and three siblings while he was behind bars — Brooks said he shouldn’t continue to suffer at the hands of the state.
“It’s miserable and it’s frustrating, the games they play,” he said. “But if they think I’m going to give up, wave the white flag, they got me wrong.”
Conflicting Evidence and a One-Day Trial
On most days, Brooks can be found riding his bicycle down to Tricou and Douglas streets in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, where he was raised, or through the French Quarter, where as teens, he and his friends would go to meet girls.
But there is one place he avoids: a vacant lot at the intersection of Dauphine and Alabo streets. That’s where the Welcome Inn once stood, and where a murder took place that would change his life.
In July 1977, a man named Cecil Lloyd was seated at the bar in the local dive when he was shot to death during an armed robbery. Less than three weeks later, police arrested 19-year-old Brooks.
There was no physical evidence tying him to the killing, and a dozen people testified that Brooks was at a family party at the time of the shooting. But three white witnesses said they saw the perpetrators in the dimly lit room and picked Brooks, who is Black, out of a photographic lineup. Although studies have shown that witnesses often have difficulty correctly identifying suspects of another race, and despite the fact that the three witnesses gave conflicting descriptions, the jury found him guilty of first-degree murder after a one-day trial.
What the jurors weren’t told is that fingerprints lifted from beer cans held by the robbers did not match Brooks’, or that police suspected the same men had robbed several people less than a block away just before the Welcome Inn robbery, according to prosecutor records discovered by Brooks’ attorneys 40 years later. The victims of the earlier crime were shown a photo of Brooks and ruled him out as a suspect.
After his conviction, Brooks was sent to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola at a time when the maximum-security prison was considered one of the most violent in the country. Three years after Brooks arrived, his brother Errol, who was serving a 99-year sentence there for armed robbery, was stabbed to death.
“Angola was a madhouse,” Brooks said. “A hellhole.”
A man was shot and killed in 1977 at the Welcome Inn bar, which used to sit on this corner in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. Brooks was convicted for the murder in a one-day trial, despite evidence he was elsewhere at the time.Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
While Brooks served his life sentence, the criminal justice system was being revolutionized through the introduction of DNA evidence and, with it, proof that innocent people had been convicted. This led to a deeper look into other factors contributing to wrongful convictions, including prosecutorial misconduct and mistaken eyewitness identifications, especially those made by witnesses with different racial backgrounds from the suspects.
As a result, the number of exonerations nationwide increased from 25 in 1989 to 259 in 2022, according to the National Registry of Exonerations, a project operated by universities in Michigan and California. By 2025, Orleans Parish, where Brooks was convicted, had the highest rate of exonerations among U.S. counties with more than 300,000 residents, according to the registry.
Many states reacted to the rise in exonerations by creating funds to compensate those who were wrongly convicted. Louisiana established its fund in 2005 and today is one of 39 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that compensate the wrongfully incarcerated. But it is far from a rubber-stamp process.
“It’s miserable and it’s frustrating, the games they play. But if they think I’m going to give up, wave the white flag, they got me wrong.”
Elvis Brooks, exoneree
To be eligible, a person has to have been imprisoned as a result of a conviction that was later vacated by a court. Applicants, like in all states with these funds, must then prove their innocence. Having a conviction thrown out is not enough to do so: A court can vacate someone’s conviction for a number of reasons, including an ineffective attorney or significant errors committed by the judge or prosecution. But that only means there were problems with the original trial. It is up to the person applying for compensation to present evidence that they did not commit the crime.
In many states, innocence in the compensation process is proven by a “preponderance of evidence,” which attorneys understand to mean that there is more than a 50% chance that the person is innocent. This is the standard used in civil cases. The threshold is higher in Louisiana and some other states, where applicants are required to prove they are innocent by “clear and convincing” evidence. This is supposed to leave little doubt in the judge’s eyes that they did not commit the crime.
That’s the hurdle Brooks must clear to receive any money from the state.
Exonerated but Not Paid
Brooks filed for compensation in April 2024, just a few months after Murrill and Landry took office. He didn’t know much about the process, he said, except that it was meant to help people like himself get back on their feet after a wrongful conviction. Brooks assumed it wouldn’t take long at all, maybe a few months. But like nearly all the others, his request was met with fierce opposition from the attorney general’s office.
Murrill, seen by many as a future candidate for governor, has earned the reputation as a fighter unapologetic about the methods she is willing to use to enact a conservative agenda, both in the political world and the courtroom.
Verite News and ProPublica interviewed the attorneys of 17 of the people whose compensation claims Murrill opposed. The majority expressed shock at her tactics. When Landry was attorney general, his office regularly spoke with defense attorneys and assured them that the attorney general would not stand in the way of compensation in the rare times the office agreed that a former prisoner was innocent, according to two of the attorneys. Landry did not respond to a request for comment.
Those conversations no longer happen under Murrill, the attorneys said. In nearly every case, Murrill’s office has insisted that the exoneree either is guilty or has failed to sufficiently prove his innocence.
Of the 23 people who have had active claims under Murrill, four so far have been awarded compensation. The rest are pending. Of the successful claims, two of the men were cleared by DNA evidence, while blood serum evidence was used to prove innocence in the third. Yet Murrill opposed all three, delaying their compensation for nearly two years. (In the fourth case, Murrill dropped her opposition to Patrick Brown’s claim after the victim testified that the exoneree was innocent).
Malcolm Alexander was exonerated through DNA evidence in 2018 after 38 years in prison. Jeff Landry, who was the attorney general then and is now the governor, opposed his compensation claim, but a court later ruled in his favor.Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
Jarvis Ballard is one of the four. He spent 23 years in prison before his 1999 rape conviction was vacated after his DNA was not detected in any of the blood or semen samples found at the scene. In addition, the victim reported two men committed the crime; however, three men, including Ballard, were prosecuted and convicted. The other two men testified that Ballard was not involved.
The St. Bernard Parish district attorney’s office admitted in a 2021 statement that the office had made a mistake in prosecuting him. “DNA evidence, witnesses recanting their prior statements and polygraph testing all supported the ‘actual innocence’ claims of Jarvis Ballard,” district attorney Perry Nicosia wrote.
In another case, Darrill Henry was sentenced to life in prison in 2011 for a double homicide. Nine years later, New Orleans Criminal District Court Judge Dennis Waldron threw out his conviction after DNA evidence found under the fingernails of one of the victims cleared him, saying there was “clear and convincing evidence that he is indeed factually innocent of the crime.”
And in a third case, Sullivan Walter was sentenced to 40 years in prison in 1986 for burglary and rape, among other charges. He was only 17 at the time but was tried as an adult. His conviction was overturned in 2022 when blood evidence ruled him out as the perpetrator.
“This is horrible,” Criminal District Judge Darryl Derbigny said to Walter as he ordered his release from prison, according to news reports. “I’m at a loss of words to express the sorrow and the anger I have at the treatment you’ve been dealt by the system.”
But in all three cases, Murrill told the courts that despite the DNA or blood evidence, the men did not sufficiently prove their innocence.
“They’re taking a position that is inconsistent with what many prosecutors argue every day in seeking conviction,” Zac Crawford, staff attorney at Innocence & Justice Louisiana, a nonprofit law firm specializing in wrongful convictions, said about Murrill’s office. “Prosecutors frequently use DNA testing to match someone to a crime as a means of getting a guilty verdict, and they are not willing to concede that that same evidence also proves innocence.”
Murrill hasn’t confined her fight against compensation claims to the courts, having used threats to prevent at least one exoneree, Calvin Duncan, from even pursuing a claim. After serving 28 years of a life sentence for murder, he accepted a plea deal to secure his release in 2011. Ten years later, a district court judge ruled that he was factually innocent and threw out his conviction, citing the suppression of exonerating evidence by police, among other factors.
When Duncan filed for compensation in 2023, Murrill issued a threat, Duncan said during a recent legislative hearing: drop the claim or she would charge him with perjury for falsely saying he was exonerated. At the time, Duncan was pursuing a law license. He said Murrill added a second warning: If he didn’t drop the claim, she would report him to the bar association to prevent him from getting his license.
Duncan said he reluctantly agreed to withdraw his compensation application, with the understanding that Murrill would then drop the matter. But she didn’t keep her word, Duncan told legislators. During Duncan’s campaign last year for New Orleans criminal court clerk, Murrill sent him a letter threatening “further action from this office” if he didn’t stop referring to himself as being exonerated. “You have not proven you were actually innocent,” she told him.
She then used his plea deal against him, saying, “You knowingly and voluntarily pled guilty to manslaughter and armed robbery.”
Duncan, who declined to comment, won his election but was stripped of his office after legislators, with Landry’s support, eliminated his position. His campaign manager said Duncan has paused his pursuit of a law license in part because of his race for court clerk and Murrill’s persistent threats.
Malcolm Alexander spent nearly 38 years in prison before being exonerated through DNA evidence in 2018. Despite the opposition of Landry, then attorney general, Alexander was later awarded compensation, though he said these claims aren’t all about money. Even more important is that when a judge awards an exoneree compensation, it comes with a definitive ruling that the person is, in fact, innocent.
So while Murrill’s desire to deprive exonerees of money is terrible, Alexander said, her efforts to prevent them from having their names officially cleared are truly reprehensible.
“It Wasn’t Right From Day One”
Brooks was 60 years old and had been in Angola prison for nearly two-thirds of his life when his legal team discovered a wealth of new evidence that appeared to conclusively prove his innocence. Among these items were fingerprints lifted from beer cans held by the shooters during the Welcome Inn bar robbery and fatal shooting. And those fingerprints did not match Brooks’.
In January 2019, Brooks’ legal team filed a motion to overturn his murder conviction. Leon Cannizzaro, the New Orleans district attorney at the time, objected, telling the court that his office did not purposefully withhold any evidence.
Brooks said he was ready to wage a lengthy legal battle to prove he was not a murderer. But five months later, Cannizzaro approached Brooks with an unexpected offer: If he agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter, his life sentence would be reduced to 42 years and he would be allowed to walk out of Angola prison. Brooks agonized over the decision. The idea of standing up in court and saying he had killed someone was unimaginable. But he also didn’t want to die an old man on a rusted prison cot. So he took the deal.
Two years later, as Brooks was struggling to adjust to life outside of prison and still strapped with a felony record, his legal team found a memo in a pile of records they had requested from the district attorney’s office that detailed a 2019 internal meeting with one of the prosecutors at Brooks’ murder trial. He admitted that they didn’t turn over the fingerprint evidence and that it would have been helpful to Brooks’ case, according to the memo.
The meeting had occurred just two weeks before Cannizzaro offered Brooks the plea deal. If Brooks had known about the prosecutor’s admission, he said, he never would have accepted the plea.
“It wasn’t right from day one,” Brooks said.
Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for AmericaBrooks on his bike in New Orleans this yearA photo of Brooks’ parents and his great-niece hangs in the apartment at a senior center he moved into since his release from prison.Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
In 2022, when presented with this new information, the district court agreed. It ruled that the district attorney withheld crucial evidence when offering the plea deal and threw it out along with Brooks’ conviction. Current New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams declined to retry the case, clearing the way for Brooks to file his compensation claim two years later.
Cannizzaro could not be reached for comment. In a statement issued after Brooks’ 2019 release from prison, the former district attorney said he offered Brooks the plea deal because his office believed he was “rehabilitated and will not go out and reoffend.” Cannizzaro rejected the idea that Brooks was wrongfully convicted, saying at the time that if he were innocent, Brooks and his attorneys would have turned down the deal. “Notably, they did not,” he said.
Murrill is now using that discredited plea deal against Brooks, just as she did in Duncan’s case, in an attempt to quash his compensation claim. In a September 2024 motion, Murrill claimed that by vacating Brooks’ manslaughter conviction while he was a free man and not a prisoner, the court essentially pardoned him. And under the state constitution, only the governor has the power to issue pardons. As a result, she has asked that the court reinstate the manslaughter charge against Brooks.
Murrill did not, however, address the fact that the court vacated the deal because prosecutors intentionally withheld key information, according to court records.
In her motion, Murrill said she only learned the plea deal had been thrown out when Brooks filed his claim. And that, said attorney Harry Daniels, who represents Brooks, is when she started the effort to reinstate charges against him. “It’s only when he started demanding what he’s entitled to for being wrongfully convicted that this even became an issue,” Daniels said.
Brooks has described applying for compensation as torturous, a barricade that is constantly preventing him from being able to move forward. And life has been difficult: His only source of income is his $994-a-month Social Security payment, enough to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a low-income senior center.
There are moments, though, he said, when he allows himself to dream about what he would do with the money. The first would be to buy a bigger headstone for his family gravesite, where his parents, four siblings and a nephew are buried in a single plot in the Green Street Cemetery. All but one died while he was wrongfully imprisoned. There is room on the headstone for only three of the seven names.
“I want to put all our names on there,” he said. “Give them some respect, especially my momma.”
Seven of Brooks’ family members are buried in a single plot in the Green Street Cemetery, but there is room on the headstone for only three names. If he receives compensation money, he plans to use some of it to buy a bigger headstone.Christiana Botic/Verite News and Catchlight Local/Report for America
Outside the Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi, where police shot and killed 1-year-old Kohen Wiley, a shrine of stuffed animals sits between the garden center and the pharmacy. There are teddy bears, elephants, and kangaroos with babies in their pouches. There is a Bluey plush toy — Kohen’s favorite cartoon — along with matchbox cars, a green plastic tractor, and an array of artificial flowers.
A banner frames the display, featuring a celestial image of baby Kohen wearing gingham overalls. A handwritten sign reads, “Justice Delayed is Justice Denied.”
In the parking lot, a cop pulled a gun on a gray Ford Fusion on a Sunday afternoon and fired while Kohen’s mother held him in the passenger’s seat. A bullet struck the child on his right side, tearing through his small body and exiting his left. The driver, who was also hit, sped to a hospital, but it was too late. At 19 months old, Kohen was dead.
The killing sparked anguish and rage in Senatobia, a small city some 40 miles south of Memphis, Tennessee. At protests and press conferences, people demanded answers, while officials stayed mostly silent. It took several days for the mayor to deliver a scripted video statement that did not even include the child’s name.
The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation announced a probe into the case. Speaking before an agitated crowd, state Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell said this could take months, refusing to say when — or even whether — his agency would provide further updates.
Until then, the official narrative would be a version of a familiar tale told by those who kill under color of law: On June 14, Senatobia police got a shoplifting call from Walmart over baby clothes and a pack of Pampers diapers. According to an MBI press release, officers tried to stop “two subjects and a juvenile child fleeing from the store.” The suspects “drove in the direction of the officers, almost striking one.” That’s when an officer fired.
Police offered nothing to back the story. A witness video captured mostly chaos as the car drove off, while a woman who asked not to be named told a local TV station she saw police chasing the car before hearing gunshots. Nevertheless, the police narrative took off. On Facebook pages like “Senatobia Happenings UNCENSORED,” commenters blamed Kohen’s mother for his death.
The accusations escalated after famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump took the family’s case, with critics accusing him of stoking racial grievances for profit. When Crump released a video of Kohen’s mother, Vel’lesiya Wiley, telling her side of the story — saying she “raised my baby up” to warn officers that Kohen was with her — a wave of racist vitriol followed. Some demanded to know why Kohen wasn’t in a car seat. Others said she’d used him as a “human shield.”
The comments were shockingly cruel. They also ignored what Black residents of Senatobia, which is about 40 percent Black, had long insisted: Police treated them with contempt and brutality.
A year earlier, at the same Walmart where Kohen was killed, a police officer forced a woman from her car in front of her children for parking in a handicapped spot — part of a string of violent incidents that made national news. In the summer of 2025, Senatobia’s board of aldermen finally voted to dismiss the police chief.
By then, the department had already hired the officer who would later be identified in the local press as involved in killing Kohen Wiley – a police sergeant who’d been previously sued for misconduct while working at two different law enforcement agencies. Just two days before Kohen was killed, a Black officer filed a complaint against him for making a racist remark.
To racial justice activist Patrick Lumumba, the decision to hire such a man was emblematic of the city’s disregard for Senatobia’s Black community. “You think they didn’t know about his past?” he asked. “But who was he gonna hurt? If he hurt anybody it wasn’t gonna be white people.”
On the last Saturday in June, as the family laid Kohen to rest, the Senatobia Walmart was relatively quiet. A police car was parked across the shopping plaza, where protesters had gathered the day before. At an empty restaurant where a TV played “Leave It to Beaver,” a young white employee said no one had come in all day, blaming the “rioters” for keeping customers away.
At the memorial site, a white woman retrieved a bouquet of dried flowers blown away by the wind. She defended the protests, adding that they had been peaceful. For all the speculation and rumor, she said, no one really knew what had happened. But nothing could justify shooting a 1-year-old boy.
“The whole thing is very, very sad,” she said. “No mother should have to bury her child.” She did not wish to share her name. “I don’t want to stir any trouble.”
A memorial for 1-year-old Kohen Wiley sits outside the Walmart in Senatobia, Miss., on July 7, 2026, facing the parking lot where he was fatally shot by police.Photo: Liliana Segura/The Intercept
“Outside Agitators”
Senatobia, the seat of Tate County, sits on the northern tip of the Mississippi Delta, a mostly rural region famous as the birthplace of the blues. Downtown, historical markers boast connections to Black musicians like pioneering country singer O.B. McClinton. “Being in the small contingent of African-American performers in country music was never a cinch,” his marker reads, “but McClinton often dealt with the subject good-naturedly in shows and songs.”
Easier to miss are the places that once saw violent attacks on the civil rights movement. Just north of town, on Highway 51, a marker commemorating the site where James Meredith was ambushed and shot during a solo march from Memphis to Jackson has been knocked from its post; it currently sits on the ground. After Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. resumed the 1966 march alongside other civil rights leaders, they passed through Senatobia, in the same spot where the Walmart now stands.
The activists were widely depicted as radical outsiders — “Hard Core Civil Rights Militants,” as one headline read. But the march included locals; many offered their homes to the visitors at great personal risk. “Most people would sleep in the backyard of people’s homes because they were scared they would bomb the home,” recalled independent publisher Gloria Zuurveen, a Senatobia native whose aunt hosted activists. “But she said, ‘No, y’all ain’t sleeping in my backyard. Come on in this house.’”
The claim that protesters were “outside agitators” was a common refrain — a persistent way to dismiss any movement. When local pastor Michael Cathey, Senatobia’s first Black alderman, led boycotts of its public schools and businesses in 1987 — part of a wave of similar actions across Mississippi — some suggested they’d been orchestrated by the NAACP. “I’d like to see local people solve local problems without outside assistance,” the mayor told reporters.
In reality, “the whole community took a stand,” Cathey recalled. “The school buses ran empty. Nobody went to the store.”
“The city government is hiding behind the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.”
Cathey has been outspoken about the killing of Kohen Wiley. His congregation, the West Gilmore Church of Christ, hosted the viewing for the toddler in June. “The city government is hiding behind the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation,” Cathey said. Their excuse is that they must wait on the state. “But that’s not true. The city can speak to the matter. … They need to be working to make sure we have transparency. But it’s not happening.”
Cathey said that the case had attracted many activists from outside Senatobia, making the protests easier for officials to ignore. But a bigger problem, Cathey and others said, is the refusal of elected leaders to represent their constituents.
Cathey served as an alderman for over 30 years, leaving office in 2017. In the decade since Donald Trump’s rise, he said, local conservatives have increasingly modeled themselves after MAGA politicians, shedding any pretense of concern for Senatobia’s Black community. Unlike the civil rights era, in which the federal government forced states like Mississippi to expand hard-fought legal rights, Trump is doing the opposite: weaponizing his office to turn back the clock on equal rights.
“What we see Trump doing on a national level, we have that same attitude locally,” he said. “And I don’t see it just being a Mississippi problem. It’s a national problem.”
Law and Order
Not that long ago, the South seemed poised toward progress.
In Mississippi, lawmakers did what once seemed impossible: Vote to replace the state flag, eliminating its Confederate iconography. Senatobia Republican Trey Lamar pushed the effort, calling it “something I knew in my heart for a long time was the right thing to do.”
Such symbolic gestures, however, did not translate to systemic change. Before long, Mississippi politicians were disenfranchising Black residents in sweeping new ways. Lamar became the chief sponsor of legislation to create a new, state-controlled court system in the majority-Black capital city of Jackson, usurping the power of the city’s elected judges and handing it to white state lawmakers. The measure was about crime control, Lamar insisted. It had nothing to do with race.
But “law and order” has long been a code for racial politics. In Senatobia, where a “Back the Blue and Trump” parade was held in 2020, the mayor and board of aldermen started making changes of their own. The city’s Black police chief, a 26-year department veteran, was replaced with a white man who had only recently joined the force.
The new chief, Richard Chandler, was given free rein to transform the department. Some moves seemed sensible enough. Senatobia police officers were paid as little as $13.75 per hour when Chandler arrived, and he successfully argued for better wages. But other decisions raised red flags. Despite the department’s small size — some 30 officers in a town of roughly 8,500 — Chandler formed a SWAT team and assigned a dozen officers to the unit. One was a 22-year-old recent recruit who described herself as “an adrenaline junkie,” as she told reporters. “I want to kick down doors and go in there and arrest the bad guy.”
“There was no consideration to how it affected the citizenry. It was just about making money.”
The stated goal was modernization; the city built a new police station, bought a fleet of new vehicles, and hired a grant writer to seek federal funds. Chandler also pushed aldermen to pass new ordinances aimed at increasing revenue. Between 2021 to 2025, according to city meeting records, the board voted to add financial penalties to punish misdemeanor drug charges, loitering, and “nuisance level gatherings.”
The fines, ranging from $25 to $1,000, would inevitably target those who could least afford it. “There was no consideration to how it affected the citizenry,” said Cathey, who attended many of the meetings. “It was just about making money.”
It wasn’t long before a string of shocking incidents were caught on video. In February 2022, police violently arrested a man named Rodney Rucker, who was warming up his car outside a local motel before an early shift at McDonald’s. Camera footage showed police accusing him of having white powder under his nose and, when he refused to leave his vehicle, smashing his window and breaking his phone. No drugs were found in the car.
In 2023, Senatobia police followed a teenager into the home of a local barber named Mark Lesure, ostensibly because the young man matched the description of a criminal suspect. Video showed Chandler choking Lesure before being accidentally tased by his own officer.
Senatobia police made national news that same year for jailing a 10-year-old boy for public urination, a move Chandler conceded was “an error in judgement.” But he defended the violent arrest of two sisters, 13 and 14, outside a public housing complex in 2024. According to the girls and their mother, Chandler personally ordered one of the girls to “get your Black ass out of the road” before forcing her to the ground.
Finally, on Mother’s Day 2025 — in the same Walmart parking lot where Kohen Wiley would be shot dead — a female officer forced a woman named Breshari Faulkner out of her car in front of her frightened young children for sitting in a handicapped parking space.
By then many people in Senatobia were fed up — including some members of law enforcement. One retired police officer echoed what many said for years: Chandler drove out officers who lived in the community and brought in cops who would prey on the community. A number were hired after being dismissed from other departments. “They want people like that,” he said. “They can get them to do any kind of dirty work they want.”
In the summer of 2025, over angry objections by the mayor, Senatobia’s board of aldermen voted to remove Chandler. It was supposed to restore trust, one alderman said. But as Lumumba, who recently founded the Senatobia Committee for Accountability and Transparency, said, “We removed Chandler. But the culture remained.”
Kohen Wiley’s parents, Vel’lesiya Wiley and Daveon Williams, gather with activists led by Marquell Bridges of the Building Bridges Coalition at a park in Sardis, Miss., after burying their son on June 27, 2026.Photo: Liliana Segura/The Intercept
A History of Violence
City officials have not identified the man who shot Kohen Wiley. But it’s considered an open secret in Senatobia. A Memphis news station obtained records from the MBI that identified the officer who responded to the shoplifting call at Walmart: Senatobia Police Sgt. Hunter Foster, who has been on paid leave since mid-June.
Foster, now 33, was hired by the Senatobia Police Department in March 2025 and quickly promoted to sergeant. Two days before Kohen’s death, a fellow officer filed an internal complaint against him. According to Mississippi Today, Foster entered the booking room at the station, saw School Resource OfficerDexter Smith, and said, “‘Who is this Black motherfucker back there?’”
“The room went silent,” Smith wrote in his complaint. “I have never had any one-on-one conversation with Sergeant Foster, nor do we have any outside relationship to be on a level for him to speak to me in that manner.”
Smith quit a month after filing the complaint. In his resignation email, he cited a lack of “meaningful response or resolution,” according to Mississippi Today.
Before coming to Senatobia, Sgt. Hunter Foster had been named in two federal lawsuits.
Several red flags might have prevented Foster from being hired to begin with. Before coming to Senatobia, he’d been named in two federal lawsuits, both of which were dismissed under the doctrine of qualified immunity.
In 2022, he was accused of providing a false narrative following the arrest of two men outside a Waffle House in neighboring Southaven. In a police report, Foster accused a driver of “almost running over” another responding officer, a description unsupported by video evidence.
After moving to the DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department, Foster was sued for participating in the brutal assault of a 29-year-old Black woman during a traffic stop. According to the 2024 complaint, the deputies tased her, “pulled her hair, kicked her multiple times in her stomach and ribs, called her a prostitute, stomped on her face breaking her jaw in three places and knocked out multiple teeth.”
A use of force report cited injuries on the woman — including “abrasion, puncture, lacerations, (and) swelling” — and confirmed that she was taken to the hospital in an ambulance. In an affidavit, Foster said his “only involvement” was to pin her down in order to handcuff her, while providing no video footage to confirm his account. According to Foster, he tried to activate his body-worn camera only to later “realize it had never activated.”
Foster did not respond to messages from The Intercept.
Racial justice activist Patrick Lumumba speaks to reporters outside Senatobia City Hall following the board of aldermen meeting on July 7, 2026.Photo: Liliana Segura/The Intercept
“Y’all Gonna Kill Somebody”
On July 1, Ben Crump returned to Senatobia to release a report from D.C. Medical Examiner Roger Mitchell, who was brought onto the case to conduct an external examination of Kohen Wiley’s body and assess photos from the scene. A photo of the sedan showed the passenger’s side window shattered and a bullet hole in the windshield.
The findings undercut the claim that police had fired in self-defense. On Kohen’s right side, where the bullet entered, were small cuts known as “pseudo stippling,” an injury pattern commonly found on victims shot through glass. According to Mitchell, the markings suggested the bullet had been fired through tempered glass — like that found on a car’s passenger window — rather than through a windshield’s laminated glass.
But the only way to learn what really happened, Crump said, was to see the body camera footage and surveillance video that the MBI still had not released.
“If it was your 1-year-old baby, what would your response be?”
The following week a crowd filled a room inside Senatobia City Hall. Lumumba, the local activist, had been given time to speak at the bimonthly board of alderman meeting, along with two women from the Building Bridges Coalition. He gave the aldermen copies of Kohen’s obituary. “Kohen brought joy to everyone he met,” it read. “He loved playtime with his mom, playing with his toys, and cutting the grass with his toy lawnmower.”
Lumumba reminded the aldermen of the history of police violence in Senatobia. He and his neighbors had urged the city to act. “We told y’all, ‘Y’all gonna kill somebody,’” he said. Now, police had gone too far. “This ain’t going away.”
Shatoya House reminded the officials that protesters are not “the enemy.” Yet that’s how they’d been treated. Police had deployed tear gas on one demonstration outside Walmart. And on the day the commissioner of public safety came to town, snipers had watched from the rooftops.
House also felt compelled to respond to an accusation about the activists. Many critics seemed convinced they were bigoted against white people. “I am not racist,” House said. “If it was your 1-year-old baby, what would your response be?”
When the speakers were done, no one said anything. With a placid air, Mayor Greg Graves simply moved on to the next agenda item.
“We must not be good enough for them to talk back to us,” one woman said loudly. Only one alderman had addressed them directly — to confirm that Foster was still collecting a paycheck. “Do the rest of y’all care?”
“No, they don’t care,” another replied.
A white lieutenant interrupted with a warning. “All right, that’s it,” he snapped.
“Let the mayor run the city,” the woman snapped back. “You a police officer, bro.”
He gave her a hard stare and nodded. “Yes, ma’am, I am,” he said. “Yes, ma’am, I am.”
Neither Graves nor individual aldermen responded to emails from The Intercept. Senatobia Police Chief Harold Vanderford said any questions should go to the MBI. “I can’t say anything or do anything until they do what they’re gonna do,” he said. In an email, the MBI wrote, “This remains an open and ongoing investigation, no further comment will be made.”
Activists are still showing up at city hall. At a meeting in late July, Lumumba introduced Kohen’s mother and grandmother to the aldermen, who again had nothing to say. Outside the most recent meeting on August 4, Lumumba passed out postcards urging people to join the cause. He was joined outside by community members wearing shirts that read, “Your baby is our baby.”
Elsewhere in town, others seem anxious for it all to go away. Last month, an anonymous woman posted in the Senatobia UNCENSORED group. Her family was moving to Senatobia but, based on what she’d seen on the page, she worried it was a mistake. “I’ve never seen so much drama and hatred,” she said. “Please tell me it’s a good place.”
Several people sought to reassure her. “I have rarely experienced any racism or hate,” one white woman wrote. The original poster thanked her. “This eases my heart.”
“You are so welcome,” the white woman replied. “I promise it’s peaceful here.”
“There will be some turmoil when the MBI releases their findings,” she added. “But it will be outside agitators. And it will be temporary.”
Nyla Aquino’s rise at the University of Georgia reveals the tensions facing Black athletes as the SEC thrives while DEI programs and voting rights come under attack
It’s a February Friday night at the University of Georgia, but Stegeman Coliseum is alive.
Situated in the center of the sprawling southern campus in Athens, the towering arena has hosted Georgia Bulldogs basketball, volleyball and gymnastics teams for more than six decades. On 22 February 1964, Stegeman Coliseum hosted its first athletic event and, concurrently, its first win.
Coffee chain has faced backlash over marketing promotion tied to anniversary of Gwangju massacre
South Korean police have raided the headquarters of Starbucks Korea as part of an investigation into a marketing campaign accused of trivialising the country’s 1980s pro-democracy movement.
Investigators searched the building in southern Seoul on Tuesday, police said on Wednesday. No further details were released, although South Korean media reported that officers also searched the homes of the Starbucks Korea executives.
Being a woman who loves video games has often felt lonely, like being on a hostile planet – but Metroid’s female space hunter has been with me all the way
It’s 1986, and you’re playing a brand-new game. (You’re in Japan in this scenario, by the way; the game in question, Metroid, won’t come to North America and Europe until later.) Anyway, this new game has you in its grip. You are a lone astronaut exploring a hostile alien planet full of ancient, mysterious structures. This astronaut looks human enough – but this distinctly alien place is full of objects that power up their spacesuit’s capabilities. Each new ability allows you to explore a new area, and as you do, you realise that the entirety of the planetary base you’re exploringis one, massive, interconnected maze. Whoa.
Hours later, you finally defeat Mother Brain and set off a timed self-destruct sequence. Upon your escape, you’re treated to an endgame screen: the little astronaut faces you as text on screen implores you to “pray for peace in space”.
Longtime Slashdot readers schwit1 and fjo3 shared a report about BMW displaying a Spider-Man promotion on connected vehicle screens in more than 70 markets. According to reports, drivers had to play or dismiss the ad before they could use the infotainment system. Futurism reports: BMW, showing that it was about as in-touch as its drivers are familiar with turn signals, teased the promotion as a "special surprise." According to The Autopian's coverage and the heaps of complaints online, the ad appears on the center console screen when you start up the car. When the ad's done playing -- a cheap looking animation that doesn't come close to warranting all this hubbub -- it even has the gall to ask you to scan a QR code.
While it does give you the option to play or skip the "festive animation," it's still an annoying extra step drivers have to take before pulling up the map they need or the music they want to listen to. It's also a breach of trust: drivers keep their cars connected so they receive critical software updates, not unexpectedly see ads when they're trying to hit the road. Few owners were pleased. Enthusiasts in the r/BMW subreddit had a veritable meltdown when someone posted footage of the ad playing on their infotainment system.
Federal authorities arrested a man who appeared to be monitoring security-planning activities at Trump National Golf Club in LA County ahead of the president's Southern California visit.
LANSING, Michigan — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Abdul El-Sayed on Wednesday, quickly backing the progressive Democratic Senate nominee after supporting his more moderate primary opponent, Rep. Haley Stevens.
Whitmer congratulated El-Sayed and other Democratic nominees while urging the party to unite for November. Stevens also conceded and offered El-Sayed her support after losing by fewer than 15,000 votes in a primary shaped by ideological divisions and record outside spending.
El-Sayed, a physician and former Detroit health director, overcame more than $60 million in opposition spending. His campaign emphasized Medicare for All, campaign-finance reform, economic populism and ending unconditional U.S. military assistance to Israel. He received strong support from younger voters, progressives and Michigan’s Arab American communities.
The nominee will face former Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, who ran unopposed. Rogers immediately labeled El-Sayed an extremist and invoked his Muslim faith while attacking his political movement—rhetoric likely to intensify an already divisive battleground campaign.
Michigan’s open seat is considered essential to Democratic hopes of regaining Senate control. El-Sayed must now consolidate Stevens supporters while expanding beyond the progressive coalition that carried him through the primary.
Whitmer described the campaign’s intensity as healthy but said Democrats must now “come together, get to work and win in November.” The endorsement reflects the rapid party consolidation behind El-Sayed despite establishment reservations about his candidacy.
Investigation by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and Legal Agenda shows Israel deliberately attacked Amal Khalil and colleague Zeinab Faraj knowing they were civilians
An Israeli strike that killed Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil and injured her colleague Zeinab Faraj in April was a war crime, three rights organisations said on Thursday.
Investigations from Human Rights Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and Legal Agenda showed that Israel deliberately and directly attacked Khalil and Faraj, with apparent knowledge that they were civilians. The organisations called for the attacks to be investigated as war crimes, while HRW called for states to halt arm sales to Israel and put targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes.
Just wondering is there any negative to adding lifesavers to my Onewheel XR+? I was reading it can change the tire shape and make it more round, is that a good thing? I'm changing my wheel for the first time to an Enduro and I'm debating if I should add lifesavers, the cost isn't an issue, I'm just worried it will affect the ride negatively.
While some users say the wearables have changed their lives, critics voice fears over safety and privacy
With more than 7m pairs reportedly sold in 2025, Meta’s Ray-Ban smartglasses are fast becoming one of the world’s most popular gadgets.
While supporters say they are transforming photography and accessibility, critics have raised concerns about nonconsensual filming, privacy and data collection.
Tech giant Meta revealed Wednesday that one of its artificial intelligence models hacked another organization during testing, the third time in recent weeks that an AI model has improperly accessed a third-party company.
I’m buying my board from a local store, and i’m ordering rail guards but obviously still want to go ride yet really dont want to scratch up my brand new $2500 baby. it’s gonna take 2+ weeks for my rails to arrive, what to do until then?
I saw somewhere online someone using duct tape as rail guards, will that even work? anyone have any better ideas? im going to he super careful until they get here regardless!
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Scientists have captured images of the sun's surface in the finest detail yet, revealing a strange and dynamic facade. It's dangerous to look directly at the sun without proper eye protection. But researchers were able to peek at its scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
Scientists originally took the images for a different reason: to fine-tune and test the limits of the telescope. But when they looked at the results, they realized they'd photographed the sun's bright outer shell at higher resolution than ever before. What's more, they saw strange feathery patterns rippling across the surface. "That reminds me of famous paintings, like the swirling skies in Van Gogh's Starry Night," said solar physicist Ruizhu Chen with Stanford University, who was not involved with the new research.
Researchers saw ripples of instability on the sun's surface caused by bits of magnetized plasma moving past each other at different speeds -- similar to waves that stir when a gust of wind blows over water. It's a well-known phenomenon that guides how fluids move. This has been glimpsed on Earth and other planets like Jupiter and Saturn, but "it has not been observed ever at that level on the solar surface," according to study co-author Friedrich Woger with the National Solar Observatory. The findings were published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
After Ukraine failed to shoot down a single ballistic missile fired by Russia on Wednesday, the president urged allies to increase supplies of Patriot interceptors
Nato is working to get Ukraine the air defences it “urgently needs”, its secretary general has said, after Kyiv failed to shoot down a single Russian missile in an attack on Wednesday, and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow was seeking to significantly boost missile production ahead of winter.
Speaking at a National Security and Defense Council meeting on winter resilience, the Ukrainian president did not rule out the idea that stalling missile supplies from western allies were “aimed at making Ukraine, so to speak, more willing to compromise” in peace talks with Russia.
Jeanine John Taele faces new weapons charges as details of ‘suspicious’ behavior ahead of president’s visit emerge
A California man who was arrested at Donald Trump’s Los Angeles-area golf course ahead of a presidential visit is facing more charges, as authorities released new details about the investigation.
Authorities say federal agents first observed 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele near the golf grounds in Rancho Palos Verdes on 31 July, wearing an earpiece and capturing photographs and videos of security agents assessing the property.
Company is the third to report such an incident after Anthropic and OpenAI reported breaches during training
Meta said on Wednesday that one of its AI models hacked another company during cybersecurity testing, after an error by its testing partner gave the model unintended internet access.
The incident adds to a growing list of cases in which AI agents from major developers breached systems at other companies during testing, after Anthropic said last week that some of its models hacked three companies, and OpenAI disclosed that an AI agent breached the startup Hugging Face.
MAINE — Tucker Carlson unveiled a 10-point political manifesto Wednesday that could serve as the foundation for a third-party movement challenging both the Republican establishment and President Donald Trump.
The former Fox News host stopped short of announcing a party or 2028 presidential campaign. He described the platform as a shared vision for “whatever comes next,” weeks after saying he intended to help build an alternative to the two major parties. Carlson recently hosted dissident MAGA figures at his Maine home, where some reportedly encouraged him to run for president.
Carlson’s 10 principles were:
Fair: Laws should apply equally to presidents, federal agents and wealthy elites. He cited Jeffrey Epstein as a symbol of an insulated ruling class.
Sovereign: The United States should reject foreign influence, corporate control and predatory debt. Carlson accused Israel of pushing America into war with Iran.
Productive: The country should rebuild manufacturing, farming and skilled trades instead of relying on finance, speculation, surveillance and weapons production.
Beautiful: Carlson condemned brutalist architecture, graffiti, public drug use and urban decay, alleging that powerful planners deliberately degraded American communities.
Healthy: He embraced Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s food agenda, promoted sobriety and criticized widespread reliance on Xanax, Adderall and antidepressants.
Honest: Government officials should face punishment for deceiving the public, while most classified records concerning events such as the Kennedy assassination and September 11 should be released.
Optimistic: Carlson presented marriage and parenthood as foundations for long-term social stability, arguing that aging and childless elites disregard future generations.
Wise: Schools should emphasize practical knowledge and what Carlson called permanent truths about human nature, including differences between men and women.
Decent: The United States should apologize and provide restitution for civilian deaths, reverse Trump’s “Department of War” name change and stop supporting allies Carlson accuses of genocide.
United: Carlson proposed halting immigration while the effects of artificial intelligence become clearer, ending public benefits for undocumented immigrants and requiring English on federal documents and ballots.
The manifesto combines economic populism, noninterventionist foreign policy, social conservatism and hard-line immigration restrictions. Carlson’s breakaway faction includes former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Rep. Thomas Massie and former Trump counterterrorism official Joe Kent. Its members accuse Trump of abandoning “America First” through the Iran war, his handling of the Epstein files and continued support for Israel. The White House dismissed the group as politically irrelevant, while Trump remains the dominant figure within the Republican Party.
1 year with my GT started off rough with an out of round tire but changed it out with new one Fm sent for free. Almost 1300 miles in and love the thing, hopefully many more to come. Float on my friends.
Researchers were able to peek at the sun's scorching surface with the help of the National Science Foundation's Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope, located on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
SeaWorld San Antonio welcomed seven more beluga whales on Tuesday, the latest development in the international effort to relocate dozens of the mammals from shuttered Canadian theme park Marineland.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — President Donald Trump dismissed unfavorable economic polling as “fake” Wednesday while claiming the United States has “the greatest economy we’ve ever had by far.”
Trump made the remarks during a Las Vegas speech promoting Republican tax policies. His sweeping claim is unsupported by current economic data. Real gross domestic product grew at a modest 1.5% annualized rate during the second quarter, while inflation, elevated interest rates, housing shortages and energy costs continue pressuring households. The economy is not among the worst in American history, but it remains weak and unaffordable for many people despite strong financial markets.
A Reuters/Ipsos survey found Trump’s overall approval at 35%. Respondents preferred Democrats over Republicans on managing the economy by 37% to 36%, marking the Democrats’ first advantage on the issue in nearly a decade. Only 22% approved of Trump’s handling of household living costs in an earlier survey.
Trump rejected the findings without providing evidence that the surveys were fraudulent. He also claimed his actual polling numbers were the strongest of his career and credited tax cuts, foreign investment and border enforcement.
The divide between headline market performance and household finances helps explain the political problem. Rising stock values benefit investors, but many voters judge the economy through grocery bills, gasoline prices, rent, mortgage rates and healthcare costs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s proposed fleet of nuclear-powered battleships could cost approximately $275 billion to develop and purchase, according to a new Congressional Budget Office analysis.
The nonpartisan agency estimates that the first of 15 planned vessels, the USS Defiant, would cost roughly $23.4 billion. Each additional ship could average about $18 billion, with the full program extending through 2056. The first vessel may require at least eight years to construct.
Trump unveiled the battleships in December as the centerpiece of his planned “Golden Fleet,” promising vessels larger, faster and substantially more powerful than previous American warships. The Navy later selected nuclear propulsion instead of the originally proposed gas-turbine engines, increasing the program’s cost and technical complexity.
The administration wants construction to begin quickly, but lawmakers from both parties have questioned the Navy’s request for $1 billion in advance procurement funding before completing the design, cost analysis and operational requirements.
Sen. Jeff Merkley, who requested the CBO review, called the proposal a potential military “boondoggle.” Sen. Jack Reed separately questioned whether massive surface ships fit modern warfare, which increasingly emphasizes distributed forces, submarines, drones and long-range missiles.
The Navy also faces persistent shipyard capacity problems and delays across existing destroyer and submarine programs, raising further doubts about the fleet’s proposed schedule.
Burmese pythons are an invasive species in the Everglades, and the challenge is part of initiative to remove them
The winner of this year’s annual Florida Python Challenge hunted down and eliminated 96 invasive Burmese pythons from the Everglades national park, as part of an initiative to remove hundreds of the snakes from the area every year.
The challenge invites hunters to participate in 10 days of capturing and humanely euthanizing as many of the invasive snakes as possible across eight designated hunting locations, with the winner taking home a cash prize of $10,000. The event is hosted by Florida fish, wildlife and conservation (FWC), the south Florida water management district, the National Park Service and others.
Over the course of Donald Trump’s second term, Democratic voters have expressed dissatisfaction with their party over what many view as an inability to stand up to the president and his broader movement. That dissatisfaction with the establishment has manifested in primaries in coastal cities across the country, where the progressive movement appears to be ascendant. On Tuesday, that test played out in Midwestern states, Michigan and Missouri.
Within roughly two hours of polls closing, The Associated Press called the closely watched rematch between Cori Bush and Rep. Wesley Bell for the incumbent. In 2024, AIPAC and other outside groups spent more than $18 million to oust Bush from her Missouri district, and her defeat, along with New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s, has served as a warning sign for Democrats not to be too progressive or too pro-Palestine.
But by Wednesday morning, Abdul El-Sayed, who ran on Medicare for All and ending military aid to Israel for its continued genocide in Gaza, narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens by less than 20,000 votes. According to AdImpact, the Michigan Democratic Senate primary saw $98 million in ad spending and reservations. At least $60 million was spent boosting Stevens or attacking El-Sayed, with more than $30 million from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s super PAC, United Democracy Project — its largest spend in a single race ever, nearly double the then-record-breaking amount spent on Bowman’s 2024 primary race.
This week on The Intercept Briefing, host Jessica Washington and colleagues Akela Lacy and Jonah Valdez discuss what results from Tuesday’s primaries signal for progressives and the broader left in the Democratic Party, especially in swing states and outside of coastal cities.
For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Transcript
Jessica Washington: Welcome to the Intercept Briefing. I’m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept.
Akela Lacy: And I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter.
Jonah Valdez: And I’m Jonah Valdez. I cover politics and U.S. foreign policy.
JW: We’re in your feed a bit early this week to talk about two major primaries we’ve been reporting on at The Intercept.
Over the nearly two years on this podcast, we’ve been covering voters’ dissatisfaction with Democrats over what many view as an inability to stand up to President Donald Trump and his broader movement. That dissatisfaction has manifested in primaries in cities across the country, from New York to Colorado and California, where the progressive movement appears to be ascendant.
That test came to the Midwest on Tuesday in Michigan and Missouri. In Missouri, former squad member Cori Bush lost her rematch against Rep. Wesley Bell, who received the bulk of outside spending, primarily from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. In 2024, AIPAC and other groups poured a collective $18 million into the race to defeat her.
In Michigan, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed narrowly defeated Rep. Haley Stevens in a win for progressives after AIPAC-aligned super PACs and others poured close to $100 million into the race, according to AdImpact. This week on The Intercept Briefing, you’ll hear what the results from Tuesday’s primaries signal for progressives and the broader left in the Democratic Party, especially in swing states and outside of coastal cities.
Jonah, Akela, I really want to get your reactions to El-Sayed winning the Democratic Michigan Senate primary.
JV: Well, it was a long night, and AP called it pretty early — at least here where I am on the West Coast. And I think my initial reaction is, a win’s a win. I think results were a lot closer than what the polls had showed leading up to it.
I think it’s worth noting that Abdul El-Sayed was massively outspent in this race. Overall, nearly $100 million in the Senate primary. It’s the most expensive Democratic primary ever, but the majority of which was spent in outside spending to either attack El-Sayed or boost the campaign of Stevens.
Yet El-Sayed pulls off this very close win with a vote total, I think it’s worth noting, that’s greater than the more moderate Elissa Slotkin got in her primary in 2024. More similar to closer margins we saw in the presidential primary between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton in 2016.
JW: For our listeners at home, Elissa Slotkin is the senator who beat Mike Rogers in 2024. Mike Rogers is the presumptive Republican nominee who El-Sayed will be facing in the November election.
JV: And you’re already seeing online, all this talk from moderates as far as where El-Sayed may have failed, as if to show progressive policies still don’t do well, or, all this talk of how can El-Sayed moderate more in the general.
But I think if Dems are serious about getting a Senate majority, I think it’s more so on moderates to appeal to what the majority of voters in Michigan decided today. And that’s that it’s the politics of the El-Sayed campaign.
“If Dems are serious about getting a Senate majority, I think it’s more so on moderates to appeal to what the majority of voters in Michigan decided today.”
AL: My reaction, obviously NBC projected overnight that El-Sayed would win, and so his campaign claimed victory overnight, and everyone was waiting well into the morning for the final results.
But in that interim period, you basically saw the shift in conversation go from everyone having that election-night anticipation to everyone churning out takes about why the polling that showed El-Sayed up by double digits in the final weeks of the race had been so far off. Making conjectures about counties where Stevens outperformed him and extrapolating that to the November general election, making claims that El-Sayed is going to have to make up a lot of ground with Black or working-class voters in counties that Stevens performed better in.
But I think that immediate pivot is really telling in a lot of ways because this was the most expensive [Democratic] Senate primary in history, and we saw the most spending ever from not just the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, but all of these other corporate PACs to boost Haley Stevens.
She came into this race in the first spot with backing from the Democratic Party and lost. And I think to ignore the massive failure on the part of the party in that vein and to instead put those failures on El-Sayed is a really backwards reading of what happened last night.
“To ignore the massive failure on the part of the party in that vein and to instead put those failures on El-Sayed is a really backwards reading of what happened last night.”
JW: Akela, to your point about the money, and Jonah, I want to bring you into this, did the money make a difference? It was the most expensive Democratic [Senate] primary in history, and did the spending here change the outcome? Obviously, El-Sayed won anyway, but, did this have an impact?
AL: I think it would be folly to argue that it didn’t have an impact. It’s still very early. We don’t have all of the information, but there’s anecdotal reports of voters saying that they thought that Obama endorsed Haley Stevens. I actually haven’t seen anyone talking about individual responses to the AIPAC attacks, but that narrative out there that Abdul El-Sayed is the biggest threat to the U.S.–Israel relationship or to American Jews or Jewish voters in Michigan, that’s been out there this entire race.
And so I think that certainly had an effect. But I’ve also seen some people saying, “Oh, you can’t just make the argument that voters who voted for Haley Stevens or who were swayed by these ads are stupid.” I don’t think anyone’s saying they’re stupid. But it’s unrealistic to try to make an argument that this money had no effect in this race.
JV: Yeah, it absolutely made a difference. Speaking with people in Michigan throughout the summer and really starting, early July, just like a flood of attack ads against El-Sayed. They were pretty much omnipresent if you were watching TV. Mind you, this was around the World Cup, so people were seeing this on primetime television immediately after a game ended.
Someone I spoke to said the second ad right after is an attack ad calling Abdul El-Sayed, I think, hateful toward women, and other ones painted him as a terrorist sympathizer trying to tie him to Hasan Piker and comments he made. Painting this whole vision that he is too radical for Michigan. It is the outside spending propping that up, but on top of that, like trying to make this ideological argument.
JW: And just for anyone who doesn’t know Hasan Piker is the popular Twitch streamer who’s been campaigning with progressives and who Republicans and Democrats have been weaponizing against progressives implying with, I would argue, pretty Islamophobic attacks that these candidates are anti-American and that they believe everything that Piker believes.
JV: I think it’s worth remembering that there was a point in this race when it was essentially a three-way tie between El-Sayed, Stevens, and Mallory McMorrow, who would eventually drop out. The conventional thinking at the time was that the more that voters see of Stevens, the more it would consolidate around McMorrow and El-Sayed, that Stevens would back off and would drop off in the polls because of AIPAC being such a big issue in the race.
Around the same time as polls were reflecting that, that’s when AIPAC’s super PAC, United Democracy Project, dropped in tens and tens of millions of dollars. This is the correlated result that you get.
Stevens also has this history with AIPAC as far as the why they spent for her. AIPAC and corporate groups saw Stevens as a candidate that aligns with their policy positions. Stevens of course in 2019 took that freshman trip sponsored by AIPAC to Israel. And worth mentioning in 2022 she received millions in support in her race against former congressman Andy Levin, who was attacked over his support for a Palestinian state.
On the other side of that coin, of course, is AIPAC saw a candidate in El-Sayed who opposes their positions on Israel.
JW: Akela, I want to turn to you for a second. I know that the United Democracy Project, a super PAC backed by AIPAC, as you both have mentioned, spent a ton of money in this race. I know that came up in your conversation with El-Sayed last week. Now that you’ve had some time to reflect on that conversation, were there any takeaways for you about how he was thinking about money and politics, and specifically the massive amount of money that was spent on his election?
AL: The core of El-Sayed’s argument this entire race was that he was the antithesis to big money in politics. Not just spending on a race, but talking about money in politics being the reason that we don’t have policies like Medicare for All, that we can’t change sort of the status quo on U.S. military support for Israel, that being a driving factor for why many voters ended up supporting somebody like Donald Trump.
Looking back on the way that El-Sayed messaged on these things, he was right. The question was, like, how much do voters actually care about that thing? And I think the breakdown came between voters who support a candidate like Stevens and don’t necessarily care about the money coming in to support her.
People talk a lot about the enthusiasm gap — that supporters of El-Sayed were much more enthusiastically supportive of him in a positive way than supporters of Stevens who might have been supporting her because they were familiar with her, they felt like she was more of a predictable candidate, or because they didn’t want to vote for somebody like El-Sayed.
“That enthusiasm gap is why you see that kind of money coming into the race.”
That enthusiasm gap is why you see that kind of money coming into the race. He made the point over and over again: “If your candidate is so electable, why do you have to spend $60 million to put them in office?” Part of that is his campaign strategy, but I think it’s a pretty unimpeachable argument, right? If they didn’t need that kind of boost to put their candidate in office — and obviously it didn’t work — why would you make that kind of investment?
Coming out of this, there’s all kinds of people trying to spin this to say, “Oh, the money advantage has changed this cycle.” We’ve seen other candidates who had the money advantage lose, but I think that sort of discounts exactly how much money went into this race. I think there was almost $100 million spent in total on the Michigan Senate race. Which is crazy! Just on its face. If you’re on the opposite side of that spending, the obvious question is, “OK, if your candidate is so good, then why do you have to do all of this to help them win?”
The takeaway that a lot of people have from this, whether they’re supportive of El-Sayed or whether they’re upset about Haley Stevens, is that, I don’t think the era of big money in politics is over, but obviously the ground is shifting.
JW: Jonah, I want to come back to the Islamophobia in the race that you reported on. Obviously, we saw these attacks both from Democrats and Republicans, and as we head into November, we can only imagine that these attacks are going to intensify and I would argue become more Islamophobic as Republicans pick up some of these attacks that Democrats had dropped in the primary.
What do you think is going to happen in the general election, and how are you anticipating Islamophobia to show up in this race?
JV: We’re already seeing it this morning. The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm, they released their first ads this morning, and of course, they refer to Abdul El-Sayed by his full name, they are tying him again to Hasan Piker, using phrasing that El-Sayed is too radical. These are all out of the playbook from the primary that the Michigan GOP had rolled out that Mike Rogers had rolled out.
And on top of that, I’m glad you noted that it’s not just the Republicans who have been weaponizing Islamophobia, it’s also the Democratic establishment and AIPAC through its, again, super PAC, [United Democracy Project], just pouring and pouring all these ads that are again painting Abdul El-Sayed, who is Muslim and Arab, as a sympathizer to terrorism. That, on top of these unfounded claims of his hatred toward women. Speaking to several leading experts in Islamophobia, they were identifying these as pretty troubling anti-Muslim and anti-Arab tropes that have been around in American politics for years now.
One person mentioned that it reminded them of the early attacks on Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008, and that leaked photo that Hillary Clinton’s campaign at the time put out showing him in traditional Somalian elder attire. And so, I think we could expect these kinds of attacks to only accelerate, especially at a time when Islamophobia is pretty common in GOP rhetoric right now.
We saw it leading up to the campaign of Zohran Mamdani in New York for his mayoral seat. We see it very regularly from representatives in the House like Randy Fine, who folks like him in his part of the world essentially believe that no Muslims should serve in Congress at all.
“Republicans are still betting that these old tactics can still work before a broader electorate.”
They’re drawing these hard, very bigoted lines. They’re successful politically in a lot of spaces. Republicans are still betting that these old tactics can still work before a broader electorate. Today’s victory, though, in spite of all of the attack ads in the primary, kind of shows that those older tactics may not be as effective as they were, say, a decade ago or 20 years ago.
What we’re seeing this morning with these new ads, is a preview of what’s to come. It’s only going to get worse as the GOP plays to its MAGA base. But El-Sayed has shown that he has the capacity to overcome this, and I think that boils down to just how far the electorate has evolved on this and just aren’t as susceptible to such blatant racism.
JW: One thing I’ve been wondering is whether or not, as we head into November, establishment Democrats are going to protect El-Sayed and actually stand up against these Islamophobic attacks.
We’ve seen Democrats dance around these attacks on Ilhan Omar, sometimes defending against them, but often adding fuel to the fire. So I think come November or before November even, it’ll be interesting to see if Democrats actually intervene and do something about these kinds of racist, Islamophobic attacks.
AL: It’s a good question, Jessie, and already this morning we’ve seen Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who run the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee endorse El-Sayed. We saw the Senate Majority PAC come in and endorse him. Even Haley Stevens endorsed him. But lest we forget, four days ago, Haley Stevens was saying that El-Sayed blamed all of his problems on Jewish voters with the backing of many of these people in the party.
So yeah, I think the question of whether they will specifically address the Islamophobic attacks is a totally different question from whether they are going to consolidate around him, which they are, because they obviously need the seat.
[Break]
JW: Obviously, this was a really interesting race, and we’ve all been watching it, but I want to talk about some other races that happened last night as well.
So Akela, I know you’ve been watching House District 7 in Michigan, where William Lawrence, founder of the Sunrise Movement, won the Democratic primary. Akela, can you tell us a little bit about him and the dynamics of that race?
AL: Will Lawrence — many people may remember him because of the late-breaking oppo story about him saying that the left had been defanged by Black members of Congress. But prior to that, Will Lawrence had run a pretty textbook progressive campaign from the left, but he really was one of the first candidates this cycle who we saw center their campaign around the issue of data centers.
And I think in some of the analysis that we’ve seen coming out of his win, which was one of the early calls last night is that that is a winning argument particularly for progressive campaigns, but also in states where communities are fighting data centers.
We’ve seen this, I don’t want to say people are treating the data-center issue as like a panacea, but we have seen that come up in a lot of campaigns and a lot of analysis, suggesting that’s potentially a through line where progressives can overcome some of the obstacles that they might have faced around other “controversial policies,” and that data centers is, like, this reasonable policy that progressives are adopting that’s helping to boost their campaigns.
I think that’s a narrative that’s really coming out of Will Lawrence’s race. I will also mention that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee backed Lawrence shortly after he won, which is a pretty big deal.
JV: And just to add with Lawrence, he is in the 7th Michigan district, which is considered a purple district, and it’s currently held by a Republican incumbent. So I think moving ahead to the general, I think similar to El-Sayed’s race against Mike Rogers, is that, a lot of people will be looking at this as a test of how these anti-corporate, anti-data center, and unabashedly pro-Palestinian politics play in a general election in a district that is very much considered a swing district.
“A lot of people will be looking at this as a test of how these anti-corporate, anti-data center, and unabashedly pro-Palestinian politics play in a general election in a district that is very much considered a swing district.”
JW: Yeah. No, I can definitely see that.
I want to turn to another state, Missouri. Within roughly two hours of polls closing, The Associated Press called the closely watched — for me at least, probably a little bit less for the rest of the news ecosystem — but the closely watched rematch between Cori Bush and Rep. Wesley Bell in Bell’s favor.
So in 2024, AIPAC and other groups had spent more than $18 million to oust her from her Missouri district. Akela, we’ve both spoken to members of Congress who have seen her defeat as a warning sign to not be so progressive, to not be so pro-Palestine. We’ve been chatting in the newsroom in our politics meetings about whether or not this race says anything about progressives and the progressive movement right now, or does it just say something about Bush and her campaign?
AL: I don’t think that this race says anything about the viability of pro-Palestine candidates. To make that argument, you would have to close your eyes to all of the last three months, basically. I think this was a race about Cori Bush and Wesley Bell. And for all the criticisms of Wesley Bell, people like him in this district.
Turnout in the city of St. Louis, Cori Bush’s base, was pretty high. It was 30 percent. That was around the levels that we saw when she won reelection in 2022, and that was not enough to counteract the support that Wesley Bell got from St. Louis County, where more older Black voters who support him tend to live.
What I heard from supporters of Bush was that some people thought she was going to lose, but they didn’t think it would be by this much. A lot of people thought she was going to win; they were obviously wrong. I don’t think you can make the argument that the AIPAC money in this race is the only reason that she lost.
“I don’t think you can make the argument that the AIPAC money in this race is the only reason that she lost.”
There was a pretty effective campaign to saddle her with baggage from these stories about what happened to the tornado relief money that she raised, and her husband being probed over a pandemic loan fraud, and all of these things we talked about and she chalked up to political attacks.
But I think people in the district were not necessarily swayed by those issue, but it left a bad taste in their mouth. And it’s the kind of thing where I’m not sure that Wesley Bell would’ve won if a different candidate was was challenging him, just given the frustration both with incumbents and with AIPAC money.
Bush’s campaign also suffered because she didn’t have the marquee progressive support that we’ve seen boost candidates in other races, like rallies with Bernie Sanders and AOC. Bernie Sanders endorsed her, but nobody came to campaign with her. Justice Democrats endorsed her, but they didn’t spend money on the race.
The money that was spent in favor of Bush was just around $200,000 — that means that progressive groups didn’t take this race seriously. And for one reason or another, it’s kind of a chicken or the egg thing. Had they taken it seriously, could she have won, or did they not take it seriously because they didn’t think she was going to win?
At the end of the day, this was more of a race about Cori Bush and Wesley Bell than it was a bigger test of all these other issues. And Wesley Bell is the kind of person who has, aside from taking AIPAC money, you can’t really say a lot else about him because he doesn’t really do a lot — and I think that works in his favor, for better or for worse.
JW: And Jonah, I wanted to get your thoughts as well. If you’ve spoken to Cori Bush, she is unlike any other politician. She very much speaks and feels like an organizer. Just watching her navigate the political system and struggle to navigate the political system has been really interesting. But Jonah, I wanted to see if you had any thoughts about this race as well?
JV: I think it’s worth noting that she was very much ahead of the curve on a lot of the politics that we’re seeing succeed in this midterm primary elections. And, I think to Akela’s point, seeing the success, like the massive success across the U.S. on, the same platform that she’s running on, and something that she’s ran on since she was first elected, and was among the early politicians to call the genocide in Gaza a genocide.
“She was very much ahead of the curve on a lot of the politics that we’re seeing succeed in this midterm primary elections.”
As yours and Akela’s reporting had noted in 2024, was very early with the ceasefire resolution, as we know there’s still no ceasefire in Gaza. These are things that she was very much ahead in the curve on and is still very much a leader in that space. Her losing in this election doesn’t necessarily mean that those values don’t do well before the electorate.
JW: Akela, to your point, I’ve seen some analysis suggesting that a lot of progressive attention was spent on Michigan. Do you think that played a role in why there wasn’t as much spending or attention or any on-the-ground mobilization from progressive groups? Was all of their focus on Michigan?
AL: I wouldn’t say there was no on-the-ground mobilization. [Democratic Socialists of America], the St. Louis DSA endorsed her, and the St. Louis chapter was canvassing for her, and they had a pretty well-run canvassing operation to what I understand. But that’s not enough. I think they potentially miscalculated because of the boost that DSA gave to other candidates in New York and Colorado, I think they assumed that would be enough to put her over the edge.
But yeah, in conversations with progressive strategists who work on these races, the reason that they didn’t put as many resources into this race is absolutely because they put all of them into Michigan. The caveat here is that even while groups like Justice Democrats or the new pro-Palestine PAC, American Priorities, are spending more than they ever have on these races — in part because of how much money corporate PACs and the pro-Israel lobby have spent against their candidates in previous cycles — is that there’s still only a handful of these groups.
They simply do not have the capacity to triage every race in a cycle or even every race in a week. People were like, “I wish another group bucked up and came in and put more money in this race for her.” But it wasn’t going to be [Justice Democrats] because they had Donavan McKinney. It wasn’t going to be American Priorities, probably because they didn’t want to sully their positive track record so far by making a massive investment in a race where the candidate already had a lot of problems.
All of these calculations went into the fact that the focus on Michigan probably affected this race, but again, I don’t think you can say, one way or the other, if all these groups came in and spent a bunch of money for her that it would’ve changed the outcome. We just don’t have enough information right now to say that.
JW: I want to talk about democratic socialist Francesca Hong, who is currently having clips about her takes on Thanksgiving and raising a biracial child taken, I would argue, a little bit out of context.
But I do want to talk about that race because she’s a democratic socialist who is currently leading in the polls for governor in Wisconsin against the more moderate candidate, David Crowley, and that race is coming up next week. Akela, can you just briefly talk about the dynamics at play here?
AL: Francesca Hong, a democratic socialist state lawmaker in Wisconsin who has been leading the polls in the Wisconsin gubernatorial primary. This is a situation where, I mean, why is CNN asking this woman about a tweet about canceling Thanksgiving? That’s my question. I don’t care what she thinks about Thanksgiving. That’s not a policy that the governor of Wisconsin has power over.
The fact that this is what this race has come down to at this point is a reflection of how much these outlets and mainstream forces are working to tear down and poke holes in what is clearly a substantive movement against the Democratic establishment. I’m not saying Francesca Hong is perfect, but I think these interviews and these clips of her making these comments are less about her than they are about how much fear she strikes in the heart of the establishment apparatus.
These clips “are less about her than they are about how much fear she strikes in the heart of the establishment apparatus.”
I’ve talked to a lot of people in Wisconsin, people who are supporting Hong’s campaign and see this race as a real opportunity again to put this question of can progressive politics win in the Midwest? This is what Perry Bacon Jr. wrote about the New Republic earlier this week. I thought this was a really great piece, and we’ve talked about this, Jessie. Pointing to people like Tammy Duckworth and Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown who were progressives prior to their races in the Midwest, and then won those races, whether or not they fashioned themselves as a progressive or not.
The polling that has shown her ahead — a lot of people have questions about that now, given how blown out of proportion the polling was for El-Sayed. But I think, pairing that question with the criticisms of “Oh, she’s talking about her proximity to whiteness and marrying a white guy and having a biracial child and talking about canceling Thanksgiving.” There’s a reason they’re not talking about her actual policy platform.
“ There’s a reason they’re not talking about her actual policy platform.”
It’s frustrating because like what happens when you have real “working-class” candidates or candidates who are running on policies to help the working class elevated to this level of national attention, you don’t get the polished Abdul El-Sayed soundbite answers that we were seeing in the Michigan race. People take that and run with it in a way that is pretty hollow in a lot of cases, and that’s what we’re seeing with Francesca Hong.
JW: I’d have to agree. What I think about — and I am a former debate kid, so this is no shade to debate people — but there is an extent to which our politics just feels like how good are you at giving a speech and essentially being a good debate kid, and has nothing to do with your policies.
I also don’t understand why we’re focusing on her attitudes about her child and how she’s planning on raising them, or how she thinks about Thanksgiving and whether or not it should exist. It’s not like she said anything completely out of left field.
But as we begin to pivot from primaries to midterm elections, what do you make of progressive’s chances in places outside of the coast in November? I know that we already talked about Perry Bacon’s piece, which, by the way, people should read. It’s called “Can Progressive Candidates Win in Swing States? They Already Have.” But what are you thinking about progressives’ chances? Jonah, I want to actually take this question to you and see what you’re thinking.
JV: Yeah, as Michigan has shown us and as possibly looking ahead to Wisconsin next week, the margins are still very close and these races are very embattled and bitter.
But I think the success that we’re seeing with Abdul El-Sayed, with Will Lawrence, who we talked about, and as well as Donavan McKinney, who we haven’t talked about yet. These are folks who are running on very progressive, unabashedly pro-Palestine campaigns. And I think it’s worth mentioning Donavan McKinney was also endorsed by the Detroit Metro DSA chapter as well and mobilizing for him.
DSA also mobilized very heavily for El-Sayed, even though he himself is not a member of DSA and has called himself a capitalist and someone who wants to regulate capitalism and not necessarily stands for socialist policies. But I think that’s proving the theory right that it’s not just confined to the coasts, and this is less of an ideological battle when it comes to voters.
A lot of experts and analysts will say that people don’t vote based on ideological lines. They vote on their pocketbooks. The adage of, it’s the economy. And these progressive platforms are playing directly to that on top of people’s dissatisfaction with the establishment.
I think to Akela’s point, right-wing media, corporate liberal media like CNN, can play up all of these culture war questions constantly of Thanksgiving, holidays. For the case of El-Sayed, it was a question of why he felt the need to have sympathy for some of his Muslim constituents in Dearborn or would-be constituents in Dearborn. It’s questions like this that have nothing to do with actual legitimate policy questions. In that case, it’s like there was zero questioning, we’re talking about Iran and the killing of Iran’s leader. There were zero questions about should we be in this war with Iran? Should we have killed how many civilians we’ve killed in that war? Or backing Israel’s war in Lebanon and continued war in Gaza. These are the kind of policy questions that a lot of Americans are fed up with. Polling also shows total dissatisfaction with military spending, as opposed to spending it on healthcare and education.
Progressives, regardless of the coasts or in the Midwest, are continuing to hammer that in, of, your taxpayer dollars can be spent and should be spent in way more effective ways that meet your needs and not the needs of the greater American empire, if you will.
JW: Yeah, and just for everyone listening you referred to state Rep Donavan McKinney, who defeated U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, the incumbent candidate in Michigan’s 13th District on Tuesday night.
And that’s honestly all of the time that we have here. But thank you all so much for joining me on The Intercept Briefing, staying up late, waking up early, putting in the real work.
AL: Thank you, Jessie.
JV: Thank you.
JW: We want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re following or want to see more coverage of. Email us at podcast@theintercept.com or leave us a voicemail at 530-POD-CAST, that’s 530-763-2278
That does it for this episode. This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Legal review by David Bralow.
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TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has opened a civil investigation into former federal health official Anthony Fauci, seeking records concerning COVID-19 guidance, grants and potential financial or professional benefits.
Uthmeier’s office issued a subpoena requesting documents dating to January 2020. The inquiry covers awards Fauci sought or received, communications with vaccine manufacturers, interactions with Florida businesses and media outlets, and efforts that may have produced personal financial benefits.
The Republican attorney general said the investigation will examine whether Fauci personally profited from recommendations that affected Florida residents and businesses. His office suggested the conduct could implicate state laws involving fraud, deceptive trade practices or public nuisance, but it has not announced evidence establishing a violation.
The probe follows Republican senators’ release of writings attributed to Fauci from the pandemic period. Fauci recently invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a contentious Senate hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul, who has repeatedly accused him of misleading Congress. Fauci has denied wrongdoing and characterized the scrutiny as politically motivated.
Former President Joe Biden issued Fauci a preemptive federal pardon covering government service, but that would not necessarily prevent a state civil investigation.
Uthmeier, appointed attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2025, faces voters for the first time in November. No court has found Fauci liable for misconduct related to Florida’s pandemic response.
New Jersey’s governor announced that “a software error” in the state’s motor vehicle registration system resulted in 6,600 noncitizens being improperly added to the state’s voter registration list. The state’s preliminary investigation found that up to 400 votes were cast by noncitizens, far fewer than the “thousands of votes” claimed by President Donald Trump.
Trump has seized on the incident as validation of his longtime but unsupported claims about massive numbers of noncitizens voting.
“Well, you saw what happened, they caught thousands of votes in New Jersey where illegal aliens were allowed to vote,” Trump said on July 22, a day after New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat, made the announcement. “Thousands and thousands of votes. They voted in favor of the transgender mutilization of your children and in favor of — in favor of men playing in women’s sports. Isn’t that lovely? They voted against lower energy prices, lower car prices, and bigger paychecks for everyone. They voted against every one of these things.”
Trump again cited the New Jersey case during a speech on July 27 when making a push for the SAVE America Act, which includes a photo ID requirement for voting and proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections. Election experts have said the bill’s specific requirements would make it difficult for some legitimate voters to cast a vote. (New Jersey does not require photo ID at polling places, in most cases, but some form of identification is required if a voter does not provide valid ID at the time of registration.) Despite the president’s advocacy, the SAVE America Act has stalled in the Senate.
“You read recently in New Jersey, where tremendous numbers of people were found out that they were on the voter rolls totally illegally, and that’s all over the country,” Trump said. “That’s nothing compared to what’s going on in California and Minnesota and so many other states.”
Trump’s claim about rampant noncitizen voting around the country is unsupported. As we have written, experts have found that voting in federal elections by noncitizens is relatively rare. The conservative Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database has documented a little over 100 cases of noncitizens who have been convicted of illegally voting or registering to vote since 1982. But let’s look at New Jersey, specifically, where Trump said “tremendous numbers” of noncitizens were found — “totally illegally” — on voter rolls.
The July 21 announcement by Sherrill represents a significant batch of noncitizen registration and voting. But the number of votes was too small to change the outcome of any federal election in New Jersey.
To put the numbers in some perspective, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris beat Trump in New Jersey’s 2024 presidential race by more than 252,000 votes. Even if all 400 noncitizens voted one way — and Sherrill noted “they were registered as Democrats, Republicans, and the majority unaffiliated, and were scattered across the state” — it would not have been enough to swing the presidential election. “We have no evidence at this time that any elections were swayed,” Sherrill said.
Sherrill said that the noncitizens were inadvertently registered “through no fault of their own.”
We should note that Trump also called the noncitizens who voted in New Jersey “illegal aliens.” We don’t know the legal status of those who were improperly registered to vote, nor of those who voted. But about half of noncitizens living in the U.S. are estimated to be “unauthorized,” according to the Immigration Research Initiative. In other words, about half of noncitizens in the U.S. are lawful permanent residents (green card holders) or temporary legal visa holders, such as workers and students. In addition, “among people who are unauthorized are a very significant number who the government has given some protection from deportation,” the Immigration Research Initiative notes. For example, many have pending asylum cases or have been extended Temporary Protected Status or humanitarian parole.
How Noncitizens Got on Voter Rolls
In her press conference on July 21, Sherrill said that she recently discovered that between June 2023 and June 2024 “a serious software error” in the state’s motor vehicle registration system led to 6,600 noncitizens being put on the state’s voter rolls.
“When New Jerseyans applied for a driver’s license or identification at the MVC [Motor Vehicle Commission], they were asked if they wanted to register to vote,” Sherrill said. “In the case of this error, some individuals indicated that they weren’t citizens and weren’t eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway.”
A voter casts their ballot at the Babbio Center on Nov. 5, 2024, in Hoboken, New Jersey. Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images.
The contractor, IDEMIA, based in France, said its software performed according to state specifications.
“All 6,600 individuals indicated ‘Yes’ to wanting to register to vote and ‘No’ to being a US Citizen,” Lisa Shoemaker, IDEMIA’s senior vice president of global corporate relations, said in a statement reported by Politico. “This information was recorded correctly and always available to the MVC via the database that MVC utilized to gather voter information and transmit to the Division of Elections. At no point was a noncitizen ever marked as a citizen in the database.”
Shoemaker said that in June 2024 the MVC told IDEMIA to change its software so that people who indicated they were not citizens were not given the option to register to vote.
Sherrill said the state is replacing the vendor. And she tapped an independent law firm, CSG Law, to investigate the issue. The state’s Division of Elections — now more than two years after the issue was discovered by the MVC — “is working to ensure anyone who is illegally registered is removed from the voter rolls.”
“This entire situation is unacceptable,” Sherrill said, placing blame on IDEMIA, which she said “released software with such a glaring error,” as well as the MVC because it “took a year to get this issue fixed.” She also blamed the previous administration of Democrat Phil Murphy. “It’s unacceptable that no one in the previous administration brought this to light, demanded accountability, or took action when it happened years ago,” Sherrill said.
Murphy’s spokesperson said Murphy had no knowledge of the issue until Sherrill announced it on July 21.
Sherrill said the incident does not substantiate the president’s longstanding, but unsupported claims about massive noncitizen voting.
“Let me be clear: Donald Trump has zero credibility on the issue of election integrity,” Sherrill said. “For the past 10 years, he’s cried wolf and peddled bizarre conspiracy theories about fraud with no evidence.”
David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, a nonpartisan nonprofit, agreed that the revelation about noncitizen voting in New Jersey is concerning, but he said it was important to contextualize it.
“You know, we’re going to hear from supporters of the president saying, ‘See, the Democrats said this never happened, and it happened.’ I don’t know anyone credible who says it’s never happened,” Becker said in a press conference on July 23. “It just happens exceedingly rarely, and there’s no evidence it’s changing any elections whatsoever.”
Said Becker: “6,600 records in New Jersey is 0.1% of the total active voter registration list. It’s not very much at all, and 400 voters … that is 0.009% of the total number of votes cast in 2024 in New Jersey in the November 2024 election.”
“There’s no evidence that this affected any election whatsoever,” Becker said. “It’s an incredibly small amount, and it’s also spread out amongst parties: Republicans, Democrats, no party. That was very clear from the press conference. This does not support President Trump’s claims about noncitizen voting. It largely does comport with his Department of Homeland Security’s conclusion that it’s extremely rare.”
Trump Says Number Registered Is Higher
Meanwhile, Trump said that the number of noncitizens registered to vote in New Jersey is much higher than the figure identified by Sherrill.
In a post on Truth Social after Sherrill’s announcement, Trump stated, “35,152 is the new number just released by Homeland Security of non-citizens registered to vote in New Jersey. These are just the ones that got caught. The real numbers will prove to be many times this amount.”
During his primetime address to the nation on July 16, Trump claimed that a Department of Homeland Security investigation “identified approximately 278,000 noncitizens who are registered to vote in federal elections.”
A DHS document released by the White House claimed that a review of “public data files” in four states that have refused to share the private voter data with the government — California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Nevada — found over 250,000 noncitizens illegally registered to vote. According to a DHS press release issued on July 17, that included 35,152 in New Jersey.
Sherrill said the state received a letter from DHS about that claim.
“We have asked them for any evidence of this, where they got that number, who this is,” Sherrill said. “We’ve received nothing back yet.”
Sherrill said if DHS “provides us any credible information, we will of course investigate it as we do with every piece of information that we have.” But Sherrill said she thinks the figure is part of Trump’s “ongoing misinformation” about election fraud. Officials in California, Nevada and Pennsylvania also responded to the DHS letter demanding more transparency about how DHS derived its figures.
“That number has no credibility whatsoever until DHS shares their methodology on that number,” Becker said.
“What they’re also saying is that they matched the data they had from the states, which was only the public voter file, with no unique identifiers, no personally identifiable information, to some other data source, possibly commercial, and made conclusions about citizenship status on that,” Becker said in a press conference. “There’s no way that anyone can make a confident match on that. There’s too many challenges. There are data entry errors. There’s fuzzy name matching. There’s junior and senior problems. There’s so many problems that it is almost designed to create a huge number of false positives.”
New Jersey Refusing to Share Names
Calling the voting by 400 noncitizens “unacceptable and illegal,” Harmeet Dhillon, a federal assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s civil rights division, wrote to Sherrill demanding that New Jersey provide prosecutors with the name, address, date of birth and nationalities of the 6,600 noncitizens added to the state voter rolls as well as the names of those who voted (including when and where they voted).
On a podcast, Dhillon said those who voted could face deportation or criminal charges.
Sherrill said she won’t provide the information requested by DOJ.
“We now have certain people that, through no fault of their own, have been registered to vote,” Sherrill said at her July 21 press conference.
“It may imperil their immigration status,” she said. “It may imperil different things. We are working very hard to protect them, but that is the responsibility of the people that worked for the MVC that knew that this was going on and did nothing to remedy it — that’s wrong. It would be really the utmost in hypocrisy for the state to charge them when it’s our fault. However, I would not put it past the federal government. So we are working very hard on ways in which we can protect people here in the state of New Jersey. We are not in the practice of releasing personally identifying information to the federal government right now, given that the Trump administration continues to weaponize it against people.”
When Sherrill sent Dhillon a formal letter indicating that New Jersey would not provide the identifying information requested, Dhillon responded via X, “DOJ will get this information through all legal means!”
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President has sued the broadcaster for $10bn, claiming a documentary on 2021 Capitol attack led to financial harm
Donald Trump’s legal team is making an 11th-hour attempt to block a court order that would grant the BBC access to the president’s financial records, as part of his multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the British broadcaster.
Trump claims that the BBC’s 2024 documentary on the January 6 attacks have damaged the president’s business interests. In July, a Miami-based judge ruled that the president would have to start handing over detailed financial records to the BBC by 6 August. The records would reveal details into the hundreds of businesses owned by the US president’s family trust.
I've been planning on riding this mult-use path since I heard about it. Up until last week they said it would be open to e-bikes, so I assumed we were golden. Just got the confirmation they banned our One wheels. So bummed out right now.
The MLB trade deadline may have passed, but we’re still seeing big moves in the budding sport of AI for science. Today’s news: The legendary coder Jeff Dean is leaving Google. His new team: Discovery Loop, a startup focused on leveraging AI for science and engineering. And he’s bringing three other former Google sluggers along for the ride.
Discovery Loop’s mission statement is pretty simple: It wants to automate loops of discovery to supercharge scientific discovery and engineering tasks, thereby making the world a better place.
“Our mission is straightforward,” the new company states. “We are building AI solutions that can automatically solve important problems in machine learning, science, and engineering. By advancing the pace at which we conduct engineering and scientific discovery, we can bring the benefits of science and technology to the world much faster. Ultimately, our goal is to build AI systems that act as a deeply positive, empowering force for humanity, delivering technology solutions that improve people’s lives on a global scale.”
While the scientific method is powerful, it is currently bottlenecked, the company says on its website. Repetition is a foundational method for science, but executing repetitive scientific loops are difficult to scale using today’s methods.
“You propose an experiment, implement and run it, examine the results, then iterate to refine your approach,” the company writes. “Historically, scientific progress has relied on these sequential human iterations. In many domains, this process remains incredibly slow and labor-intensive.”
Thet company says it plans to build systems that can automate entire experimental loops. The company says it plans to use frontier AI models and large-scale computational infrastructure (i.e. HPC) to “rapidly propose, run, and learn from evaluations.”
“This approach allows for the parallel execution of thousands of experiments, drastically compressing iteration time and driving up the quantity and quality of scientific and engineering output,” the company writes.
This sounds a lot like the goal of Genesis Mission, the Department of Energy endeavor to transform scientific discovery and engineering by harnessing the power of AI. Just as the DOE is building or renting access on large HPC systems to build and run AI models–and perhaps more importantly, figure out how to harness existing modeling and simulation codes and the data it generates to accelerate AI development–the Discovery Loop looks to leverage the tech and knowledge of these four computer scientists to do something similar.
The Discovery Loop was co-founded by four former Googlers, all of them heavy hitters who have already accomplished big things at Google, long a source of transformative technologies in big data and AI.
That includes Dean himself, the former chief scientist at Google and Sanjay Ghemawat, a Senior Fellow at Google who worked with Dean on iconic Google products like MapReduce, Google File System, Bigtable, and Spanner. The other two co-founders are Oriol Vinyals, former VP of research and deep learning lead at Google DeepMind and the technical lead on the Gemini AI models, and Quoc Le, a Google Fellow and a founding member of the Google Brain project.
“The four of us have worked together for 14 to 30 years, and have helped build some of the world’s most used products, infrastructure and AI models, and we’re excited to turn our attention to this ambitious endeavor,” Dean wrote in a post on X.
Collectively, the Discovery Loop co-founders represent three of the most-cited researchers in artificial intelligence, the new company says, and two of the most-cited researchers in distributed systems.
Jeff Dean has had a hand in many of Google’s technological creations
“Between us, we have pioneered massive scale computing and led the creation of critical infrastructure, products, and foundational AI advances that the world relies on, including multiple generations of Google Search, Google Ads, Google News, Google Translate, Google File System, MapReduce, BigTable, Spanner, TensorFlow, Pathways, TPUs, AlphaChip, AlphaStar, AlphaCode, AlphaFold, Gemini, model distillation, mixture-of-experts model architectures, word2vec, sequence-to-sequence models, chain of thought reasoning, neural architecture search, and multiple generations of Large Language Models (LLMs) among others,” the AI for science dream team stated.
“Our relative advantage isn’t just our technical ability; it is the unprecedented scale of the systems we have previously built,” the company said. “We possess true full-stack depth that spans chips, hardware infrastructure, software infrastructure, ML models, and products.”
Separately, Dean bid farewell to his Google colleagues in an X post. Dean, who was Google employee number 30, has spent 27 years at the Mountain View, California tech giant, and has touched many aspects of the company.
“As a kid, I dreamed of helping build software that would be used by many people, and Google now has thirteen products used by more than a billion people (amazing!),” Dean wrote. “It still brings me joy every time I see people out in the world using our products to find information, handle email, translate documents, watch videos, learn new things, navigate and understand the physical world, browse the web, use their phone, run large-scale computations on our infrastructure, ride in an autonomous vehicle, or perform complex tasks with the help of our AI systems.”
This isn’t the spring of Dean’s career, and the season is marching toward its completion. But the 58-year-old, who may be the Chuck Norris of tech, is such a force of nature in computing that it will be eminently enjoyable to watch what he and his colleagues accomplish at Discovery Loop.
Food Bank of Delaware, Synergy Consultants, First Ascent Design and GGA Construction are among the organizations recognized for leadership, growth and community impact.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Four Delaware organizations have been named the 2026 winners of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce’s Marvin S. Gilman Superstars in Business Awards.
The Food Bank of Delaware, Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice, First Ascent Design and GGA Construction will be honored Oct. 29 during an awards ceremony at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.
The annual program, presented by the State Chamber and its Small Business Alliance, recognizes small businesses and nonprofit organizations for strong business practices, leadership and contributions to their communities.
The awards honor the legacy of Marvin S. Gilman, a Delaware small-business leader remembered for his ethics, community involvement and commitment to encouraging other entrepreneurs.
Since the program began in 1998, it has recognized organizations that have operated for at least three years and meet employee-based standards for small businesses. Awards of Excellence are also presented to organizations demonstrating notable performance and leadership.
Food Bank of Delaware
The Food Bank of Delaware was selected as the winner in the nonprofit category.
The statewide organization provides food assistance while also working to address the causes of hunger and poverty. It distributes millions of pounds of food annually through more than 600 community partners.
The organization also provides workforce training and other programs intended to help Delaware residents achieve greater financial and personal stability.
Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice
Synergy Consultants & Psychotherapy Practice was selected in the category for businesses with one to 10 employees.
The outpatient mental health practice serves individuals, couples and families. It offers evidence-based therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and major life transitions.
The practice also trains future clinicians and participates in community wellness programs, outreach efforts and partnerships.
First Ascent Design
First Ascent Design was selected in the category for businesses with 11 to 40 employees.
The Wilmington-based digital marketing agency provides branding, website development, digital advertising, search engine optimization and content marketing services.
During its 11 years in business, First Ascent has worked with nearly 300 businesses, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in Delaware and other states.
GGA Construction
GGA Construction was selected in the category for businesses with 41 to 150 employees.
The Delaware-based company has offices in Middletown and Rehoboth Beach and specializes in commercial construction projects throughout the region.
Its portfolio includes health care facilities, schools, multifamily housing, hotels, restaurants, senior living communities, recreational facilities and other commercial developments.
Awards of Excellence announced
Four additional organizations will receive Awards of Excellence.
Sunday Breakfast Mission was selected in the nonprofit category. Integrity Nursing LLC was recognized in the category for businesses with one to 10 employees.
Delmarva Central Railroad was selected in the category for businesses with 11 to 40 employees, and AKA Advisory was recognized in the category for businesses with 41 to 150 employees.
Schell Brothers CEO to deliver keynote
Chris Schell, founder and CEO of Schell Brothers, will serve as the keynote speaker for the Oct. 29 ceremony.
Schell Brothers has grown from its Delaware roots into one of the nation’s largest privately owned homebuilders, with operations in Delaware, Virginia, Tennessee and Idaho.
Schell earned a mechanical engineering degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He began his career in finance, developing automated futures trading software, before entering the homebuilding industry.
He founded Schell Brothers with a company culture centered on employee and customer happiness.
Schell has served on the University of Delaware Board of Trustees and the Economic Advisory Council for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. He currently serves on the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce Board of Governors.
The Superstars in Business awards ceremony will be held Thursday, Oct. 29, at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington.
Additional information is available through the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce.
Two cutting-edge AI models have targeted real people and organisations in the latest safety scare to hit the technology. The UK’s AI Security Institute (AISI) said the incident was unprecedented but could become more common as the technology becomes increasingly capable.
Rules brought in soon after killing of dozens of protesters, news of which was reported only by overseas outlets
Pakistani authorities have imposed severe new restrictions on international media, including barring them from reporting in most of the country, in a move that has provoked a significant backlash from journalist organisations.
According to the new rules anyone, including Pakistani nationals, should seek permission first if they want to report from anywhere in Pakistan except three cities – Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore.
World Trade Center Delaware serves as the state’s international business resource, connecting Delaware companies with trade experts, educational programs and business networks around the world. Image created with AI on 8/5
Free online program will help Delaware businesses understand market-entry strategies, financing options and commercial opportunities across the region
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware businesses interested in expanding internationally can learn about emerging opportunities in West Africa during a free World Trade Center Delaware program Monday, Aug. 10.
The August edition of the organization’s Global Power Hour, “West Africa: Opportunities for U.S. Exporters,” will be held virtually from noon to 1 p.m. The executive-level discussion is designed for businesses that are considering exporting for the first time as well as companies seeking to expand an existing international presence.
The session will focus on practical opportunities for American exporters, particularly in French-speaking West African markets. Topics will include market-entry strategies, trade facilitation, export financing and tools businesses can use to reduce the financial and commercial risks associated with international sales.
World Trade Center Delaware serves as the state’s international business resource, connecting Delaware companies with trade experts, educational programs and business networks around the world. The organization also provides import and export assistance, market research, referrals and other resources for companies exploring global growth.
Understanding an unfamiliar market
Entering a foreign market can present significant opportunities, but businesses must also navigate regulatory requirements, payment risks, transportation challenges and differences in language and business practices.
The Global Power Hour is intended to give company leaders a clearer understanding of those challenges before they commit substantial time or money to an overseas expansion.
The discussion will address opportunities in sectors including agribusiness, food products, logistics and related services. Participants also will learn about financing and risk-mitigation tools that may help exporters protect payments, secure working capital and manage transactions with international buyers.
Regional experience
The featured speaker will be Eric Schneider, founder and managing director of RéseauLink LLC, an international trade and development firm focused on commercial relationships between the United States and French-speaking West Africa.
Schneider helps businesses with market-entry planning, export readiness, regulatory compliance, business matchmaking, buyer engagement, and investment development. He works between the United States and Côte d’Ivoire and combines regional experience with relationships in the private sector and government.
A graduate of Fordham University, Schneider previously served as a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Côte d’Ivoire and as a bilingual program analyst for the U.S. African Development Foundation. He also received a U.S. Department of State-funded Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange Grant.
A potential path for smaller businesses
International trade is sometimes viewed as an option primarily available to large corporations. However, export financing, trade counseling and local assistance programs can also help smaller companies determine whether their products or services are appropriate for overseas markets.
World Trade Center Delaware’s program will offer businesses a starting point for evaluating opportunities, identifying potential partners and understanding the preparation required before pursuing customers in West Africa.
The organization said the session is intended to provide information participants can use when deciding whether international expansion fits their company’s goals and capabilities.
To Go Box
What: World Trade Center Delaware Global Power Hour, “West Africa: Opportunities for U.S. Exporters”
When: Noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 10
Where: Online through Microsoft Teams
Cost: Free
Speaker: Eric Schneider, founder and managing director of RéseauLink LLC
Topics: West African export opportunities, French-speaking markets, export financing, risk mitigation, market entry and trade facilitation
Registration: Register through the World Trade Center Delaware event announcement or visit WTCDE.org for additional information.
Saudi Arabia still views the US as its main strategic partner – despite Trump’s nuclear agreement conditionsExpert commentjon.wallace
Riyadh’s argument to Washington is that a close partnership should not be contingent on membership of the Abraham Accords, when it is playing a growing role in regional security.
A series of seemingly disconnected developments over the past week point to a common objective in Saudi foreign policy. Riyadh is seeking to assume greater responsibility for regional security. But it also wants to reinforce its importance to the US, at a time when Washington’s long-term commitment to the Middle East is increasingly in doubt. The recent civilian nuclear agreement with the US underlines the depth of its commitment to that partnership.
For much of the past decade, successive US administrations have sought to reduce their exposure to Middle Eastern conflicts while encouraging regional partners like Saudi Arabia to assume greater responsibility for their own security.
Ironically, it is President Donald Trump’s war against Iran – involving the largest deployment of US forces since 1990 – that has prompted Riyadh to reassess its role in the regional order. Saudi Arabia increasingly views itself as a provider of security, stability and economic continuity.
This is not simply a response to President Trump’s calls for burden-sharing. Saudi Arabia’s leadership has concluded that the regional environment demands it take a more active role. The challenge for Riyadh is no longer how to secure US protection. It is how to safeguard Saudi interests in a region where US engagement remains substantial, but is less predictable than in the past.
Recent conflicts have also reinforced the risks posed by increasingly volatile regional dynamics, including the potential for actions by Israel or Iran to trigger wider instability that directly affects Saudi interests.
The nuclear deal
That calculation helps to explain the civilian nuclear agreement signed by Saudi Arabia and the US on 22 July. The agreement represents the culmination of years of patient negotiation by Riyadh, as it persisted in seeking a deal with Washington – rather than Moscow or Beijing. The Kingdom has always believed that US technology, expertise and investment would provide the strongest foundation for its ambitions.
The agreement deepens the relationship by establishing a framework for long-term cooperation on civilian nuclear technology, and positioning US companies to play a leading role in the Saudi nuclear programme. It also demonstrates that Saudi Arabia continues to regard the US as its principal strategic partner.
Behind the scenes, Riyadh wants to make sure that the question of normalization with Israel does not come to overshadow the broader foundations of its partnership with Washington.
However, one day after it was signed, President Trump sought to link the agreement’s approval to Saudi Arabia joining the Abraham Accords – that is, normalizing its relations with Israel.
But Saudi Arabia has consistently maintained that formal relations with Israel depend on meaningful progress towards Palestinian statehood. And that position has only hardened following the brutal war in Gaza and the anger it has generated across the Arab world. Riyadh has made clear that it will not abandon that position.
The issue remains unresolved, at least in public. But behind the scenes, Riyadh wants to make sure that the question of normalization with Israel does not come to overshadow the broader foundations of its partnership with Washington.
Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) is, in effect, making the case that the kingdom’s contribution to regional stability, economic security and collective security efforts warrants progress in other areas of the bilateral relationship without the need for further conditions – particularly politically impossible ones like joining the Abraham Accords.
Regional security
Saudi Arabia’s more active role in regional security is already evident in the Red Sea – which has become one of the world’s most important and vulnerable waterways.
The crisis in the Strait of Hormuz has increased the Red Sea’s importance as an alternative route for energy exports and international trade. But in recent days the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has sought to drag these waters into the wider regional conflict.
On 20 July, the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping passing through the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Within days, the group claimed attacks against Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. On 25 July, it launched missile and drone strikes against Aramco facilities in Jizan and Yanbu, Saudi Arabia’s principal Red Sea oil export hub.
These moves have exposed a significant vulnerability for the kingdom and the wider global economy, increasing costs for commercial shipping and raising concerns about the resilience of international supply chains and energy markets.
The Saudi government has stepped up. On 30 July, its Ministry of Defence convened military chiefs and representatives from 43 countries and the European Union in Riyadh to discuss the establishment of a new maritime security coalition to defend freedom of navigation in the Red Sea.
The kingdom proposed to host the coalition’s headquarters and secured the support of 14 participating states. This is perhaps the clearest indication yet that the kingdom is prepared to coordinate collective responses to challenges that affect both its own interests and those of the wider international community. While the initiative was prompted by recent Houthi actions, it also reflects a broader Saudi recognition: the security of the Red Sea is vital to the kingdom’s economic ambitions and long-term security interests.
The joint Saudi-US airstrikes of 28 July point to the same move towards a more assertive security role. Precision strikes were carried out against Iran-aligned groups in eastern Iraq, after they directed more than 30 drone attacks at Saudi energy infrastructure and US forces over a period of 72 hours.
The operation was notable not only because it was conducted jointly with Washington. It was also striking because Saudi Arabia has generally sought to avoid direct military action inside Iraq. Indeed, Riyadh has spent the past several years reducing tensions with Tehran and has little interest in a broader confrontation with Iran. By acting alongside the US, Riyadh signalled that its pursuit of regional de-escalation does not preclude a willingness to respond when its security interests are directly challenged.
There is also, notably, a competitive dimension to Saudi Arabia’s recent activism. Riyadh is aware of the Trump administration’s close relationship with the UAE, which has already normalized relations with Israel via the Abraham Accords, aligning closely with a key US policy objective.
By taking a leading role on issues that directly affect US interests, including regional security, maritime security and energy flows, Riyadh is demonstrating that its value to Washington rests on a far broader foundation than trade and investment alone.
Recent developments suggest that Saudi Arabia is seeking to redefine its role within the regional order. The kingdom will not abandon its position on Palestinian statehood. Nor will it distance itself from Washington. Instead, it is demonstrating that has crucial value to the US beyond the question of normalization with Israel.
Through security cooperation, burden-sharing and a greater willingness to address regional challenges, Riyadh is making the case for a partnership defined by shared interests rather than a single political objective.
Why Should Delaware Care? The Delaware Board of Elections, created to ensure election security and fairness in the First State, has not met since last fall. With the primary election a month away, questions remain about how the group will conduct its oversight duties while not regularly holding meetings.
With Delaware’s midterm primary elections just more than a month away, the state’s board of elections — tasked with ensuring election fairness and security — has not met since last November.
Each of the board’s monthly meetings this year have been canceled, citing membership vacancies that a Department of Elections spokesperson said prevent the oversight board from convening.
Those vacancies, the spokesperson said, were caused by three board member deaths between December 2025 and April 2026. And while the spokesperson said Gov. Matt Meyer is “actively working” with the state Democratic Party to fill the vacant seats, she did not provide more information about the recruitment process or why it has taken upward of eight months to find new board members.
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the governor’s office said the public could expect “significant movement” on filling the vacancies within the next week.
Appointments to the board are made by the governor, often in consultation with the necessary political party, but also must be approved by the State Senate. That means legislators will have to head back to Dover for a special session.
It’s unclear why the appointments were not made during the six months the General Assembly was in session this year, as many similar moves were made almost every month. Meanwhile in April, Meyer’s office created an Election Security Task Force that would review election security protocols, but also to “safeguard Delaware from unconstitutional federal interference.”
Delaware has actively defied requests from the Trump administration to turn over sensitive details from state voter rolls, due to fears that they would try to use that information to undermine the midterm elections.
The task force has met twice since its creation, including last month, when its public conversation was similar to the official board’s discussions from last year.
But as Delaware voters prepare to head to the polls next month in what is likely to be one of the least competitive midterm election cycles in a decade, it remains unclear how state election regulators are working to ensure election integrity.
The state’s Department of Elections handles the day-to-day administration of candidate filings, voter registration, and campaign finance reporting. The board, however, functions in a more oversight capacity. It reviews security protocols, receives public updates on the department’s work and, crucially, considers any appeals of contested primary elections.
The board’s absence also has caught the attention of state Republican Party leaders. The party’s Vice Chair Daniel Willis called out the lack of board meetings on social media.
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, Willis admonished Democrats for failing to fill the board’s vacancies.
“If the Democrats can’t do such a simple task of just bringing your people on, doing your damn job, that’s a red flag,” Willis said. “And if Republicans, if we can’t advocate for voters and say, ‘Hey, listen, this is something bad,’ then we’re useless. I’m not going to be useless.”
Multiple vacant seats
The board consists of 10 members — five Democrats and five Republicans — appointed by the governor, along with the state’s election commissioner.
The appointed members also are divvied up geographically, with two coming from each county, two coming from the city of Wilmington, and two seats designated for at-large representatives.
Of the three member deaths, two were Democratic board members – one in Kent County and the other in New Castle.
Those two Democratic seats, which became vacant in December 2025 and April 2026, respectively, remain unfilled.
The third vacancy, a Republican from Kent County who also died in December, was filled in March, the Department of Elections spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Gov. Meyer’s office is working with the state Democratic party to fill the two vacancies, but did not say more about that process.
The Delaware Democratic Party Chair, Evelyn Brady, did not return a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Maintaining party balance?
Despite the remaining vacancies, the 11-member board of elections has never lost quorum, or the minimum number of members needed to conduct official business. The intact quorum raises questions about the decision to repeatedly cancel meetings since the top of the year.
The Department of Elections spokesperson pointed to a specific section of state law to explain the cancelations, saying that it requires the board to maintain a “required balance of party affiliation.”
That law, Section 202(a) of Chapter 15 of the Delaware Code, says Democrats and Republicans must be represented on the board of elections “at all times” by no less than five members.
It does not explicitly say whether the board can hold meetings with an uneven number of Democrats and Republicans.
The code also includes specific exceptions for when the board can meet while attempting to fill vacancies. According to state law, the board can still meet to canvass, or certify, election results even when there are vacancies, as long as a quorum of board members are present.
Should the current Democratic vacancies persist into September, it is unclear whether the board will meet to certify the results of this year’s primary election.
Correction: This story originally reported that the Delaware Board of Elections certifies the results of an election. Actually, the Department of Elections certifies primary election results while the Delaware Superior Court certifies general election results. The board would rule on any contested outcomes in a primary election.
Camila Ortiz González, 7, holds her 8-month-old brother, Isaías, at home in Omaha, Nebraska, in June. Although the Environmental Protection Agency cleaned up their family’s yard in 2012, the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica tests found levels of lead that are higher than before the agency remediated it. The agency denied their mother’s request to resample the yard. Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
In the last 10 months, residents in neighborhoods across Omaha, Nebraska, have contacted the city and federal government after tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica showed they had enough of the toxic metal in their yards for the dirt to be dug up and replaced under Environmental Protection Agency rules.
But the responses they’ve received have been inconsistent.
Three of them received new testing and were promised additional cleanup. Yet others were denied a new cleanup or told the news organizations they never heard back.
One resident said the city tested her yard, found it exceeded the EPA’s lead contamination level and sent her a letter saying cleanup was necessary. Months later the city backtracked, saying she did not qualify because she lived outside the primary cleanup zone. Another said she called 14 times before the city told her it would not retest because she hadn’t built or demolished anything in her yard since the EPA replaced the soil in 2012.
The EPA and the city have spent decades cleaning up residential properties in east Omaha after a century of pollution from a lead smelter and other factories downtown. The EPA had set a lead level that it uses to determine which properties to clean up, and the news organizations’ tests found these residents’ yards were over the limit.
But the city said that according to EPA rules, it can’t rely on testing by the newsrooms or any other groups to drive testing and cleanup decisions.
Peter Olson thought he was one of the lucky ones. His yard was one of thousands that the federal government had dug up and replaced since cleanup began in 1999. But a Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica soil test conducted in September showed he had too much of the toxic metal in the yard. When his wife contacted the EPA, Olson hoped a federal employee would offer another test and cleanup.
Instead, all the agency could do was examine a small area in the backyard where a deck once stood, according to an email Olson shared from an EPA project manager for the site. The rest of the yard, including an area that was high for lead in the news organizations’ tests, was ineligible, the agency said without explaining why.
The city told Mary Royers it could test her soil because a shed had been demolished and a garage had been built in her backyard, which could have disturbed or uncovered contaminated soil. Unlike with Olson, the city analyzed the whole yard and agreed to clean up several areas around her house.
Olson said he and his wife agreed to the more limited testing the EPA offered them, though they worry about what might be in the rest of their yard. They’re currently waiting for the testing.
An Omaha lead smelter spread dust that seeped into the soil and bodies of many residents. The EPA spent decades cleaning up the surrounding area — but not Council Bluffs, Carter Lake or Bellevue.
Omahans’ dirt generally qualifies for cleanup if it has more than 400 parts per million of lead in it — about the equivalent of a marble dispersed in a 10-gallon bucket of soil. The EPA adopted that standard in 2009. To date, contractors have dug up and replaced nearly 14,000 yards, mostly in a 27-square-mile area on the city’s east side, which has been declared a federal Superfund site. In 2015, the agency handed over remaining remediation work to Omaha.
Asked about the different responses residents have received, EPA spokesperson Kellen Ashford said in an email that each property is unique, and new sampling depends heavily on whether site conditions have changed because of construction or demolition that might have disturbed or exposed the soil.
“EPA strives to be fair and equitable in its decision-making process while adjusting to changes in agency policies, funding, and cleanup approaches,” he said.
Steve Zivny, who leads Omaha’s Lead Information Office, also said these decisions are made on a case-by-case basis. The city is able to test and clean up within the site but must seek approval from the EPA before doing any work outside those boundaries. The city is paid with settlement money from the smelter and other polluters.
Recently, the city sent letters to some residents outside the boundaries of the Superfund site saying they needed cleanup but reversed course after the EPA said the homes would not qualify, Zivny said.
Amy Haney lives about a half-mile outside the site’s western edge, a boundary the EPA drew by estimating where only a small percentage of homes were likely to have high lead levels. As a result, Haney’s home was never tested. But a Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica test found it had nearly 1.5 times the level that would qualify for a lead cleanup.
The result felt like a “kick in the gut,” she said. The news organizations tested 35 properties within a three-quarter-mile radius of Haney’s home. Four, including Haney’s house, were above the cleanup level.
Haney contacted the city, which told her the EPA would retest her home this summer.
While the EPA has cleaned up homes outside the site in the past, Ashford said any sampling beyond the site’s bounds right now is for investigative purposes only, and those homeowners may not be eligible for remediation.
The agency’s priority is cleaning up within the Superfund site as well as properties that impact children, he said.
Even when kids test high for lead, however, the city and the EPA don’t always retest yards.
Sabrina, a north Omaha resident whose soil we tested, said doctors found lead in three of her children. (She asked that her last name not be published to protect their identities.) In 2020, after her daughter’s blood-lead test, the city and a nonprofit replaced windows that contained lead-based paint. But they didn’t test the yard.
The only information Sabrina said she received about the dirt was the EPA test results from 2003 that showed the yard didn’t qualify for cleanup.
“I felt like that was kind of a lazy response,” Sabrina said. Despite the window replacements, doctors have found lead in her other kids’ blood.
The Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica tested her soil in May and found the lead was over the cleanup level and twice as high as the EPA’s 2003 test records showed.
Sabrina requested a new test, but the city denied it, saying no work had been done on the property and it couldn’t rely on the newsrooms’ results.
Zivny said the city has asked the EPA to revisit that decision in light of her children’s blood test results.
A series of violent incidents across the city is affecting residents and businesses while renewing debate over declining arrests, detention policies and whether current crime-prevention strategies are producing measurable results.
By George D. Rotsch, Editor, Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON — A series of shootings across Wilmington in recent weeks has renewed concerns about public safety, the effect of violence on neighborhoods and businesses, and whether the criminal justice system is doing enough to identify, detain and prosecute dangerous offenders.
The incidents have not been limited to one neighborhood. Shootings have been reported in West Center City, Price Run, Southbridge, Baynard Village, near Fourth and DuPont streets, and in other parts of the city.
Most of the victims survived, but several suffered serious or critical injuries. A concerning number of the victims were teenagers or young adults.
Shootings reported across the city
On Aug. 1, a 32-year-old woman was shot on West Seventh Street and a 28-year-old man was shot on Vandever Avenue. On Aug. 2, a 52-year-old man was shot near Linden and South Van Buren streets.
All three victims were reported in stable condition.
Those incidents followed the July 31 shooting of a 16-year-old, the July 14 shooting of a 31-year-old man in Price Run and the July 12 shooting of a 17-year-old near Fourth and DuPont streets. The 17-year-old was reported in critical condition.
Other recent victims included a 17-year-old boy shot in Southbridge, an 18-year-old woman seriously injured in Baynard Village, a 29-year-old critically injured in West Center City and a 20-year-old man shot on North DuPont Street.
Police have not publicly indicated that the shootings are connected. However, the incidents show a recurring pattern of gun violence affecting several Wilmington neighborhoods, with multiple victims between the ages of 16 and 19.
Hospital shooting left one employee dead
The most serious recent incident was the June shooting inside Wilmington Hospital.
Two 19-year-old employees were shot. One died and the other was critically injured.
Police arrested 23-year-old John Wallace-Bey in Philadelphia and charged him with first-degree murder and related offenses.
Police described the hospital shooting as an isolated workplace incident rather than part of the city’s street violence. That distinction is important, but it does not lessen the broader effect repeated shootings can have on public confidence.
Residents bear the daily cost
Crime reports often reduce shootings to dates, locations and victim conditions. Residents experience them as part of daily life.
Families living in affected neighborhoods may change their routines after repeated violence. Parents may keep children indoors. Senior citizens may become reluctant to walk to stores, churches or bus stops. Residents may avoid certain streets or stop going outside after dark.
Repeated gunfire can also produce anxiety, sleep disruption and constant concern for children and other family members.
Even when victims survive, the psychological effect can accumulate. Residents may begin to treat fear and disruption as normal conditions of city life.
The burden often falls hardest on people who cannot afford to move. Higher-income families may have the ability to relocate, install additional security, or avoid troubled areas. Lower- and middle-income residents are more likely to remain exposed while continuing to pay taxes and expect basic public services.
Public Safety Committee Chair Yolanda McCoy warned that Wilmington can not allow violence to become normalized.
The first responsibility of government is to protect life, property and the ability of law-abiding citizens to live safely in their communities.
Youth programs, social services and violence-intervention initiatives may play an important role, but they cannot replace consistent law enforcement.
Businesses lose customers and employees
Gun violence also affects Wilmington’s economy.
Small businesses depend on customers who feel safe entering a neighborhood, workers who are willing to accept early or late shifts and property owners who are confident enough to invest.
When residents believe an area is unsafe, they may leave earlier, shop elsewhere or avoid the neighborhood entirely.
Restaurants, convenience stores, service businesses and neighborhood retailers are especially vulnerable. Many operate on narrow profit margins and may struggle to absorb declining foot traffic, higher insurance costs or additional spending on cameras, lighting and private security.
Employers may also have difficulty recruiting and retaining workers who are concerned about traveling to or from work.
Property owners may postpone improvements, and potential tenants may choose other locations. Businesses considering Wilmington may question whether the city can provide a predictable and secure environment for employees and customers.
Public safety is not separate from economic development. It is one of the basic conditions needed for economic growth.
Police have not identified a single cause
Wilmington police have not identified one cause for the recent violence or attributed the shootings to a single citywide trend.
Police and city officials have instead pointed to several overlapping factors, including crime concentrated in particular hotspots, group-related conflicts and opportunistic offenses.
The department’s public strategies have emphasized intelligence-led policing, Group Violence Intervention, GunStat, partnerships with federal agencies and community outreach.
Police should not assign a cause without evidence. Still, residents deserve more than descriptions of strategies. They should receive regular information about arrests, firearms recovered, cases cleared, repeat offenders identified and prosecutions completed.
Officials may accurately describe individual shootings as isolated or unrelated, but residents often experience the incidents as part of a continuing pattern of danger.
The victims may be unrelated. The effect on the public is not.
Declining arrests raise public questions
The brief also describes a longer-term decline in arrests, criminal filings, case dispositions and convictions.
Statewide Court of Common Pleas criminal filings declined from 110,071 in 2014 to 90,410 in 2023, an 18% decrease.
Criminal dispositions fell from 88,507 to 62,211 during the same period, a decline of approximately 30%.
The brief also states that Wilmington arrests declined across violent, property, drug and juvenile offense categories, although it does not include a complete year-by-year city data table.
Those figures require context.
Fewer arrests can reflect lower crime, changes in enforcement priorities, diversion programs, juvenile justice reforms or fewer cases supported by sufficient evidence. A decline in arrests does not, by itself, prove police are refusing to enforce the law.
Lower conviction totals may also result from fewer crimes, fewer arrests or fewer cases entering the courts.
However, the trend raises a legitimate public-policy question.
When residents see repeated shootings while arrests, filings and completed cases decline, they may reasonably ask whether the system is creating enough certainty that dangerous offenders will be arrested, detained when legally justified and prosecuted.
Detention policies deserve scrutiny
The issue is not whether everyone accused of a crime should be jailed. Defendants are entitled to constitutional protections, due process and individual bail decisions.
The issue is whether the system has moved too far toward diversion, reduced detention and noncustodial resolutions, allowing repeat or high-risk offenders to return to the community before cases are resolved.
The source brief does not establish that Wilmington police have adopted a formal policy of refusing to arrest offenders. It also does not prove that prosecutors or judges are routinely releasing dangerous defendants.
Still, city and state officials should provide more detailed information about how the system is functioning.
That should include the number of shooting cases resulting in arrests, the prior records of suspects, the number of defendants released before trial and the outcomes of cases involving serious gun charges.
Without that information, the public is left to choose between official assurances and what residents see happening in their neighborhoods.
Prevention cannot replace enforcement
A balanced public-safety strategy should avoid two extremes.
The first is the assumption that law enforcement alone can solve every underlying social problem. Addiction, unstable families, school failure, untreated mental illness and a lack of opportunity can contribute to crime and should be addressed.
The second is the idea that arrest, detention and prosecution are inherently harmful or ineffective.
When used lawfully and supported by evidence, enforcement protects victims, deters repeat conduct and reinforces basic standards of behavior.
Violence-prevention programs should support enforcement, not replace it.
Wilmington also needs stronger witness protection, closer coordination among police and prosecutors, and better relationships with residents who may have information but fear retaliation.
Results should matter more than programs
Wilmington officials should be judged not only by the offices, partnerships and programs they announce, but by whether residents feel safer and businesses regain confidence.
That means concentrating police resources in repeat hotspots, improving shooting clearance rates, recovering illegal firearms and coordinating with state and federal prosecutors.
It also means imposing meaningful consequences on people convicted of gun crimes.
Officials should not minimize public concern because most recent victims survived or because police have not connected the shootings.
A nonfatal shooting is still a serious violent crime. A teenager in critical condition is not evidence that the public-safety system is succeeding.
The central question is not whether Wilmington has strategies and programs.
It is whether those efforts are preventing the next shooting.
Residents and business owners have a right to expect rehabilitation opportunities for offenders who can change. They also have a right to protection from people who repeatedly threaten the community.
A responsible public-safety policy must recognize both obligations. Wilmington’s recent violence gives residents legitimate reason to question whether the current balance is working.
Early-stage businesses can compete for state funding, receive business guidance and pitch their growth plans during a new one-day event
DOVER, Del. — Delaware entrepreneurs looking for money to launch, expand or strengthen a young business will have a new opportunity beginning Aug. 11, when the state opens its fall 2026 EDGE Grant Competition.
The Delaware Division of Small Business will accept applications through 4 p.m. Sept. 11. The agency will also hold an informational webinar at 10 a.m. Aug. 11 to explain the program, eligibility requirements and application process.
EDGE, which stands for Encouraging Development, Growth and Expansion, is Delaware’s primary competitive grant program for early-stage small businesses. The program has distributed $10.3 million to 136 businesses since it began in 2019.
A total of $1.15 million is available during the fall competition, divided between businesses applying in the Entrepreneur and STEM categories.
“Delaware’s business landscape continues to evolve, and the EDGE competition is evolving with it,” Division of Small Business Director CJ Bell said. “We are giving business owners the tools they need not just to stay in business but scale and expand — to take that next step toward long-term sustainability.”
Who is eligible?
The competition is open to people who have not yet opened their businesses and to businesses that have operated for fewer than seven years.
A qualifying business must:
Be located primarily in Delaware, with at least 51% of its operations in the state.
Employ no more than 15 full-time workers.
Have less than $700,000 in assets.
Provide the required matching investment.
EDGE funding is provided through a 3-to-1 match. For every $3 contributed by the state, the business must contribute $1 toward the approved project.
For example, an applicant seeking $30,000 in EDGE funding would generally need to provide a $10,000 business match, creating a total project budget of $40,000.
Applicants should carefully review the official competition documents because the match, eligibility and permitted-expense requirements must be addressed in the proposal.
Two types of businesses can compete
Most applicants will enter the Entrepreneur category, which includes retail, food, hospitality, professional services, manufacturing and other businesses that do not primarily fall within science, technology, engineering or mathematics.
The Entrepreneur category will have a total funding pool of $400,000.
The STEM category is intended for businesses built around science, technology, engineering or mathematics. Those applicants will compete for a total of $750,000.
The state may select as many as 10 Entrepreneur finalists and eight STEM finalists to participate in the pitch competition.
Applying does not guarantee funding. EDGE is a competitive program in which applications are reviewed and finalists must present their proposals to a panel of judges.
What can the money pay for?
EDGE funding is designed to pay for specific investments that help a business grow, increase capacity or become more sustainable.
Eligible projects may include:
Purchasing equipment that allows the business to produce more goods or serve more customers.
Improving a building or business location.
Renting commercial, production or laboratory space.
Hiring a contractor to design or improve a company website.
Developing an advertising or marketing campaign to attract customers.
Note: Purchasing real estate is not an eligible expense.
Applicants should avoid treating EDGE as a general operating subsidy. A stronger proposal will identify a specific project, explain its cost and show how it will increase revenue, production, employment or long-term business stability.
A grant competition, not a simple application
Applicants will be evaluated on more than whether they meet the basic eligibility requirements.
The Division of Small Business says judges will consider the company’s need for funding, the competitive advantage the project would create, the viability of the business, its likelihood of remaining in operation, its potential to create jobs or increase revenue, and the quality of the applicant’s presentation.
That means applicants should be prepared to explain what they plan to purchase, why it is necessary, how much it will cost and what measurable results the investment is expected to produce.
Financial projections should be realistic and supported by information such as vendor estimates, customer demand, sales history or industry research.
New one-day pitch and award event
This fall’s competition will conclude with a one-day pitch and award event Nov. 10.
Finalists will present their business plans and funding requests, and awards will be announced during the same event.
The event will also include educational programming, networking with small-business service providers and opportunities for selected high-impact businesses to meet with venture capital firms.
Those meetings could provide growing companies with access to private investment beyond the EDGE competition, although participation does not guarantee an investment.
Support available before applications are submitted
Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact a Division of Small Business business manager before submitting their proposals.
Business managers can provide initial guidance, help applicants understand the competition and offer feedback on ways to improve an application.
The state will publish proposal templates, a scoring rubric and other support materials at de.gov/edge.
Applicants should use those documents as a checklist rather than submitting a general business plan. A competitive proposal should directly answer the questions in the application and show how the requested funding would produce a clear business result.
Finalists and grant recipients will also receive additional services and post-award support.
That assistance includes access to the Division of Small Business Recipient Network, which brings together previous EDGE winners and recipients of other state business programs to exchange ideas, develop business strategies and make professional connections.
How first-time applicants can prepare
A potential applicant should begin by identifying one specific investment that could move the business forward.
The applicant should then determine the full cost of the project, confirm that the required matching funds are available and gather estimates or documentation supporting the proposed expenses.
A strong application should clearly explain:
What the business does.
Who its customers are.
What problem the proposed investment will solve.
Why the investment is needed now.
How the project will increase sales, capacity, employment or sustainability.
How the business will provide its required match.
Applicants selected as finalists should also be ready to turn those answers into a concise and persuasive presentation.
The EDGE program offers businesses the opportunity to receive growth capital without surrendering an ownership interest to an investor. However, applicants must demonstrate that state funding will support a practical, well-planned expansion rather than merely cover routine expenses.
To Go Box
What: Fall 2026 Delaware EDGE Grant Competition
Application period: Aug. 11 through 4 p.m. Sept. 11
Informational webinar: 10 a.m. Aug. 11
Pitch and award event: Nov. 10
Available funding: $1.15 million
Entrepreneur funding pool: $400,000
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Who may apply: Businesses not yet open or operating for fewer than seven years, primarily located in Delaware, with no more than 15 full-time employees and less than $700,000 in assets
Matching requirement: The state provides $3 for every $1 contributed by the business
In a contentious interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made several false, misleading and baseless claims about the origins of Lyme disease and the respiratory syncytial virus, the COVID-19 pandemic, and what the science shows about autism, vaccination and acetaminophen use during pregnancy.
On the Aug. 2 show, Kennedy had several disagreements with host Dana Bash, with Bash challenging the health secretary’s assertions and Kennedy saying that Bash was wrong. We’ll sort out the facts.
Kennedy baselessly claimed that Lyme disease and respiratory syncytial virus infections came from lab research. There’s no evidence for this, and the diseases have long affected humans.
The U.S. doesn’t have “the highest death rate from COVID of any nation on Earth,” as he said. It has the highest rate among large, wealthy nations, but is 14th among all nations, per one analysis.
Kennedy asserted that effective treatments were suppressed during the COVID-19 pandemic, likely referring to ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, as he has before. Multiple clinical trials have shown that neither drug improved outcomes in COVID-19 patients.
He falsely suggested that COVID-19 vaccines don’t protect children from the virus, asking Bash to cite “one study that shows that children were protected.” Multiple studies have shown that vaccination reduces the odds of infection and severe disease among children and adolescents.
Kennedy said he has “never questioned the efficacy of the MMR,” or measles, vaccine. But on a few occasions, he has suggested the vaccine wasn’t that effective or that it wasn’t necessary.
He brought up an unproven link between Tylenol use during pregnancy and autism. While some studies have found an association, they don’t establish causation, and a growing number of studies point away from acetaminophen as a cause of autism.
Kennedy misleadingly said that scientists have not tested vaccines other than the MMR vaccine for autism. Scientists have tested many vaccines while investigating specific hypotheses for how the shots might cause autism. None of the studies has shown any credible link.
We sent HHS several questions about Kennedy’s claims, but we haven’t received a response.
Baseless Claims About RSV and Lyme Disease
Kennedy baselessly claimed that two infectious diseases — Lyme disease and respiratory syncytial virus infections — arose from gain-of-function research. Such research generallyrefers to potentially risky experiments in which a virus or other pathogen becomes more dangerous or transmissible in people. But the microbes that cause these diseases have long sickened humans. There’s no evidence they came from a lab, let alone from gain-of-function research.
Kennedy also asserted that gain-of-function research caused the coronavirus pandemic. As we’ve writtenpreviously, there’s no definitive proof of how the virus that causes COVID-19 arose, but substantial evidence points toward a natural origin and not a lab leak. Scientists have previously told us that it’s virtually impossible that the coronavirus was engineered; almost all U.S. intelligence agencies have also assessed that the virus was not genetically engineered.
“Clearly, COVID-19 pandemic — and many other global pandemics that we have — have come from gain-of-function research,” the HHS secretary said. “The RSV epidemic that we have that is the biggest killer of kids in this country today came from these kind of experiments. The Lyme disease almost certainly came from this kind of research.”
“RFK Jr’s assertions that RSV and Lyme disease (caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi) arose from gain of function research are unquestionably false,” Dr. Ferric Fang, a physician-scientist and microbiologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, told us in an email.
Kennedy has been making unfounded claims about lab origins for RSV, Lyme disease and other infectious illnesses since before he became HHS secretary.
Fang said that the tick-borne bacterium that causes Lyme disease has “ancient” origins, “even though human Lyme disease was not recognized until the 1970s.” A 2012 study shows evidence of the Lyme-causing bacterium in 5,300-year-old remains of the Tyrolean Iceman found in the Alps, he said. He also pointed to genomic research on bacteria from ticks collected between 1984 to 2013 indicating the Lyme-causing microbes have been in North America for around 60,000 years.
The history of the Lyme-causing bacterium “makes it quite clear that it did not arise from a lab,” Fang said.
RSV’s history also does not indicate a lab origin.
Fang said that RSV is related to a cattle virus and that the evolutionary paths of the human and bovine versions of the virus diverged approximately 450 years ago. Genetic evidence also shows that human RSV split into two major subgroups around 250 years ago, he explained, before further branching off into more subtypes.
“Understanding the evolutionary history of a virus and seeing the intermediate steps allows you to realize that it arose naturally and was not a human construct,” Fang said. Archived samples of human tissues show evidence of RSV infection “dating back to 1931,” he added.
In 2021, Children’s Health Defense, the nonprofit Kennedy founded and formerly chaired that misleads about vaccination, published an article claiming that RSV came from chimpanzees in a lab being used for vaccine research and development, although it did not describe any gain-of-function research. The article misconstrues the history of RSV’s discovery.
“An outbreak in chimpanzees at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Medical Research in 1955 led to RSV’s discovery,” Fang explained. Researchers soon thereafter identified the same virus in children with pneumonia. However, the researchers “ultimately concluded that the captive chimpanzees had been infected with the same virus acquired from humans,” Fang said.
“Given that the chimpanzee colony was in a research environment where the animals are maintained in a controlled environment,” the authors of a 2025 commentary, including one of the scientists who discovered RSV, wrote, it was plausible the chimpanzees were sickened accidentally by infected humans who cared for them.
Also contrary to Kennedy’s claim, RSV is not “the biggest killer of kids in this country today.”
“RSV is not a major cause of childhood mortality in the US,” Fang said. “The leading causes of death in US children are accidents, congenital disorders, cancer and suicide,” he added, citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
RSV historically has been estimated to kill 100 to 300 children under 5 years of age annually. The virus was the top cause of hospitalization in infants, although data indicate the introduction of immunizations beginning in 2023 reduced hospitalizations.
COVID-19 Death Rate Not Highest in U.S.
Kennedy wrongly said that the U.S. has “the highest death rate from COVID of any nation on Earth.” Bash pushed back on the claim, saying that “there are other countries that had higher” death rates. Bash is correct.
According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University & Medicine through March 2023, there were 13 countries with higher death rates than the U.S. when measured as deaths per 100,000 population. Some of those countries include Peru (with the highest rate), Bulgaria, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovakia and Lithuania. When using the case-fatality ratio, which is deaths per 100 confirmed COVID-19 cases, more than 90 countries have a higher mortality rate than the U.S.
Kennedy would have been correct to say that the U.S. had the highest death rate among large, wealthy nations, as a 2022 New York Times analysis found. The Times also found that the U.S. had a smaller share of people fully vaccinated compared with the other wealthy countries. The U.S. also had the highest number of reported deaths, at 1.1 million people.
Repeat Claims About Unproven Drugs for COVID-19
Kennedy falsely asserted that effective COVID-19 therapeutics were suppressed during the pandemic. Though he didn’t specify, he was likely referring to the antiparasitic drug ivermectin and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine. As we’ve written before, Kennedy has previously made similar claims about both drugs — even though clinical trials have found no evidence that either one is effective against COVID-19.
“If we had listened to those doctors during the COVID pandemic, we would have saved potentially millions of lives,” he said during the CNN interview. “There were therapeutics out there that were working. There were doctors that were having no deaths from COVID and treating, in some cases, thousands of patients. And we weren’t listening to them. Instead, we were doing the opposite. We were shutting them down.”
As we’ve previously explained, multiple large, randomized controlled trials — considered the gold standard of evidence in medicine — have found that neither ivermectinnor hydroxychloroquine reduced deaths or otherwise improved outcomes among COVID-19 patients. The federal government funded some of thosestudies. The Food and Drug Administration briefly authorized hydroxychloroquine for emergency use in 2020, but revoked that authorization after a clinical trial and other evidence showed it was unlikely to be effective in treating COVID-19.
The FDA did approve other drugs for treating COVID-19, including the antiviral drugs Veklury (remdesivir) and Paxlovid, after they were found to be effective in clinical trials.
At one point, Kennedy interrupted Bash several times to suggest, falsely, that there’s no evidence COVID-19 vaccines protect children from the virus.
“You think the COVID vaccine protected children?” Kennedy asked the CNN anchor, adding a moment later: “Can you show me one study that shows that children were protected by the COVID vaccine? That that vaccine did more good than harm to children? Can you show me one study that shows that?”
We’ve written before about Kennedy’s misleading statements about the COVID-19 vaccine and children, in which he has exaggerated the risks of the shot while downplaying the risks that the virus itself poses to children.
While children generally face lower risks from COVID-19 than adults, they can still become seriously ill, and more than 1,800 U.S. children have died from the disease. Multiple clinicaltrials and otherstudies have found that COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of infection and severe disease among children and adolescents. For example, a 2024 study estimated that when the omicron variant was circulating, children ages 5 to 11 who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 74% less likely to have a documented infection, 76% less likely to develop moderate or severe disease and 85% less likely to be admitted to an ICU with COVID-19.
The CDC’s own website, on a page last updated in June 2025, states that “COVID-19 vaccines help keep children from getting really sick from COVID-19” and that “many children should get an updated COVID-19 vaccine.”
As we’ve written before, serious side effects linked to the vaccines can happen, but are extremely rare.
Past Statements on MMR Effectiveness
In responding to Bash’s questions about the large measles outbreaks in the U.S. in the past two years and whether Kennedy accepted some responsibility for that, Kennedy said, “I’ve never questioned the efficacy of the MMR vaccine.” That’s not entirely accurate.
As we found in compiling a timeline of Kennedy’s comments on measles and the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, it’s true that he has often cited the high effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing measles. His criticisms and inaccurate claims about the vaccine are mainly related to its safety. But there are a few instances when he suggested the vaccine wasn’t that effective or that it wasn’t necessary.
In 2021, Kennedy wrote in a foreword to a book by Children’s Health Defense, the group he founded, that “American and global consumers of measles vaccines” have been “misled by the pharmaceutical industry and their captured government agency allies into believing that measles is a deadly disease and that measles vaccines are necessary, safe, and effective.”
“The Measles Book explodes this propaganda,” he continued, saying that the book would “reveal a disease that is rarely life threatening and a vaccine that is largely unnecessary but which carries real risks for the children mandated to take them.” He said the benefits of the vaccine had been “exaggerated,” a statement he had also made in September 2019 in a post on the CHD website. More recently, in a March 2025 Fox News interview, Kennedy wrongly said that the MMR vaccine’s effectiveness “wanes about 4.5% per year,” claiming that this was a reason for measles outbreaks, along with people not being vaccinated.
In the CNN interview, when pressed by Bash to look into the camera and tell parents to vaccinate their kids for measles, “because it is safe and it will help them save their children’s lives,” as Bash put it, Kennedy said: “A measles vaccine is effective. It stops measles in about 97% of the cases. People should get vaccinated.”
Kennedy didn’t say the vaccine was safe, but the CDC states on a webpage last updated in April: “The MMR vaccine is very safe.” Yet, another CDC webpage about autism, modified by Kennedy last year, casts doubt on the robust evidence that the MMR vaccine isn’t linked to autism.
An Unproven Link Between Tylenol and Autism
Kennedy also referred to an unproven link between Tylenol and autism. Other administration officials, including Trump himself, have made similar claims.
“There’s 73 studies out there that link Tylenol exposure during later pregnancy and during the perinatal period to autism onset,” Kennedy said during his interview with Bash.
As we’ve writtenbefore, some studies have found an association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and certain neurodevelopmental conditions, including autism. But those studies don’t establish causation, and a growing number of other studies point away from acetaminophen as an autism cause. A recent study of more than 100,000 children in Hong Kong, for instance, found no association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism once siblings were used to control for differences between families.
Major medical associations, including the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, continue to endorse acetaminophen as the “first-line medication for the treatment of pain and fever during pregnancy.” Failing to treat pain and fever during pregnancy comes with risks for mothers and babies.
“As with all medications taken during pregnancy,” the groups advise, “patients should use the lowest effective dose of acetaminophen for the shortest duration necessary.”
No Link Between Autism and Vaccines After Extensive Study
In a heated exchange with Bash, Kennedy misleadingly insisted that many vaccines have not been studied for whether they might cause autism. While each vaccine has not been examined individually, every major hypothesis for how vaccines might cause autism has been tested in numerous studies, with no credible links to autism.
“You have been fooled. Your statement that this has been studied is not true,” he told her. “It’s categorically not true.”
He pointed to a 2012 review from the Institute of Medicine – now the National Academy of Medicine – that he said found that “none of the eight vaccines that are administered during the first six months of life have ever been studied for [a] relationship to autism.”
“Show me one of the studies that’s been done on the first eight — the vaccines during the first six months of life,” he said to Bash. “You will not find them. The National Academy of Sciences states they do not exist.”
He later claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine is the “only” vaccine “that has been studied.”
This is misleading. What Kennedy is likely referring to is that many vaccines have not been individually tested for whether they might cause autism. This does not mean, however, that they haven’t been tested at all. Instead, many have been tested for autism in studies investigating particular vaccine ingredients, since that is how they were suspected of potentially causing autism.
Kennedy made a similar argument when he amended a CDC webpage in November to misleadingly say that “’vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism.” (The CDC recently modified the page in an effort to assuage Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, although the main message of the page remains.)
As we’ve noted before, scientists work off of particular hypotheses for how vaccines might cause autism. The MMR vaccine has been thoroughly investigated as an individual vaccine because the notion that vaccines might cause autism began with that vaccine via what would turn out to be a fraudulent study from the British researcher Andrew Wakefield.
Following the initial focus on the MMR vaccine, suspicion shifted to vaccine ingredients such as thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative that was in several childhood vaccines in very small doses, mostly before 2001, as well as aluminum, which is present in small amounts in certain non-live vaccines to boost the immune response.
Many studies investigating these hypotheses have studied several infant vaccines, including those that protect against hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumococcus (PCV), and diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP). Neither ingredient has shown a link to autism.
Yet otherstudies have looked at the larger vaccination schedule as a whole, looking for any sign that more vaccines are problematic. They, too, have not found any link to autism.
Because of the totality of the evidence, many scientists are comfortable saying that vaccines don’t cause autism, even though not every vaccine has been tested individually and despite the fact that it’s technically impossible to say whether a vaccine doesn’t do something.
Indeed, as Bash noted during the interview, the National Academies has agreed with the CDC’s prior statement, writing in response to the CDC’s website change in November that “based on our body of work on this topic and the overwhelming scientific consensus, we support the statement that vaccines do not cause autism.”
Incorrect Claims About National Academy Report
It’s worth noting that Kennedy’s specific claims about the National Academy of Medicine/Institute of Medicine report are also incorrect.
He said the report “found two studies, one on the DTP vaccine that show[s] that it does cause autism, and one on the hepatitis B vaccine that again suggests that it does cause autism,” adding that IOM “dismissed those two studies because they were based on CDC’s database.”
The group’s most recent report on vaccine side effects, published in 2012, was only charged with looking into autism as a potential side effect for two vaccines. It did not comment on autism and any other vaccines because the committee was not asked to do so.
The 2010 hepatitis B vaccine study Kennedy is likely thinking of, which the CDC webpage revised under Kennedy highlights, was retracted this May, after an “independent statistical reviewer concluded that due to fundamental methodological flaws the study’s conclusions are unsound.”It had based its conclusions on a selected sample of just 31 autism cases, among other issues.
Previously, the study was mentioned in a 2014 review prepared for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, a subagency of HHS. In another similar review, published in Pediatrics, the same set of authors said the study was at “high risk of bias and low quality,” when explaining why they did not think this was evidence that the vaccine caused autism.
As for DTaP, the 2012 IOM report said it reviewed one study that it did not consider in its evaluation because “it provided data from a passive surveillance system and lacked an unvaccinated comparison population.” That study, from 2004, does not show that diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines cause autism.
Rather, it compared reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System for the older whole cell vaccine versus the newer acellular vaccine for a litany of potential side effects, finding the older vaccine had about four times more reports of autism than the newer vaccine during a three-year period. As we’ve explained before, the voluntary reports to VAERS can be submitted by anyone, regardless of whether it’s likely the vaccine caused the event. The newer vaccine has been the only vaccine given for that set of diseases since 2001.
The study was authored by Dr. Mark Geier and his son, David, who have written numerous papers claiming vaccines cause autism that have been retracted or criticizedfor serious methodological flaws. The duo operated a clinic that gave a testosterone-suppressing drug and other unproven treatments to autistic children, at least partially based on the incorrect notion that thimerosal in vaccines causes autism. Kennedy hashired David, who does not have an advanced science degree and was fined for practicing medicine without a license, to analyze vaccine safety data for HHS.
In 2004, when the IOM concluded that the evidence “favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism,” the reviewers noted that several other studies from the Geiers, which purported to show a link to autism via thimerosal-containing DTP or DTaP vaccines using VAERS, had “serious methodological limitations that make their results uninterpretable.”
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Uzbekistan: assessing 10 years of rule under Mirziyoyev
23
September 2026 — 14:00 TO 15:00 BST
Anonymous (not verified)
Online
Hear from experts on the successes, shortcomings and future direction of Uzbekistan’s economic and reform agenda under President Mirziyoyev.
Hear from experts on the successes, shortcomings and future direction of Uzbekistan’s economic and reform agenda under President Mirziyoyev.
Ten years after Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power, Uzbekistan has strengthened regional cooperation, opened its economy and expanded its international engagement.
However, progress on political reform has been more limited. The preservation of an authoritarian system continues to impede the reform process, raising questions about the country’s future development path.
This event discusses:
Has Mirziyoyev’s decade in power delivered on its reform promises?
How has Russia’s war against Ukraine affected Uzbekistan’s domestic and foreign policies?
To what extent do corruption and nepotism continue to constrain reform?
What progress has been made on economic liberalization and regional cooperation?
What is the outlook for political and economic reform in Uzbekistan?
Meadowcrest emphasizes a family-oriented approach where residents are encouraged to shape their own daily lives and pursue the activities and relationships that bring them joy.
By John Riddle, Contributing Journalist, Delaware LIVE
Retirement should be a time of freedom, discovery and connection, not a time of giving things up.
That philosophy is at the heart of Meadowcrest at Middletown, a senior living community that is redefining retirement living by focusing on what matters most: the individual.
Located in the heart of Middletown, Meadowcrest offers a range of senior living options designed to help residents maintain their independence, stay engaged and enjoy life to the fullest. From spacious independent living apartments to specialized memory care services, the community is committed to providing personalized experiences that reflect the unique needs and life stories of each resident.
Rather than offering a one-size-fits-all experience, Meadowcrest emphasizes a family-oriented approach where residents are encouraged to shape their own daily lives and pursue the activities and relationships that bring them joy.
“We believe your retirement experience should be as unique as you are,” the Meadowcrest website states. “You won’t find generic, cookie-cutter packages here. Instead, we listen to your story and tailor our services to fit your specific needs, ensuring a lifestyle that feels personal and authentic.”
A Community Centered on Residents
Photo courtesy of Meadowcrest Life.
As a Vantage Point community, Meadowcrest is guided by a philosophy that places residents at the center of every decision. The community’s guiding principles emphasize improving quality of life, treating everyone like family and creating an environment where people genuinely love where they live.
That resident-focused philosophy can be seen throughout the community, from its thoughtfully designed residences and extensive amenities to its active social calendar and personalized support services.
For many older adults, one of the greatest benefits of community living is freedom from the responsibilities of home ownership. At Meadowcrest, residents no longer need to worry about maintenance, housekeeping or exterior upkeep. Instead, they are free to spend their days pursuing hobbies, socializing with friends, attending events or simply relaxing.
Spacious Homes with Modern Comforts
Meadowcrest features some of the largest independent living apartments in the region, offering residents the opportunity to enjoy comfort and convenience without sacrificing space.
Available one and two-bedroom floor plans feature open-concept living areas, fully equipped kitchens with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, full-size washers and dryers, generous closet space and abundant natural light. Many residences also include private patios or balconies.
The apartments are designed to provide all the comforts of home while offering the added peace of mind that comes with community living.
Living Life to the Fullest
Connection and engagement play an important role in healthy aging, and Meadowcrest places a strong emphasis on both.
Residents can participate in a wide variety of wellness programs, fitness opportunities and social activities designed to nurture the mind, body and spirit. Cultural events, educational programs, recreational activities and local excursions create ongoing opportunities for learning, friendship and fun.
Additional services such as complimentary transportation, weekly housekeeping, linen service and maintenance allow residents to focus less on chores and more on enjoying life.
Whether residents are rediscovering an old passion, exploring a new interest or gathering with neighbors over coffee, Meadowcrest strives to create an atmosphere where meaningful connections flourish.
Compassionate Memory Care
In addition to independent living, Meadowcrest offers Compass Memory Care, a specialized program designed to support individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.
The program provides a secure, supportive environment where residents can experience safety, dignity and a renewed sense of purpose. According to Meadowcrest, the philosophy behind Compass Memory Care is based on a simple but powerful belief: while memories may fade, emotions remain.
Caregivers focus on creating moments of connection, comfort and joy by engaging residents through meaningful emotional experiences and person-centered care.
The Meadowcrest team recently received recognition from the Alzheimer’s Association® for successfully completing its rigorous dementia care training curriculum review. Staff members receive evidence-based training in areas such as dementia fundamentals, person-centered care, communication strategies, care planning and support with daily activities.
By combining specialized training with genuine compassion, Meadowcrest seeks to provide both residents and their families with confidence, comfort and peace of mind.
For seniors and families exploring retirement living options in Middletown, Meadowcrest offers an inviting blend of independence, engagement and compassionate support, helping residents embrace each new chapter with confidence and purpose.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott appointed a 21-person board to oversee water in a broad area surrounding the Nueces River, which runs through Corpus Christi, Texas. Brenda Bazán for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott responded with fury after Corpus Christi officials announced in March that this Gulf Coast region of more than 500,000 people could face unprecedented restrictions as its water supply dried up.
The state had already committed over $750 million in low-interest loans to the city’s plans for a desalination plant, a project that would add 30 million gallons a day to the region’s water supply. But the project had gone nowhere.
“You know what they did? They squandered it, and then they changed their plan and then they were indecisive about what to do,” Abbott said of city officials in a heated response to a reporter’s question at an unrelated March press conference.
“What Corpus Christi leaders have to do is make a decision,” Abbott said. “We can only give them a little time more before the state of Texas has to take over and micromanage that city and run that city to make sure that every resident who goes to the water tap and turns it on, they are going to be getting water out of their faucet, not because of what local leaders are doing but because of what the state of Texas will do.”
Even as Abbott was demanding that Corpus Christi get its act together, another agency, whose entire board Abbott appoints, was also coming undone.
In late June, board members of the Nueces River Authority learned that funding for a desalination plant the agency hopes to build, separate from the city’s, is months from running out. Additionally, the agency was spending more than it was taking in, and other contracts that had kept the authority financially afloat had been canceled.
Although the river authority’s project is a critical part of efforts to expand the region’s water supply, so far, the governor hasn’t threatened to take over the agency’s day-to-day operations. He’s consistently placed the burden of responsibility on the NRA board.
But Abbott has previously demonstrated that he can use his authority to compel other agencies to act: In March, he instructed a different river authority not to reduce Corpus Christi’s water allocation from Lake Texana. He also had the state’s environmental agency waive regulations so the city could move groundwater from Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi, to its water treatment plant.
As far back as October 2022, while he was campaigning for reelection, Abbott said in an interview with KRIS 6 News that the state was working with the city and Nueces County on a desalination plan. If the city did not pursue the project, “then the state of Texas will do it for them,” the governor said. But the state is not currently involved in the city’s desalination project.
The governor appoints all 21 members of the NRA’s board and designates its president. With a majority vote of the river authority board, Abbott also can remove any board member for inefficiency, neglect of duty or misconduct. He has no such control over the Corpus Christi City Council.
Political scientists and water policy researchers who reviewed the situation told KRIS 6 News that Abbott’s decision to pressure Corpus Christi while leaving the NRA to address its problems largely on its own reflects a selective use of power. While recent rains have helped delay, though not prevent, an immediate water emergency for Corpus Christi, experts say the region still needs to develop new infrastructure projects to secure its long-term water supply.
Should water supplies drop below certain levels, Corpus Christi residents and businesses — including oil refineries and petrochemical plans — would be required to cut water use by 25 % under the city’s current Level 1 water emergency plan. Households would be capped at using 6,000 gallons of water per month, landscape watering would be banned and there would be surcharges imposed on those who exceed their allotments.
“The city of Corpus Christi needs a lot of help, it doesn’t need threats, and the Nueces River Authority is in way over its head,” said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. “The water crisis in Corpus Christi and beyond in Southeast Texas is serious, and it’s not clear that anyone has the breadth of authority and resources to deal with it.”
Gov. Greg Abbott has threatened Corpus Christi’s leadership over the city’s failure to move forward with a planned desalination plant, but he has largely refrained from publicly criticizing the leadership of the Nueces River Authority, even though he appointed its board. The NRA has also faced struggles in getting its planned desalination project up and running.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
What Power Does Abbott Have?
The public troubles for the NRA bubbled up as far back as March, when the agency’s then-chief operating officer sent a letter to board members accusing Executive Director John Byrum of making “materially inaccurate” statements about the authority’s finances related to the planned desalination project.
KRIS 6 reached out to the governor’s office in the spring about the accusations.
“Every member of a Texas board or commission should uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and accountability in service of the people of Texas,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris wrote in a statement. “Governor Abbott expects a thorough investigation into the allegations brought forth and for the Board to act swiftly once the investigation is complete.”
The board eventually cleared Byrum of “intentional wrongdoing,” but the NRA declined to release a copy of the investigation to KRIS 6 in response to a public information request; the Texas office of the attorney general has not yet ruled on whether the report can be withheld. The news organization asked the governor’s office for his response to the investigation and the board’s decision, but he did not respond.
The river authority’s unstable finances became even more apparent at a board meeting in late June, when the agency’s chief financial officer confirmed the NRA could be out of money for the desalination project by the end of August if certain contracts didn’t materialize. Since then, three of the agency’s desalination contracts, which the authority was depending on to stay afloat, expired and have not yet been renewed. KRIS 6 News asked the governor’s office whether it was aware of the agency’s continuing problems. Mahaleris again referred the news organization back to board members.
“The NRA Board oversees the agency’s operations and finances,” Mahaleris wrote June 27. “The Governor appoints board members to the state’s water authorities but does not manage their day-to-day operations. …The Governor expects accountability from appointed boards.”
While Abbott has no direct legal authority over the NRA’s policy decisions, he can use the power of his office to publicly pressure them, Ron Beal, a retired Baylor University School of Law professor whose work on Texas administrative procedure has been routinely cited by the Texas Supreme Court, wrote in a response to KRIS 6 News.
“He can say that when each member’s term ends, if the water project is not on its way, they will absolutely NOT be re-appointed to the job!” Beal wrote. “In other words, he cannot force them legally to follow his orders, but there is no doubt he has the bully pulpit and if anyone can pressure everyone to work together NOW and get it done ASAP, it is the Governor!!!!”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott at a press conference in JuneBrenda Bazán for The Texas Tribune
In a written statement to KRIS 6 News for this story, Abbott again placed responsibility on both the Corpus Christi City Council and the NRA board but did not address most of the specific questions asked.
“Despite the temporary reprieve granted by recent rain, the Governor’s expectations for the region have not changed. … The Corpus Christi City Council created this crisis through repeated failure to act on desalination,” Mahaleris wrote. “The Council remains responsible for securing reliable water for their citizens. The Nueces River Authority Board is responsible for the agency’s finances” and the desalination project.
The governor’s office did not answer questions about whether Abbott has taken steps to coordinate among the city, the NRA and other stakeholders, or about what “accountability from appointed boards” looks like in practice.
Even as the governor’s office has publicly distanced itself from the NRA’s operations, it has fought to keep from releasing its own communications with the river authority’s leadership.
KRIS 6 News filed a public information request on July 2 seeking emails, text messages, meeting notes and correspondence between the governor and members of his staff and Byrum, the NRA executive director, and NRA board President Eric Burnett. The request covered the river authority’s desalination project and any state funding, grants or loan guarantees related to those efforts.
The governor’s office confirmed on July 17 that it had records that met the parameters of the request. It did not release them. Instead, the office asked the attorney general’s office for permission to withhold the documents. The office argued that the records relate to a proposed water facility project for which state funding may be sought and that releasing them would “seriously disadvantage Texas,” but did not explain how. Abbott’s office also said the records reflect policy advice between the governor’s office and representatives of another state agency; this type of communication can sometimes be withheld under the state’s public information law.
The river authority has struggled to keep up with the demands of the desalination project, which is estimated to cost $6.4 billion. Design work on the pipeline that’s supposed to deliver the desalinated water stalled because the river authority hasn’t offered the company building it a new contract. Byrum, the executive director, has claimed President Donald Trump promised funding for the project, but the river authority has never actually made a formal request to the White House.
Jillson pointed to a fundamental mismatch between the NRA and the scale of the desalination project it’s trying to complete. The NRA staff is small, with an annual budget of up to about $5 million. It’s governed by unpaid, part-time board members who historically meet quarterly to provide broad direction.
He said the governor should direct someone in his office to determine whether the NRA has the personnel and expertise to execute a project of this scale and, if it doesn’t, to act on that finding. Without that kind of direct link between the governor’s office and the agency, Jillson said, “what you’re saying is, ‘We expect these guys to oversee themselves.’”
Byrum wrote in a response to KRIS 6 News that the authority “has the experience to oversee” the project and the option to hire additional staff if required.
KRIS 6 News asked if the governor, or anyone in his office, was involved in the NRA’s selection of IDE.
Byrum wrote that the “Governor’s office was not involved.” KRIS 6 News asked the governor the same question, but his spokesperson did not respond.
The Nueces River Authority has proposed constructing a desalination plant on Harbor Island, a flood tidal delta on the outskirts of Corpus Christi.Brenda Bazán for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune
The Takeover Question
Abbott has a record of curbing the power of Texas cities like Corpus Christi to govern themselves. In 2015, he signed a bill that overrode a voter-approved fracking ban in Denton in North Texas and blocked cities from banning or restricting oil and gas drilling. In 2023, he signed the so-called “Death Star” bill, which preempted city authority over eight policy areas, including labor, natural resources, insurance and property.
Republican state Rep. Denise Villalobos, who represents the Corpus Christi region, previously told KRIS 6 that Abbott directed her to draft a bill that would create a state-level water infrastructure authority, something she compared to the state’s highway department.
If adopted by the Legislature when it meets next year, such an authority would take many decisions about future water supplies away from locals.
Villalobos did not comment for this story. Abbott’s office did not answer questions about the proposed legislation.
Corpus Christi City Manager Peter Zanoni told KRIS 6 this summer that his office had looked into how a takeover would work and found no examples in Texas of the state stepping in to run a water operation or water corporation. The closest parallel, he said, is the state’s ability to take over ailing school districts.
Abbott’s threat to take over Corpus Christi’s desalination project runs into other unsettled legal territory the governor’s office has not addressed publicly, said Gabriel Collins, a lawyer and research fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy who studies water and energy policy.
Under Texas law, surface water, meaning rivers and lakes, is public property, giving the state a clear line of authority. Water pumped from the ground is considered private property, belonging to the person who owns the land above it, and is regulated locally.
Desalinated seawater fits into neither category. Collins said a legal case could theoretically be made that water drawn from within 3 miles of shore falls under state jurisdiction, but he said he isn’t aware of anyone making that argument in this context.
“That would be a massive shift in water policy in the state of Texas,” Collins said.
But the legal question may be less important than a practical one, Collins said. Would a state takeover of Corpus Christi water regulators, even if it could be done, actually make a difference?
“Or would you be better off resolving those fundamental problems by having the state be a catalyst and a facilitator financially that helps the local political authorities solve a problem?” Collins said.
From left, Brenda González Rocha holds her 8-month-old, Isaías, as González’s daughters Carolina, 6, and Camila, 8, play on the trampoline in their backyard in June. González’s front yard tested high for lead, and she is concerned how the contamination could “affect their quality of life.” Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
Shortly after buying her house in 2022, Mary Royers learned from a man across the street that her Omaha, Nebraska, neighborhood was contaminated with lead. But her yard, like thousands of others, had been cleaned up, the neighbor said.
Royers wanted to be sure. So the 36-year-old educator checked a website where the city tracks the soil test results of every home in a 27-square-mile area surrounding the site of an old lead smelter. She saw “remediated” written in bright green letters. The federal government had completed the work two decades ago. An expert must have tested the dirt and determined the problem was solved, she thought.
Relieved, Royers set about sowing the garden of her dreams. Hours disappeared as she thrust her hands into the soil, tearing up the grass and planting purple coneflower for bees to harvest and prairie grass to sway in the breeze.
“You have the green light from the city. That means everything’s safe,” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘Thank God I don’t have to worry about that.’”
But a soil test conducted last fall by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica found otherwise: Royers’ yard still has more than 1.5 times the level of lead that the Environmental Protection Agency’s cleanup was supposed to have eliminated.
Reading the emailed results, she felt “gut-wrenching disbelief,” she said.
“All I could think about was the dirt under my nails and all over my face,” said Royers, who has largely given up gardening for now. She explained later, “It felt like a betrayal of that trust.”
Since 1999, the EPA has spent $273 million digging up and backfilling nearly 14,000 yards across east Omaha to address contamination left from the smelter and other factories downtown. It’s the largest residential lead cleanup in the country. And the agency’s Superfund program has repeatedly heralded it as a success.
But, it turns out, Omaha’s soil might not be as safe as officials have advertised. The news organizations tested soil from more than 600 properties, including 150 that the EPA said had been cleaned up. In those tests, 1 in 10 yards marked as remediated still had enough lead to qualify for cleanup under the original guidelines. And nearly a quarter of the properties we tested in east Omaha could qualify for further study under new guidance released by the Trump administration last fall.
The results suggest the EPA has more work to do, said Howard Mielke, a longtime researcher of lead-contaminated soil who’s considered one of the field’s foremost experts. Not only should the agency clean up the areas that tested above the remediation level, he said, but it also should test other homes.
“If you find a couple of high results, chances are many high results will be nearby,” said Mielke, an adjunct professor at the Tulane University School of Medicine.
Some experts and environmental advocates said our findings reflect weaknesses in the EPA’s approach to cleaning up residential lead sites, which can leave a lot of lead behind.
Jeff Tittel, former director of the Sierra Club in New Jersey, the state with the most Superfund sites, said he repeatedly watched the EPA declare its work done after wrongly assuming everything had been cleaned up.
“On paper, everything’s wonderful,” he said, “but at the sites, there’s still chaos.”
Mary Royers washes her hands in her kitchen after being outside in her garden. She has largely stopped gardening after a Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica soil test found high levels of lead contamination.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
The EPA declined an interview request with senior officials overseeing the Omaha cleanup.
In an emailed response, spokesperson Kellen Ashford said the EPA is committed to cleaning up contaminated sites to protect residents and the environment. “The diligent cleanup efforts have led to a dramatic decrease in elevated blood lead levels” in Omaha, he said. (While the percentage of kids testing high for lead has dropped significantly, as it has nationally, kids in the Omaha site still test high for lead at rates above the national average.)
Ashford said the EPA could not assess the news organizations’ results without further investigation, but property owners can reach out to the EPA or the city of Omaha, which now manages the site for the federal government, if they have concerns.
“Because it would not be possible to completely remove all lead,” Ashford said, the EPA and the city also try to educate the community about lead risks and precautions.
The city is already responding to the news organization’s findings.
The day after receiving her results, Royers forwarded them to the city’s lead office, asking if anything could be done. An employee tested her dirt and found even higher levels than the news organizations did. The city plans to clean the yard up again in August, Royers said.
But the EPA and the city have refused to clean up or test properties of others who have reached out about their high lead results.
The agency has also not said what it plans to do about properties that are below the current cleanup level but above President Donald Trump’s new screening level, which could prompt further action. Any update would come after a new site study the agency plans to release in October 2027, Ashford said.
Royers and her partner, Stephen Matthews, are thankful for the new cleanup, but they wonder: How many other Omahans may be misled or unaware about lead contamination in their yards?
“We’re one house out of thousands,” Matthews said.
Stephen Matthews, Royers’ partner, in their wildflower garden. Though the soil outside their home was remediated years ago, a recent test by Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica indicated a high level of lead.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
What Might Have Gone Wrong
It’s difficult to identify why some cleaned-up properties still test high for lead.
That’s in part because Omaha’s lead problem is almost as old as the city itself. The American Smelting and Refining Company produced lead to make batteries, cover cables and enrich gasoline for more than a century. After the smelter closed in 1997, the EPA estimated the plant and other factories had dumped 200,000 tons of lead dust — enough to fill at least 1,600 rail cars — across Omaha’s east side.
At the time, the Superfund program, which had started only a decade before, was still trying to figure out how to clean up residential sites like Omaha’s, then home to 125,000 people. Old factory sites could be bulldozed and excavated, the contaminated material carted away. But the Omaha site involved people’s homes and yards.
The agency tested nearly every yard in east Omaha and came up with a plan: It would dig up and replace parts of yards that had a concentration of more than 400 parts per million of lead — the equivalent of a marble in a 10-pound bucket of dirt.
But that meant that some properties were cleaned up while neighboring ones that had only slightly lower levels of lead were not.
Hewing to that kind of strict standard doesn’t make sense, said Gabriel Filippelli, an Indiana University earth sciences professor and longtime lead researcher.
“From a scientific standpoint, a 390 is the same as a 410,” Filippelli said. “It’s the same as a 400. They’re all about the same value.”
Failing to clean up neighboring properties can also lead to recontamination over time. When it’s windy and the ground is dry, tiny lead particles in the dirt — generally about one-hundredth the width of a human hair — become airborne and spread, Filippelli said.
When the Superfund program started, the agency cleaned an entire yard if its average lead level among multiple samples was over the limit.
But by the time the Omaha cleanup started, the method had changed. In Omaha, it divided yards into five sections: two in the backyard, two in the front yard and a thin ring around the home’s perimeter called the dripline, which often contains the most contaminated dirt but can also contain remnants of lead paint.
The agency took multiple samples per section of yard and replaced a section’s soil only if the average was over 400 parts per million. This approach could lead them to miss hot spots or leave behind areas that have high lead levels but are just under the cleanup threshold. Contractors also did not dig up the driplines if another part of the yard wasn’t over the limit.
This could explain why the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica’s testing found that about 1 in 20 homes that didn’t qualify for cleanup originally now tested above the cleanup threshold. In addition, the news outlets found several properties outside the Superfund site that were over the limit.
Royers saves seeds from flowers in her garden before the soil is scraped away for remediation. Royers considered gardening to be something healing, so she was frustrated to learn it might actually have been harmful.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
In the early days of the cleanup, Don Preister, a longtime Omaha lead advocate and former state senator, argued for the EPA to clean up entire yards and to lower the level of lead that would qualify for remediation, calling the agency’s solution a half-measure.
But the EPA decided that its approach made the most of limited money and prioritized the highest-risk areas. One EPA manager told Omahans in 2004 that the choice to remove only sections of yards was “economical,” according to meeting records.
“It brought out feelings of hurt,” Preister said of the EPA’s choice. “Children are likely to still be impacted, and their health affected.”
The EPA’s national guidelines did advise against “‘patchwork clean-up’ patterns which are prone to recontamination” when adjacent sections are high. But the agency didn’t give clear guidance on how to implement that, several former site managers said, and some felt they had to follow the rules strictly or risk violating federal law or agreements with companies paying to clean up their pollution.
Ashford acknowledged that the agency has to adhere strictly to its cleanup plans but said in some cases, like an industrial site near a residential area, the EPA may clean up to a lower level to prevent recontamination.
Another problem was that east Omaha was full of older homes that contained lead paint that could recontaminate cleaned soil over time. Following local pressure, the EPA agreed to test homes’ paint. If it contained lead, the agency repainted the outside. But the EPA did not repaint houses whose soil did not also qualify for cleanup. Studies in urban areas have found homes with deteriorating paint have contaminated nearby gardens.
Ashford said an EPA study found most lead-based paint contamination in Omaha was within 6 feet of the house.
Brenda González Rocha, who has lived in her south Omaha home since 2020, thinks both soil and paint are to blame for the lead that doctors found in her 4-year-old daughter’s blood. Her basement had lead paint, which she hired a company to fix.
But although the EPA cleaned up her yard in 2012, the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica tests found levels of lead that are higher than before the agency remediated it. González is surrounded by properties with lingering lead. A yard down the street that had high lead levels was never remediated. The banks of the nearby highway were never dug up and replaced. The house next door has lead paint on it, according to the city lead website.
Ashford said it’s unlikely that wind-blown dust from one house to another would recontaminate cleaned areas with enough lead to surpass the cleanup level.
But nearly all the remediated properties the newsrooms tested that were over the cleanup threshold are within 100 yards of a property that originally qualified for remediation but wasn’t cleaned up. A third had two such neighboring properties.
González’s eight kids, between 8 months and 22 years old, love to play outside. They jump on the trampoline, ride bikes and play soccer. Now González is anxious whenever they’re in the yard.
“I worry that this could affect their quality of life,” she said. “I would feel bad if something happened to them during their development. I would feel responsible.”
González and her daughter Camila help feed soup to Isaías at home. González’s front yard tested high for lead, and she is worried about letting her children play outside.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
“Benign Neglect”
Once the EPA chooses a fix for a Superfund site, it is generally required to review the site every five years to update the public on the progress of the cleanup. But the ways those reviews are done leave unanswered questions about whether the solution is working and how much lead is in Omaha today, said experts who examined the reports for the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica.
In their reviews, government officials in Omaha track how intact the grass is on top of the new soil. If it is exposed or has been disturbed, it could be a sign that any remaining lead is no longer safely underground and could blow around.
But they don’t retest a representative sample of properties.
An Omaha lead smelter spread dust that seeped into the soil and bodies of many residents. The EPA spent decades cleaning up the surrounding area — but not Council Bluffs, Carter Lake or Bellevue.
Cleanups often take several tries to get right, said Tittel, the former New Jersey Sierra Club director, and recontamination or missed contamination can be a huge problem.
Tittel said he has seen similar patterns in New Jersey. In 1979, Tittel helped show EPA employees where the Ford Motor Company dumped industrial waste into abandoned mine pits. Since then, he has seen the mess declared a Superfund site, marked safe, become a Superfund site again and spawn a lawsuit that Ford settled in 2009 as locals continued discovering more hazards.
“It’s sort of a benign neglect when it comes to these sites,” Tittel said. “Government just wants to get it over with because it’s taking so long. They end up cutting corners or looking the other way.”
A Ford spokesperson said the company takes its environmental responsibility seriously and has been working with state and federal officials to clean up the site.
Retesting soil does not appear to be standard at other sites, according to reviews examined by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica. But it should be, said Debbie Chizewer, a managing attorney with the environmental law group Earthjustice. Without ongoing testing, the EPA can’t really know if its solution is working, she said, and residents won’t know how toxins in the environment are impacting their health.
“I think for the five-year review to be meaningful, you need to do testing,” she said.
Ashford said the EPA retests properties on a case-by-case basis, such as when construction disturbs the soil. The periodic reviews, which in Omaha have led to an ongoing reevaluation of the site’s cleanup level, allow the EPA to ensure these unique, complex sites protect people and the environment over time, he said.
Steve Zivny, who leads Omaha’s Lead Information Office, also said new testing and cleanup decisions depend on factors such as whether kids live at the home and whether they have tested for a high lead exposure.
Camila, Carolina and Isaías play together at home. Their mother keeps indoor toys inside and outdoor toys outside to avoid lead contamination inside the house.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
The EPA’s reviews of the Omaha site do point to some potential problems. In 2024, inspectors found 98% of the lawns had been disturbed, indicating a risk that buried lead could be exposed. That includes having weeds, bare soil or demolished buildings. But the EPA tested only 32 sites where homes had been demolished and found six exceeded the cleanup level. To them, that indicated the solution was “generally protective; however, more data should be collected to support this conclusion,” according to the report.
Those figures, however, trouble Ian von Lindern, who oversaw lead cleanup at an Idaho Superfund site for more than 30 years. He doesn’t doubt the federal government did a good job hauling away tons of toxins in Omaha. But he’s sure they couldn’t get all of it.
At the Idaho site, the EPA requires people to request permits from a local health district before digging in their yards. Local health employees can also test residents’ dirt, and, if it’s above the cleanup level, it may qualify for further remediation.
Without someone keeping a close eye on the fixes, recontamination can occur as people dig up lead-contaminated soil or unremediated soil is allowed to blow around.
“Those remedies are, I don’t want to use the word failing, but they’re becoming less effective,” he said.
Royers worries many homes in Omaha fit that description.
This summer, the educator is letting the weeds grow freely in her garden. Pretty soon, the city is going to replace it anyway.
The thought makes her feel guilty. More people should know about potential lead in their yard and have access to tests and cleanups. But that would require acknowledging that after decades and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, there are cracks in the cleanup. Royers isn’t sure that will happen.
“The priority is pretending like things are OK,” she said. “Clearly it’s not.”
Royers walks to her garage. She and Matthews wonder how many other Omahans may be misled or unaware about lead contamination in their yards.Rebecca S. Gratz for ProPublica
New statewide initiative will coordinate business resources, while questions remain about grant selection, oversight and measurable returns
By George D. Rotsch, Editor Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del. — Gov. Matt Meyer on Monday launched Innovate Delaware, a statewide initiative intended to help startups find capital, connect with established companies and research institutions, and expand Delaware’s ability to attract emerging businesses.
The program will be housed within the Delaware Prosperity Partnership, the state’s public-private economic development organization, and will focus on financial technology, advanced materials, biopharma manufacturing, clean energy and next-generation chemical products.
Meyer said Delaware has many of the assets needed to compete for innovative companies but has lacked a coordinated system to connect entrepreneurs with investors, universities, corporations and business-support organizations.
“Delaware has all the ingredients to lead in innovation,” Meyer said. “We have world-class research institutions, talented entrepreneurs, and a prime, central location. Now we have the infrastructure to turn great ideas into great companies.”
Innovate Delaware will operate around four areas: developing a stronger pipeline of startups, attracting investment capital, connecting new companies with corporations and helping international companies establish operations in Delaware.
The initiative also will create a digital “front door” intended to provide entrepreneurs with a central place to seek assistance and receive referrals to existing organizations.
Supporters say the approach could make it easier for business owners to navigate Delaware’s economic development system without creating a replacement for organizations already serving entrepreneurs.
The administration said Innovate Delaware will track startups, investors, referrals and program outcomes. That focus on data and measurable results could help address concerns that economic development programs sometimes measure activity — such as meetings, events and applications — without demonstrating whether they produce lasting jobs or private investment.
The state will provide $1.36 million over two years from the Delaware Strategic Fund to pay for personnel, technology, marketing and events associated with Innovate Delaware.
DPP separately operates on a $3.1 million budget supported by the state Bond Bill and private-sector investments.
Noah Olson, DPP’s vice president of innovation, said the program is designed to improve Delaware’s ability to attract and retain high-growth companies, venture capital and skilled workers.
“The four-pillars approach will systematically improve Delaware’s competitiveness in the attraction, development and retention of high-growth companies, venture capital and innovation talent,” Olson said.
Rural health challenge will be first major project
Innovate Delaware’s first major undertaking will be the Delaware Rural Health Challenge, a multistage health technology accelerator that could provide as much as $25 million in grants over five years.
The program is intended to identify problems affecting rural and medically underserved communities and select technology companies to test new approaches to delivering care.
Potential areas could include telehealth, medical workforce shortages, transportation barriers, remote diagnostics and access to specialists, although the press release did not identify the specific technologies or companies that may receive funding.
The Rural Health Challenge will be supported through a federal Rural Health Transformation Program award funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
The administration said the broader federal financial assistance award totals approximately $157.4 million and is fully funded by the federal government.
The health initiative could provide meaningful support to rural Delaware communities, where residents may have fewer providers and longer travel times for medical care. However, the announcement did not answer several questions about how grant recipients will be selected or how taxpayers will know whether the projects succeed.
Measuring results
DPP said the Delaware Strategic Fund is intended to support investments that generate measurable returns, including companies created, jobs produced, capital deployed and tax revenue generated.
That standard could provide a useful framework for evaluating Innovate Delaware.
The strongest case for the program would be evidence that it leads to sustainable businesses, private investment, permanent Delaware jobs and improved access to rural health care.
The program could face greater criticism if its results are measured primarily by conferences held, referrals completed, websites launched, or grant money distributed.
The announcement did not provide specific performance targets for the first two years of Innovate Delaware or explain what would happen if the program fails to meet its goals.
It also did not state whether an independent auditor or outside evaluator will review the program’s economic impact.
Who will select the winners?
The Governor did not identify the individuals or organizations that will evaluate applications and select companies for Rural Health Challenge grants.
It also did not specify whether selections will be made by DPP staff, state officials, outside health care experts, independent reviewers or a combination of those groups.
Other unanswered questions include whether the names and qualifications of the reviewers will be disclosed, whether companies will be scored using publicly available criteria and whether applications, rankings and award decisions will be subject to public review.
The administration also did not say whether grant recipients will be required to contribute private capital, create jobs in Delaware or maintain operations in the state after receiving public support.
Those details will be important because the program could distribute millions of dollars to private companies. Clear selection standards and public reporting could help protect the process from favoritism and ensure awards are based on the strength of the proposals rather than political relationships or preferred industries.
Questions also remain about how the state will evaluate whether a health technology is financially sustainable after grant funding expires.
Pilot programs often generate promising short-term results but end when government support runs out. A successful project would likely need a long-term customer, such as a hospital, insurer, medical provider or private investor, to continue operating without permanent taxpayer support.
Business and university leaders support initiative
Leaders from the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, the Delaware Small Business Development Center, the Center for Accelerating Financial Equity and several entrepreneurship organizations praised the announcement.
University of Delaware President Laura Carlson said the university is prepared to support the state’s effort to move research into commercial applications.
Stephanie Johnnie, executive director of the Pete du Pont Freedom Foundation, said Delaware entrepreneurs could benefit from a more coordinated system.
“Our opportunity is to build a more connected system that helps them move from idea to execution and from early traction to sustainable growth,” Johnnie said.
The initiative’s focus on connecting existing organizations rather than replacing them may appeal to business leaders who want the state to reduce barriers and improve coordination without building another large government bureaucracy.
The ultimate test, however, will be whether Innovate Delaware becomes a practical entry point for entrepreneurs or another layer in an already complex economic development system.
For now, the announcement represents a potentially pro-growth investment with bipartisan appeal: help businesses find capital, connect research to the marketplace and attract companies to Delaware.
But the program’s long-term credibility will depend on transparency, private-sector participation and measurable returns — particularly as officials begin selecting companies to receive funding through the Rural Health Challenge.
To Go Box
What: Innovate Delaware
Purpose: Connect startups and entrepreneurs with investors, corporations, universities and business-support organizations
Lead organization: Delaware Prosperity Partnership
Initial state funding: $1.36 million over two years from the Delaware Strategic Fund
First major project: Delaware Rural Health Challenge
Potential rural health grants: Up to $25 million over five years
More information: Details about applications, selection criteria and grant review procedures have not yet been released
By agreeing to disarm, Hamas is trying to call Israel’s bluff in GazaExpert commentthilton.drupal
The move may lead to more pressure on Israel to implement Trump’s 20-point plan, but both sides are likely to keep dragging out the process while avoiding any real commitments.
Since the Gaza ceasefire came into effect in October 2025, the Board of Peace has focused predominantly on Hamas’s disarmament as the key to unlocking other elements of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan. These include the entry into Gaza of the technocratic National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), the deployment of an International Stabilization Force (ISF), and the start of desperately needed reconstruction.
Most crucially, the emphasis on disarmament has precluded any discussion of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza. Instead, Israeli control of the territory has increased significantly since the start of the ceasefire, from about 53 per cent of Gaza in October (delineated by the so-called ‘Yellow Line’) to nearly 70 per cent today.
President Trump’s recent announcement that Hamas has agreed to his disarmament plan may change that dynamic. By essentially calling Israel’s bluff, Hamas’s move could potentially put external pressure on Israel in Gaza for the first time in months. The question is whether the Board of Peace in general, and Trump in particular, are willing to put the necessary pressure on both parties to move past the current stalemate.
Swift change unlikely
In reality, it is unlikely that a timeline for decommissioning weapons or drawing down troops will be agreed anytime soon.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely seek to drag out any further negotiations as much as possible; the last thing he wants as he goes into October’s elections is US pressure to withdraw from Gaza. Any public suggestion from Netanyahu that Israel would reduce its control in Gaza or make concessions to Hamas would likely lose him his voter base. (Far from accepting Israel’s withdrawal from the enclave, right-wing Israeli ministers have already announced plans for new settlements in Gaza.)
Dragging out the process also suits Hamas. Agreeing to Trump’s plan is likely a pragmatic move by new Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya. It keeps the group in the conversation about Gaza’s future and may improve its position in relation to the Board of Peace – potentially even shifting the onus of intransigence to Israel. But Hamas knows that the actual decommissioning of its weapons will not be immediate.
It is unlikely that a timeline for decommissioning weapons or drawing down troops will be agreed anytime soon.
Indeed, both actors will likely double down on sequencing demands that have stymied previous attempts to reach agreements in Gaza: Israel will likely require full Hamas disarmament before withdrawal, while Hamas will likely insist on Israeli withdrawal before decommissioning weapons.
Israel reportedly insisted to the Board of Peace that it reserved the right to strike areas set to be handed over to the ISF and objected to Qatar and Turkey (both central mediators in the agreement with Hamas) being involved in the roadmap’s future verification stages. It also reportedly demanded that Hamas’s weapons be destroyed rather than stored after confiscation.
Hamas is also hedging. It has stated that its moves will be contingent on Israel ending ‘all forms of aggression’, as well as withdrawing to the October ceasefire’s ‘Yellow Line,’ facilitating the entry of the ISF and NCAG, and meeting humanitarian aid obligations.
Hamas has also rejected Israeli demands that weapons be destroyed, and has intentionally avoided the language of disarmament or surrender. Indeed, the term ‘disarmament’ does not appear anywhere in Trump’s roadmap, relying instead on ‘decommissioning,’ modelled in part on Northern Ireland’s process.
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Two perspectives on the two-state solution from the Chatham House archive: the UK’s former Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper on 9 July 2026; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on 3 November 2017.
Furthermore, Hamas will likely resist full decommissioning without a broader negotiated process to realize a Palestinian state. The disarmament plan does not mention Palestinian self-determination directly, but it does refer (in Article 8) to the completion of the ‘remaining commitments under [the] Sharm [el] Sheikh Protocol,’ Trump’s initial 20-point plan for Gaza. Point 19 of that plan refers to a ‘credible pathway for Palestinian self-determination and statehood.’ Netanyahu has fully rejected the notion of Palestinian statehood, while Hamas will insist upon it.
US and Board of Peace officials have stressed the ‘zero trust’ nature of the roadmap, emphasizing that it will proceed based solely on externally verified steps and conditions. But even reciprocal processes require one side to take the first step. It is more likely that both sides will buy time by telling the Board of Peace at least some semblance of what it wants to hear. Meanwhile, they will both likely avoid any real commitments by objecting to any one of the myriad thorny details required to actually implement a plan.
External pressure
In this context, external commitment and pressure are crucial. For Hamas, the mediating efforts of Egypt, Turkey, and Qatar have been essential in getting the group to publicly accept the agreement. But these regional states will have less leverage in getting Hamas to implement it, as they are not physically on the ground in Gaza to enforce commitments or to provide security guarantees.
On the Israeli side, it remains unclear the extent to which the US – and by extension, the Board of Peace – will be willing to impose substantive pressure on Israel to even discuss withdrawal.
There are several factors to consider here. First is the question of Trump’s personal commitment to shepherding the agreement beyond the fanfare of the initial headlines. If the past year is any guide, the disarmament roadmap could easily become yet another casualty of Trump’s slapdash approach to diplomacy, in which a numbered plan is released with bravado, but then flounders without the long, arduous subsequent work required to make it operational.
A picture from last year’s Summer Nights event. Photo courtesy of the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce.
The Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce will hold its 2026 Summer Nights experience alongside the 2026 Senior League Softball World Series in Frankford, Delaware, beginning August 3.
The 2026 Summer Nights is coming to the Senior League Softball World Series for the second year in a row. The Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce will hold their Summer Nights events between August 3 and August 7, at Lower Sussex Little League Park.
The Summer Nights activities will take place on the practice field near the main concession hub, according to the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce, and feature backyard style games and poster making amongst other activities.
While having fun off the field, there will be plenty of action to take in on the field. Ten regional championship teams — including Delaware’s Sussex All-Stars — from around the world will play throughout the week culminating in a championship game on August 9.
This is the 21st year the tournament has been held at Lower Sussex Little League Park, according to Sports Illustrated. The complex has been one of six host sites for the tournament over the last 20 years, according to the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce. All games will be streamed on ESPN+.
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DPP separately operates on a $3.1 million budget supported by the state Bond Bill and private-sector investments.
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