An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Economist: Students and school children are increasingly using artificial intelligence. A survey last year by Chegg, an ed-tech firm, found that 80% of rich-world undergraduates used it in their studies. More recent polls put the figure at 94% in Britain and 93% in Germany. Such widespread adoption has fueled concerns about the impact the technology might be having on learning. Teachers report marking identikit essays that they suspect are churned out by ChatGPT. Yet firm evidence on AI's educational effects has been lacking.
David Stromberg of Stockholm University and Victor Lei and Wu Yanhui of the University of Hong Kong set out to fill the gap. They tracked 27,000 pupils aged 12-18 in China, where AI adoption has been fast. Around 80% reported using models such as Doubao and DeepSeek; the other 20% formed the control group.
The results are eye-opening. After six months, pupils using AI saw their average homework score rise by 18% across all subjects. The time they took to complete each assignment fell from an average of 64 minutes to 45. But come exam time, the same students scored 20% below their classmates who had not called on AI's help. Homework scores once predicted exam performance; now those who score highest are, perversely, more likely to do worse in exams. The takeaway: "AI can boost learning productivity, but only for those who use the technology intelligently," reports The Economist. "Students must resist the temptation to reach for an AI-generated answer before thinking things through for themselves."
US Senator Tim Sheehy, a Montana Republican and a cattle rancher, has come out against a plan announced Friday by Donald Trump to allow for an increase in imported ground beef.
”I’ve advised President Trump against this course of action for a year because American ranchers have been struggling against the packer monopoly for decades, and this will further harm them - most of whom are MAGA Republicans,” Sheehy wrote on X. “The President’s heart is in the right place on wanting lower prices for the American people, and beef prices have been impacted by the Mexican screwworm. But the reality is this action will make it more difficult for American ranchers to rebuild our herd and bring prices down for the American people. And most importantly, this will harm our ranching families who feed the nation.”
Trump announced a plan on Truth Social to allow 300,000 metric tonnes of beef to be imported without tariffs over the next 90 days, to be sold for hamburger at a 25 percent discount to current prices. Trump offered this agreement with an unnamed source as measure to lower prices while “as we work to rebuild this herd and help our ranchers.”
The US beef cattle herd is near historic lows, and beef prices have skyrocketed over the last year. The average price of ground beef in American cities is around $7.12 a pound, an increase of 9.4 percent year-over-year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This is a slap in the face to every war hero and every service member who has worn the uniform. It’s beyond comprehension for a president to want his own name on a Navy ship while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. For generations, millions of Black women and men have proudly served in the United States military, defending freedoms that too often were not even afforded to them, their families, or their communities. Donald Trump is making a mockery of that legacy by treating military service as another opportunity for personal branding. Our brave service members signed up to defend the nation, not the fragile ego of one man. America deserves better than this.
Closing arguments could come on Monday as prosecutors seek murder conviction over deaths of three young children
Lindsay Clancy’s defense in her murder trial rested on Friday after calling witnesses to testify about the ailing mother’s mental state and attempts to seek help before she killed her young children.
The defense wrapped more quickly than some expected given that the prosecution rested their case on Monday.
Zelenskyy described the attack as a double-tap strike, in which an initial wave of drones hit the area, followed by a second wave as rescue workers responded.
Chief justice signs temporary order to permit work while court considers emergency appeal from administration
The US supreme court has allowed Donald Trump to continue construction of his controversial White House ballroom for now, temporarily pausing a lower court order that would halt much of the project.
Supreme court chief justice John Roberts signed a temporary order on Friday, permitting work to continue on the planned White House addition – a top priority of the president – while the court considers an emergency appeal from Trump’s administration.
The 10-year blueprint mandates water cuts of up to 40% for California, Arizona and Nevada
It’s official: after years of tense negotiations and missed deadlines, there is finally a plan to govern the future of the imperiled Colorado River - or at least the makings of one.
With the previous framework set to expire in October, the US Bureau of Reclamation publicly released its proposal for a new plan on Friday.
Asking people to weigh in on adoption of different categories in move that will sow confusion and create access challenges, say experts
The Trump administration is asking for public feedback on changes to the ways it recommends vaccines – likely opening the door to greater access challenges and confusion, experts say.
In a notice published by the health and human services (HHS) to the Federal Register on Friday, officials say they are now seeking comments from the public about the current categories for vaccine recommendations, which so far fall into routine, risk-based and shared clinical decision-making.
The Pentagon has given separation notices to both the publisher and the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes, according to people familiar with the matter.
David Campanale seeks damages after what he says was organised campaign against his faith in Sutton and Cheam
How much is a career in politics worth? The Liberal Democrats, despite admitting claims of religious discrimination, say about £22,800. A former Lib Dem candidate claims £790,000.
It is a question before the Central London county court after David Campanale argued that discrimination against his Christianity cost him his political career in a civil case against the party.
UN secretary general has said UN faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ due to unpaid contributions from member states
The Trump administration has started the process to transfer $725m to the United Nations, a congressional notification seen by Reuters showed – a move aid experts said was a welcome step towards paying billions in dues owed.
There was no immediate response from Washington DC to questions about the reasons for the payment from an administration that has slashed funding to many UN agencies and blasted the global body for not living up to its potential.
A man dressed as Darth Vader used a Public Safety and Livable Neighborhoods Committee meeting in San Diego to mock the city's use of Flock surveillance cameras, sarcastically arguing that the technology would help the "emperor" track "rebel scum" and find Luke Skywalker. "This is what the emperor needs. This technology will help us find the rebel scum and the hidden base on Hoth," he said. The Hill reports: He urged that the cameras be used to surveil any "rebel scum as they move from playground to playground, from playground to pool, from pool to gymnasium, because we all know that the Flock cameras are not only following the license plate readers, they are following children." The plea for the cameras shifted to raising taxes to clear out storm drains and to the clearing of homeless encampments in the city. The man said the council members can use "doublespeak" to say the police department is humanitarian.
"And how will the people trust this City Council when this City Council continues to vote for surveillance technology that imprisons them? Ms. Campbell, you must work on your Jedi mind tricks," he said, addressing City Council member Jennifer Campbell, before waving his hand to the audience. "Do it like this." His last plea was for the Flock cameras to be used to "help us find Luke Skywalker as he traverses the universe in his X-wing." "This technology is a necessary, necessary force," he concluded. According to DeFlock, San Diego has more than 550 Flock cameras across the city.
A federal appeals court said the top federal prosecutor in the Northern District of New York was unlawfully serving when he subpoenaed state Attorney General Letitia James.
Micron says it will spend $10 billion over the next decade on a new research lab in Boise focused on advanced memory technologies, computing systems, and future chip manufacturing. Here are some details, as reported by Reuters:
- Micron Research Labs will bring together customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem to pursue breakthroughs, the company said.
- The latest investment builds on the more than $250 billion that Micron had separately committed to manufacturing and R&D across the United States.
- The lab will be connected to Micron's research and technology footprint across the U.S., Europe, Japan, India, Singapore and Taiwan.
- Growing adoption of AI workloads and infrastructure buildout have boosted demand for high-bandwidth memory, which rapidly feeds data to AI accelerators, making it a critical component of modern computing infrastructure.
- The Trump administration has prioritized domestic chip manufacturing in a bid to reduce foreign dependence, boost the economic output and maintain its lead in the AI race.
- Micron expects to break ground on the facility in 2027, which will be capable of hosting hundreds of researchers and facilitating international conferences and workshops.
(The Center Square) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday temporarily allowed continued construction on President Donald Trump's estimated $400 million White House ballroom.
The department told Nevada officials that the 15,903 figure registered was ‘preliminary’ and more than 14,000 names still needed review
About a month after alleging Nevada had as many as 16,000 non-citizens on its voter rolls, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials admitted they had confirmed that only 185 were actually non-citizens, according to records obtained by the Guardian.
In a primetime TV address on 16 July, Donald Trump claimed that a DHS review had found about 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote in four states.
A new space transportation policy from the Trump administration calls for a dramatic increase in launches, as well as working with the commercial space industry to send humans to Mars.
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum to expand space travel, with the goal of facilitating more than 1,000 launches and reentries “on American soil” each year by 2030.
(The Center Square) - Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs has a double-digit lead over U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Surprise, in Arizona’s gubernatorial general election, according to a new poll.
MPs receive Harry Styles concert tickets worth £858, Chelsea flower show tickets worth £1,839, and £3,432 of hospitality at Brit awards
MPs have been accused of failing to learn their lesson over freebies after taking almost £400,000 of hospitality to concerts, sport matches and other events this year, with Louise Haigh, Lucy Powell and Wes Streeting among those accepting tickets.
Despite the outcry in 2024 over Keir Starmer accepting football tickets and gifts of clothing, MPs appear to have been declaring hospitality since the start of the year on a greater scale than previously seen.
(The Center Square) — A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling blocking the U.S. Department of Justice from subpoenaing records from New York Attorney General Letitia James' office about her investigations.
(The Center Square) – Federal and state officials are questioning Illinois sanctuary policies after a Jordanian national charged with illegal possession of Molotov cocktails was released on electronic monitoring while he was unlawfully present in the United States.
Linus Torvalds says AI "enormously helped" him track down a stubborn Intel Xe graphics driver bug that took 24 debugging patches and 18 kernel boots to isolate. "I'd like to call it my tireless helper, but the AI several times stated flat out that this was impossible and unsolvable and that we should just write a report about it," wrote Torvalds on the commit. "I suspect those things have been trained by people who may not be quite as stubborn as I am..." Phoronix reports: The patch by Linus Torvalds is for the Xe kernel driver and the change is no longer hand out the flat Compute Command Streamer (CCS) storage as usable vRAM. On a Battlemage G21 graphics card, he was hitting a scenario where there was a mismatch where the usable memory ended and hit a case where the GDM display manager would end up being endlessly restarted. [...]
Linus Torvalds views AI as a useful tool and in this case reaffirmed he found it "enormously helped" his effort in tracking down this Intel graphics driver bug. The Intel Xe driver fix is merged to Linux 7.3 Git and is also marked to back-porting to the stable kernel branches.
Pima county figures show highest number of monthly migrant deaths in two years as critics condemn US policy
According to newly released data from the medical examiner’s office in Pima county, Arizona, the remains of 19 migrants, including children, were recovered along the Arizona-Mexico border last month.
The figure accounts for the highest number of monthly deaths in that area since 2024 and brings the number of total remains found to 73 this year, 14 more than the same time period last year.
This article was updated on 21 August 2026 to correct the name of Octavio Fuentes.
Simpson, a three-time Olympian and one of the most accomplished American female runners in history, was pacing a mile group at an event in North Carolina when she went into cardiac arrest. She was given CPR before she was rushed to hospital, where she was placed on life support due to issues with her heart and lungs.
One of Donald Trump’s closest and most devoted aides, Natalie Harp, has faced intense media scrutiny this week, after a Democratic senator, Jon Ossoff, name-checked her in a speech that went viral. So what do we know about Harp, who is often referred to as the ‘human printer’? And why is everybody talking about her relationship with Trump? Helen Pidd speaks to international news editor Paul Owen
ICE charter carrying more than 160 Haitian nationals landed in Cap-Haïtien, after temporary protection status was revoked
The first deportation flight to Haiti since the US supreme court upheld Donald Trump’s power to strip 350,000 Haitians – and others – of a key type of legal status in the US landed in the troubled nation on Thursday.
The flight was carrying more that 160 Haitian nationals and landed in Cap-Haïtien, Haiti’s second-largest city, aboard an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) charter.
Caption: A major shift in school funding and School Board decision making come as Delaware attempts to raise third-grade reading proficiency from 40% to 53% by 2028.
Greater local flexibility will require boards to balance student needs, community priorities and evidence about what improves reading
Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a three-part Delaware LIVE series examining Delaware’s literacy challenge, the state’s 2028 goal and the changing responsibilities of local school boards.
By George D. Rotsch, Editor of Delaware LIVE
DOVER, Del. — Delaware’s new school funding model will give local school boards greater influence over how education resources are used, placing more responsibility for literacy decisions closer to students, parents and communities.
That shift comes as Delaware attempts to raise third-grade reading proficiency from 40% to 53% by 2028 and as school boards have more information available to understand where students are performing, whether they are making progress and where additional support may be needed.
For school boards, those two changes are connected. Assessment results provide a lagging measure of where students ended the year. Leading indicators collected throughout the year can show whether students are on track and whether the district’s strategy is working. Together, that information can help boards evaluate whether district spending is aligned with the needs of students and the outcomes the district is trying to achieve.
“The opportunity is to make a much clearer connection between what we know about student performance and where we invest our resources,” said Julia Keleher, executive director of First State Educate. “What are the results telling us? What does the district believe is driving them? What is the strategy for improving them? And does our budget put resources behind that strategy?”
From approving budgets to aligning investments with outcomes
School boards have always approved district budgets. Greater funding flexibility makes it even more important for boards to understand what need an investment is intended to address and what result it is expected to produce.
In literacy, for example, annual assessment results may show where proficiency remains low, while screening, student progress, attendance, intervention participation and other leading indicators can provide more current information about where students are struggling and whether existing strategies are working.
The superintendent and district team use that information to diagnose needs and recommend how resources should be used. The board’s role is to determine whether the proposed investments are aligned with the district’s student outcome goals, whether there is evidence supporting the strategy, and what information the board will receive to know whether the investment is producing the intended result.
Those decisions could include investments in classroom instruction, intervention for struggling students, professional learning, staffing, student supports or other strategies identified by the district.
“The budget should tell the same story as the district’s student outcome goals,” Keleher said. “If third-grade reading is a priority, the board should be able to see how resources are supporting the district’s strategy for improving it. Then, throughout the year, the board should be looking at the indicators the district has identified to understand whether that investment is helping move students toward the goal.”
Local flexibility creates different choices
Not every Delaware district faces the same literacy challenge.
One district may need to strengthen reading instruction across all elementary schools. Another may find that its greatest needs are concentrated in a small number of schools. Some districts may need to focus on students entering school without foundational skills, while others may need stronger intervention for children who have fallen behind.
The new funding model gives boards an opportunity to respond to those differences rather than applying the same solution everywhere.
But local flexibility also carries risk. Boards could spread resources across too many priorities, continue programs without sufficient evidence or focus on activities that are visible to the community but have little effect on reading.
The central question is not whether a district spends more. It is whether the board can connect its spending choices to a clearly identified student need and a measurable academic objective.
Parents can help define the problem
Greater local control also creates an opportunity for parents and community members to become more involved in setting education priorities.
Assessment data can show where students are struggling, but it may not explain why. Parents can help boards understand whether families receive clear information about reading performance, whether students can access additional support, and whether attendance, transportation, language, scheduling, or other barriers limit participation. That information can help a board evaluate whether the district’s proposed spending responds to the needs behind the data.
“Community engagement should help shape the decision, not simply react to it,” Keleher said. “Parents can help boards understand barriers and student needs that may not be visible in a spreadsheet. When resources are limited, that perspective matters in deciding where an investment is most needed and what problem it should solve. “Meaningful engagement would occur before the district commits to a strategy, not only after administrators have presented a finished proposal.
Complex decisions require the right expertise
Greater flexibility does not mean boards or districts are expected to have every type of expertise internally. Decisions about how to improve literacy and where to invest limited resources can involve student performance data, instructional research, implementation evidence, financial analysis, community input and governance considerations.
Districts can draw on the expertise needed to strengthen those decisions, whether from state education officials, educators and literacy specialists, researchers, financial experts, community organizations or others with relevant knowledge and experience. The question is not whether outside perspectives should influence the decision, but whether the district has assembled the information and expertise necessary to make a well-supported investment.
For boards, that expertise should strengthen, not replace, their governance role. The board still must understand what student need the investment addresses, why the proposed approach is expected to help, what it will cost, what results are expected and how progress will be monitored.
Measuring whether the decision worked
The new funding model also will require boards to think more carefully about results.
Annual state testing remains an important measure, but boards cannot wait until the end of the school year to determine whether students are progressing.
They will need regular, understandable information showing whether the district’s strategy is reaching the intended students and whether reading performance is moving in the right direction.
That does not require board members to manage daily instruction. It requires them to agree with district leadership in advance about what progress should look like, when it should be visible and how the administration will respond if improvement does not occur.
A literacy investment should begin with several broad questions:
What student need is the district trying to address?
Why is the proposed approach appropriate?
How did parents and educators help shape the decision?
What result should the board expect?
When will the board know whether the strategy is working?
What will change if progress falls short?
Those questions preserve the distinction between governance and management while creating meaningful accountability.
A test of local governance
Delaware’s new funding model is based partly on the idea that local leaders can make better decisions when resources and authority are placed closer to students.
Literacy will provide an early test of that premise.
Experts such as First State Educate can help boards understand data and strengthen their decision-making processes. Administrators can recommend strategies. Educators can explain classroom needs. Parents can identify barriers and community priorities. School boards must bring those perspectives together and make choices that reflect both local needs and the state’s larger academic expectations.
By 2028, the public will be able to judge the new funding model by more than the amount of money distributed or the percentage placed under local control. Its most important measure will be whether substantially more Delaware children can read at grade level.
World No 1 makes ‘difficult decision’ to miss slam
Draper still recovering from bone bruise in left arm
Jannik Sinner will miss the US Open with a right knee injury. The world No 1 has not played a match since beating Alexander Zverev last month to successfully defend his Wimbledon title, missing the Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati. Great Britain’s Jack Draper is also out of the event.
The news comes a day after his great rival Carlos Alcaraz, whom the Italian lost to in the final in New York 12 months ago, revealed he will make his comeback at Flushing Meadows after four months out with a wrist injury.
New framework lays the groundwork for secure scientific AI.
Aug. 21, 2026 — Large language models (LLMs) are rapidly becoming capable of acting as “AI scientists,” helping manage many stages of the research process — from experiment design and data analysis to interpreting results and drafting publications. As these systems take on larger roles in scientific discovery, ensuring their reliability and security becomes increasingly important.
Conceptual multi-agent framework for vulnerability benchmark generation.
One challenge is that LLMs can be vulnerable to adversarial attacks — carefully crafted inputs designed to manipulate model behavior. In scientific settings, such attacks could lead to inaccurate findings, unsafe recommendations or reduced trust in AI-generated results.
Researchers have developed adversarial robustness benchmarks to measure how well AI systems withstand these attacks. Most existing benchmarks were designed for general-purpose AI applications, however, and often overlook the unique challenges of scientific research. As a result, scientists lack effective tools for evaluating vulnerabilities in AI systems used for research.
To address this gap, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory have developed a two-part framework: a multi-agent mechanism for generating scientific security and a multilayered defense architecture designed to protect scientific AI systems from malicious threats. Their work was presented at the Trillion Parameter Consortium 2026 workshop in June 2026 by Saket Chaturvedi, a postdoctoral researcher at Argonne.
Multiple Agents, Specialized Roles
Most current approaches for generating adversarial benchmarks rely on a single-agent system. While efficient, such a system can create competing responsibilities, with one model acting simultaneously as domain expert, attacker and evaluator.
The solution proposed by the Argonne researchers involves a collaborative system of specialized agents, each with a distinct role:
Orchestration agent: Coordinates the process and works with scientific experts to identify realistic vulnerabilities.
Domain agent: Contributes scientifically grounded concepts and threat scenarios.
Adversary agent: Creates targeted attack prompt using domain-specific knowledge.
Refiner agent: Reviews prompts for scientific plausibility and works with the adversary agent to improve them.
Quality control agent: Removes redundancies and validates results across multiple LLMs.
“Using multiple specialized agents is important,” Chaturvedi said. “It reduces the limitations of single-agent systems by dividing benchmark creation into focused tasks that can be handled more effectively.”
A key feature of the framework is iterative refinement. If a generated prompt does not meet quality standards, it is returned to the appropriate agent with feedback for improvement. This process repeats until the prompt is accepted for inclusion in the benchmark.
A Multilayered Approach to Defense
Generating scientific security benchmarks is only part of the solution. In addition to evaluating LLM threats, researchers want to defend against threats. To this end, the Argonne team designed a multilayered defense architecture in which (1) a red teaming layer continuously tests the system with automated adversarial attacks, (2) an internal safety layer incorporates features such as safety-aligned LLMs to protect communication between agents, and (3) an external safety layer provides boundary controls and additional protections against outside threats.
“Together, these layers help address the different pathways an attacker might try to exploit,” said Joshua Bergerson, Infrastructure Security & Risk Analytics Team Leader at Argonne and coauthor of the study.
Building the Next Generation of Secure Scientific AI
The team is currently developing a prototype implementation of both the multi-agent benchmark generator and the three-layer defense system.
“The framework provides a foundation for secure scientific AI,” said Tanwi Mallick, a computer scientist at Argonne and coauthor of the study.
The work also opens the door to important future research questions. For example, can adversarial agents trained in one scientific domain be adapted to others? How can AI systems balance robust security measures with the need for rapid responses in an emergency? And what is the most effective way for human experts to provide feedback within automated workflows?
“By addressing these questions, we can move closer to realizing the potential of LLMs as safe, reliable and transformative partners in scientific discovery,” Mallick said.
A Texas appeals court cut a $50 million judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones to $1.5 million. A much larger $1.4 billion judgment in Connecticut still stands.
Sources say US navy is working to rename carrier originally planned to honor second world war sailor Doris Miller
The Trump administration has been accused of delivering a “slap in the face” to US military veterans after reports that a navy aircraft carrier set to honor a Black war hero may, instead, be named after Donald Trump.
The US navy had previously announced that the carrier under construction would be called the USS Doris Miller, in tribute to a sailor celebrated for his heroism during the attack on Pearl Harbor in the second world war.
Aug. 21, 2026 — On June 2, 2026, the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Garching, Germany, hosted the TPC26 Satellite Event, bringing the Trillion Parameter Consortium (TPC) annual conference closer to the European AI for science community. The event gave researchers, practitioners, industry representatives and research organizations from across Europe the opportunity to engage with the global TPC community without traveling to the conference in Baltimore.
Keynote by Prof. Dieter Kranzlmüller (LRZ)
The hybrid program featured recorded keynote presentations from Baltimore, including the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, Argonne National Laboratory and RIKEN, together with live contributions from Europe and beyond. Highlights included a keynote by Prof. Dieter Kranzlmüller from LRZ, which was streamed live to the main TPC26 conference, as well as presentations from TPC members at LRZ and online talks from C-DAC in India and NumPEX in France.
EuroTPC contributed to the live program with a presentation entitled EuroTPC: A Coordinated European Voice in TPC, delivered by Javier Aula-Blasco of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. The talk introduced the EuroTPC initiative to the wider TPC community and highlighted Europe’s commitment to open, collaborative AI for science.
The event strengthened connections between European and international partners, encouraged new opportunities for collaboration and reinforced Europe’s role within the global AI for science ecosystem.
The National Weather Service confirmed a tornado struck Long Island's Atlantic Beach Thursday evening. It's the first confirmed tornado in Nassau County since 2021.
Tyson Foods, the largest meatpacking company in the US, announced last week that it is closing two of its facilities in Illinois and Utah and selling a beef facility in Washington state, and will lay off hundreds of workers as the supply of cattle hits a 75-year low.
The historic cattle shortage has been driven by a multi-year drought, rising costs and severe economic pressures, including consolidation among cattle ranchers. Beef prices have soared over the last year due to the shortage, though economists said the Tyson plant closures likely won’t hit consumer prices so hard.
This article’s headline and text were amended on 21 August 2026. An earlier version said Tyson recently announced the closure of two facilities in Iowa and Utah, rather than Illinois and Utah. There was a closure in 2024 in Iowa.
I was on my way to Amsterdam Centraal when the email arrived. My Eurostar to London had been canceled due to a “power cut,” along with every other departure from Amsterdam that day.
After years of refusing to adopt tap-to-pay technology in its stores, retail giant Walmart announced today that it is finally accepting payments via both Apple Pay and Google Pay. The rollout begins August 24 at select Walmart and Sam's Club locations and is expected to reach all stores by year-end. It will then expand to fuel stations by mid-2027. TechCrunch reports: The news is a surprise, as Walmart has long refused to adopt the ubiquitous payment technology to instead promote its own in-house solutions, like Walmart Pay and Scan-and-Go. In years past, Walmart even teamed up with other big retailers in an attempt to take down Apple Pay entirely with an alternative mobile payment system of their own, called CurrentC. The effort failed and was shut down back in 2016.
All the while, Walmart customers have begged the company to support modern tap-and-pay technology, like Apple Pay, which is now accepted at 85% of retailers across the U.S., including most larger stores.
For Walmart, the decision reads as a defeat. As one of the world's largest retailers, it believed it could push customers to its own payment solutions despite the growing adoption of Apple Pay and others of its kind. Ultimately, it had to admit that it was disadvantaging its own customers in the process.
After Emily Thornberry’s call for the government to ban goods from the occupied West Bank (see post at 11:05), Peter BeaumontandQuique Kierszenbaum report on how Israeli settler attacks in areas designated for a future Palestinian state and currently under direct Palestinian control have almost doubled since 2025.
They wrote:
According to a report by the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, shared with the Guardian, data shows that almost two-thirds of incidents of settler violence so far in 2026 have taken place in the so-called Areas A and B – placed under Palestinian Authority governance in the 1995 Oslo accords.
The report, The Next Frontier, Violence by Israeli Civilians in Areas A and B, describes the “rapid shift” in “violence and pressure exerted by the government, military and settlers on Palestinians … from Area C into Areas B and even A”.
No 10 North is putting more power into every postcode across the country so communities can unleash and unlock their own potential.
I’m bringing together mayors from different political parties to work on these challenges, because people deserve problem-solving rather than point-scoring.
The days of Westminster hoarding power are over.
This government has kickstarted the biggest transition of power and resources in a generation, taking it from Whitehall and putting it back in the hands of local communities.
Appeals court slashes judgment to $1.5m in a significant legal victory for the rightwing Infowars founder
A Texas appeals court has slashed the $50m judgment to $1.5m against Alex Jones, founder of the rightwing platform Infowars, over falsely calling the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut a hoax.
The ruling does not affect a $1.4bn judgment against Jones in Connecticut, but is a significant legal victory for Jones after he and his company, Free Speech Systems, were found liable for damages for claiming the mass shooting didn’t happen.
The effectiveness of a bolstered economic campaign against Iran may rest largely on one close U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf, the United Arab Emirates.
Audio recording of US vice-president apparently made at New York fundraiser and shared with Canadian Press
Leaked audio from a private event has reportedly captured the US vice-president, JD Vance, mocking Canada for apparently capitulating in a trade deal and taunting the prime minister, Mark Carney, for trying to “out-tough” Donald Trump.
The recording, which was reportedly made at a fundraiser and shared with the Canadian Press, comes in the last stretch of a difficult negotiation in which the US president has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on Canada.
Rescue dogs are gently introduced to a H145 recue helicopeter at Donauwörth, the German headquarters of Airbus Helicopters. (Cara Irina Wagner / Airbus via SWNS)
Late actor in May said beauty brand cut off its relationship with her after she spoke out about postpartum depression
The beauty brand Neutrogena has acknowledged making its former ambassador Hayden Panettiere “feel unsupported during a very difficult time” – alluding to when the late Hollywood actor said the company severed ties with her after she spoke about enduring postpartum depression (PPD).
Neutrogena issued a statement addressing the situation four days after the 36-year-old actor was found dead at an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina.
Joint statement issued after IDF said it will not pursue criminal investigations into April 2024 strike that killed seven humanitarian workers
Britain, Australia and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of aid vehicles in Gaza “shameful”. The strikes killed seven humanitarian workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) organisation.
WCK staff from the three countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage.
Google is giving publishers a new way to fight declining referral traffic from AI-powered search by letting them embed a "Preferred Sources" button that readers can use to favor their sites across Search, Discover, and Google News. "The idea is to make it easier for readers to find links from the sites they know and trust when they're searching for content or interacting with Google's AI to learn about a topic or read the latest news," reports TechCrunch. "As of May's launch, the company said that people across the web had already selected over 345,000 unique sources through this method." From the report: Becoming a preferred source can drive more traffic to publishers' websites, Google said. In earlier studies, it found that people are twice as likely to click through to a preferred source when available. By offering publishers these additional tools, Google is trying to assuage the damage that the rapid growth of AI-powered search features has had on traffic-dependent businesses.
Alongside the new button, Google said that readers will soon be able to customize their Discover feed in Google's app in their own words. To use this feature, readers will tap any three-dot menu in the feed and then tell Google what topics they'd like to see more or less of, using natural language commands. This helps Google refine the feed in real time.
Aug. 21, 2026 — University of California San Diego researchers will lead one of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) new Genesis Mission projects focused on accelerating fundamental physics and quantum computing by deploying intelligent AI agents.
Aobo Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Physics and the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute (HDSI) at the Halıcıoğlu School for Data Science and Computing, is the principal investigator (PI) on the project. A team of experts will build SIDERIUS, an AI scientist that can analyze data, design AI models, and deploy them onto specialized chips for applications in fundamental physics and quantum computing. Associate Professor of Physics Yi-Zhuang You is co-PI on the project.
“The next frontier of AI for science is learning how to translate scientific challenges into a form that AI can solve effectively,” said Li. “This DOE award allows us to bring together an interdisciplinary team in a way that wasn’t previously possible. Our vision is to translate challenges in physics and quantum computing into AI-ready tasks that can be tackled by SIDERIUS, our LLM agent system. Our long-term vision is to build a general AI framework that can be adapted to many other data-intensive scientific domains.”
In addition to this project, Li and several other UC San Diego researchers are co-PIs on four projects led by other institutions. These projects, listed below, will support the creation of AI tools that can meaningfully impact the way science is conducted and the rate at which discoveries are made.
Co-PIs Javier Duarte (associate professor of physics) and Daniel Diaz (computational data science and research specialist) will work with the University of Colorado Boulder to develop ultra-fast AI tools that can process enormous rates of data input during particle collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.
Co-PI Li will work with UNC Chapel Hill to deploy AI agents and surrogate models to automate and speed up optical simulations for LENGED, an experimental collaboration that will lead the effort to search for neutrinoless double beta decay, an extremely rare process that, if discovered, would explain why the universe has more matter than antimatter.
Co-PIs Liang Yang (professor of physics) and Li will work with the University of Hawaii to build a unified foundation model based on AI-ready datasets from five different neutrinoless double beta decay experiments – CUORE, EXO-200, Majorana Demonstrator, NEXT and SuperNEMO.
Co-PI Li will collaborate with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop ultra-fast AI tools that identify and preserve neutrinoless double-beta decay signals while rejecting unwanted background noises from the LEGEND detector in real time.
The number of Genesis projects UC San Diego is a part of underscores the university’s deep bench of AI expertise.
“AI is impacting scientific discovery in fundamental ways,” said Rajesh K. Gupta, dean of the Halıcıoğlu School. “The Halıcıoğlu School is proud to assemble a team across Physics, Data Science and Supercomputing at UC San Diego in an institutional architecture that is uniquely matched to The Genesis Mission. SIDERIUS will drive research in physics through new AI tools and methodologies that are bound to significantly advance our understanding of nature and invent new applications.”
Germany seeking to extradite suspect from Romania over guns it is feared could have been used in assassinations
Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence.
Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”.
Caption: Kenneth J. Reuter Jr., a task force participant and longtime energy industry executive, contends the panel did not conduct the structured, technically intensive review necessary to support such a consequential decision.
Industry veteran says the state’s review lacked the technical depth needed as electricity costs rise and Delaware remains dependent on imported power
DOVER, Del – Delaware’s Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force cannot approve a reactor, select a location or commit public money to a nuclear project. Its influence, however, could be significant.
The General Assembly created the task force to help determine whether small modular nuclear reactors could become part of Delaware’s long-term energy supply. Its findings could influence whether lawmakers authorize additional studies, investigate potential sites, revise state permitting laws or decide nuclear power is too costly or uncertain to pursue.
That makes the quality of the task force’s work important.
Kenneth J. Reuter Jr., a task force participant and longtime energy industry executive, contends the panel did not conduct the structured, technically intensive review necessary to support such a consequential decision.
In an Aug. 14 assessment, Reuter said the task force did not hear directly from willing nuclear manufacturers, adequately investigate possible Delaware sites or divide its work among specialized teams.
His criticism does not establish that the task force’s conclusions are wrong. It does raise questions about whether state policymakers have enough information to make decisions that could affect Delaware’s electricity supply, consumer costs and economic competitiveness for decades.
Panel assigned to study nuclear potential
The General Assembly created the Delaware Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force in 2025 to examine whether small modular reactors, commonly known as SMRs, could be developed in the state.
SMRs are designed to generate less electricity than conventional nuclear reactors. Supporters say they could be manufactured in sections, installed incrementally and placed on properties that cannot accommodate a traditional nuclear plant.
However, the technology remains commercially developing in the United States. Questions continue about construction costs, licensing schedules, financing and the risks utilities and customers could be asked to assume.
The General Assembly directed the task force to study nuclear energy’s economic impact, regulatory requirements, environmental implications and potential contribution to electric reliability. Its reporting deadline was extended to July 31, 2026.
The task force’s report is advisory. It does not authorize construction, approve a location or require the state to pursue nuclear power. But lawmakers could rely on it when considering future energy legislation and determining whether additional nuclear planning is warranted.
Delaware imports much of its electricity
Delaware generates substantially less electricity than its residents and businesses consume.
Reuter estimates the state currently imports between 45% and 55% of its electricity through PJM, the regional power grid serving Delaware and parts of 12 other states and the District of Columbia.
Importing electricity is a normal part of participating in a regional grid. It does not, by itself, indicate that Delaware faces an immediate shortage. PJM is designed to move power across state lines and allow utilities to purchase electricity from generators throughout the region.
But Reuter argues that Delaware’s dependence creates greater risk as regional demand grows, older generating plants retire and new projects face lengthy development and grid-connection delays.
Data centers, advanced manufacturing and other large electricity users are also adding to projected demand.
Delaware does not need to generate every unit of electricity it consumes. However, the state has limited control over when and where new regional plants are constructed, leaving its customers exposed to supply and price pressures elsewhere in the PJM market.
Intermittent power cannot carry the full load
Reuter argues that Delaware’s energy strategy relies too heavily on intermittent sources such as wind and solar.
Those facilities can contribute electricity when weather conditions permit, reduce fuel consumption and help meet emissions goals. But they cannot continuously produce power without storage, backup generation or other complementary resources.
An energy plan that depends heavily on intermittent sources without sufficient dependable generation would leave Delaware vulnerable during periods when the sun is not shining, the wind is not blowing or regional demand is particularly high, Reuter said.
He argues that Delaware should make the development of additional 24-hour generation a priority, including natural gas plants, nuclear power or a combination of the two.
Natural gas plants can generally be developed more quickly than nuclear facilities and can respond to changing electricity demand. Nuclear plants require longer development and licensing schedules but can provide large amounts of continuous electricity without direct carbon emissions.
Both carry costs and risks. Natural gas exposes customers to fuel-price volatility and future regulatory requirements. Nuclear projects require substantial upfront investment and can experience construction delays and cost overruns.
A responsible state plan would examine those risks without treating intermittent renewable resources as the equivalent of dependable, around-the-clock generation.
Rising electric bills add urgency
The debate is not limited to whether Delaware will have enough power. It also involves what residents and businesses will pay for it.
Residential and industrial electric bills are rising, placing additional pressure on household budgets and increasing operating costs for Delaware employers.
Reuter argues that those costs will continue climbing unless policymakers revise Delaware’s energy strategy and make affordability and dependable generation top state priorities.
Electric bills reflect more than the cost of producing electricity. They can also include transmission expenses, regional capacity charges, utility infrastructure investments, environmental compliance costs and other fees.
However, a tightening regional supply-and-demand balance can increase several of those costs. Delaware’s dependence on imported electricity leaves customers exposed to regional prices that state officials cannot directly control.
For households, higher electric bills reduce the money available for food, housing, health care and other necessities. For manufacturers and other energy-intensive employers, rising power costs can discourage expansion, weaken competitiveness and influence decisions about where companies invest.
Reuter’s position is that Delaware should not evaluate energy projects primarily according to environmental targets or political preferences. Each alternative should be measured by its total cost, reliability, construction schedule and ability to serve customers during periods of peak demand.
Participant questions task force’s approach
Reuter’s primary complaint is that the task force operated more like a broad discussion group than a technically organized panel working toward an actionable plan.
He said only a small number of the approximately 25 members and regular participants had direct experience with electricity generation.
Reuter recommended dividing the work among specialized groups focused on nuclear manufacturers, potential sites, technology selection, safety, environmental effects, permitting, government coordination and public communications.
Under his proposed structure, each group would have been assigned a leader responsible for investigating its subject and regularly reporting findings to the full panel.
Reuter said that structure was not adopted.
He also said no nuclear equipment manufacturer was invited to explain its technology, manufacturing capacity, construction schedules, costs or existing order commitments to the full task force.
According to Reuter, Westinghouse and another manufacturer were willing to make presentations but were not invited. He also said an offer to arrange a task force tour of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear facilities in New Jersey was not accepted.
Manufacturers have a financial interest in promoting their products, and their claims would require independent scrutiny. However, direct presentations would have allowed task force members to question the companies about technological readiness, construction experience, pricing and financial risks.
Potential sites require closer examination
A complete nuclear feasibility review would eventually need to examine actual Delaware properties.
Potential sites would have to be evaluated for available land, transmission connections, water access, security, emergency planning and nearby development. The willingness of property owners and surrounding communities would also be important.
Reuter said the task force did not conduct sufficiently detailed discussions with potential site owners or determine whether particular properties could accommodate an SMR or a larger conventional reactor.
That distinction matters because a technology that appears promising in a general presentation may not be practical at an available Delaware location.
Preliminary site analysis would not commit the state to a reactor or a particular property. It would help determine whether nuclear power is a realistic Delaware option rather than a theoretical one.
Incomplete report could close the door prematurely
If the task force’s report is incomplete or overly negative, Delaware could abandon nuclear energy before fully understanding its potential.
That could leave the state more dependent on imported power from a regional market facing rising demand and generating-plant retirements.
Delaware could also lose time needed to examine sites, coordinate with federal regulators and develop a specialized workforce. Nuclear projects require years of planning, licensing, financing and construction, meaning a decision to delay preliminary work could have long-term consequences.
Dependable and competitively priced electricity also affects economic development. Manufacturers, health care facilities, technology companies and data centers consider energy availability when deciding where to invest.
A state without a credible plan for meeting future electricity demand could find itself at a competitive disadvantage.
Overly optimistic report also carries risks
A flawed report could create the opposite danger.
If the task force overstates the affordability or commercial readiness of SMRs, lawmakers could advance an expensive project without fully understanding the risks.
Nuclear facilities require substantial upfront investment. Construction delays and cost overruns can fall on customers if utilities are permitted to recover those expenses through electric rates.
Before advancing a project, policymakers would need to determine who would finance it, who would absorb the cost of delays and whether customers could be charged before a reactor begins producing electricity.
A responsible nuclear policy would protect ratepayers while allowing promising technologies to receive serious consideration. Private investors, utilities and manufacturers would need to bear meaningful performance risk rather than shifting every financial uncertainty to customers.
State plan must balance cost and reliability
The task force’s report does not need to provide a final verdict on nuclear power. The developing commercial market for SMRs makes absolute conclusions difficult.
A useful report should distinguish among what is known, what remains uncertain and what Delaware must investigate next.
Possible next steps could include independent cost studies, discussions with manufacturers, preliminary site reviews, federal regulatory coordination and comparisons among nuclear power, natural gas, renewable energy, storage and transmission investments.
Each alternative should be evaluated using consistent standards, including:
Total cost to residential and business customers
Dependable generating capacity
Development and construction time
Performance during peak demand
Fuel and transmission requirements
Environmental effects
Financial risks associated with delays or cost overruns
Wind and solar power can remain part of that mix. But policymakers must distinguish between electricity produced when weather conditions allow and capacity that can be counted on around the clock.
The central question is not whether task force members support or oppose nuclear energy. It is whether their process produced enough evidence to justify the panel’s findings.
A report that dismisses nuclear prematurely could cause Delaware to lose a potentially valuable source of dependable, carbon-free electricity. A report that is too optimistic could expose customers to years of higher rates and construction risk.
Delaware may ultimately choose to pursue nuclear power, continue studying it or reject it. But with electric bills rising, demand growing and regional supplies tightening, Reuter argues that revising the state’s energy plan should be a top policy priority.
That decision should rest on rigorous technical and financial evidence — not an incomplete process, assumptions about future regional supplies or a predetermined preference for any particular energy source.
TO-GO BOX:
The task force: The General Assembly created the Nuclear Energy Feasibility Task Force to study whether small modular reactors could help meet Delaware’s future electricity needs.
The concern: Participant Kenneth J. Reuter Jr. says the review lacked sufficient industry input, technical structure and analysis of potential sites.
The energy challenge: Delaware imports an estimated 45% to 55% of its electricity, while regional demand and electric costs are increasing.
What is at stake: A flawed report could cause Delaware to reject a dependable energy source prematurely — or pursue an expensive project without adequately protecting ratepayers.
Activists who targeted bank in Burnley were found guilty in June of causing damage exceeding £200,000
Five Palestine Action activists who vandalised a Barclays branch in Burnley will not be sentenced as terrorists, a judge has ruled.
Dubbed the Barclays five, Brendon O’Hagan, 28; Amanda Kelly, 31; Hmeera Atiqnisar, 31; Mohammed Malik, 28; and Alma Yaniv, 70, were all found guilty in June of causing damage exceeding £200,000, after breaking windows and throwing red paint at a branch of Barclays Bank in Lancashire in August 2024.
The world’s largest aeroplane maker is said to have watered down plans to restrict remote working to one day a week from September. At present, staff are able to work remotely for two.
Britain has experienced a summer of record-breaking wildfires, deadly heat and drought, with almost 2,900 heat-associated deaths recorded in England during May and June alone. Homes have been destroyed by fires in the West Midlands, and deadly wildfires have swept across Europe.
Despite the ever more visible impacts of the climate crisis, there is widespread concern that there has been no big political push at the centre of British politics or a renewed case for net zero.
Reports say Duke and Duchess of Sussex may have returned to Britain due to ‘top secret’ acting role for Meghan – we try to guess what it might be?
In 2022, two years after she and Prince Harry bolted to California in an unhappy exit from the royal family, the Duchess of Sussex was asked if she could foresee ever returning to acting. “No, I’m done,” she told Variety magazine. “I guess never say never, but my intention is to absolutely not.”
Well guess what – she’s back! At least according to news reports that claim the couple’s otherwise wholly unexpected return to the UK can be explained by one key factor – a new acting role for Meghan.
Researchers hope contest – similar to Fat Bear Week – starting Monday will be latest wildlife watching craze
Monday sees the start of what researchers hope will be the latest wildlife watching craze – Fat Marmot Week.
Last winter was tough for marmots living high in the Colorado mountains, where researchers say two-thirds of one population died while hibernating because of insufficient snow cover.
Aug. 21, 2026 — SUNY Polytechnic Institute (SUNY Poly) is playing a key role in a new national research initiative led by Rice University, which has received a $19.9 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The project will use artificial intelligence, robotics, and cloud-based laboratories to accelerate the discovery and manufacturing of next-generation electronic and quantum materials.
The four-year project, “Revolutionizing AI-Driven Autonomous Experimentation for Next-Generation Semiconductor Synthesis” (READINESS), begins on August 1 and brings together researchers from Rice University, SUNY Poly, and the University of Texas at Austin to develop an AI-powered research platform that will accelerate the discovery of advanced materials while expanding access to cutting-edge research infrastructure.
As part of the collaboration, SUNY Poly will leverage its expertise in semiconductor materials processing and workforce development. Vice President for Research and co-Principal Investigator Dr. Michael Carpenter will help lead development of the autonomous PVD system for oxide thin film synthesis and oversee installation of the autonomous CVD system for two-dimensional materials, developed by Rice University Materials Scientist and Principal Investigator Dr. Jun Lou. A key feature of the project is that both SUNY Poly and Rice University will operate identical autonomous PVD and CVD systems, expanding research capacity and workforce development opportunities at both institutions. SUNY Poly will also help create short courses and stackable credentials that prepare students and industry professionals for careers in semiconductor manufacturing, laboratory automation, and AI-enabled materials research.
The READINESS platform will integrate automated synthesis equipment, robotics, advanced characterization tools and digital twin technology, allowing researchers to simulate and remotely conduct experiments while AI continuously improves future testing.
“This award reflects the growing recognition of SUNY Poly as a national leader in semiconductor innovation, advanced manufacturing, and applied artificial intelligence,” said SUNY Poly President Dr. Winston Soboyejo. “Through strategic partnerships with leading research institutions, we are accelerating scientific discovery while expanding opportunities for students, researchers, and industry. READINESS exemplifies our mission to integrate cutting-edge research with workforce development, strengthening both America’s semiconductor ecosystem and the talent pipeline that will drive future innovation.”
READINESS further positions SUNY Poly as a key contributor to advancing national priorities in semiconductor innovation, artificial intelligence and workforce development as part of SUNY’s growing research enterprise, supported by The Research Foundation for SUNY.
“READINESS represents exactly the kind of collaborative, high-impact research that is driving SUNY Poly’s continued growth as a leader in artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, semiconductor materials and technology innovation,” said Dr. Carpenter. “By bringing together expertise in AI, robotics and advanced materials across leading institutions, this initiative will accelerate scientific discovery and industry adoption of next-generation materials while creating new opportunities for collaboration, innovation and workforce development.”
“The collaboration between Rice University and SUNY Polytechnic Institute is at the heart of the READINESS PCL node,” said Dr. Lou. “Together, we are creating a new model for AI-enabled autonomous laboratories that will transform semiconductor manufacturing while educating the next generation of scientists and engineers who will lead this technological revolution.”
The initiative will initially focus on developing advanced materials, including two-dimensional materials, oxide semiconductors and diamond thin films, with applications in faster electronics, lower-power computing and quantum technologies.
“The future of semiconductor leadership depends not only on breakthrough research, but on preparing a highly skilled workforce to translate those discoveries into real-world impact,” said Senior Director of Workforce Development Erica Schoff. “Through READINESS, SUNY Poly will help develop flexible educational pathways that equip students and working professionals with the technical skills needed to succeed in semiconductor manufacturing, laboratory automation and AI-enabled research.”
The NSF award is part of the agency’s Programmable Cloud Laboratories Test Bed initiative, a national effort to create a network of remotely accessible, AI-enabled research laboratories designed to improve the speed, reliability and reproducibility of scientific experimentation.
Engelbert says league being used as ‘political football’
The WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, has denounced people she said are trying to “sow divisiveness” as the league grapples with a debate over transgender athletes.
Engelbert made the comments on Thursday before the Indiana Fever’s loss to the Dallas Wings at the home of the Dallas Mavericks. Demonstrators showed up outside American Airlines Center, as they have at other venues since the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports.
Hayward, California — State Sen. Aisha Wahab won Thursday’s special election for California’s 14th Congressional District, becoming the first Afghan American elected to Congress and filling the seat vacated by former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell.
Wahab defeated Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez with roughly 53% of the vote to Hernandez’s 47% with about 95% counted. The district covers parts of Alameda County in the East Bay and strongly favors Democrats.
The progressive Democrat previously became the first Afghan American elected to public office in the United States when she won a Hayward City Council seat in 2018. She later joined the California Senate, where housing affordability and tenant protections became central issues.
The race drew substantial outside spending. AIPAC-affiliated United Democracy Project spent about $2.5 million supporting Hernandez, according to Reuters, while other groups also spent heavily in the contest. Wahab had previously said she considers Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide, while Hernandez took a more moderate position.
Swalwell resigned in April after sexual misconduct allegations surfaced, which he denies. Federal agents recently seized his electronic devices as part of an ongoing investigation.
Wahab and Hernandez will face each other again in November for a full two-year House term.
Kai Spears incorrectly linked to death of young mother
Times says it had not lost libel case in more than 50 years
An Alabama jury has awarded $9.25m in damages after finding that the New York Times defamed a college basketball player by incorrectly reporting that he was at the scene of a fatal shooting.
Kai Spears, who played for the University of Alabama men’s team, sued the Times in 2023 after it published a report, citing a person familiar with the investigation, that said he was a passenger in a car involved in the shooting. The Times reported that the person had spoken “on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.”
The Home Office could be blocked from deporting many young male trafficking victims to Albania after a major court ruling.
Thousands of Albanian males have been identified as potential trafficking victims in the UK in recent years. Many are sent back to their country even if they are potential or confirmed victims of trafficking, as the Home Office contends they will be safe there.
As Vice President JD Vance declares economic pressure "the most effective tool that we have," Iran seeks to show deepening trade ties with its neighbors.
The US is engaged in a lawless quest to protect American and Israeli officials
The Trump administration has taken another step in its crusade against the international criminal court by imposing sanctions on two more senior ICC officials. The growing number of sanctioned jurists – now 13 – does not change the lawless nature of this quest.
Donald Trump and his henchman, Marco Rubio, want to make the world safe for US and Israeli war criminals. No one should let them.
The U.S. has deported more than 160 people to Haiti for the first time since the Trump administration won a legal battle to end Temporary Protected Status for some 350,000 Haitians.
An Alabama jury awarded $9.25 million in damages after finding that The New York Times defamed a former college basketball player, Kai Spears, of the Alabama Crimson Tide, in a story about a fatal shooting.
The far-right convener on his violent upbringing in South Africa, why he admires Vladimir Putin and Tommy Robinson — and his on-off relationship with his son
Sunao Takami set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others.
Nashville, Tennessee — Tennessee’s decision to ban popular smokable hemp products, including THCA, is producing a steep drop in tax collections that could leave the state about $110 million below its projected annual revenue.
The new restrictions took effect in July and target products containing THCA, a hemp-derived cannabinoid that converts into psychoactive THC when heated. Industry groups estimated THCA products previously accounted for roughly 75% of Tennessee’s cannabinoid market.
State budget officials projected about $9.4 million in hemp-related sales tax revenue for July. Actual collections totaled only about $425,000, according to Tennessee Lookout. If that decline continues throughout the fiscal year, collections could fall at least $110 million below the approximately $130 million included in the state budget.
Democratic state Rep. Aftyn Behn criticized Republican lawmakers for banning the products, saying the decision “torched a $250 million industry.” Behn and state Sen. Heidi Campbell have proposed legalizing recreational marijuana and imposing a 15% sales tax, with proceeds directed toward Tennessee’s backlog of road and bridge projects.
The state had already reduced its previous hemp revenue forecast by $55 million before the ban took effect.
Tennessee has some financial cushion. Officials recently announced the state finished its 2025-26 fiscal year with a roughly $1.2 billion budget surplus.
The tabloid boasted in a now-deleted article that they found White and promised to reveal her ‘secret new life’
The Daily Mail newspaper secretly tailed and photographed a woman in Detroit and then published an article and photographs falsely accusing her of being former The White Stripes drummer Meg White, even after she told the newspaper it had mistaken her identity, multiple sources have told the Guardian.
The rightwing British tabloid quietly removed the article and photographs, first published on 6 August, from its website last week. The Mail did not issue a correction or editor’s note explaining the removal.
Business owner Assim Alkhawaja was arrested by ICE as he dropped off Lyft passengers at a military base. Now he’s stuck in a terrifying fight to stay in the US
Deep within the bowels of San Diego’s federal courthouse, Assim Alkhawaja sat on the floor outside a nondescript office, waiting to be called for his ICE-mandated immigration appointment. He stared straight ahead, his posture tense, his face a mask.
The hallway was brown, as was the carpet. Above Alkhawaja’s headhung a framed stock photo of a waterfall. A few paces away, official government signs encouraged people without legal status to self-deport. “Leave on your own terms,” they read, in several languages. “Claim a free flight and an exit bonus for each member of your family.”
Microsoft is expanding Windows Task Manager to show per-process NPU and GPU neural-engine usage, giving users more visibility into which apps are consuming hardware for AI workloads. The Register reports: The Processes tab can show NPU use alongside CPU and GPU activity, while the Performance tab displays overall utilization. [...] Microsoft was keen to point out the metrics that can be monitored. "As AI workloads become more common on Windows devices, visibility into NPU and GPU neural engine utilization can help you make better-informed decisions," the company said. "With the latest Task Manager improvements, you can monitor AI processing activity alongside CPU, memory, storage, and networking data from a familiar interface."
PC, Nintendo Switch/Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X/S; Konami This second collection remasters another three titles from the illustrious stealth espionage series, but their world has changed little since the original releases
‘War has changed,” claims Old Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Back in 2008, the team at Kojima Productions waxed poetic about people recruited to fight in proxy wars they have no political or ideological stake in. As these mercenaries follow their orders, traders get rich out of the so-called war economy. The more disastrous the conflict in a specific area, the higher the bidding price.
I expected my time with Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol 2 to be nostalgic and, in good old MGS fashion, abundant with fictional events that sound eerily familiar to our current reality. Twenty minutes in, I was having an existential crisis.
UK Foreign Office condemns use of national security law to convict activists Lee Cheuk-yan and Chow Hang-tung
Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils marking China’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 have been found guilty of “incitement to subversion” in one of the most high-profile cases in Hong Kong since Beijing imposed its national security law in 2020.
Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, “incited other persons to organise, plan, commit or participate in acts by unlawful means with a view to subverting the state power”, a press summary handed out to reporters said. The defendants each face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail, with sentencing expected at a later date.
The resignation and death of the Cambridge professor is the latest chapter in a centuries-old struggle over originality and intellectual ownership – one intensified by the rise of generative AI.
The decision to trade what appeared to be an idyllic life on the sunny California coast for the Tupperware-gray skies of Britain came as a startling reversal.
New York City, New York — President Donald Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen publicly reconciled Thursday during a surprisingly friendly radio interview, years after Cohen became a key witness in criminal and civil cases against his former boss.
Cohen interviewed Trump on his WABC radio program, repeatedly referring to him as “boss” and saying their relationship was being “resuscitated.” Trump praised Cohen for recently recanting or criticizing portions of his past testimony and said prosecutors had “weaponized” Cohen against him.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to federal crimes including campaign-finance violations, tax evasion and lying to Congress. He later testified against Trump in the Manhattan hush-money prosecution, helping prosecutors secure Trump’s 2024 conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has appealed that conviction.
The relationship has shifted dramatically in recent months. Cohen has increasingly criticized Manhattan prosecutors and questioned how his testimony was used against Trump. He also confirmed that he has resubmitted a presidential pardon application after an earlier request was denied by President Joe Biden.
Trump, who once called Cohen a liar and attacked his credibility, struck a markedly different tone Thursday, telling his former attorney that he understood the pressure he had faced.
Cohen’s full interview with Trump is scheduled to air Sunday.
Kareem’s Daily Quote: George Orwell was warning us against the Soviet Union, but he also saw the Trump Administration coming.
At Least He Didn’t Call Her Piggy: Trump’s contempt for a free press is matched only by his contempt for women who dare to question him.
An Indefensible Secretary of War: Pete Hegseth’s campaign appearance is less public service and more Hatch Act violation/audition for higher office.
Ye in Russia: His planned Russian concerts make a grim kind of sense, pairing an antisemitic provocateur with a regime hungry for propaganda.
The Death of Stalin, directed by Armando Iannucci: This brilliant farce finds both the laughter and the terror of men scrambling for power after Stalin’s death.
“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” - Phil Alvin with Sun Ra and His Arkestra: This Depression-era anthem holds the force of a history lesson that still knows how to swing.
Kareem’s Daily Quote
“Remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for. Don’t imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of the Soviet régime, or any other régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency. Once a whore, always a whore.”
George Orwell (1903-1950), English novelist, essayist, and critic
(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Blair, who was born to English parents in India in 1903. He described his family as “lower-upper-middle-class,” which tells you something about his sense of humor, and also his discomfort with the English class system. He disliked his father, whom he described as a “gruff-voiced elderly man forever saying ‘Don’t,’” and who worked as a minor functionary in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service, which oversaw the sale of opium to China. Perhaps this father-son relationship was the start of his anti-authoritarianism, which reached full flower with his anti-Soviet satire Animal Farm and his masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopian vision of a surveillance state ruled through propaganda, thought control, and an iron hand.
Those books were written after World War II, when the Soviet Union was no longer a Western ally, and progressives not in thrall to its socialist fantasy had already recognized its dark underbelly. But the quote above was written during the war, published on September 1, 1944, in his As I Please column for the British magazine Tribune, and was an early example of the foresight displayed in his most famous work.
It’s a lesson President Trump’s present allies would do well to study. Campaign managers Paul Manafort and Steve Bannon, trade advisor Peter Navarro, and longtime aide Roger Stone are just a few of the Trump friends who spent time in prison, once Trump’s first regime ended. Are this term’s boot lickers taking greater care to stay on the right side of the law? Either way, they won’t be readily welcomed back into polite society, though I suppose Trump will always have a room for them at Mar-a-Lago, as long as his health holds out.
I’m thinking particularly of people like Todd Blanche, who has sacrificed a respectable law career to do Trump’s bidding by persecuting his enemies and moving his friend, child molester Ghislaine Maxwell, to a minimum-security prison. Or Marco Rubio, once considered presidential material, who abandoned his integrity to become Trump’s Secretary of State and Acting National Security Advisor, while also serving stints as Acting Administrator for USAID and Acting Archivist of the United States. Or poor Natalie Harp, the cancer survivor turned human printer who is routinely cited as Trump’s most loyal aide and is rumored to stay up late with the President, typing out his Truth [sic] Social posts.
Harp has been in the news a lot lately, especially since Trump brought her along on his secret flight out of Turkey, leaving Rubio behind on the decoy Air Force One. Some people find her story heartwarming; others consider it heartburning. She rose to fame by saying Trump saved her life with his Right to Try legislation, which gives terminally ill patients the right, in their treatment, to use drugs that aren’t FDA approved. Sure, fussbudgets pointed out that she herself said she was using drugs that were FDA approved, and her treatment took place before the Right to Try Act was actually passed into law. (In fact, while Trump claimed the law would save hundreds of thousands of lives, in its first six years on the books the FDA could only confirm 16 treatments/drugs that may or may not have been given to patients.)
In the more conspiratorial corners of the internet, some wonder if Harp actually had cancer, or what the precise nature of her relationship with Trump might be. But unless her doctors or his publicists comment, I’ll leave such speculation for more suspicious minds. I will, however, speculate on Natalie’s future: in my crystal ball I see a regular chair on Fox News (or perhaps the One America News Network) and marriage to a multi-millionaire, if not an outright billionaire. She’ll probably also be heckled every time she goes out in public, once Trump is no longer President. But then, as Orwell warned, she can’t very well imagine that she could make herself the propagandist of a criminal régime year after year and then suddenly return to mental decency. It’s just not possible. Once a boot-licker, always a boot-licker.
With plentiful jobs and community support, one Mexico City neighbourhood has become a haven for those who have lived much of their lives in the US
With its wide avenues lined with tall palm trees, its quaint cafes and old-school cantinas, as well as the mix of English and Spanish spoken on the street, the Tabacalera neighborhood in downtown Mexico City has a certain US feel – so much so that it is has become known as Little LA.
The nickname is about more than appearances, however. In recent years, this corner of the metropolis has become a haven for many Mexicans deported from the US, particularly those who spent years or decades living across the border and for whom Mexico feels like a foreign country. In Little LA, they have found a more familiar place to belong.
Demonstrators filled the Missouri state Capitol building in January to protest legislative efforts to alter or overturn citizen-led measures passed at the ballot box, including an amendment guaranteeing the right to abortion. Lilley Halloran/St. Louis Public Radio
Two years ago, abortion opponents in Missouri tried to defeat Amendment 3, a ballot initiative to enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution, by falsely telling voters that it would allow gender transition surgeries for minors — even though it wouldn’t.
Voters approved Amendment 3 anyway, overturning the near-total abortion ban enacted by Missouri’s GOP-dominated legislature that had taken effect after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Now Republican leaders in the state are trying to repeal those rights again, using the same issue. They placed a new amendment on the November ballot, also called Amendment 3, that would restore Missouri’s abortion ban while allowing limited exceptions but also constitutionally prohibit gender transition care for minors — though the state has banned surgeries and new prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormones by law since August 2023.
For the Missouri GOP, Election Day can often seem like Groundhog Day. The party holds a supermajority in the legislature and controls every statewide office, yet voters have repeatedly used the initiative petition process to enact policies Republican leaders oppose. By gathering enough signatures, citizens have placed proposals directly on the ballot, then persuaded voters to expand Medicaid, legalize marijuana, raise the minimum wage and restore abortion rights.
This month, that disconnect became an electoral humiliation for Republican leaders. More than 80% of voters rejected their attempt to make it nearly impossible for citizens to amend the state constitution. It was even worse for Gov. Mike Kehoe’s plan to phase out the state income tax: More than 83% voted no.
Missouri Republicans have become “drunk with power,” said Ken Warren, a professor emeritus of political science at Saint Louis University and associate director of the SLU/YouGov Poll. “Because they control everything, they think they can do what they want — and they can’t.”
The new Amendment 3 on the November ballot shows how Republicans, using misleading language, a carefully chosen distraction and even a recycled name, are trying to undo one of those defeats. In 2024, a yes vote on Amendment 3 protected abortion rights. In November, voters will again be asked to vote yes on Amendment 3 — this time to take them away.
Republican leaders say voters never intended to approve a nearly unlimited right to abortion. They argue that Missourians would prefer an abortion ban with limited exceptions for rape, incest, medical emergencies and fetal anomalies — particularly when it is paired with restrictions on gender transition care for minors.
It would not take much to reverse the 2024 result. Abortion rights passed 51.6% to 48.4% — meaning a shift of about 48,000 voters would have defeated the measure.
Critics call the inclusion of gender care “ballot candy,” a way to make an unpopular proposal easier to swallow. They say the tactic is especially cynical because it promises voters a prohibition that, in large part, Missouri already has. State law already bans gender transition surgery for minors and, through August 2027, bars minors from starting puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones for gender transition. Amendment 3 would place the restrictions in the state constitution without an expiration date.
The two provisions bundled together differ enormously in scope. Repealing reproductive rights would affect the healthcare options available to a state with about 6.3 million people. The restrictions on gender transition care concern a small number of minors receiving highly specialized treatment.
Yet supporters want voters focused on the specter of children being used as lab guinea pigs, not the abortion rights the amendment would repeal. A new billboard in the St. Louis suburbs urges them to vote yes and “ban transgender surgeries for minors.”
A website for the political action committee behind the campaign, Her Health, Her Future — whose treasurer is Missouri first lady Claudia Kehoe — declares “OUR CHILDREN are not LAB EXPERIMENTS.” It says Amendment 3 would protect children from “harmful, sterilizing medical procedures” and restore “common sense health and safety standards” for women’s health clinics.
The website for the Her Health, Her Future campaignScreenshot by ProPublica
Neither message explicitly says that the amendment would repeal the constitutional right to abortion that Missourians approved two years ago.
Claudia Kehoe did not respond to requests for comment submitted to the governor’s office and the PAC. In a written endorsement posted on the Her Health, Her Future website, she called the amendment “a critical step toward strengthening our pro-life protections and safeguarding our state’s future.”
In response to a list of questions that ProPublica submitted to the governor’s office, a spokesperson defended the amendment using much the same language that critics call deceptive. The spokesperson emphasized protecting children from “sex-change procedures,” safeguarding women and restoring the state’s power to “regulate” abortion providers. The response did not acknowledge that Amendment 3 would repeal the constitutional reproductive rights Missourians approved in 2024 and replace them with an abortion ban that contains limited exceptions.
Polling suggests the strategy could work. A survey in February of Missouri voters by the SLU/YouGov Poll found that nearly 60% supported legal abortion during the first eight weeks of pregnancy. But 67% opposed gender transition medications for minors, and 73% opposed gender transition surgeries. Presented with the amendment’s provisions together, voters favored it 47% to 40%.
Rep. Brian Seitz, a Branson Republican who guided the amendment through the House, denied that supporters were trying to trick voters. He said the gender-affirming treatment was itself a reproductive issue because some procedures could affect a minor’s ability to have children.
Seitz also disputed that Missourians knowingly approved abortion rights through fetal viability in 2024. He said voters were primarily seeking exceptions for rape, incest, medical emergencies and fetal anomalies — not what he called “abortion on demand.”
The new amendment, he said, better reflects what voters intended.
Abortion rights supporters call that argument a pretext for restoring the state’s abortion ban. A coalition of groups called Stop the Ban has raised more than $5 million to try to explain what the amendment would do and persuade voters to reject it. That total includes $1.25 million contributed on Aug. 3 by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Bloomberg’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Republicans are always “moving a goalpost to sort of get their way, and it is my hope that actual patriots are growing tired of it,” said Rep. Raychel Proudie, a Democrat from Ferguson. “You shouldn’t have to do this if what you’re planning is righteous and in the best interest of people.”
The effort began with the ballot summary written by lawmakers. It did not tell voters that Amendment 3 would repeal the reproductive rights they had approved two years earlier. Instead, it said the measure would “guarantee access” to emergency care, “ensure women’s safety during abortions” and “protect children from gender transition.”
The summary also mentioned exceptions for rape and incest but omitted that they would apply only during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.
Michael Wolff, a former chief justice of the Missouri Supreme Court who is advising the campaign against the amendment, said the language appeared to be “intended to deceive people into thinking that they were going to protect women having abortions.”
“If you just flat-out tell them that you’re going to repeal nearly all of the protection for reproductive health,” he said, “the people would vote no.”
A judge ruled the legislature’s summary unfair and ordered it rewritten. He later approved revised language written by Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins, a former state legislator who introduced a measure that became part of the 2023 law restricting gender transition care and has publicly endorsed Amendment 3.
But a state appeals court found Hoskins’ language still failed to explain the amendment’s effects and rewrote it to lead with the fact that it would “repeal the 2024 voter-approved amendment providing reproductive healthcare rights, including abortion through fetal viability.”
In an interview, Hoskins defended his initial choice to use the word “amend,” rather than “repeal,” because he felt it was more accurate. Asked how his endorsement of the new Amendment 3 squared with his duty to write neutral ballot language, he said his anti-abortion stance was no secret among Missouri voters.
“I can’t all of a sudden erase my conservative views of the past 16 years in the Missouri Legislature,” he said.
The intervention was hardly an isolated one. During Hoskins’ first 1.5 years in office, courts have rejected or rewritten five ballot summaries from his office involving abortion, education, the initiative petition process and a referendum on the state’s newly gerrymandered congressional map.
Hoskins said in an interview that the rulings reflected differences of opinion over what constitutes fair and accurate language, noting that the appellate courts had also sometimes rejected revisions made or approved by lower courts.
But the disputes have gone beyond language. Hoskins has also unilaterally blocked two citizen-led measures from reaching the November ballot. He rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for lawmakers to alter measures approved by voters, saying it was unconstitutional. And he refused to certify a referendum on Missouri’s new congressional map, drawn at President Donald Trump’s urging to help Republicans gain another U.S. House seat, declaring that putting a congressional map to a public vote would be unconstitutional.
Both campaigns sued in state circuit court, where a judge on Wednesday ruled for Hoskins in both cases. In the initiative case, the judge held that Hoskins had the authority to block an amendment from the ballot because it violated Missouri’s requirements that an initiative address a single subject and amend a single constitutional article. He also found that its restrictions on lawmakers’ ability to reconsider voter-approved policies was unconstitutional. And in the redistricting case, the judge agreed with Hoskins that voters cannot use the state’s referendum power to overturn the legislature’s power to redraw congressional maps.
Both cases are expected to reach the state Supreme Court on expedited appeals.
Hoskins said he disagreed with any suggestion that he and Republican leaders were defying the will of voters, noting they, too, had been elected. He criticized the opponents of Amendment 3 as “liberal special interest groups” financed by “out-of-state sugar daddies” like Bloomberg.
State Sen. Maggie Nurrenbern, a Kansas City Democrat, said Hoskins’ actions reflected a broader pattern of interfering with voters’ ability to use the ballot box to reject the Republican agenda.
“That’s quite frankly what is maddening to me, is that politicians over and over again are trying to trick voters,” she said.
It’s been nearly three years into Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians, and still no step closer to its end. Since the latest “ceasefire” began in October 2025, Israel has continued to bombard Gaza and has killed more than 1,200 people, United Nations experts reported earlier this month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more recently rejected President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace agreement with Hamas for Israeli troops to withdraw from the Gaza Strip.
“The burden has really continued to devastate the healthcare system in general. So you’re hearing from colleagues every day. They don’t have the materials that they need to serve their patients,” Dr. Thaer Ahmad tells The Intercept Briefing. “They don’t have even the basic sort of guarantee that there is a cloak of security allowing them to operate in the traditional ways that they would like to.”
This week on the podcast, Intercept reporter Jonah Valdez speaks to Ahmad, an emergency medicine physician and humanitarian who has provided medical relief in conflict zones including Gaza, and director Poh Si Teng about their new documentary “American Doctor.” It follows three U.S. physicians from three different states who volunteer to enter Gaza to provide emergency medical care as best they can, with the insufficient supplies they have, to save lives — under the threat, as healthcare workers and hospitals have repeatedly been the target of strikes, of losing theirs.
The American doctors were not just targeted by the Israeli military, however. Upon returning home and trying to share the atrocities they had witnessed in Gaza, they were “pummeled,” says Teng, in interviews with mainstream media outlets and ignored by lawmakers in Congress.
“There’s this refusal to acknowledge what most American people are interested in — and that is money out of the Middle East in terms of military and wars, and into our communities here, into healthcare, and into some of the services that we are deprived of, that, for example, Israeli society is able to provide for their citizens: free education, free healthcare,” says Ahmad. “We don’t even have that here, and yet we’re still providing a significant amount of aid.”
Teng says, “For everybody who’s trying to do something in this moment, it’s not like as individuals we have no agency. We do. But it’s also important to remind people of the systems in place that make it very hard for us to do the right thing. If there was any path forward or a glimmer of inspiration, I felt, follow these doctors.”
For more, listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Transcript
Jonah Valdez: Welcome to the Intercept Briefing. I’m Jonah Valdez, a reporter at The Intercept who covers politics and foreign policy.
BBC: Breaking news. A senior Hamas official tells the BBC it has agreed to disarm in Gaza.
FOX 10: President Trump says he’s doing something long considered impossible: disarming Hamas, forging a stable peace, and beginning a withdrawal of Israeli forces.
JV: Let’s go back to July. President Donald Trump announces that his so-called Board of Peace has reached a deal with Hamas to disarm, a primary goal of the ceasefire agreement.
Donald Trump: Most people said that would be a deal that would be undoable.
JV: By August, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejects the plan and the demand to withdraw troops from parts of Gaza.
It’s worth reminding Israel controls nearly 70 percent of Gaza’s territory.
PBS: President Trump’s Board of Peace says it’s in ongoing discussions with Israel after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected Mr. Trump’s new Gaza peace plan in yet another public break with the White House.
BBC: Saying it won’t withdraw from the territory until Hamas gives up all its weapons.
Benjamin Netanyahu, translated VO: Israel rejects the 15-point plan. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed.
JV: It’s been nearly three years into Israel’s genocidal war on Palestinians and still no step closer to its end. Since the latest ceasefire began in October 2025, Israel has continued to bombard Gaza and has killed more than 1,200 people, according to U.N. experts.
In all, since the start of the war in October 2023, at least 70,000 people have been killed in Gaza and 171,000 wounded. That doesn’t count the untold numbers buried under rubble. Still, the Israeli government has tight restrictions on who and what aid enters Gaza.
A new documentary called “American Doctor” follows three American physicians who travel to Gaza to provide medical care and save lives where healthcare workers and hospitals have been targeted.
When the three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — enter Gaza, they find themselves caught between medicine and politics, risking everything to expose the truth.
[Clip from “American Doctor” plays]
Dr. Thaer Ahmad: I want to take you through what Gaza looks like when a hospital is totally overwhelmed.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: As a Jewish physician, I knew nothing about Gaza. I thought everybody out here were nothing but terrorists.
Dr. Thaer Ahmad: We’re just asking that hospitals not be targeted.
Dr. Feroze Sidhwa: This is a political problem. We need a political solution. We do not have to accept that as Americans.
Dr. Mark Perlmutter: This is what my tax dollars did, what your tax dollars did. They have the right to know the truth.
[Clip from film ends]
JV: I’m joined now by the folks behind “American Doctor.” Director Poh Si Teng is the producer of the Oscar-nominated “St. Louis Superman” and Emmy award-winning executive producer of “Patrice: The Movie.” “American Doctor” marks her debut as a feature documentary director. Poh, welcome to The Intercept Briefing.
Poh Si Teng: Thank you for having me, Jonah.
JV: Also joining us is Dr. Thaer Ahmad, a board-certified emergency medicine physician and humanitarian who has provided medical relief in conflict zones including Gaza, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Kenya. He’s conducted five medical missions to Gaza, most recently in early 2024, and has since been denied entry four times by Israeli authorities due to his Palestinian heritage.
Thaer, welcome to the show.
Thaer Ahmad: Thank you, appreciate it.
JV: So in the opening scene of “American Doctor,” we see an ambulance and two severely injured children, bloody and in shock. They are carried into a hospital, and next we’re introduced to Dr. Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon sitting in front of his computer and speaking to the person filming him.
There’s this back and forth that happens between Dr. Perlmutter and you, Poh, of this debate of, should we blur the images? The image that they’re looking at and talking about is of six dead babies. Dr. Perlmutter goes on to say that Israel took away their dignity, and you’re not dignifying them unless you let their memory, their bodies tell the story of this trauma, of this genocide.
Poh, I’m wondering if you could talk about that scene, that conversation with you and Mark, and why you started the film there.
PT: Firstly, thank you, Jonah, for asking that question. I think as journalists, we often grapple with, what do we show? What do we write about? What do we capture?
You show too much, and it’s gratuitous — and people turn away. If we want to be effective, we want people to watch. But at the same time, if we show too little, then it’s not real. Then we’re not actually telling people what was happening.
So this scene that you’re talking about, Jonah, which, actually we recorded it — it was my second day with Mark. And I remember him being really, really furious with me because I was trying to see, like, how much should we show?
Part of the conversation was like, “Maybe we should film this creatively. Maybe we should pixelate it.” And he was very mad at me — and understandably so. He’s like, “What is the point? Why are you here?” And so it made me think “Why am I here?” If the reason for me wanting to make this film is to be effective, then I need to do right by those who have passed on, and maybe it is to show. And so that pretty much, Jonah, set the tone for what the film was going to be.
“What is the point? Why are you here?”
JV: On that note, that early scene really signaled to me, and I’m assuming the audience, that this film is very aware of and cares deeply about who gets to tell these stories, who gets to shape the narrative from the Israeli and U.S. military, powerful media institutions involved. To me, aside from showing the actual events and atrocities, that layer of the film really drove it forward.
[Thaer], the film follows you and two other American doctors, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon, as you three decide to return to serve in Gaza during the short-lived 2025 ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Remind us what the situation in Gaza was like at the time, and it’s worth mentioning that in March 2025, the death toll had already surpassed 50,000 people in Gaza, which at that point had been a little over a year into Israel’s genocidal campaign.
TA: It’s important for folks to remember that around this time, the Trump administration had brokered this sort of ceasefire deal, announced on the heels of the inauguration.
As we were slowly getting towards the end of that first phase of the ceasefire deal, which was March 2025, it had become abundantly clear that the Israeli military was getting ready to create another offensive. In fact, by the time I think the resumption of bombing had taken place, the Israeli military had already implemented a suffocating siege on the Gaza Strip.
The rise of malnutrition was so widespread that the Famine Early Warning System program that exists had already been sounding the alarm — that this is very concerning, that starvation was being used as a weapon of war, and this is all happening as the fighter jets were being fueled up and getting ready to carry out this offensive.
Many people who were involved in the emergency medical teams that were entering into the Gaza Strip at the time, they had really no inclination in terms of, would this be a resumption of the war on Gaza and the people of Palestine, or would we somehow get this miraculous 11th hour extension of the ceasefire deal?
Many of us — me, Feroze, and Mark — at the time, were planning on going back in March. We were traveling to Jordan, where every single doctor who is an international or nurse, that’s where they go. And they wait in Jordan to get approval by the Israeli military, and then they will cross in from Jericho and make their way towards Gaza.
We’re sitting there in Jordan, and we’re there with the film crew. Mark and Feroze get approval, and they’re able to enter. Then ultimately, I receive a denial. And that’s something that’s happening in the backdrop, not just of this film, but that’s happening consistently when it comes to access into the Gaza Strip.
You are talking about everything from food, water, doctors, nurses, diesel fuel. All of these things are arbitrarily being denied and restricted, even people like myself who had been to Gaza many times since 2008. That was kind of the circumstances that we were facing: There was a “ceasefire,” and there was trucks maybe entering — but what was needed in the Gaza Strip was not being supplied. It was not happening on a scale that needed to happen. Once they started cutting that off and the Israelis implemented this siege, we started to see people really struggling.
JV: Poh, I know as we said at the top, this film marks your debut as a feature documentary director. Just wondering, were you able to travel with doctors to document their work in Gaza? If so, could you talk a bit about that experience?
PT: I knew very early on that it would be impossible for me to get into Gaza. Even though the Jewish doctor, Dr. Mark Perlmutter, he’s ever the eternal optimist. When we met early on, he’s like, “I’m going to train you as a scrub nurse and take you into Gaza.”
Now, we know who controls the borders into Palestine. And anybody doing a cursory search on my name, what are they going to find? Journalist for the New York Times, former commissioner for Al Jazeera English, and I’ve worked for The Associated Press. I was an executive for ABC Disney. It was never going to happen for me.
So fortunately, I have this incredible producer: Reem Haddad. Reem and I used to work at Al Jazeera English. She looked after MENA [Middle East and North Africa], that region. She was working at that time, this was I would say end of 2023, with this incredible Gazan team: our co-producer Mohammed Sawwaf, and our director of photography, Ibrahim Al-Otla. They had made this short doc at the end of 2023. And I was like, “Reem, can we work with this team? We are trying to film in Gaza.” That sort of marked how we got to film inside Nasser Medical Complex.
Honestly, this film is really to honor what they saw and what they are living through, not just what they are trying to document. So that’s how we were able to make this film.
I should also add: At the end of the day, too, this entire production, it spans teams, from our team, from eight different countries. Not one person, not one country could have made this happen. It took everybody coming together from different parts of the world who wanted to do something in regards to what was happening in Gaza.
JV: To your point, Israel has continued to block international journalists from entering Gaza up to this point. Palestinian journalists have been the eyes and ears documenting the war, as have doctors, like yourself Thaer, and medical workers and the both of you and those who were let in.
I don’t know if you recall, but Thaer, you and I connected over text and voice notes in March of this year when I was writing about the Israeli government delaying doctors from leaving Gaza, which interrupts the entire process of care. And as you were explaining, that wasn’t the first time you were blocked from there. That was after the most recent ceasefire that was brokered in October of 2025.
From what you’re hearing from colleagues, how have things changed since when you were there during the first ceasefire? How are things the same?
TA: The burden has really continued to devastate the healthcare system in general. So you’re hearing from colleagues every day. They don’t have the materials that they need to serve their patients. They don’t have the space that they need. They don’t have even the basic sort of guarantee that there is a cloak of security allowing them to operate in the traditional ways that they would like to.
I would say that probably the biggest sign that the healthcare system has been attacked in such a devastating way would be the list of people who need to be evacuated out of Gaza to get medical treatment. That list is anywhere from 15 to 18,000 people, depending on what list you’re using. These are people who urgently need to leave Gaza because the medical care that they need is not able to be provided because of the siege and the blockade that continues to exist by the Israeli military.
We’re talking about kids with cancers that are completely treatable that will die from their cancer because they’re not allowed to go to an East Jerusalem hospital like Al-Makassed or Augusta Victoria, where that corridor had existed prior to October 7, but the Israelis are intentionally shutting down that corridor.
You’re talking about physicians who would want to perform basic procedures for their patients with heart disease or diabetes or whatever it is. They’re not able to do so because that material is actively being blocked by the Israeli military. They’re on the back of a truck somewhere, either in Egypt or Jordan, and not being allowed to enter.
These conditions continue to proliferate, and this is all happening, I should say, while the public services that should exist in any society, like water, sewage, electricity, even shelter, all of those things are not — to say “adequate” is not the right word, but I would say it’s absolutely horrifying in Gaza.
We are talking about things like chickenpox breaking out in these camps. We’re talking about kids who continue to be malnourished. We’re talking about all of these different communicable diseases that run through these overcrowded shelters and tent cities. These continue to be the conditions that people are living in, despite the fake ceasefire that was announced that saw more than 1,200 Palestinians killed since October 9, 2025, when it was first announced.
I’m even worried about what happens next because, as you probably have seen, Netanyahu announced that he’s rejecting that sort of ceasefire or the agreement to move on to the next phase that was brokered by this Board of Peace. And so I anticipate that conditions will worsen.
When we think about so many of the people that we worked with, that will appear in the film, that are in the background of the film, or even actually the cinematographers that Poh mentioned — I just don’t feel that they have the things that they need to sustain life in their homes, in their tents. Things continue to deteriorate, and it’s fallen out of the news cycle.
JV: Thaer, there’s scenes in the film of you and your colleagues packing basic medical supplies like scrubs and rubber bands, and Mark even hides antibiotics in his luggage. The film does a really good job at just laying out that reality and this targeting of hospitals. It’s pretty wild to think that even the mere fact of targeting of hospitals was a point of contention among much of Western media at a certain point.
The film features quite a bit of footage from sit-down interviews between doctors featured in the film and broadcast media. There’s these subtle framing biases that I think, Poh, you highlighted really well.
There’s that clip in the beginning where a CNN anchor caveats Dr. Perlmutter’s accounts of Israel targeting civilians as “extreme allegations” that CNN cannot independently verify. Later in the film, also on CNN, Dana Bash tees up a question to Thaer about getting aid into Gaza by saying, “Will Hamas allow the critical aid to get to the civilian population?” — completely ignoring the Israeli blockade on Gaza. There’s that sit-down where Mark grills the CNN anchor live on air about not doing enough coverage.
Poh, I want to start with you. Could you speak to this bias, this molding of the narrative that often benefits the Israeli government, and why that was important to show in the film?
PT: I’m so glad you asked this question. And I should say that long before I became a documentary filmmaker, I was a journalist. I’ve worked for so many of the established media organizations, and I’ve learned so much from my time there. But also, when the genocide started and there was pin-drop silence about the murder and execution of journalists, Gazan journalists, I’ll be honest with you: It hurt.
What happened? Why is it when journalists are kidnapped, taken in Russia, or killed in Ukraine or different parts of the world, all of a sudden, our peers, we come together. Why was it so that Gazan journalists or journalists in the West Bank or even Lebanon, for that matter — people weren’t rallying together. What was happening?
The whole film, I should say is a vérité in-scene film, so you’re in the world of Dr. Thaer, Dr. Mark, and Dr. Feroze. But in these clips, when we were filming them as they were being interviewed by media, I really wanted to show what they were up against.
As a former documentary commissioner for Al Jazeera, seeing my colleagues get targeted and executed was very, very, very hard. Now, as we were making the film, seeing the doctors trying to save lives and speak up for life, and then seeing them get pummeled like that, like basically the weight and structure of media crushing them — I was upset.
“Seeing the doctors trying to save lives and speak up for life, and then seeing them get pummeled like that, like basically the weight and structure of media crushing them — I was upset.”
Of course, I’m filming, I’m just observing. But it was very important to have that in the film because there are individuals, regular people — Thaer, Feroze, Mark — just trying to do all they can. And then there’s the weight of structure.
For everybody who’s trying to do something in this moment, it’s not like as individuals we have no agency. We do.
But it’s also important to remind people of the systems in place that make it very hard for us to do the right thing. If there was any path forward or a glimmer of inspiration, I felt, follow these doctors.
[Break]
JV: Thaer, there’s another scene where you acknowledge that you, “Always get nervous when Mark talks during interviews,” because he really, you called it, gets into the weeds of things like Zionism, and you’re worried about essentially bad-faith critics making you, what you say is, guilty by association.
Could you say more about that, and how in this media framing, how a pro-peace, anti-genocide message can get twisted, and also how those critics may complicate that message even further because of your identity as Palestinian American?
TA: Yeah, I think that’s something that we all have grown up with in terms of the Palestinian community. It’s understanding there’s a degree of dehumanization that is pervasive in not just the media, but in art and literature.
I remember being in medical school and having assigned reading before we started medical school, and then it was about a Hmong child who was dealing with a seizure disorder. And nestled in the middle of that book was a comment, a very brief passing comment, about a Palestinian who was a terrorist and was doing something extremely violent. Most med students in the country were assigned this reading. This is the backdrop of understanding this is how the world views you. Yes, of course, we reject it, but Palestinians know very well how they’re being portrayed and also what you’re stacked up against.
For me, I think something that I appreciate about Mark is that he understands there’s a privilege that he has, especially just how he looks, and that he can say things that I think can go farther than anything I could ever say. It can resonate with more Americans than anything I can ever do.
What I worry about, too, is the fact that you’ve got this conversation that the media and so many people try to make complicated. They want to say, “It’s complicated. There’s two sides.” Really what we’re trying to talk about is, “Hey, there’s an objective fact that something horrifying is unfolding here, and that really horrendous things are happening to this group of people by this institution. It’s a straight line. There’s not really, actually, so much dark and gray area here.”
The one thing I really wanted to make sure that we were communicating effectively — because again, so many people are working on this project, trying to get this film out there — I wanted to make sure that that message was as clear.
I would always worry knowing that Mark is somebody who shoots from the hip; he’s somebody that says what’s on his mind. Just in the back of my mind, just thinking about, every time we’re landing in Chicago O’Hare, every time you’re getting questioned by border control. All of these things were always at the top of mind for me. So it’s something I admire about Mark, but it’s also something that I know I just can’t do it myself. That’s not the world that we live in.
PT: To add to that, and one of the things I have so much respect for Thaer, because it takes a leader, to be really honest with you, to know whose word can go far because of the context and of our time and how things are.
As a woman, as a person of color, as somebody who’s barely 5 feet — I am acutely aware of when I step into the room as a journalist, as a filmmaker, perception. But I can only imagine what it’s like for a Palestinian; I will never be able to understand.
So those are one of the things where I thought about a lot in the making of the film. It was something that I was learning from as well, especially from Thaer, who, I don’t mean to embarrass you, Thaer, but, I really look up to you in many ways in how you are able to navigate this, because I feel like I’ve tried it in my entire — I’m 42 this year — and I’ve been challenged in navigating it.
“ It takes a leader, to be really honest with you, to know whose word can go far because of the context and of our time and how things are.”
Seeing you being able to do that and work with Feroze and Mark, even though you’re so different — and they’re very different doctors, very different personalities — it gives me a lot of inspiration on how to work with others who are also different, and also to know when does one take a step back and let others go forward.
JV: Thaer, did you have anything to add?
TA: Something that I’ve noticed for Palestinians, one of the things that really helps us get going, especially motivates us, is seeing other people step up and use their platforms and really put their money where their mouth is.
So despite me having real concerns that this project would be stifled, and it would never be able to see the light of day because of all of the things working against it, when you see Poh and Reem and you see all of the people that worked on this just continue to push and continue to say, “No, we’re going to be here from the beginning to the end. We’re not going to abandon you” — I think for my community here in the States that felt like we’ve been silenced for so long, and, even when anybody wants to talk about this subject, that you don’t even want to bring a Palestinian or invite a Palestinian because it could be [viewed as] biased, which is absurd.
You talk about who shapes the narrative — we are prevented from having control over our own narrative because of this disturbing narrative and structure that was built. When you see that and other people who are willing to put their money or their life on the line like Poh or Mark or Feroze — for me, it really gives you that energy when you just feel like everything is stacked up against you, and there’s a genocide unfolding. That’s a really heavy thing.
JV: I’m curious, Poh, how you initially contacted the subjects of the film there and others. How did that process unfold?
PT: So I’ll tell you how it began. I chanced upon Mark. I saw him being interviewed, and a reporter had asked him, this was fall of 2025, this was last year, and a reporter had asked him, “So Dr. Perlmutter, you have just returned from Gaza. Why do you think there’s no ceasefire?” Mark, who doesn’t mince words, straight up, he says, “There’s no ceasefire because politicians are (expletive) to lobby groups.” And I was like, “Oh my, who is this person? Who is this doctor?”
He was actually speaking in New York a few days later, and I went to meet him. Then very soon after he introduced me to Thaer and Feroze, and I just wanted to see how these three people, who couldn’t be more different in many ways, were able to work together.
JV: Thaer, you and your colleagues go to Washington to try and sway congressional members to act, and you all are met with indifference and platitudes, “dead ears,” as one person puts it.
TA: It’s just been incredible to see how the shift has emerged over the last two and a half years. You’re talking about early on, I remember November 2023, I had a Zoom call with eight senators. It was with the members, eight of them, all Democrats, and I remember saying that we need a ceasefire.
This was when Shifa Hospital had first been surrounded, and there were 38 babies in the neonatal intensive care unit in the newborn nursery, and several of them were in incubators. I remember being desperate at that time and saying, “We really need a ceasefire.” One of the senators, who was a member of the Armed Services Committee, cut me off and said, “Ceasefire is a military term. We’re not prepared to call for a ceasefire at this point. We’re more interested in maybe helping secure humanitarian aid.”
It went from that to when the images emerged for when the famine was in full-blown effect, where you had several members of Congress and the Senate sort of speak very publicly. They were outraged by what they saw, despite us telling them this information very early on, this is where we were heading, this is what was happening unless they did something. So to see the rhetoric even change has been remarkable. I’ve never seen anything like this before.
Then to see progressive candidates who really explicitly say that our policy in Palestine has been an utter failure and has contributed to the development of a genocide, that’s been amazing to see how much traction that’s getting, how much money they’re able to raise, how these races have really flipped the establishment on its head.
But I will say there are a couple of things that concern me, which I think the timing of this film could not be more perfect. And that is, you’re still seeing the very core of whatever, I don’t even know what they’re moderate in, but like, these “moderates” on the Democratic side or on the Republican side, you still see them try to stick to the status quo and go back to the old ways.
There’s this refusal to acknowledge what most American people are interested in — and that is money out of the Middle East in terms of military and wars and into our communities here, into healthcare, and into some of the services that we are deprived of, that, for example, Israeli society is able to provide for their citizens: free education, free healthcare. We don’t even have that here, and yet we’re still providing a significant amount of aid.
You’re still seeing some people try to resist that, try to resist this natural popular movement that’s at play here. Again, which is why I hope that this film could be that vehicle for people to be able to continue to push and understand we need to be activated and we need to advocate.
So we’re continuing the fight, and we’re still trying to push this forward. But there’s still, even though the rhetoric has changed, the policy is still well ingrained and institutionalized in a really significant way that’s going to take a long time to reverse. So that’s something I would encourage people to think about.
Abdul won the primary. Awesome. He’s going to be up for a huge fight in Michigan for that Senate race. There’s going to be a lot of money poured in against him. Mayor Mamdani was elected, and you can see how he is put under such a microscope for every single position or statement or even whatever his wife does. All of that is under a microscope.
There’s going to be this huge battle because it has been so ingrained in this country to support the Israeli occupation of Palestine as well as the Israeli military, but also to continue to fester and make the entire Middle East a very, I would say, a violent playground, for lack of a better term. That’s just how this country has faced things. That’s why the power of film, I hope, is something that can translate into action, and people can feel activated.
JV: There’s this thing that Dr. Feroze says at the end of the film where he is at that conference for Jewish Voice for Peace, and he expresses doubt that any of his mainstream media hits have really done anything. Then this audience member from the conference says it’s done a lot, and he refuted that and encourages him to keep going. I don’t need you to talk for Feroze, but I’m wondering where you stand on that and that idea of awareness or maybe its limits of media and that we need to keep doing what we can. Do you wrestle with that still? Is that a battle for you?
PT: I’ll say this. In embarking on this endeavor, I stopped thinking a long time ago about, what’s the outcome? Obviously, I hope that something good will come out of it. In the making of it, especially when we started, when it was really bleak, I told myself, “You know what? I’m just going to focus on doing.” I cannot fight against the structures, systemic structures, so many things, and I cannot be sorry for how I was or we cannot be sorry for our past actions or whatever it is, and we cannot predict the future. We have the power of now, and that is everything, and so just focus on the moment. Of course, think short-term, medium-term, long-term, but now is all we have, and so be true to oneself.
“I finally feel like I have found my voice, free of the constraints of everything. I can finally be.”
I feel like this film, in the making of this film, I finally feel like I have found my voice, free of the constraints of everything. I can finally be. I hope that this film, for those who are going to watch — and it’s going to be across theaters across the United States and Canada, which is massive, thanks to Watermelon Pictures — I hope that when people watch, they realize that too. Just focus on the now and keep going, because you don’t know how far you can go until you try.
JV: We’re going to wrap it up there. Thank you both for joining us on The Intercept Briefing.
TA: Thank you, appreciate you.
PT: Thank you, Jonah.
JV: We want to hear from you. Tell us what you’re following or want to see more coverage of. Email us at podcasts@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. William Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.
Slip Stream provided our theme music.
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Why Should Delaware Care? The Port of Wilmington is one of the last anchors of good-paying, blue-collar jobs in Delaware. But its expansion has sparked years of pushback from residents who say a new port terminal could damage their environment and health. Two recent lawsuits from neighbors highlight that the fight over Edgemoor is not yet over.
For years, neighbors of what was once a DuPont chemical plant in Edgemoor watched warily as plans to transform the site into a port container terminal inched forward, buoyed by the political force of thousands of promised jobs.
While state officials saw the project as transformational to Delaware’s economy and to its blue-collar job base, neighbors feared it would bring heavy trucks onto their streets and diesel fumes into the air.
In response, many spoke out at community meetings. Some challenged state permits. And others pushed port officials to sign an agreement guaranteeing community benefits.
Now, with construction on the project having begun, two lawsuits filed by separate groups of residents who live around Edgemoor and in Wilmington mark their latest efforts to force the state to revisit decisions that had cleared the way for the port’s expansion.
One suit challenges a ruling earlier this year from Delaware’s Environmental Appeals Board that upheld a previous permit allowing the state to dredge the Delaware River and to construct a new wharf at Edgemoor.
In an opening brief filed Monday, the residents’ attorney blasted the ruling from the appeals board, calling it “analysis free, and wholly inadequate.” He also suggested that dredging for the Edgemoor terminal could destroy critical sturgeon habitat, and that the port’s ultimate operations could pollute the air.
“Trucks and tugboats pollute, and the record shows that truck traffic will increase by 2,400 trips per day and tugs by 472 per year,” the attorney said in the brief.
The state has not yet filed its response to the lawsuit.
Delaware Secretary of State Charuni-Patibanda Sanchez declined to comment for this story. She serves as chair of Diamond State Port Corporation, a state entity that oversees the Port of Wilmington.
The second recent lawsuit claims that Delaware officials in past years broadly failed in their oversight of the Port of Wilmington, leading to a string of mishaps that occurred under the facility’s previous operator, Gulftainer.
Among those, the lawsuit lists missed lease payments to the state, a mortgaging of the publicly owned port, and the temporary use of the Edgemoor property as a scrap tire dumping ground.
The lawsuit calls on a Delaware judge to now appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Port of Wilmington, and to declare that the state’s 50-year lease contract with the port’s current private operator, Enstructure, is invalid and void.
Officials from Enstructure declined to comment for this story.
Simeon Hahn, a retired environmental scientist resident has lobbied for years against plans to build a port in Edgemoor. | PHOTO COURTESY OF SIMEON HAHN
Taken together, the lawsuits show that the yearslong effort by residents to push back against the $669 million Edgemoor plan is not yet over – even after construction began at the site earlier this summer.
Simeon Hahn, a Bellefonte-area resident and lead plaintiff in each of the cases, said the lawsuits could be “our last straw to get this project stopped.” As a retired environmental scientist, Hahn has been lobbying against the port construction plans for years, including through the launch of the organization StopTheEdgemoorPort.com.
“We’re concerned a lot about the truck traffic and the infrastructure problems that’ll be here,” he said.
The lawsuits also add to two other pending legal challenges to the Edgemoor project filed over the previous year by the Holt family of Philadelphia – the biggest port operator on the Delaware River with operations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Earlier this month, Hahn’s group also sought to intervene in support of the federal challenge brought by the Holts. In response, the Philadelphia judge issued an order stating he could not consider their views as part of the legal process.
“We just wrote a letter, like a friend of the court-type brief,” Hahn said.
Neighbors have been raising questions about Edgemoor since at least 2018, when then-Gov. John Carney announced that Delaware would privatize operations at the Port of Wilmington through a 50-year lease with Gulftainer, an Emirati company.
As part of the deal then, Gulftainer promised to privately finance construction of a container terminal along the Delaware River in Edgemoor that could accommodate the bigger container ships that were becoming more commonplace in the industry.
By 2020, community doubts about the plans became clear when dozens of residents crowded into a public workshop in the Bellefonte community. There, many expressed fear that trucks leaving the future port toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike would bypass the adjacent Interstate 495, and instead take Edgemoor Road through their neighborhoods to U.S. Route 202.
Some also claimed at the time that state officials had not been forthright about the port’s dependence on heavy trucks.
Among them was Ed Mulvihill, a liquor store owner and now a candidate for state legislature. He told port officials at that meeting that he initially had supported the Edgemoor project, but then learned that trucks, and not trains, would be the primary way goods left the facility.
Delaware’s longstanding plans to build a new container port at the site of a former chemical plant in Edgemoor has drawn years of outcry from neighbors. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JACOB OWENS
Today, Mulvihill is running in a three-way Democratic primary against Rae Krantz and Ralf Santana to replace the retiring Rep. Debra Heffernan (D-Bellefonte).
Asked recently about the port expansion, Mulvihill said it is an issue that from “day one we weren’t super happy about.” But, he argued, there is little a newly elected legislator can do now to stop it.
Krantz, a software engineer, said she does not support the port expansion, asserting that state officials had not formed a sufficient plan to mitigate the impacts of truck traffic and other harms on neighboring communities.
And Santana, a security officer for the Social Security Administration, said he opposes the plans because of what he called the state’s lack of transparency around various data, including air quality studies.
In all, the candidates’ similar sentiments highlight a sharp divergence from the broad support the project has generated among other Democratic politicians, including the local incumbent legislator Heffernan.
Who has the right to challenge a project?
A year after the 2020 public workshop, a group of four residents living in the Wilmington area formally challenged the Edgemoor dredging permit before the Delaware Environmental Appeals Board — a little-discussed administrative board that hears challenges to permits issued by state agencies.
In response, attorneys for the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control argued the residents lacked legal standing to bring the challenge — essentially meaning that they couldn’t prove that they would be directly impacted by the permit’s issuance.
The assertion shocked the group who questioned how people living near the existing Port of Wilmington or near its expansion site could lack standing to challenge the environmental impacts.
Marie Reed, a longtime leader in Wilmington’s Southbridge neighborhood, said during a hearing that her community had suffered for years from poor air quality and high cancer rates that she attributed to the current port facility along the Christina River.
“As a lifelong resident of Southbridge, how can you say that I don’t have standing?” Reed asked. “How can you say that the residents and the people of my community don’t have standing?”
A map shows the locations relative to the city of Wilmington of the existing Port of Wilmington along the Christina River and the proposed Edgemoor terminal along the Delaware River. | GRAPHIC COURTESY OF STATE OF DELAWARE
Ultimately, the residents successfully defended the question of their legal standing before a Delaware court. The case was then sent back to the Environmental Appeals Board, which ruled earlier this year that state regulators properly awarded the dredging permit.
In June, the residents appealed the decision, leading to the pending case in front of the Delaware courts.
Jeffrey RIchardson, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said he is part of the legal challenge in order to ensure that environmental and health concerns are addressed before an Edgemoor port is allowed to be operational.
He said he is not against a Port of Wilmington expansion in Edgemoor, in principle, but argued the current plans do not amount to a good deal for residents.
“We think it is an unfair exchange to say you take the jobs, but you must ask no questions about potential harms to your family, your children, your environment, your community,” he said.
Richardson also serves as chair of a Delaware Community Benefits Agreement Coalition — an organization that is trying to convince port officials to sign an agreement with neighboring communities that would guarantee certain protections and benefits.
Members of the Delaware Community Benefits Agreement Coalition are seeking an agreement with Delaware port officials that would delineate health mitigation plans and benefits for neighboring communities. | PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFFREY RICHARDSON
The critiques from Richardson and others have appeared to resonate with port officials recently.
During a meeting of the Diamond State Port Corporation on Monday, board member David Burt said the state is discussing a plan to direct heavy trucks from the port to an interstate on-ramp on 12th Street in Wilmington to ensure they do not drive along roads near Edgemoor.
“It’s a good step, significant, and hopefully a powerful step to address the community’s predominant question,” Burt said.
A judge reassigned
The second lawsuit, challenging the management of the port, launched last month with a spicy opening salvo when attorney Darrel Baker filed a motion for the judge to recuse himself because of his previous career with the Delaware Department of Justice.
Baker argued that the case had the potential to raise conflicts for Delaware Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg because DOJ attorneys have been key figures in defending past state decisions about the port’s operation and expansion.
“We want to respectfully request that your honor recuse and step aside from this particular case and not be dragged in as a potential witness or have to make adverse rulings against the Delaware Department of Justice,” said Baker, who also has served as a lobbyist for the Holt family of Philadelphia.
Opposing the request was the Diamond State Port Corporation’s attorney who argued that such a recusal is “neither warranted nor appropriate.”
“Plaintiffs do not have standing to bring this action, let alone request that your honor voluntarily recuse himself due to his prior association with the Delaware Department of Justice,” the attorney Elise Wolpert said.
Ultimately, the court sided with Baker and reassigned the lawsuit to Judge Sheldon Rennie.
As part of the case, Rennie will be confronted with the question of whether to declare Enstructure lease to operate the port void.
In their complaint, the Edgemoor neighbors argued the state’s awarding of the contract in 2023 had violated government procurement rules.
The state and Enstructure have until Sept. 16 to file their responses to the complaint.
Two days before that, they are scheduled to hold a groundbreaking ceremony for the Edgemoor project. It comes the day before a contentious primary election throughout the state.
Exclusive: Planning documents show annual emissions from North Ockendon project would be equivalent to 8,480 flights to New York
A “hyperscale” datacentre in outer London would generate more than 1m tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to the carbon footprint of 8,480 flights from London to New York, planning documents show.
The East Havering Data Centre Campus (EHDCC) in North Ockendon would be one of the largest datacentres in Europe if approved by Havering council, using 218 hectares of green belt to run servers and data storage systems for AI and cloud computing. Its developer, Digital Reef, has described the scheme as “a unique opportunity to create a sustainable datacentre campus of the future”.
I understand the pressure on AI companies to rush forward. But employees are right to be concerned
Last month, more than a thousand employees at frontier AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to find a way to “pace” AI development, citing the risk of the technology spiraling out of human control as it begins to build itself.
They were right to be concerned: just days earlier, two AI models that OpenAI was testing internally escaped the test environment, then autonomously hacked the company Hugging Face and at least three other online services. A few days after that, Anthropic announced that some of their models had also broken out and hacked other companies during testing.
Former officials and voting rights experts have expressed skepticism over a pledge by the Trump administration to dispatch 1,000 monitors across the country to scrutinize November’s US midterm elections.
While the Department of Justice (DoJ) has expressed hope that the operation will be the largest in its history, its plan raised questions over its ability to recruit so many people – and what they would do.
Why Should Delaware Care? Temporary Protected Status is a federal, humanitarian program aimed at protecting individuals from countries deemed unsafe. The Trump Administration has been ending such protections for individuals from several countries, most recently Syria and Haiti. With those protections now gone, Delaware’s Haitian community, which nears 5,000 people, has been left reeling.
For a Haitian mother of three living in Dover, the past two months have been full of fear and uncertainty.
She lost her work permit, her driver’s license and protection from deportation all with a single Supreme Court decision.
The woman, who spoke to Spotlight Delaware on the condition of anonymity, was living in Delaware under the U.S. government’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program, a federal immigration policy that allows those residing in countries deemed to be unsafe, to live and work in the U.S. temporarily.
“A bunch of us have already bought a home and bought a car and have several businesses,” the woman said. “I know it may sound dumb since we are going through all that, but if we weren’t comfortable in the country, we wouldn’t do all of that. I believe this is not fair because we’re here without hurting anyone.”
A country may fall under TPS protections for undergoing a civil war, extraordinary conflict or some kind of major environmental disaster. Protections can last for up to 18 months, and can be extended. Individuals in qualifying countries can apply to enter the U.S. and obtain a work permit.
Until last month, that list of countries included Haiti. But a Supreme Court decision issued in June allowed the Trump administration to remove both Haiti and Syria from its list of TPS designees. Currently, only citizens in four countries — El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan and Ukraine – qualify for TPS.
That June Supreme Court ruling has called the future into question for the more than 350,000 Haitians living in the U.S. — including nearly 5,000 of those in Delaware.
A disruption of day-to-day life
Guy Danjoint, a pastor at the Haitian Evangelical International Ministries Church in Dover, spent his evenings last week driving across the Delaware-Maryland border to bring groceries to Haitian homes.
Many immigrants fear that being caught driving will lead to their deportation, Danjoint said.
This reality has changed the shopping habits of local Haitians, said one local Caribbean food store owner in Southern Delaware, who spoke to Spotlight Delaware on the condition of anonymity. Her storefront would attract an average of about 300 customers per week.
Now that number has dwindled to just a handful.
“They’re going hungry now,” she said.
Along with delivering groceries, Danjoint said he is advising former TPS holders against attempting to go back to work.
Pastor Guy Danjoint helped steward the Haitian Evangelical International Ministries (HEIM) church into a gathering place for hundreds of Haitian immigrants in Kent County. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY JOSE IGNACIO CASTANEDA PEREZ
“You can’t,” he said. “If you do that, it’s going to be worse. Because what happens? If they catch you, you will never, never be able to get a green card here in this country.”
The Dover-area mother said her day-to-day life has been marked by both a financial and mental strain since losing federal protections.
She has been living in the country for seven years, and she has been in central Delaware for six. She settled in the state with her husband, and the couple has since had three children.
Despite her kids being U.S. citizens, the woman said she and her husband fear sending them to school.
She said she does not know what will come next, but that ultimately her family is likely to return to Haiti.
Spotlight Delaware previously reported about Haitian immigrants leaving the U.S. for Canada in the wake of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, but the Dover woman said she is not sure if that is an option.
She said she would rather move back to her home country than start from scratch again somewhere completely new.
For Haitians who were living in America under TPS, relocating to Canada also comes with its own struggles. Agreements between the U.S. and Canada prevent Haitian immigrants from immediately seeking refugee status after arriving there if they first passed through America.
Immigrants would need to remain in Canada illegally for 14 days without being detected before they could then apply for refugee status there.
Trying to keep the lights on
For the past eight years, Danjoint’s church has not only served as a place of worship but also as a home for Haitians.
He cooks spaghetti on Sundays for children and supports the church’s choir and youth group. But it is getting harder and harder to build that home for his community.
Last week, the church held a concert that normally would have brought in up to 100 attendees. Events typically become so full that people are standing around the chairs, leaning on doors and trying to squeeze inside the church.
But only around 20 people showed up that day.
“We got people from New York and Florida, some artists, and some from Silver Spring, Maryland,” Danjoint said. “They were here, but we didn’t have enough people.”
After years of working multiple jobs and trying to outsource the money to find a location for the church, Danjoint said it saddens him to see that laws can have this much impact on the livelihood of his place of worship.
But he remains optimistic because if he survived during the COVID pandemic, he said his community will do it again.
The grocery store owner, however, is less optimistic.
“It’s so sad,” she said. “Where am I going to find the money to pay my bills?”
How did we get here?
Humanitarian relief programs have long existed in the U.S. As different presidential administrations have come and gone, designations and eligibility criteria have changed.
Fritz Lamour is an accountant who has been here since the 1980s, like Danjoint. He has seen the push and pull of TPS designations for Haitians for several years now.
“When the government cuts the TPS, for one part I’m happy because it seems like they were ripping off these people,” he said. “It helps them work, but it is a rip off too.”
Instead, he would like to see a reform to the system. He knows TPS is only a temporary program, and he said he has heard of lawyers not letting their TPS clients know they can attempt to obtain a permanent immigration status instead of renewing TPS every two years.
“People on TPS, they buy houses, they pay taxes,” Lamour said. “Come on, you have to give them something too.”
Is returning to Haiti an option?
Lesly Marcelin, a Haitian pastor at Delaware Gospel Assembly Ministry, said self-deporting is not an option for some TPS holders.
“That’s why people willingly suffer. Some of them suffer here. They cannot go back because they don’t have no place to go,” he said. “Some houses the gangs take over, they place people out of their own home.”
The main issue, Danjoint and Lamour said, is arriving at Haiti’s airport safely.
Haiti also is under a “do not travel” advisory by the U.S. Department of State due to risk of “crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest, and limited health care.”
Tensions in Haiti are at a political high point currently because the country is set to hold elections for the first time since then-President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated by a group of mercenaries in 2021.
Since then, Haiti has had no president. Armed gangs have taken over the country’s capital along with some of its rural areas. This leaves civilians at risk of being kidnapped or killed or dealing with loss of access to resources like healthcare, according to The Haitian Times.
What comes next?
Emily Houde, supervising attorney at the Community Legal Aid Society’s immigration unit, is working on letting people know their rights if they get detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or determine what other legal protections exist now the TPS has largely been rolled back.
But it is not easy.
“We are sure that there are more people who probably qualify for our services that we just haven’t been able to reach or haven’t felt comfortable coming forward,” Houde said.
For now, Danjoint is working with other pastors to encourage local and state leaders to push Congress to continue the TPS program.
He also said he is working to open up a food pantry at his church and will continue to deliver groceries to his community.
“But we don’t want people to be too sad about what is happening,” Danjoint said. “We want them to enjoy and stuff like that, but the reality is the reality.”
There is a Senate bill currently on the floor to extend TPS protections for Haitians until 2029, though it is unlikely to move forward because it is currently only supported by Democrats. Delaware Sens. Chris Coons and Lisa Blunt Rochester are among the co-sponsors of the bill.
With Haiti’s TPS designation removed, uncertainty remains for the Delaware Haitians who were living under the program.
“We didn’t think it was gonna go like that, so we are not so sure of what to do,” the Dover-area mother said. “But we have to come up with a plan because it’s not getting any better.”
Advocates say legislation in the nation’s most populous state would carry particular weight in the national movement to curb tech’s influence on young people.
President Trump appeared on the radio show of Michael Cohen, his fixer-turned-foe, in a stunning public reunion that would have been impossible to imagine several years ago.
The summer of '26: A turning point for the climate crisis?Audiosseth.drupal@c…
In this week’s episode of Independent Thinking, our experts discuss the record-breaking temperatures seen across Europe this summer and what it means for the climate crisis.
The climate crisis has seldom been dramatized so vividly as in the summer of 2026. Apocalyptic fires, widespread droughts and drained rivers in Europe made clear a worsening situation that even the most fervent denier can’t wave away. But is there the necessary time, commitment and technology to slow or reverse the climate spiral – even in the face of a US administration that is committed to fossil fuels? How do the two approaches of mitigation and adaptation translate into real life on the ground? And is there any good news amid the smoke and gloom?
Bronwen Maddox is joined by water and climate specialist Dr Beatrice Mosello and sustainability expert Dr Patrick Schröder from Chatham House, and special guest Oliver Morton, The Economist’s planetary affairs correspondent.
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.
Art of international significance planned for £17m redevelopment of museum whose closure sparked uproar
Works by Tracey Emin, Steve McQueen and Olafur Eliasson have gone on display at a new contemporary art gallery and museum in north-east England which aims to show works of international significance.
Boxing’s most mercurial star is putting an old friendship aside as he moves up to 147lb to challenge Rolly Romero for the welterweight title he won against Ryan Garcia
For more than a decade, Teófimo López’s friendship with Rolando ‘Rolly’ Romero endured through amateur tournaments, Las Vegas sparring sessions and the mismatched peaks and troughs of two volatile careers. That friendship ended, López says, the moment they signed to fight one another.
On Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena along the Vegas Strip, the 29-year-old López will challenge for Romero’s World Boxing Association welterweight title. The former lightweight and junior-welterweight champion is moving up to 147lb in pursuit of a belt in a third division. For Romero, himself a three-weight belt-holder after stacking titles at 135lb and 140lb, a victory would add another marquee name to a résumé transformed by last year’s upset of Ryan Garcia. The fight will be broadcast globally on Dazn pay-per-view and will see the champion go off as a roughly 2-1 underdog.
Bob Iger and Josh Kushner’s $12.5bn bid to buy the Lakers shows that NBA teams are no longer family dynasties, but quick flips for private equity sharks
For years, the NBA was built on the alliance of patient money and marketing pizzazz, and no team captured that curious mixture better than the Los Angeles Lakers. Through Showtime in the 1980s and the dominance of the Shaq-Kobe years, the Lakers became the benchmark for a league and a sport intent on global conquest: charismatic, ambitious, and flashy, a sporting-cultural amalgam in which athleticism and celebrity held equal rank. Through careful front office recruitment, savvy coaching, and the harnessing of Hollywood’s star power, the Lakers evolved from a team into a “brand,” establishing a template that virtually every other outfit in the NBA has felt compelled to mimic in the years since. But the razzle-dazzle on the court – the Laker Girls, Magic flinging no-look passes, Shaq smashing the glass, Jack Nicholson smiling his Joker smile in the front row, all eyebrows and mischief – depended on a far more staid and stable arrangement off it. Real estate investor Jerry Buss bought the Lakers for $16m in 1979, and remained the majority owner until his death in 2013, when his children assumed control of the franchise.
When Jerry Buss died, the Lakers were valued at $1bn. Now, the team looks set to be sold to former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner, the brother of Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared, for $12.5bn. The sale is still under negotiation and will need to be approved by the NBA’s board of governors; the Buss siblings are also now bickering over whether to join the stampede and sell their minority 17.8% stake in the franchise to Iger and Kushner, which has added a subplot of Shakespearean family intrigue to proceedings. But in the likely event it goes through, the sale would make the Lakers the most valuable franchise in basketball. It would also signal an acceleration in private equity’s scramble to get its claws into the world of sport.
Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: records obtained by ProPublica, Don Ryan/AP.
Oregon’s spending on low-income housing has exploded in the past five years. The state has given developers an unprecedented $1.4 billion, and the cost of developing each apartment has nearly doubled, to $540,000. Dozens of projects are lined up for an additional $850 million in future state funding. Federal tax credits, which the state oversees, will bring even more money to bear.
Yet one thing has remained constant: The public isn’t allowed to see the details of how all these dollars are being spent.
Oregon is one of the only states in the country with a carve-out in its public records law that prevents disclosing the financial details of subsidized housing projects, thwarting researchers and journalists who have tried to examine their costs.
The issue is especially pressing in the Pacific Northwest, where leaders have tied the lack of affordable housing to the region’s dire homelessness crisis. Understanding and controlling the cost of construction could make it possible, with the same amount of money, to either build more rent-restricted apartments or to discount rents more steeply.
Margaret Van Vliet, a former director of Oregon’s state housing agency, told ProPublica that lawmakers should revisit the exemption. Despite all the state’s spending on housing, Oregon’s homeless population continues to grow.
“For all the public money, we seem to be digging a deeper hole,” Van Vliet said.
In other states, researchers and journalists have used developers’ financial records to investigate spiraling costs of subsidized housing.
Los Angeles Times reporters in 2020 revealed that the cost of some low-income housing units in California had grown to more than $1 million each, driven in part by government rules that pushed construction prices higher. The Times found that 12,000 more low-income families could have received homes between 2011 and 2015 had costs been as low as they were elsewhere.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley showed earlier this year that California was spending $300 million a year just in development fees on subsidized housing, enough to have financed another 1,250 apartments each year. In July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that aims to slash those fees.
A study published last year and co-authored by Jason Ward, an economist who directs the nonpartisan Rand Corp.’s Housing Center, compared the costs of constructing subsidized housing among California, Texas and Colorado, finding that California’s highest-in-the-nation prices were driven by requirements to pay “substantially above-market wages and unusually large architectural and engineering fees.”
If California had Colorado’s production costs, the study found, it could have built four times as many rent-subsidized apartments.
Those types of analyses are impossible to perform in Oregon.
“For all the public money” spent on housing, “we seem to be digging a deeper hole.”
Margaret Van Vliet, former director of Oregon’s state housing agency
Ward said Oregon’s secrecy is difficult to defend. He said cost information about subsidized housing is typically public. In his research, he said, he’s gotten such data from 17 states and been denied it only in New Jersey.
“When you’re just looking at how public funds are used, there should be an incredibly strong bias towards transparency,” he said. “And when you see costs going up and up and up and the outcomes aren’t good, there’s an almost unqualified public case that these things should be open to scrutiny by taxpayers, policymakers, the media, whomever.”
Oregon’s Legislature approved the exemption in 1997, when Oregon’s state housing agency had a staff and budget that were both one-fifth what they are today.
State housing officials warned about the consequences of revealing the finances behind low-income apartment projects.
“Not that we’re concerned that there’d be something in there,” Lynn Schoessler, then the deputy director of Oregon Housing and Community Services, told lawmakers in a public hearing.
But Schoessler said there could be problems if the public were allowed to see detailed financial information that developers submit to the state while applying for funding. Disclosing the records might “give somebody an indication whether this corporation was ripe for takeover or a buyout or whatever,” Schoessler said in a hearing. “So we’re concerned on the corporate level.”
Lawmakers almost unanimously agreed to exempt the records from disclosure.
Not all details about subsidized housing in Oregon were made secret.
The Portland area’s regional government, which manages a local low-income-housing bond, publishes the costs of projects the bond has funded, showing some units have reached $900,000 apiece. And fine-grained cost information may be obtained, on request, if the project is run by a public housing authority like Portland’s. But these account for just 20% of the subsidized housing units that Oregon is building. The bulk are sponsored by private developers and funded through the state housing finance agency, Oregon Housing and Community Services.
Although the state agency will divulge how much a developer said a project would cost when it applied for funding, it redacts the itemized expenses — things like the costs of construction materials, the contractor’s profits or the fees paid to lawyers, brokers, loan agents, developers and the state agency itself.
A spokesperson said the agency knows the cost per unit, per square foot and per bedroom for each development it has subsidized. But the state said that information, which would allow the public to see which projects were the most expensive, is not subject to disclosure.
Oregon has a sunshine committee that reviews public records exemptions and identifies ones that should be rolled back. Charlie Fisher, its co-chair, said the committee should examine the low-income housing carve-out.
“Verifying how public dollars are being spent, especially at this scale, is one of the fundamental reasons why people should have access to public records,” Fisher said. “Given the amount of money we’re talking about, the case is even stronger.”
The secrecy mandate in state law shrouds more than just the financial details of a project.
When we requested financial records for three apartment projects around Portland, the agency redacted a list of languages spoken by the tenants that a developer hoped to attract. In application material for that developer’s project, the agency also redacted the plan for translating tenant outreach brochures from English. And it blacked out an explanation of any financial risks the project might face, along with the developer’s plan for covering cost overruns.
It turns out that the developer, in this case, was Home Forward, the Portland housing authority. The local agency released a copy of its application material to ProPublica without redactions, revealing mundane details the state had tried to keep secret. Here’s a sample of what Home Forward identified as the project’s financial risks: “market volatility, site-specific challenges, and unforeseen design modifications. Economic factors such as inflation, material price fluctuations, and labor shortages could impact overall construction costs.”
A spokesperson for the state said the information about languages and financial risks was redacted because the public records exemption shields “market studies and analyses” as well as pro forma statements, which show a development’s anticipated cash flows.
Oregon Housing and Community ServicesHome ForwardOregon’s public records exemption for subsidized housing leads to the state redacting more than just projects’ financial details, including this plan to translate outreach materials for a subsidized housing project. In this case, an unredacted version of the same document was available from the local housing authority that was acting as the developer on the project.
Andrea Bell, the state housing agency’s director, said in an emailed statement that she is committed to transparency and expects her agency to be open, accessible and accountable to the public. But she said she takes seriously the agency’s responsibility to comply with the exemption in Oregon records law for housing financials.
Asked to comment on whether she supported the exemption and thought it was necessary, Bell said in a statement: “The cost of construction is a topic of growing interest. We will take your request under consideration as we assess ways to proactively share construction costs so that they are more readily available to the public.”
In the meantime, the agency charged ProPublica $130 for the cost of collecting and redacting the documents it provided us. It denied our request to waive the fees, saying that “the interest of the general public would be better served by preserving public resources.”
Transparency hasn’t slowed development in other West Coast states.
In California, where the financial details of housing projects are public records, the funding remains highly competitive, with more than half of shovel-ready applications being turned away because demand exceeds available funding. “We have not encountered any difficulty in developing affordable housing because those documents are public,” said a spokesperson for the California state treasurer’s office.
In Washington state, officials have repeatedly released financial information about the housing projects they’ve funded to developers, researchers, media and other members of the public. A housing official there said developers know the information is open to the public, and it hasn’t been an issue.
ProPublica asked the Washington counterpart of Oregon Housing and Community Services for financial documents for three projects around Seattle. They were released without redactions — and for free.
Video recordings and documents detail how investigators pursued the case, and the possibility of abuse, for months but failed to identify a perpetrator.
Retail sales across Great Britain weakened last month despite the men’s football World Cup and record temperatures boosting the demand for food and drink.
The Office for National Statistics said the volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.5% in July. That is down from 0.7% rise in June – revised down from initial estimates of 1% – and a 1.3% rise in May.
A state attorney general challenging the controversial mega-merger between Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery is under attack from a newly created mystery nonprofit accused of being an “astroturf” front group.
The group sent text messages in recent days calling on Californians to pressure Democratic state Attorney General Rob Bonta in support of the merger, which he has sued to block in court.
The text messages are the latest escalation of the increasingly bitter battle between Bonta and Paramount CEO David Ellison, who has threatened to move his movie studio to Texasor Tennessee, according to reports from multiple outlets, if a coalition of state attorneys general led by Bonta keeps fighting the merger.
The group behind the text campaign, Neighbors for Strong Communities, cited Ellison’s threat in messages encouraging support for the merger.
“The behavior we’re seeing is what powerful corporations do when they are losing control of the story.”
The group denied the allegations that it is mounting an “astroturf” campaign, but declined to reveal its donors. The lack of transparency led free-speech advocates to issue a scathing press release this week.
“The behavior we’re seeing is what powerful corporations do when they are losing control of the story,” Rashad Robinson, co-chair of the Committee for the First Amendment, said in a statement. “The more the public understands what’s at stake — fewer jobs, fewer stories told, and even more power in the hands of a few billionaires — the harder the deal becomes for Paramount to defend.”
A spokesperson for Neighbors for Strong Communities, Tanner Kelly, declined to disclose the group’s donors.
“We don’t disclose funders, but this campaign is operated independently of Paramount,” he said.
In a statement to The Intercept, Warner Bros. Discovery denied funding the text message campaign. Paramount Skydance did not respond to a request for comment.
Neighbors and Nemeses
Ellison’s merger plans have divided Hollywood unions, leading proponents and opponents to engage in a heated war of words over who speaks for the entertainment industry’s working class.
Into that fray jumped Neighbors for Strong Communities, which was incorporated in Washington in June, a little over three months after Paramount launched its takeover bid for Warner Bros. Discovery.
The national debate over the mega merger has focused on suspicions that Paramount CEO David Ellison might be willing to tilt coverage at Warner properties like CNN in favor of Donald Trump. Ellison, whose billionaire father is a close ally of Trump’s, has courted favor with the White House as the merger moves forward.
The debate over the Paramount merger in California, however, has often centered on jobs.
In text messages to Californians that went out earlier this week, Neighbors for Strong Communities asked recipients to send Bonta messages raising the concern that his opposition to the merger will cost the state thousands of jobs — because of Ellison’s reported threat to move Paramount to Texas.
Those messages and the group’s generic website offer little insight into Neighbors for Strong Communities’s origins. Its incorporation papers in Washington show that several listed directors have worked as political consultants.
In a statement to The Intercept, one of those directors, Tanner Kelly, described the group as a “community advocacy organization that helps everyday people participate in public decisions affecting their lives, livelihoods and futures.”
Bonta is months away from an election he is expected to win handily. Kelly said the group’s pressure campaign against Bonta is “not related” to the pending attorney general election, and Neighbors for Strong Communities has not filed campaign finance disclosures with the California Secretary of State.
Kelly pushed back on the idea that entertainment industry professionals are uniformly opposed to the merger by sending messages from actors who have spoken out in favor of it.
“To the claims this is AstroTurf, tell that to the hundreds of real people participating in our movement who have real concerns, real struggles, and real livelihoods on the line that just want to be heard,” said Kelly, who was registered as a lobbyist in California last year.
“Grassroots Opposition”?
Advocates who oppose the merger suspect there is something more at play, pointing to the circumstances of the group’s creation.
“The sender organization’s website is less than three months old. It discloses no founders, board members, staff, or funders, and the organization does not appear in ProPublica’s nonprofit database,” the Committee for the First Amendment, an anti-merger group co-founded by Jane Fonda, said in a press release earlier this week.
“The sender organization’s website is less than three months old.”
The Committee said that Neighbors for Strong Communities has the “classic hallmarks of a corporate-backed astroturf campaign designed to manufacture the appearance of grassroots opposition.”
The effort to make it seem like the merger has popular support will fail, predicted Jessica J. González, co-CEO of Free Press Action.
“These corporations know where the grassroots movement actually is: with the industry professionals fighting to block this merger,” she said. “This PR campaign is yet another face-off between the many and the money.”
Downpours break records and cause transport chaos, evacuations and deaths, as people get trapped inside vehicles
South Korea and Japan were hit by extreme rain late last week and into this week. On 13 August in the city of Chiba near Tokyo there was a record-breaking 115mm of rainfall in just one hour, while the nearby city of Sakura broke its own record with 97mm in one hour. Local authorities issued a level 5 emergency warning for heavy rain, the highest alert level and the first time one has been issued since the system was implemented in May.
More than 100,000 households were asked to evacuate, with more than 20,000 in the Chiba prefecture left without power, while thousands of people were stranded at Tokyo’s Narita airport. Thirteen people have been confirmed dead, at least three of whom were found trapped inside their vehicles. One person is still missing.
Film emerges as France says it has stopped 185 small boat ‘events’ in three months since new £660m deal with UK
Footage has captured the moment French police officers clashed with people on a beach in northern France as the authorities tried to intercept a dinghy attempting to reach the UK.
Men wearing lifejackets appear to throw objects at the police to try to keep them away from their dinghy. The officers then use Pava spray before slashing the inflatable boat with a knife.
Washington, D.C. — The U.S. national debt has crossed $40 trillion for the first time, prompting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to argue that stronger economic growth can make the burden more manageable without focusing solely on the headline figure.
“There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that,” Bessent told CNBC on Thursday. He argued that debt and deficits are better evaluated relative to the size of the economy rather than through the total alone.
Treasury data show roughly $32.3 trillion of the debt is held by the public, while about $7.8 trillion is owed within the federal government, including obligations to programs such as Social Security.
Bessent blamed much of the fiscal deterioration on the Biden administration and said tariff revenue should rebound after the Supreme Court required refunds tied to some Trump-era emergency tariffs.
However, the debt increase spans both Democratic and Republican administrations. Reuters reported that federal debt has roughly doubled since 2017, driven by persistent deficits, pandemic spending, tax cuts and rising costs for entitlement programs. Interest payments have also climbed above $1 trillion annually, increasing pressure on future federal budgets.
Economic growth can reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio, but sustained deficits mean growth alone may not prevent the total debt from continuing to rise.
As the couple plans their return to the UK, Montecito’s whirlwind stint on the global stage may be coming to an end
The bucolic coastal California town of Montecito was thrust into the limelight six years ago as the backdrop for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s second act following an acrimonious split from Buckingham Palace.
But as the couple plans their return to the United Kingdom, Montecito’s whirlwind stint on the global stage may be coming to an end.
China's Chang'e 7 mission is set to launch for the moon's south pole, where it will attempt the first-ever landing directly at the pole and search the region's dark craters for water ice. "It's an amazing mission," says Norbert Schorghofer, a Hawaii-based senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute. "There has never been a landed mission to find water [on the moon]." If successful, China "will be the leader in lunar science," Schorghofer adds. Scientific American reports: Chang'e 7, China's seventh moon mission, is scheduled to launch on a Long March 5 rocket from the coastal Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan, with the launch window opening on the morning of August 24 local time (the evening of August 23 EDT). The mission includes an orbiter, as well as a lander, which totes a rover and a novel "hopping" robot. The spacecraft will take up to six days to reach lunar orbit, where it will then spend two months preparing for a November landing meant to be a near bull's-eye on the lunar south pole. The mission also includes equipment from several international partners, highlighting China's growing global influence -- both on and off Earth.
The mission's lunar target is Shackleton Crater, a 21-kilometer-wide (13-mile-wide) pit with a rim that grazes the moon's south pole. No other spacecraft has ever landed so close. That proximity should allow Chang'e 7 to prospect for water ice trapped in smaller depressions near Shackleton that, because of the moon's tilt, never see sunlight and have temperatures just a few dozen degrees above absolute zero. "There are big reservoirs of ice water at the poles," says Simone Dell'Agnello, a physicist at Italy's National Institute for Nuclear Physics.
No one knows, however, just how big those reservoirs are or what their actual distribution is across the lunar south pole's crater-pocked desolation. And because that ice might be used as for manufacturing rocket fuel or to make potable water for thirsty astronauts, answering those questions is key for the U.S.'s and China's competing plans to construct crewed lunar outposts.
Report says violence is moving from Israeli-controlled areas to those earmarked for a future Palestinian state
Violent Israeli settler attacks in the two areas of the occupied West Bank under direct Palestinian rule have almost doubled since 2025, as settlers pursue a self-proclaimed “great settlement revolution” in the very heart of the territory earmarked for a Palestinian state.
According to a report by the Israeli human rights organisation Yesh Din, shared with the Guardian, data shows that almost two-thirds of incidents of settler violence so far in 2026 have taken place in the so-called Areas A and B – placed under Palestinian Authority governance in the 1995 Oslo accords.
After having it on the charger for the night i road it from my garage to my truck and got off it to pack some luggage for a beach trip. About 5 mins later i go to ride it back to my garage and it was powered off. Now its completely unresponsive, doesnt turn on, no lights to indicate its charging. I had it updated to the latest firmware to my knowledge, used it fine the day before on a long ride. No indications or odd sounds/vibrations/quirks when riding it last. It was at 25% charge before i charged it overnight so i dont think its a drained battery.
As far as i can tell it went from a perfectly fine board to bricked. Any suggestions as to what the issue might be or ways to fix it myself before resorting to sending it back to Onewheel HQ?
Atlanta, Georgia — A healthcare staffing company owned by Republican gubernatorial nominee Rick Jackson’s business empire has agreed to a $3 million settlement with thousands of immigrant nurses who alleged they were underpaid and trapped in restrictive employment contracts.
Avant Healthcare Professionals, acquired by Jackson Healthcare in 2018, reached the agreement June 22 after nurses accused the company of using “stay-or-pay” provisions requiring substantial payments if they left before completing their contracts. The lawsuit also alleged workers were threatened with reports to immigration authorities. Avant denied wrongdoing.
A judge approved the settlement in July, covering 5,219 current and former workers. Most individual cash payments are expected to be about $500 or less, while Avant also agreed to waive certain unpaid contractual damages and fees.
The case has drawn political attention because Jackson campaigns on strict enforcement against illegal immigration while his healthcare businesses recruit thousands of foreign workers through legal immigration programs. His campaign says there is no contradiction.
“Avant nurses come to America legally,” spokesperson Garrison Douglas said, adding that they “pay taxes and save lives.”
Jackson Healthcare has extensive ties to Georgia government. State agencies have paid its subsidiaries nearly $1 billion since 2020, largely for healthcare staffing during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
Free from a big brand’s audience expectations, new studio GPTrack50 has created a wacky action-packed romp through a monster-filled world for its first game
Love is blind. In Stupid Never Dies, it is also frozen solid and technically dead as Davy, the weakest zombie in monster society, discovers Julia’s body in a shopping centre and falls in love at first sight. He wants to bring her back to life and take her on a date. Unfortunately, that means defeating the King of Monsters (KOM) and accidentally saving humanity along the way.
This is the gloriously ridiculous setup for this forthcoming action RPG from GPTrack50, a new studio founded by former Capcom producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Its world looks much like ours, except that monsters have always been part of everyday life: whereas we might find a bear in the mountains or a stray dog in the woods, residents here encounter werewolves and zombies.
Pacific fleet launched missile drills near what Moscow calls the Kuril Islands but Japan regards as its Northern Territories
Japan has criticised missile tests carried out by Russia’s navy around the disputed islands visited by Vladimir Putin last week amid continuing tensions between the two countries.
Russia’s Pacific fleet said on Thursday that it had fired Bastion surface-to-ship missiles from Etorofu, the largest island in the disputed archipelago, simulating an attack on enemy vessels, hitting all of its targets approximately 300km away.
Hi everyone, I acquired a lightly used (<20 miles) XR+ and from what I've gathered it was sitting in the prior owners garage for years without being charged. Needless to say when I plug it in it won't take a charge and I'm getting error 16. everything I read says it means it’s a communication issue that could be resolved with swapping the main wiring harness. So I ordered a harness from FM, swapped it, and I’m still getting the same issue. is it possible that I could get an error 16 due to a completely dead battery? I’ve ruled out the wiring harness and from what I could tell the BMS looked fine. I have a line on a used battery that I’m going to try and swap in from a buddy, but just curious to get this group’s expertise or insight on other issues that could be causing it. Thanks in advance!
Tallahassee, Florida — A political polling aggregator has permanently dropped a Florida pollster after determining that the firm altered how some respondents were counted in a Republican gubernatorial primary survey and failed to disclose that candidate James Fishback’s campaign funded the work.
FiftyPlusOne said Thursday it would no longer use polls from The Public Sentiment Institute, or TPSI, accusing the firm of “falsified data” that boosted Fishback’s standing. TPSI rejected the characterization but acknowledged both a disclosure failure and what it called a methodological error.
According to TPSI’s own review, the firm applied an “experimental layer” after its raw results did not match its expectations for the race. Respondents who selected Lt. Gov. Jay Collins but whose demographic profiles appeared closer to Fishback’s coalition were shifted toward Fishback, moving him into second place behind Byron Donalds.
TPSI said no raw responses were deleted or fabricated and that the experimental method has been discontinued. FiftyPlusOne nevertheless said the practice warranted a permanent ban.
The tracker also temporarily suspended Patriot Polling after finding evidence that it had conducted polling for Fishback without properly identifying the campaign as a sponsor.
The controversy follows a separate episode involving Median Strategies, which recently acknowledged publishing fabricated Los Angeles mayoral polling as a “social experiment.”
Donalds ultimately won Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday.
Value of banknotes in circulation rises from €1tn in 2016 to €1.6tn in 2026 as people advised to keep stash of cash
The number of banknotes in circulation in the EU is increasing despite widespread smartphone payments, new data shows, with wildfires ripping through parts of Europe fuelling demand for an emergency stash of cash.
While cash plays second fiddle to contactless payments in many cities across Europe, the amount in circulation is actually going up, Philip Lane, the chief economist of the European Central Bank (ECB), said at the MacGill summer school conference in Ireland.
RAMageddon could soon push car prices higher as modern vehicles rely on ever more RAM and powerful centralized computers to run everything from infotainment to driver-assistance systems. Analysts cited by The Atlantic estimate the shortage could add a few percentage points to vehicle prices, which might not sound like much, but could potentially translate to around $2,000 on a $50,000 vehicle. The broader shift toward software-heavy vehicles could also make used cars even less affordable. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from the report: Just like laptops, cars depend on microprocessors and RAM, or random-access memory, to run all of their computations. "There's just a baseline level of tech, and thus a baseline level of cost, required of every vehicle," Karl Brauer, the executive analyst at iSeeCars, an automotive-research platform, told me. Technology is a major reason the average price of a new car in the U.S. has reached some $50,000, and that was before RAM became one of the most prized commodities in the world. AI companies are snatching up as much memory as possible for their data centers, causing a RAM shortage that has significantly raised the prices of phones, laptops, and just about any consumer-electronic device. Cars are next.
[...] Over the next year, the memory shortage -- sometimes known as RAMageddon -- will likely raise vehicle prices by a few percentage points, on average, [said Sam Abuelsamid, an analyst at Telemetry and a former automotive engineer]. The relative amount would be smaller than the shocking double-digit jumps for gaming consoles and MacBooks but in some ways more significant: A 4 percent price hike for cars amounts to some $2,000 on average. Cars with those centralized computers will be affected the most, but no vehicle will be spared. "Even if you don't need the high-end chips, you're going to pay more even for the low-end chips just because of the supply constraint," Abuelsamid said. On a recent earnings call, Ford's chief financial officer said that the company had paid $1 billion in higher materials costs due to the memory shortage and inflation. GM and Volkswagen, too, have noted rising chip costs to investors. (Ford and GM did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Volkswagen told me that the company has "recognized an increased demand for memory chips, primarily driven by growing requirements in other industries," and that in recent years, Volkswagen has taken measures to "mitigate supply risks.")
RAMageddon is poised to last for several years, but the consequences for car buyers may be permanent. Consider what happened during the pandemic, when supply-chain disruptions and rising demand for electronics produced a major chip shortage. Nearly every major car company had to slash production because they simply couldn't procure enough chips, and shifted their focus to selling higher-end and higher-profit vehicles. Potential customers already willing to spend six figures on a car are much less likely to care about a 5 or 10 percent price hike, [said Ivan Drury, the director of insights at Edmunds]. Even now, car companies are continuing to focus on selling more profitable models. Since the pandemic, the average price of a new vehicle has jumped $11,000.
The AI-fueled chip crisis could play out more severely. The average price of a new car could, before long, jump to $60,000 and beyond. These rising costs are making cars even more similar to computers and all of the software they run: Perhaps in an effort to mitigate higher prices, some automakers are also introducing in-car advertisements and putting certain features, such as heated seats, behind a paywall. As cars have morphed into computers, the inevitable next step is for automakers to behave like modern tech companies.
The West African nation of Liberia received the first group of "third country" deportees from the U.S. on Thursday, including migrants from Latin America, U.S. officials told CBS News.
An FBI team seized electronic devices from former US representative Eric Swalwell at the San Francisco airport on Saturday, then raided his home in Washington, DC, the next day, CNN reported Thursday.
The raid is part of a federal investigation into the sexual assault allegations which ultimately drove the Bay Area Democrat to resign from office in April, sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department subsequently opened criminal investigations on Swalwell.
A Sacramento County judge ordered her into a UC Davis program for formerly incarcerated students. She was arrested seven months later, accused of dealing drugs from her dorm, where officers found ammunition.
Fawning, deferential, oleaginous – this was the Untruth and Reconciliation Commission as Trump called in to 77 WABC
“Our next guest is a ‘racist’, a ‘conman’ and a ‘cheat’ – someone who behaves more like a ‘mobster’ than a president. Please welcome Donald J Trump!”
That is how Michael Cohen could have introduced Trump on his New York radio show on Thursday. After all, Cohen used such terms to describe the US president in his testimony to Congress in 2019. But now Trump’s former personal lawyer and self-described fixer had different words: “boss” and “sir”. Just like old times.
Washington, D.C. — A former CIA officer who served nearly two decades in the intelligence community says President Donald Trump’s personnel changes are weakening national security by driving experienced analysts from government and discouraging officials from challenging the White House.
Julia Curlee, the first CIA officer to transition openly while continuing to serve, told PBS NewsHour that experts are being removed either because of who they are or because their assessments conflict with administration priorities. Curlee previously briefed Trump and Vice President Mike Pence and later worked on the National Security Council.
Curlee said she was removed from her White House role during Trump’s second term after initially being retained because of her expertise. She argues her transgender identity ultimately became a factor in her dismissal, a claim she also detailed in a recent Atlantic essay.
The White House rejected her criticism. Spokesperson Anna Kelly told PBS that Trump has broad authority to remove executive branch personnel and suggested Curlee’s public criticism showed she did not belong in government service.
Curlee also criticized the administration’s handling of intelligence surrounding Iran and said officials have increasingly been punished for presenting information the president does not want to hear.
Her broader warning is that losing career analysts, briefers and regional specialists could create long-term gaps that cannot quickly be replaced.
State senator beats rival Melissa Hernandez and will replace US congressman who quit amid sexual misconduct claims
Progressive Aisha Wahab has been elected to Congress in a special election following a bitter intra-party battle over the seat formerly held by Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after facing sexual misconduct allegations. Swalwell has denied the allegations.
Wahab, a state senator, was widely considered the frontrunner in the district in California’s East Bay and had the backing of the state Democratic party as well as Our Revolution, labor unions, local officials and the state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta.
State sought to stop system off coast of Santa Barbara from resuming operations after Trump ordered its reopening
An oil pipeline can continue to operate off the California coast after a judge gave it the green light this week, despite the opposition of state regulators and environmental groups.
The system off the coast of Santa Barbara resumed operations earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade after Donald Trump ordered Sable Offshore Corporation to reopen it, citing US energy needs during the war in Iran.
The partial term for California's 14th Congressional District ends January 2027, after which the candidate chosen in the November election will serve the next full term.
Cerebras builds the biggest, most powerful chips in the industry with its Wafer Scale Engine 3, and so it’s not surprising to see that the company dunking on GPU makers with the CS-4 system it officially unveiled this week. The CS-4 is a veritable monster, with 750 PFLOPS of AI compute and 129.6 petabytes per second of memory bandwidth across three WSE-3 Turbo chips. Alas, the new rack-scale system isn’t designed for HPC workloads, but that doesn’t mean CS-4 clusters won’t be found sitting next to HPC workloads.
Source: Cerebras
Computational horsepower and memory throughput are important in generative AI today, and the Cerebras CS-4 delivers lots of both. Like the WSE-3 chip that preceded it, each WSE-3T chips contain 4 trillion transistors, 900,00 AI optimized cores, and 44GB of SRAM. But Cerebras is getting more work out of the WSE-3T, doubling the compute output to 250 PFLOPS of 16-bit compute and doubling the memory bandwidth to 43.2 PBps. Put three of these bad boys together (plus some other stuff we’ll mention below) and you get the CS-4.
But ultimately, companies today care most about how many AI tokens they can generate per second, which is an application-level benchmark more than an internal metric. On that front, the CS-4 generates 4,400 tokens per second per user when using OpenAI’s GPT-OSS-120B model, which is 30 times faster than the fastest GPU solution, Cerebras says.
Speed is productivity in AI, Cerebras CEO and Co-founder Andrew Feldman stated, which historically meant using smaller and less capable models. But the CS-4 was designed to run the biggest models, generating 1,000 tokens per second on models with 10 trillion parameters, and even running future models that have up to 50 trillion parameters.
CS-4 has “backpacks” that contain power, cooling, and I/O
The CS-4 will be able scale out to run 50 trillion parameter models through a new I/O subsystem and its rack-scale Nexus Platform Architecture. As part of this platform, Cerebras introduced new pluggable “compute backpack” design with the CS-4.
Each CS-4 backpack is built around the WSE-3T chip and contains the power conversion, liquid cooling, high-speed I/O, and control electronics needed to run the hardware. The backpacks provide modularity and repeatability, and simplify packaging and manufacturing, Cerebras said.
The backpacks also contain a new I/O subsystem, dubbed the Wafer I/O Module. Cerebras is offering two ways to connect systems with this I/O subsystem, including Direct Wafer Links, which provide wafer-to-wafer connections at latencies as low as 2 microseconds without the need for a switch.
It also supports standards-based RoCE v2 RDMA connections, which enables it to plug into heterogenous data centers housing other AI accelerators. Cerebras said that aggregate off-wafer bandwidth doubles to 2.4 terabits per second per wafer with the CS-4, and increases to 7.2 terabits per rack.
Inside the Cerebras CS-4 backpack (Source: Cerebras)
The backpacks also allow Cerebras to move power conversion closer to the actual chips, which cuts down on board-level power less and allows Cerebras to deliver twice as much power to the WSE-3T, thereby enabling the chip to run at higher frequencies (hence the doubling in FLOPS).
The CS-4 was designed to train and run frontier AI models, and the performance figures that Cerebras touts the most refer to 16-bit precision. That’s not going to cut it for many traditional HPC workloads, which demand double-precision FP64 capabilities. This is not a machine for those applications.
But the CS-4 could still find a home in supercomputer centers across the world. As the advanced computing community adopts AI, they’re finding a need for bigger and faster clusters to train or fine-tune frontier models and run them for users. These clusters will augment traditional HPC setups that run modeling and simulation workloads, and in some cases use the data from those mod/sim workloads to improve probabilistic models running on neural networks.
President’s one-time ‘attack dog’ became his fierce critic – but now Cohen says he has forgiven his former boss
Donald Trump has given a radio interview to none other than Michael Cohen, his former longtime personal fixer turned fierce critic, after an apparent reconciliation set the stage for their first public conversation in eight years.
Cohen once had such a tight relationship with the US president that he described himself back in the day as his “attack dog with a law license”, but later became the star witness in Trump’s 2024 criminal trial over his hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records in an effort to interfere with the 2016 election.
Hey everyone, I was riding with my friend earlier today, and we ended up going a bit off-road on a trail that had a lot of soft sand on it.
Since I'm a heavier guy (6'1 ", 220 lbs), my board would end up over-torquing and nose-diving on me when going slow, but every time it happened, the wheel would slip, and it would shut off.
This happened maybe 3 or 4 times before it shut off again, and no matter how many times I press or hold the button, it won't turn on.
It was at 40% when I started riding and was working just fine the night before during a gas station run, but now it's gone.
It's been plugged in for a few hours and still nothing, any advice will help.
I am making this post to highlight some of the things I am annoyed with in the online onewheel community. If you don’t feel any of this applies to you then that’s awesome. Luckily the huge majority of people here are great.
Superiority complex: There are people here who have a huge superiority complex and always feel the need to tell people they have a faster board that goes further. Even when the post has nothing to do with it.
Trash talking people’s purchases: Some people immediately feel the need to tell people who just bought a less powerful board then them that they are idiots who made a stupid choice. Or that that particular board is horrible. Or that it’s a “kids board”.
Consumerism: Yes it is your money and you can do whatever you want with it. The point is not that I am against spending money, aspecially not when it makes you happy.
My point is that a lot of onewheels are bought for the wrong reasons. A lot of people just want to 1 up others with a board that’s slightly faster or with slightly more range. Or they feel inferior because they have a “worse” board. Or they want to feel that dopamine hit they get from something new.
This dopamine hit wears of very fast and that’s why a lot of people end up selling there boards and losing a lot of money while doing so.
Need for speed (not the game): People feel the need to go way too fast on boards not made for that speed just to say they went … on a board.
And chasing speed is stupid (unless your a serious racer). Because you will get used to the feeling of a certain speed and if all you enjoy about riding a onewheel is the speed, you will want more and more. And this usually ends in 2 ways. Or you find a new vehicle that goes faster then a onewheel. Or you have a horrible crash and then start spreading the safety gospel.
Spec obsession: A boards ridefeel matters so much more then its speed or range. If you don’t enjoy to ride it it doesn’t matter that it has double the range or speed. Because you will not ride it.
And if that’s all that matters to you. Please just get some other PEV. Onewheels are the slowest vehicle with the worse range out of all the PEV’s.
But what onewheels do extremely well is being fun. You can rip mountainbike trails, cruise over the beach, Do deep surf like carves on any stone road. Heck, you can ride on it sitting in a chair. It’s super comfortable and maneuverable.
A onewheel gives you endless opportunities to have fun. And from all of them people choose straightline driving at a high speed 🤦♂️.
To conclude. There are a lot of negatives but there are more positives of the community. That I will probably mention in a later post.
Supreme court ordered transfer of ex-leader whose health is reportedly deteriorating, but he was returned to prison several hours later
Pakistan’s jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was briefly taken to a hospital in the country’s capital on supreme court orders after weeks of uproar about his deteriorating health.
Khan, 73, was transferred to the hospital in the early hours of Friday, but then moved back to Adiala prison in Rawalpindi after a few hours, a spokesperson for his party said on Friday.
Bilibili, often described as China's answer to YouTube, is relaunching its international app and preparing an English-language site as part of a broader push into the U.S., Europe, Japan, and other markets. The company is courting Western creators like MrBest, hiring community and moderation staff globally, and building tools for brand partnerships. Semafor reports: The revamped international app no longer requires identity verification -- meaning users can sign up without having to provide a passport or ID document, which were long required of overseas users on its main Chinese platform, according to what appears to be a newly created account on X marketing the platform to global creators. "Yes bilibili is going global," the account wrote, adding that content-wise, the US and Chinese sites will be the same.
In a document recently shared in a Discord chat for Bilibili creators, the company pitched itself as a place for influencers to make money and connect with "Gen Z Coded, affluent and well-educated" users. A marketplace for international users to connect with brands for sponsored content is "in development," according to the presentation. The deck also showed creators how to post videos on its Chinese website, adding that an English version is "coming soon. We are working hard."
Christine Hunsicker, former CEO of CaaStle, gave investors falsified documents that overstated profit and cash reserves
A fashion tech founder was sentenced to five years in federal prison for her involvement in a $300m “fraud scheme” spanning from 2019 to 2025, the Manhattan US attorney’s office announced on Thursday. Christine Hunsicker, 49, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Hunsicker, the founder and ex-CEO of CaaStle Inc, had pleaded guilty this March to one count of securities fraud in relation to a scheme that “defrauded hundreds of investors”, authorities said. Her attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Missile and drone attack one of heaviest since war began, with children’s hospital and residential areas hit
A heavy Russian missile and drone bombardment has killed at least 16 people in and around Kyiv in one of the most intense aerial attacks on Ukraine’s capital since the start of the war.
Vitali Klitschko, the city’s mayor, said homes, a school and a children’s medical centre were among the buildings damaged overnight in an attack that began at about midnight and was continuing into the early afternoon.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from RathBiotaClan: Millions of people finish short video after short video every day; a new brain-scan study shows that the very act of finishing a clip they like temporarily quiets the brain regions that normally help them stay focused and weigh longer-term goals. When people watch a short video they enjoy enough to finish, two brain regions involved in cognitive control show significant deactivation. That is the central finding of a new study from Zhejiang University, published in NeuroImagein January 2026.
Using functional MRI alongside proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS), the research team examined 56 young adults while they freely watched short video clips inside an MRI scanner. Both the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) showed reduced activity specifically when participants watched clips they liked enough to view to completion. Cognitive control helps people balance immediate pleasures against longer-term goals, and impairments in this system are linked to conditions such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, and addiction. Short-video platforms present rapid, algorithmically curated streams that are built for continuous, low-effort consumption.
Prior behavioral research has tied both internet addiction and smartphone addiction to weaker self-control, and separate neuroimaging work has documented disruptions to reward and cognitive-control circuits in people with behavioral addictions. Despite this, few studies had directly tested whether the act of watching entertaining short videos itself suppresses the brain's cognitive control regions. The Zhejiang University team set out to answer that question, along with a second one: what neurochemical factors might explain why this suppression varies from person to person?
Bought a GT-S off of Facebook for cheap, doing a rail guard change, and it looks like an original GT underneath? I thought GT-S' had black rails. It rides significantly differently than my GT. What am I looking at here? Am I being dumb?
Only 2nd ride on my X7LR went out just to do a couple of miles as I’m just getting to grips with it and was so enjoyable went to the next town 😂it’s just so smooth so reassuring under foot up big hills back down them no matter what it handles it this is the best thing I ever spent money on honestly freaking 🥰this baby set off on 97% did just under 9miles still got 92% what a machine I didn’t break any speed records on my night ride but I’m not a speed rider but faster than I went on my og pint gotta thank everyone who’s posted on this sub about the X7LR as i probably wouldn’t have got one happy floating everyone 👌
The company, originally an oil refinery, expanded into energy, finance, agriculture and technology. In 2025, it had estimated revenue of $125 billion, according to Forbes.
Americans for Prosperity says it “believes freedom and opportunity are the keys to unleashing prosperity for all.” The issues it focuses on are economic progress, healthcare, education, criminal justice, free speech and immigration.
Since 2017, Emily Seidel, the former director of special projects at Koch Companies Public Sector, has been the chief executive officer of AFP, which is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. That means it can operate for the “promotion of social welfare” and its spending can’t be primarily on political activities. It does not have to disclose its donors.
AFP Foundation, a related public charity, is registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3). Meanwhile, AFP Action, which was established in September 2018, is registered with the Federal Election Commission as a hybrid political committee.
Hybrid PACs can operate as a traditional political action committee, contributing money to candidates directly, and as a super PAC, which can collect unlimited donations for the purpose of funding independent expenditures. There must be separate bank accounts for each function.
The hybrid PAC has raised about $87.3 million as of June 30 in the 2026 cycle. Its two biggest donors are Koch Industries and Stand Together, another nonprofit connected to Charles Koch. Stand Together donated $26.5 million while Koch Industries contributed $30 million. Other large donors include brothers Rob and Jim Walton, who are part of the family that owns a large stake in Walmart.
In early August, AFP Action announced the launch of a $5.6 million ad campaign spanning seven U.S. Senate races in North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, New Hampshire, Alaska, Montana and Iowa. It has already released ads in support of former Rep. Mike Rogers in Michigan, former Sen. John Sununu in New Hampshire, Kurt Alme in Montana, Rep. Ashley Hinson in Iowa and Sen. Jon Husted in Ohio.
According to its most recent FEC report filed in July, the group has put at least $18.2 million into independent expenditures — such as digital ads — mostly in support of their endorsed congressional candidates. But it also has spent seven-figure sums on expenditures opposing Democratic Senate candidates Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Sherrod Brown in Ohio.
In the 2024 presidential election, AFP Action spent roughly $138.5 million on independent expenditures that expressly advocated for or against congressional candidates, according to OpenSecrets. The PAC spent $92.8 million supporting Republicans and almost $35.7 million opposing Democrats. AFP Action notably endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for the Republican presidential nomination over Donald Trump.
FactCheck.orgUndergraduate Fellow Christine Sung 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.
Exclusive: Rahil Prakash tells the Guardian: ‘I wanted to see if fake polls could penetrate the ecosystem that easily’
A 21-year-old recent college graduate was behind an anonymous website that put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California, the Guardian can reveal.
The website, Median Strategies, abruptly shut down and withdrew its polling earlier this week following questions from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times. In an unsigned statement, it described a “short-term social experiment” to examine how fake polling “could enter and spread through the political information ecosystem without independent verification”.
With one semi-final in her last seven tournaments, the coming months will define the next stage of her career
Towards the end of a messy first set tie-break late on Wednesday, Aryna Sabalenka wildly sprayed another painfully nervous backhand before slamming her racket to the ground. As the racket connected with the acrylic floor, its vibration dampener detached from the strings and rolled off in the direction of the broadcast camera pit by the side of the court.
With the diminutive 20-year‑old Czech player Sara Bejlek leading Sabalenka 6-5 in the tie-break, this slapstick sequence forced play to pause while the Belarusian and a couple of volunteers comically searched for the missing vibration damper underneath the cameras until she gave up and retrieved a new one. A few minutes later, Sabalenka trailed by a set.
The families of nine school shooting victims opened their doors to Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp, allowing them to document their children's bedrooms.
Russian attacks on Ukrainian publishing infrastructure in July and August destroyed roughly 10 million books, which equates to about 30% of Ukraine's annual book output. The Ukrainian Book Institute is warning of a potential "collapse of the entire book ecosystem" and is calling for international financial and industry support to help publishers, printers, and distributors recover. The Guardian reports: A major attack on August 1 hit warehouses belonging to the RNK-Ranok publishing group in Kharkiv, destroying approximately 8m books, following July attacks in Kyiv which led to the loss of more than 1.5m books. In all, the recent attacks have led to the destruction of approximately 30% of the volume of books produced annually in Ukraine.
The RNK-Ranok logistics centre, which stores books for the company's many imprints, is also the distribution centre for the national bookselling chain KnyhoLand, which runs 51 shops and several websites. Along with the estimated 8m books lost, a further 600,000 school textbooks were destroyed. The total loss has been preliminarily estimated at almost 1bn hryvnias (16.5m eueros). "At this stage, we face the risk of the collapse of the entire book ecosystem," said Oleksandra Koval, director of the Ukrainian Book Institute. The institute is asking for donations to support Ukrainian publishers, and is calling on the international publishing community to work with Ukrainian publishers and raise awareness about Russian attacks on Ukrainian culture.
On August 16, a Russian attack on Kyiv led to a fire breaking out at the Pochaina book market, destroying several rows of stalls, books and vendors' property. The Pochaina market, founded in 1997, was once one of Ukraine's largest book markets, with hundreds of stalls and books from more than 120 publishers. The institute said the book industry was of "strategic importance" to Ukraine, preserving and promoting Ukrainian culture and giving the country's voice a platform at home and abroad. [...] The institute also called for an end to cooperation with Russian publishers and literary agencies, saying that solidarity with Ukrainian publishers was crucial to preserving cultural heritage that Russia was "deliberately trying to destroy."
Caption: Richards Layton’ & Fingers (& Lawyers recognized as the Best Lawyers in America offers one particularly visible example of that depth, and helps spotlight the strength of the Delaware legal community.
Firm’s results offer one measure of the depth of legal talent supporting Delaware’s national role in corporate law
WILMINGTON, Del. — Ninety-seven attorneys at Richards, Layton & Finger have been recognized in the 2027 editions of The Best Lawyers in America and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, an achievement that also underscores the strength of Delaware’s broader legal community.
The total includes 74 established attorneys named to The Best Lawyers in America and 23 earlier-career attorneys recognized as “Ones to Watch.” Twelve Richards Layton attorneys also were selected as Wilmington “Lawyer of the Year” recipients in particular practice areas.
Richards Layton said it had more attorneys included in the traditional Best Lawyers list than any other Delaware firm.
While the announcement highlights one firm, its larger significance is found in the legal market in which those attorneys practice. Delaware has developed a concentration of corporate lawyers, litigators, bankruptcy attorneys and other specialists whose work supports the state’s position as a national center for business law.
Richards Layton’s numbers offer one particularly visible example of that depth, and the helps spotlight the strength of our legal community includes lawyers at other Delaware firms, government agencies, corporations, nonprofit organizations and legal services organizations.
Breaking down the 97
The headline number combines two related but distinct forms of recognition.
The 74 attorneys named to The Best Lawyers in America are generally established practitioners with at least 10 years of experience and developed reputations in their fields.
The 23 attorneys named “Ones to Watch” are generally lawyers in private practice for five to nine years. The category recognizes attorneys earlier in their careers who are beginning to establish strong professional reputations.
The 12 “Lawyer of the Year” recipients represent the most selective portion of the announcement. The designation is awarded to one attorney in a particular practice area within a metropolitan market.
Richards Layton attorneys received those Wilmington honors in areas including corporate governance, banking and finance, bankruptcy litigation, intellectual property litigation, patent litigation, labor law, real estate, structured finance and commercial transactions.
The combination of established and emerging attorneys suggests that the firm has both current strength and a developing pipeline of future legal leaders.
“Best Lawyers in America offers a meaningful perspective on the caliber of our lawyers and the work they perform for clients,” Richards Layton President Paul Heath said. “Because this recognition is based on peer review, we are especially grateful for the respect and confidence of our colleagues, and we appreciate the time and consideration they devote to the selection process.”
Recognition reflects a professional community
The peer-review process gives the results a broader dimension.
Best Lawyers bases its selections largely on confidential evaluations submitted by attorneys practicing in the same geographic region and area of law. Candidates are nominated, reviewed by other lawyers and checked for eligibility and professional standing.
That means the recognition depends in part on Delaware attorneys evaluating the work and reputations of other Delaware attorneys. It reflects a professional community with considerable knowledge in corporate governance, commercial litigation, bankruptcy, intellectual property, financial services and other complex areas.
The awards are not a scientific measurement of legal ability. They do not directly compare courtroom outcomes, client satisfaction, legal fees or public access to legal services. Larger and better-known firms also have more attorneys eligible for recognition and greater visibility within the legal community.
The rankings are therefore best understood as a measure of professional reputation rather than a guarantee of results for every client.
Delaware’s advantage extends beyond one firm
Delaware’s legal reputation has been built over generations by its courts, lawmakers, law firms and individual attorneys.
Richards Layton, Delaware’s largest law firm and one of its oldest, is an important part of that history. But Delaware’s national position does not depend on any single institution.
Law firms throughout the state serve as Delaware counsel in national transactions and litigation. Attorneys advise corporate boards, represent shareholders, guide companies through bankruptcy, interpret business statutes and argue cases that can affect corporate practices across the country.
Government lawyers, members of the judiciary, corporate counsel and attorneys working in public-interest and legal-aid organizations contribute additional experience and perspective to the state’s legal system.
Together, that community gives Delaware a level of specialized legal knowledge that is unusual for a state of its size.
A foundation of Delaware’s corporate economy
Companies choose Delaware for several connected reasons: established corporate statutes, a substantial body of legal precedent, a respected judiciary and access to attorneys familiar with complicated business matters.
The Delaware Court of Chancery is widely regarded as the nation’s leading forum for disputes involving the internal affairs of corporations and other business entities. Its decisions can influence corporate boards, executives, investors and shareholders across the country.
Delaware reported more than 2.28 million active business entities in 2025. Another 334,461 entities were formed during that year, a more than 15% increase from 2024, according to the Delaware Division of Corporations.
Maintaining that position requires more than an efficient filing system. Delaware must be able to demonstrate that companies and investors will have access to predictable laws, experienced judges and lawyers capable of handling sophisticated transactions and disputes.
The Richards Layton results help illustrate the size and range of that professional capacity. The recognized attorneys practice in corporate law, bankruptcy, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, structured finance, tax, trusts and estates, employment law, environmental law and commercial real estate.
Those specialties are also represented across Delaware’s larger legal market.
Why the public should care
Most Delaware residents will never hire a lawyer to manage a corporate merger, litigate a shareholder dispute or restructure a national company. The public benefits are largely indirect, but they are significant.
Delaware’s corporate franchise generates substantial tax and fee revenue for state government. That revenue supports public services and reduces the amount that would otherwise need to be collected from residents and locally operating businesses.
The legal sector also supports high-paying jobs in Wilmington and throughout the state. Those positions extend beyond attorneys to paralegals, legal assistants, technology specialists, accountants, court reporters and administrative employees. Visiting attorneys, clients and litigants also generate activity for hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
A respected legal community helps Delaware compete with other states seeking to attract corporate registrations. Companies are more likely to remain incorporated in Delaware when they believe the state offers reliable courts, understandable laws and a deep pool of legal talent.
The 97 Richards Layton recognitions is prominent example of something larger: Delaware has developed a legal community with expertise and influence far beyond what might be expected in a state of its size.
Richards Layton’s results are an institutional accomplishment for the firm. Viewed in context, they also help tell the story of a broader Delaware legal market whose judges, attorneys and legal professionals protect and sustain one of the state’s most important economic advantages.
See List:
The Richards Layton attorneys named in The Best Lawyers in America are listed below. An asterisk denotes a 2027 Wilmington, Delaware Lawyer of the Year honoree; the corresponding award practice area appears in bold.
Michael Allen – Corporate Governance Law; Corporate Law
Paul Altman – Business Organizations (including LLCs and Partnerships); Corporate Law
(The Center Square) – A New York woman who converted to Islam has been charged in connection to a plot to blow up the New York State capitol building in Albany and kill state legislators.
José Mejía Hernandez, 45, who was hospitalized for his injuries, was then transferred to an ICE office and fitted with an ankle monitor
A man in Virginia was hospitalized with a brain injury and severe bruising all over his face after he was arrested by US immigration agents, according to his lawyers, who shared photos and medical records with the Guardian.
José Mejía Hernández, 45, was walking to a bus stop in Arlington on the morning of 11 August when two agents got out of an unmarked vehicle and started chasing him, according to one of his lawyers, Margaret Hellerstein. The man recalled being hit by some kind of stun gun, but did not remember what happened after that, only waking up hours later in the hospital, Hellerstein said.
(The Center Square) – About 34% of North Carolinians surveyed at the end of July said they are a lot or somewhat MAGA compared to 29% identifying as Democratic Socialists of America.
Courier network carried millions of dollars in cash to Lebanon on commercial flights, treasury department says
The US treasury department announced sanctions on Thursday against 10 people it says formed a courier network that smuggled hundreds of millions of dollars to Hezbollah by carrying cash onboard commercial flights between Iran, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.
The office of foreign assets control (OFAC) said the network allowed Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group,to obtain foreign currency and dodge sanctions outside the formal banking system. The treasury department linked the operation to a scheme once associated with Behnam Shahriyari, a now-deceased finance official for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.
The White House faced fresh questions on Thursday over whether Donald Trump’s closest aide, Natalie Harp, had access to US government secrets without security clearance.
Harp, who is executive assistant to the US president, worked at the White House for a year without the routine clearance, the MS Now network reported on Thursday. She refused to file the relevant forms for unknown reasons, according to two unnamed sources cited by MS Now.
The AI infrastructure conversation has shifted as AI inference becomes a larger part of workloads around the world. The cost of compute is no longer the only constraint. The real bottleneck is increasingly memory, as supply is tightening into 2027, if not longer, according to Counterpoint Research. HBM remains expensive and capacity-limited. Scaling out with more servers leaves operators with stranded DRAM, higher interconnect traffic and rising power costs. The same data ends up duplicated across nodes and past a point, adding servers stops adding useful throughput.
Compute Express Link (CXL) is the most credible answer to that memory pressure, helping to use pooled memory to balance loads so HBM can be saved for the most crucial use cases. CXL 2.0 products are already shipping, CXL 3.x endpoint devices are arriving now, and switching is moving into a real evaluation phase. The practical inflection point is the arrival of CXL 3.x-capable CPUs, expected in early 2027 which is when broad development becomes realistic. The market is expected to be significant, as the Yole Group estimates the global CXL component market will exceed $15 billion by 2028.
But CXL is not a drop-in memory upgrade. Treating it as just another layer of RAM is the fastest way to misjudge where CXL can help, which workloads will benefit, and what it takes to run reliably. Three decisions matter before hyperscalers look at deploying CXL in their infrastructure.
1. The Best Fit for CXL Today
The first symptom that a hyperscaler has reached the limits of traditional scale-out memory is familiar: GPU memory is fully populated, but compute is still underutilized and the working set is the constraint. Server platforms keep adding DIMM channels and slots, but operators still face memory pressure. Large datasets, KV cache, vector indexes and analytics working sets get duplicated across nodes, increasing power, network traffic and system cost without always improving useful performance.
CXL is best considered when operators need more addressable memory, better memory utilization or are evaluating a computational memory solution that can reduce unnecessary data movement. It is not a replacement for HBM. Training is still heavily dependent on HBM bandwidth, and CXL adds latency relative to local DRAM.
The better question is whether a workload benefits more from added capacity than it loses from added latency. For warm or less frequently accessed data, the trade-off is often acceptable. If the alternative is remote memory, SSD access or adding more servers, CXL is the better option.
2. Which Workloads Benefit
The strongest fit for CXL workloads is AI inference, especially long-context KV cache, plus RAG, vector databases, and in-memory analytics. As AI use grows, and companies become more cost-conscious about token costs, inference is the use case where OpEx can be saved with CXL.
KV cache scales with context length and concurrent requests. Memory planning can no longer be based on model weight size on a single node. It becomes a rack-level problem that has to account for HBM, DRAM, CXL memory and SSD-backed tiers together. Tiering becomes relevant when local memory starts forcing trade-offs: shorter context, fewer simultaneous requests, lower batch size, more recomputation or spilling to slower storage. The exact threshold depends on the model and serving setup, but the signal stays the same: there’s a problem when memory capacity limits the service before compute is fully used.
For RAG and vector databases, the primary bottleneck is index size. As vector indexes grow, keeping them fully in memory gets harder. When they spill to SSD or get distributed across more nodes, that creates more I/O and higher retrieval latency. CXL expansion helps by increasing the addressable memory pool. CXL products that support near-data processing can go further by handling certain operations closer to the data, reducing how much needs to move back to the CPU or GPU. A purely bandwidth-bound workload may not benefit from expansion alone, but if memory is full while compute and bandwidth still have headroom, CXL can help out.
3. What Determines Production Reliability
Coherency matters in practice, not just on architecture diagrams. Operators want expanded memory to behave like memory, not like a separate I/O device that requires manual copy management. Without the right coherency model, software has to handle more copies, synchronization and consistency issues.
Pooling delivers more flexibility but raises the bar on orchestration, isolation and security. The prerequisites are control and visibility: which workloads are using pooled memory, how performance is changing, whether latency targets are being met.
Failure domains expand when memory is shared across hosts. Reusable or read-mostly data is easier to share. Sensitive, constantly changing or latency-critical data should be kept isolated. Operators need monitoring for memory errors, link health, latency, bandwidth and device status, with a fallback when part of the pool fails.
RAS features carry more weight in AI infrastructure than in conventional servers. ECC, error tracking, telemetry, poison handling, link reliability and failure isolation are required to detect early signs of degradation before a memory-side issue disrupts an expensive GPU workload. The goal is prevention as much as correction.
Transparent tiering can expose CXL memory as an additional memory tier with minimal application changes to make adoption easier. Workload-aware optimization, through SDKs or runtime APIs, places data more intentionally for KV cache, vector search or analytics to unlock larger gains.
Addressing the Skeptics
(Shutterstock/DCStudio)
Some media outlets have argued that PCIe-based interconnects are roughly 3x worse than Ethernet-style SerDes in a bandwidth-constrained world. This critique is fair when CXL is treated as a replacement for high-bandwidth networking, RDMA-style fabrics or GPU interconnects.
But that is not where CXL belongs. CXL should be focused on capacity expansion, memory pooling and sharing, coherency, KV cache management and reducing data movement. For KV cache specifically, research has shown CXL-based shared memory can be more attractive than RDMA-based approaches.
Making the Decision
Before committing, operators should verify CPU support, BIOS and firmware readiness, switch interoperability, software support, management tools and real workload performance. Long-context LLM inference is one of the best starting workloads. It is capacity-bound, measurable and can begin with transparent tiering before deeper application changes.
A pilot is successful when it shows at least one clear result on the same infrastructure: larger context support, more concurrent requests, fewer servers, better GPU utilization, lower network traffic, lower CPU overhead or better cost per token. Memory utilization, GPU utilization and system cost or power per unit of work are the metrics that matter most.
CXL is ready for serious infrastructure planning. Think of it as an architectural decision driven by workloads instead of a simple swap with HBM. CXL lets operators use their existing memory more efficiently – improved KV cache performance and the ability to open up a much bigger layer of memory to handle large prompts and frequent inference queries.
About the author: Jin Kim is the CEO and co-founder of XCENA, a South Korean semiconductor startup developing computational memory and CXL pooling products designed to break the memory bottleneck in AI workloads. Prior to co-founding XCENA, Jin was a vice president at SK Hynix, where he led the next-generation architecture development team. Jin also spent time at Samsung and has a degree in Computer Science from Seoul National University.
(The Center Square) – Flock, a video surveillance company, is working to build privacy legislation in the United States based on the company’s policies.
Jessica Bowie, 35, of Albany, allegedly planned to deploy explosive before fleeing to IS-controlled territory in Syria
US authorities arrested and charged a New York woman with planning to carry out an Islamic State-inspired attack on the state’s capitol building in Albany, the justice department said on Thursday.
Jessica Bowie, 35, of Albany, was charged with planning to deploy an explosive device at the state capitol with the intention of killing public officials and destroying “as much of the building as possible” before fleeing to IS-controlled territory in Syria, according to John A Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security.
retiring the Pintx from daily commute duty not getting rid of it, of course. I still absolutely love this thing. I’ve just gotten way too comfortable cruising at 18–20 mph and basically living on pushback, which feels like a nosedive waiting to happen. Just put in an order for a inmotion v12s for commute replacement.
The decision to phase out the Army drone battalion comes amid tension between senior officers who envisioned the unit and the acting chief of staff of the Army.
Unable to force Tehran’s surrender, President Donald Trump appears to be taking his frustration out on Oman and other U.S. partners in greater measure.
A growing backlash against AI data centers is spilling into local politics, with residents in more than a dozen communities pushing recall elections against officials who approved projects. "People are standing up and saying, 'Sorry, we don't want these data centers in our communities for a number of reasons,'" Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent, said in an interview. "'If you can't have the guts to stand up to some large corporation, you should not continue serving in office.'" The New York Times reports: In Festus, Mo., critics of a local data center project gathered enough signatures in May to force a vote to remove the mayor and City Council members who had approved a $6 billion data center, though the effort is tied up in legal wrangling. In Mason, Mich., residents will vote in November over whether to recall a City Council member over a vote to create zoning rules for data centers. Voters in Yukon, Okla., will also decide in November whether to recall their mayor after the town moved to sell land to a data center developer. And residents of Independence, a city of 121,000 that is 10 miles from Kansas City, will vote on whether to remove Mr. Perkins on Sept. 1.
Some local officials have already lost their jobs in the face of data center concerns in regularly scheduled elections. Last year, two members of the Georgia Public Service Commission lost their seats amid concern about data centers' driving up electricity prices. A Virginia state delegate, Geary Higgins, also lost his job last year after his opponent branded him "Data Center Geary." [...] Independence would be one of the first municipalities to hold a data-center-motivated recall election. A judge this month rejected a legal challenge by Mr. Perkins and others, who argued the recall violated Missouri's Constitution.
Agreement is among largest third-country deportations driven by Trump administration’s immigration crackdown
Twenty deportees from the United States arrived in Liberia on Thursday, as part of a new agreement that will see the west African country receive as many as 1,200 people under the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
The group arrived at the Roberts international airport outside the capital, Monrovia. The Liberia-US agreement is one of the largest third-country deportation arrangements pursued by the administration since Trump returned to office last year.
(The Center Square) – Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday called the $166 billion in court-ordered tariff refunds a "corporate bonanza," as the money flows to the importers that paid the duties rather than the consumers who bore most of…
BOISE, Idaho, Aug. 20, 2026 — Micron Technology, Inc. today unveiled Micron Research Labs, a U.S.-based long-horizon premier research institution headquartered in Boise and backed by a planned $10 billion investment over the next decade. Building on Micron’s technology and manufacturing leadership, the new hub will bring together customers, academia, government and the broader semiconductor ecosystem to pursue breakthroughs beyond today’s technology roadmaps and help define what’s possible in the decades ahead. Key research areas include critical memory technologies, advanced memory and compute architectures, packaging and future semiconductor manufacturing.
As the first dedicated memory research hub of its kind in the U.S., Micron Research Labs will center on a flagship Boise campus designed to support advanced research across critical technology domains. The planned investment will also fund extensive university collaborations, global satellite labs and deep ecosystem partnerships, creating a connected research network focused beyond the next generation of technologies for the AI era.
“The decisions we make today will determine who leads the AI economy of tomorrow, and America’s AI future will be built on American-made memory,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President and CEO of Micron Technology. “With a planned $10 billion investment in Micron Research Labs, we are looking around the corner to the memory and compute systems the future will demand, bringing together the best minds across academia, government, startups and industry. This builds on the more than $250 billion we have separately committed to manufacturing and R&D across the United States, because as the only U.S.-based manufacturer of memory, we have long believed in the future that AI is now making real.”
Micron Research Labs is founded on a simple conviction: The future of memory and compute is too important and complex to invent alone. Anchored in Boise and connected to Micron’s research and technology footprint across the U.S., Europe, Japan, India, Singapore and Taiwan, the lab will link Micron researchers with external experts and research partners to accelerate the path from scientific discovery to real-world impact.
Building on Micron’s 62,000 lifetime patents and its position as a global technology leader, Micron Research Labs will advance foundational research across memory, compute and semiconductor manufacturing. The institution will look beyond a 10-year horizon while helping build the next generation of memory researchers and technology leaders. Breakthroughs in advanced memory make AI more powerful, scalable, accessible and sustainable, extending the benefits of intelligent technology to agriculture, healthcare, education and industries around the world and advancing Micron’s vision to accelerate intelligence to enrich life for all.
This new investment builds on Micron’s previously announced plans to invest more than $250 billion in manufacturing and research and development in the U.S. that will create more than 90,000 American jobs and will reinforce American leadership in memory and advanced manufacturing for years to come. This new investment draws on Micron’s unique position as the only U.S.-based company developing and manufacturing leading-edge memory.
“For nearly 50 years, from four people in a Boise basement to America’s memory leader, Micron has pushed the boundaries of what memory can do,” said Scott DeBoer, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology and Products Officer at Micron Technology. “Micron Research Labs gives that legacy a dedicated home for long-horizon innovation, the kind of research that sits upstream of every product we build.”
Micron anticipates breaking ground in calendar 2027 on a state-of-the-art Micron Research Labs facility capable of hosting hundreds of researchers. The facility is expected to convene world-class research conferences, workshops, and innovation forums in Boise.
“Micron is taking on one of the great challenges of the AI era — reinventing memory technologies and architectures to fuel the next generation of increasingly powerful AI systems,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO, NVIDIA. “By bringing together advanced manufacturing and the broader technology ecosystem, Micron is helping drive the breakthroughs that will define the next era of AI and computing.”
“For more than two decades, Micron has been an important partner, providing memory technologies for Apple’s groundbreaking products that people love and use every day around the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO. “With the launch of Micron Research Labs, they are building on a legacy of leadership in semiconductor research to drive breakthroughs in memory and computing for decades to come. Apple believes deeply in American innovation, and we’re proud to support Micron as it expands leading-edge manufacturing and R&D in the United States.”
About Micron Technology, Inc.
Micron Technology, Inc. is a global leader in semiconductor memory and storage, powering AI and compute-intensive applications from cloud to edge. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology and product leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron’s comprehensive portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND and NOR solutions deliver the speed, efficiency, and scale today’s workloads demand, accelerating intelligence to enrich life for all. To learn more about Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq: MU), visit micron.com.
Aug. 20, 2026 — In a project selected for funding by the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and partners from other national laboratories, universities and industry will apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to enable precise and adaptive resonance control in particle accelerators. Their work aims to lower operating costs by millions of dollars each year and improve accelerator performance, driving scientific discovery.
Superconducting radio-frequency cavities are being assembled and tested for installation at the Proton Improvement Plan-II, part of the Fermilab Accelerator Complex. By fine tuning the cavities’ resonance, scientists can optimize accelerator performance. Credit: Ryan Postel, Fermilab
Inside the particle accelerators that power modern high-energy physics research, timing is everything. A fraction of a second off, and the delicate rhythm that keeps subatomic particles racing through an accelerator can slip out of tune. Now a Fermilab-led team will leverage artificial intelligence to protect that rhythm. Their project, selected for the Department of Energy’s Genesis Mission, is poised to reshape how accelerators are controlled, optimized and operated.
The most powerful modern particle accelerators use superconducting radio-frequency, or SRF, cavities to transfer energy to particle beams. By creating strong electromagnetic fields and leveraging a phenomenon called resonance, they give gentle nudges at exactly the right times to charged subatomic particles — much like a playground swing given repeated, well-timed pushes to send it higher.
As the effects of these nudges accumulate, the particles in an accelerator are pushed faster and faster — close to the speed of light — until they collide with other particles traveling in the opposite direction or with a fixed target. The data from these collisions enables scientists to investigate and understand the underlying principles governing our universe.
While SRF cavities are extremely efficient resonators, several factors can stand in the way of perfect performance. They can be knocked off frequency by pressure variations in the liquid helium that cools them, changes in their electromagnetic fields, or vibrations from other nearby equipment. These disturbances interfere with resonance, wasting power and potentially tripping off the particle beam. Precise resonance control increases available power, resulting in higher particle beam performance and new discoveries.
“Controlling resonance is a critical area of development for particle accelerator facilities, potentially saving millions of dollars a year on operating costs, optimizing power consumption and improving beam stability for accurate scientific results and increasing equipment lifetimes,” said Matthias Liepe, a professor at Cornell University who is collaborating on this research. “Applying AI and machine learning to automate control processes will make this easier.”
Led by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the resonance control project aims to develop artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to substantially improve particle accelerator performance, driving scientific discovery while saving significant amounts of money in operating costs. Several partner institutions, including other national labs, universities and industry, are also contributing to the project.
“For decades, Fermilab has been a global leader in superconducting radio-frequency technology — building, designing and operating among the most sophisticated accelerators and making transformative technological breakthroughs,” said Sam Posen, a senior scientist at Fermilab and project principal investigator.
“Today, the lab is at the forefront of an exciting new era to use AI and machine learning to extend our scientific reach even further by improving resonance control in next-generation accelerators and accelerating the time to discovery. We’re excited to take this next step,” Posen added.
Staying in Tune
To make energy transfer to the beam as efficient as possible, each cavity is tuned to a specific frequency called a resonant frequency. Matching the cavity’s resonant frequency to the delivery of radio-frequency energy allows a relatively small amount of input power to build up large amplitude fields.
“While SRF cavities are incredibly efficient at speeding up particles using low power, shifts away from their correct frequencies consume power that could be better spent pushing the particle beam harder and furthering the discovery potential,” said Liepe.
Scientists use a fast-moving tuner attached to the cavity to squeeze it back to its resonant frequency. Applying AI and machine learning has the potential to significantly improve tuning precision, and the algorithms and models learn over time how to minimize disturbances and adapt as conditions change. AI can also tailor this learning and adaptation to each of the 100-plus cavities that a large accelerator contains. This can allow researchers to push the operation of particle accelerators, increasing maximum energy or letting them turn down the power between beam pulses.
One beneficiary of this research is the PIP-II accelerator, which will provide the world’s most intense neutrino beam for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment at the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility, an international collaboration hosted by Fermilab.
During its initial operation, PIP-II’s particle beam will be sent as pulses, but the cavities are designed to operate at full electromagnetic field strength between pulses. Reducing the field between pulses would significantly reduce average power, cooling costs and equipment wear, but it would also make resonance control harder because of the frequency shifts as the cavity field is turned up and down.
A key objective of this research is to test whether introducing AI to PIP-II’s existing control equipment will provide enough precision to operate in pulsed mode — handling the cavity’s frequency shifts, using less power and avoiding unplanned shutdowns known as trips.
Creating a Common Framework
In addition to cost savings and increased performance and reliability, this research aims to achieve other important objectives. One of these is to establish a common framework for resonance control data that can be shared across DOE laboratories and facilities and their partners.
Enabling data sharing from different SRF-based accelerators can benefit the broader Genesis Mission research community. Today, every facility measures detuning in its own way, so the data can’t be pooled, and a controller built for one machine may not work on the next.
“The open-source low-level radio-frequency control system Berkeley Lab developed is the baseline for PIP-II and runs the cavities at the SLAC Accelerator Center’s LCLS-II, said scientist Dan Wang, the project institutional lead from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who also leads a related hardware-aware AI project. “The control system is used more widely still on conventional accelerators that do not rely on superconducting materials, such as the Argonne Wakefield Accelerator and our own Advanced Light Source.”
“An AI layer built on that platform benefits every facility running it,” added Wang. “That is what we want to show the Genesis Mission community: better and lower-cost operation of SRF cavities, but also how AI can close fast control loops on real hardware. It is the right demonstration, and with all the labs working on it together, the right moment.”
Benefiting Society
Another objective is to build a workforce pipeline at the intersection of AI/machine learning and low-level radio-frequency engineering. This will help train the scientists, engineers and technicians to design and operate the precise control electronics used in particle accelerators — a highly specialized field that is currently facing a talent shortage.
By collaborating with industry partners, innovations can be applied in ways that directly benefit society and the U.S. economy. For example, industry partner xLight has developed a free-electron laser system, using particle accelerator technology pioneered at DOE national laboratories, to transform semiconductor manufacturing.
“This research exemplifies the Genesis Mission goal to use AI to dramatically improve our scientific tools so that we can innovate better, faster and more efficiently,” said Anna Grassellino, chief technology officer and associate laboratory director for the Technology Directorate at Fermilab. “By collaborating with other national labs, universities and industry, we are fostering innovation and developing a skilled workforce at the intersection of AI and science and engineering. This research will cement the role of the United States as a world leader in particle accelerator technology as we build more powerful, more sophisticated, more reliable and more autonomous accelerators.”
Along with Fermilab, partnering institutions on this project include Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, Cornell University, Michigan State University, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, University of Michigan, the High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Japan and xLight Inc.
Annual forum highlights ORNL’s leadership in advancing hybrid quantum-HPC technologies and building the future quantum computing workforce
Aug. 20, 2026 — Researchers, software developers and technology leaders from across the global quantum computing ecosystem gathered at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in July for the seventh annual Quantum Computing User Forum (QCUF). The event highlighted ORNL’s leadership in advancing the future of computing through quantum technologies integrated with high-performance computing.
Attendees gathered for the seventh annual Quantum Computing User Forum. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Hosted by the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), the forum welcomed 184 attendees, including users of the Quantum Computing User Program (QCUP), as well as researchers from universities, industry and national laboratories.
QCUP provides researchers around the world with cloud-based access to leading quantum computing systems, allowing scientists to explore how quantum computing can support a broad range of research applications. The program is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Quantum User Expansion for Science and Technology (QUEST) initiative, which seeks to expand access to quantum computing resources for scientific research.
At the forum, QCUP users shared scientific discoveries and research enabled by the program. Discussions also highlighted advances in quantum applications, software development and simulations, as well as efforts to combine quantum computing with high-performance computing. These hybrid quantum-high-performance computing (QHPC) workflows are helping lay the groundwork for the next generation of scientific computing.
Day 2 of QCUF included an interactive poster session, where researchers presented their latest research. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
“This year’s Quantum Computing User Forum was the most packed yet,” said Claire Marvinney, an ORNL research scientist who co-organized the event with Josh Cunningham, chief operating officer of the DOE’s Quantum Science Center. “We brought together current users, prospective users, technology vendors and collaborators from across the quantum computing community to create a truly remarkable week.”
Cunningham said the forum’s continued growth reflects the expanding role of quantum computing in scientific research.
“QCUP isn’t standing still. It’s growing year after year, and QCUF is growing right along with it,” Cunningham said. “We’re seeing more researchers who may not yet be QCUP users coming to learn what’s possible with quantum computing and how it can advance their research. It’s exciting to watch the forum evolve into a community where people come not only to share their work, but to build new partnerships and explore new ideas together.”
The event featured hands-on workshops led by QCUP sponsors Quantinuum, IonQ, IBM and IQM, followed by keynote presentations from each company. Technical sessions gave participants direct access to the companies developing today’s leading quantum computing technologies, covering topics ranging from quantum hardware and advanced job execution to algorithms, hybrid HPC-quantum workflows and the latest scientific applications.
QCUF attendees participated in a variety of talks where QCUP users were able to share scientific discoveries enabled by the program while highlighting advances in quantum applications. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
“Our presentations covered topics from quantum error correction primitives and hyrbid HPC-QC, as well as subject areas with applications in astrophysics, finance, quantum chemistry, and optimization algorithms.,” Marvinney said. “Researchers at ORNL highlighted work performed through QCUP’s cloud-access resources as well as research using our on-site quantum systems, including the six-qubit Quantum Brilliance Quoll quantum computer and the 20-qubit IQM Pathfinder quantum computer.”
Showcasing Quantum Research
One of the week’s highlights was the interactive poster session, where researchers presented their latest work and explored new collaborations across the quantum community. Attendees selected three posters for recognition during the event:
Machine Learning-Enhanced Adaptive Fidelity Optimization in W-State Quantum Teleportation, by Faisal Ahmed Chowdhury and Farah Ferdaus, Lamar University.
Qiskit-Kokkos: A Kokkos-Accelerated, Multi-Engine Quantum Circuit Simulator, by Chao Lu, Murali Gopalakrishnan Meena and Kalyan Gottiparthi, ORNL.
Quantum Singular Value Decomposition and Transform for Solving Multidimensional Partial Differential Equations in Computational Fluid Dynamics and Nuclear Physics, by Esam El-Araby, University of Kansas.
The forum concluded with a workshop focused on the Open Quantum-HPC Software Ecosystem, or openQSE, a community-driven initiative developing an open, modular software ecosystem that enables seamless integration between quantum computing and HPC through interoperable, vendor-neutral technologies. Researchers from industry, academia and national laboratories discussed software standards and shared interfaces needed to support future heterogeneous computing systems.
Beyond the technical program, the forum fostered new collaborations among researchers, quantum hardware vendors and software developers.
Ashley Barker, OLCF program director, said the forum’s greatest value extends beyond the presentations.
“The forum isn’t just about sharing knowledge; it’s about building a community,” Barker said. “Bringing together users, facilities and organizations investing in quantum technologies gives us an opportunity to learn from one another, build partnerships and leverage our collective expertise and resources. We want people to leave with new insights and new connections — and a stronger community working together to advance the future of quantum science.”
Attendees enjoyed a variety of hands-on workshops at the 2026 Quantum Computing User Forum. Credit: Alonda Hines/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
As quantum technologies continue to mature, the QCUF plays an important role in connecting researchers with the tools, expertise and partnerships needed to develop the next generation of quantum applications. The forum also complements DOE’s Genesis Mission by bringing together researchers, technology developers and users to accelerate the development, evaluation and adoption of quantum computing technologies.
By combining leadership-class computing, advanced software and emerging quantum technologies, ORNL is preparing researchers to harness hybrid computing systems and building the collaborations needed to transform quantum computing into a practical tool for scientific discovery.
The OLCF is a DOE Office of Science user facility at ORNL that is supported by DOE’s Advanced Scientific Computing Research program.
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science, the nation’s largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. Learn more at energy.gov/science.
Aug. 20, 2026 — The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) is one of five institutions assisting a new national initiative headed by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) to “create a unified environment for research computing, data and scientific applications across several U.S. National Science Foundation-supported national computing centers and two cloud platforms.”
Credit: NCSA
The Interactive Discovery Laboratory (iDLab) will create a single, browser-based environment for interactive computing across these centers, making high-performance computing even more accessible and aligning with the ongoing efforts of other NSF programs such as ACCESS and NAIRR. iDLab will supplant the current command-line interface, which requires more technical expertise than some potential users possess.
“iDLab will serve as a front door, providing interactive access to the computing and research data capabilities of participating national computing centers,” said Amit Chourasia, principal investigator of the iDLab project and chief research data architect in UCLA’s Office of Advanced Research Computing (OARC).
The new, simple entry point for advanced computing resources aims to broaden access to new users across all research disciplines, not just those in technical and STEM fields. iDLab will also have a catalog of data sets and applications available for researchers to use.
As a partner in this $9 million NSF award, NCSA is contributing to site integration and operations for its NSF-funded Delta and DeltaAI systems.
“Joining this new venture of the iDLab aligns seamlessly with the mission of Delta, DeltaAI and NCSA to bring advanced computing resources to the whole of the research community,” said Brett Bode, deputy project director for Delta and DeltaAI, and iDLab co-principal investigator. “We’re excited to work with our colleagues at UCLA and the other supercomputing centers to provide researchers with an intuitive and interactive tool to push innovation and strengthen their work.”
For more information on the launch of iDLab, check out the press release from UCLA.
About Delta and DeltaAI
NCSA’s Delta and DeltaAI are part of the national cyberinfrastructure ecosystem through the U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS program. Delta (OAC 2005572) is a powerful computing and data-analysis resource combining next-generation processor architectures and NVIDIA graphics processors with forward-looking user interfaces and file systems. The Delta project partners with the Science Gateways Community Institute to empower broad communities of researchers to easily access Delta and with the University of Illinois Division of Disability Resources & Educational Services and the School of Information Sciences to explore and reduce barriers to access. DeltaAI (OAC 2320345) maximizes the output of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) research. Tripling NCSA’s AI-focused computing capacity and greatly expanding the capacity available within ACCESS, DeltaAI enables researchers to address the world’s most challenging problems by accelerating complex AI/ML and high-performance computing applications running terabytes of data. Additional funding for DeltaAI comes from the State of Illinois.
New NVIDIA GPU acceleration for Apache Spark in Cloudera Data Engineering delivers zero-code performance gains, lower cloud costs, and faster AI-ready data pipelines
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 — Cloudera today announced native GPU acceleration for Apache Spark 4.1 in Cloudera Data Engineering, enabled by the NVIDIA CUDA-X library, cuDF. The NVIDIA cuDF plug-in for Apache Spark will support the just-announced Cloudera Anywhere Cloud, which is designed to enable organizations to accelerate Spark workloads without rewriting PySpark or SQL code. This helps data teams prepare AI-ready data faster while reducing cloud infrastructure costs across hybrid environments.
Credit: Michael-Vi/Shutterstock
As organizations expand AI initiatives, the speed of data preparation has become a critical challenge. Large-scale Spark workloads often take hours to complete, delaying analytics and AI applications while driving up cloud compute costs. By embedding GPU acceleration directly into Cloudera Data Engineering, organizations can dramatically reduce processing times using their existing Spark applications, without changing code or operational workflows.
Accelerating Spark for Enterprise AI
Apache Spark powers many of today’s enterprise data pipelines. With native GPU acceleration built into Cloudera Data Engineering, organizations can improve performance while maintaining the security and governance required for production workloads. Leveraging NVIDIA cuDF for Spark workloads, Cloudera will provide up to 4x workload acceleration on NVIDIA GPUs compared to traditional CPU infrastructure, enabling enterprises to drastically shorten data processing cycles.
Together, Cloudera Data Engineering accelerated by NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries will deliver:
Zero-code GPU acceleration for Apache Spark 4.1 workloads
Faster ETL and data preparation for analytics and AI
Lower cloud infrastructure costs through shorter compute runtimes
Built-in deployment with no manual driver configuration
Enterprise security and governance through the Cloudera Unified Data Fabric
Consistent performance across public cloud, private cloud, sovereign cloud, and on-premises environments
Unlike GPU acceleration offerings limited to a single cloud provider, Cloudera extends these capabilities across hybrid environments while preserving consistent governance and operations. Organizations can accelerate Spark workloads wherever their data resides— whether that is on premises, in the clouds, or at the edge— without sacrificing security or flexibility.
Faster Data Pipelines, Lower Infrastructure Costs
Preparing trusted data quickly, and at a reasonable cost, is essential for analytics and AI. Recent data from Cloudera’s The Great Re-Architecture Survey found that the vast majority (84%) of respondents said that AI workloads have caused infrastructure costs to increase. By accelerating Spark processing, organizations can deliver clean, model-ready data faster, helping to reduce infrastructure costs while improving productivity across data engineering, AI, and analytics teams.
“For many organizations, AI isn’t limited by models. It’s limited by how quickly they can turn raw data into trusted, usable insights,” said Leo Brunnick, Chief Product Officer at Cloudera. “Accelerating Spark inside Cloudera Data Engineering helps remove that bottleneck, allowing customers to move from data preparation to analytics and AI faster while keeping governance, security, and operational consistency at the center of their strategy.”
“The fastest path to accelerating AI deployments is the one that aligns with how enterprises already operate today,” said Pat Lee, vice president, Strategic Enterprise Partnerships at NVIDIA. “With NVIDIA AI infrastructure and CUDA-X libraries now native to Cloudera Data Engineering, enterprises can lower costs and dramatically speed up Apache Spark pipelines without changing a single line of PySpark or SQL code, turning business data into a foundation for AI.”
The GPU acceleration capability for Apache Spark will be available in Cloudera Data Engineering as part of the Cloudera Anywhere Cloud announced at EVOLVE Singapore on August 20, 2026. Additional demonstrations and technical sessions will be featured at NVIDIA GTC Berlin and Cloudera EVOLVE New York later this year.
To learn more, visit Cloudera.com or register for upcoming EVOLVE conferences to see how organizations are accelerating data engineering and AI across hybrid environments.
About Cloudera
Cloudera is the only hybrid data and AI platform company that large organizations trust to bring AI to their data anywhere it lives. Unlike other providers, Cloudera delivers a consistent cloud experience that converges public clouds, on-prem data centers, sovereign clouds, and the edge, leveraging a proven open-source foundation. As the pioneer in big data, Cloudera empowers businesses to apply AI and assert control over 100% of their data, in all forms, improving security, governance, and real-time and predictive insights. The world’s largest brands across all industries rely on Cloudera to transform decision-making and ultimately boost bottom lines, safeguard against threats, and save lives.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 — The SimOps Foundation today announced the results of its evaluation of Open OnDemand against the SimOps Best Practices Framework. The open-source HPC access platform, developed by the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), is recognized as SimOps Compliant and joins the SimOps Software Stack for engineering simulation and High-Performance Computing (HPC).
The evaluation compared Open OnDemand with the 20 SimOps Best Practices, a vendor-neutral framework developed from the analysis of more than 230 enterprise HPC and engineering simulation projects spanning fourteen years. The framework defines the operational practices that help organizations automate, optimize, and scale simulation-driven engineering across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid computing environments.
With deployments at more than 2,100 organizations worldwide, Open OnDemand provides engineers, scientists, and researchers with secure, browser-based access to HPC resources, engineering applications, visualization, interactive computing, file management, and job execution through a unified engineering workspace. Rather than replacing resource managers, workflow engines, or cloud platforms, Open OnDemand provides an accessible operational layer between users and the underlying HPC infrastructure.
“Open OnDemand was created to make advanced computing more accessible to researchers, scientists, and engineers. We are pleased to see the SimOps assessment recognize the importance of lowering barriers to these resources and helping more people take advantage of advanced computing in support of research and discovery,” said Alan Chalker, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Programs for the Ohio Supercomputer Center.
Open OnDemand reaches a High compliance level in 11 of the 20 SimOps Best Practices. The assessment found particularly strong alignment in several key areas of the framework, including:
Browser-based self-service access to HPC resources
Democratization of advanced computing across engineering organizations
Interactive engineering applications and visualization
Engineering productivity and ease of adoption
Workforce development and engineering education
Hybrid HPC and cloud accessibility
Cross-functional collaboration
Vendor-neutral support for heterogeneous HPC environment
These capabilities address an important dimension of Simulation Operations: making advanced computing accessible and usable by the people who need it, while reducing the operational barriers that can limit broader adoption of simulation-driven engineering.
“For many, Open OnDemand access is the first step into High-Performance Computing. People who would never have asked about HPC now start asking how to run complex jobs from the command line. They begin to explore what’s possible with HPC,” said Alain van Hoof, HPC Consultant at the TU/e Supercomputing Center.
Unlike traditional software reviews, SimOps evaluates platforms according to how effectively they contribute to the operational maturity of engineering organizations. The assessment considers not only compute performance, but also accessibility, self-service, automation, collaboration, reproducibility, operational efficiency, observability, governance, and the ability to simplify day-to-day engineering workflows.
The assessment also recognizes that Open OnDemand is not intended to provide every SimOps capability. Advanced engineering data lifecycle management, simulation cost management, enterprise governance, AI lifecycle management, sustainability metrics, and workflow orchestration typically require complementary technologies and organizational processes. The assessment nevertheless concludes that Open OnDemand provides a foundational Engineering Access and Collaboration Platform within a modern Simulation Operations environment.
“Simulation Operations is ultimately about enabling engineering organizations to scale simulation as a repeatable operational capability,” said Wolfgang Gentzsch, Executive Director of the SimOps Foundation. “Open OnDemand makes an important contribution to this objective by lowering the barriers to advanced computing and helping organizations turn HPC from a specialized resource into a more accessible everyday engineering capability.”
The SimOps Foundation is an independent, vendor-neutral, non-profit organization dedicated to advancing Simulation Operations (SimOps), the operational discipline for engineering simulation inspired by the principles of DevOps. SimOps develops best practices, workforce capabilities, certified education, and an open Software Stack ecosystem that help engineering organizations identify certified simulation and HPC infrastructure software to automate, optimize, and scale simulation-driven product development across HPC, AI, cloud, and emerging computing platforms. Learn more at https://www.simops.com or contact info@simops.com.
The attorney for Clancy, who strangled her three children, says she suffered from postpartum psychosis
Hundreds of Lindsay Clancy supporters, many wearing pink clothing emblazoned with phrases such as “Believe”, “She Needed Help” and “Peace For Lindsay”, gathered on Thursday outside the courthouse where she is on trial in the killings of her three children.
Several of the 300 women, and a few men, said Clancy’s story resonated with them and that they wanted to raise awareness about how the mental health system treats women. Clancy’s lawyer does not dispute that she killed the children, but says she should not be held criminally responsible because she was mentally ill.
Players guaranteed $140,000 for making first round
The world’s leading tennis players have welcomed the US Open’s announcement of a 20% increase in prize money and agreed not to continue their protests at this year’s tournament as a result.
The build up to both the French Open and Wimbledon was overshadowed earlier this year by a media boycott as the players continue to demand a greater share of tournament revenues, but after the US Tennis Association announced a record prize pot of $108m there will be no such disruption at Flushing Meadow.
Taken from the southern Lebanese village of Zawtar al-Gharbiyah, this photo shows smoke billowing from the site of an Israeli controlled explosion in the village of Bani Hayyan on Aug. 13, 2026.Photo: Ammar Ammar/AFP via Getty Images
Earlier this month, Roman Gofman, the new director of the Mossad, Israel’s shadowy national intelligence agency, dismissed the heads of its intelligence directorate and Iran division, known only by their heavily anonymized names “K” and “Y,” respectively. The Mossad prides itself on secrecy, and while terminations following the appointment of a new Mossad director aren’t unprecedented, such public oustings, which were reported by Israel’s mainstream news organizations, are almost unheard of.
The last known dismissals for incompetence came in 1997, when a botched attempt to assassinate Khaled Mashal, then chair of Hamas’s political bureau, resulted in the detention of several Mossad agents inside Jordan and a public relations disaster. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government found itself forced to supply the antidote for the poison its Mossad agents had administered, bringing down both the agency’s director and the director of operations.
Israel is now dealing with the aftermath of the largest mistake in its history, one of its own doing: its failed war on Iran. Sold to the United States as an easy war that would quickly bring down the Islamic Republic and its alleged nuclear weapons program, almost nothing Israel desired came to pass.
The promise of assassinating Ali Khamenei was that it would bring about governmental chaos and spur a spontaneous national uprising. Instead, it only led to the selection of his younger son as the new supreme leader, a leadership that may prove to be even more antagonistic to the United States and Israel than the previous one.
Israel also promised that any potential closure of the Strait of Hormuz would be militarily ineffective. Now, Iran’s ability to hold the world economy hostage — despite relentless claims by the U.S. that the waterway is “open” — is its most valuable weapon.
The Mossad’s particular role in this war involved weakening the Islamic Republic’s security structure in hopes of then funneling guns to Kurdish armed groups who would invade the country from Iraq, and then fuel mass demonstrations to topple the state. All of these lofty ambitions completely detonated on impact with reality, with Iran’s security structure remaining intact despite assassinations and airstrikes, Kurdish factions instead suffering constant Iranian military attacks, and no major protests occurring in any Iranian city, despite the massive anti-government protests in January that swept through the country.
For those who witnessed the Mossad’s public campaigns to encourage protests and defections — which it deployed in the open through Farsi-language social media accounts on X and Telegram bearing their name and seal — signs of the inevitable failure of this campaign were becoming evident. While images from June 2025’s Twelve-Day War of Mossad agents operating inside Iran and sabotaging Iranian military operations shocked many inside the country — that sabotage hampering Iran’s initial military response — its ability to change fundamental facts on the ground, and to move an entire country’s population against the sitting government, sputtered.
The Mossad chose to shift its image as that war began, capitalizing on its perception as an all-powerful and omniscient force to offer its supposedly unlimited power to help the Iranian populace. This shift manifested through cryptic social media posts, sarcastic quote-tweets of Iranian officials, and offering gifts to those who answered questions by direct message. The Mossad offered remote medical services through WhatsApp, and former radio host Menashe Amir, who notably hosted an Israeli radio show in Farsi aimed at anti-Islamic Republic Iranians, made videos on the Mossad’s behalf encouraging Iranians to listen to what the intelligence agency had to say.
The effort produced little. Iranian officials openly mocked the campaign online from the start, and it became increasingly desperate as mass protests failed to materialize. AI-generated videos of Iranian prisons having their walls blown open, and of happy Iranians following their defections to Israel, did next to nothing. The Mossad has continued to post AI-generated videos using Grok to encourage collaboration following the ceasefire.
While accusations were levied (and arrests made) of supposed Mossad agents inside the Iranian protests in January, their infiltration, alleged or otherwise, did not end up toppling or even shattering the Islamic Republic. Instead, more than 7,000 protesters were killed that month, in addition to hundreds of police officers.
After the plan to arm Kurdish groups, in collaboration with the CIA, apparently fell apart — either by Trump’s veto or, as Trump claimed, because the Kurds simply kept the weapons themselves — the Mossad apparently came up with a quick Plan B. The new bright idea: Overthrow the government via an airstrike campaign against Iranian police stations and checkpoints manned by the Basij, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ paramilitary militia component. Despite extensive strikes in broad daylight, with some Iranians tipping off locations to opposition media outlets to help facilitate this campaign, the mass uprising, once again, did not arrive.
The war did not continue long enough for a comprehensive Plan C to come to fruition on the ground, with the Israeli military beginning to strike railways and manufacturing infrastructure, and Trump taking the lead on calling for the destruction of Iran’s energy infrastructure and bridges. Both are unified in their hope to strangle the country economically in hopes of pushing Iranian society into oblivion, but this outcome is only truly possible through American military means.
But even the U.S. has seen itself overextended, unable to resupply its missile interceptors for its own bases in the Middle East, and potentially unable to protect Israel as effectively as it had in the past should open conflict break out over its skies again.
News of the dismissal of the Mossad officials was met with disbelief in the Israeli media and by veterans of the intelligence service, who accused Gofman of suppressing the agency’s ability to function. By firing two deputies, security analysts accused him of foisting the agency’s failure onto underlings to shield the decisions made at the top levels of government from scrutiny.
While overthrowing the Iranian government has remained a popular idea among Israeli officials and other elected politicians, Netanyahu chief among them, other politicians have acknowledged its difficulty. Gadi Eisenkot, the former Israel Defense Forces chief of the general staff, has spoken of the unlikelihood of being able to overthrow the entire Iranian system, instead stating that operations should have continued “in the shadows.”
Reporting from Israel Hayom in May revealed that many in the Mossad were opposed to the idea of focusing resources on overthrowing the Iranian government, seeing it as a massive gamble. The Mossad’s former chief of influence operations, known as O., told the newspaper that he felt he had to sell the operation to many in the agency, despite the fact that “no one actually knows how to overthrow a regime or what the chances are that it will succeed.”
In March, just days before he would be killed in an Israeli assassination strike, Ali Larijani, then-secretary of the Iranian Supreme National Security Council, told the Iranian news outlet ISNA that Netanyahu “seemed to believe that these attacks had set a movement in motion inside Iran and that, by portraying the system as being in disarray, he could incite the public.” But Larijani pointed out that in less than a day, the regime had appointed “replacements for the commanders who had been killed, addressed the public, changed the atmosphere, and, by issuing specific orders, authorized the launch of missiles.”
Netanyahu, having pushed for the military overthrow of the Iranian government across multiple American administrations, finally got the war he wanted. But neither raw force, nor covert operations executed on his orders, were enough to carry out his will.
While Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has remarked upon how the current situation is very much working for Israel — one in which southern Iran is constantly bombarded with no end, and America is doing all of the fighting and dying — Netanyahu has continued his rhetoric about the need to create the conditions for the fall of the Islamic Republic. But in a moment of rare humility, he admitted this may “not happen in a single day.”
Recent reporting from Ynet found Netanyahu’s government instructed both the Israeli military and the Mossad to prepare for a much larger campaign against the Iranian state, with eyes on a potential return to open war in autumn. As has been the case over and over again, in Yemen, Lebanon, Gaza, and now Iran, Israel hopes that what was not solved with bombs can still be won — this time with even more bombs.
DHS says Manuel Ernesto Hernandez-Umana is in US illegally after lying to border patrol when he entered in 2007
The captain of a boat that capsized in the New York harbor, resulting in the death of a woman and her infant daughter, has been taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the federal agency saying it intends to deport him.
The deadly incident unfolded near the Statue of Liberty on 8 August. Authorities said a 911 call was received at approximately 10.25pm that prompted a major emergency response including multiple boat teams, a scuba team and a helicopter unit.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A math professor at the University of California, Berkeley, criticizing a "severe" math deficiency among students in an op-ed for the San Francisco Standard, admitted to using artificial intelligence to help edit the piece. The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were "five to eight years" behind and lacked a "middle school" education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system's test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren't sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley's mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared.
Over the weekend, journalists at Berkeley's student newspaper, the Daily Californian, noticed the op-ed's language sounded like AI. According to Berkeley sophomore Francis Luo, they ran it through AI-detection software Pangram, which claimed 33% of the op-ed had been generated or assisted by AI. In response, Stankova admitted she had used AI software to "help edit the piece" but that the article was "the result of several hundred person-hours of intensive human work, of which about 80 hours are my own."
Stankova said by email she had used AI to locate "numerous documents and articles related to the initiative" but that "all analysis is the result of the team members." When asked about their AI usage policy, the Standard -- which published the op-ed -- shared this statement by email: "While AI may assist, our expectation is that humans are behind every article we publish and take responsibility for every word. Our understanding in working with the author of this op ed was -- and continues to be -- that this piece reflects her and her colleagues' extensive original analysis, research and expertise." Should the op-ed have been entirely written without artificial assistance or is the use of AI a distraction from the argument at hand? That's the question at the heart of the debate playing out online.
According to the op-ed, Stankova and her peers found that the number of students with a "severe deficit" in their readiness for a calculus I class had tripled after the University of California adopted test-blind admissions. Some students were allegedly five to eight years behind and struggling with basic algebra and fractions, among other concepts.
Much of that decline, Stankova argues, is from the removal of standardized tests like the SAT and ACT, which served as important benchmarks for identifying whether applicants were prepared for Berkeley-level coursework.
American Bridge 21st Century is a liberal hybrid PAC that conducts opposition research and runs ads to aid Democratic candidates and organizations. Since 2019, its official name has been AB PAC.
As part super PAC, AB PAC can accept unlimited donations and has largely been funded by major Democratic donors and labor unions. Those donors must be disclosed, according to federal election rules.
Bradley Beychok, a former president of Media Matters, is the co-founder of the hybrid PAC and served as the group’s president until March 2021. Opposition research veteran Pat Dennis took over as president in December 2022, replacing Jessica Floyd, who previously had been managing director of campaigns for the progressive Hub Project.
For the 2026 election cycle, the group has set a goal of spending $50 million on paid media focusing on nearly 20 House and Senate races in Iowa, Alaska, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. That is in addition to the nearly 150 races covered by its ongoing opposition research for the November elections.
“The campaign will feature local storytellers sharing firsthand accounts of rising costs due to Trump’s tariffs and Iran War, health care challenges including rising costs and Medicaid cuts, and other economic pressures,” American Bridge said in a June press release.
American Bridge said $50 million would be the most the group has ever spent in a midterm cycle, and it aims to expand the Democratic map by also spending in areas that are traditionally Republican.
As of June 30, it had received almost $34.8 million in the 2026 election cycle, and had about $5.1 million on hand, according to its latest monthly filing with the Federal Election Commission in July. Major donors include Deborah Simon, daughter of the late property developer Melvin Simon; AB Foundation, the hybrid PAC’s affiliated advocacy group; and Democracy PAC, a liberal super PAC created by billionaire George Soros.
AB PAC has already spent more than $1 million this election cycle on independent expenditures, which are advertisements and other communications that expressly advocate for or against candidates for office. During the 2026 primary elections, it opposed a trio of Iowa Republicans, including Rep. Ashley Hinson, who won the Republican nomination in the Iowa Senate race; Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who won the Republican nomination for the state’s 1st Congressional District seat; and former state Rep. Joe Mitchell, who won the Republican nomination for the state’s 2nd Congressional District seat.
The group launched a project in April called “The Shaky Eights” targeting 17 “weak” Republican House incumbents, including Reps. French Hill of Arkansas and Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. In Mississippi, it said it planned to spend a little more than $2 million in support of Democratic Senate nominee Scott Colom in his race against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. It has also contributed over $7 million to Texas Majority PAC, which describes itself as “a project dedicated to electing a Democrat to statewide office in Texas.”
During the 2024 elections, AB PAC spent about $97.7 million in total, including roughly $58.6 million in independent expenditures opposing President Donald Trump. The group ran ads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin focusing on Trump’s role in rolling back abortion protections, and it financed a $20 million campaign addressing his criminal conviction, his conduct surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol and other aspects of his record.
FactCheck.orgUndergraduate Fellow Angela Lin contributed to this article.
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Months after Congress approved billions for infrastructure across one of the least-trafficked stretches of the southern border, bulldozers arrived at Big Bend National Park.
The latest court filings in cases involving the Kennedy Center and the White House ballroom project detail the work being done at the two institutions.
Carlos Alcaraz has won his battle to be fit for the US Open.
The seven-time grand slam champion has not played on the ATP Tour since April due to an ongoing wrist issue, but enlisted the help of football transfer journalist Fabrizio Romano to announce his comeback.
The U.S. on Thursday imposed fresh sanctions on 15 individuals and entities based in Ecuador for their roles in an alleged maritime cocaine trafficking operation.
Government announce plan for ‘stepping stone’ qualification as 620,000 year 11 students face retaking maths or English after failure to achieve grade 4
The government’s plans to make young people continue studying maths and English if they fail GCSEs could be demotivating and ineffective, according to education experts and school leaders after retake pass rates slumped this year.
Only one in seven students in the age group retaking GCSE maths after a previous failure got a grade 4 or above this summer, while only one in six managed to pass English, meaning the majority will have to retake the exams next year if they remain in education or training.
Researcher Nathan Cofnas previously claimed Black people would hold few high-profile positions in a meritocracy
Nathan Cofnas, the academic who made plagiarism allegations against Prof Jason Arday before his death, has been suspended by a university.
Arday, 41, resigned from his role at the University of Cambridge this month after coverage of Cofnas’s accusations of plagiarism. The allegations, which were not proven in any formal investigation, triggered questions about Arday’s achievements.
Federal agents also ‘seized electronic devices’ from former Democratic representative at San Francisco airport
Authorities are said to have searched the Washington DC home of disgraced former California Democratic representative Eric Swalwell on Sunday amid an ongoing law enforcement investigation into sexual assault allegations.
CNN reported that federal agents on Saturday also “seized electronic devices” from Swalwell at the San Francisco airport, citing unnamed sources familiar with the investigation. Multiple other outlets have confirmed the federal search; the Daily Mail was the first to report this law enforcement activity.
USS George Washington will replace warship families say suffers from shortages, plumbing problems and low morale
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier has arrived in the Middle East, where it is expected to relieve the USS Abraham Lincoln from its record deployment amid concerns about poor living conditions and morale.
US Central Command announced on Thursday that the Washington arrived in the area on Wednesday, and posted an image of sailors working on the flight deck as the ship transited the Arabian Sea. No date has yet been announced for the Lincoln to return to the US.
Bloomberg reports that YouTube is offering major creators millions of dollars to keep some content exclusive to its platform as Netflix increasingly signs YouTube-native talent to non-exclusive deals. YouTube has also warned that creators who simultaneously publish on Netflix could lose marketing support, event opportunities, and access to revenue from certain brand campaigns. Quartz reports: Bloomberg described two categories of payment: funding directed at specific programs, and a portion of the revenue YouTube brings in through large advertiser partnerships. No agreements have been finalized, but YouTube is close to deals with several partners, citing people familiar with the negotiations who declined to be identified. Creators who sign with Netflix face consequences. YouTube has warned creators that those who simultaneously publish videos on Netflix risk being sidelined from the platform's marketing campaigns and events, and would lose access to a share of proceeds from certain major brand deals.
Netflix has been signing YouTube creators to non-exclusive deals that allow them to post the same content on both platforms simultaneously. Creators including Alan Chikin Chow and Nick DiGiovanni have already signed such agreements, and Netflix remains in active conversations with dozens of other channels and programs, including the celebrity talk show Hot Ones. Netflix's pitch is straightforward: creators receive a substantial additional payday for content they have already produced, and their work reaches an audience that numbers more than 325 million subscribers.
YouTube Chief Executive Officer Neal Mohan had previously held that creators who work with competitors tend to drive viewers back to YouTube. But Bloomberg reported that Mohan and his team decided in recent weeks that the growing number of creators posting simultaneously on both platforms had become a problem that needed to be addressed. The concern is that when a video runs on both platforms simultaneously, YouTube's ability to convince advertisers of that video's exclusive value is undermined.
Prof Katya Rubia withdraws support for The Great ADHD Myth? as other leading figures voice criticisms
A contributor to a controversial Channel 4 documentary on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has withdrawn her support for the programme, saying it was biased and could lead to an increased suicide risk by encouraging parents to take their children off medication.
Katya Rubia, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London, also said The Great ADHD Myth? misrepresented her views.
Security arrangements for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex while living in the UK are a “private matter”, Andy Burnham has said, after news that Harry and Meghan intend to relocate to Britain from the US this month.
The UK prime minister refused to be drawn on security funding, saying: “This is a private matter. It’s a matter for Harry and Meghan, and we wish them well in the moves that they’re making.”
The president’s empty advice that children should receive separate jabs against measles, mumps and rubella will only lead to less take-up by parents
Nobody wants to hurt a child. The howl of pain, the tears, the look of betrayed shock all make it very hard to deliver a cherished small person to the needle-wielding nurse. But that’s part of being a responsible parent. It becomes a lot tougher if mum or dad is being fed mixed and erroneous messages about the benefits and harms of vaccination.
Parents have to make a lot of decisions about what’s right for their child, from the school they should go to and the food they should eat to the hours they should spend on the phone or watching TV. In the US, Donald Trump wants them to add another: do they choose to give their children separate jabs against measles, mumps and rubella, involving six visits to the clinic, or should they opt for the combined MMR vaccine, which does the job in two? For decades, the vast majority of families have been taking the advice of doctors, accepting their assurance that the MMR vaccine is safe and very effective. But what are they to think when a US president announces that the triple jab could be “quite lethal” and signs an executive order advising states to offer separate vaccines?
Volodymyr Zhuravlev had been consulted on Snake Island, a dramatised reconstruction of incident
Earlier this month locals in Zagreb noticed something odd outside an art deco building. Sandbags and barricades appeared in front of the Esplanade hotel, along with a film crew and extras sporting Ukrainian military uniforms. Soon afterwards the actors Sean Penn and Adrien Brody were spotted on the set in the Croatian capital, together with Doug Liman, the Hollywood director of the Jason Bourne movies.
Liman had come to shoot his latest fictional political thriller. Its subject: the 2022 Nord Stream explosions, in which a team of Ukrainian divers allegedly blew up a pipeline supplying Russian natural gas to Germany. One of the chief suspects, Volodymyr Zhuravlev, had twice eluded the Germany authorities: once allegedly slipping out of Poland in the boot of a diplomatic car,and on another occasion freed by a court.
Meta chief executive paid roughly €20m for gothic-style mansion built in 1830 and its surroundings
It stretches the definition of pied-à-terre but Mark Zuckerberg now has a pad in Ireland: Strancally castle.
The Meta chief executive and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have bought the gothic-style mansion and its 178-hectare (440-acre) estate in county Waterford to use as a base during visits to Ireland.
Security researcher Jeremiah Fowler found that people-search service ClarityCheck left more than 9 million image files accessible in an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket, despite advertising its reverse-image search as "private and secure." A separate misconfiguration also exposed email addresses, phone numbers, and other personal information. Wired reports: Overall, according to findings from independent security researcher Jeremiah Fowler, the exposed ClarityCheck database contained roughly 450 GB of images, including what appeared to be profile images, screenshots, and other photographs of adults, teenagers, and children. All of the images were stored in an unsecured Amazon S3 bucket, with files in folders named "faces" and "profiles," which could be accessed by anyone online through a URL included in the company's publicly available website code.
ClarityCheck is one of a number of so-called people-finder tools that have appeared online in recent years. These websites broadly claim to be able to search the web, public records, and other databases to identify individuals. ClarityCheck's website says it can run searches on phone numbers, email addresses, vehicle identification numbers, and names. Its photo-search page says it can help "identify anyone in a photo" and find social media profiles "in seconds." While ClarityCheck secured the giant image database after WIRED contacted the company in July, Fowler warns that it was seemingly exposed for months, and his initial efforts to flag the problem to the company were unsuccessful. Accidental data exposures create risk for any personal information, but particularly for sensitive and unchangeable biometric data like face images.
[...] In addition to the face data, ClarityCheck had also misconfigured its APIs such that its website URLs could be manipulated to reveal data about people simply by entering names; anyone using any consumer browser could have done this. Entering a name into one of the URLs would return multiple potential email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers for people with that name. After WIRED contacted the company, the URLs were secured. The ClarityCheck spokesperson said in the statement that the details displayed were "sourced from publicly available information and licensed third-party data providers." A spokesperson for ClarityCheck said in a statement: "Once this was drawn to the attention of the appropriate teams, we acted immediately to restrict access." The company disputed any characterization that the data was "exposed," saying that an "ordinary member of the public" would not have come across it.
"We do not accept that data in the temporary storage location was 'publicly exposed,' which implies large-scale public access," the spokesperson says. "Access required knowledge of a specific, unindexed URL that was not discoverable through ordinary use of the ClarityCheck service or a general web search."
Government borrowing costs around the world have surged to the highest levels in decades amid growing fears over US bond market turmoil.
Anxiety about Donald Trump’s handling of the US economy, and concern that the US president’s war with Iran is driving up inflation, are causing a sell-off in the US bond market.
One person was killed and two Pennsylvania State Police troopers were injured when a small plane collided with a state police helicopter on the ground in central Pennsylvania, authorities said.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission last week eliminated the gigabit speed goal established during the Biden administration and declared that current levels of broadband deployment in the US are acceptable. Though fiber networks have routinely offered such speeds for years, the FCC said the gigabit speed goal is not "technologically neutral," suggesting that it isn't fair to other, slower technologies.
In 2024, the FCC raised its broadband benchmark to 100Mbps downstream and 20Mbps upstream, setting the new standard by which to judge whether deployment is reasonable and timely. The FCC at the time also set a long-term speed goal of 1Gbps download speeds paired with 500Mbps upload speeds, saying it would use the goal "as a guidepost for evaluating our efforts to encourage deployment." Republican Brendan Carr, who is now the FCC chairman, never liked that long-term goal. He proposed abolishing it last year, and the change was finalized on August 14 in the FCC's latest broadband deployment report. The reports are mandated by Section 706 of the Telecommunications Act.
"As part of our return to following the plain language of Section 706, we adopt our proposal from the Notice [of Inquiry] to abolish without replacement the long-term goal of 1,000/500 Mbps established in the 2024 Report," the order said. "A long-term goal is not mentioned in Section 706 and could appear to violate our obligation to conduct our analysis in a technologically neutral manner. At present, it is impossible to predict long-term technological developments and the evolution of consumer preferences." The FCC said that comments submitted by cable industry group NCTA and wireless industry group CTIA "support our reasoning for abolishing the long-term goal." Last year, the Brendan Carr-led FCC said (PDF) that the gigabit goal "may be unreasonably prejudicial to technologies such as satellite and fixed wireless that presently do not support such speeds." However, last week's report contradicts that stance.
"We disagree with commenters arguing that our concern about technological neutrality merely serves to accommodate technologies that may currently offer slower speeds," the FCC said. "At present, we do not know the nature of future consumer preferences and, considering that the goal is not required by the statute and does not serve any positive purpose (as discussed herein), we believe it prudent to abolish it."
Pre-tax profits rose at high street opticians to £429.7m in the year to February while sales increased 7% to £4.3bn
Specsavers has paid £12m to its parent company controlled by founders Doug and Dame Mary Perkins after the high street opticians’ profits soared by more than a quarter.
The group operates nearly 3,000 optometry, audiology and ophthalmology businesses globally in at least eight countries, including more than 900 in the UK, through hundreds of independent partners.
Kyle Spitze of Tennessee faced federal charges for targeting girls online as part of ‘764 network’ investigated by FBI
A 27-year-old Tennessee man described by the US justice department as a “nihilistic violent extremist” was sentenced to 77 years in prison on Wednesday for his targeting of girls online as part of the 764 network, an online group the FBI calls a form of “modern-day terrorism”.
Kyle Spitze of Friendsville received the federal sentence on Wednesday for “production of child sexual abuse material, abetting the distribution of animal crushing videos, and possessing and accessing with the intent to view”, the justice department said in a statement.
Even film-makers have been inspired by Insomniac’s take on Spidey. But the studio’s tried and tested format might not fit a superhero with such sharp claws
The recent Marvel’s Spider-Man games have become so tightly interwoven with the character’s core that they’ve been cited, by both actor Tom Holland and director Destin Daniel Cretton, as an influence on this year’s blockbuster film Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Now the same development studio – Sony-owned Insomniac Games – is taking on one of Marvel’s other most recognisable characters in his first video game-starring role since some deeply mid-tier film tie-ins back in the 00s. So can they pull off the same trick with Marvel’s Wolverine?
Storywise it certainly takes a similar approach, once again grabbing ideas from a wide selection of inspirations and remixing them into a brand-new continuity. We first meet this version of Wolverine as he is discovered: wild-eyed, wilder haired and practically nude. Before we see his saviour’s face, we hear a well-spoken voice (provided by legendary game actor Troy Baker) promising a safe place “for people like us”. Surely this is Charles Xavier?
The country risks ‘the collapse of the entire book ecosystem’ following destruction of warehouses in July and August, say Ukrainian publishers
The Ukrainian Book Institute has called on the international publishing community to support Ukrainian publishers after Russian attacks in July and early August destroyed about 10m books and a significant share of the country’s book production capacity.
The institute said the attacks on publishing, printing and warehouse infrastructure had left some companies at risk of financial collapse.A major attack on 1 August hit warehouses belonging to the RNK-Ranok publishing group in Kharkiv, destroying approximately 8m books, following July attacks in Kyiv which led to the loss of more than 1.5m books. In all, the recent attacks have led to the destruction of approximately 30% of the volume of books produced annually in Ukraine.
Their move back from the United States sparks questions about security, their formal role — and whether the couple could overshadow the official royal family.
Device was near country’s Neptun Deep gas platform in the Black Sea
Romania’s military has destroyed a marine drone spotted just “a few hundred meters” from the Neptun Deep platform, a major offshore gas project in the Black Sea.
The drone, spotted just “a few hundreds of meters” from the gas extraction works at the Neptun Deep platform located some 80 miles east of the city of Constanța, was destroyed by a Romanian F-16 fighter jet.
You could pin the US’s staggering $40tn in government debt to Donald Trump’s Keystone Cops-style governance. Tariffs he sold as a new source of revenue were struck down by the supreme court, forcing the government to return tens of billions of dollars to importers. Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge), ostensibly created to stop wasteful government spending, decimated federal programs and probably killed millions of children, but did nothing to close the budget deficit. The burst of inflation following Trump’s misguided adventure in Iran sharply raised the cost of serving the government’s obligations.
Yet as the federal debt hits an all-time high, up from about $35tn when Trump took office less than two years ago, it is worth noting that the US’s gargantuan indebtedness is in fact the product of a longstanding Republican strategy that took shape well before Trump could even dream about gold-plating the White House. It was called “starve the beast”.
Max Lederer, longtime head of the US military news outlet, says his ‘philosophy of leadership’ differs from Pentagon’s
The long-serving publisher of Stars and Stripes could face an early dismissal just days after the taxpayer-funded military news outlet’s reporting revealed deteriorating conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, according to a news report.
Pentagon officials have discussed firing Max Lederer ahead of his scheduled retirement next month, according to CBS News, which quoted anonymous sources. Lederer, the publisher of the military daily for 19 years, had previously cited fundamental differences with the Trump administration for his decision to retire soon.
Africa Aware: What can Lagos teach us about Africa’s emerging megacities?Audiothilton.drupal
Lagos State Governor HE Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu discusses how Lagos is developing solutions to manage rapid population growth and deliver infrastructure at scale – all catered to its unique context.
By 2050, many of the world’s fastest-growing cities will be in Africa, and the choices made today will define how hundreds of millions of people will live then. A city like Lagos whose scale, economic dynamism and growth capture the opportunities and complexities of this transformation stands out as one of the world’s leading megacities.
In this episode, the governor of Lagos State, HE Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu joins Africa Programme Director and this week’s host, Tighisti Amare, to discuss how Lagos is developing solutions to manage rapid population growth and deliver infrastructure at scale – all catered to its unique context.
About Africa Aware
Africa Aware is a podcast from the Chatham House Africa Programme bringing together leading international experts to provide in-depth analysis and sharp insights on the political, economic and social issues shaping African countries, their international relations and the continent as a whole.
The prime minister plans to bring in the National Crime Agency to tackle the gangs behind dumps
Value being generated by student loans is “not what it should be”, Reform UK’s deputy leader said.
Asked by reporters about the funding of the scheme by stopping foreign students accessing loans, Richard Tice said:
Regarding the funding of this, cash is cash. Whether you think that it’s cash as a positive in a balance sheet or a bank account, or whether you’re borrowing it, it’s money. It’s cash.
As Suella quite rightly said, the amount of money going into student loans, it’s all government money, and this government is borrowing vast sums.
In terms of Mickey Mouse courses, listen, this has been well-chronicled for many years. Whether it’s gender studies, whether it’s golf course studies, I think I’ve seen there’s not a necessity. There’s not a value in many of these degrees.
Now I know that might be uncomfortable to those people who have those qualifications, but the reality is you’ve got to ask yourself: what are your graduate outcomes looking like?
Washington, D.C. — Federal agents seized electronic devices from former Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell at a California airport before searching his Washington home the following day, according to CNN reporting cited by Mediaite.
Agents approached Swalwell at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday and took his electronics, CNN reported. The FBI then executed a search warrant at his Washington residence on Sunday. The precise criminal allegations underlying the warrant have not been publicly disclosed.
The searches come months after FBI Director Kash Patel moved to release records from a decade-old investigation involving Swalwell and Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence operative. Earlier congressional and FBI investigations did not result in criminal charges against Swalwell, and the House Ethics Committee closed its inquiry without taking action.
Documents declassified by President Donald Trump this week reportedly show Swalwell told FBI agents in 2015 that he had several sexual encounters with Fang but denied they had a romantic relationship. Swalwell has previously maintained that he cooperated with federal investigators after being alerted to concerns about Fang.
Swalwell resigned from Congress in April and suspended his California gubernatorial campaign following separate sexual-assault and misconduct allegations, which he has denied.
Neither the FBI nor prosecutors have publicly announced charges connected to the latest searches.
Caption: On the day he became old enough under federal regulations to fly a glider solo, he was already prepared to take the controls.
On July 1, Cheng completed his first solo glider flight on his 14th birthday, reaching the minimum age at which the Federal Aviation Administration allows a student pilot to solo a glider or balloon.
By John Riddle
Most teenagers celebrate turning 14 with cake, presents and time with family and friends. Newark resident Jonathan Cheng celebrated his birthday a little differently.
He took control of a glider, climbed thousands of feet into the sky and flew solo.
On July 1, Cheng completed his first solo glider flight on his 14th birthday, reaching the minimum age at which the Federal Aviation Administration allows a student pilot to solo a glider or balloon.
For Cheng, the flight represented much more than a memorable way to celebrate a birthday. It was the culmination of years of interest in aviation and months of training, preparation and determination.
“I’ve been fascinated by aircraft since I was young and have always dreamed of flying one someday,” Cheng said. “Soloing a glider was an incredible experience, especially since I was able to do it on my 14th birthday, the youngest age possible.”
Cheng’s fascination with aviation began four years earlier when his father arranged a discovery flight for his 10th birthday. The hour in the air sparked an interest that quickly grew.
For his 11th birthday, Cheng wanted a flight simulator setup. He spent countless hours using it to learn more about the mechanics of flight. By age 12, he was ready to move beyond simulated flying and joined the Brandywine Soaring Association, where he began training at New Garden Airport.
Gliders provide a distinctly different flying experience from powered aircraft. Without an engine, pilots must understand air currents, locate rising air and carefully manage the aircraft’s available energy. Cheng describes it as the sensation of “flying like a bird.”
His involvement with the soaring association has extended beyond sitting in the cockpit. During more than a year of training, he has regularly volunteered as part of the ground crew, helping with wing-running, glider assembly and staging aircraft for flight operations.
The work eventually led to July 1.
In the days before his birthday, Cheng concentrated heavily on both ground and flight training. An additional challenge came when flight operations moved to a different airport, requiring him to become familiar with a new environment and traffic pattern.
When the day finally arrived, Cheng climbed into a Blanik glider. After being towed to 2,000 feet, he released the tow rope and was alone in the aircraft.
“I had spent a long time training and preparing for this moment, so finally being able to solo made me feel both excited and proud,” Cheng said. “It showed me that my hard work and dedication were paying off and motivated me to keep learning and pursuing my goal of becoming a pilot.”
He successfully flew his planned maneuvers and traffic pattern before bringing the glider back for a smooth landing on the grass.
The milestone was also a memorable moment for his father, Wei Cheng, who had watched his son’s interest in aviation grow from that first discovery flight into a serious pursuit.
“I couldn’t be prouder of Jonathan’s dedication and maturity,” Wei Cheng said. “Reaching this historic milestone on his exact 14th birthday is a testament to months of disciplined training, early mornings, and his unwavering commitment to his aviation goals.”
The conditions made the day even more challenging, with temperatures reaching about 100 degrees.
“Special credit goes to the Brandywine Soaring Association for making it happen,” Wei Cheng said. “We truly appreciate the local aviation community and feel blessed.”
Jonathan credits instructor Barry Muhlenberg, tow pilot Dan Wroe, his parents and members of the Brandywine Soaring Association with helping him reach his goal. His training has also received a boost from the Soaring Society of America, which awarded him the 2026 Purduski Flight Training Scholarship to help support his work toward a Private Pilot Glider Certificate.
Aviation, however, is only one part of Jonathan’s busy schedule.
He is a Cadet Master Sergeant in the Civil Air Patrol and a competitive archer. He also participated in the United States Naval Academy Summer STEM Camp. His interest in science and technology includes cybersecurity, software development, 3D printing and analog photography.
He reached the Platinum Tier in the CyberPatriot competition, with his team ranking in the top 30 percent of more than 5,000 teams. He also combines his engineering and aviation interests by 3D printing his own radio-controlled airplanes.
At school, Jonathan is the founder and president of the Rubik’s Club.
His father says Jonathan’s willingness to pursue opportunities has been an important part of his progress.
“He knows clearly what he wants to be, and he always drags us to take him to New Garden Airport whenever the weather permits,” Wei Cheng said. “His flight instructor is a USAFA graduate and retired fighter pilot, and Jonathan is learning not just how to fly, but also how to become a leader and serve our country.”
Jonathan already has his next aviation milestones mapped out. He hopes to earn his Private Pilot Glider Certificate at age 16 and a private pilot certificate for powered aircraft at 17.
His longer-term ambition is even higher. Inspired in part by aviation history and Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger’s book Highest Duty, Jonathan hopes to earn an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy as a member of the Class of 2030 and eventually serve as a fighter pilot.
For other young people who may think they need to wait until adulthood before seriously pursuing a dream, Jonathan has a different message.
“If you really care about something, don’t be afraid to work for it,” he said. “There will be challenges and days when things really don’t go perfectly, but you have to keep going and learn from your mistakes.”
He also encourages young people to seek out mentors, ask questions and surround themselves with people who will help them improve.
“Most importantly, start working toward your dream now,” Jonathan said. “You don’t have to wait until you’re older.”
Jonathan certainly didn’t.
On the day he became old enough under federal regulations to fly a glider solo, he was already prepared to take the controls.
Family relationships remain damaged and there is no clarity on how Sussexes’ security concerns have been resolved
Just as the departure of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’ from the UK six years ago came as a complete surprise, so too is their shock announcement they now intend to return.
Their unilateral decision could fairly be said to have blind-sided the royals. King Charles was only informed on Sunday and is said not to have been involved in the decision making. No mention was made when Harry, Meghan and their two children visited Charles at his private home, Highgrove, last month.
The soldier's eyes found mine across the room. His coat was tattered, his expression somewhere between exhaustion and resolve, the battlefield raging around him with no sign of mercy. His gaze suggested he knew how it would end. I did…
Japan is preparing a nonbinding "comply or explain" code that would urge generative AI companies, including foreign firms operating in Japan, to disclose what models they use, what training data they rely on, and how that data was collected. The proposal would also let rights holders ask whether specific webpages were included in training datasets. The Japan Times reports: The draft code comprises three principles. The first principle requires businesses to disclose the generative AI models they use, their training data and methods for collecting such data on their websites and make the information publicly accessible. Meanwhile, disclosure of sensitive information will not be mandatory. The second principle calls for businesses to disclose whether certain webpages are included in training data when requested by copyright holders and other rights holders who allege infringement. The third principle states that businesses will respond to requests for information from system and service users concerned about copyright infringement.
WAYNE, Pa. and TOKYO, Aug. 20, 2026 — Cornelis and NEC Corporation have announced an expanded collaboration that builds on the companies’ successful work together in Europe and will help organizations across Japan and the broader Asia-Pacific region deploy next-generation AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure using Cornelis high-performance networking solutions.
The expanded collaboration builds on NEC’s successful evaluation of the Cornelis CN5000 Omni-Path platform and the companies’ existing collaboration in Europe, creating a foundation to support enterprise AI, manufacturing, research, and high-performance computing deployments across Japan. As part of the collaboration, NEC also plans to participate in early evaluation activities for the next-generation Cornelis CN6000 platform, helping customers prepare for increasingly complex AI and HPC workloads.
“AI infrastructure is placing unprecedented demands on network performance, scalability, and efficiency,” said Lisa Spelman, CEO of Cornelis. “NEC’s extensive experience delivering enterprise and HPC infrastructure throughout Japan makes them an outstanding partner as we continue giving customers more choice and bringing advanced networking technologies to new markets. Together, we’re helping customers build AI and HPC environments that deliver greater performance today while preparing for the next generation of large-scale computing.”
The collaboration reflects growing adoption of open, high-performance networking alternatives as AI and HPC deployments continue to scale. Following a comprehensive technical evaluation of the CN5000 platform, NEC and Cornelis will continue collaborating to support customer opportunities by leveraging NEC’s long-standing relationships with enterprise, manufacturing, academic, and research organizations throughout Japan.
NEC’s evaluation included extensive MPI communication testing across multiple workloads and communication patterns, validating the capabilities of the CN5000 platform while also identifying optimization techniques that further improve application performance. The joint evaluation demonstrated the value of close engineering collaboration to help customers maximize networking efficiency across large-scale HPC environments.
The companies also plan to extend their collaboration to the upcoming Cornelis CN6000 platform, allowing NEC to evaluate next-generation networking technologies as customers prepare for larger AI training, inference, and HPC deployments.
“Organizations across Japan are preparing for increasingly complex AI and HPC environments that require higher performance, scalability, and efficiency,” said Takeshi Hirose, Senior Director of Compute Department, NEC Corporation. “Our collaboration with Cornelis broadens the high-performance networking technologies available to our customers while allowing us to evaluate next-generation capabilities that support future computing requirements.”
The collaboration further strengthens Cornelis’ growing global ecosystem of infrastructure partners, enabling customers to deploy high-performance networking through trusted server and infrastructure providers while benefiting from continued innovation across the Cornelis product portfolio.
As AI clusters continue to scale, Cornelis and NEC will continue working together to evaluate new networking technologies, optimize customer deployments, and support future AI and HPC infrastructure across Japan and beyond.
About Cornelis
Cornelis delivers high-performance, scale-out networking solutions that accelerate AI and HPC workloads. Built on the powerful Omni-Path architecture, Cornelis technology enables lossless, congestion-free networking that reduces training time, improves inference, and maximizes compute utilization. From foundation model training to complex climate modeling and real-time analytics, Cornelis’ solutions power the most demanding workloads across commercial, academic, government and cloud environments. With a focus on performance, scalability, and efficiency, Cornelis helps organizations achieve faster insights and greater return on infrastructure investments. Learn more at cornelis.com.
About NEC Corporation
The NEC Group leverages technology to create social value and promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential. NEC Corporation was established in 1899. Today, the NEC Group’s approximately 110,000 employees utilize world-leading AI, security, and communications technologies to solve the most pressing needs of customers and society. For more information, please visit https://www.nec.com.
Trade body says local chains would have to balance concerns with potential benefits of AI-enabled technology
Cinemas across the UK are considering banning customers from wearing Meta’s smart glasses amid fears they could be used to pirate films.
The UK Cinema Association (UKCA) trade body said that a number of local chains could end up introducing policies that restrict camera-enabled smart glasses at the big screen, adding to a growing list of venues concerned about covert use.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Aug. 20, 2026 — QC Ware, the organizer of Q2B conferences and a developer of computational chemistry and quantum computing software, has announced that the 2026 Q2B Copenhagen Conference will take place on September 9-10, 2026, in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference is presented in joint partnership with a Danish Consortium comprising the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Novo Holdings and 55 North.
As the Co-Host and Platinum Sponsor of the Q2B Copenhagen Conference, the Danish Consortium will lead strategic discussions focused on real-world quantum impact and international cooperation. Denmark has established itself as a leading European quantum hub by connecting cutting-edge research with industry adoption. Through strategic investment, public-private collaboration, and a rapidly growing quantum ecosystem, Denmark is helping strengthen Europe’s global leadership and accelerate the path from scientific breakthroughs to real-world business impact.
“Quantum innovation depends on strong international partnerships. We are proud to welcome the global quantum community to Copenhagen and connect international partners with the Danish quantum ecosystem, fostering the collaborations that will accelerate the commercial adoption of quantum technologies,” said Susanne Hyldelund, State Secretary for Trade and Investments, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
The conference will be held at Copenhagen’s Øksnehallen, and will explore all major quantum technologies: computing, AI, sensing, communications, and security. Attendees can expect keynotes, industry case studies, and expert panel discussions on the leading edge of quantum R&D from some of the world’s top businesses and institutions across government, academia, and Fortune 100 companies.
The conference will open with a panel of ambassadors discussing the importance of international cooperation in advancing quantum technology. The session will be moderated by Ms. Louise Lund Henneberg, Acting Director of the Department for Techplomacy at the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It will explore quantum collaboration today and in the future, the role of government in supporting the commercialisation and scaling of quantum technologies, and what still needs to happen across talent, collaboration, funding and technology innovation.
“Together with our outstanding local partners, we’re excited to showcase how the Nordic region is helping drive Europe’s leadership in the global quantum race and accelerate the journey from scientific breakthroughs to real-world impact,” said QC Ware CEO Matt Johnson.
Through keynotes, business seminars, breakout sessions, technical workshops, and panel discussions, attendees at the Q2B Copenhagen Conference will learn about the latest quantum hardware and software breakthroughs and applications in optimisation, chemistry simulations, pharmaceutical and materials discovery, error correction, and machine learning. Notable speakers include:
Lene Oddershede – CSO & Professor, Novo Nordisk Foundation
Hiro Mori – Chair of Global Consortium Alliance WG, Q-STAR
Matt Johnson – CEO, QC Ware
Lauri Sainiemi – Corporate Vice President, Fabrication, Microsoft Quantum
Peter Krogstrup – CEO, NQCP & Quantum Foundry Copenhagen
Dr. Nathan Baker – Head of Partnerships for Chemistry & Materials, Microsoft Quantum
Ellen Devereux – CTO Advisor for Quantum, Fujitsu
Anders Broo – Senior CMC Project Leader, AstraZeneca
On day two, Steven Camp, Managing Director, Quantum Investment Banking at Needham & Company, will host a Venture Capital panel with investors, including 55 North, Deep33, Quantonation, Firgun Ventures and Qbeat Ventures.
Additionally, the conference will feature several panels and sessions from real-world practitioners and experts across industries, including AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim and Merck on pharmaceuticals and NTT Data Group Corporation on telecommunications.
Q2B is dedicated to promoting and growing the quantum technologies ecosystem. One of the critical components of the conference is the Start-up Pitch Competition organised by BioInnovation Institute. On September 9, a select group of early-stage start-ups will pitch their solutions to investors, corporates, researchers, and the wider ecosystem.
Industry leaders charting the future of quantum technology adoption from companies including NVIDIA, HPE Quantum, BCG.X, Quantum Security Defense Ltd., WISER, Alliander, Chicago Quantum Exchange, Resonance and GQI, will deliver sessions on recent advancements in the field.
The Q2B Copenhagen Conference will also host a number of vendors showcasing their latest advancements in quantum technologies, including Microsoft, Classiq, Multiverse Computing, Atom Computing, Nvision Quantum Technologies, Fujitsu, Quantinuum, Kvantify, Hamamatsu Photonics, Phasecraft, ZuriQ, kiutra, C12, Qpurpose, QC Design, IQM, AWS, and more.
Find the full agenda, featured speakers, exhibitors and register to attend the Q2B 2026 Copenhagen Conference here.
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.
(The Center Square) – Voting no to eliminate taxes on overtime, tips and for Social Security beneficiaries is back as a campaign issue for second term Democratic Rep. Don Davis of North Carolina.
ONLINE EMBARGO 12.00 BST, 20/08/26Adrián Carballo Casla. // People over 60 who leave over 12 hours between meals are more susceptible to chronic diseases, according to a new study.The findings show trendy fasting diets are not suitable for older people,…
Exclusive: Bridget Phillipson says politicians have helped fuel hatred and that police are not taking violence against women and girls seriously enough
Racism and sexism have become normalised in Britain, the equalities minister has said, as she warned that young men were being sucked into violent misogyny by the “cesspit” of social media.
Bridget Phillipson said she was increasingly worried about how commonplace misogyny and racism had become, fuelled by online interactions and statements by politicians she said would not have been acceptable a few years ago.
Joanna Boydell has quit as budget hotel chain scrambles to improve safety
Meanwhile, the UK’s sports fashion retailer JD Sports has slashed its profit forecasts as cost-of-living pressures, fuelled by the US war on Iran, weighed on sales of trainers.
JD Sports, which sells a range of sports brands including Nike and Adidas, said widespread inflation had hit shoppers’ wallets, resulting in falling sales across important markets such as the US, where it struggled to quickly shift trainers and other footwear.
Buying back more long-dated debt should ease pressure on longer-term yields, helping households through lower mortgage rates and corporations through lower borrowing costs. That’s positive.
For the dollar, lower long-term yields are initially negative, as they reduce the attractiveness of US assets to international investors. That’s partly why the dollar sold off so aggressively yesterday.
@edgeaholic Check your charge connector on the bms board, it may be burnt, the picture is not mine and my applogies to whomever posted this picture of a burnt pint charge connector.a9a9dc06-e7d0-4bd5-85c7-c1b4eff94662-image.png
Caption: This is the second installment of a three-part Delaware LIVE series examining Delaware’s literacy challenge.
Reaching the 2028 goal will require faster progress, interim measurements, and action when strategies fail
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-part Delaware LIVE series examining Delaware’s literacy challenge. Part 1 reported the latest assessment results and introduced the state’s 2028 reading goal. Read Part 1.
By George D. Rotsch, Editor, Delaware LIVE
DOVER, Del. — Delaware has established a clear literacy destination: At least 53% of third graders reading proficiently by 2028.
The state has not yet presented an equally clear public path for getting there.
Third-grade English language arts proficiency reached 40% in 2026, up 1 percentage point from the previous year. That leaves Delaware with a 13-point gap and two annual testing cycles remaining. Note: the full report can be accessed online: https://news.delaware.gov/files/2026/08/State-Board-2026-Briefing-August-20.pdf
To reach the goal on a roughly even trajectory, proficiency would need to rise to approximately 46.5% in 2027 and 53% in 2028.
That would require average annual gains of 6.5 percentage points—more than six times the improvement recorded this year.
If proficiency continued rising at only 1 point per year, it would reach approximately 42% in 2028. At that rate, Delaware would not reach 53% until about 2039.
That is a mathematical illustration, not a prediction. Results can accelerate, particularly when effective instructional changes reach large numbers of classrooms. But the calculation demonstrates that incremental improvement will not be sufficient.
A goal needs interim benchmarks
Delaware’s Early Literacy Plan calls for a public dashboard, quarterly progress updates and an annual State of Literacy report.
Those measures can improve transparency. But reporting results is not the same as establishing what must happen when results fall short.
A complete accountability plan should identify:
The statewide proficiency target for 2027.
Corresponding district and school targets.
The officials responsible for implementation.
The expected effect of each major literacy strategy.
The cost of each initiative.
The measurements used during the school year.
The response when a benchmark is missed.
The conditions for expanding, revising or ending a program.
Without interim benchmarks, the public may not learn that Delaware is off track until the 2028 results are released.
Boards cannot wait for the next state test
Annual assessments show whether students met the state standard, but the results arrive after the school year has ended. For school boards, the challenge is to use that annual result to establish a clear student outcome goal and then monitor progress toward it throughout the year.
Keleher said the board and superintendent have different responsibilities in that process. The board establishes the student outcome it expects and monitors whether the district is making sufficient progress toward it. The superintendent and educators determine the strategy for achieving the goal and manage its implementation. That distinction is consistent with student-outcomes-focused governance frameworks, which place goals and progress monitoring with the board while leaving implementation to the superintendent and administration.
“The annual assessment tells a board where students finished, but boards don’t have to wait until the end of the next school year to know whether students are on track,” Keleher said. “Once the board establishes the outcome it expects, the superintendent can identify the measures that will show throughout the year whether the district’s strategy is being implemented and students are making progress.”
Boards should receive regular reports on:
Early literacy screening.
Students reading above, at or below grade level.
Students assigned to additional intervention.
Progress among students receiving assistance.
Attendance in kindergarten through third grade.
Differences among schools and student groups.
Implementation of approved literacy programs.
Program spending and the results expected from it.
Those measures will depend on the district’s strategy and the barriers it is trying to address. They could include student reading progress, early literacy screening, attendance, access to intervention, or evidence that the district’s literacy strategy is being implemented as intended. Academic KPIs and interim measures are commonly used by districts to track progress over time rather than relying solely on annual results.
“The board’s role is not to determine which intervention a student receives or manage how a literacy program is implemented. Its role is to set the outcome, understand the superintendent’s strategy, ensure resources and policies support it, and monitor the evidence that shows whether students are on track.” Keleher said.
If progress is insufficient, the board asks what the superintendent is changing and determines whether additional governance action is needed. This approach also creates greater transparency for the broader community: everyone can understand the outcome the district is working toward, the strategy for achieving it, whether students are making progress, and where there are opportunities to contribute.
Mississippi added a promotion consequence
Mississippi adopted a more consequential approach through its Literacy-Based Promotion Act.
Under the law, a third grader scoring in the lowest two achievement levels on the state reading assessment generally is not promoted to fourth grade unless the student later demonstrates sufficient competency or qualifies for a good-cause exemption.
The policy is not based on one testing opportunity. Mississippi provides reading intervention, individual plans, parent notification and opportunities to retest. The law also includes exemptions for specified students and circumstances.
The promotion requirement establishes a clear expectation: Students generally must demonstrate minimum reading competency before advancing to fourth grade.
Mississippi reported that 84.6% of third graders passed its reading assessment after their final opportunity in 2025.
That percentage should not be directly compared with Delaware’s 40% proficiency rate because the states use different assessments, performance standards and reporting methods.
Mississippi’s improvement also cannot be attributed solely to its promotion requirement. The state combined that policy with early screening, teacher training, evidence-based instruction, literacy coaches and intervention for struggling students.
Delaware emphasizes support and reporting
Delaware also is investing in evidence-based materials, teacher development, screening, coaching and family engagement.
Unlike Mississippi, Delaware has not made third-grade reading competency a statewide requirement for promotion to fourth grade.
Delaware’s assessment identifies whether a child met the standard, but students may advance without demonstrating proficiency. Promotion and retention decisions remain largely local.
The difference can be summarized simply: Mississippi added a gate. Delaware established a goal and a reporting system.
Delaware is not without accountability. Schools may be identified for support and intervention through the Delaware School Success Framework, which considers achievement, growth, attendance and other measures.
But Delaware has not established a comparable statewide consequence when a third grader fails to demonstrate minimum reading competency.
Who should face the consequence?
Mississippi’s approach raises a difficult policy question: Should the immediate consequence fall on a child who has not learned to read, or should it fall more directly on the adults and institutions responsible for delivering instruction?
Supporters of literacy-based promotion argue that advancing a student who cannot read does not solve the problem. It transfers the problem to fourth grade, when students increasingly must read independently to learn other subjects.
Critics argue that retention can impose social and emotional costs and disproportionately affect low-income students, multilingual learners and students with disabilities.
They also warn that repeating third grade will accomplish little if the student simply receives the same instruction that previously failed to produce results.
Delaware would not necessarily have to copy Mississippi. A graduated approach could require:
Early identification of reading difficulties.
An individual reading plan.
Intensive intervention.
Summer instruction.
Multiple opportunities to demonstrate competency.
A parent, teacher and principal review before promotion.
Appropriate exemptions.
Corrective action when a school repeatedly produces low results.
That would preserve professional judgment while making third-grade reading more than an annual statistic.
Accountability involves changing course
“Accountability involves changing course that goes beyond receiving a report and acknowledging disappointing results”, says Nancy Mercante, President of Citizens for Delaware Schools.
“It includes transparent reporting by every school board to the community about progress and setbacks. Every board must make academic achievement their top priority and engage in monthly discussions about improving it. Meeting thir goals will require particular attention to high-needs students, who keep falling further behind.”
A board’s response could include:
Strengthening implementation.
Directing more support toward struggling schools.
Revising an intervention.
Redirecting resources.
Replacing an ineffective program.
Requiring a school-specific corrective plan.
Making leadership changes when warranted.
The objective should not be to punish schools for serving high-need students. It should be to prevent persistently low performance from becoming accepted.
Promising programs need further evidence
The eight Delaware schools receiving literacy coaching and having comparable data averaged gains of nearly 7 percentage points.
That is approximately the annual statewide gain Delaware now needs to reach the 2028 target.
The results warrant further examination, but responsible expansion requires answers:
How much did the coaching cost?
How often did coaches work with teachers?
What other instructional changes occurred?
Did school leadership or enrollment change?
How did comparable schools perform without coaches?
Can the gains be sustained?
Does Delaware have enough qualified personnel to expand the program?
A program should not be considered successful merely because it was launched, fully staffed or well received. The ultimate measure is whether students receiving the service make meaningful and sustained progress.
Delaware must define the path
Delaware has defined where it wants third-grade reading proficiency to be in 2028.
Reaching that target will require interim measurements that show whether students are on track, clear responsibility for implementation and a defined response when strategies fail.
Otherwise, the 53% target risks becoming an aspiration rather than an accountability measure.
Read Part 3:
Delaware’s new funding model will give school boards greater discretion over education resources. Part 3 examines how boards can use academic evidence, professional guidance and community participation to make better literacy decisions.
The couple's decision to move back to Britain comes after a high-profile split and tell-all memoir. Here are the biggest moments from a tumultuous eight years.
In a new video shared first with CBS News, Tulsi Gabbard said doctors discovered the cancer, a sacral chordoma, a rare tumor, after her husband, Abraham Williams, experienced back pain.
The Elden Ring creator is known for epic single-player RPGs, but its new action game is all about multiplayer interactions: fighting, chasing, befriending, even … proposing?
Lowanro City’s skyline is dominated by an oppressive clock tower, silhouetted against a moody red sky and an impossibly large, ominous moon. A retractable bridge splits the map in two, and a network of slimy sewers runs beneath the city streets, offering flanking routes for crafty players. This layered and multi-tiered map bears all the hallmarks of the team behind some of the most memorable stomping grounds in video games.
But The Duskbloods, which I recently spent two days playing in Tokyo, is a strange departure from developer FromSoftware’s usual offerings. These have included massive single-player RPGs with light, experimental multiplayer components such as Elden Ring and Bloodborne. Those games have always attracted duellists – players who love to invade other people’s games to fight them to the death – but this Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive is a different proposition entirely.
In 2024, Constance Soule got a surprise from her landlord: a “notice of termination” that gave her 10 days to move out of her apartment.
Soule, a disabled Alzheimer’s patient with a housing voucher, had paid her rent at a Larkspur, California complex managed by Greystar, the country’s largest apartment manager. But she was about to be evicted from her home across from the Golden Gate Bridge solely over utility charges, court documents show.
Crustaceans are the subject of tests to see if alkalis added to seawater, so it absorbs more CO2, harm marine life. But Trump’s halt to funding threatens to scupper the research
For many in the US region of New England, the lobster roll is synonymous with summertime. Loaded into a toasted bun, chunks of the sweet meat are served hot and soaked in butter, or chilled and slathered in mayonnaise with celery and herbs.
The only thing more debated than the recipe is the price: the once-humble roll now routinely fetches $30 (£22), or even $50, in a sign of the changing times – and seas.
Scott Lord brings in his catch of lobster to the wharf in Tenants Harbor, Maine
Administration’s plan to scrap drilling-free buffer zone around New Mexico site prompts scrutiny from Unesco
The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas extraction across the US is set to bring drilling near cherished natural and cultural sites, raising alarm among conservationists and prompting questions from the UN’s heritage body.
Unesco said it had received information on the administration’s plan to scrap a drilling-free buffer zone around the Chaco Culture national historical park in New Mexico, a world heritage site and one of the most important cultural areas in the US. A Unesco spokesperson said it had procedures regarding “potential threats” to a world heritage property and was awaiting a response from the federal government as to its impact.
A member of the online extremist network "764," which targets children and minors online, received a record 77-year federal prison sentence on Wednesday.
When Daniel arrived in the U.S. about two decades ago, he came on a legal tourist visa. Once here, having fled his home country in South America, he filed an asylum application. A judge, however, eventually denied his claim.
Then 11 years ago, he married his partner, a U.S. citizen. Together, they had two children, who are also citizens. The couple filed a petition to grant him legal status through their marriage, but then Daniel was issued a deportation order, which presented a barrier in his case.
It’s hard to comprehend how it can be so difficult to legally stay with one’s family, but Daniel, for whom The Intercept is using a pseudonym, would soon face an even more mystifying hurdle: He recently received a letter from the government saying he owes about $368,000, according to his attorney, who recounted his tale.
Last year, President Donald Trump issued an executive order using a never-before-touched law to levy fines on an immigrant for each day he “willfully fails or refuses” to leave after receiving a removal order. Trump’s order also increased the fine from $500 to $998 per day to, supposedly, update it for inflation.
“It’s ‘Hurry and pay — oh, by the way, we’re not going to give you any appropriate information.’”
The Trump administration quickly started issuing fines as high as $1.8 million — the maximum penalty for the maximum five-year period, although unpaid fines can also accrue interest — to immigrants last year. As of July, more than 100,000 immigrants had received notices of fines, totaling more than $84 million, according to the government.
The administration says it will forgive the debts if immigrants leave the country.
Daniel is eager to pay as much as he can, fearing the financial and immigration repercussions of not responding to the notice he received. But there’s a big problem: He can’t.
And it’s not for a lack of funds. Instead, Daniel simply doesn’t have the information necessary to make a payment; the government never provided it to him. The letter he received informing him of the fines he owed had a blank field where there should have been an identification number for the online payments system. (The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.)
Daniel and his wife tried putting his Social Security number and the alien number that tracks him in the immigration system into the website. Neither worked. His wife even tried calling to find out how to pay, only to sit on hold for over an hour and a half and then have the call disconnect.
“It’s ‘Hurry and pay — oh, by the way, we’re not going to give you any appropriate information,’” said Melanie Zamenhof, a senior attorney on the New York Legal Response Team at Neighbors Link, who has been helping Daniel.
Daniel’s experience is not unique. Zamenhof hasn’t had a single immigrant client who was able to successfully pay the fine the administration levied against them. No one at her organization has, either.
No Way to Pay
The letters immigrants are receiving about the fines are typically brief.
They include the date an immigrant was issued an order of removal and a checked box saying, “You willfully failed or refused to depart from the United States pursuant to the order.” Based on that, the letters say, “you are subject to a civil monetary penalty.”
The letters don’t explain how the figures have been calculated, whether interest has been applied and at what rate, or even when the fines started being tolled or when they might stop.
The letters say recipients only have 15 business days after issuance to formally contest the fines, though many received them after the period had expired.
“Like any bill that anyone receives,” Zamenhof said, “you always want an explanation of benefits, some breakdown.”
This year, the helpline at Neighbors Link started getting calls from about a dozen immigrants saying they’d received letters. The callers asked the attorneys where they should go to pay what they were told they owe.
“All the attorneys are like, ‘What a great question. Where do you pay it?’” Zamenhof said.
Finding a working website to pay the fines leads to dead ends. Typically, immigration-related fees are paid to other agencies, such as the Department of Justice or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, but none of those avenues work for the failure-to-leave fines.
“Where do you pay it?”
Instead, a sheet included with the government letters offers “payment options.” Those include a QR code that points to pay.gov and instructions to search for “DHS Civil Penalty and Fee” in a box on the website.
The pay.gov website is frequently down, Zamenhof said, and when it’s working, the option to pay the civil penalty is sometimes not on the dropdown menu.
The government also no longer accepts cashier’s checks or money orders, Zamenhof said, which means the fines can only be paid with a debit or credit card — a hurdle on its own for any immigrant who can’t qualify for a U.S. bank account yet.
Meanwhile, to get through the payment system an immigrant must have a payor number; the information sheet says they need a “penalty tracking number.” That’s supposed to be on the letters they receive about their fines, but Zamenhof has seen multiple letters like Daniel’s, where the field for the number is left blank.
Even if someone were able to get through to a payment page, most don’t have these vast sums of money at hand. Attorneys at Neighbors Link have seen amounts in the hundreds of thousands of dollars; the fines go as high as $1,820,352.
A recent report from the New York University Law School’s Immigrant Rights Clinic found that none of the immigrant advocates they spoke to had clients who were able to pay.
“They’re always going for the maximum amount that they think they can charge based on just the passage of time,” said Hasan Shafiqullah, the supervising attorney for immigration at the Legal Aid Society. “Nobody has that money laying around.”
A Willful Failure?
There doesn’t appear to be any way to make a partial payment or set up a payment plan. All the while, the fines and interest keep accruing as people are unable to pay any of it off. Even if someone pays the entire amount, it’s not clear that will stop more fines from accruing.
The Legal Aid Society is among a coalition that sued the Department of Homeland Security over the fines, arguing that they have not been legally assessed nor that recipients have a meaningful opportunity to contest them.
“They’re not making an individualized determination about: ‘Am I unwillful?’” Shafiqullah argued. “The fact that I have a removal order and I’m physically present isn’t enough to show that I willfully failed to depart. Y’all didn’t make an individual determination, there’s no space on the form to do that.”
According to the New York University report, 71 percent of survey respondents had legal immigration status or protection against removal or were in the process of pursuing remedies.
The immigrants who come to the Legal Aid Society often have or are seeking permission to stay in the country. Some have an order of supervision from ICE that allows them to stay and work; others are seeking legal status through visas for victims of crime or through their family members.
Some of the people facing the fines have even successfully reopened their immigration cases and no longer have an order of removal.
“They’re not willfully failing to depart, they’re doing all the things they’re entitled to do under the law,” he said.
Even when immigrants in these situations have appealed their fines, Shafiqullah said, they’ve been denied.
Failure to pay could result in the government seizing assets, including people’s homes, or wage or tax refund garnishment. As of May, the administration had initiated over 50 lawsuits against immigrants to get them to pay, in some cases seeking their tax refunds. One immigrant woman says the Treasury Department seized her and her U.S. citizen’s joint tax refund and reported her to credit bureaus.
The administration is also sending the debts to collections agencies, which are adding hundreds of thousands on to the original amounts in administrative fees.
Not paying could also harm potential pathways to legal immigration status: Judges can deem unpaid debt to the government a negative factor — potentially leading green card applicants to be labeled as “public charges,” blocking them.
Zamenhof, the lawyer from Neighbors Link, has been urging clients to document their attempts to pay their fines — recording how many phone calls they made and taking screenshots of the faulty website portal being down or broken — in case their debt is brought before a judge.
Daniel and his wife are ready to pay a quarter of what the government says he owes and find a way to pay down the rest, though they would still like to understand a breakdown of how the charges and interest were calculated.
“They’re very eager to comply with this, even though they dispute and don’t agree with the total amount,” Zamenhof said.
Constant Fear
For now, Daniel lives in constant fear because he can’t pay. He worries that his wages, tax refund, and children’s college fund could all be at risk of government seizure. Will debt collectors show up at the couple’s door and shake them down? Worse, will ICE show up and detain Daniel?
Even if none of this comes to pass, there’s still an open question: Will owing outstanding fines to the government harm his attempt to reopen and terminate the removal order against him and become a green card holder through his wife? What will a judge say?
“Is it now going to be seen as a negative factor,” Zamenhof said, “despite all of our best efforts to comply?”
BERKELEY, Calif., Aug. 20, 2026 — Rigetti Computing, Inc., a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing, has announced a new operating structure designed to scale deployment of on-premises quantum systems, strengthen end-to-end operational execution, and further focus its engineering resources on quantum processor development.
Rigetti is establishing a dedicated Systems Delivery organization and creating the role of Chief Operating Officer to lead manufacturing operations, systems delivery, commercial functions, and customer-facing engineering. Quantum processor architecture, chip development, and hardware engineering will be consolidated under the Chief Technology Officer.
The Company has seen increased demand for customer deployments of on-premises systems, ranging from 9-qubit Novera systems to large-scale 108-qubit Cepheus-class systems. Historically, installation and customer support activities have been supported within the engineering organization. The new structure creates dedicated leadership and resources for system deployment and customer success, while enabling engineering teams to concentrate on advancing processor performance and the Company’s published technology roadmap, including its target of 99.5% median two-qubit gate fidelity on Cepheus-1-108Q.
David Rivas, who has served as Rigetti’s Chief Technology Officer since February 2023, has been appointed Chief Operating Officer. In this newly created role, Rivas will oversee fabrication operations, systems delivery, software engineering, applications, business development, government programs, supply chain, and facilities.
Andrew Bestwick, Ph.D., currently Senior Vice President, Quantum Systems, has been appointed Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Bestwick has led the architecture of Rigetti’s Cepheus-class multi-chip systems and will oversee quantum processor development, chip fabrication development, and hardware engineering. The technology organization will remain Rigetti’s largest engineering organization, underscoring the Company’s continued focus on advancing processor performance and executing its technology roadmap.
Both executives report to Rigetti’s President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Subodh Kulkarni. The appointments are effective August 18.
“Rigetti’s growing deployment activity makes this the right time to establish a dedicated organization focused on delivering and supporting systems for customers,” said Dr. Kulkarni. “This structure gives our commercial and operational teams clear, end-to-end accountability for scaling system delivery, while giving our technology organization even greater focus on quantum processor innovation and performance. David brings deep experience building the operational capabilities that support our systems and customers, and Andrew brings exceptional technical leadership to our chiplet-based architecture. Together, we believe these appointments position Rigetti to execute across both customer deployments and our technology roadmap.”
About David Rivas
David Rivas joined Rigetti in March 2019 as Senior Vice President of Systems and Services, where he oversaw the engineering and operations of Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services platform, and was appointed Chief Technology Officer in February 2023. He previously held executive positions at Sun Microsystems, Nokia, Bolt Threads, and Stage 3 Systems, including leadership of field engineering and services organizations of product management, and core engineering organizations. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and an M.S. in electrical engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
About Andrew Bestwick
Andrew Bestwick, Ph.D., joined Rigetti in August 2015 and has held technical and leadership positions spanning chip fabrication, circuit design, cryogenic RF hardware engineering, and system architecture. He was appointed Senior Vice President, Quantum Systems in January 2024. He previously worked in management consulting at Bain & Company. He holds an A.B. in physics and mathematics from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.
About Rigetti
Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70 nanoseconds, which is about 10,000 times faster than trapped-ion systems and 100 times faster than neutral-atom systems.
Rigetti sells on-premises 9-qubit to 108-qubit quantum computing systems, which support national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s Cepheus 36-qubit to 108-qubit systems are based on the Company’s proprietary chiplet-based technology and include the Company’s control electronics. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems.
The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing.
Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2026 with Cepheus-1-108Q, based on twelve 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com.
In announcing the latest FBI annual report on nationwide crime, President Donald Trump wrongly cast the decline in crime in 2025 as a dramatic turnaround and made misleading claims about the impact of his administration’s policies.
Speaking to an audience of law enforcement officers at the Nassau County police academy on Aug. 14, Trump said that his speech was meant to “celebrate the historic progress our administration is making together with law enforcement partners nationwide to restore law and order in America.” The FBI that day released data collected from local law enforcement agencies showing that both violent and property crime nationwide declined from 2024 to 2025, with the largest one-year drops in the violent crime and murder rates since the FBI began publishing these estimates in 1936.
The president accurately cited those large one-year reductions, but he ran afoul of the facts and available evidence in taking credit for them:
Trump claimed that the decline happened “because of what the federal government’s doing.” Criminology experts say there are many plausible factors and the exact reasons are unclear.
He claimed that the U.S. experienced “a horrible four years” of violent crime during the Biden administration. But violent crime fell during the second half of Biden’s presidency and was lower in the last year of Joe Biden’s term compared with Trump’s final year in office.
Trump vastly overstated the decline in crime since his deployment of National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., Memphis and New Orleans, citing 70% or 80% reductions that don’t match up with police data. Experts also say the troops aren’t the primary reason for crime dropping in those cities.
The president suggested that an executive order he signed upon taking office in 2025 contributed to a significant decline in police officers dying in the line of duty that year. However, the law enforcement organization that keeps records of such deaths said the decrease was “likely” due to other factors.
Trump’s speech embracing the FBI’s report for 2025 is noteworthy because he previously disparaged the FBI reports as “fake,” “phony” and “a fraud” when they showed a decline in crime under Biden.
Reasons for Crime Drop Unclear
Trump cited several statistics from the FBI report and claimed credit for the 2024-to-2025 crime reduction. But criminology experts have said the reasons behind the decrease are myriad and unclear. Also, the large single-year declines in 2025 follow a few years of crime dropping after a spike during the 2020 pandemic.
“And with your help, last year, we achieved the largest drop in murder rate ever recorded, the lowest level in 125 years. That’s since the year 1900,” Trump said, adding that according to the FBI crime report, “we achieved the single largest reduction in violent crime in American history.”
Trump is correct that the FBI report says the data it collects from local law enforcement agencies show the 2024-to-2025 decreases in both the violent crime rate and the murder rate were the largest one-year declines since the FBI began releasing the nationwide crime estimates in 1936. The violent crime rate went down by 9.7%, and the murder and nonnegligent manslaughter rate dropped by 18.5%, the FBI said.
The data are estimates based on figures submitted by more than 17,000 local law enforcement agencies covering about 96% of the U.S. population. The violent crime rate went from 362.9 offenses per 100,000 population in 2024 to 327.6 per 100,000 population last year. The murder rate dropped from 5.1 per 100,000 to 4.1.
Trump’s reference to the murder rate being the lowest since 1900 comes from a report by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonprofit think tank, which used FBI statistics dating back to 1960 and public health data going back to 1900 in determining that. (See Figure 20 in CCJ’s year-end report for 2025.)
The murder rate is the lowest over that time, per CCJ’s methodology. The FBI said the 4.1 rate is tied with the bureau’s 1955 and 1956 figures. (CCJ explained to us that it didn’t use the FBI estimates prior to 1960 because they weren’t standardized and are considered less reliable.)
Regardless, the murder rate is now at a historic low.
“Overall, it was the largest percentage point drop in murder, violent crime and property crime ever recorded,” Jeff Asher, a co-founder of AH Datalytics, a consulting firm that compiles crime data, wrote on Substack. “With murder you have to go all the way back to 2024 to find the previous largest one-year drop in murder and before that the previous largest one-year drop was in 2023.”
In his speech, Trump went on to credit his administration. “But we have the numbers down because of what the federal government’s doing,” the president said. “We get no — we get no credit for it. … They like to take all the credit, but everyone knows we’ve done an amazing job.”
In an Aug. 18 press release, the White House similarly said that Trump and his administration “have delivered the most dramatic decline in violent crime in American history.” It wrongly said the FBI crime estimates “mark the decisive reversal of the crime crisis Democrats left behind.” As we explain later in this article, the rates for violent crimes were lower in 2024 than in 2020, Trump’s last year of his first term. The press release went on to cite figures on arrests made by the FBI.
Presidents of both parties often take credit for the good things that happen while they’re in office, but experts say the reasons behind the 2025 crime figures aren’t yet known.
“The homicide drop is historic and crystal clear. But right now, what’s driving it is about as clear as a glass of milk,” Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, said in a statement. “Rates are falling in cities with very different public safety strategies, economic conditions, and political leadership.”
Criminology experts have told us before that one or even a few years of crime data isn’t enough to draw conclusions.
“As with every edition with these kind of reports, the feeding frenzy begins to take credit,” Matthew Cavedon, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, told the Washington Post. “Everybody wants to be able to go to the public and the voters and say, ‘This is exactly what did it.’ It’s a bit of a fool’s errand to even try.”
The Trump administration, however, is taking a victory lap. We asked the White House if there were reports or other information it could point to showing the crime drop in 2025 was due to the administration’s actions or policies. “President Trump is right: thanks to this Administration’s tough-on-crime policies, 2025 showed the largest year-to-year decrease in violent crime. President Trump has restored law and order,” Lauren Bis, a White House spokeswoman, said in response.
In an interview, Gelb told us that there could be some impact on crime from what the administration is doing, but we don’t know what that is yet.
He said that attrition is one factor that could be playing a role, as there are fewer high-risk people on the street. Factors contributing to that, he said, include a surplus in murders beginning in 2020 (resulting in more arrests and some criminals killed), a spike in drug overdose deaths, and the federal government’s immigration enforcement and other activities. While clearly not all those who die from drug overdoses, or all immigrants swept up by the federal government, have committed crimes, some percentage of them would have some involvement in criminal activity.
Available data have shown that the majority of immigration enforcement by the federal government has swept up people without convictions or charges for violent crime. A February CBS News report said that about 14% of nearly 400,000 arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2025 involved those with charges or convictions for violent crimes, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security document. We’ve also reported that an increasing percentage of ICE arrests over Trump’s first year back in office were of those with no criminal convictions or pending charges, whether for violent or lesser offenses. Still, the increased enforcement does result in some number of violent criminals being detained.
Gelb cautioned, however, that reducing crime isn’t “as simple as taking bad guys off the street,” because of the replacement effect, where those arrested are quickly replaced by someone else in a criminal organization, such as in gang activity, drug dealing or organized retail theft.
Asked when there might be clarity on the Trump administration’s impact on crime, Gelb said, “We’re still trying to understand the crime drop that started in the early 1990s. So, I don’t think we can expect definitive conclusions that with any precision assign credit to any particular policy, program, party or leader. … But with careful and rigorous analysis, we can get a lot closer.”
Next month, CCJ is convening about 50 crime researchers and scholars to discuss the reasons behind the decline in crime in recent years, and they’re looking at about 40 different plausible factors. Gelb said that they fall into three buckets: criminal justice operations, strategies, policies and programs; technology; and social and cultural shifts.
He went on to list several factors in each of those buckets. Criminal justice would include local and federal policies under multiple administrations, community violence intervention programs, and mayoral offices’ whole-of-government strategies that involve everything from policing to improving street lighting. Technology includes a “massive expansion in the last few years of surveillance” through cameras; a shift to a cashless society, which reduces robberies; and improvements in emergency medical care that can lower the lethality rate from assaults or robberies. Finally, the broad social and cultural changes include people drinking less, particularly young people, and kids spending more time at home alone — on their phones — rather than being out with friends.
“You know the movie ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’?” Gelb asked. “That’s what we’ve got here. And when you have so many, so many things happening at once, it can be extremely hard to disentangle.”
Violent Crime Under Biden
Trump also claimed that the U.S. had “four years in hell” because of violent crime under Biden. But the violent crime rate was lower when Biden left office than when Biden was inaugurated.
“And in the past four years, before I took office, our country was overrun by violent criminals,” Trump said. “I mean, you remember just a couple of years ago, how bad it was, right? It was really bad, foreign gangs, savage thugs with Biden, sleepy Joe. What a — what a horrible four years. That was four years in hell. We lived in hell.”
FBI data show the overall violent crime rate did increase a smidge during the first half of Biden’s term. It was 389.5 per 100,000 population in 2022, a slight bump from the rate of 389.2 per 100,000 in 2020, Trump’s last full year in office, when violent crime spiked during the pandemic. (See Table 1 after downloading the FBI’s 2025 estimations for crime in the U.S.)
But violent crime began to fall in 2023 and the rate was down to 362.9 per 100,000 in 2024. That was 26.3 fewer offenses per 100,000 population than in 2020 and even down from the pre-pandemic rate of 368.6 per 100,000 in 2019.
In fact, the rates of murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault were all lower in 2024 than in 2020. The murder rate in particular dropped from 6.6 in 2020 to 5.1 in 2024, and the number of murders declined by about 21%. At the same time, the rate of aggravated assaults declined by 13.7 offenses per 100,000 and the raw number went down by almost 2%.
Impact of National Guard
Trump touted his efforts to deploy the National Guard and federal law enforcement to assist several cities with crime, and he said it has paid dramatic dividends. But he vastly overstated the drop in crime post-National Guard. And crime experts say the infusion of National Guard troops is not the primary reason for the reduced crime those cities have experienced.
Members of the U.S. National Guard patrol near the Washington Monument on the National Mall with the Lincoln Memorial in the background on Aug. 6 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images.
Via presidential memos, Trump deployed the National Guard in several cities to focus on public safety: in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 11, 2025; in Memphis on Sept. 15; and in New Orleans in late December.
“In Memphis, crime is down 71%. In New Orleans, crime is down 75%. And in D.C., crime is down 81%,” Trump said. “I’ll tell you, because D.C. is very personal for me, but in D.C., crime is — it was so bad when I got there. A year and a half ago, people were being murdered, three a week on average. We have very few murders anymore.”
There were 16 homicides in Washington, D.C., in July, more than the “three a week on average” Trump said was the norm before he deployed the National Guard there.
But overall, crime and homicides are generally down in the three cities where Trump deployed the National Guard, just not by nearly as much as Trump claimed. And crime had been trending down for at least a few years prior to the National Guard arrival.
The White House did not respond to our question about the source of Trump’s figures.
Washington, D.C.
On Aug. 11, 2025, Trump declared what he called “Liberation Day in D.C.” to “rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam and squalor and worse.” He put the Metropolitan Police Department under temporary federal control and deployed the National Guard to the nation’s capital to help with law enforcement.
Data from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department indicate a 20% reduction in overall crime in D.C. so far in 2026, compared with a similar period in 2025.
Digging into the numbers, there were 67 homicides between Jan. 1 and Aug. 14, 33% fewer than over the same period in 2025 (nearly entirely before the National Guard deployment). Robberies over the same period were down 14%. But sex abuse cases were up 2%, and assaults with a dangerous weapon rose 40%. Overall, violent crime rose 4%. Property crimes declined by 23%.
“If you want to argue that there was an additional decline on top of that [the downward trend] due to all these interventions, you could plausibly make that argument,” Asher, with AH Datalytics, told the Washington Post. “But you can’t make the argument that the intervention caused that decline or even was a major factor in those trends turning over.”
Thaddeus Johnson, an assistant professor at Georgia State University and a senior fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, echoed that conclusion, telling the Washington Post, “One would be hard-pressed to say that it didn’t play a role, but you would also be hard-pressed to say it was the only or primary reason why we’ve seen reductions.”
“DC homicides fell from 187 in 2024, the year before [Trump] took office, to 127 in 2025, and are down another 32% so far this year, from about 3.6 murders a week in 2024 to about 2 a week now,” Richard Hahn, senior manager for research and evidence in the Niskanen Center’s criminal justice department, told us via email. “That is a roughly 40% improvement on the pace he inherited, not 81%, and the sharpest single drop (274 homicides in 2023 to 187 in 2024) happened entirely under local policing before his term began.”
Hahn is one of the co-authors of a report from the Niskanen Center, a centrist think tank, titled, “Washington, D.C.’s Crime Decline and Its Lessons for American Policing.”
The analysis concluded that deployment of the National Guard to D.C. gets “some credit” for “a narrow slice of crime,” Hahn told us. “The Guard was posted in tourist corridors, transit hubs, and federal areas rather than the neighborhoods where violence concentrates, and Guard members could detain but not arrest. We found the deployment produced a real reduction, about 24%, in opportunistic property crime where the Guard was visible, and no detectable effect on violent crime. That is what the research on policing would predict: visible uniformed presence deters crimes of opportunity, but it does not reach violence rooted in interpersonal disputes.”
According to the report, “What the Guard brought was a massive, sudden shock from the visible presence of uniformed military personnel on the streets of Washington almost overnight. For crimes driven by opportunistic calculation, that visibility appears to have mattered. For violent crime, which is less deterrable by patrol presence alone, it did not.”
The report concluded that while the Guard’s deployment “reduced the occurrence of specific crimes, it was (and remains) a blunt and expensive instrument.” The report’s analysis found that “a targeted, data-driven policing strategy optimized on where and when crime actually occurs could achieve comparable or better outcomes at a fraction of the cost.”
Memphis
Last September, Trump’s executive order created the Memphis Safe Task Force, which included sending hundreds of federal law enforcement agents and deploying 1,450 National Guard troops to the city.
In Memphis, total crime dropped nearly 39% from the period of Oct. 1 to Aug. 18 compared with the same period the year before, according to city data. That includes drops in crimes across the board: -41% for murder; -30% for aggravated assault; -32% for sexual assault; -48% for robbery; -28% for burglary; -36% for larceny; and -62% for motor vehicle theft.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young told Action News 5 in Memphis that the task force “amplified” state and city efforts — including millions in state funds targeting violent crime and other targeted enforcement approaches — that had already resulted in crime dropping 27% in the year before the task force was created.
“I think two things can be true at the same time,” Tyreece Miller, U.S. marshal for the Western District of Tennessee, told Action News 5. “I think crime was trending downward. But I think the task force certainly escalated the decrease in crime.”
New Orleans
In late December 2025, Trump deployed 350 National Guard members to New Orleans. But the results have been mixed.
In New Orleans, crime began to markedly drop in late 2023, but leveled off in mid-2025. Since the National Guard arrived in New Orleans in late December, crime overall has remained relatively unchanged. The rolling yearly total number of crimes on Aug. 18 was 13,375, up slightly from the yearly total ending Aug. 17, 2025, of 13,207. Year-to-date, overall crime is up 4.8% compared with the same period last year; murder is down 23.9%; and sexual assault is up 1.6%.
“The National Guard has had no impact on New Orleans’ murder trend,” Asher, of AH Datalytics, told us via email. “To begin with, the Guard is deployed largely in the French Quarter where gun violence is very rare. In addition, shootings in New Orleans began falling dramatically in mid-2023 with the city experiencing a 60 percent drop in shooting incidents between mid-2023 and early 2025. This trend began long before the National Guard arrived and almost certainly has been caused by other factors.”
Hahn also cautioned not to ascribe too much credit to National Guard deployment in the three cities.
“The whole country is in a historic crime decline,” Hahn said, citing the FBI’s 2025 report that found the largest one-year drops in violent crime and murder since the bureau started tracking the data. “The Council on Criminal Justice found homicide down 21% in 2025 across its big-city sample, and down another 18% in the first half of 2026, putting the country on track for a historic low. Against that backdrop, the three deployment cities look much like everywhere else. When crime is falling nearly everywhere, falling crime in three cities is not sufficient evidence that any particular intervention worked.”
Trump, meanwhile, said he stands ready to implement similar federal surges in other cities that are receptive.
“For other cities like New York, Chicago, L.A., all they have to do is call us and we will stop that crime,” Trump said. “We’ll stop that horrible crime.”
But Hahn said the data do not support that, as big cities around the country saw major crime drops over the last several years, commensurate to the cities where Trump sent the National Guard.
“Crime has not dropped more dramatically in the deployment cities than in New York, Chicago, and LA,” Hahn said. “In 2025, the NYPD recorded the fewest shooting incidents in its recorded history (688, down 24% from 2024) with murders down 20%. Chicago ended 2025 with 411 homicides, down 30% and the fewest in decades, per CPD data. Los Angeles recorded its fewest homicides since 1966, down 19%. And Denver led the nation’s large cities with a 41% homicide decline. None of these cities had a Guard deployment. That they matched or beat the deployment cities without federal troops is strong evidence that the Guard is not what is driving the numbers.”
Decline in Police Dying on Duty
Trump appeared to credit an executive order he signed in early 2025 for last year’s decline in the number of police officers who died in the line of duty. But that was not one of the reasons for the decrease that was cited by the law enforcement organization that tracks those deaths.
“Shortly after taking office, I signed a historic executive order directing that anyone convicted of killing a police officer should face the death penalty,” Trump said. “And last year, deaths of law enforcement — well, think of this — deaths of law enforcement officers in the line of duty fell to an 80-year low.”
Trump did sign an executive order on Jan. 20, 2025, directing the attorney general to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” including “murder of a law-enforcement officer.” The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund also reported that 109 officers died in the line of duty in 2025, representing a 26% decrease from 148 officers in 2024.
The 2025 total — which included 45 officers who died after being shot — was the lowest since 93 officers died in the line of duty in 1943, according to NLEOMF figures. But as far as the reason for the overall decline in 2025, the NLEOMF did not mention Trump’s executive order.
“We lament to document even a single such death, but this encouraging downward trend in fatalities likely reflects the continued adoption of proven best practices by police, sheriff, and corrections agencies, as well as a growing emphasis on the physical and psychological health of the men and women who work to keep our communities safe,” NLEOMF CEO Bill Alexander said in a statement in January. “These practices align directly with — and underscore the importance of — NLEOMF’s Officer Safety and Wellness initiatives, which are designed to help ensure that more officers return home safely at the end of each shift.”
Experts on the death penalty previously told us that there is no conclusive evidence that capital punishment is “a very strong preventative” to violent crimes such as murder, as Trump has claimed.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Aug. 20, 2026 — Researchers at the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the Florida State University-headquartered National High Magnetic Field Laboratory have designed new quantum computing architecture that uses magnetic levitation to smooth over design flaws in the intricate bits necessary to run a quantum computer.
Study co-author Wei Guo, a professor at FSU, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the MagLab.
Quantum bits, or qubits, can be as small as a few nanometers, and manufacturing them inevitably introduces random flaws onto their surface. By using superconducting magnets to levitate neon particles, the research addresses a challenge in electron-on-neon qubit devices: the tendency for electrons to become trapped by random tiny bumps on the neon surface, making them function unpredictably.
The study, published in the American Physical Society journal PRX Quantum, could help pave the way for more reproducible and scalable quantum computing technologies.
“Instead of hoping that the right nanoscale feature appears in the right place, we want to decide where each electron qubit sits,” said study co-author Wei Guo, a professor at Florida State University, the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or MagLab. “Magnetic levitation gives us a way to place a clean neon carrier above the chip, while the chip still provides the circuitry needed to control and read the qubit. In this architecture, the qubit is no longer found by chance. It is built by design.”
What They Made: A New Design for Electron-On-Neon Qubits
The researchers proposed a chip design that uses superconducting loops to magnetically hold tiny solid-neon particles above the chip surface. Instead of placing a solid-neon film directly on the chip, where it can inherit roughness from the substrate underneath, the new architecture uses nearly spherical neon microparticles as carriers for electron qubits.
“A simple way to think about it is that we give the electron a tiny, clean, floating island to sit on, rather than asking it to find a good spot on a rough landscape,” said study co-author Yinghe Qi, a MagLab postdoctoral researcher. “The chip underneath still provides the microwave circuits needed to control and read the qubit.”
Why It Matters: Engineering a Better Chip
The work opens a path toward a new class of hybrid quantum devices, where clean quantum materials are integrated directly with chip-based control circuits.
“We have not built a full quantum computer in this paper, but we showed that the essential ingredients can work together in a realistic design: clean electron confinement, tunable qubit energy levels, strong coupling to microwave circuits and a way for neighboring qubits to communicate,” Guo said.
Technological Advantages
Unlike the bits in ordinary computers, which store information as 0s or 1s, qubits use the rules of quantum mechanics to process information that can represent multiple possibilities at the same time until it is measured. To build a useful quantum computer, researchers need qubits that are clean, stable, controllable and practical to arrange in large numbers on a chip — a mix of properties that is difficult to achieve.
A diagram showing qubit design developed by researchers. High-temperature superconducting loops magnetically hold tiny solid-neon particles above the chip surface. Credit: Wei Guo.
Electron-on-neon qubits, which use a single electron held above solid neon, are a promising platform for qubit design because of their accuracy and their ability to maintain their quantum information long enough to perform calculations. The electron sits in a clean environment, while the chip underneath provides the microwave circuits needed for control and readout.
The design shown in this study preserves the advantages of these qubits while using levitation to remove the randomness of a bumpy surface.
“The main advantage is reproducibility,” said study co-author Yiming Xing, an assistant professor in the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. “Right now, useful electron-on-neon qubits depend on random nanoscale surface features, almost like hoping the right defect appears in the right place. Our approach replaces those random traps with designed, clean neon carriers placed at intended locations on a chip. If demonstrated experimentally, this could make electron-on-neon devices more predictable, reduce unwanted charge noise and make it easier to build larger arrays of qubits.”
Future Research: Building a Working Prototype
The researchers plan to use their design to build a working prototype of an electron-on-neon qubit.
The main components of their design — superconducting loops, microwave resonators and patterned chip structures — are compatible with fabrication methods already used in quantum-device research, which will help researchers move from design to prototype and beyond.
Collaborators and Support
Co-authors on this study included FSU postdoctoral researchers Sosuke Inui and Charles Peretti. Dafei Jin, an associate professor at the University of Notre Dame, was also a co-author.
The project received support from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and the Florida State University Quantum Initiative. The FAMU Center for Quantum Science and Engineering supported contributions by Xing and supported the Notre Dame team through the National Science Foundation ExpandQISE grant administered by Florida A&M University.
Some political actors are warning that a vote during wartime, which would require changes to Ukraine’s constitution and other laws, could aid Russia by destabilizing the government and dividing society.
Despite policy victories over Flock, Americans are finding themselves under similar monitoring by a new company – or unable to remove the original cameras
Activists in Colorado thought they would be celebrating a victory against mass surveillance in December when the Longmont city council decided to let a contract with Flock Safety lapse.
But that excitement was cut short only months later when lawmakers voted to approve a new vendor to install automated license plate readers (ALPRs) on the city’s streets.
Avenal has been rocked by the council’s refusal to accept the results of a recall election – and the repercussions extend far beyond the Central valley
From the outside, the city of Avenal appears to embody every bit of its motto – an “oasis in the sun”. Approaching the community, passing through the dusty yellow hillsides of the Central valley, Avenal emerges with a sudden burst of green on the horizon.
Its small-town feel and quiet tree-lined streets offer respite from the bustling Interstate 5 about five miles away. But trouble is brewing here that has brought this lonesome city national attention.
Where Harry and Meghan will live, why they are returning and what it means for the rest of the royals were among the questions British media outlets are scrambling to answer.
Fashion site also broke rules on labelling by using terms ‘leather’ or ‘suede’ for synthetic products
The British online fashion seller Boohoo has been fined €2.3m (£2m) by France’s consumer watchdog for deceptive practices such as offering fake discounts.
The Manchester-based firm, whose parent company renamed itself Debenhams Group last year, was found to have exaggerated the discounts it was offering, giving shoppers a false impression of the savings they were making, according to the directorate-general for competition, consumer affairs and fraud control.
Far-right minister says those convicted in military courts of terror offences will be executed after passing of death penalty law that does not apply to Jewish extremists
Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has posted a gloating video of the construction of a gallows complex where Palestinians convicted of terror offences – but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes – will be hanged.
Ben-Givr, who has previously attracted international sanctions and condemnation for his activities, said the new execution site would be equipped with viewing booths for families of victims to watch the hangings.
Hours after Trump said he expects to hold new talks with Kim Jong Un, South Korea and Japan said several short-range missiles were launched by the North.
U.S. immigration officials worked with Iran to deport more than 100 Iranians to Iran in 2025, newly released emails show, revealing a working relationship between them despite tensions mounting at the time.
Max Lederer, who has served as the publisher of Stars and Stripes for 19 years, this week announced to colleagues his decision to retire on Sept. 30, citing fundamental differences with the Trump administration.
The founder of Evergrande, one of China’s largest property developers, has been sentenced to life in prison and had all of his personal property confiscated.
Hui Ka Yan, 67 and once named by Forbes as China’s richest man, with a net worth of $42.5bn (£31.2bn) in 2017, pleaded guilty in April to eight charges.
Washington, D.C. — A sweeping Trump administration effort to identify noncitizens who illegally voted has generated tens of thousands of investigative leads but only a few dozen election-related prosecutions, according to a ProPublica investigation based on internal emails, federal records and Justice Department data.
Homeland Security Investigations was directed to cross-reference state voter rolls with federal immigration databases, despite warnings from agency staff that incomplete identifying information could produce large numbers of false matches. Between January 2025 and May 2026, fewer than 150 suspected noncitizen voters were referred for prosecution, and just 41 were charged with voting illegally or related election offenses. More than 150 million people voted in the 2024 presidential election.
In Minnesota, investigators subpoenaed records involving about 130 people but referred only one case for prosecution. A senior federal prosecutor described the effort internally as “disjointed and disorganized.”
Career Justice Department lawyers also raised concerns that transferring voter data to Homeland Security could violate federal privacy protections. Some proposed safeguards were later abandoned.
The administration says the initiative is necessary to keep voter rolls accurate and prosecute illegal voting. However, state audits and previous studies have consistently found noncitizen voting to be exceedingly rare.
Former HSI officials also warned that redirecting agents toward election investigations has reduced resources available for drug trafficking, human trafficking and other complex federal cases.
Format would resemble that of Australian rules football
League will ditch conferences for five-division setup
Major League Soccer is planning a significant overhaul of its playoff format, multiple league and club sources told the Guardian this week. The changes, which would debut in 2028 alongside the league’s shift to a fall-to-spring schedule, could include a “double-elimination” component and see as many as 20 teams feature. Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to discuss the league’s plans.
The Guardian has viewed a potential schedule for the new format, in which the playoffs start in late April and unfold over roughly three weeks with MLS Cup being played on Sunday 21 May 2028. The changes to the playoff format would pair with long-reported changes to MLS’s regular season, with the league going to a five-division setup in place of its current Eastern and Western Conference structure.
Myles McGinley, managing director of the Cambridge OCR exam board, said more pupils are taking GCSE business studies than in previous years, describing this generation of young people as “increasingly entrepreneurial”.
He said business studies entries are a third higher than five years ago, adding: “The founders of some of the next great unicorn businesses may well be among those achieving GCSEs in business studies today.”
Alessandro Rapinese denies he is waging personal vendetta against cyclists amid a public backlash
The mayor of Como has set the wheels of controversy in motion for banning bikes in the walled historical centre of the lakeside city after being hit by one.
Alessandro Rapinese’s ban, which comes into force in September, targets about 30 streets and means cyclists, whether on e-bikes or push bikes, will have to dismount and walk through those areas.
Almost one in four boys in England received top grades in maths while results in English improved across the board, helping to propel improved GCSE results for this year’s cohort of 16-year-olds.
The stronger performances in maths helped pupils taking GCSEs in year 11 reach a record level for higher grades in England outside the Covid pandemic years, when exams were replaced by teacher assessments.
Washington, D.C. — Thousands of National Guard troops deployed to Washington under President Donald Trump have played only a limited direct role in criminal cases, despite becoming a highly visible part of the administration’s effort to reduce crime in the capital.
A Reuters review of Superior Court records found Guard members mentioned in about 1.3% of criminal cases since the deployment began in August 2025. Reuters identified 217 cases involving troops, including 62 in which soldiers stopped suspects themselves and 43 where they assisted police. Many involved relatively minor offenses such as shoplifting or fare evasion.
The roughly 4,500 Guard members currently deployed outnumber the city’s approximately 3,200 police officers. Their primary assignment is what the Defense Department calls “presence patrols,” intended to deter crime. Troops can detain suspects but generally rely on police to make formal arrests.
Reuters found little Guard involvement in neighborhoods that accounted for 82% of Washington’s murders over the previous five years. A Niskanen Center study also found no measurable reduction in violent crime attributable to the deployment, though vehicle thefts declined.
The White House credits the broader federal crime initiative with improving public safety. Separate federal agencies have made thousands of arrests since the surge began, complicating efforts to isolate the Guard’s impact.
The Pentagon estimates keeping troops deployed through January 2029 will cost about $1.4 billion.
bryanandaimee shares a report from ScienceDaily: A Finnish study has found an unexpected association between screen use and cognitive performance. Children who accumulated more screen time as they grew up tended to show better cognitive processing during adolescence. One of the researchers cautions against viewing screen time as entirely harmful and says the goal should be to balance physical activity with screen use that encourages active thinking. [...] "The findings suggest that screen time can support children's and adolescents' cognitive processing. Presumably, the essential point here is what kind of things they do in their screen time. Teachers and parents should encourage children to use devices and screens in such ways that promote active thinking, problem-solving, creativity and learning," states Doctoral Researcher Petri Jalanko from the University of Jyvaskyla.
Digital activities that involve learning, creativity, problem-solving, or other forms of active mental engagement could potentially help explain the association observed in the study. "We should not regard screen time solely as harmful but seek balance between physical activity and screen time that promotes active thinking," Jalanko summarizes. The relationship between physical activity and cognition was more complicated. Among girls, greater amounts of light intensity physical activity since childhood were associated with better working memory during adolescence. Among boys, greater participation in guided physical activity from childhood through adolescence was linked to better working memory.
The researchers also found an unexpected pattern involving unsupervised exercise. Lower levels of self-reported unsupervised physical activity were associated with better cognitive processing in adolescence. By contrast, physical activity and sedentary time measured using a device that tracked heart rate and movement were not associated with cognitive processing. One possible explanation is that these sensors can measure movement and physiological activity but cannot determine exactly what a person is doing during periods of activity or inactivity. The findings have been published in the journal Pediatric Exercise Science.
Manny Rutinel hopes price-tag politics can win key voters in Colorado House race
During his presidential campaign in October 2024, Donald Trumpstaged a photo op at a McDonald’s franchise in Pennsylvania, where he was briefly taught how to work the fryer and drive-thru window at the closed restaurant, while making several unsubstantiated claims about Kamala Harris’s past summer job at McDonald’s.
The posturing around McDonald’s garnered significant publicity, as Trump and Republicans capitalized on an affordability crisis triggered by high inflation that occurred globally due to the Covid pandemic.
By now we know that charity, generosity and compassion are virtues that the US president doesn’t seem to have even in trace amounts
Many years ago, in the crowded corridor of a Manhattan hotel, I was surprised to find myself standing face-to-face with Imelda Marcos, then the first lady of the Philippines. At that time, she was said to possess 3,000 pairs of shoes.
I desperately longed to ask the wife of the dictatorial president Ferdinand Marcos why anyone could need all those shoes. And more importantly, why would someone spend so much of her country’s wealth on stiletto heels when so many citizens were so desperately poor? But natural reticence, good manners or simply fear prevailed, and I walked away.
The prince and his wife have been estranged from the royal family but are now returning to England with their children, Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5.
Launches, detected by South Korea and Japan, came after US scaled back exercises with South Korea in apparent overture to Kim Jong-un
North Korea has launched about 10 short-range ballistic missiles towards the sea, South Korea’s military said, a day after Pyongyang shrugged off Donald Trump’s order to scale back US military drills with South Korea in an apparent attempt to resume diplomacy.
The joint chiefs of staff said the missiles were launched from the region of Pyongyang at around 5pm (08.00 GMT) on Thursday towards North Korea’s eastern waters.
Joanna Boydell steps down after widespread criticism over company’s handling of guest safety issues
The boss of Travelodge has resigned after widespread criticism of her handling of security failings at the hotel chain, including a shocking case where a domestic abuser was given a key to a woman’s room before assaulting her.
In a brief company statement on Thursday, Travelodge said Joanna Boydell had stepped down and been temporarily replaced by its finance chief, Ray Reidy. The company has launched a formal search for a permanent substitute.
Washington, D.C. — Nearly two-thirds of Americans say it is inappropriate for President Donald Trump and his family to profit from cryptocurrency while he serves in the White House, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.
The survey found 63% considered the Trump family’s crypto profits inappropriate, while 32% said they were appropriate and 5% did not answer. About 30% of Republicans agreed the profits were inappropriate, compared with large majorities of Democrats.
The poll also found broader concern about the relationship between Trump’s private businesses and presidential decisions. Sixty-nine percent said they believe his business interests influence his actions as president, including half of Republican respondents.
Trump’s family earned more than $1.4 billion from cryptocurrency ventures last year, including World Liberty Financial and the Trump-branded meme coin, according to Reuters. Trump has publicly promoted cryptocurrency while his administration has pursued industry-friendly regulatory policies.
Trump says he has no day-to-day involvement in the family businesses and that his investments are independently managed. The White House denies any conflict of interest.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll surveyed 1,166 U.S. adults online from Aug. 14-17 and has a 3-percentage-point margin of error for the overall sample.
Americans are backing progressives not because they want socialism, but because they want candidates who will fight for the working class
Most discussions about the Democratic party in this election cycle focus on the remarkable rise of progressive Democrats, such as the Florida state representative Angie Nixon, a democratic socialist who scored an upset win in the Democratic US Senate primary on Tuesday.
But an equally big story is the remarkable decline of corporate Democrats.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware farmers have been strapped over the past year by the uncertainty of international tariffs, rising fertilizer and machinery costs and low sales prices for their crops. Local farmers say the continued delay in Congressional approval of new federal farm subsidies has made the situation more challenging, as the future of crop insurance and other support programs remains unclear.
Delaware farmers are eager for a clearer understanding of the future of federal agricultural subsidies, but partisan gridlock in Congress has further complicated a path forward.
Negotiations over the federal farm bill, legislation typically passed by Congress every five years that sets agricultural and food assistance policies for the country, have stalled — in large part due to disagreements among lawmakers about the future of food assistance programs included in the proposal.
But while federal lawmakers are stuck in a stalemate, farmers in Delaware face a growing financial and environmental uncertainty. They are stretched thin by rising costs of fertilizer and machinery, which have been exacerbated by the war in Iran, and dropping prices of corn and soybeans.
At the same time, some Delaware producers say their reliance on the farm bill at all is a symptom of fundamental problems with the American agriculture industry. They argue farmers should not be in financial situations where they need government crop insurance or price subsidy programs to stay afloat.
“I don’t want the government’s help,” Dover-area grain farmer Paul Cartanza said. “I want to be able to sell my product and make money without having interference from the government.”
The last comprehensive five-year U.S. farm bill was passed in 2018, and was due for renewal in 2023.
Due to disagreements over nutrition programs in the bill, however, Congress has not yet advanced a complete farm bill since, forcing the government to pass temporary funding extensions to the 2018 legislation.
The House of Representatives passed an updated farm bill in April, but it has since been held up in the Senate Agriculture Committee because of disagreements over Trump administration cuts to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) — otherwise known as the food stamp program — expected to go into effect in 2027.
While the majority of dollars in the farm bill actually go to food assistance programs like SNAP, the legislation also has a substantial impact on farmers’ access to crop insurance subsidies, price stabilization measures and conservation programs.
Delaware farmers have varying opinions on specific provisions within the bill, but they agree that getting a comprehensive bill passed this year should be a top priority, so the federal government’s support for farmers becomes more predictable.
“Basically, it’s hard to play a game that you don’t know the rules to yet,” said John Clendaniel, a farming outreach program director at Delaware State University.
Crop insurancea particular concern
Roughly $150 billion in a typical farm bill is spent on crop insurance programs, which subsidize the amount of money farms must pay for coverage against severe weather events or price drops.
A handful of local farmers told Spotlight Delaware the crop insurance program is the part of the omnibus legislation that has the most tangible impact on their day-to-day operations.
Cartanza, the Dover-area farmer, said he uses the crop insurance subsidy to make the “gamble” a bit less stressful each year about how much his crops will yield.
Dover-area farmer Paul Cartanza uses crop insurance to help offset the uncertainty of his industry. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MADDY LAURIA
Jim Minner, a Felton-area farmer and the president of the Kent County Farm Bureau, said he, too, utilizes the federally subsidized insurance so as not to lose his operation in a challenging financial year.
While the 2018 farm bill subsidized about 60% of farmers’ costs under the federal crop insurance program, the specifics of future subsidies are less clear without a renewal of the farm bill.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress in July 2025 included additional crop insurance subsidies, which alleviated some of the near-term uncertainty created by temporary extensions to the 2018 farm bill, said Nate Bruce, a University of Delaware agricultural researcher.
Delaware farmers said they would like to see a similar crop insurance program in the updated farm bill, with some adjustments to better suit the smaller size of Delaware farms.
Ray Ellis, who operates a 700-acre grain farm in the Millsboro area, said the program itself can be a risk because the payments are made based on weather at the county level. But there can be a wide variance in how different farmers within one county – or even different crops on one farmer’s land – fare.
The system makes more sense in the Midwest, where many farms are larger, and might stretch across a sizable portion of the often smaller counties. But on smaller Delaware farms, especially across the large geographic footprint of Kent and Sussex counties, the weather experience can vary dramatically.
For example, Cartanza said his farm in Dover fared relatively well this year, while Dave Marvel, a Harrington-area farmer, and Minner said they experienced substantially less rain further south in Kent County.
The weather patterns also tend to be more volatile in Delaware because of the state’s proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, Bruce said.
Marvel said farmers in Delaware must work to keep the state’s federal delegation attuned to the needs of the mid-Atlantic when they are working on the farm bill because the legislation tends to be “heavily influenced from the South and the Midwest.”
Additional fruit, fuel considerations
While it is relatively certain that a crop insurance program will be included in the farm bill, local growers said, more controversial provisions on fruit and vegetable production along with a now-dead-in-the-water proposal relating to corn fuel production are also top of mind for some Delaware farmers.
A proposed segment of the new farm bill would provide expanded funding for research and crop insurance for fruit and vegetable farmers. Local farmers argue this would help encourage the state’s horticulture industry.
Marvel, the Harrington-area farmer, grows both grain and watermelons.
He said the watermelon side of his operation more commonly gets wiped out by disease or weather issues, and crop insurance for fruits and vegetables can be too expensive to buy, making the business risky.
Marvel said more support for domestic fruit and vegetable production would be a win-win situation. More produce might also be available for purchase in the United States, potentially addressing some of the food insecurity debates surrounding the farm bill.
Increased federal subsidies for fruit and vegetable production could help Delaware watermelon farmers like Dave Marvel. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY MAGGIE REYNOLDS
“Realistically, the farm bill impacts every American citizen in one way, shape or form,” Marvel said. “They just don’t realize it.”
Clendaniel, the DSU researcher, said he works with many farmers who are just starting out through the university’s farm incubator program. These growers often face financial barriers to getting off the ground, which could be solved, in part, by increased support for horticulture programs, he explained.
Along with fruit and vegetable subsidies, a number of local farmers expressed their support for the hotly debated E15 proposal, which would have allowed year-round sales of E15, a blend of gasoline and ethanol, for car fuel.
It is unlikely the measure will be included in the final farm bill, as it was not a part of the House version passed in April.
However, some local producers said they believe the expansion of E15 sales would have been a viable solution to the country’s problem of corn overproduction, as it would have increased demand for corn, thereby raising the price of the crop.
“There was a lot of back and forth about E15 ethanol all year, and that would be huge,” Bruce said. “It would definitely help out corn producers in Delaware.”
Other members of the agriculture industry are skeptical, though, that an E15 sale expansion would be a viable permanent solution.
Looking ahead
Uncertainty remains for Delaware farmers as senators continue to hash out the largely partisan disagreement over whether the updated farm bill will include a delay in the implementation of the Trump administration’s SNAP benefit cuts.
Many Delaware farmers echoed a sentiment of frustration that the gridlock and prevailing discussion about the farm bill revolves around nutrition programs rather than actual assistance to farmers.
Some growers said they would like to see the two decoupled into a separate “food bill” and “farm bill,” which might allow the farm bill to pass more swiftly. Others said the two topics are too closely connected to be separated.
“I think both sides agree that if we don’t have agriculture, the country’s pretty much done,” said Minner, the Felton-area farmer. “Agriculture keeps this country alive.”
But as senators are set to continue to hash out their largely partisan disagreement over food assistance programs when they return from their summer recess in mid-September, uncertainty remains for Delaware farmers.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
Why Should Delaware Care? Delaware spends millions of taxpayer dollars on its prison healthcare annually to treat medical and behavioral issues for inmates. But according to a whistleblower lawsuit filed by two employees that worked for the state’s former prison healthcare provider, Centurion of Delaware, the company routinely billed the state for services it did not provide.
Late last month, Delaware’s embattled former prison healthcare provider rebuked allegations that it engaged in fraud by requesting payment for medical services for inmates it did not provide.
The former provider, Centurion of Delaware, was the sole contractor responsible for providing health services to inmates at the state’s prisons during the COVID pandemic. It responded last month to a whistleblower complaint filed by two former employees, denying the fraud allegations.
Centurion’s multi-billion-dollar parent company, Centene, was also named in the lawsuit on claims the healthcare provider denied patients care and falsified claims to taxpayer insurers like Medicaid.
At the center of their lawsuit, the whistleblowers claim Centurion fraudulently charged the state for services inmates never received, and it systematically passed inmates through programs they did not complete, like drug treatment programs.
The lawsuit also alleges a pattern of medical staff denying care to patients.
For years, healthcare providers inside Delaware prisons have been under scrutiny for either financial mismanagement or denial of care to patients, including the state’s current provider, VitalCore Health Strategies.
Earlier this year, the State of Delaware also joined the case after a review of the whistleblowers’ materials.
Reuben Guttman and Dan Miller, lawyers for the whistleblowers, said in an email they look forward to the case proceeding, and they appreciate the Delaware Department of Justice joining the case.
“This case involves serious questions of public health, human decency and issues that should be of concern to all taxpayers,” the lawyers said. “We look forward to litigation and our day in court and are pleased that the State of Delaware has joined the case.”
Lawyers for Centurion and Centene did not return a request for comment.
The ACLU further claimed the failures were a direct result of Centurion’s policies, which the advocacy group said amounted to “callous and deliberate indifference.”
Also named as defendants in the ACLU case are five Delaware Department of Correction officials along with Delaware’s new prison health care provider, VitalCore Health Strategies.
In December of 2023, Centurion’s attorneys argued in a motion to dismiss the class-action suit that the ACLU had “not plausibly alleged” the company had any such policies “of deliberate indifference toward inmates’ serious medical needs.”
Secret whistleblower complaint
In the fall of 2023, the whistleblower complaint against Centurion was quietly added to the court’s database, but was quickly sealed weeks after its appearance. For the better part of two years, it had sat under seal.
A spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Justice on Tuesday said a motion to unseal the case was approved by a judge earlier this year, after the case had been reviewed by its staff.
According to the spokesperson, the next step in the case will be discovery, where lawyers will likely battle for access to highly confidential and revealing information about Centurion’s business practices.
The lawsuit, which was filed back in August 2023 by two former Centurion employees, Jamie Basara and Deneen Rayne, challenges the prison healthcare provider under the Delaware False Claims and Reporting Act.
That statute allows whistleblowers alleging fraud in government contracts to sue a private contractor, and to list the State of Delaware as the plaintiff in the case.
A key part of their complaint targets the company’s “Road to Recovery” program, of which both former employees had at one point staffed. The program was aimed at helping inmates recover from addiction, the complaint said.
But when the whistleblowers worked in the program, they claimed it was understaffed, and inmates would receive credit for treatment they did not receive.
The complaint also said Centurion would submit “false and fraudulent” reports to the Delaware Department of Correction surrounding inmate attendance in its programming.
In its denial of the complaint, lawyers for Centurion and Centene argued the case is invalid because of the statute of limitations on such claims. Additionally, the healthcare provider firmly defended that all payments received were for services rendered to inmates.
“Defendents did not knowingly or recklessly present or cause to be presented any false or fraudulent claim for payment to the State of Delaware,” the response said.
The lawyers also claimed the company had no knowledge of any wrongdoing. They also skirted the allegations the provider denied patients care, citing a lack of access to medical records.
In their request for relief, the lawyers asked the judge to toss the case and require the whistleblowers to cover attorneys’ fees for the companies.
Embattled prison healthcare providers
Centurion came to Delaware in 2020 with the promise of bringing professionalism back to the state’s prison health care system after years of mismanagement by its predecessor, Connections Community Support Programs.
When announcing the new contract at the time, Centurion CEO Steven H. Wheeler said his company was committed to working with state officials to improve prison healthcare.
Claire DeMatteis, then-commissioner at the Delaware Department of Correction, told The News Journal that Centurion had “deep experience providing quality medical care.”
“Centurion was the unanimous choice,” she said at the time.
Terra Taylor, commissioner of the Delaware Department of Corrections. | PHOTO COURTESY OF DELAWARE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS
But three years later, Centurion lost the prison contracts – valued at more than $70 million a year — when state officials opted not to automatically renew the agreements.
Shortly thereafter, Delaware officials announced VitalCore Health Strategies as the state’s new provider of prison healthcare, which includes mental health and addiction services.
In the announcement, then-DOC Commissioner Monroe B. Hudson said VitalCore has a “strong track record of success providing high quality medical and behavioral health care to patients.”
“We look forward to our partnership with VitalCore to advance this important work at the best value for Delaware taxpayers,” Hudson said in the 2023 announcement.
Five months later, VitalCore was named as a defendant alongside Centurion in the class-action lawsuit the ACLU filed on behalf of inmates.
In 2024, the DOC’s newest commissioner, Terra Taylor, said VitalCore is “doing well,” but added that the company has found it challenging to fill staff positions in Delaware prisons.
“When you’re talking about hiring someone to work in a correctional setting, it’s a difficult job,” Taylor said at the time.
Israeli military orders criminal investigation into deaths of Hind and six family members. Plus, FCC chair Brendan Carr’s close coordination with White House revealed
Good morning.
The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing.
What prompted theinvestigation? The Israel Defense Forces repeatedly denied its troops had been in the area, but investigations by the media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible.
How significant is it? The IDF published reviews on Wednesday into five high-profile incidents in Gaza. But criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians rarely lead to convictions. A UN report published in February described “a pervasive climate of impunity” by Israel in occupied Palestine.
What is the wider context? In September last year, a UN commission found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and massive destruction.
What did Béjar say in his testimony? That his job often included him briefing Meta’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, on product issues. He estimated that he spoke to Zuckerberg at least 100 times. One email Béjar sent to Zuckerberg in 2021 showed the engineer warning of constant reports of harmful content and damage to teenage wellbeing on Facebook and Instagram. Béjar said he emailed Zuckerberg after the chief executive publicly said the company did not prioritize profit over safety. Meta denies all allegations in the case.
‘Emma’ the Rotherham chatbot has 17 languages says AI firm – but health watchdog says system struggling with local ‘twangs’
Patients in a South Yorkshire town are frustrated by an AI GP receptionist not understanding their “broad accents”, a health watchdog has said.
Healthwatch Rotherham, a local health and social care watchdog, said a number of practices in the area had introduced a new AI receptionist called Emma.
I want a VESC board but I don’t know enough about how to do it. I’d be okay with paying for the service to copy someone’s homework who already went through the trial and error process.
The defense is now expected to call one more witness Thursday before potentially resting its case and giving the prosecution an opportunity to call rebuttal witnesses.
The sports fashion retailer JD has cut £50m from its profit forecast as cost of living pressures, fuelled by the US war on Iran, weighed on sales of trainers.
JD Sports, which sells brands including Nike and Adidas, said widespread inflation had hit shoppers’ wallets, particularly its core young shoppers, resulting in a drop in sales across important markets such as the US, where it struggled to shift trainers and other footwear.
Improvements in fire management however could mitigate increases by more than 70%, study shows
Wildfires are projected to burn 39% more of Europe by the end of the century even in the best-case scenario for stopping the planet from heating, a study has found, unless action is taken to manage them better.
The increase in hot, dry and windy weather that leads to small fires turning into raging infernos is to engulf more of Europe as carbon pollution pushes temperatures higher. In the worst-case scenario the researchers modelled, which would see global heating reach 3.6C above preindustrial levels, the burnt area would almost triple.
The former Sunday Night Football stalwart is now one step from a seat in the US Senate. And she could cause a shock in liberal Minnesota
As the third leg of NBC’s Sunday Night Football crew alongside play-by-play man Al Michaels and the tart-tongued analyst Cris Collinsworth, Michele Tafoya was a paragon of deference and neutrality for 11 years as an NFL sideline reporter, dutifully relating boilerplate tactics, talking points and injury updates when she wasn’t nodding along to softball interviews or fumbling through hammy production gimmicks for viewers who might have been too offline to get the bit. She was almost pathologically committed to not doing anything to draw attention to herself or her gender in an era when sideline reporting was a fast track to national celebrity. Even her football takes hewed to the middle. (“New Orleans doesn’t want to lose to Atlanta twice in a season …”) Anyone who says they saw the 61-year-old emerging as a rightwing firebrand was watching a different game.
And yet here we are. Last week, Tafoya was the decisive winner of Minnesota’s US Senate Republican primary, earning the party’s nomination for November’s general election. Even more striking: she beat back eight challengers, not least Adam Schwarze, the party-endorsed pro-gun, pro-military ex-Navy SEAL, and Royce White, the anti-leftist, anti-trans NBA flameout currently testing WNBA gender norms.
Legal experts dispute Abbott’s claims that the ritual washing stations are discriminatory, with some saying his attack fits a pattern of anti-Muslim actions and rhetoric.
On one side, you face the domination of the Islamic Republic; on the other, the imperialist forces that republic claims to stand against
August marks the anniversary of the 1988 mass executions in Iran, a horror that echoes in the country’s current surge in death sentences. It also marks the 19 August anniversary of the UK- and US-orchestrated coup against the prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in 1953. Amid the current, indiscriminate waves of US-Israeli military assaults against Iran, this letter of solidarity denounces the repression of the Iranian people and their political prisoners by forces both at home and abroad.
In an altered image from a video montage Ryan Richardson posted to Instagram in June, the coach works with a young athlete. Collage by Lisa Larson-Walker/ProPublica. Left: via Instagram. Right: Sarah Blesener for ProPublica.
The first time Ryan Richardson was suspended from coaching volleyball, in early 2024, he gathered the parents of his teenage players in the back room of his gym in the border city of Pharr, Texas. It was a dark, cool space, one wall lined with shelves of trophies and dangling medals. The tinted windows looked out onto the courts where Richardson trained some of the best young female players in the Rio Grande Valley, but the glass was one-way, and from outside, nothing that happened in the room was visible.
For years, the room had also contained a twin-sized mattress that sat in the corner on a box spring, covered with dark sheets. By the 2024 season, though, the bed had disappeared.
On that winter day, the parents of Richardson’s club, Texas Fierce Elite, were worried. Their 14- and 15-year-old daughters were bound for the Girls Junior National Championship that summer in Las Vegas, but now Richardson was barred from attending. The organization overseeing volleyball in the state, Lone Star Region Volleyball, had suspended him after complaints about Richardson’s Instagram posts, including a mirror selfie in which he posed in skin-tight orange boxer briefs. The case had quickly been escalated to USA Volleyball, the sport’s governing body and the host of the upcoming national championship.
There was much more at stake than a single tournament. For more than 15 years at the helm of Texas Fierce Elite, Richardson had been trading on a dream: girls who wanted to play college sports, and parents who wanted to get them there. In Pharr and the cities surrounding it, which are more than 90% Latino and have poverty rates more than double the national average, opportunities to go to college were rare, and paying for it was even harder. Richardson’s players said he often told them that he and Texas Fierce Elite were their only path to a scholarship.
Although they were barely in high school, the Texas Fierce Elite girls were entering the most important period of college recruiting. The sidelines of the national tournament would be flooded with college scouts from all corners of the country. If Richardson could no longer coach, the parents feared, all of that might be derailed.
On that day in the back room of his gym, Richardson did not acknowledge the Instagram posts at all, according to two parents present. Instead, the former football receiver claimed that the suspension was the result of vindictive parents with complaints about their kids’ playing time. He promised the suspension would go away in a matter of weeks. And even if it didn’t, Richardson told them, he would find a way to keep coaching.
Richardson posted this selfie on his public Instagram account before his suspension.via Instagram
The suspension didn’t go away. Instead, it surfaced a flood of allegations far more serious than Instagram photos: One mother would allege that Richardson had been having a sexual relationship with her daughter that began four years ago, when the girl was 16 and he was 36, she told ProPublica and The Washington Post. Other players would come forward to say Richardson had groomed and physically and emotionally abused them. USA Volleyball referred the case to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, an oversight body created to police abuse in youth and Olympic sports, which eventually suspended Richardson and put his name on its public disciplinary list.
Richardson was right about one thing, however: None of that mattered. Although he was barred from attending USA Volleyball events, including nationals, Richardson was able to keep coaching his teams of teenage girls. He attended daily practices and appeared on the sidelines of tournaments hosted by other volleyball groups for two years.
In February of this year, SafeSport listed Richardson as “permanently ineligible” to coach, saying it had substantiated a litany of allegations against him: that he had had an intimate relationship with a minor, committed sexual misconduct involving a minor, and engaged in physical misconduct and bullying.
But Richardson is still coaching teenage girls at his gym in Pharr. And that fact is not a secret. Nearly every day for the last two years, Richardson has posted videos in which he works with Texas Fierce Elite players, supervises practices and promotes the club — hundreds of posts in all, often visible to the public.
After his suspension in early 2024, Richardson said complaints against him were an effort to “retaliate and defame someone’s character,” telling the local news website MyRGV that he “would never do anything to risk the physical or mental wellbeing of these strong young ladies.” He called himself an “enthusiastic proponent” of SafeSport and the strict rules it has in place to protect children.
“I am extremely surprised by the suspension and disappointed that I have not been given any information regarding what I allegedly did wrong,” he said at the time. “The safety and security of the athletes that train with Texas Fierce Elite Volleyball is always my primary focus and concern.”
Richardson, who has not been charged with any crime, did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this story. Last week, after ProPublica and The Post sent him a detailed summary of our reporting, Richardson posted a video of a girl training at his gym on Instagram with the caption, “Say what you want but this work will be on display for as long as I live !! Not interested in answering to the narrative created by outsiders just invested into the next one who is looking for change!!”
For more than a year, ProPublica and The Washington Post have been investigating failures in a system that is supposed to protect children from sexual abuse in youth sports. Those flaws, the investigation found, are putting a new generation of young athletes at risk.
The sexual abuse allegations against Richardson triggered that system, which was created by Congress in 2018 in the wake of revelations about sexual abuse in Olympic sports — among them the prolonged abuse of dozens of athletes by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. The 2018 law charged the new Center for SafeSport with overseeing the country’s 50 national sports governing bodies, including USA Volleyball, which prepare and train young athletes in sports overseen by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. SafeSport investigates allegations of abuse in these sports, especially sexual abuse. It has the power to suspend coaches as it investigates them, recording their names in a public database known as the SafeSport list, and can ban abusive coaches for life.
The SafeSport list was intended to address the decades-old problem of coaches who were accused of abuse but were able to continue working with young athletes for years, often as sports governing bodies looked the other way. But that system did not stop Ryan Richardson. SafeSport, USA Volleyball and its regional partner Lone Star all failed to keep Richardson from interacting with children, ProPublica and The Post found, even as allegations of inappropriate behavior and abuse piled up.
SafeSport delayed suspending Richardson for months despite the serious allegations, ProPublica and The Post found. Later, the organization failed to take action against a coach accused of “aiding and abetting” Richardson by allowing him to work with players after he was suspended. SafeSport said it could not comment on individual cases“to protect the integrity of our investigative process.”
Once Richardson was suspended by SafeSport, the law required USA Volleyball to ensure he was not working with its athletes. ProPublica and The Post found that both USA Volleyball and Lone Star had received multiple reports that Richardson was still coaching, but Lone Star allowed his club to remain a regional member, and USA Volleyball did not object. Richardson kept showing up to coach.
Hilary Nemchik, a SafeSport vice president, said in a statement that it was the job of national governing bodies like USA Volleyball to “enforce the U.S. Center for SafeSport’s sanctions” and that governing bodies had the ability “to make decisions regarding membership.”
The public SafeSport list is one of the most powerful tools for parents looking to research their kids’ coaches. But many families have no idea it exists or how to use it. Critics also say the organization has serious flaws.
“We recognize there are gaps in the system, whether it be coaches avoiding SafeSport sanctions by going to organizations outside of the Movement or a reluctance by some NGBs to do everything in their power to prohibit the participation of banned individuals,” Nemchik said. She cited a case in which another governing body, USA Gymnastics, had terminated the membership of a club for repeatedly violating SafeSport sanctions.
“This should be standard for any NGB that prioritizes protecting their members,” Nemchik said.
A spokesperson for USA Volleyball said in a statement that the organization had done an “internal review” of the incidents in ProPublica and The Post’s story and “confirmed that USA Volleyball has fully complied with all SafeSport requirements, U.S. Center for SafeSport regulations, and our own organizational policies and procedures.”
“USA Volleyball places the highest priority on the safety and well-being of all athletes, coaches, and staff,” the statement said.
Lone Star said in a statement that it “disputes the accuracy of several factual assertions, characterizations, and implications” in the story, but would not comment on individuals or internal processes. It declined to say what was inaccurate.
“The Region takes its responsibilities concerning athlete safety seriously,” the statement said, “and will continue to fulfill its obligations under applicable USA Volleyball and SafeSport requirements.”
Rise of Richardson
When Richardson opened Elite Sports Performance, there was little like it in the Rio Grande Valley, a string of rapidly growing border cities isolated from the rest of Texas by miles of scrubland. There were sports teams and there were gyms, but what Richardson started selling was something else: a version of youth sports that went beyond practices and games. In 2013, they opened a gym in a warehouse-like green building on Feather Avenue in Pharr where expensive rigs hooked children up to elastic bands to improve their jumping height, a crane-like device served balls one after another so they could master technique, and trampolines and battle ropes made them strong.
Richardson had played football at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, but his coaching specialty was volleyball, soon to become the country’s fastest-growing sport for girls. Richardson told his young players that he became involved in volleyball after college, where he’d dated a libero, a defensive position held by the smallest players on the court.
Richardson demanded perfection. He wanted his players’ elbows at the right angle, their jumps timed exactly right. He was known to curse and scream, former players said, and even a small mistake could mean being called a “pussy” and a “piece of shit.” If a girl didn’t jump high enough, she was “fucking fat.”
“He would tear us down to the point where we needed validation from him because he was the only one to build us up,” said Madisyn Sosa, now 20, who played with Richardson from the age of 14.
His behavior was tolerated for one reason, another former Texas Fierce Elite athlete said: College “was always the end goal.” Richardson quickly established a track record of sending athletes to local and even Division I colleges, often with scholarships.
“We’re extremely limited on good training,” said one local volleyball club director, Rafael Castañeda Jr., who owns a rival gym several miles from Richardson’s. “He’s known to be one of the top ones, so these parents, they took the chance.”
On social media, Richardson chronicled the rise of his program with hundreds of videos of the group of teen girls he called his “family.” The back room at Elite Sports Performance began to fill with trophies and medals. In the summer of 2022, at the USA Volleyball national championship in Indianapolis, Richardson’s team of girls under 14 finished ninth in the country.
Richardson also spent hours with his teenage players outside of sports. He took them on fishing expeditions and to the beach. They accompanied him to church and hung out in his hotel room on trips to tournaments doing TikTok dances. He posted photos and videos of all of it online, with Instagram captions calling the girls pet names like “my fierce baby” and “my love.”
Richardson took particular interest, three former players said, in girls who played libero — the same position as his former girlfriend. In one Instagram story, a screenshot of which was viewed by ProPublica and The Post, Richardson described a “journey” with one libero, a girl he called his goddaughter.
“This little 11 year old redheaded girl laid her head on my shoulder and fell asleep, for some odd reason I couldn’t shake the feeling of a father,” Richardson wrote. “So I asked her mom if things were ok to really love this child … the relationship blossomed from coach to godfather to dad.” He added a photograph of himself holding the girl’s hand. The girl, who is now an adult, did not respond to a request for comment.
Richardson required his teenage players to hug him at the end of practice, four former players said, sometimes pulling girls down onto his lap and telling them, “I love you.” He required hugs even on days when prospective parents were touring his gym.
One parent recalled thinking it was odd, she said, but quickly doubted herself: Why would he do something like that in front of parents if it was inappropriate?
And then there was the bed. He kept it for years in the back room, five people said, telling parents it was for recovery and massages. Parents sometimes sat in the dark room, too, watching their daughters train through the windows from a set of lounge chairs that lined the wall.
“He Convinced Me Not to Say Anything”
That was the room where Maggie Gutierrez first found Richardson alone with her teenage daughter.
Gutierrez had brought her daughter to Elite Sports Performance nearly four years earlier, when she was a promising 13-year-old libero, for one reason: Richardson was supposed to be the best. He was “aggressive” with the girls, Gutierrez acknowledged, but under his vigilance her daughter grew to be one of the team’s best players — so good that Richardson had stopped charging her for expensive private sessions. Gutierrez often dropped her daughter off at the gym to practice, then returned a few hours later to bring her home.
When she arrived that day in 2022, Gutierrez told ProPublica and The Post, Richardson’s car was the only one in the parking lot. Inside, the gym was empty.
Gutierrez opened the door to the back room to find Richardson and her daughter, then 16, in the dark.Richardson turned his back to her and appeared to be tying up the string of his pants. (ProPublica and The Post, which do not name alleged victims of sexual abuse without their consent, are referring to Gutierrez by her maiden name to avoid identifying her daughter, who declined to be interviewed.)
“I was furious,” Gutierrez said. “I could tell my daughter was nervous, and didn’t know how to react.” Gutierrez confronted Richardson, she said, but he denied anything had happened, following up with a flurry of WhatsApp messages that she said he later deleted.
“He convinced me not to say anything,” Gutierrez said. “And I didn’t say anything.”
Gutierrez’s daughter also insisted there was nothing romantic between them, Gutierrez said. And her daughter wanted to keep playing; she had a scholarship offer to a Division I school out of state.
“I was just like, OK, I’m going to keep an eye, make sure I’m there all the time,” Gutierrez said.
For a while, Gutierrez believed she was able to keep her daughter from being alone with Richardson. But her daughter began to turn off her location on her phone, she said.
The relationship between Richardson and the girl continued for more than a year after the incident, according to Snapchat messages included in the SafeSport investigation and reviewed by ProPublica and The Post.
In August 2022, several months after Gutierrez found Richardson and her daughter alone, Richardson and Gutierrez’s 16-year-old daughter exchanged messages saying, “I love you,” to each other and planning when they would next be able to meet up.
Throughout the spring of 2023, when the girl was 17, Richardson wrote, “I want to camp in you love.” A day later, he wrote, “I love my girlfriend.” He sent the girl a video that he’d filmed of her sleeping on his chest, saying, “We look so peaceful together. It’s beautiful.”
Snapchat messages between Richardson and Maggie Gutierrez’s daughter in spring 2023Obtained and reproduced by ProPublica
That May, Richardson wrote, “I don’t like that we are only sex right now so I really would love to get past this high school Shit when you are on your own pretty much,” he wrote. “I love you very much and I’ll be that man for you!!”
Gutierrez had no idea that any of it was happening, she said. When her daughter got an opportunity to start college a semester early so that she could train with the team, Richardson encouraged it.
In January 2024, at 18, she left for college in another state. Richardson quickly started a WhatsApp group with Gutierrez that he named her daughter’s “support group,” asking what kind of things her daughter would want in a gift box he said he was sending to her campus from the club.
Then, in February, Gutierrez said, she got a call from her daughter’s college volleyball coach. He told Gutierrez that Richardson had met up with her daughter for a weekend out of state and that other players on the team had spoken about her daughter’s “older boyfriend” — a man they identified as Richardson. The college coach believed they were having a relationship, he told her. Gutierrez said she was frozen in shock.
By the spring, when her daughter returned to the Rio Grande Valley from college, Gutierrez decided she had to act to protect her daughter. She went to police in McAllen and Pharr to report that Richardson had had a relationship with her daughter that she believed began when the girl was under 17, the age of consent in Texas.
Police in both jurisdictions denied records requests from ProPublica and The Post by citing an exemption under state privacy statutes, but the news organizations obtained excerpts from the police report in McAllen. In the text, an officer describes meeting with Gutierrez at the McAllen police station.
Gutierrez left the station with a promise to return with her daughter, the officer wrote. But she never did. When the officer called back, Gutierrez said her daughter did not want to speak. The officer closed the case, noting that her daughter was now 18 and legally an adult. Pharr police also declined to investigate, Gutierrez said. She felt stuck.
So she turned to Lone Star, the regional volleyball arm of USA Volleyball. If she could not get police to investigate, she thought, at least she could stop Richardson from coaching.
New Allegations
By the time Gutierrez went to Lone Star, Richardson had already been suspended for several months over his social media posts, drawing coverage from local news outlets.
When he was first suspended that February, Richardson told MyRGV that he was innocent and planned to file a grievance with USA Volleyball. But weeks later, MyRGV reported that USA Volleyball had upheld the suspension, keeping Richardson from coaching or training for at least six months. Richardson told the website he was “shocked.”
USA Volleyball had previously sent the report about Richardson’s behavior on social media to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, as required by law, according to one person familiar with the case. But SafeSport initially declined to investigate because it said the allegations were not sexual and referred the case back to USA Volleyball, that person said.
Only when Gutierrez reached out to Lone Star in May, the person familiar with the case said, did SafeSport accept the case.
Over the course of its investigation, SafeSport would receive other reports about Richardson, ProPublica and The Post found. Two former players, two parents and Castañeda, the rival club owner, all said they had spoken to SafeSport investigators.
Sosa, a former teammate of Gutierrez’s daughter, said she had also experienced inappropriate behavior from Richardson, which she eventually described to a SafeSport investigator. Richardson had sometimes FaceTimed her while he showered, she said, and often brought up sex and boys, once telling Sosa that a teammate was gaining weight because she was “having sex with that boyfriend all the time.”
At one training session, she said, Richardson embraced her and laid his body on top of hers, saying, “Why don’t you love me?”
Another player who witnessed the incident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is still involved in volleyball in the region, said she remembered Richardson remaining on top of Sosa for an uncomfortably long time. “I remember thinking she must be out of breath right now,” the player said.
In a video Richardson posted to his Instagram, he is lying on the floor of the back room gym with Sosa, who said she was 17 at the time. He is gripping her arm, which is lying across Richardson’s chest. They both squeeze each other and laugh. Richardson captioned it, “The love is unreal … .”
“That was the normal for us,” Sosa said.
Beliza Longoria, another former player, said she spoke to SafeSport about what she believed was grooming by Richardson. As her coach, Richardson was obsessed with her teenage sex life, she said, and had once called her a “fucking slut” when he found out from a teammate that she’d had a sexual relationship with a boy.
Once, Richardson told her and a teammate to rest their heads on his shoulder, and she had woken up, she said, to him filming them as they slept. On trips for out-of-town tournaments, she said, he often encouraged the girls to spend time in his hotel room, where he sometimes wore only a pair of shorts.
Left: Richardson opened Elite Sports Performance in the Rio Grande Valley in 2013, offering a version of youth sports that went beyond practices and games. Right: Beliza Longoria.
Longoria recalled one night when Richardson sat shirtless in bed drinking green apple Crown Royal until she and her teammates grew uncomfortable and left. Sosa and another teammate also recalled the incident.
This was not the first time Longoria had tried to report Richardson. In 2021, she said, when she was 14, Richardson slapped her face and cursed at her during a training session. She and her parents went to the Pharr police, her mother said, but no action was taken, and Longoria left the club immediately after.Police acknowledged there were records related to the incident but declined to provide them under state privacy statutes. Richardson denied any wrongdoing at the time, and Sosa said when he told the team that Longoria was lying, they believed him.
A SafeSport investigator eventually told Longoria that a report had been filed about the incident in 2021, she said. She had told many people about what happened, she said, but she was not sure who had filed the report. A person familiar with USA Volleyball’s operations confirmed the existence of a report about the incident in 2021 and said that Lone Star had appeared not to discipline Richardson.
Three years later, Longoria said, she hoped that this time would be different.
Investigating the Investigator
The SafeSport investigator assigned to Richardson’s case was Jason Krasley, a former police officer. Krasley could have immediately placed the coach on SafeSport’s public disciplinary list, temporarily suspending him from coaching while the investigation continued. SafeSport says it uses such suspensions to keep people safe in the case of “severe” allegations, including “allegations of child sexual abuse regarding a coach with current/ongoing access to minor athletes.”
But months passed without Richardson’s name appearing in the database. Richardson told parents at Texas Fierce Elite that this was a sign he had done nothing wrong.
And although Richardson remained suspended by Lone Star and USA Volleyball, he found a way to keep coaching.
Richardson gave control of Texas Fierce Elite’s teams to an employee, Gavin Rudder, according to a social media post that June. Richardson and Rudder had been close for years. Rudder posted photographs of them together, giving their duo a nickname — “Ebony and Ivory,” a reference to their races — and praising Richardson’s “incredible legacy.” Richardson’s Instagram username for a time was “Mr_ESP,” a reference to Elite Sports Performance. Rudder’s is “Mr_ESPvolleyball.” Rudder did not respond to multiple requests for comment, including a detailed list of questions.
Under Rudder, Texas Fierce Elite could remain registered with Lone Star. Rudder’s name appeared on the club paperwork, and he took the girls to USA Volleyball-sanctioned tournaments. But ProPublica and The Post found that Richardson was, for all intents and purposes, still in charge of the club, a violation of his suspension. He set practice schedules and arranged tournaments, collected fees and ordered jerseys, according to team WhatsApp messages and interviews with a former coach at the club and two parents of former players.
Richardson was also the main coach of the oldest team of girls at Texas Fierce Elite, these people said. Richardson’s social media posts show him running drills at practices, and online streams of games show Richardson coaching on the sidelines.
“He was the only one that touched the team,” the former coach said. The coach, who left the club in early 2025, asked not to be named because she is still involved in volleyball in the region. Richardson allowed Rudder and other coaches to instruct younger teams, but he was still present at most practices and would frequently step in to coach, she said.
One mother, whose daughter played on Texas Fierce Elite’s team for girls 15 and under at the time, shared a series of WhatsApp messages that showed Richardson remained heavily involved in that team following the suspension. In the messages, he also required girls to book “at least one private session a week” with him ahead of USA Volleyball’s national tournament. Rudder was part of the WhatsApp group and had watched it all happen, the mother said.
The mother sent the messages showing Richardson’s involvement — and what she said was Rudder’s enabling of Richardson’s coaching — to Lone Star in July 2024, emails show. But with the new season set to begin in September, Lone Star renewed Rudder’s membership, and Texas Fierce Elite remained in good standing.
Left: Dusk in Pharr, Texas, where Elite Sports Performance is located. Right: Longoria.
As Longoria watched Richardson’s social media posts, she grew increasingly desperate — and furious. In January 2025 she emailed Krasley, the SafeSport investigator. It had been eight months since SafeSport’s investigation began.
“WE NEED TO SCHEDULE A MEETING,” she wrote. “I am so worried for these kids who are under [h]is program and I am so angered that he is still coaching.”
Longoria attached a photo that she had just been sent: Richardson in a Texas Fierce Elite zip-up at a tournament in New Orleans, his arms around a young volleyball player, pulling her against his chest.
Krasley didn’t respond. It turned out he no longer worked for SafeSport; he had been fired in November after he was arraigned on allegations that, as a police officer, he had stolen money seized in a drug bust. And three days before Longoria reached out, Krasley had been arrested again, this time on charges of felony rape and involuntary sexual servitude.
He is awaiting trial on multiple sex crime charges, although the theft and other charges were eventually dropped. Krasley has yet to enter a plea, and his attorney has argued the case should be dropped because of “egregious” prosecutorial misconduct. The attorney did not respond to requests for comment.
SafeSport’s CEO at the time, Ju’Riese Colón, said in a statement after firing him that she was “appalled that a former staff member has been accused of such heinous acts in his previous role as a police officer.” SafeSport conducted an audit of Krasley’s 114 cases and said that it had reopened three of them, without providing details.
“Defy the Opps”
In February 2025, one year after Richardson’s social media posts were sent to SafeSport, Richardson’s name appeared in the center’s disciplinary database. He was temporarily suspended from coaching under USA Volleyball and all other sports organizations covered by SafeSport’s mandate while the investigation ran its course.
Longoria was hopeful: Maybe SafeSport would make sure that Richardson no longer had access to young volleyball players.
In reality, ProPublica and The Post found, the SafeSport suspension made almost no difference.
Shortly after being placed on the SafeSport list, on March 8, Richardson was at the Adidas Bluegrass Tournament in Louisville, coaching the Texas Fierce Elite team that another coach had said “no one else touched.” Richardson was registered as the coach.
Richardson was taking advantage of a gap in the SafeSport law. While national governing bodies like USA Volleyball are required to ban coaches on the SafeSport list, the law does not apply to private nonprofit groups. The Junior Volleyball Association, a nonprofit that says it has more than 250,000 participants, had allowed Richardson to join while he was suspended by USA Volleyball. The Louisville tournament was not affiliated with JVA, but it allowed coaches to use JVA memberships to register.
In late April 2025, Richardson and the girls attended a tournament in Tennessee called Showdown in the Smokies. In an online stream of the event, he can be seen pacing in front of the team bench in gray shorts and a black T-shirt. After the tournament, which took place on his birthday, Richardson posted a video on Instagram of himself at a restaurant, having dinner with five of his teenage players. There are no other adults visible at the table.
In July 2025, four months after Richardson was suspended by SafeSport, JVA renewed his membership.
Like some other independent youth sports nonprofits, JVA has a policy banning coaches on the SafeSport list from working with kids, and a representative, Taylor Jakubowski, told ProPublica and The Post that JVA conducted monthly audits of the list against its membership roster. She acknowledged that JVA had not done so in Richardson’s case.
“That would be my colleague, the one that checks the list,” she said, but did not provide a name. Jakubowski said JVA “canceled” Richardson’s membership in December 2025, the same month that a reporter reached out with questions about him.
JVA’s executive director, Lisa Wielebnicki, said in a statement that JVA did not “operate or administer” either of the tournaments or determine who would be allowed to participate. “Any suggestion that JVA permitted or enabled Mr. Richardson to participate in those events … based on his JVA membership status would therefore be inaccurate.” (Richardson later reapplied, she said, and JVA denied his membership.)
Richardson’s gym had also been able to gain affiliation with another outside organization: the Amateur Athletic Union, a massive youth sports nonprofit with some 760,000 athletes, which an investigation from ProPublica and The Post found has developed a reputation as a refuge for coaches who have been accused of abuse. The AAU does not have a policy barring coaches who are suspended or banned by SafeSport or other sports organizations.
The AAU said it had “permanently banned” Richardson back in November 2024, after Gutierrez and the other Texas Fierce Elite mother said they reached out to the organization to express fears that Richardson would try to move his gym there. The AAU declined to comment further, but in a previous statement, the AAU said that it is “committed to protecting its athletes through comprehensive protection policies overseen by our Compliance Department.”
But the following summer, Richardson, Rudder and Texas Fierce Elite began advertising a sleek new brand: “The Complex, est. 2025.” On social media, a video from Richardson called it “a new chapter.” He also included a new slogan: “DEFY THE OPPS” — slang for “the opposition.”
In the AAU’s member directory, there is a girls’ volleyball club at the address of Richardson’s gym. It is called The Complex. The AAU did not answer questions about who owned the club.
For all of Richardson’s maneuvering with other sports groups, though, he still needed USA Volleyball. To players and parents determined to secure college scholarships, USA Volleyball memberships are vital. While the AAU and JVA host their own tournaments, USA Volleyball remains the gateway to the sport’s regional and national championships, where hundreds of college scouts gather every year to recruit a new class of athletes.
With a new season set to begin in September 2025, Lone Star allowed Texas Fierce Elite to remain in good standing. And it approved Rudder, who was listed as the club’s director, for another year of membership.
Richardson celebrated the start of the season with a video of a Texas Fierce Elite practice with the caption, “TAKING BACK EVERYTHING THAT WAS TAKEN FROM THESE KIDS !! GOD SEE ME THRU IT ! Let’s work!!”
Rudder was violating the SafeSport code just by allowing Richardson to work with his athletes. As a USA Volleyball member — and the registered owner of Texas Fierce Elite — he was prohibited from allowing people banned or suspended by SafeSport to be “in any way associated with” a registered club or to “coach or instruct Participants.” On social media, months of public posts by Richardson showed that Rudder had been standing by as Richardson coached his teams, sometimes literally. In one video, Richardson and Rudder stood on opposite sides of a volleyball net feeding balls to players. Public registration forms online show Richardson had listed Rudder as his assistant coach at tournaments.
Under the SafeSport code, USA Volleyball is “responsible for enforcing” the center’s bans and suspensions. But a senior official with USA Volleyball said it leaves enforcement to regional affiliates like Lone Star.
Karen Tarmon, the SafeSport coordinator for Lone Star, said in November 2025 that the organization had been unable to take action against Rudder or Texas Fierce Elite for violating Richardson’s suspension because “a club director or parent of an athlete is required to submit complaints and video documentation.”
In Richardson and Rudder’s case, Tarmon said, “The Lone Star Region has not received documentation of this possible violation.”
But by then, Lone Star had received reports from three people alleging that Richardson was violating his suspension, ProPublica and The Post found. Castañeda, Longoria and the other Texas Fierce Elite mother had all reported that he was still coaching, emails they provided show. The emails included videos, text messages and photos.
In addition, Tarmon said that Lone Star did not have “authority over a club” until the start of what she called the “sanctioned season” on Nov. 23. SafeSport says its rules apply at all times, and Lone Star’s handbook at the time said the region is allowed to govern teams for as long as they are registered.
Frustrated with inaction by Lone Star, Castañeda said he contacted USA Volleyball’s SafeSport office that November with photographs and videos pulled from Richardson’s public Instagram page.
By January, Rudder and Texas Fierce Elite were back at USA Volleyball-sanctioned tournaments.
Longoria
“Permanently Ineligible”
Richardson has made no effort to hide that he is still coaching.
He posts videos of himself working with the girls almost every day, sometimes accompanied by Rudder. He filmed himself spending time alone with players in the darkened back room of his gym, where the twin bed once sat, and performing cupping therapy on a girl who is lying face-down on a table wearing only a sports bra and shorts.
On Feb. 13, 2026, Richardson posted a video of himself training Texas Fierce Elite’s under-14 team. He captioned it with “TFE14” and stamped the video with the Texas Fierce Elite logo and the brand of a new training center named after one of his former players.
On Feb. 19, the Center for SafeSport ruled that Richardson was banned from coaching. His name now appears in the SafeSport database under a new category: “permanently ineligible.”
On Feb. 20, Richardson was back to training Texas Fierce Elite players, and he was back to posting. He has not stopped since.
Collage by ProPublica. Photo by Sarah Blesener for ProPublica.
As a reporter for The Washington Post and now ProPublica, I’ve investigated how youth sports organizations have failed to protect kids from sexual predators. I’ve spoken to dozens of parents. Some had children who were victimized by coaches. Others wanted to know how to keep their children safe.
Nearly every parent I’ve met said they didn’t have the information they needed to understand the system set up to protect their kids.
Here’s what you need to know (and how to get in touch with tips):
How is the system supposed to work?
The system revolves around one organization: the U.S. Center for SafeSport. SafeSport, as it’s known, is charged with investigating allegations of abuse at all levels of sport, from elite Olympic athletes to young recreational players. Its focus is sexual abuse, but it can also look into allegations of emotional and physical abuse.
The center has the power to suspend coaches as it investigates them, recording their names in a public database known as the SafeSport list. It can ultimately ban abusive coaches for life, declaring them “permanently ineligible.” It can also ban coaches based on certain types of criminal convictions, like those involving abuse of minors.
SafeSport was set up by Congress in 2018, in the wake of revelations about abuse by USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar and other prominent sports figures.
How do coaches get on the SafeSport list?
Coaches and club administrators are required to report misconduct to SafeSport, but anyone can make a report online or by phone.
SafeSport then decides whether to investigate; it doesn’t take every case. Usually coaches can keep working with kids while SafeSport looks into an allegation, but if the allegations are recent or serious, SafeSport can issue a suspension — temporarily placing a coach on the list — while it investigates. If the coach is found not to have engaged in misconduct, they’ll be removed from the list.
If SafeSport substantiates allegations, it can issue sanctions ranging from suspensions or other restrictions to permanent bans.
Which sports does SafeSport cover?
The center has jurisdiction only over the country’s 50 national sports governing bodies, which oversee and set rules for volleyball, swimming, basketball, soccer and any other sports that are included in the Olympics. Those governing bodies are overseen by the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
That covers millions of young athletes, but there are millions more who don’t fall under that system or who are only partially covered by it.
What does it mean if a coach is banned or suspended?
Banned coaches cannot be associated in any way with a team or organization that falls under the 50 sports governing bodies. That means they cannot interact at all with athletes in those groups, including at practices. Any adult in the organization who allows that to happen is also in violation of the SafeSport code.
A banned coach can keep working with kids, however, by joining clubs or organizations that are not covered by SafeSport.
What else does SafeSport do?
SafeSport also creates and mandates training for coaches and other adults that is centered on recognizing and reporting sexual abuse, and it enforces strict rules meant to govern how adults interact with kids, like making sure an adult is never alone with a minor.
Athletes have to take the training only if they are over 18, although the organization provides optional courses for younger kids. The training is optional for parents. Understanding how to recognize patterns that coaches use to abuse and groom children can become an important way to keep their children safe.
As part of my reporting on a volleyball coach who has been accused of sexual misconduct, I spoke to a mother and daughter who both told me that the coach had groomed the girl when she was a young teenager in his gym. The mom told me she tried her best to protect her daughter, but there was a lot she didn’t know.
When she finally watched a SafeSport training video with her daughter, who had just turned 18, the mother told me, “Had we watched this earlier, my kid might have been more open to be like, ‘Mom, my coach made a comment about my butt.’ ‘Mom, he sent me a message to my phone.’”
SafeSport said it has since resolved some of those issues, improving its process to resolve cases more quickly and cut down its backlog. In a statement, the center’s new CEO, Benita Fitzgerald Mosley, an Olympic gold medalist, said the organization “acknowledges the challenges we have met as the first national sport safeguarding organization in the world. We are on surer footing today.”
My reporting has also found gaps in the system and failures by both SafeSport and national governing bodies that put young athletes at risk.
What can you do?
First, ask your child’s club or team if your child is competing under a national governing body, which is legally bound by SafeSport, or in an organization that voluntarily follows the SafeSport list. Keep in mind that this still might not mean the organization is regularly checking the list or enforcing bans, as my reporting has documented.
Check for your child’s coach in the SafeSport database. It’s important to remember that coaches can be added to the list temporarily while an investigation is ongoing, which means they ultimately might not be found to have engaged in misconduct.
If you find a coach you know on the list, review SafeSport’s resources for deciding on your next steps.
Take SafeSport training yourself to learn about red flags for abuse and grooming, and discuss them with your child.
Do you have a story about a coach?
I know these are sensitive topics that can be difficult to discuss. I also know how important these stories are. If you’d like to share what you found in the SafeSport database, or you have other experiences with how youth sports organizations have handled abuse allegations, please fill out our brief questionnaire.
I’m particularly interested in:
Finding instances of coaches who are continuing to work with kids after being banned by SafeSport.
Better understanding how abusive coaches manipulate and deceive parents.
Learning about coaching abuse, safety and misconduct in basketball, a sport in which SafeSport has far less influence compared with many other popular youth sports.
We take your privacy seriously and will contact you if we wish to publish any part of your story.
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has declared a “significant escalation” in H5 bird flu in the state after the detection of three mass mortality events involving more than 1,000 greater crested terns.
Malinauskas said the cause of the deaths was presumed to be H5 bird flu.
It’s simple, says the SpaceX boss – according to something called the ‘Kardashev scale’, we just have to move energy production ‘off-planet’
Next time the weather gives the UK 61 days without rain and we wonder idly if this is the end, there is a term we may whistle up to soothe us. Like murmuring the rosary, or putting our fingers in our ears and humming, this phrase is to be mumbled on repeat – “the Kardashev scale, the Kardashev scale” – a buzzy concept in tech, much favoured by Elon Musk, and precisely the thing we’ve been waiting for. The Kardashev scale is the answer both to our impending doom and our anxiety around it – and if we decide to believe in it, we won’t have to give the climate crisis a single thought until the last drip falls from the tap.
This is the idea and it’s a familiar one to anyone who has watched tech billionaires take intractable, commonplace crises and decide that, among the measures and proposals in play, the vital missing ingredient so far has been them. Do you remember when Jeff Bezos, rather than doing something quotidian and loserish like funding public education by ensuring Amazon pays the same tax rate as regular Americans, decided instead to reinvent preschools?
NASA has called off a $30 million mission to rescue its aging Swift space telescope after Katalyst Space's Link spacecraft developed persistent control and positioning problems. The Associated Press reports: Katalyst said Link will not attempt to capture Swift and boost it to a higher orbit because of problems with controlling the spacecraft. NASA said this means the telescope will plunge through the atmosphere after more than 20 years of tracking some of the biggest explosions in the universe like gamma ray bursts and exploding stars. Its demise is not expected before October.
NASA paid $30 million to Katalyst in an attempt to raise the telescope to a safer, longer-lasting orbit. Intense solar activity caused it to lose altitude faster than expected. The rescue spacecraft went into an uncontrollable spin a few weeks after its liftoff in early July. While flight controllers managed to slow Link's tumble, issues continued to plague its pointing and positioning in orbit.
"This is not the outcome we were working toward, but it does not change why this mission was worth attempting," NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said in a statement. As a consolation prize, Katalyst will continue to operate Link in proximity with the telescope to demonstrate capabilities for future rescue operations. Katalyst CEO Ghonhee Lee said it was an ambitious mission on an aggressive timeline that was thrown together in under a year. "We took on this high-risk, high-reward challenge and are proud of the milestones we reached along the way," Lee said in a statement. "We have already learned a tremendous amount."
A ‘capacity for despair’ forged by political oppression has long been considered a Magyar national trait. But after Orbán, writers in the country remind us that melancholy must not always be bleak
A lone visitor looks for a garden outside an empty monastery. A morose housekeeper won’t let anyone behind the door of her own home. A retired general living alone on a crumbling estate waits 40 years to confront the only friend he ever had. Melancholy, an affinity with oblivion without a concrete cause, suffuses the Hungarian fiction translated for foreign audiences over the past 30 years, from the tortured tales of Sándor Márai to the taut novels of Magda Szabó.
In his book In Praise of Melancholy, essayist László F Földényi tells the story of an Englishman who monomanically decides to teach himself Hungarian. For Földényi, the commitment to studying a language with 26 cases and with no connection to any other language, from a culture besieged by centuries of invasion, is to embrace melancholy, a seductive “capacity for despair”. To read Hungarian literature as an outsider, the poet János Pilinszky claimed in 1972, is to acquire unique spiritual insights that come from centuries of rootlessness, alienation and strife.
Hello! This is my first time using a CBXR. I got it secondhand off a seller on Facebook marketplace and it was working just fine when I bought it. When I brought it home, I noticed the headlight wasn’t on, so I opened up the controller, cleaned the headlight connector and re-plugged it in.
The headlight now works, but the board will not activate after a couple seconds. It will flash three times giving me the overcharge error. I checked the Nosedive app and it appears my cells are mostly normal but one is at 3.5 and the other one is at 4.5. I attached screenshots below of the app. Any ideas on how I can fix this? Sorry I’m new to any XR modding.
US president pivots towards ‘crushing’ economic operation against Iran and its trading partners as military strikes fail to bring Tehran to the table
Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented.
“Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.”
The Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm creator says Dershowitz, who also defended Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, ‘only has himself to blame’ for being ostracised
Larry David has opened up about the collapse of his friendship with Alan Dershowitz, saying that Dershowitz “made a deal with the devil” when he became Donald Trump’s lawyer.
Dershowitz, a former Harvard University law professor, has been a member of legal teams for Trump, Jeffrey Epstein, OJ Simpson and Harvey Weinstein at various points in his career, and served on Trump’s defense team during the president’s first impeachment trial in 2020.
For most of modern history, technology sought to imitate humans. Humans increasingly seek to imitate technology
Two faces that appeared on my Instagram feed in recent months gave me pause. One belonged to John Travolta at Cannes. The other to Carla Bruni on a date night with her husband, former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Both looked recognisably themselves, yet, they both also looked oddly unfamiliar. Their looks have provoked speculation about cosmetic enhancement, though never acknowledged by them. Bruni has previously denied having had work done.
In any case the feeling lasted only a second: a flicker of unease, as though I were looking at people who had become approximations of themselves.
Joseph de Weck is an associate fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations and writes for Guardian Europe from Zürich and Paris
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Spotlight Delaware hosted a debate Tuesday night in Wilmington for the three Democrats vying for the party’s nomination in the Sept. 15 primary election.
Incumbent Attorney General Kathy Jennings faced challengers Dwayne Bensing, the former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, and Patty Rickman, a domestic abuse survivor turned advocate and author.
Each candidate answered a dozen questions from Editor in Chief Jacob Owens around criminal prosecution, civil rights litigation and public transparency of law enforcement over the course of more than an hour of conversation.
The entire unedited conversation can be found in a podcast while the transcript that follows is lightly edited for clarity and concision.
Patty, you are not an attorney, but the state Constitution does not require you to be one, to be attorney general. Delaware has never elected an attorney general who is not a member of the state bar, though. Why should voters buck that trend, and how would you approach the role if elected?
Rickman: So thank you very much for that question, and I’ve been getting that question a lot lately. I’m a domestic violence survivor turned advocate, turned author, and now your next attorney general. And I have seen the criminal justice system from the inside out.
My abuser pled guilty twice to domestic violence related to crimes like stalking, domestic terrorism, and multiple violations of the court order. So I’ve seen where the laws that are supposed to defend and protect all Delawareans, not be adjudicated in our criminal justice system.
I do have vast litigation experience with my health care background. For 25 years, I owned a small accounts receivable company where I stood up to big insurance payers like UnitedHealthcare and Blue Cross/Blue Shield, where I stood toe-to-toe when they denied claims, and they could have been adjudicated and fallen to our seniors and our veterans.
And I stood toe-to-toe with them multiple times, and I had a 96% success rating, which is the same as litigation. And why I’m running is because we need someone to stand up and say, law and order should be applied and adjudicated, and that we should make sure that all laws are enforced to protect all Delawareans. And I’m that attorney general that will do that. Thank you.
Dwayne, the attorney general represents the interest of Delaware in civil and criminal cases. You clearly have a long career in civil rights litigation, but you have never served as a prosecutor. How would you approach bridging that gap for DOJ’s criminal division oversight?
Bensing: That’s right. I certainly approach this as a civil rights attorney.
My career has been as a civil rights attorney. And the reason that I’m running is because I think that the challenges we’re facing right now as a society, not just from Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., but also the tech bro billionaire class, the so-called broligarchy, needs leadership in the office for attorney general in the Department of Justice who understands the North Star of our civil rights protections.
And those civil rights are the cornerstone of our criminal prosecution as well. Our constitutional rights to privacy, our constitutional rights from cruel and excessive force, our constitutional rights to be treated equally under the law.
And I think that what many Delawareans have experienced is that our Department of Justice is not evenly applied to our criminal matters and our civil matters. So we need a leader in that office who understands the challenges our democracy faces, that the call is coming from inside the house.
And so I’m ready to lead the Department of Justice, lead our criminal division and our civil division and our civil rights division to ensure that all of the constitutional and civil rights of our citizens are enforced, enforced with vigilance, because we’ve got to protect democracy right here in the first state.
Kathy, you have served as attorney general for nearly eight years now. Delaware has rarely seen the role held for more than two terms in its modern history. Why do you want a third term and why should voters entrust you to it?
Jennings: I grew up in this city to a single mom. My father left me before I was born and my mother was penniless. We moved in with my grandparents and I was raised in a very loving family, but we had very little in the way of material goods. So I grew up thinking, you know what, we need to help everyone achieve the American dream. My mom became a nurse. She was the first college graduate in our family. My grandma made it to eighth grade and that was it. But my mom was a real model for me. I have her wedding band on tonight because she will always be my hero. She became a public health nurse and I went with her everywhere.
So it’s no surprise that I joined the attorney general’s office to help Delawareans. I joined the criminal division, second female in the criminal division. And I was lucky enough to have learned a great deal about the justice system, about trying cases.
I believe that where we are at this point in our history, in Delaware, we have had the safest years on record in terms of violent crime. There’s still more work to be done, especially with respect to gun violence. And then we have a president in the White House who has turned the Constitution and the rule of law on its head. I have sued him 60 times and he has two years left.
I will keep fighting for Delawareans, for their rights, for the money they deserve, as long as that man is in the White House. And I hope that we can then elect a Democratic president.
Kathy, you told the Joint Finance Committee last year that the Department of Justice was, “critically understaffed,” with 31 vacancies among 243 attorney positions, including many senior deputy attorney general positions. Has that situation materially improved? And what have you learned about why experienced attorneys were or are leaving?
Jennings: Retention is a national issue for public service attorneys. It always has been. And unfortunately, our deputy attorneys general can serve 10 years in the office and they still don’t make a starting salary in a private firm in this city. It’s outrageous.
And each and every year, I fight for more attorneys, more support staff. And each and every year, we fight to get them raises.
They unionized. Our office is a union shop right now. And that is a very good thing. With the union’s help, I advocated successfully with a brand new governor that we should get a substantial raise for the people in our office. What I can say is they got it. They got 20% over three years. But it is not nearly enough.
We need more and I’ll keep fighting for more. Our vacancy rate has gone down dramatically with that improvement. And I can tell you that I am so honored to work with amazing people in our office. They certainly don’t stay for the money.
Dwayne and Patty, how would you address the DOJ hiring practices to ensure the department isn’t shorthanded into the future?
Bensing: I think acceptance is the first step to recovery here. And I’m glad to hear that our attorney general is now working on this issue. But it shouldn’t have ever reached crisis levels. And it was just last year that it was a vacancy crisis.
And let me tell you, that results in taxpayer dollars going to private elite law firms, the ones that were just referenced in this city, making a lot more than I make as legal director of the ACLU of Delaware. That we’re outsourcing that work to those private law firms because we don’t have enough talent in the Delaware Department of Justice.
Our attorney general has been there for eight years. Any public interest attorney, and I’ve spent my career as a public interest attorney, could see this crisis coming down the pike. It should not have taken the unionization of our Delaware Department of Justice to be the wake-up call that we needed to increase the morale, to increase the pay.
I’ve spent my career as a public interest lawyer. I know what motivates folks. I like to joke that I’m the lowest paid lawyer in the state of Delaware. I’m not quite sure that’s true, but it’s pretty close. And so I know that what calls people to public interest is not the paycheck. It is the work that we do. And so you really need a leader who understands how to retain talent.
I grew the ACLU legal department from a department of one to a department that now has three staff attorneys, two first-year legal fellows, and a paralegal. I know how to recruit people. I know what the call to service feels like for a young generation. So I’m a professor at the Delaware Law School, and we will increase that pipeline of young talent with the work and the mission of the Department of Justice.
Rickman: I’m a lead-by-example type leader. I feel like the buck stops with me, and I totally take accountability for all of my businesses that I’ve owned.
And from what my experience is in the criminal justice system from a domestic violence survivor turned advocate is that I did not experience many, and I have to say many, employees from the Delaware Department of Justice that seemed happy. And there was a lot of retention turnover.
Just in my experience, it was between six and eight. And the feedback that I would get off the record, they’d say, ‘Off the record, Ms. Rickman, is that the policies and procedures were not followed and abided by, and that it was seemingly a catch-and-release system.’ And what I know about leadership is, if you’re not happy with what you do, if you’re not abiding by the rules and the policies and procedures as an employee, if you don’t have the leader that stands by that integrity, then you’re not going to be happy with what you do. And it’s not going to speak to us Delawareans.
I know that from my experience, and as an advocate, I’ve talked to now thousands of domestic violence survivors, sexual assault survivors, their neighbors, their friends, their family. And it’s been the same report. They’ve had the same experience with the criminal justice system. And if you’re a survivor and you’re having that as a victim, and the neighbors and the friends and the nieces and the nephews, there’s something going on.
And it starts with the leadership. And as an attorney general, that would default to me. And I intend on leading by example and having an inclusive leadership staff with me and following laws and following policies and procedures so that retention is higher, so that we don’t have the issue that has just been within the last year.
Gun violence has been a historic issue in Delaware. The state reached a recent peak in 2022 when 82 people were killed in 233 shootings. The numbers have fallen significantly since then, but 47 people still died last year in shootings as deaths had ticked up in recent years. What is one change you would make to Delaware’s approach to prosecuting gun crimes? And what evidence convinces you that that change would make Delaware safer?
Bensing: So I applaud our General Assembly for taking on this challenge. We’ve had some amazing progress in our enforcement opportunities at the Delaware Department of Justice to really stem the gun violence where it starts.
We have got to track down these illegal guns that are getting out into our community, and we need to get it at its source. And so I think that this whack-a-mole approach to gun violence that we’ve had that really lends itself to unconstitutional policing, we have stops that occur and then we seize the weapon, we need a more strategic approach that really comes from or addresses the supply side of where these weapons are coming from.
Delaware is the source of a lot of where these illegal guns are coming from in Delaware crimes for gun crimes and also regionally. And so this has been an issue that we’ve been working on for years, and it’s taken years for us to finally get the General Assembly to wake up to this crisis of gun violence.
I think Delaware is a microcosm of what we’re seeing on the national level. We brag about crime rates being low, well, that tracks perfectly with our national crime rates. I don’t think that any person at this table can take any credit for that decrease in our crime levels or the priority that needs to be placed on reining in gun violence and the gun access in our communities. But I think it starts at the source, who are the gun distributors, who are the gun sellers, who are providing the community with these illegal guns.
Rickman: So I want to start off by a name, Kadir Skinner. You know, and I find myself getting emotional just talking about him, but I feel like we have to have the ‘meet-our-Delawareans-where they-are approach.’
We cannot say that pointing the fingers as adults, as politicians, as humans, is not going to filter into our youth. It is. And I will piggyback on a little bit of what Dwayne said, because I agree with that. We need to get the illegal guns off the streets. And meeting our youth where they are, going into communities, talking to leaders, talking to the families, sitting down and having conversations.
You know, I have to be fair and just, because that’s who I am, but hearing a little bit of Kathy Jennings’ private story really got to me, because I’d never heard it before. And I appreciate her sharing that with us.
That’s how we connect as humans. That’s how we connect as individuals. And we need to go into our communities and have mentorship programs for our youth. That’s what they need. They don’t need to see the redirection as politicians. They need inclusion. They need unity. And that’s going to be my approach as your next attorney general.
Jennings: Public safety is the No. 1 issue that the attorney general is responsible for. And it’s the No. 1 issue above all else. Always has been. Always will be.
Gun violence has been an almost intractable problem for so many years. There was a time when Wilmington was known as “Murder Town.”
And it was incredibly frustrating to learn about. And so when I took office in 2019, we went to work. We are equipping our police departments with crime gun intelligence centers. Wilmington has one now, which is a huge benefit because we can trace a gun, a crime gun, back to its origin. And that makes a big difference. Every month, I sit down with the U.S. attorney, with the mayor, with the police chief, with the federal partners like ATF and others. And we track every gun arrest in our city. And we make sure that we are focused on the most violent gun offenders. That’s the No. 1 reason why someone goes to prison right now.
But, you know, Patty’s right. The answer is not just locking people up. We need to do it. We need to make our streets safer. And we have made our streets safer. But the problem is that if we’re not working on prevention, we’re not giving children the tools that they need from the very beginning of their lives, then we’re going to rinse and repeat. And so we’re heavily involved in a gun violence intervention program that, in part, is run by an employee in our office, Corie Priest. And it’s making a difference. They’re taking the most violent offenders among us, and they’re teaching them a different way.
Juvenile arrests remain substantially lower than a decade ago. But violent offense arrests have risen from their pandemic-era lows. How do you assess Delaware’s current approach to juvenile diversion? And what would you change, if anything, to reduce serious youth offending while keeping young people out of the criminal justice system when appropriate?
Rickman: I think I kind of touched on that with the last question. We need to meet our youth where they are. I’m originally from Baltimore, Maryland. And my parents owned a home right outside the city.
And I remember a time where our Baltimore City police officers would play hopscotch and jump rope with our youth. And what that did is that built bridges, that planted seeds, and then mentors and priests and pastors would come into that. And then organizations like Campus Life, which is what I belonged to as a 14-year-old, it literally breathed life back into the human that I am. I would not be the candidate that I am sitting here if it wasn’t for a woman by the name of Sarah Woodlawn, who believed in me, who breathed that life back into me. Because I could have been caught up in different situations. And that’s what’s needed. We need to, you know, spend time with our youth.
If we’re not listening as leaders, and again, if we’re pointing fingers in the other direction, and constantly it’s the Democrats versus the Republicans versus the independents, and we can’t meet somewhere in the middle, then that is what our youth is ingesting. That is going to set them up for negativity. And depending on situations, they might go into a different direction. They might not have people like Sarah to breathe life back into them.
We need to open our minds and realize that there are other things that we can do as leaders who would be able to achieve that. And then there’s conversations that me, as a 53-year-old white lesbian woman, will not understand that we’ll be having in Black American and Delawarean homes. They have conversations with their young sons that I will never understand. So we need to meet our Delawareans where they are.
Jennings: This is the most important issue of our time in our state and across our nation. Our children need us. They are our future. And we need to be their future as well.
That means that we need to have a public education system that is strong and that nurtures reading. I think the most important thing a young child can learn is how to read. It will guide the rest of their lives. And I can tell you that there are really great programs in Delaware that focus on children, but there’s not enough. There’s not enough. And we need to do more.
We need to make sure that our children have the ability to grow up in a nurturing environment and to succeed. We have cut back in the criminal justice system, especially, and we have led on this effort, to make sure that children stay out of the school-to-prison pipeline. Civil citations are the norm now for a huge variety of crimes because that means a child never even needs to go to Family Court and get caught up in that system.
Once a child ends up at Ferris School, the recidivism rate is 85%. That’s outrageous. That needs to change. We should never get there. And if we can continue to nurture youth throughout their childhood, I believe we can do a whole lot better in our state and that we’ll be safer and our children will be better off.
Bensing: Well, our youth is exactly what brought me to Delaware. I was on the legal team that sued our state because of their failure to provide an adequate education to our students.
We’ve had leaders in Delaware who talk platitudes about our youth and our future, but when push comes to shove, have not made the investments that are necessary. The result of our litigation against the state, then-Gov. Carney argued there was no constitutional right to an education. The result, the independent studies showed that we are underfunding our school systems by $600 million to $1 billion each year. That is a crisis level. And to put it in comparison, Gov. Meyer called a special session when Donald Trump threatened to withhold $600 million of Delaware state funds. I don’t know why an emergency session wasn’t called when the independent report on our education funding came out.
Our education system is at crisis level, and we cannot address our juvenile justice system without addressing our education system. And it was our county executive, our counties’ executives, who ignored our property tax crisis. When Attorney General Jennings was No. 2 in the New Castle County executive’s office, they turned a blind eye to the plain letter law that we need to reevaluate our property values. That has a direct impact on the resources available for our public schools to serve those students.
And the 85% recidivism rate that you just heard, that is such a failure that we are there after this many years of the current administration that we still cannot provide alternative pathways for our youth. I’m a former middle school teacher, so this issue matters tremendously to me. And we have got to find diversion programs that actually work and that do not result in the revolving door for our school-to-prison pipeline. We need to invest in programs and schools, not school resource officers that fast-track that school-to-prison pipeline. And we need to find actual community-based interventions that work and provide the necessary resources for our youth.
Jennings: I served as second-in-command at the county for one year. During that period of time, my role in reassessment was zero.
In the past two years, Delaware State Police have announced at least 16 arrests involving people accused of their fifth, sixth, seventh, or even ninth DUI offense. Several were allegedly driving on suspended or revoked licenses. What is failing when a driver reaches that level of repeat offending? And what should Delaware do differently to prevent chronic DUI offenders from getting back behind the wheel?
Jennings: Delaware has a good record with respect to DUI enforcement. The first time someone is arrested for a DUI, the numbers are very low in Delaware. We’re among the best.
Having said that, how in the world does someone get their third, fourth, fifth DUI arrest? They get them because they’re driving. They’re not allowed to even start their car. They don’t have a license. What they do have is likely an addiction; a substance use disorder. That is exactly what these fifth, sixth, and seventh offenders have. They go to prison for a pretty long time, but when they get out, they’re still suffering from addiction, and they get behind the wheel. And when they get behind that wheel, that car becomes a deadly weapon.
I read every fatal incident report from the state police. They’re tragic. They’re horrible. Children get killed. Families get killed. And we need to make sure that the people who are killing motorists on our roadway are kept behind bars. We also need to use some of the $250 million I brought into this state for addiction treatment, because they’re not getting better without a whole lot of redirection. In the meantime, we have to keep our state safe.
Bensing: Well, one of the first issues we have here is that we have a two-tiered approach to how we enforce our DUI laws. There’s one set of rules for college presidents and state senators and children of judges, and there’s a whole other set of laws applicable to everyone else. And what we need, if we really are concerned about these DUI repeat offenders, we need to ensure that there are consequences for these actions.
But you just heard the statistics from our attorney general. We cannot incarcerate our way out of addiction. And so when we’re trying to solve an addiction problem, we need addiction-based solutions. We had the $250 million settlement funds, and we had the opioid commission that our attorney general was the co-chair of.
A lot of communities are asking, where do those funds go? It is a shame that we still have this kind of crisis level for addiction-related criminal behavior, because I’ll tell you, it costs a lot more to send someone to jail than it does to send them to Yale. We need to figure out a way that we get folks out of this recidivism, this cycle of addiction. And the program, our Department of Corrections, isn’t correcting any of this addiction problem. It’s just opening their revolving door for people to come right back in. So you have to set the standard high, enforce it evenly, and then ensure that you have programs that help lift people out of this crisis.
Rickman: I don’t know about you guys, but I’m exhausted with opening up Facebook or social media, seeing the pictures and images of DUIs of five and six. My youngest daughter, Destiny, just turned 19, and what happens – as it relates to DUI arrests affects and impacts all Delawareans – as a mom, it’s destabilizing and scary and traumatizing to know that Delaware has such a high rate.
In 2025, it’s 2,977 arrests. And from the experience from the Delaware State Police’s perspective, it’s not that the arrests aren’t being made. It’s that we are known as the catch-and-release criminal justice system.
Both of my brothers suffered from the disease of addiction. And my brother, Jack, was arrested with a DUI, his first and his only. And in Maryland, he lost his license for two years. And Maryland made it so difficult that, thank God, he never was able to get it back.
What is happening in Delaware? This is a safety issue. This is a human issue. We all shouldn’t be scared and nervous as Delawareans worried that we’re going to be hurt when we’re driving to, you know, a grocery store. Because we can’t do what we need to do as leaders. We cannot hold people accountable. There’s a delineation between the disease of addiction and holding someone accountable for multiple DUIs. Both can be true. It’s my “and” approach.
One of the most prevalent issues around Delaware this past year has been how to address increasing homelessness. Local governments have increasingly sought DOJ guidance on how they can address homelessness while respecting constitutional protections and responding to quality of life concerns. What should the attorney general’s role be in defining those legal boundaries? And where should the DOJ stay out?
Bensing: So this is really my attorney general race origin story, because as legal director of the ACLU, I had to sue our attorney general to stop enforcing unconstitutional laws that criminalize poverty, that criminalize our unhoused.
For me, this is very deeply personal. Like our attorney general, actually, I was raised by my grandmother as a result of a car accident that my mother had on her way making the nightly deposit for her boss. And while the millionaire boss went on vacation, my family lost our mobile home and we ended up sleeping in sleeping bags in my grandma’s living room. And it wasn’t until I was an adult and a lawyer that I realized some agency laws probably applied there to that millionaire boss. But also that I was definitionally unhoused. And so this is a personal issue.
Just like we can’t criminalize our way out of addiction, we cannot criminalize our way out of poverty. I had the opportunity to tour some of the facilities at Friendship House just a couple of weeks ago. And the programs and resources that they’re providing to the under-resourced communities here in Wilmington and throughout New Castle County are phenomenal. We cannot address our homeless issue with the Department of Justice.
It must be addressed as a community of neighbors. And I’ll tell you what, if I had been attorney general when Mayor Carney decided to do that sweep right here in Wilmington, I would have sued him under Delaware’s Constitution protection against cruel punishment. Because while the Supreme Court might say that’s OK under Grants Pass, Delaware’s Constitution prohibits cruel punishment. And the homeless sweep that happened here in Wilmington was cruel. Full stop.
Rickman: I echo a lot of what Dwayne said, and this is near and dear to my heart. I’m from Baltimore. As I stated, my father did not have a legal degree, but he was an engineer for Bethlehem Steel, where he worked for the majority of his career. And when they did layoffs, my father was laid off, and we were just a few paychecks away from being homeless. And my mother took up child care to help save and sustain our family.
So I am acutely aware of what this could do to a family. I believe that most of us Delawareans are one or two paychecks away from this catastrophic event of being homeless. And I also want to share something else. There is a pastor by the name of Jill, and she, I don’t remember the name of the church, and I apologize on her behalf, but she is right now filing a lawsuit against the city of Ocean City, Maryland, where she has housed, I believe it’s 50 homeless citizens in Ocean City. And I just applaud her.
That’s what we need to do as humans. We need to take care of one another. That’s what we’re here to do. This is a human issue. And as your next attorney general, I will make it one of my platforms to make sure that we remain human, and I will be a lead by example type person. And never forget where I came from.
Jennings: Well, I’ll tell you what it’s not. The presence or absence of a loitering law isn’t solving homelessness. I can tell you that.
We have a national issue. This is a public health and housing crisis. And when I talk to Friendship House, the No. 1 reason someone is homeless is because they couldn’t pay their rent, or their mortgage got foreclosed on, and they’re out on the street. There is no way on God’s green earth that those people who were living in the homeless tents, in the tents in Christina Park, should have been prosecuted. I was told, prosecute these people if they’re there after dark. That’s ridiculous. That’s not solving a problem. That’s creating another problem. So maybe we actually agree on something.
But I can tell you this, that our office has sued the federal government because Trump decided he was going to cut funding to make sure that people were housed. That would have caused hundreds of Delawareans to lose their homes under the continuum of care. And we won, just like we won 90% of our lawsuits. That’s hundreds of people who are housed. Our office mediates something probably not any of you know. Our office mediates mortgage foreclosure cases to keep people in their homes. We have saved thousands of people from becoming homeless. Those are direct things that an attorney general can do. But it is a crisis. We need to be kind. We need to be decent. And we need to be helpful.
Attorney General Jennings, you’ve sued the Trump administration more than 60 times. Some critics say that’s evidence that you’re concerned more about politics than the results, especially when it comes to multi-district litigation that may impact Delaware regardless of whether the DOJ is involved. So how do you decide which cases to join, which cases not to join, and where do you feel the appropriate role for the DOJ is when suing the federal government?
Jennings: The appropriate role for DOJ in Delaware is how the federal government’s actions are affecting Delawareans. And when it affects Delawareans in their pocketbook, we’re going to sue.
I was the chair of the Democratic Attorney General Association for four years. So a lot of those years were under Trump. What I can tell you is he keeps threatening to cut off our funding over and over and over again for unlawful reasons. And we keep suing him. And, yes, we’ve sued him 60 times. And we’ve saved the state $1 billion in federal funding that is still coming into Delaware because of those lawsuits.
I am so proud of the work that our attorneys in the office have done. They’re proud of their work. It’s amazing. Joining a lawsuit is a lot of work. We have led on lawsuits over funding. And we have joined lawsuits. But that means we have to be able to show that Delawareans would be harmed. And I think $1 billion is a heck of a lot of your taxpayer money that’s still coming in as a result of those lawsuits.
I will never stop fighting for Delawareans. One of the most important lawsuits we filed was the suit against Trump’s tariffs. He imposed these tariffs. You know what tariffs are? They’re a tax on consumers. That’s all they are. It’s your groceries. It’s gas. It’s food. It’s cars. It’s everything you pay for. We went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and we won. So we tried it again with Trump 2.0’s tariffs, and we won. And we will continue to fight this battle for you.
Bensing: I agree with the framework there, but I really want to pull back the curtains. I think our attorney general acts like she’s the Elena Delle Donne of the attorneys general. Not one of those cases have been filed in the State of Delaware. Not one. These are all group projects.
I watched the attorney general’s campaign ad this weekend and it’s her entire narrative for reelection. I mastered signing my name in elementary school. I will join those cases. The Delaware attorney general will sign on to these multi-state litigation.
What we need is to get real about what we’re taking credit for and the actual impact and work that we’re doing within the state of Delaware. Our attorney general wasn’t there when other attorneys general were suing Elon Musk when he was destroying our federal government under DOGE. Our attorney general wasn’t there when Sam Altman wanted to convert OpenAI from a nonprofit to a for-profit. Our attorney general wasn’t there to investigate all the Epstein anonymous LLCs that are operating and using the Delaware franchise. She wasn’t there when Donald Trump was cashing out on the inaugural committee with his LLCs that use the Delaware franchise.
So really, we need to clean up our own backyard. If we’re going to talk the talk about fighting Trump, we need an attorney general who knows how to walk the walk and fight the fight. I’m at the ACLU. So as many cases as the Democratic attorneys general have brought, and I applaud them for their work, there are about twice as many that have been brought by the national ACLU. So if we’re taking credit for group projects, I’d like to sign my name on those briefs.
Jennings: That’s just flat out false, Dwayne, and you know it. It is flat out false. We have been the leader. The reason none of these lawsuits have been filed in the state of Delaware is because we have the Third Circuit of Appeals, and not one Democratic attorney general in the country wants to be in front of the Third Circuit, which just said assault weapons bans are unconstitutional, for God’s sakes.
So that’s a tactical decision that is made by all of the Democratic attorneys general. I am proud of these lawsuits. These lawsuits matter. The lawsuit that we filed on day two of Trump’s administration to preserve birthright citizenship under the Constitution of the United States, under the 14th Amendment, yeah, that matters.
Rickman: So, first and foremost, I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I have not really said that publicly, but there you have it.
But 60 lawsuits? When our Delawareans are suffering, when we’re talking about homelessness, when we’re talking about our youth incarceration, when we’re talking about violence, when we’re talking about whether the public can pay for their gas or electric? Because I know it’s like tripled in the last year. How about we worry about Delaware?
I’m not saying that we can’t file lawsuits, but can we share the responsibility? Can we worry about Delaware primarily and then get into Donald Trump? How about, with all due respect, Kathy, how about you answer when your constituents email you? I’ve been waiting for four years and three months for a response from you. Worry about what’s going on in Delaware primarily, not what’s going on in Washington, D.C.
I believe that some of her lawsuits are legitimate. I will hand her that. I will say that I agree with some of them. But for the love of God, could we worry about Delaware? Like, we need to focus on Delawareans. We need to make sure that we have safety and our kids are being looked after. And we’re not pointing the fingers because that’s the political partisan issue to do. How about we meet in the middle? How about we stop pointing the finger at one man and start looking at our own backyard like what Dwayne said? I agree with him. That would be my approach. I am a lead by example type person. What you see is what you get. There will be no surprises with my administration. I am not saying that I wouldn’t file a lawsuit against Donald Trump, but I will definitely say that my Delawareans will be taken care of primarily.
The Trump administration has taken a hardline approach to immigration enforcement, which has often come into conflict with Delaware leaders’ efforts to support undocumented residents. When federal immigration enforcement conflicts with Delaware policies or requests for state-held information, what legal standards should the attorney general use to decide when Delaware cooperates, when it refuses, and when it challenges the federal government in court?
Rickman: Now, this is something that’s near and dear to my heart. My youngest daughter that my ex-wife and I adopted from Guatemala is brown-skinned and we had to have a talk with her about a year and a half ago. I would say that she has to go everywhere with her passport because we were worried that she was going to be pulled over and searched.
So, as your next attorney general, I’m going to make sure that’s an “and” approach. That we make sure that we have legal documentation, but there will be no time that anybody in my state, and no Delawareans, are going to fear that they’re going to be dragged out of their houses in front of their children. That will not happen under my leadership.
Both things can exist. And I believe that no one in the state of Delaware and beyond should ever fear these things happening, should ever worry about those things. That would never happen under my watch. Just watching as certain things were televised, and our youth is watching these things as they’re unfolding. Can you imagine what they feel? Especially our Latino and Hispanic communities in other states where it’s propagated.
I’m not good with names. I’m dyslexic. But there was a young woman that was killed right on camera. Those things would not happen under my administration.
Jennings: ICE, as we know it right now, is a bunch of stormtroopers that have descended upon cities across our country. Now they have shock gloves. I mean, it’s outrageous. And we can’t cooperate with an organization that is that evil, that separates parents and children, that ships off a domestic violence victim to a detention center in Louisiana in the middle of the night. We fought successfully to get her back. But, you know, that should never happen in this country.
What’s happening is outrageous. That’s why I fought to make sure that the police in our state were being policed in our state for Delawareans and not cooperating with ICE. That should not happen. And now we have a law that says it will not happen.
I also fought against the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the federal government’s subpoena for Department of Labor records that were based on the origin of those business owners and that were clearly designed to get at Latino and other business owners. We fought for almost a year to make sure those records weren’t produced. We didn’t win in court, but you know what? That was a fight worth fighting.
And we will continue to fight against ICE. If they do anything to break the law in Delaware, I will be there.
Bensing: Well, let’s start where our attorney general just ended. The first step is called a motion to quash. And that’s what the Department of Justice failed to do. And our chief judge reprimanded our Department of Justice and said, “This was not your best day.” We can’t afford not to have our best day in federal court against the Trump administration, particularly when one of the most vulnerable communities is under attack.
That’s the record of the attorney general. That’s the one case: Donald Trump v. Kathy Jennings. We lost. We should not have lost that case. This 287g agreement issue is really important because it’s about public trust. It’s about whether our vulnerable communities can relay information to their local police departments. And the ACLU, as soon as Donald Trump was elected, advocated.
The reason that we have that bill is because the ACLU actually discovered that our local police departments were working with federal ICE agents. And we said, ‘Whoa, you’ve got to stop this. This is undermining the public trust in our local police departments.’ Fortunately, our General Assembly responded quickly. But we were raising these flags early on.
We cannot be caught flat-footed with any of the attacks on our immigrant community. There is a national group called the Federation Against Federal Overreach. Larry Krasner, the district attorney in Philadelphia, is a part of that group, FAFO. You get it? And we need to join that. We need to join that federation because if any federal agent violates state law, we need to ensure that our attorney general is there to enforce state law that protects our communities.
Also, I just want to underscore, because we talk a lot about Trump, but what we’re not talking about are the other threats against our society. And that’s this broligarchy class. And we have employers here in Delaware that are taking advantage of our immigrant community, that are taking advantage of those that are vulnerable in our workplaces and consumers. We need to prosecute those that are violating and the fraudsters that are violating the rights of our immigrant communities right here in Delaware.
Delaware has long debated transparency reforms around law enforcement and the Law Enforcement Officer Bill of Rights, including in 2023, when reforms didn’t quite go as far as some advocates had hoped. One of the biggest omissions from that debate was opening police disciplinary files to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Should those records be open to the public? And if so, what information, if any, should remain confidential?
Bensing: Absolutely those records should be open to the public. Our police officers are public servants. The News Journal just published last week our top 10 paid folks. Seven of the top 10 are law enforcement officers. That’s your taxpayer dollars. We must, as taxpayers, be able to hold our police officers accountable.
Our attorney general is fighting to keep their names concealed. I had to go to the Delaware Supreme Court to have the Delaware State Police issue the names of our Delaware State Police officers. Now, that should offend everyone in here. We should not have a secret police force, especially when we have the kind of authoritarianism happening at the national level.
Our attorney general has broad jurisdiction to enforce our Freedom of Information Act. And time and again, whether it’s to sue to find out how much of our taxpayer dollars are paying elite law firms here in Wilmington to represent the state, whether it’s Rep. Bryan Shupe’s FOIA request to find out how much our Delaware Department of Justice is actually spending to fight Trump, those records time and again get denied. Those requests get denied time and again by our attorney general.
The LEOBOR is about the personnel records, but our Department of Justice investigates our criminal activities. And so we have to be as transparent as possible. It’s not enough that we’re the first state to have body-worn cameras. Why was that law passed without any policies in place to describe to Delawareans when and how that information will be released so that we can hold bad actors accountable, including when that is our police officers? I have a deep commitment to transparency. I don’t believe we should just trust our government. I think that they should show their work. And so as leader of the Department of Justice, I will ensure that our state agencies show their work.
Rickman: Absolutely. Government trust, public safety, and government transparency should be paramount. And it will be paramount under my leadership.
I believe it was 2023 when Gov. Carney passed the transparency law. And that was about the body cam footage. I myself, as a domestic violence survivor turned advocate, filed a FOIA request when I was the victim. And I was denied. And every single victim that I talked to that has gone through the same process has been denied. Those are questions that need answers.
It shouldn’t be about who you know. It shouldn’t be about if your uncle is a Superior Court judge in the state of Delaware or who you’re affiliated with or what political figure you know to get you out of trouble. It’s about government transparency. There should be policies and procedures. There should be transparency.
I’m the leader that’s going to make sure of that, because the buck stops with me. If there is a law that’s enacted that states that body cam footage should be available, then if a victim of a crime requests that body cam footage, they should be able to access it. I’m not sure why that is. Those are questions that need to be answered. And we as Delawareans, we the people, we the people decide. Not the politicians, not who you know, we the people.
Jennings: I was part of the reforms that took place with the legislature. I was the head of the Use of Force Task Force and we made substantial changes to LEOBOR. Founded instances of serious misconduct are open to the public. And that’s by law. That’s because I worked for it.
I am the reason there is a body-worn camera on every officer in the state, because I fought for that. And as the General Assembly convenes again, I’m going to fight to have a law passed that requires every police department to publicly make available body-worn camera footage. We have 47 police departments in this state, and there are probably that many policies. That is wrong, and it should be uniform. The police should be required to release body-worn camera footage to the public. We’re going to work on that in the next General Assembly.
The recent police-related killing of Kadir Skinner has raised questions of whether the public deserves more access to officer-worn body camera footage. Attorney General Jennings pushed to release the footage even ahead of a determination of whether the incident should lead to charges. When police use deadly force, should officer body camera footage generally be released before the DOJ completes its criminal investigation? And what circumstances would justify withholding it?
Jennings: I think it’s important to look at what the laws are out there. Colorado has an outstanding law on public release of body-worn camera footage. There is a delay of anywhere between two weeks and I think 30 days, I could be wrong on that, before it should be released because it can influence how a witness ends up perceiving the events.
Not intentionally, but it can influence a witness who has to really talk about what that witness knows, not what they saw on the body-worn camera footage. So that’s important. And that takes probably a couple of weeks.
But yes, I believe that body-worn camera footage should be shown to the public.That’s the reason we got the law.
Bensing: Yes, it should be. It should be revealed. These are public records. You are paying for these body-worn cameras.
And I’m surprised to hear the attorney general say what she just said, because her office has issued opinions saying that body-worn cameras are not public records that ought to be accessible to the public. So I’m glad to hear it, and they should be. And I don’t believe that the body-worn camera footage law should have ever been implemented without the policies in place for how we were going to make sure that that footage is accessible to the public.
It makes you wonder, what’s the purpose? And the purpose has been to defend law enforcement officers’ actions. It has been to delay investigations of the investigations of excessive force that result in fatalities. Not one of those police officers have been held criminally accountable. And oftentimes, those investigations take not months, but years before the public has access to that full investigative file.
These are important matters that undermine public trust. If our communities don’t believe that the police officers who are sworn to protect and serve them are actually going to protect and serve them, if they don’t believe that the Department of Justice will be independent, when you have an attorney general who campaigned as the “top cop,” it’s very difficult for our community to then turn to that attorney general to investigate police abuse, to investigate police excessive force, and to investigate police fatalities.
I’m not beholden to any police department or the status quo in any way whatsoever. I was actually in court against the Wilmington Police Department the same day that Kadir Skinner was shot and killed. So we need an independent attorney general who will hold our officers accountable when they step out of the line of their duty. Thank you.
Jennings: I have prosecuted police officers when they violate their oath to serve the public and break the law 15 times. That’s more than any other attorney general in the history of our state. And I don’t hesitate to prosecute when someone breaks the law.
But speaking of dropping bombs, Mr. Bensing, you’ve never prosecuted a single case, not one, not one in the history of your profession. And so I have to say, it’s really hard to hear you talk about, we do this wrong, we do that wrong, you’re going to drop bombs.
I’ve been there. I’ve done that. I’ve prosecuted domestic violence cases. I have prosecuted rape cases. I have prosecuted murder cases. And I have prosecuted Delaware’s only serial killer. You have not once.
Bensing: Well, it is the Department of Justice, not the Department of Prosecution. I know that our constitutional rights are what underpin our entire fabric of our society. I’ve brought plenty more civil rights cases than our attorney general ever has.
The question is, do we have the leadership and the independent oversight to lead this office forward? And she’ll talk about those 15 prosecutions of police officers, but the truth of the matter is over 20 civilians are dead because of a police officer shooting. And not one of those cases has resulted in criminal charges being brought by our Delaware Department of Justice. That undermines trust, particularly when it takes years for those investigations to complete. It looks like a cover-up.
Rickman: Well, I wouldn’t be the leader that I will be if I didn’t say it should be a case-by-case basis. There should be a full investigation. But I also agree that public trust, we have to meet people where we are and there are large communities that are feeling like they are invisible to the criminal justice system.
And why wouldn’t they? If there hasn’t been any formal accountability, like to speak to what Dwayne just said, then why wouldn’t communities feel invisible? Why wouldn’t they feel like we need answers? We need to be protected.
Kadir Skinner, he’s no longer with us. His parents will never see his smile again. And we need accountability for that if that turns out to be, from an investigation standpoint, what it directs to. That’s what the attorney general is supposed to do. It shouldn’t be about how much money you have or what lawyer you can afford or what community you’re from or who you know. It should be about law and order, justice, criminal justice. That’s what attorney generals are supposed to do.
The DOJ has been criticized in recent months for not disclosing certain charges, including against public officials charged with misdemeanors or in the case of at least one sex abuse case when concerns for the victim were raised. What should trigger a public announcement by the Department of Justice when someone is criminally charged? And should the standard differ for misdemeanors, public officials, or cases involving particularly sensitive victims?
Rickman: So this is a difficult question for me to answer, and it’s only because there have been so many political figures that have gotten away with things that they should have never gotten away with.
I don’t typically name people out loud, but Mr. John Atkins. He’s getting ready to go through, he’s campaigning for a race but he’s a domestic violence offender. He’s been convicted. I believe he had gotten a DUI.
What is happening in Delaware? How is this so common? Why do we have politicians protecting domestic violence abusers? Why is that a thing? And it’s not a one-time thing. If you pay attention, if you do your research, you’ll find that this is very prevalent in our state. It’s disturbing. It should not happen.
Across the board, domestic violence is a non-partisan issue. It doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. If you commit a violent act, you should be held accountable. I don’t care if you’re a politician. Again, I don’t care if your uncle is a Superior Court judge.
Under my leadership, that will not exist. Full stop. And I’m not sure I understand why it’s happening at such an alarming rate. I’m used to politicians like Barbara Mikulski. She was who she said she was. She stood for all Marylanders. I’m not sure what’s happening here in the state of Delaware. So as your next attorney general, I will prosecute and make sure that I hold accountable politicians, police officers, whomever you are.
Jennings: I think there are rare occasions.
There are occasions, when a victim is so traumatized and has already been through the process once. For example, in another state where the offender receives seven years in prison, but cannot go through it again a second time in the state of Delaware where if the case is publicized, everyone around this victim will know who she is. I’m going to side with the victim each and every time. And that’s my own belief.
I side with the prosecutors who tried to prosecute that case. You can’t prosecute a case if you don’t have the evidence. And if a victim is completely unwilling and too hurt to come forward, that’s our system. And we have to understand that victims come first.
So for me, it matters a great deal. There’s also a law that just got passed, by the way, that I’m not sure, Jake, you might be a fan of, which is that there will be no announcements of felony indictments unless there is a clear public safety reason. So even though a victim may be named, you can’t name the defendant and you can’t publicly announce that indictment. That will set transparency back a long way.
Bensing: Whatever the policy is, it needs to be evenly applied. And we need to know what the rules of the road are in our Department of Justice. What records will be transparently provided to the public on what timeframe?
And it should not depend who that defendant is. It should not be that those who are politically connected have one set of rule books and then everybody else has another. And I think far too often what has been uncovered is that there are inconsistencies.
Living in Wilmington, I get Nixle reports on a regular basis. And it has the mugshot and the name and age of the person who’s been arrested for a crime. And we still, to this day, six weeks later, don’t know the name of the person who shot Kadir Skinner. So there’s a different rulebook depending on who the defendant is, who the person who has engaged in criminal activity.
We just have to have the same rules for everyone. I think that there are sensitive matters and I think that there are ways to redact the names of victims and still keep our dedication to transparency of those who have violated our laws and violated our public trust.
We’re going to go to closing statements. I’m going to start with Attorney General Kathy Jennings and work our way down the table. And Patty, if you want to take an extra 60 seconds for not getting rebuttals tonight, please feel free to do so.
Jennings: I want to thank Jacob Owens and Spotlight Delaware for arranging this debate. Debates really are the foundation of our democracy and I am so proud of all of you for showing up tonight because you took time out of your busy schedules to participate in democracy. So thank you.
I’ve said countless times before that I’m not really interested in criticizing other Democrats. I am interested in helping Delawareans. We have seen the six safest years this state has seen since records began in terms of violent crime in our state. That takes a lot of work and it really matters.
I’m running again because I want to continue that work. I know what works, I know what doesn’t, and we’re making substantial progress in our state and I want to keep doing that. I also know that we have a president who is completely out of control. He is destroying our democracy, he ignores the Constitution and as long as I am your attorney general, I’m going to keep fighting him because it’s a fight we must win as we go forward.
Bensing: Well, I will also fight Donald Trump as your attorney general. Unfortunately, we have two more years, but there will be life after Donald Trump and what we need is a leader who’s ready to bring Delaware forward to address the challenges that our democracy faces right now, not just from Donald Trump, but for the two years of the next attorney general’s administration of fighting to ensure that we are committed to our democracy right here.
I think the challenges we’re facing not just from Donald Trump but the broligarchy, the Elon Musk, the Sam Altmans of the world, these challenges are unprecedented and the decisions our attorney general has made show us that the old playbook does not work to address today’s problems.
We need to pass the torch to a new generation of leadership that understands the threats that our democracy faces. I’ve had an entire career as a civil rights lawyer. This is exactly the fight of my professional career. And so I’m ready to lead the Department of Justice. I’m ready to lead the broad jurisdiction that this office has, not just criminal safety issues but also our civil enforcement issues and our civil rights protections; to be an independent attorney general that holds our government agencies accountable so that those who take the oath of office are serving you and making sure that civil rights is the fundamental North Star of the Delaware Department of Justice.
Rickman: Thank you so much for all the Delawareans that are here tonight, for Spotlight Delaware and for everybody that’s listening online. I really appreciate you, I will stand, protect and fight for all Delawareans.
What’s interesting to me is that we have such a push and redirection. We’re like pointing at the Wizard of Oz behind the screen. We’re saying that that person is the evil dictator and yes, he very well may be, but there’s so many other evil people out in the world. To Kathy’s point, she mentioned I don’t want to spend time addressing anything with Democrats. We need to. As an attorney general we need to make sure that even our Democrats are upholding laws or upholding the Constitution or abiding by their own ethics, which some of them are not.
We need to be holding them accountable just as much as we are holding Donald Trump accountable. And I know that’s the first time I mentioned his name tonight but there you have it. That’s what I will be as attorney general.
I am a lead-by-example-type person. I’m a domestic violence survivor turned advocate author and now your next attorney general. I want to meet with my Delawareans. I want to hear from you. I want to hear what you would like to see as your next attorney general. It’s “We, the people.” Our Constitution was created by that premise. We the people decide democracy. And I think I don’t want to speak for anybody but I think that I’ve heard it from so many victims, so many neighbors, so many brothers and sisters: we’re exhausted.
Do you guys feel safe? I know I don’t. I don’t feel safe. I’m a stalking victim and I don’t feel safe. I don’t feel safe with the number of DUIs in the state of Delaware. I don’t feel safe when we’re allowing some part of people that know politicians to get away with things that other people most of us are not able to get away with. I do not feel safe when there’s two sets of rules. Why is that? We need to speak to that. And as your next attorney general, I will.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Meta was infused with a culture in which employees obsessed over user numbers and consistently pushed safety to the side, according to Arturo Bejar, a former employee turned whistleblower, who testified today in the landmark child safety trial against the social media company. Only one man had the ability to change that, Bejar said: CEO Mark Zuckerberg. But he didn't. "At the end of the day, it was the company culture that Mark had created that made it so that it was practically impossible to deliver features that addressed the wellbeing and safety issues that we've been talking about," he said.
Bejar is a linchpin witness for a consortium of states led by California, Colorado, Kentucky and New Jersey that sued Meta, alleging violations of consumer and child data protection laws, and that the company lied to the public about risks its platforms posed. The attorneys for the states say Meta designed Facebook and Instagram to hook young users and to keep them on site longer thanks to features such as infinite scrolling and the "like" button. Meta has denied the allegations. In his opening statement on Tuesday, attorney Paul Schmidt argued that the company was sensitive to the risks to teens, sought to address them and did not deceive the public about them. The state attorneys have not yet said if they will call Zuckerberg as a witness.
Testifying in federal court in Oakland, California, for a second day on Wednesday, Bejar, who worked on safety issues at Meta for eight years, said he interacted with Zuckerberg dozens of times, and charged that Zuckerberg was not telling the truth when he made public denials that the company put profits over safety. In particular, Bejar addressed a widely-shared Facebook post Zuckerberg made in 2021 after another whistleblower, Frances Haugen, shared internal documents with The Wall Street Journal that highlighted risks to the mental health of teens. In the post, Zuckerberg said it's "just not true" that Meta prioritizes profit over safety and wellbeing. "Based on my experience at Meta, that is not an accurate statement," Bejar said. [...] Bejar testified, at almost every turn the company chose policies that boosted usership and revenue over safety. Safety was "not a meaningful priority," he said.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump brought cryptocurrency executives and federal regulators to the White House Wednesday as he pressed Congress to pass legislation giving the industry clearer rules, while his family’s extensive crypto holdings continued to raise conflict-of-interest concerns.
Trump urged lawmakers to approve a “fair version” of the Clarity Act, which would establish whether digital assets fall under securities or commodities law and divide oversight between the SEC and Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi were among the executives attending.
The meeting also included SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Michael Selig. Both agencies have moved toward substantially more crypto-friendly regulation under Trump, including proposed exemptions that would make it easier for companies to issue tokens and raise capital.
Sludge reported that several participating companies have financial relationships with Trump-family crypto ventures or have contributed money to Trump-aligned political committees and projects.
Those connections have become a central obstacle to broader crypto legislation. Reuters reported that many Democrats and some Republicans want restrictions preventing elected officials from personally profiting from cryptocurrency ventures while shaping industry policy. Trump’s latest financial disclosures showed more than $1.4 billion in crypto-related family income last year.
Trump says he does not participate in day-to-day management of his family businesses, and the White House rejects allegations that his financial interests influence administration policy.
New York City, New York — Mayor Zohran Mamdani is suing the City Council to block a law providing $10,000 in additional compensation to roughly 25,000 school paraprofessionals, arguing that lawmakers improperly bypassed the city’s collective-bargaining process.
The Council unanimously approved the measure, which became law Wednesday after Mamdani declined to sign or veto it. The first $2,500 payment is scheduled for January 2027, with additional installments eventually bringing the benefit to $10,000 per worker.
Mamdani’s administration estimates the program would cost about $324 million and argues that wages and compensation for unionized city employees should be negotiated between the administration and labor unions rather than established directly by legislation. The mayor’s office also warns the law could encourage other municipal unions to seek compensation through the Council instead of bargaining.
The United Federation of Teachers and Council supporters argue the payments are necessary because paraprofessionals are underpaid and increasingly difficult to recruit and retain. The aides work directly with students, including children with disabilities and other specialized needs.
The dispute creates an unusual confrontation between Mamdani, a democratic socialist with strong labor ties, and one of the city’s most influential unions.
The lawsuit will determine whether the Council has authority to mandate the payments or whether compensation must remain within collective bargaining.
The US president waxed lyrical about grass being added around the new White House helipad in front of the media. 'You know, grass has a life like humans have a life,' Trump said
Those unfamiliar with Alaska politics are likely raising an eyebrow at some repeated names.
No, we’re not talking about Dan S Sullivan and Dan J Sullivan, two Republicans with the same name running for US Senate – an issue that went to the state supreme court earlier this summer. We’re talking about the Begiches. Nick Begich III, a Republican, is currently leading the race to represent Alaska in the US House of Representatives for a second term while Tom Begich, a Democrat, is advancing to the general election for governor in November.
Former real estate developer leads press corps on tour of grounds and says ‘one thing I know how to do is build’
As the US national debt climbed past $40tn for the first time on Wednesday, and the war with Iran that Donald Trump started nearly six months ago dragged on, forcing Americans already struggling to pay the bills to spend more on fuel, the US president led the press corps on a tour of the extensive remodeling of the White House grounds he is personally overseeing in his role as the self-styled “builder-in-chief”.
The tour, during which Trump showed off upgrades such as a new granite driveway and refurbished columns, and expounded at length on newly laid grass, culminated in Trump autographing the back of a stone, inscribed with his name, to go in the center of the ornate new helipad he insists he needs.
CBS News medical correspondent Dr. Céline Gounder, who has had melanoma herself, said Moderna's experimental trial is "a big win for mRNA vaccines against cancer."
A landslide triggered by the quake had blocked access to the village where Paulina Pobi had lived, leaving her buried under the collapsed remains
An 84-year-old woman has been discovered alive in the flattened remains of her home three days after a powerful earthquake hit eastern Indonesia, authorities have confirmed.
Officers reportedly believed invitees were trying to make unauthorized entry on to Vandenberg base in California
Five news reporters and two members of the military who were invited to an event at Vandenberg space force base in California were briefly detained at gunpoint by security officers who thought they were gatecrashers, according to local news reports.
The incident happened Monday ahead of an invitation-only groundbreaking for a new training facility for missile operators at the federal airfield near Santa Barbara, California. Reporters from Noozhawk and KEYT were among those detained, and both outlets published articles detailing the detainment.
The Standard published a 2,000-word piece by Zvezdelina Stankova last week, in which the professor said some of her math students were “five to eight years” behind and lacked a “middle school” education on fractions and basic algebra. Stankova said the UC system’s test-blind admissions were to blame, suggesting that students who weren’t sufficiently prepared for the rigor of Berkeley’s mathematics program were admitted because a longstanding benchmark like the SAT had disappeared.
Meta is no stranger to large scale computing, with more than 3.5 billion daily users and one of the top AI labs in the world. Getting data from all those users where it needs to go is no easy feat and requires a mix of various networks, topologies, and interconnects. One of Meta’s top network gurus, Omar Baldonado, shared some tips on building the various networks needed to support the company’s massive operations today at the Hot Interconnects show.
During his keynote address at IEEE’s Hot Interconnects Symposium 2026 today in San Jose, Baldonado, whose formal title is senior director of data center and AI networking at Meta, gave an overview of the three main types of interconnects that Meta uses–scale up, scale out, and scale across–as well as some advice for how to get the most out of them.
Meta’s Omar Baldonado presenting his session “Networking for Met’as Gigawatt-scale AI Fleet) at Hot Interconects 2026
“When I started at Facebook 13 years ago, now Meta, our infrastructure budget was in the millions of dollars. Our fleet was in the megawatts,” said Baldonado, who manages the groups in charge of developing and operating Meta’s data center network in support of the social media properties as well as the AI lab that develops Llama, a popular open-weight frontier model.
“But about 6 or 7 years ago, we started with AI specific networking, and that has just caused the ramp,” he said. “I’ve seen it since 2019, where now millions became billions, megawatts became gigawatts. And we started now measuring on the order of zettaflops.”
Meta’s AI training clusters have grown considerably over that time. A few years ago, the biggest ones maxed out around 32,000 GPUs (or Nvidia H100 equivalents, which is Meta’s preferred metric). In 2024, the company rolled out its biggest cluster yet: 129,000 H100-equivalent GPUs. By the end of 2025, Meta had 1.3 million H100 equivalents in the fleet. It’s still expecting to bring its 1GW Prometheus Supercluster online by the end of 2026, with a 5GW Hyperion Supercluster following in the years to come.
Making all this compute accessible, reliable, and performant is an extremely tough job. Baldonado’s job is to make it seem easy, even when it’s not.
“If you look at the networking that’s required to build this and all the infrastructure, there’s a lot of components and it’s massive,” Baldonado said. “[Users] would love to think of it as, the network as an infinite port, infinite bandwidth, zero latency switch. You plug in everything and somehow it just works, GPUs, CPUs and storage. But obviously that’s not reality but that’s what they want. And everything we do in networking when working with AI workloads tries to achieve that. But there are compromises. We have nods to physics, technology, speed of light, economics. But that’s the overall goal.”
Scale Up
A scale-up system essentially behaves as a single computer, with one operating system that’s in charge of all of the hardware, which typically spans a rack or perhaps several racks. An interconnect for a scale-up system must be extremely fast with very low latency, as numerous processors are connected to appear as a single massive, unified compute engine with shared memory.
Image courtesy Omar Baldonado
Some of the most demanding applications require scale-up systems, including LLM training, traditional HPC workloads like modeling and simulation, and in-memory analytics. Meta has a variety of scale-up systems running Nvidia and AMD GPUs, primarily for training AI models.
“Low latency is the key factor, because certain parts of the workloads expect individual matrix multiplies, tensor parallelism to work at low latency,” Baldonado said. “That’s the tightest computation loop of AI jobs, and they want that with no delay.”
It’s critical to tie the selection of the scale-up network, as well as the design of the scale-up network itself, to a specific target application, Baldonado said. “Anyone working on scale up must deeply think about you’re targeting that it’s going to go into,” he said.
The technologies, vendors, and equipment with scale-up networks are changing constantly, making it difficult to plan three to five years out, Baldonado said. “If you’re doing research or you’re building a product, you have to know what what’s in the rest of the rack,” he said.
Meta has invested in Ethernet for Scale Up Networking (ESUN), an Open Compute Project (OCP) technology.
Scale Out
When the size of your workload exceeds the limits of what a scale-up network can do (typically about 5 meters for a copper network, perhaps more if silicon photonics are used), you may want to move to a scale-out system. These systems sacrifice the coherence that comes with having a single operating system in order to tackle the biggest jobs.
Image courtesy Omar Baldonado
Scale out systems have traditionally housed the biggest clusters of machines in AI, big data, and HPC. Meta built a pair of 32K scale-out clusters that used Nvidia’s InfiniBand interconnect. These were used to train Llama3, Baldonado said. After that, Meta switched to Ethernet for its 129k GPU cluster.
For a while, Meta was happy to build mini-clusters out of large chassis switches, like the Arista 1700 or the Cisco 8000, Baldonado said. “You can plug a lot of GPUs into that one switch and it works pretty well,” he said. “So for a while, a number of us were thinking, should we make mini clusters just with say 128, 256, or 512 GPUs plugged into that one switch, because that one switch provides very predictable high performance to all the ports on it.”
Instead, Meta took the backplane credit-based logic that runs across its large switches, disaggregated it, and put it into a large fabric, which it calls the Disaggregated Scheduled Fabric, or DSF, Baldonado said. This was instrumental in allowing Meta to run a very diverse collection of AI accelerators from Nvidia and AMD, as well as its homegrown MTI chips.
“One of the things that you see when you’re dealing with scale out and connecting up AI systems is there winds up being a lot of tuning to understand how do I get the highest performance out of that fabric?” he said. “But given that this fabric, DSF, acted like one giant backplane, it made our job easier to bring on this heterogeneous set of accelerators.”
The decision to switch to a dedicated backend network was instrumental in Meta’s capability to scale its AI training workloads, Baldonado said.
Image courtesy Omar Baldonado
“We made this decision pretty much from the beginning in 2020 that we would have a separate back-end AI network primarily to allow us to iterate quickly with the AI systems and now drive a lot of bandwidth,” he said. “And so the RDMA back-end NICs are often at the edge of the NIC’s speed and AI systems are pushing that more quickly than, say the front end needs with our compute fabrics and our compute NICs. So that’s why we have that split.”
Baldonado also had a word to say about how data center architecture impacts network design and topology. In an ideal world, you would know exactly what workloads you’ll need, what processors will go into the data center, what are the networking needs, and the power and cooling requirements that come with them.
“But you can’t be certain that you’re going to get that accelerator exactly when you need it, and over time, it changes. So we wound up trying to provide as much optionality with these fabrics,” he said.
There are a ton of variables in terms of building the scale-out network to meet the specific workloads. What ASIC vendors are you using? What radix speed switches do you have? If you’re building a multi-tiered network, how many tiers are in them? Or maybe you’re building a flatter, multi-planar network? How do you load balance? How do you handle failures in the network?
“This is one of the reasons that personally Meta has pushed so hard in developing our FBOSS switch network operating system,” Baldonado said. “Because especially now in AI fabrics, we can program the switch ASICS exactly to get the features that we need, whether they’re for performance or for debugging and be able to iterate quickly on the scale-out fabrics.”
Scale-Across
If the size of your workload exceeds the energy or processor capacity of a single data center or even a collection of several data centers within a certain geographic region, you’ll need to move up to scale-across networks.
Image courtesy Omar Baldonado
There’s no hard and fast limit to where this limit resides. Beyond a few hundred meters, which is the limit of what InfiniBand and RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) can handle, is typically relegated to scale-across status (although some RoCE systems can handle distances up to 50 kilometers away).
The tradeoffs are similar to what we see with moving from scale-up to scale out: a further reduction in coherence as latencies increase. On the other hand, this may be the best way to tackle some of the biggest jobs, such as training trillion parameter models, which require enormous amounts of energy–more energy than a single data center can deliver.
For Meta, the diversity of compute types is an even bigger factor than the distances involved with scale-across networking.
“Heterogeneity is really the problem that scale-across deals with,” Baldonado said. “Sometimes when folks think about scale-across, it’s only about they think about distance, which is an important factor. But you have to really think about what is it that you’re connecting, the distances that you’re connecting, the bandwidth that you’re connecting are, are going to be very diverse.”
The Prometheus Supercluster, for instance, is really a collection of multiple data centers, some of which have liquid cooled infrastructure and some of which are air-cooled.
“There’s different amounts of capacity in each of those areas that you’re trying to connect,” Baldonado said. “At a high level, logically, what’s the topology between those regions?…They’re all fully connected here. But do I have a spanning tree between regions? How much redundancy do I need between regions in my scale-across. So ti’s very heterogeneous, at all levels: distance, bandwidth, technologies.”
Image courtesy Omar Baldonado
Meta owns some of its own data centers, and it also rents space in third-party data centers, as well as with cloud providers around the world. Thanks to its expertise in scale-across networking, it can provide a coherent connection among them.
Job scheduling and job placement becomes a bigger issue with scale-across networks, Baldonado said.
“Life finds a way, right?” he said. “I think that was from Jurassic Park. I like to say here that jobs find capacity. So if I’m a researcher and I’ve got 5,000 GPUs in one of those regions, and then I come to learn, hey, there’s another 30,000 GPUs over there–somehow they find a way to connect them and start using them.”
Baldonado and his colleagues in networking do not like it when researchers do this. They didn’t anticipate that AI workloads would traverse the system in that way, at those distances, and they can’t provide the guarantees that they would at scale-up or scale-out levels.
Knowing the workloads is key across all types of networks, Baldonado said. That means testing them and benchmarking them in production to make sure they’re not exceeding capabilities. This is especially important as new agentic AI workloads come online and bring new demands to the network, such as maintaining a KV cache, he said.
“In the end, we’re just trying to provide the network,” he said. “That breakdown of scale up, scale up, and scale across is a way to think about it. It’s how it actually works. Jobs run on it and it doesn’t really matter where it’s happening–they expect the network to work.”
The collapse was caused by a landslide, while local officials say the death toll is likely to rise as recovery efforts continue
More than 100 people have died after an artisanal goldmine at a small village in western Central African Republic (CAR) caved in due to a landslide, local officials and aid workers said on Wednesday.
The landslide happened on Tuesday afternoon in the village of Zamboye, about 50km (31 miles) from the town of Baboua and close to the border of Cameroon. Footage on social media appeared to show an avalanche of sand descend on a group of people, likely the miners, and cover them.
Regulations that would block sale of older tires praised by environmental groups amid rightwing backlash
California has become the first state in the nation to mandate that replacement tires be energy efficient, a major auto industry regulation set to block the sale of older tires and make vehicles on the road greener.
State regulators have said the new rules will reduce emissions and drivers’ fuel costs. But the rules – which come as the Trump administrations fights to block other California restrictions to promote greener cars – have already sparked a rightwing backlash, with one conservative news outlet calling the policies a “massive overreach”.
The couple said in January 2020 that they would be stepping away from "senior" royal roles and were working to become financially independent from the royal family.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s executive assistant Natalie Harp is facing renewed scrutiny after a former White House official said Harp’s intense devotion to Trump unsettled campaign staff and even alarmed Secret Service personnel.
Sarah Matthews, who served as a deputy White House press secretary during Trump’s first term, said Harp repeatedly contacted her during the 2020 campaign asking how she could become more helpful to Trump. Matthews said it was clear Harp wanted to remain inside Trump’s political orbit.
Harp has since become one of Trump’s closest aides. She reportedly helps control access to information reaching the president and is among the few aides authorized to publish posts through his Truth Social account. Court filings in a separate lawsuit describe Harp as one of two aides with direct access to the account.
Matthews also accused Harp of supplying Trump with inflammatory social-media material and described her as someone who regularly provides flattering news and commentary.
Harp’s unusual devotion has attracted additional attention following reports that she once rode in the trunk area of an SUV after arguing with staff over being excluded from a presidential motorcade.
Trump has continued to rely heavily on Harp despite concerns reportedly raised within his political operation. Other accounts describe her as a trusted aide who frequently travels with the president and handles sensitive communications.
St. Paul, Minnesota — MyPillow founder Mike Lindell is paying for a statewide recount of Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary after losing by more than 45,000 votes to state House Speaker Lisa Demuth.
Lindell, who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, finished about 11 percentage points behind Demuth in the Aug. 11 primary. Minnesota law provides taxpayer-funded recounts only when candidates are separated by less than 0.25 percentage points, but candidates outside that margin may request and finance their own recount. The Minnesota Star Tribune reported the effort could cost Lindell roughly $825,000.
Lindell said Tuesday that he wants every paper ballot hand-counted and audited. He cited election-night results that temporarily decreased and vote percentages that remained relatively stable as returns arrived. However, state election officials have reported no evidence of fraud or irregularities that would call Demuth’s victory into question.
Demuth won about 44% of Republican votes, while Lindell received roughly one-third. She performed particularly well around the Twin Cities metropolitan area and the Minnesota River Valley, while Lindell led in portions of northern Minnesota.
Lindell has spent years promoting disproven claims that voting machines helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump.
Demuth will face Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar in November’s general election.
hi all be CAREFUL! i love my one wheel have over 1000 miles on it from exploring nyc. today i was riding my board and it ran away from me when i jumped off. thank god i was in staten island (miserable place but wanted to see it, no reason to ever go back). i jumped off my board on some military base thing, and it ran away like an 8th of a mile since nothing was in the way. if that was in a populated area or in a rural area could have been bad. when i jump off as of now i make sure to knock my board over or use the sensor thing when you pick your leg up.
Review by paediatricians links child vaping with poor respiratory health such as coughing, wheezing and asthma
Young people who start vaping risk developing breathing problems and going on to smoke cigarettes, children’s doctors have warned.
Child vaping is consistently linked with poor respiratory health, such as coughing, wheezing, bronchitis symptoms and asthma exacerbations, while vapes have been shown to act as a gateway to smoking cigarettes, according to one of the most comprehensive reviews of the available evidence so far undertaken by the Royal College of Child and Paediatrics Health.
BrianFagioli writes: PINE64 has some very bad news for Linux hardware fans. PINE64 says it has no plans to produce additional Linux devices in the near future because of the ongoing DRAM and eMMC shortage. Future production will depend on component pricing after mid 2027, while existing PineNote and PineTab2 inventory could run out in roughly three months. The company says PineTime, PineVoice, and Pinecil production will continue as usual, but the outlook for its Linux hardware is much less certain. "That's it for this post, all in all it's a bit bleak for the Linux devices, but in the meantime PineStore still have a great lineup of MCU powered devices which will continue to expand with more exciting devices," the company said.
Recalled frozen blueberries and mixed berries that could be contaminated with E. coli pose the most severe category of health risk, according to the FDA.
(The Center Square) – The Pentagon has notified 30 higher education institutions that they must review their academic and research ties to foreign entities or risk losing federal funding.
Two members of the Milligan University cycling team were killed, and several more injured, in a collision with a vehicle on a rural highway in eastern Tennessee Wednesday morning.
With development activities already underway, the new facility expands Diraq’s R&D capacity and strengthens its U.S. presence as part of a global push toward utility-scale quantum computing.
Aug. 19, 2026 — Diraq has opened its first U.S. laboratory in Chicago as part of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park’s (IQMP) On-Ramp program at mHUB.
“Chicago’s superb quantum facilities offer Diraq the ability to rapidly test and prototype our uniquely scalable technology as we advance toward deploying commercial systems,” said Diraq CEO and founder Andrew Dzurak. “Chicago has become an important center for quantum development in the U.S. and establishing a research and development base here puts us in the heart of the country as we expand our capabilities and work toward utility-scale systems.”
The facility expands Diraq’s global testing and measurement capabilities, complementing existing R&D operations in Sydney. Onsite, Diraq’s Chicago team has access to dedicated cryogenic and measurement infrastructure to test and characterize the silicon quantum technology underpinning Diraq’s roadmap to utility-scale quantum computing. This includes two quantum refrigeration units and supporting infrastructure. Development work is already underway in Chicago, including qubit measurements, cryogenic CMOS testing, and component testing and verification.
Building a Global Quantum R&D Network
Diraq’s Chicago team operates as part of a global R&D effort, using complementary time zones to extend experimental work across the day. Work conducted in Chicago will contribute directly to Diraq’s broader development program as it works toward a commercially useful quantum computing system containing many thousands of physical qubits by 2029.
Diraq plans to grow its Chicago team over the next 12 months, building on current capabilities in quantum theory and device fabrication, with the potential to expand into broader engineering functions as the operation grows.
IQMP’s On-Ramp program provides Diraq with access to dedicated cryogenic and measurement infrastructure at mHUB while the permanent IQMP campus is under development. As a key center for quantum development in the U.S., Chicago offers access to industry partners, national laboratories, and a robust innovation ecosystem.
“Diraq’s first U.S. laboratory is exactly the kind of momentum we hoped for when they joined the IQMP,” said Harley Johnson, CEO of IQMP. “Our On-Ramp program at mHUB means Diraq—and every participating tenant—can start collaborating within Illinois’ innovation ecosystem right now, well before the Park officially opens its doors. That’s the foundation we’ve built in Illinois: one ready to sustain momentum like this and make Illinois the global destination for quantum discovery and commercialization.”
“The opening of Diraq’s Chicago laboratory represents the progress we envision for Illinois’ growing quantum ecosystem: Leading companies putting down roots, building their teams, and conducting cutting-edge work here,” said Illinois Economic Development Corporation Chief Quantum Officer Dr. Preeti Chalsani. “Illinois EDC is proud to support Diraq’s continued expansion and to help connect the company with the workforce and resources it needs to succeed in Illinois.”
Scalable Silicon-Based Quantum Computing
Diraq builds quantum processors using silicon spin qubits and CMOS-compatible production processes, an approach designed to leverage established semiconductor manufacturing infrastructure and ultimately enable millions of qubits on a single chip. Diraq’s utility-scale quantum computers (USQCs) will be rack-scale systems that can integrate into existing computing facilities worldwide.
For Diraq, utility scale means reaching the point where a quantum computer generates computational value that exceeds its cost to build and operate. The Chicago expansion adds U.S.-based infrastructure, technical capability, and access to a major quantum center as Diraq works toward that goal.
(The Center Square) – The United States government passed a sobering milestone Wednesday as the national debt topped $40 trillion, up from $39 trillion only five months ago.
Stripe is acquiring AI model marketplace OpenRouter as it pushes beyond payments into the infrastructure behind AI applications. According to The New York Times, the deal is reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion, with $1.5 billion allocated to OpenRouter's founders. Less than three months ago the company was valued at about $1.3 billion. CNBC reports: OpenRouter has become popular with developers seeking to use AI models, particularly those considered non-proprietary and available for free. Many of these so-called open-weight AI models stem from Chinese labs like DeepSeek and Z.ai, which have gained steam among developers for generally being more cost-efficient relative to proprietary AI models from U.S. companies like OpenAI and Anthropic.
In a blog post about the deal, Stripe noted that it's been working with companies to "optimize their token costs and route tokens efficiently," referring to a kind of metric used to measure AI model usage. Stripe said it's difficult to manage AI costs relative to performance because of the rapid "pace at which models are released and repriced." [...]
OpenRouter said in a blog post that combining with Stripe will help with its overall vision of "a healthy AI ecosystem where many models thrive, where AI neurodiversity is a strength, where a lab or an inference provider with a breakthrough can reach millions of developers, and where no single model becomes the default by inertia." "Stripe is building the economic infrastructure for AI, and together with OpenRouter we'll help businesses maximize profitability by routing their requests intelligently and spending their tokens efficiently," Stripe CEO Patrick Collison said in a statement.
When I wrote about using Windows 11 for a month as part of the ongoing OSNews fundraiser (keep donating to get me to do the same for macOS!), one of the things I mentioned was that “the modern desktop context menu has its own classic Win32 context menu”. This is, in fact, a long-standing complaint I’ve repeatedly used as the perfect example of just how chaotic and low-quality Windows has become. Thankfully, and naturally I fully attribute this to my repeated complaints (*), Microsoft has been working on a brand new, faster, configurable context menu, and Neowin actually reviewed it.
If you ask me, this revamped context menu addresses just about the biggest problem users had with the one in Windows 11, and that is the need to click through more buttons than necessary to do simple things like renaming a file or opening its properties. That problem is now basically gone.
I have no issues with the new design. It looks modern, it feels more consistent with the rest of Windows, and even though all the new sections can still make it look a little busy, you now have the option to make it as simple or as button-packed as you want. That should cover most use cases and preferences well. I’d even say that when the new context menu becomes available to everyone, my guide on how to bring back the classic context menu might become obsolete.
The biggest reason I’m linking to this is not because I care about whatever monster of a context menu Windows users are having to deal with. No, I’m only linking to this because I never in my life imagined I’d be linking to a review of a context menu. I mean, at least it’s not the chess application icon. That would be embarrassing.
Reports say Duke and Duchess of Sussex intend to relocate from US, with children to start British school in September
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are planning to return to live in Britain, six years after leaving for the US, it has been reported.
The couple and their two children, Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, are expected to relocate later this month to a non-royal residence.
MyPillow founder and Trump ally lost primary to Lisa Demuth by 11 points, but still refuses to concede defeat
The pillow salesman, Donald Trump supporter and election denier Mike Lindell has offered to personally fund a recount and audit of every paper ballot cast in Minnesota’s Republican gubernatorial primary, which he lost last week.
Lindell’s announcement on Wednesday escalates his bid to challenge the results of last week’s vote, after finishing a distant second to the Minnesota house speaker, Lisa Demuth.
Andy Burnham promises drive to tackle toxic waste, raise fines and use AI-powered drones to detect illegal activity
Illegal dumps in West Yorkshire, Surrey and Kent will be cleared up using taxpayer money, Andy Burnham has announced, as the prime minister promises a new drive to tackle toxic waste.
Ministers have identified dumps in Bradford, Runnymede and the Isle of Sheppey, which collectively contain about 22,000 tonnes of illegal waste, to be cleared in the next phase of the government’s national clear-up effort.
Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children
Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Arturo Béjar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it.
(The Center Square) – State Sen. Aisha Wahab continues to enjoy a small lead over Bay Area Rapid Transit board member Melissa Hernandez in the race for California’s 14th Congressional District.
Based in Belgium/EU. I have a 9-month-old Pint X that occasionally gives a battery temperature hot/cold error, even though diagnostics show the battery temperature is within the normal range. Rebooting clears it, but it can return the next day.
FM initially said it was a controller issue, so the controller was replaced. The exact same error returned about a week later.
It’s a newer production Pint X, so I assume the known pinched battery-wire issue should already be fixed. Could this still be a thermistor/wiring/connector/BMS or software issue? FM is now telling me I need to buy a new battery module.
I also saw on another forum that if it’s a sensor issue rather than the battery cells, it should be covered by FM’s 1-year warranty. Is that correct? And since I’m in the EU and the board is only 9 months old, wouldn’t the 2-year legal guarantee normally cover a defect like this? Any advice/experience appreciated!
Just had my X7LR delivered today as well as a fender and hex screws to fit it all from different sellers on the same day the stars perfectly aligned for me today in time to celebrate my 58th birthday 🎂 tomorrow only had a quick go after fitting fender with tap washers(faucet) 😁till I get adapters printed I gotta say it’s freaking awesome and big thanks to K fungineers support as she said perfect timing for you we have your colour spare in Europe warehouse so from paying to receiving my new board 8days 1hr is this a record me be so god dang lucky on my birthday 😁
(The Center Square) - Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has signed a pair of executive orders that fast-track environmental permitting for critical minerals and rare earth production as part of an effort to attract heavy industries to the state.
Amazon says its Prime Air drone delivery service will expand sixfold to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026, including metro areas around Chicago, Syracuse, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Boise. According to Amazon Prime Air vice president David Carbon, the service has already delivered "hundreds of thousands of packages to customers" this year, typically within about an hour. The Verge reports: These will join 11 locations across the US where Amazon already offers drone deliveries, with each Prime Air site serving an area of approximately 175 square miles. The service aims to quickly deliver packages of up to 5 pounds or less [...]. Amazon reiterated its drone safety features alongside these expansion plans, including Prime Air's "industry-leading Detect-and-Avoid system." That's likely an attempt to minimize any concerns raised by the communities where the service is expanding, given these drones have already been scrutinized for crashing into cranes, internet cables, gardens, and an apartment building.
(The Center Square) – Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement are blocked from entering churches of Cooperative Baptists, Quakers and Sikhs to carry out enforcement operations unless they have a warrant, or in certain specified circumstances, the 4th U.S.…
(The Center Square) – The Trump administration unveiled a proposed rule clarifying that hundreds of thousands of noncitizen taxpayers are ineligible for refunds from four individual income tax credits. The move could save the U.S. up to $2.6 billion in…
The Rhode Island town of Narragansett was left with a very smelly cleanup over the weekend after thousands of squid spilled over the highway. The incident happened on Sunday morning when the driver of a tractor-trailer transporting the squid failed to make a turn and the vehicle fell on to its side, the town’s police department said in a statement. It created hours of delays for motorists and a foul stench
Officials say all seven people onboard killed, including Telemundo executive and Ecuador intelligence chief
Seven people, including five Americans, were killed when a safari helicopter crashed on Wednesday morning in a remote part of northern Kenya, according to local police and the state department.
Among the dead were an executive with Telemundo, the US-based Spanish-language network owned by NBC Universal, and the director of Ecuador’s national intelligence service.
Military orders criminal investigation into deaths of five-year-old and six family members in Gaza in 2024
The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing.
The killing of Hind and her family was one of the most high profile of a series of incidents involving civilian casualties during the first months of the Gaza conflict which prompted international outrage.
Independent music publisher Round Hill is suing Suno and Anthropic for allegedly using hundreds of copyrighted songs without permission to train their AI systems. The company says potential damages could exceed $1 billion, arguing there is "nothing fair" about building multibillion-dollar AI businesses on copyrighted material while rights holders receive nothing. From The Hollywood Reporter: Round Hill is a prominent music publisher whose copyrights include the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris," Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," the Kinks' "Lola" and Dio's "Holy Diver." The company provided a list of 500 songs that the defendants had infringed upon. Round Hill said in the suits that the company plans to "amend to list potentially ten thousand or more of their musical compositions," with those damages potentially exceeding $1 billion. "While in other cases for copyright infringement, Defendant has waxed poetic about the necessity of progress and AI's value to society, there is simply no reason -- other than rote expediency -- to have that progress come at the cost of copyrights holders," prominent music attorney Richard Busch, representing Round Hill, wrote in the suits.
Round Hill further argued that the latter "'expediency' arguments completely falter" when taking into account Suno and Anthropic's significant cash valuations they've earned while "exploiting illicit copies of copyrighted works, including the Round Hill Works." "There is simply nothing fair about a company using theft to build for purely commercial purposes a multi-billion dollar business while those from which they steal receive nothing," Round Hill said.
Suno also faces a lawsuit from Universal Music Group and Sony Music Group.
The UAE, one of Iran’s biggest trading partners, said the move was “in light of regional escalations that undermine regional and international peace and security.”
In conservative Florida, Alex Vindman – a retired army intelligence officer who blew this whistle on Donald Trump in his first term – appeared set to carry the Democratic establishment banner as the party staged a long-shot bid to topple a Republican US senator.
I'm planning to bring my GT to Burning Man for the first time. (Experienced Burner and floater, but haven't yet merged the two). Any advice for me? Whether for sick/respectful playa carving (e.g. I figure flight fins setup is clutch), cleaning/maintenance afterward (is it still inevitable that my grip tape is forever changed?), or whatever.
I've seen some older Reddit advice á la AirTag + bearing seals that I am planning to follow. But I'm curious for floaters' latest tricks and musings, hence posting here rather than in a Burner sub.
Note I'll also likely have a basic bike, for those times when altered, tired, extra stormy, etc. I tend to be a very-cautious and very-respectful rider; you won't blow my mind with general warnings, but I don't mind hearing those either. ✌️
CISA says the Medusa ransomware operation has breached more than 500 U.S. critical infrastructure organizations since 2021, up from more than 300 reported last year. The group has targeted healthcare, government, defense, manufacturing, IT and financial organizations, evolving into a ransomware-as-a-service operation that recruits initial-access brokers and uses stolen data to pressure victims into paying. BleepingComputer reports: The three federal agencies recommended that network defenders secure their networks against the ransomware group's attacks by mitigating security vulnerabilities to protect operating systems, software, and firmware from exploitation attempts. Security teams are also advised to segment networks to block lateral movement after compromise and to block access from untrusted origins to remote services on internal systems.
[...] "Medusa developers typically recruit initial access brokers (IABs) in cybercriminal forums and marketplaces to obtain initial access to potential victims," the advisory says. "Potential payments between $100 USD and $1 million USD are offered to these affiliates with the opportunity to work exclusively for Medusa."
Meeting attendees discussed the open-source library for high performance computing
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 19, 2026 — Researchers, developers, system administrators, engineers, and students who share an interest in the MVAPICH open-source library for high performance computing (HPC) gathered at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) Monday, Aug. 17, through Wednesday, Aug. 19, for the 14th meeting of the MVAPICH Users Group (MUG).
Participants in the 2026 MVAPICH Users Group (MUG) meeting gather at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) facility in Columbus, Ohio. Image credit: OSC.
The Network-Based Computing Research Group led by Dhabaleswar K. “DK” Panda, a professor of computer science at The Ohio State University, developed and maintains the popular HPC system software package, which is used by more than 3,500 organizations in 94 countries worldwide. As of August 2026, more than two million downloads have occurred from the project’s site. The software is distributed by many vendors and powers several supercomputers in the TOP500 list of global supercomputing systems.
“We are pleased to feature more than two dozen academic and industry speakers from across the globe at this year’s conference,” Panda said. “This annual meeting is a great opportunity for our growing user base to share their knowledge and experiences and learn from each other.”
In addition to expert talks, the event featured presentations from the MVAPICH team on tuning and optimization strategies for various components, an interactive/hands-on session with the MVAPICH developers to discuss issues, and student poster presentation sessions.
Sponsors of this year’s event are 1Finity, Broadcom, Cornelis Networks, National Science Foundation, D-Matrix, Keysight, NVIDIA, Ohio State, ParaTools, X-ScaleSolutions, and OSC.
“OSC is excited to sponsor and host the MVAPICH Users Group meeting,” said Karen Tomko, OSC director of research software applications. “As many OSC clients rely on the software package, we are pleased to provide a forum in which the developers and users can exchange information and optimize its use in their high performance computing work.”
OSC and Panda have collaborated on several research initiatives, including the AI Institute for Intelligent CyberInfrastructure with Computational Learning in the Environment (ICICLE), as well as a new National Science Foundation-funded project, “Collaborative Research: Frameworks: Designing Next-Generation HPC and AI Middleware with Power-Performance Tradeoffs.”
The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) addresses the rising computational demands of academic and industrial research communities by providing a robust shared infrastructure and proven expertise in advanced modeling, simulation, and analysis. OSC empowers scientists with the services essential to making extraordinary discoveries and innovations, partners with businesses and industry to leverage computational science as a competitive force in the global knowledge economy, and leads efforts to equip the workforce with the key technology skills required for 21st-century jobs.
Aalim Ahmed, five, fell from 15th-floor window at tower block family had asked to be moved out of, court hears
An inquest into the death of a five-year-old boy who fell from a 15th-floor window has heard that more measures could have been taken to make it safer.
Aalim Ahmed, who was autistic, died when he fell from a kitchen window at a residential block in Plaistow, east London. His father, Makail Ahmed, rushed from the top floor temporary social housing flat and discovered his body shortly before 6am on 16 May 2024.
PM wants to reduce department’s stranglehold on public purse and bring long-term thinking to economic policy
Andy Burnham is far from the first prime minister to dream of taming the power of the mighty Treasury.
Boris Johnson all but forced the resignation of Sajid Javid by handpicking his team; Margaret Thatcher favoured her economic adviser Alan Walters over Nigel Lawson, prompting the latter’s furious resignation; and Tony Blair and Gordon Brown’s power struggle was the stuff of Whitehall legend.
Israel says military police will investigate the killing of Hind Rajab, a young girl in Gaza whose death at the hands of its forces drew an international outcry.
UCL researchers warn repeated exam attempts may dent students’ confidence and raise risk of dropping out
Forcing teenagers who fail GCSEs into multiple resits has a negative impact on their mental health, according to research to be published as pupils receive their grades on Thursday.
The study by academics at University College London (UCL) compared the mental wellbeing of students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland who failed to reach a grade 4 or equivalent in maths or English GCSEs – and found that only those in England, where resits are mandatory, showed significantly lower wellbeing.
Aug. 19, 2026 — AI is an increasingly useful tool for researchers across the scientific landscape, showing deep promise for accelerating discovery and innovation. However, incorporating AI into research may require training and adjustment for scientists—and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in conjunction with organizers from other institutions, is bridging that gap.
DL4SCI 2026 attendees have the opportunity to share their findings at a poster session. Credit: Berkeley Lab.
From July 20–24, over 230 researchers gathered at UC Berkeley for the 2026 Deep Learning for Science School (DL4SCI), a five-day intensive workshop featuring the newest and most innovative methods and technologies in AI for science.
Initiated in 2019, DL4SCI has become a benchmark in training researchers in AI, even as it has evolved with the technology. This year’s school featured in-depth lectures and research talks, along with sessions on reasoning-centric workflows and agentic systems.
“The school spans the life cycle of AI in science, from foundation models and large-scale training to scientific applications, reasoning, and agentic AI,” said DL4SCI co-organizer Shashank Subramanian. “Bringing together experts from academia, national labs, and industry gives participants a unique perspective on where AI for science is today and where it’s headed.”
DL4SCI is bolstered by advanced theory in deep learning and generative AI, but organizers say what makes the school special is interaction and collaboration with practitioners using these techniques in real, challenging applications in industry and academia. From conversation with experts to networking opportunities and an optional poster session, DL4SCI is known for offering participants the chance to learn how to apply AI for practical science impacts.
Ultimately, DL4SCI is one important way in which Berkeley Lab is preparing researchers to incorporate transformative technologies into their work and developing the workforce of the future.
“This summer school series has been incredibly effective in bringing deep learning techniques to complex science domains,” said Jonathan Carter, Assistant Lab Director for the Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences Area. “Equipping the next generation of researchers with these capabilities is a vital part to fulfilling the objectives of the Genesis Mission.”
About Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab
High performance computing plays a critical role in scientific discovery. Researchers increasingly rely on advances in computer science, mathematics, computational science, data science, and large-scale computing and networking to increase our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and our universe. Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences Area researches, develops, and deploys new foundations, tools, and technologies to meet these needs and to advance research across a broad range of scientific disciplines.
(The Center Square) – Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing back against a request to extradite a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in custody in Texas, saying he doesn’t trust Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 19, 2026 — Cerebras Systems has introduced the CS-4, a rack-scale AI system built with three new Wafer Scale Engine 3 Turbo processors. The CS-4 is the first system based on the company’s new Nexus platform architecture and delivers up to twice the performance of the CS-3, according to Cerebras.
Cerebras said the CS-4 delivers up to 30 times the tokens per second per user of GPU-based systems and up to 10 times the throughput per watt of the CS-3. First shipments are scheduled to begin this quarter.
“In AI, speed is productivity,” said Andrew Feldman, CEO and co-founder of Cerebras. “Historically, fast inference meant using smaller and less capable models. Cerebras CS-4 delivers industry-leading speeds on the largest frontier models, fundamentally changing the paradigm. Every aspect of the design has been optimized to deliver the highest speeds with massive throughput. With the CS-4, AI is so fast that it fundamentally reshapes product experiences.”
The rack scale CS-4 is built from three of the newly released Wafer Scale Engine 3 Turbo (WSE-3T). The CS-4 delivers 750 PFLOPs of AI compute, 7.2 terabits per second of I/O, and 129.6 petabytes per second of memory bandwidth. Total compute fabric bandwidth jumps to 160.5 petabytes per second, and wafer to wafer latency drops as low as two microseconds, enabling the creation of very large clusters and the support of models with over 50 trillion parameters.
“CS-4 makes dramatic improvements in system deployability, reliability, and networking, which enables scaling performance to larger models for large scale token factories,” said Dylan Patel, founder and CEO, SemiAnalysis. “CS-4 will scale ultrafast tokens for larger models and significant user volumes. The Cerebras Backpack is focused on time to market. As ultrafast inference continues to grow, Cerebras’ newest hardware will help ensure frontier speeds.”
A New Leader in AI Inference Speed and Capacity
In a head-to-head comparison on GPT-OSS-120B, when given identical prompts, the CS-4 delivers more than 4,400 tokens second per user (TPS/user), up to 30 times faster than GPU solutions.
“Being 30 times faster doesn’t just make a response feel fast. It gives an agentic system room for more than an order of magnitude as much reasoning, verification, or tool use in the same wall-clock time,” said Sean Lie, CTO and co-founder of Cerebras. “That’s the difference CS-4 makes for real production workloads.”
A New Processor
CS-4 is powered by the newly announced WSE-3 Turbo (WSE-3T). Like the WSE-3, the WSE-3T is the largest AI processor ever built, containing four trillion transistors and 900,000 AI-optimized cores across 46,225 square millimeters of silicon, with 44GB of SRAM integrated directly on the wafer.
The WSE-3T doubles AI compute to 250 PFLOPS per wafer and doubles memory bandwidth to 43.2 petabytes per second. And since memory bandwidth is the determining factor in driving speed and throughput, this translates to a step-change improvement in both. The on-chip fabric bandwidth and off-chip I/O both double to 53.5 petabytes per second and 2.4 terabits per second respectively. I/O latency shrinks from five microseconds to as low as two microseconds.
New System and Rack Design
CS-4 is the first iteration of the new Cerebras Nexus Platform Architecture. It is built around a modular concept with three foundational elements: Compute, Power and I/O. Cerebras brings significant innovation to each element. Modularity enables each element to scale independently so innovations get to market faster. The modular architecture also supports extremely rapid deployment and upgrades.
Pluggable Backpack Design: Cerebras has fundamentally re-imagined the compute subsystem into a rear mounted “backpack” that attaches vertically to the power array. Each Wafer-Scale Backpack is a self-contained assembly that folds power conversion, direct liquid cooling, high-speed I/O, and control electronics into a compact, three-dimensional package built directly around the wafer. By decoupling compute from the power supplies, the Wafer-Scale Backpack simplifies manufacturing and reduces deployment time from days to hours. Compared with the prior-generation system, the Wafer-Scale Backpack has 50% fewer components and uses 60% more automated manufacturing.
High-Density Power Delivery: The Nexus Platform Architecture drives significant power delivery improvements. For example, by moving power conversion 100x closer to the processors – from roughly 50 millimeters away from the processor as on conventional GPU boards to approximately 0.5 millimeters – CS-4 nearly eliminates board-level power loss. This delivers twice as much power to the WSE-3T, enabling higher operating frequencies and faster token generation.
New Modular I/O Subsystem: CS-4 introduces a new programmable I/O subsystem that supports two connectivity modes while doubling I/O bandwidth and reducing latency. More bandwidth and lower latency benefits both aggregated and disaggregated solutions.
The fully programmable Wafer I/O Module supports standards-based RoCE v2 RDMA over Ethernet for seamless integration into existing infrastructure and with an ecosystem of heterogeneous systems. Aggregate off-wafer bandwidth doubles to 2.4 terabits per second per wafer and 7.2 terabits per CS-4 rack solution.
The Wafer I/O Module also supports a new communication mode, called Direct Wafer Links, which enables wafers to be linked within and across racks without a switch. Direct Wafer Links enables wafer-to-wafer latency as low as two microseconds. This low latency communication will allow the creation of massive CS-4 clusters and the ability to support models with more than 50 trillion parameters.
Programmable low latency I/O is particularly beneficial for heterogeneous disaggregated inference, in which a purpose-built prefill engine processes an incoming prompt and then hands it to Cerebras for ultra-low latency decode. The combination of programmability, standards-based interfaces, and very low latency will allow the rapid creation of disaggregated solutions from different Cerebras ecosystem partners, like AMD Helios and AWS Trainium.
Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) builds the world’s fastest AI infrastructure. The Cerebras team of pioneering computer architects, computer scientists, AI researchers, and engineers of all types came together to make AI blisteringly fast through innovation and invention. We believe that when AI is fast, it will change the world. Leading global corporations, research institutes, and governments choose Cerebras to run their AI workloads. Cerebras solutions are available on premises and in the cloud. Visit cerebras.ai for more.
Prosecutors faced a backlash for bringing felony charges against Los Angeles police officer Daniel Flores, whom they accused of illegally recording colleagues' offensive comments.
Moderna and Merck say their personalized mRNA melanoma vaccine significantly reduced both cancer recurrence and spread in a late-stage trial. The treatment could reach patients as soon as next year if regulators approve it. Reuters reports: Moderna developed the vaccine with Merck and tested it together with immunotherapy drug Keytruda, a widely used treatment for melanoma. [...] This is the first positive late-stage trial result for an mRNA cancer vaccine, which trains a patient's immune system to fight tumors by targeting specific mutations in those cells and the first such study to show that adding a treatment to Keytruda worked better than that therapy alone. Similar approaches are being tested against lung, breast and pancreatic cancers.
[...] The cancer treatment combines Merck's Keytruda with a made-to-order mRNA vaccine from Moderna that is based on an analysis of mutations found in the patients' own tumors. The trial enrolled 1,137 high-risk patients with stage IIB-IV melanoma that had been surgically removed. Volunteers were randomized to receive up to nine doses of Keytruda plus the personalized vaccine or Keytruda alone for about one year. The companies said no new safety signals have emerged in the trial. In January, the companies announced results of a mid-stage trial of the treatment showing that it reduced the risk of recurrence or death by 49% after five years. Karen Knudsen, CEO of the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, said the Moderna results could signal a new era for treating solid-tumor cancers. "The positive hit here leads us into truly this next phase in immunotherapy," Knudsen said. "This is an auspicious start -- this is where things begin."
Moderna shares more than doubled on the news, adding about $30 billion to its market value.
The Trump administration’s ‘America first’ approach has contributed to the scale of the crisis now unfolding in one of the world’s poorest countries
For months health experts have warned that the scale of the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) could surpass the one that swept west Africa in 2014-16. This week, the authorities in the DRC announced that a grim milestone has already been passed: at least 2,325 people have died from the virus, making it the deadliest of the country’s 17 outbreaks and the fastest-growing in history.
There is no effective vaccine against Bundibugyo – a rare strain of the virus that spread fatally undetected during the spring, often being misdiagnosed as malaria or typhoid. In contrast to neighbouring Uganda, which succeeded in eliminating an outbreak, multiple factors are combining to let the disease rip through the DRC. The worst-affected region is contested by armed groups, and a context of population displacement and chronic insecurity has made monitoring and surveillance more difficult. Ebola treatment centres have been attacked as a result of misinformation and community distrust.
(The Center Square) – Despite crime down across the country, antisemitic crimes remain high as 2025 marked the “third highest year on record” for hate crimes targeting Jewish people, according to a new FBI report.
Officers still investigating deaths of Zeina Alayn, Hassan El-Khawas and daughter Sara El-Khawas at Shoreham-by-Sea
A father, mother and their teenage daughter who died off the Sussex coast on Tuesday have been identified.
Sussex police named the victims as Hassan El-Khawas, 55, his partner, Zeina Alayn, 37, and their 14-year-old daughter, Sara El-Khawas. A younger girl who was also part of the family is in hospital in a critical condition. She has not been named.
Caption: On September 12, Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA members and Girl Scouts in second grade and older can spend two 2½-hour sessions doing maritime activities that connect naturally with Scouting’s emphasis on learning through experience. Photos courtesy of the Kalmar Nyckel and edited with AI on 8/19.
Kalmar Nyckel event on September 12 will challenge Scouts with boat racing, knot tying, cannon drills, sea chanteys and an outdoor adventure course
By George D. Rotsch, Editor and Publisher of Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON — Long before young people learned leadership around a campfire, sailors learned many of the same lessons aboard ships: Work together, master practical skills, accept responsibility and be prepared when conditions change.
Those shared traditions will come together Sept. 12 when the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation hosts its annual Scout Day at the Copeland Maritime Center campus and nearby Fort Christina Park.
The event is designed for Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA members and Girl Scouts in second grade and older. Two 2½-hour sessions will offer maritime activities that connect naturally with Scouting’s emphasis on learning through experience.
Participants will be assigned to groups and rotate through five hands-on stations: a Rain Gutter Regatta, an outdoor adventure course, knot tying, sea chanteys and cannon drills.
Each activity introduces a different part of maritime life while reinforcing teamwork, communication, problem-solving and personal confidence.
Small boats create a big challenge
The Rain Gutter Regatta brings one of Scouting’s familiar traditions to the maritime campus.
Scouts will race small boats through narrow channels, discovering how a boat’s design, balance and movement can affect its performance. The activity combines friendly competition with basic lessons about buoyancy, propulsion and the challenges of moving a vessel through water.
It also encourages Scouts to observe what works, make adjustments and try again — the same problem-solving process used by sailors, engineers and shipbuilders.
The regatta may be on a much smaller scale than the Kalmar Nyckel, but the challenge reflects a much larger maritime principle: A successful voyage begins with a vessel designed to move efficiently through the water.
Knots with a purpose
At the knot-tying station, Scouts will practice one of the most fundamental skills in both Scouting and sailing.
Knots aboard a ship are not decorative. Sailors depend on them to secure equipment, manage lines and keep people and cargo safe. Each knot must be appropriate for the job and tied correctly.
Scouting teaches the same combination of knowledge, practice and responsibility. Learning a knot requires concentration and repetition, but it also gives a young person a skill that can be used while camping, boating or responding to an emergency.
The station will help Scouts understand why sailors had to know not only how to tie a knot, but also when and why to use it.
Cannon drills demand coordination
The cannon drill will introduce Scouts to the highly organized teamwork required aboard a historic vessel.
Operating a ship’s cannon required crew members to perform different tasks in a precise order. Each person had to understand an assigned role, listen for commands and work safely with the rest of the team.
The activity turns history into a group exercise. Instead of simply hearing how a tall ship’s crew worked, Scouts will experience how communication, timing and shared responsibility allowed sailors to complete a complicated assignment.
Those lessons closely match Scouting’s patrol system, in which young people learn that a team succeeds when every member understands the plan and carries out a responsibility.
Singing that helped sailors work
Sea chanteys will bring music into the Scout Day experience, but the songs historically served a practical purpose.
Sailors used chanteys to establish a rhythm when performing demanding group tasks, such as hauling a line or raising a sail. The song helped crew members coordinate their movements and apply their effort at the same time.
For Scouts, the station will demonstrate how music could become a tool for teamwork. It also provides a window into the culture of sailors who spent long periods living and working together at sea.
The activity connects history, performance and cooperation while giving Scouts an opportunity to participate together.
An outdoor test of confidence
The outdoor adventure course will draw on another strong connection between the Kalmar Nyckel and Scouting: the belief that young people build confidence by confronting manageable challenges.
The course will require Scouts to listen, move, think and work with others. Like many Scouting activities, the objective is not simply to finish. Participants must determine how to approach a challenge and support the other members of their group.
The station brings maritime adventure onto land while reinforcing the qualities needed aboard a ship: awareness, preparation, perseverance and trust.
Learning by doing
Together, the five stations create a progression of experiences rather than a traditional classroom lesson.
Scouts will race, tie, sing, drill and navigate physical challenges. Each station approaches maritime education differently, but all are built around active participation.
That approach reflects a central value shared by Scouting and the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation: Young people often understand a lesson more deeply when they have an opportunity to put it into practice.
The activities also demonstrate that leadership is not limited to the person giving directions. Leadership can mean completing an assigned task, communicating clearly, helping a teammate or remaining focused when a challenge becomes difficult.
Adventure tied to Delaware history
The event’s setting adds another layer to the experience.
The original Kalmar Nyckel carried Swedish settlers to the Delaware Valley in 1638. They established New Sweden at The Rocks, near present-day Fort Christina Park.
The modern Kalmar Nyckel serves as Delaware’s tall ship and a floating classroom, helping visitors understand the maritime skills, risks and decisions that shaped the region’s early history.
Scout Day allows young people to encounter that history near the place where Delaware’s colonial story began. It supports another value shared by Scouting and the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation: Citizenship begins with understanding the community and history people inherit.
Before or after their assigned session, Scouts may also participate in the Junior Ranger Program at Fort Christina Park, part of First State National Historical Park. Scouts who complete that program will receive a wooden Junior Ranger pin.
Every Scout who completes the five-station Scout Day rotation will also receive an exclusive Kalmar Nyckel Scout patch.
Registration is limited and open to troops as well as individual Scouts.
To Go Box
What: Annual Kalmar Nyckel Scout Day
When: Saturday, Sept. 12, 2026
Morning session: Check-in at 8:30 a.m.; activities from 9 to 11:30 a.m.
Afternoon session: Check-in at 12:30 p.m.; activities from 1 to 3:30 p.m.
Where: Copeland Maritime Center at the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard, 1124 E. Seventh St., Wilmington. Sessions conclude at Fort Christina Park.
President says he plans to meet dictator this year but Kim Yo-jong says Washington remains Pyongyang’s enemy
Donald Trump has said he is planning to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong-un later this year, though the reclusive leader’s younger sister cast doubt on their communications and dampened hopes of a diplomatic breakthrough between them.
Trump, who also claimed North Korea had 57 nuclear weapons, had suggested he and Kim were holding secret negotiations on Tuesday after announcing the US would downgrade its participation in military exercises held by South Korea, a US ally. Asked whether Kim had responded to his request for a conversation, Trump said: “Yeah, he has.”
Result tees up marquee race in US midterm elections, which could decide if Republicans or Democrats control Senate
Incumbent Dan S Sullivan, the US senator, advanced in Alaska’s non-partisan primary race for his seat on Tuesday alongside Mary Peltola, a former Democratic congresswoman.
With the top four candidates moving forward from Alaska’s open primaries to the general election, the Associated Press reported that Sullivan and Peltola had qualified for November’s general election.
Discovery marks latest grim finding in lake as water levels in crucial reservoir outside Las Vegas continue to decline
Human remains have once again been discovered at Lake Mead outside Las Vegas, Nevada, marking the latest in a line of gruesome discoveries as water levels in the crucial reservoir continue to drop, authorities said.
These remains were discovered on 16 August, USA Today reported. The National Park Service (NPS) told the outlet there did not appear to be anything suspicious about the body.
Image captured in early June shows animal foraging in the waterway in first since early 1900s, signaling its recovery
An otter has been spotted in the Bronx River for the first time in more than 100 years, in a further sign that New York’s previously befouled waterways are recovering some of their ecological health.
The North American river otter was photographed by a motion-activated camera foraging near some vegetation in the Bronx River, a waterway that flows through New York’s Bronx and empties into the East River.
PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 19, 2026 — SandboxAQ today announced the general availability of AQPotency, its Large Quantitative Model (LQM) for predicting how well a potential drug will work, now available on Claude via Model Context Protocol (MCP). For any disease target, AQPotency scores how strongly candidate molecules are likely to act on it, and it does this without the expensive, time-consuming lab work that older methods depend on. Drug discovery teams can now rank enormous libraries of molecules by computer in seconds, then spend their limited lab budgets only on the candidates most likely to succeed.
Early drug discovery is a high-stakes guessing game. Teams have to decide which molecules to test in the lab, and a wrong call can cost months of work and significant expense. The established computer methods for narrowing the field are slow and costly to run, and they only work when scientists already have a detailed structural map of the disease target. Many of the most valuable targets have no such map, so those methods never reach them, and promising programs stall before they start.
AQPotency clears that roadblock. It runs on ordinary computing hardware, ranks pairs of molecules and targets in seconds, and costs as little as $1 per 1,000 comparisons. For every prediction, it also reports how confident it is and whether the target falls within the range where the model performs reliably. Older tools give scientists a single score with no sense of its reliability. AQPotency tells them not only what it predicts, but when they can trust it, which makes the results something teams can act on.
AQPotency also works in the other direction. Starting with a single promising molecule, it scans a broad panel of proteins across the body and returns a ranked list of the ones it is most likely to act on. When a molecule shows a useful effect but no one yet knows why, this gives research teams a focused set of leads to test.
“SandboxAQ’s models have been very impactful for our work as we develop new treatments for Parkinson’s,” said Professor Dario R. Alessi, OBE, FMedSci, FRS, Director of the MRC Protein Phosphorylation Unit at the University of Dundee. “These models enable us to explore a much larger biochemical space in a short timeframe and improve both activity and selectivity. SandboxAQ’s unique datasets and models stand out in the industry for their impact.”
“This collaboration with SandboxAQ highlights the power of combining advanced AI-enabled discovery with rigorous experimental validation to unlock novel opportunities against historically difficult membrane targets. By identifying selective SV2C binders from a broad commercial library, the work establishes a compelling foundation for the development of first-in-class small-molecule tools and future therapeutics aimed at Parkinson’s disease and other disorders of dopaminergic signaling,” said Dr. Gary W. Miller the Adrienne Block Professor of Environmental Health Sciences and the Vice Dean for Research Strategy and Innovation at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Andrea Bortolato, Vice President of Drug Discovery, at SandboxAQ, said: “AQPotency has given us and our customers a faster, scalable and reliable way to prioritize compounds in the workflows we already run, without needing a 3D crystal structure of the target. This opens up programs that structure-based methods simply couldn’t reach. The confidence intervals make the output actionable for biopharma companies, and the model has already been successfully used in eight customer programs with experimentally validated impact.”
“What’s compelling about AQPotency is that it makes high-value discovery decisions faster and more practical,” said Robin Roehm, CEO and Co-Founder at Apheris, which offers federated data and AI networks for life science companies. “Researchers can prioritize the most promising compounds with greater confidence, focus experimental resources where they matter most, and expand discovery efforts to targets that have traditionally been harder to pursue.”
AQPotency is generally available today through Claude via MCP and SandboxAQ’s website, with availability on Google Cloud’s Marketplace to follow. Its general availability is paired with the GA on Claude and Claude Science of a second LQM, AQCat Adsorption Spin, for catalyst discovery.
About SandboxAQ
SandboxAQ is a B2B company delivering solutions at the intersection of AI and quantum techniques. The company’s Large Quantitative Models deliver critical advances in life sciences, financial services, navigation, and other sectors. SandboxAQ is an independent, growth backed company funded by leading investors and strategic partners including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., Google, Alger, IQT, US Innovative Technology Fund, S32, Paladin Capital, BNP Paribas, Eric Schmidt, Breyer Capital, Ray Dalio, Marc Benioff, Thomas Tull, and others. For more information, visit www.sandboxaq.com.
Andy Burnham has said government money alone may not be enough to get rough sleepers off the streets by Christmas, as experts called for more of a plan to deal with the problems that cause homelessness.
Speaking on a visit to the north-east of England, the prime minister said he felt “very passionately” about tackling rough sleeping and wanted the wider society to play a part in wiping it out.
The Republican nominee for the South Carolina Senate seat will be determined in the runoff between Sen. Darline Graham and Rep. Ralph Norman on Aug. 25.
Presidential deputy chief of staff Iryna Mudra dismissed day after former defence minister called for wartime election
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired a senior aide amid a fresh corruption investigation – one day after a former defence minister warned the country was facing “a crisis of governance” and needed to hold a wartime presidential election.
Iryna Mudra, a presidential deputy chief of staff, was dismissed by decree after multiple reports in Ukrainian media that her house was being searched by officials investigating an alleged money-laundering scheme.
Austin, Texas — Gov. Greg Abbott says dozens of technology companies have agreed to tougher standards for data center development after Texas temporarily halted approvals for projects seeking connections to the state power grid.
The pause affects an interconnection queue containing more than 1,800 projects representing about 474 gigawatts of proposed electricity demand — more than five times Texas’ record peak demand. Abbott said roughly 90% of those requests involve data centers.
Under Abbott’s directives, regulators must audit proposed projects before approving grid connections. Developers must disclose information about electricity and water use, ownership, tax incentives and measures intended to limit impacts on surrounding communities. Projects failing the review can be denied access to the grid.
Abbott also wants developers to pay infrastructure costs rather than shifting them to other electricity customers, conserve water and avoid disrupting residential areas. Reuters reported that the pause has created uncertainty for developers that have already committed substantial deposits toward grid connections.
Companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Equinix and Core Scientific have publicly supported stronger development standards, according to The Center Square.
Texas has at least 335 operating data centers, with hundreds more proposed as artificial intelligence drives rapidly increasing electricity demand.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: X's algorithm learns what you hate and shows you more of it, according to a new study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The paper, titled Value misalignment of X's feed algorithm is a reflection of value tensions in engagement, found that the site's algorithm prioritized engagement above all else when it generated a user's For You Page. It also showed that X serves more ragebait to people who say they are Democrats, although the exact reason for that is unclear. "In 2026 that's maybe not the most surprising headline ever," Ziv Epstein, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University, and co-author of the paper, told 404 Media. "So we actually dug in a little deeper to figure out why this is actually happening, and it turns out that X's feed algorithm, like a lot of these social media algorithms, is optimized for engagement [but] it turns out that not all types of engagement are considered equally."
The researchers found that X's algorithm can push users toward content that conflicts with their stated values, especially when they reply to posts that anger or provoke them. Although replies accounted for just 6.8% of interactions, they appeared to carry disproportionate weight: "It's this feedback loop of outrage baiting. The algorithm learns that you get outraged and then continues to serve more content in that direction," said Epstein.
It's unclear why X seems to serve ragebait to Democrats more often than Republicans. 404 Media speculates that it may be because there's more rightwing content on X overall or that Democrats tend to engage with posts they disagree with more often. "There might be some kind of differential effects on information diets there, or it might be something more psychological about how different you know partisan identities are triggering different kinds of actions and reactions, but ultimately I don't want to speculate too much," said Epstein.
X's former product chief Nikita Bier confirmed that the site had been set to favor replies. "This is no longer true," Bier said in a post on X. "The largest contributor of seeing ragebait was the reply predictor and we were aware that angry replies were causing people to see more of that content. So last month, we gave the reply predictor a 15x boost if it's a friend's post -- and it reduced ragebait by [an] order of magnitude."
A weak yuan guarantees Beijing massive trade surplus even as the White House tries tamp down on Chinese imports
Since China offered a truce in the trade war last October following its threat to deprive the United States of rare-earth magnets, the Trump administration has been happy to stop escalating. After all, imports from China have been falling, down by 40% in the year to June, compared with the same period in 2024. Best to declare victory and call it a day.
But the US hasn’t won this battle – and there’s strong evidence to show it’s too chicken to really try.
Overton has said that Congress should strictly regulate abortion drug mifepristone ‘to protect women and children’
Donald Trump nominated Dr Heidi Overton – an abortion opponent who stood next to the president as he made false claims about vaccines – to be commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“Today I am honored to nominate the wonderful Dr. Heidi Overton, MD, PhD, as our next FDA Commissioner. Dr. Heidi has been a ROCKSTAR in my Administration, where she has worked directly with Secretary Kennedy, Dr. Oz, and team, to deliver on the MOST TRANSFORMATIVE Health Agenda in History. She is known to take on the HARDEST issues, and bring me solutions that work best for the Country,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.
Police in Philadelphia are searching for a man they say chased at least a half dozen people last week within a half hour while wearing a Chucky-style mask.
A U.S. Army battalion at Fort Stewart is offering soldiers a four-day pass timed to the release of Grand Theft Auto VI if they reenlist for at least two years. The program is limited to one unit for now, but it fits the Army's broader effort to appeal to gamers as a recruiting and retention pool. CBS News reports: Twenty soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia in the Army's 9th Brigade Engineering Battalion, part of the 3rd Infantry Division, have already chosen this incentive as part of their reenlistment, an Army spokesperson told CBS News on Wednesday. "The idea was to have a unique incentives program that connects to what Soldiers are interested in," Lt. Col. Angel Tomko, a spokesperson for the 3rd Infantry Division, said in a statement. "The command team, in conjunction with the career counselor, wanted to get soldiers excited to reenlist."
[...] The Army memo, which has circulated online, says any soldier who signs a reenlistment contract between Aug. 1, 2026 and Nov. 14 will be authorized for a special four-day pass designated to coincide with "the highly anticipated release of the video game Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA 6)." About 130 soldiers are currently eligible for the incentive, Tomko said. Eligible soldiers must reenlist for a minimum of two years and up to six years.
Travelers counting on a cheaper vacation this fall may be in for a surprise. Shoulder season has traditionally brought lower prices, but some of those bargains are getting harder to find this year.
Physicists use advanced quantum technologies to test decades-old theory predictions
Aug. 19, 2026 — When different materials transition from one phase to another, such a water coming to a boil or a magnet losing its ability to attract metals, something remarkable can happen: They begin to behave identically, following the same mathematical rules. “Physicists call this trait universality—the messy, microscopic details wash out and only a few essential features survive,” explains Jason Alicea, William K. Davis Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech. The math underlying these universal traits is commonly described by a theoretical framework called conformal field theory.
Left to right: Yuan Le, Xiangkai Sun, Jason Alicea, Manuel Endres, Stephen Naus, and Richard Bing-Shiun Tsai in the Endres lab at Caltech. Credit: Caltech/Gyohei Nomura
Reporting in the journal Nature, a collaboration between the experimental group of Caltech’s Manuel Endres, professor of physics, and Alicea’s theory group, together with theorists at Université Paris-Saclay and the Technical University of Munich, performed first-of-their-kind experiments on two different conformal field theories using quantum simulators, which are simplified versions of quantum computers tailored for specific tasks.
Using new technology developed for these quantum simulators, the team reports the first direct measurement of energy levels in synthetic quantum matter as predicted by the Ising and tricritical Ising conformal field theories. (Ising refers to Ernst Ising, a physicist who, in the 1920s, solved an early model of magnetism.) Both theories describe universal behavior that emerges when a quantum system—exhibiting exotic traits such as entanglement and superposition—is placed at a tipping point between two states, one of which is more ordered than the other.
Unlike transitions familiar from everyday life such as water turning into steam, this one is driven not by temperature but by quantum effects alone that happen to take place at temperatures near absolute zero. Once at that tipping point, the system can be excited by lasers to reach a series of specific energies, like the rungs of a ladder. “The energy levels predicted by these theories are important because they encode profound information about the theories themselves,” Alicea says.
For four decades, researchers used conformal field theories to calculate the spacings between those rungs, which come in precise ratios, but nobody had measured them in an experiment until now.
“Our new tools borrow from quantum computing platforms,” says Xiangkai Sun, a co-lead author of the new study and a graduate student working in the Endres lab. “Over the past 10 years, people have been learning to control these systems, and now we are at the point where we can use them to do fundamental physics research.”
The quantum system in the study is based on platforms the Endres lab uses to build quantum computers: arrays of neutral atoms trapped by lasers called optical tweezers. A related neutral-atom platform in the lab recently set a milestone by trapping 6,100 atoms in a single array. Though the tweezer technology behind these arrays was developed largely with quantum computing in mind, in the new study, the team turned it toward a question in fundamental physics.
For the experiment, the researchers used optical tweezers to trap strontium atoms in a line. They used other lasers to excite the atoms into high-energy states called Rydberg states, which makes neighboring atoms interact strongly. The chain of atoms then behaved as a single entity rather than as independent particles. Next, the researchers tuned the lasers in a way that placed the chain at the tipping point.
To read out the energy ladder, the team applied a new tool developed for these studies, called many-body modulation spectroscopy. In this approach, the researchers gently shook the entire chain by modulating the lasers at a chosen frequency, then measured how strongly the atoms responded. By sweeping through frequencies and noting where the response spiked, the team was able to map out the rungs of the ladder. The method is similar to running a wet finger around the rim of a wine glass: At the right speed the glass resonates with sound, and at the wrong speed nothing happens.
“We repeated the experiment on chains of up to 35 atoms, and the rungs came out as predicted by the Ising conformal field theory: the spectra collapsed onto a single universal curve once rescaled for size,” Sun says. “We then tuned to the tricritical point and measured the lowest levels of its distinct spectrum, which came out in the different ratios theory predicts.”
Because every atom in the array can be addressed individually, the team could also do things that are far harder using traditional materials. They sorted the excitations according to their symmetry, revealing a second family of rungs hidden from the first measurement. And by adjusting the atoms at the two ends of the chain, they changed how the ladder was arranged—each setting produced a different pattern that the tricritical Ising theory predicts.
“Even though we believed these theories to be true, it’s important to have an experimental realization, something you can poke and prod,” Alicea says. “To see those predictions borne out is a beautiful thing.”
In the future, the team plans to use an even larger quantum system to study conformal field theories using not just atoms in a line but atoms in a grid. “In two dimensions, the conformal field theories are not as well understood, so this is an exciting opportunity,” Sun says.
“What excites me is that the technique doesn’t require knowing the answer in advance. Here we could check our measurements against exact predictions,” Endres says. “The next step is to point this at systems where nobody knows the response of the system quantitatively—including regimes that classical computers can’t reach.”
The Nature study, “Observation of conformal field theory spectra in a quantum simulator,” was funded by the US Department of Energy, including its Quantum Systems Accelerator and its Quantum Science Center; the National Science Foundation, including the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech (IQIM); the Army Research Office; the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Air Force Office of Scientific Research; the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Other Caltech authors include Yuan Le, Stephen Naus, Richard Bing-Shiun Tsai, and Lewis Picard, who is now working at the Caltech-linked startup Oratomic. Additional authors are Sara Murciano of the Université Paris-Saclay (previously a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech) and Michael Knap of the Technical University of Munich and the Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology.
President Trump wants to meet again with Kim Jong Un to discuss denuclearization, the Wall Street Journal reports, despite having nothing to show for 3 previous summits.
Mykhailo Fedorov’s blistering critique comes at a time of growing pressure for democratic renewal in Ukraine
For more than a month, demonstrators have gathered in Ivan Franko Square outside Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office. The protesters have been chanting a name – not that of Ukraine’s embattled president but that of the man he recently sacked as defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov. On Sunday evening, 2,000 people marched along Khreshchatyk, Kyiv’s main boulevard, waving cardboard banners in support of their ousted hero.
Zelenskyy has refused to reinstate Fedorov, who during his six months in the job was widely seen as an effective and reforming figure. On Wednesday, Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, voted to approve a successor as defence minister, Yevhen Khmara. The move shows that Fedorov has been shut out from government permanently, and confirms his transition from trusted insider and Zelenskyy loyalist to a potent political opponent.
Republican James Comer writes to private equity investor demanding full cooperation with investigation
The Republican chairman of the House oversight committee has threatened to hold the private equity investor Leon Black in contempt if he does not fully cooperate with the panel’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, amid accusations that the billionaire is purposely delaying and disrupting the panel’s inquiry.
A letter released by Representative James Comer’s office on Tuesday, which was addressed to Black’s lawyer, revealed new details about the high-stakes clash between the powerful Kentucky congressman and Black, the co-founder of Apollo Asset Management who was Epstein’s friend and former client and paid Epstein tens of millions of dollars in fees.
Senator Jon Ossoff, who is up for re-election, came up with arguably the standout line of the midterm elections so far
Jon Ossoff really struck a nerve. That much is clear.
The US senator for Georgia, running for re-election in November, came up with arguably the standout line of the midterm elections campaign so far when discussing Donald Trump at a rally on Sunday.
Nige’s dodgy donations, Dicky’s love of global heating and so much more – what fun it is watching the party implode
You would need to have a heart of stone not to fall about laughing. There was a time not so long ago when Reform could give a passable impression of a vaguely functional political party. One that knew its audience and had learned how to get its message across through the media. Admittedly this was largely because the party was a one-man band with all its MPs accepting that they owed their entire existence to Nige. They were satellites to his sun. Nigel Farage was Reform, and Reform was Nige.
In recent months though, things have been falling apart and Reform now resemble an anarchic end–of-the-pier clown show. And chaos has seldom been this entertaining. The fun started when Nige had an uncharacteristic fit of humility and tried to pretend he was only a first among equals with the grandiose announcement of a “shadow cabinet” of four people. Largely because that’s about as many serious politicians as he had at his disposal.
Elections in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming provide a sense of how voters are feeling ahead of November’s midterms
Primaries in Florida, Alaska and Wyoming held on Tuesday provided the latest view into how voters are feeling ahead of November’s US midterm elections.
One candidate aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) netted an extraordinary win while another was defeated handily. Donald Trump’s handpicked candidates received a mixed reception from voters. In Alaska, voters chose their fighters for one of the year’s marquee US Senate races, and in Florida, extremism remained alive and well among Republicans.
Chery, which makes the Jaecoo and Omoda car brands, said the launch of a new R&D site was “the next step in our long-term plan” for Britain as it also moves towards manufacturing its cars in the UK.
2026 Chatham House Prize awarded to the women of AfghanistanNews releasethilton.drupal
The prize is presented to ‘the person, persons, or organization deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations’.
The women of Afghanistan have been awarded the 2026 Chatham House Prize, in recognition of their courage and resilience in the face of systematic gender persecution, and for embodying the determination of a broader movement for women’s rights.
Five years since the Taliban returned to power, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced an expanding range of restrictions on their participation in public life. They have been excluded from secondary and higher education, restricted from many forms of employment and faced increasing limits on their freedom of movement.
Against this backdrop, women across Afghanistan have continued to resist restrictions on their rights and freedoms, including through protests, advocacy and efforts to maintain access to education. Their resistance has drawn international attention to the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan and the consequences of their exclusion from public life.
Bronwen Maddox, Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House, said:
‘The women of Afghanistan have shown extraordinary courage and resilience in the face of systematic efforts to exclude them from education, work and public life.
Five years after the Taliban returned to power, women across the country continue to resist their erasure, defend their rights and those of future generations, and keep alive hope and opportunity for women and girls.
Their courage embodies the determination of a much broader movement for women’s rights and challenges the rest of the world not to look away. This award recognises those efforts and the example they set in the face of extraordinary restrictions.’
Dr Farzana Shaikh, Associate Fellow in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, said:
‘The 2026 Chatham House Prize awarded to the women of Afghanistan is richly deserved and stands as testimony to their resistance and determination never to be erased from public memory. Their fortitude in the face of draconian and discriminatory laws imposed by Taliban rule sets a matchless example for all those dedicated to equal rights for women and to the ideal of a fairer world.’
Dr Chietigj Bajpaee, Senior Research Fellow for South Asia in the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House, said:
‘No community has suffered more under renewed Taliban rule than the country’s women and girls, as they have lost access to various aspects of public life, from education and employment to the right to move freely throughout the country. Reports of girls attending secret schools and women leading demonstrations against the regime illustrate their courage and fortitude in the face of unjustified adversity.
Through awarding the Chatham House Prize to the women of Afghanistan, we aim to do our part in raising awareness of an issue that has tragically fallen off the radar of the international community.’
The Prize will be presented at a special event at Chatham House later this year, together with a scroll signed by His Majesty The King, Patron of The Royal Institute of International Affairs.
If you or your organization would be interested in supporting the event through sponsorship, please do get in touch with Zara Berry.
The Chatham House Prize is voted for by Chatham House members, following nominations from the institute’s staff.
The Prize was launched in 2005. Previous recipients include President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, Médecins Sans Frontières and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In 2025, the Prize was awarded to Sudan’s grassroots mutual aid groups, the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), for their humanitarian response to the war in Sudan.
Chatham House is a world-leading policy institute based in London. Our mission is to address geopolitical challenges and international problems. Through this, we aim to help governments and societies to build a secure, sustainable, prosperous and just world.
We do this by providing independent analysis and advice, and convening meetings of the people and organizations that can bring about change.
(The Center Square) – A new report from the Archbridge Institute ranks states by occupational licensing, with Oregon ranking the worst by having the most “barriers to work,” and Missouri ranking the best by having the least barriers to work.
After their hit Untitled Goose Game, Australian studio House House is back with a new game where your only goal is to go exploring with friends – so we took them on a big walk inside Big Walk
When I arrive to meet with the tiny team at Melbourne game developer House House, they’re sitting in a circle under a eucalyptus tree. After introductions, the five of us set off into the scrub. Over the course of our hike we take a train to the beach, huddle on deck chairs in the sand dunes and climb a mountain as the sun rises. All without ever leaving our desks.
Welcome to the world of Big Walk: House House’s new game after the runaway global success Untitled Goose Game, which saw millions fall in love with being a naughty goose rampaging through a bucolic village. After Untitled Goose Game’s overwhelming success, House House wanted their next game to be very different and “unusual”. Despite this, Big Walk has been an immediate success, with more than 1m downloads in the first week of release.
Chinese robotics giant Unitree surged more than 600% in its Shanghai stock market debut, marking the first mainland Chinese listing by a humanoid robot maker and a major milestone for Beijing's robotics ambitions. The BBC reports: Unitree, officially known as Yushu Technology Co Ltd, was founded in 2016 and now plays a key role in Beijing's ambitions to develop advanced technology. It has become a robotics industry leader, selling devices from sensors and automated arms to four-legged and human-like machines. The firm shipped more than 5,500 humanoid robots last year as demand for the technology grows.
Unitree is one of the few companies in the sector to make money, delivering a net profit of 278 million yuan in 2025. It is a fierce rival to developers in the US as it produces robots with similar features but at lower prices. The company is based in Hangzhou, in eastern China. The region is home to a so-called golden cluster zone of robotics firms, which have benefited from huge government investments. That support helped drive a more than threefold increase in the number of Chinese robotics firms between 2020 and 2024, according to state-run China Daily.
[...] Unitree's robot dogs start at $2,700, a fraction of the roughly $70,000 price tag for Boston Dynamics' four-legged device, Spot. "They're not exactly comparable because some of Unitree's dogs are much smaller," [said Harold Soh, a researcher from the National University of Singapore]. "But the price is a big difference." Unitree has been selling humanoid robots since 2023, with its $13,500 child-sized G1 model hitting the market the following year. Meanwhile, major US rivals -- including Elon Musk's Tesla -- have yet to start delivering rival products.
[...] Some experts expect Unitree's market debut to be a gauge of investor appetite for the fast-growing humanoid robotics sector. The listing has given the public a rare chance to invest in a humanoid robotics company and could set a benchmark for other manufacturers, said Jack Pearson from investment firm RoboStrategy. The listing also marks a "turning point" for China's robotics industry, as Unitree's success comes even as the US is curbing imports of foreign-made robots, Pearson said.
Interest rates, now sitting at about 3.5-3.7%, expected to go up if inflation doesn’t come down to Fed’s 2% target
The US treasury is doubling its buyback of government debt in an effort to balance out the bond market as officials at the US Federal Reserve remain divided over how to deal with high inflation.
The yield rate on 10-year, 20-year and 30-year treasury notes all hit 20-year highs this week, with the 30-year treasury yield rising to its highest rate since 2007. The rapid rise was concerning news for borrowers as major loans, including mortgages, are backed by treasuries.
Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies said they uncovered group responsible for money laundering $3.35m but did not name individuals involved
The rise in Germany’s borrowing costs to a 15-year high reflects the increased security challenges facing the country following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the need to spend much more defence, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
German 10- and 30-year borrowing costs hit a fresh 15-year high in Wednesday’s session. Bond yields of other major Western economies including the US and Japan have also climbed to multi-decade highs this week due to ballooning government debt and geopolitics, increasing borrowing costs for companies and households and complicating policy.
“I am grateful to the MPs for supporting Andrii Sybiha for the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Yevhenii Khmara for the position of Minister of Defence of Ukraine.
The tasks for both ministers are absolutely clear: Ukraine needs more strength. And it will have it. Glory to Ukraine!”
Network Rail and Southern owner GTR apologise after investigators reveal picture of possible heat-buckled track
Rail operators have apologised after a report into last Thursday’s derailment in East Sussex found a track defect on the approach to where the train derailed on the hottest day of the year so far.
An interim report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) said CCTV images showed the “track geometry irregularity” existed before the incident near Lewes injured 30 people.
PM pledges to get rough sleepers off streets for Christmas but issues ‘rallying call’ for community and voluntary organisations to help with plan
Andy Burnham has admitted government funding “may not fully be enough” to achieve his aim of offering a place to stay to every rough sleeper by Christmas, as he made a “rallying call” for communities to get behind his plan.
Speaking on a visit to the north-east of England, the prime minister said:
The government money itself may not fully be enough. So I am saying, putting the call out to community and voluntary organisations – we’re at one here in Newcastle today, doing fantastic work.
But we’re saying to the wider community, voluntary, and faith sector: come on, let’s get behind this. Let’s show what Britain can do when we all pull in the same direction.
We did it in the pandemic, we can do it again, and it’s a rallying call, really, that I’m putting out there today with a lot of government money behind it.
We did bring the numbers right down, but because we were the only area providing a high level of support, more people started to travel and it became difficult.
Asked whether Taiwan and the South China Sea threaten US national security, Republican fill-in senator Darline Graham hesitated. “I’m just going to be honest here,” she told Tuesday night’s debate audience. “I’m – not that informed on national security, so – but I do support the military.”
Gasps, and boos, rolled through the opera house hosting the only debate before next week’s Republican runoff – a race to succeed her brother, Lindsey Graham, who was one of the Senate’s most committed rightwing foreign policy hawks before his sudden passing in July. She did not retreat.
The Spanish government has U-turned and said it will allow 500 migrant children in Ceuta to relocate to the mainland.
The majority of the estimated 70,000 people who crossed into Ceuta – a Spanish territory on the coast of north Africa – on 30 July have returned to Morocco. However, under Spanish law, the state has a duty of care to young, unaccompanied migrants until they reach the age of 18.
In just over two weeks’ time, Saxony-Anhalt – home to historic timber-framed houses, the dramatic Harz mountains and the birthplace of Martin Luther – will hold what could prove one of the most significant state elections in Germany’s postwar history.
The vote, on 6 September, could see a far-right party whose local branch is officially classified by the country’s domestic intelligence service as “confirmed rightwing extremist” appoint a state premier and govern a state alone, for the first time.
Expected quarterly price cap rise of 4% likely to wipe out benefits of Andy Burnham’s VAT cut on electricity bills
Household energy bills across Great Britain are expected to climb to a three-year high this winter as the impact of the Middle East war wipes out Andy Burnham’s tax cut on electricity bills.
The government’s cap on energy prices is on track to rise by 4% from this October to the equivalent of £1,729 a year through the last three months of 2026, which could hit struggling households especially hard this winter, according to analysis by the energy consultancy Cornwall Insight.
Justice department claims there’s ‘no dispute’ over whether ex-FBI head’s post could be read as a threat against Trump
The US Department of Justice has defended its prosecution of former FBI director James Comey, claiming in new court documents there is “no serious dispute” that his social media post last year featuring a photo of seashells arranged to read “8647” could be interpreted as a threat against Donald Trump.
“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump’,” prosecutors wrote in a document filed on Tuesday in response to efforts by Comey’s efforts to have the case dismissed.
Berlin to seek suspect’s extradition for 2022 explosions that damaged gas pipelines to Russia
A Ukrainian man has been arrested in Croatia as part of an investigation into the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream gas pipelines between Germany and Russia.
Undersea explosions in September 2022, just months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, damaged three of the four pipelines built to carry Russian fossil gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
People say they’ve been secretly filmed in their own homes, at concerts and at work. Are the wildly popular smartglasses the final nail in the coffin of personal privacy?
“I’ve had one person who told me that their intentions were creepy,” a man tells me over a video call, on condition of anonymity. He’s based in Los Angeles, and while we speak, he eats what appears to be tuna directly out of the can. “He said: ‘I go to strip clubs, and I want to record the strippers … Normally I put my phone in my chest pocket, but the glasses are more convenient.’”
The man I’m talking to runs a business called Ghost Metas. He’s one of hundreds of vendors, easily discoverable online, who specialise in disabling the flashing LED light embedded in Meta’s smartglasses that blinks when wearers capture photos, videos and audio. After Ghost Metas disables the LED, it’s impossible for someone to know they’re being filmed.
This is the first installment of a three-part Delaware LIVE series examining Delaware’s literacy results, announced by the State Department of Education this week; the changes required to reach the state’s 2028 goal; and the expanding responsibilities of local school boards.
Third-grade proficiency rose 1 percentage point, leaving Delaware with a 13-point gap to close in two years
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a three-part Delaware LIVE series examining Delaware’s literacy results announced by the State Department of Education this week, the changes required to reach the state’s 2028 goal and the expanding responsibilities of local school boards.
By George D. Rotsch Editor, Delaware LIVE.
DOVER, Del. — Delaware students made modest progress in reading on the latest statewide assessments, but the results show the state remains far from its goal of having 53% of third graders reading proficiently by 2028.
Across grades 3 through 8, English language arts proficiency increased from 41% to 42%.
The movement is positive, but the larger result remains concerning: Six in 10 Delaware third graders did not meet the state’s grade-level proficiency standard.
Delaware now needs to gain another 13 percentage points over the next two testing cycles to reach its 2028 target.
State highlights literacy-coaching gains
In an announcement this week, the Department of Education emphasized results from schools receiving state-supported literacy coaching.
All eight schools with literacy coaches and comparable third-grade results improved from 2025 to 2026. Those schools averaged gains of nearly 7 percentage points, compared with the 1-point statewide increase.
Johnson Elementary School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District and Las Américas ASPIRA Academy each posted 12-point gains. Gateway Charter School improved by 11 points.
The department said those results give state and local leaders reason to examine the relationship among literacy coaching, instructional materials, school leadership and classroom practices.
The results do not prove that coaching alone produced the improvement. Changes in leadership, curriculum, enrollment, attendance and student intervention also may have contributed.
The proficiency level after an increase also matters. Johnson Elementary, for example, improved from 3% to 15%. That is a substantial one-year gain, but it means 85% of the school’s third graders remained below proficiency.
State calls progress modest
The state’s announcement acknowledged that Delaware’s overall performance remains inadequate.
“A one-percentage point statewide increase is not the win,” Education Secretary Cindy Marten said. “The more important question is what we learn from schools where students are moving faster and what we change where students are not making enough progress.”
Marten said Delaware must study schools showing stronger improvement and apply those lessons more broadly.
The department also said proficiency remains below where students need it to be, progress is uneven and achievement gaps remain significant.
Schools highlighted for improvement should be studied, the department said, but their results should not be interpreted as evidence of statewide success.
Understanding what the numbers mean
Julia Keleher, executive director of First State Educate, said statewide averages are an important starting point, but the work of a local school board begins with understanding what those results look like for the students and schools it governs.
“The statewide result tells us the size of Delaware’s literacy challenge, but every board needs to understand its own results,” Keleher said.
School boards are responsible for establishing the outcomes they expect for students and monitoring whether the district is making progress toward them. “State assessment results give boards an annual measure of performance, but effective governance requires going further: understanding how the district performed against its goals, where results differ across schools and student groups, and what the superintendent is doing in response. Boards can then monitor progress throughout the year rather than waiting for the next annual assessment to know whether the district is on track.”, Keleher said.
Board members could ask
What do these results tell us about progress toward our district’s student outcome goals?
Where are students making progress, and where are they not?
Are all student groups making progress toward the outcomes we established?
What does the superintendent believe is driving the differences in performance, and what is the district doing in response?
Are our budget, policies, and resources aligned with the outcomes we are trying to achieve?
What will we monitor throughout the year to know whether the district’s strategy is working and students are on track
Keleher’s organization works with school board members on governance and data interpretation. It is one of several potential resources boards may use to understand local results and evaluate district strategies.
High school performance declines
The elementary results were accompanied by a decline in high school reading and writing performance.
Among students taking the SAT School Day assessment, generally administered in 11th grade, 44% demonstrated proficiency in evidence-based reading and writing. That was down from 47% in 2025.
SAT essay proficiency rose by 10 points to 43%.
The high school results suggest Delaware’s literacy challenge does not end after elementary school. Students who advance without strong reading foundations may face greater difficulty as assignments become more complex across English, history, science and other subjects.
Proficiency and growth are different
The results released this week measure proficiency—whether students met grade-level expectations.
Delaware will release student-growth results separately. Growth measures how much students improved academically, including students who made progress but remain below grade level.
Both measures are important.
Growth can show whether a student is catching up and whether an intervention is helping. Proficiency shows whether the student has reached the state’s grade-level standard.
The state’s 2028 third-grade target is based on proficiency.
A significant challenge remains
Delaware has recorded an improvement, but the state is not currently progressing fast enough to reach its goal.
The 2026 results provide encouraging examples that deserve further examination. They also raise difficult questions about schools where most students remain below the reading standard.
As Keleher noted, the next step is not merely acknowledging a statewide number. It is understanding what produced improvement in some schools and what must change in schools where progress remains limited.
Delaware must raise third-grade reading proficiency by an average of 6.5 points in each of the next two years. Part 2 examines what that would require, how boards can measure progress between annual tests and whether the state has established sufficient accountability.
Compton’s Cafe is one of the earliest examples of LGBTQ+ resistance. Today, a prison company occupies the site
One of the earliest documented examples of LGBTQ+ resistance against police happened on a hot summer night 60 years ago this month. It started not with the throwing of a brick, as it did in New York City’s 1969 Stonewall riots, but with the throwing of a coffee cup inside Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco.
When police attempted to raid Compton’s – a hub for the drag performers, trans people and sex workers in the city’s Tenderloin neighborhood – hundreds of people in the community fought back. A drag queen threw a coffee mug at a police officer; others threw dishes and chairs outside. It was the culmination of years of police harassment, arrests and violence against the community and the beginning of the city’s trans movement.
Firefighters describe being pushed to limit by a brutal wildfire season, with key leadership roles going unfilled
The US has faced a critical shortage of firefighters at the US Forest Service (USFS) this summer as thousands of fires erupted across the country.
Despite officials’ claims that the firefighting workforce was stronger than ever, the agency has failed to keep pace with escalating conditions and the catastrophic fires fueled by them, according to nine firefighters who spoke to the Guardian anonymously, because they are barred from disclosing the information to the public.
Michael Caruso, once praised by Ron DeSantis, removed from Palm Beach county civic official roles after arrest
Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has suspended a former close ally and senior civic official who was arrested on felony child sexual abuse charges.
Michael Caruso, who was removed as clerk of court and comptroller for Palm Beach county on Tuesday, was a vocal supporter of a law signed by DeSantis in 2023 that allowed the death penalty for anybody convicted of the sexual battery of a child under 12.
Long weekends do not last forever, so make the grill count. These 13 dishes cover steak, chicken, seafood, vegetables, salads, and a smoky guacamole for the cookouts still left on the calendar.The post 13 grill dishes worth making before the…
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Fernando Cerimedo, 42, arrested on suspicion of ordering shooting of Bolivian lawyer Nadia Beller
A senior adviser to many of Latin America’s new wave of far-right leaders has been arrested for allegedly masterminding the attempted murder of his girlfriend.
The businessman and political consultant Fernando Cerimedo, 42, had been working as an adviser to the Bolivian president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, and was one of the main strategists behind Javier Milei’s campaign in Argentina’s 2023 presidential election.
An appeal over a Texas state law requiring Ten Commandments displays in public school classrooms is heading to the Supreme Court after a federal court upheld the law in April 2026.
On Monday, the American Civil Liberties Union and others announced they were filing a joint petition for a writ of certiorari to reverse the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Nathan v. Alamo. The ACLU published the petition on its website. Justice Samuel Alito had extended the filing deadline for the petition until Wednesday.
On April 21, 2026, a deeply divided Fifth Circuit, in a 9-8 en banc ruling, held that a state law, S.B. 10, requiring the commandments classroom display did not violate the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause or Free Exercise Clause. These clauses read as follows: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
In a statement issued after the Fifth Circuit ruling in April, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas said it anticipated appealing the decision to the Supreme Court.
The joint petition for a writ of certiorari
In a press release accompanying Monday’s cert petition, the ACLU says that more than two dozen Texas families were challenging S.B. 10. In addition to the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP are involved in challenge. It also includes a related case, Cribbs Ringer v. Comal Independent School District, in the petition.
The petition asks the Supreme Court to decide two questions. The first is whether the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause forbids a state from “mandating the permanent, conspicuous display of a government-selected version of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom.”
The second is whether permanently displaying the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom “interferes with parents’ Free Exercise Clause right to direct their children’s religious education and burdens children’s religious freedom.”
“The Court should grant the petition because the court of appeals, in upholding S.B. 10, flouted this Court’s binding precedents and gutted the religious freedom rights of public-school children and parents,” the petition claims. The ACLU asks the Supreme Court to act soon, since “no Article III barriers exist, the Fifth Circuit having reached the merits in full in Nathan.”
The Fifth Circuit’sdecision in Texas
Central to the Fifth Circuit’s majority opinion are two key Supreme Court precedents. In Stone v. Graham (1980), a divided Supreme Court ruled that a Kentucky law requiring the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms violated the Establishment Clause. However, the Fifth Circuit majority also cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Kennedy v. Bremerton School District as rendering the Stone precedent obsolete.
In his majority opinion, Circuit Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan said the Fifth Circuit majority properly discarded Stone since Stone relied on a prior Supreme Court precedent, Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971). Under Lemon, the Supreme Court created a three-part test to determine if a law violated the Establishment Clause.
However, in Bremerton, Justice Neil Gorsuch established a new method to replace the Lemon test. In his majority opinion, Gorsuch cited the “shortcomings” associated the Lemon test’s “abstract, and ahistorical approach to the Establishment Clause. “
“This Court long ago abandoned Lemon and its endorsement test offshoot,” Gorsuch wrote in Bremerton. “In place of Lemon and the endorsement test, this Court has instructed that the Establishment Clause must be interpreted by ‘reference to historical practices and understandings.’
Applying the Bremerton test, Duncan said “S.B. 10 looks nothing like a historical religious establishment. It does not tell churches or synagogues or mosques what to believe or how to worship or whom to employ as priests, rabbis, or imams. It punishes no one who rejects the Ten Commandments, no matter the reason.”
Duncan also disagreed with arguments that S.B. 10 conflicted with a recent Supreme Court decision, Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025), where a divided Supreme Court held that parents could opt their children out from public school instruction they believed violated their free exercise of religion rights.
In a dissent joined by six other judges, Circuit Judge Irma Carrillo Ramirez stated S.B. 10 clearly violated the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. Ramirez objected to Duncan’s claim that the Supreme Court has overruled the Stone precedent, and she said that under Bremerton’s historical test, the Texas law was still unconstitutional.
She repeatedly cited the Supreme Court’s precedent in Lee v. Weisman (1992), where a divided court ruled that including prayers from a rabbi at a public-school graduation was a subtle and indirect religious coercion because students felt compelled to stand during the recitals.
The ACLU agrees with the minority dissent
In its petition to the Court, the ACLU echoes arguments from the Fifth Circuit’s Nathan dissent.
“Nearly fifty years ago, Stone v. Graham held that permanently posting the Ten Commandments in public-school classrooms violates the Establishment Clause. And Mahmoud v. Taylor recently reaffirmed that public schools burden parents’ free-exercise rights when they ‘substantially interfere with the religious development’ of their children or ‘pose ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices the parent[s] wish to instill in the[ir] child[ren],” it argues.
“Notwithstanding these precedents, the en banc Fifth Circuit declared that Stone is no longer good law and upheld a Texas statute mandating the display of a state-selected version of the Ten Commandments in every public-school classroom,” it concludes.
It also cites the holding in Lee v. Weisman that acknowledged there are “heightened concerns with protecting freedom of conscience from subtle coercive pressure in the elementary and secondary public schools.”
The ACLU also asks the Supreme Court to consider the national implications of the Fifth Circuit’s decision. “In the last two years, legislatures in two dozen states have either enacted or considered proposed laws regarding the display of the Ten Commandments in public schools, with more sure to follow absent this Court’s intervention.”
The petition concludes with a plea for a full Supreme Court review of the case on the merits with oral argument, or that the Supreme Court reverse or remand the judgments in Nathan and Cribbs Ringer back to the appeals court to apply the precedent in Stone.
Given the case’s national importance, it will be watched closely as the justices consider accepting cases for its next term starting in October 2026.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
Some restraint on Trump’s excesses might be accomplished if November’s midterm elections give Democrats more power
Donald Trump is essentially unrestrained when it comes to enriching himself during his second term, with no sign of stopping. If anything, he’s ramping things up.
The numbers so far are astonishing. He amassed $2.2bn in 2025 revenues, the Guardian and other news outlets have reported.
In an upset for the Democratic establishment, progressive Angie Nixon won the party’s US Senate primary in Florida, beating former army intelligence officer Alexander Vindman.
Nixon, a state representative and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, had significantly less funding going into the primary – with $975,000 to Vindman’s $16.3m at the end of July, according to Florida Politics.
YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., Aug. 19, 2026 — IBM today announced it has successfully joined and cooled down two cryogenic modules into a single environment. The new architecture is designed to scale into the modular, shared, and ultra-cold system required to link hundreds of quantum chips into a more powerful quantum computer capable of solving large problems. Its deployment is a milestone on IBM’s path to delivering IBM Quantum Starling in 2029, which is expected to be the world’s first fault-tolerant quantum computer and will integrate advances across error correction, processor design, decoding, and systems engineering.
IBM’s scalable and modular cryogenic system to support fault-tolerant quantum computing. Credit: IBM.
Combined, the first two operational modules stand more than 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide, and initial tests demonstrated they can jointly cool down to 4 Kelvin (the temperature of liquid helium) in under 5 days, reaching a final temperature of below 15 millikelvin shortly after. Each module’s vacuum enclosure offers up to 12 times more wiring space than the most widely used IBM quantum systems, enabling more chip-to-chip connections both within and between modules.
IBM’s new box-shaped design allows modules to connect in a tight row and use this larger space to directly link quantum processors with IBM’s “L-coupler” technology. L-couplers connect separate quantum chips together to share information, communicate, and operate as part of a larger quantum computer.
By 2027, IBM’s quantum roadmap plans to use L-couplers to link multiple processors into a larger quantum computer with at least 1,000 programmable qubits, which are qubits that can be directly used to perform computations. Towards this goal, IBM will install IBM Quantum Nighthawk processors into the cryogenic modules later this year to expand operational performance testing. At the time Starling is delivered, IBM plans for each cryogenic module to house thousands of qubits.
IBM’s plans for Starling were introduced last year with a new error correction code that dramatically reduces the physical resources required for fault tolerance. Since then, the company’s progression has remained on course, including the demonstration of core hardware components and breakthroughs in efficient error-correction decoding.
“Bringing fault-tolerant quantum computers to industries depends on several fundamental advances,” said Jay Gambetta, Director of IBM Research and IBM Fellow. “The successful connection and operation of these cryogenic modules signals a leap forward in that direction and will accelerate our progress alongside continued innovation in quantum hardware, software, and algorithms.”
IBM expects its scalable cryogenic modules to help speed its pace of innovation. For example, three essential components of IBM Quantum System Two’s environment are built into the new architecture, but now in a way that allows each part to be independently tested, improved, and rapidly iterated.
The delivery of these new cryogenic quantum modules is further evidence that IBM is systematically delivering against its quantum roadmap, solving another one of the major hurdles required to accelerate its path to fault-tolerant quantum computing.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service. Visit www.ibm.com for more information.
Trump administration put sanctions on the international criminal court’s president and a senior trial lawyer
The international criminal court on Wednesday condemned the latest US sanctions targeting senior ICC staff, including its president, as a “flagrant attack” on the global tribunal’s independence and vowed to continue seeking justice for atrocities around the world.
The state department announced on Tuesday that it had hit the ICC president, Tomoko Akane, a Japanese national, and ICC senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, who is from Senegal, with sanctions that freeze any assets they have in US jurisdictions or come into contact with the US financial system.
Aug. 19, 2026 — To commercialize quantum computing, manufacturers need high-quality superconducting materials for microchips, but they also require a reliable, sustainable nanofabrication process.
Tantalum is a corrosion-resistant metal that meets the first criteria but not the second. That’s because it has to be deposited on a substrate at temperatures that typically exceed 400 degrees Celsius – too hot for many semiconductor foundries’ current tools.
A team led by Valla Fatemi, assistant professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics in Duffield Engineering, developed a method that uses krypton gas to slash the deposition temperature of the corrosion-resistant metal tantalum, resulting in thin films that have substantially higher electronic conductivity. Photo credit: Bridget Reinsko.
Cornell University researchers have developed a method that uses krypton gas to slash that deposition temperature to 200 degrees while depositing on silicon, a standard high-quality substrate. The process resulted in thin films that also have substantially higher electronic conductivity.
“Tantalum as a material has been shown to be very exciting from a device performance perspective, but its manufacturability had some question marks because of integration challenges such as required process temperatures,” said Valla Fatemi, assistant professor and Aref and Manon Lahham Faculty Fellow in the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering, who led the project. “We figured out a relatively simple change, by using some physical and materials insights, to bring that temperature down into a zone that is translatable to nanofabrication systems in industry, while showing that in our academic context we can have leading-edge performance of these devices.”
The findings published Aug. 18 in Nature Materials. The study’s lead author is postdoctoral researcher Maciej Olszewski.
Quantum computing promises to handle faster, more complex computations by leveraging the unique quantum mechanical properties of superconductors, which carry current with little to no energy loss. The basic building blocks of the hardware are quantum bits, or qubits, which can store and process massive quantities of information. But correctly combining high-performance materials and nanofabrication techniques has proved to be one of the primary bottlenecks slowing the technology’s commercial development.
Fatemi’s lab explores the intersection of experimental condensed matter physics and quantum devices. Recently, his team developed the characterization and nanofabrication methods to achieve high-end performance for niobium-based materials. In that work, niobium was bombarded with ions of the noble gas argon, which knocked off nobium’s atoms so they deposited on a substrate – a process called sputtering – forming a thin film.
“That work got the ball rolling for us in understanding a lot of the surface science and how that correlates with improving performance,” Fatemi said.
The researchers swapped niobium for tantalum, a transition metal with more stable surface properties and high resistance to corrosion – and a leading material for many superconducting components. But tantalum is not without challenges. When deposited at lower temperatures, the material is in a crystal phase with undesirable properties. That problem that can only be remedied by heating it more than 400 degrees Celsius for deposition or by seeding the surface with other materials to alter its performance. At the same time, if tantalum gets too hot, it can mix with the silicon substrate and form a thick layer that leads to information loss and lowers the chip’s performance.
The new solution: Olszewski hypothesized that using krypton as the ionized gas instead of argon would transfer more momentum and kick off the tantalum atoms with greater energy, thereby stabilizing the targeted crystal phase on the silicon substrate – all at a much lower temperature.
“There’s this whole set of tooling and fabrication lines that don’t really go above 400 Celsius, and they’re built for that. And tantalum on silicon, when you use the old method, was right on the border of that,” Olszewski said. “There was little margin to do things reliably. Using krypton brought that threshold down to 200 Celsius. So you now have this big window to be able to do reliable fabrication.”
A crucial final step of the process: adding what is known as a Josephson junction, an overlap of two metals separated by an electrical insulator that enables the quantum tunneling of electrons that creates qubits.
“The performance of the devices in our lab are very sensitive to that step now. Historically, that was not necessarily obvious. But our devices are at a level of performance that we’re able to see big differences based on subtle changes that we make to the formation of the Josephson junction,” Fatemi said. “So we’re entering a new domain for what matters or doesn’t matter.”
The researchers found that the resulting thin film produced qubits of incredibly high quality and greatly boosted device performance.
“We’re right at the world-leading edge,” Fatemi said. “This is a big step forward not only for our group but also Cornell’s efforts in superconducting quantum information devices.”
Co-authors include David Muller, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in Duffield Engineering and co-director of the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science; doctoral students Lingda Kong, Daniel Tong, Haoran Lu, Saswata Roy and Luojia Zhang; postdoctoral researchers Simon Reinhardt and Xinyi Du; Gabriele Di Gianluca of University of Florida, Gainesville and the Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility Research Experience for Undergraduates (CNF REU) program; and Aleksandra Biedron of the New York Center for Research, Economic Advancement, Technology, Engineering and Science (NY CREATES).
The research was supported by the Microelectronics Commons Program, a DoW initiative, and the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. The researchers made use of CNF, a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure, which is supported by the National Science Foundation, and the Cornell Center for Materials Research.
The Trump-backed incumbent has struggled to raise money for his reelection bid as the House Ethics Committee investigates numerous allegations against him.
The former defense minister, whose firing sparked weeks of protests, said Ukraine needed to find a way to hold elections despite the prolonged war with Russia.
The move from an architect of Ukraine’s drone program is a remarkably direct challenge to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s authority and may test Ukrainian unity.
Lansing, Michigan — Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers received about $95,000 from telecommunications industry political committees over two decades while supporting legislation that aligned with some of those companies’ policy priorities, according to federal campaign finance records reviewed by Michigan Advance.
The contributions came from AT&T, Verizon and wireless industry group CTIA and went to Rogers’ congressional campaigns, Senate campaigns and political action committee. AT&T accounted for $56,000, Verizon contributed $28,500 and CTIA gave $10,000, according to the report. Federal Election Commission records confirm Rogers is currently running for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat.
While chairing the House Intelligence Committee, Rogers introduced the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA, which would have expanded private companies’ ability to share cybersecurity information with the federal government. AT&T, Verizon and CTIA supported the legislation, while civil-liberties organizations warned it could weaken privacy protections.
Rogers also opposed federal net-neutrality regulations before leaving Congress in 2015. He subsequently worked as a cybersecurity adviser for AT&T, continuing his ties to the telecommunications industry.
Rogers’ campaign rejected suggestions that contributions influenced his policymaking, saying his national-security positions have remained consistent throughout his career.
Rogers is running against Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed for the seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Gary Peters.
AUSTIN, Texas and PALO ALTO, Calif., Aug. 19, 2026 — EigenQ, Inc., a quantum technology company, and Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, today announced the confidential submission of a draft registration statement on Form S-4 for review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission relating to EigenQ’s and SVAQ’s previously announced proposed business combination transaction to take EigenQ public. Submission of the Draft Registration Statement for SEC review reflects continued progress and forward momentum relative to the proposed Business Combination and represents another key milestone toward completing the transaction.
Completion of the proposed transaction is subject to shareholder approval, SEC review and effectiveness of the Registration Statement, among other customary closing conditions. Upon completion of the proposed Business Combination, the combined company is expected to operate under the name EigenQ Holdings, Inc., securities of which are expected to trade on Nasdaq, subject to exchange listing approval.
“The submission of the Draft Registration Statement for review by the SEC represents another important milestone in our journey toward becoming a public company. We are pleased to continue advancing this transaction together with SVAQ while remaining focused on disciplined execution, furthering our commercialization plans with channel participants, OEMs and customers, and creating sustainable long-term value for our shareholders,” said Dr. José Rosas-Bustos, EigenQ’s Chief Executive Officer.
The proposed Business Combination remains subject to approval by the shareholders of SVAQ and stockholders of EigenQ, respectively, the registration statement on Form S-4 being declared effective by the SEC, and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. The Business Combination is currently expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to satisfaction of applicable approvals and closing conditions. Upon completion of the proposed Business Combination, the combined company is expected to operate under the name EigenQ Holdings, Inc., securities of which are expected to trade on Nasdaq, subject to exchange listing approval.
While the go-public process continues to advance, EigenQ remains focused on executing its technology and commercialization strategy.
“Our mission is to build and deploy trusted infrastructure enabling governments, enterprises, and critical industries to operate securely in the Quantum Era. We believe that becoming a public company will expand our ability to accelerate innovation, deepen strategic partnerships, and bring foundational quantum technologies to U.S. and global markets. We remain committed to leading the transformation toward trusted, resilient, and quantum-ready digital infrastructure,” said Dr. Jesse Van Griensven, Chairman of EigenQ’s board of directors.
About EigenQ
EigenQ is an applied quantum technology company building the trusted infrastructure for the Quantum Era. Headquartered in Texas, USA, the Company develops foundational technologies across quantum security, communications, networking, and sensing – helping public and private sectors prepare for a future shaped by quantum computing and AI.
Working alongside a developing ecosystem of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), technology partners, and industry leaders, EigenQ is poised to deliver deployable, market-ready solutions that combine post-quantum cryptography, quantum-derived entropy, hardware-rooted trust, secure identity, and cryptographic agility to strengthen the existing digital infrastructures of governmental and commercial enterprises.
EigenQ has entered into a previously-announced definitive business combination agreement with SVAQ to effectuate the proposed go-public transaction. In connection with the completion, if any, of the Business Combination, the transaction parties are seeking approval from Nasdaq for shares of Pubco common stock to trade under the symbol “EIGQ”.
Additional information about EigenQ is available at www.EigenQ.com. The Registration Statement will become publicly available at a later stage of the transaction process; supplemental information about the proposed Business Combination and its terms can be found in SVAQ’s public filings which are available, free of charge, at the SEC’s website (www.sec.gov).
About Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp.
Silicon Valley Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SVAQ) is a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company organized for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. For more information, visit https://svacquisitioncorp.com.
US midterm elections 2026: what happens next?
3
November 2026 — 18:00 TO 19:00 GMT
Anonymous (not verified)
Chatham House and Online
Come and listen to first-hand analysis from Chatham House experts who will examine how the midterms might reshape US politics, foreign policy and the 2028 presidential race.
Come and listen to first-hand analysis from Chatham House experts who will examine how the midterms might reshape US politics, foreign policy and the 2028 presidential race.
The 2026 US midterm elections represent a major test of two political parties in transition and the rest of President Trump’s second-term agenda. The results will shape the balance of power in Washington, influencing the administration’s ability to govern, how much leverage opposition lawmakers will wield, and what risks lie in between.
Legal challenges and electoral interference could lead to a range of outcomes. But the results will also offer an early indication of the debates, candidacies, and narratives likely to define the race for the White House in 2028.
This event discusses:
What do the midterm results reveal about public support for Trump’s presidency?
What impact will the outcome have on the administration’s legislative agenda?
What do the results mean for US foreign and economic policy going forward?
Which issues and voter groups drove the election outcome?
What do the results suggest about the 2028 presidential race?
During the 1990s, a new strata of independent film studios and distributors revitalised the Hollywood movie machine. The likes of Miramax, New Line Cinema and October Films challenged the ageing behemoths of the industry and pushed forward offbeat directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Darren Aronofsky and Jane Campion. The decade is widely considered an artistic high point for western cinema after the bloated mainstream excesses of the 1980s. Could something similar now be happening in games?
Certainly, we have a comparable setup. The big players of the games business are in various states of creative disarray: Electronic Arts (EA) has been bought out by a Saudi-led consortium, which is likely to lead to more cautious, hit-driven decisions; Microsoft bought Activision and Bethesda and then ordered waves of redundancies; Ubisoft has cancelled several titles and is posting big losses. Those companies are also facing rising development costs, so they’re circling the wagons, focusing on legacy brands and freezing recruitment. It’s hard to imagine any left-field works of genius emerging from this imaginative quagmire.
About 100 people crammed into a Harrington Public Library meeting room for a city council meeting discussing the future of data centers. | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Prosecutors in Charlie Kirk 's killing pointed to an engraved bullet, arguing that its inscription shows Kirk was targeted for how the defendant perceived his politics.
The UK’s competition watchdog has launched investigations into Trainline, Virgin Atlantic and Red Driving School over concerns that all three companies displayed misleadingly low prices to their customers.
The Competition and Markets Authority’s investigations are part of a broader clampdown on “drip pricing”, an illegal practice that makes a product appear cheaper by not including all mandatory fees.
Right to assisted dying established for patients with conditions assessed as incurable and causing unbearable pain
Legislation granting incurably ill adults the right to assisted dying has been formally adopted in France after the text was approved by the country’s highest constitutional authority and published in the official journal.
The law, known as a law on “end of life” or “aid in dying” rather than “assisted dying” or “euthanasia”, means France joins the small group of countries including the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada to have legalised the practice.
Move by Years, which provides personalised meals in subscription-based service, follows recipe change
A dog food brand has recalled all of its fresh meals after reports that a recipe change may have caused some animals to develop an eye condition that, if left untreated, can lead to sight loss.
The brand Years said owners should stop feeding its fresh meals to their dogs “immediately” and also told them not to feed the meals to any other animal, or to donate or sell them.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s co-opting of conservative language to discuss a movement against state-sanctioned killings of Black people is damning
August has brought us a referendum on “Woke 1” – a term that reductively brands 2020’s social justice movement – as prominent liberal voices reflect on that time period with disappointing hindsight. During a recent appearance on ABC’s This Week, when asked about 2020-era demands to abolish prisons and police, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the US congresswoman from New York, abandoned her previous support of the “defund the police” movement, and instead joked: “Woke 1 was crazyyyyy.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a democratic socialist, implied that the still-resounding calls for municipalities to reduce police budgets and to divert aid to poor communities were worth advocating for during the 2020 uprising, but are now “crazyyyyy”. In 2020, she noted that “a lot of people cannot fathom what an abolitionist America looks like. Tell them it looks like a suburb. Affluent white communities already live in a world where they choose to fund youth, health, housing more than they fund police.” But she has since backtracked on that idea.
New findings further call into question scientific judgment of current health leaders in the Trump administration
A French researcher whose work was praised by Donald Trump and Dr Mehmet Oz during the Covid-19 pandemic published hundreds of papers with “substantial” ethical and legal concerns, according to a new analysis.
An international team of scientists found concerns in 853 articles published by the Institut Hospitalo-Universitaire Méditerranée Infection, or the IHU, hundreds more than previously flagged by past investigations into work at the large research hospital. Of those, institute founder Didier Raoult was listed as co-author on 758 of them, according to one of the researchers behind the new analysis.
A study of more than 64,000 people born around the end of Britain's postwar sugar rationing found that those exposed to less sugar during their first 1,000 days had lower rates of five cancers decades later, including roughly 69% lower liver cancer risk and 36% lower breast cancer risk. They also "showed signs of slower biological aging" and "continued to consume less sugar and had healthier diets overall," according to the authors of a new study published in The Conversation. From the report: After the second world war, sugar remained rationed in Britain for several years. But in September 1953, rationing ended and people started eating a lot more sugar. Consumption nearly doubled. This meant that children born just a few months apart had very different levels of sugar exposure both in the womb and during early childhood. For our study, we used data from over 64,000 people born in Britain between 1951 and 1956. Those born earlier spent a larger share of their first 1,000 days under sugar rationing, while those born later experienced progressively less of it.
[...] What is most surprising, however, is not the cancer results or the biological markers of ageing. It's how early-life sugar exposure continued to affect people's diets even 50 years later. We found that people who experienced sugar rationing early in life still consumed less sugar in adulthood, around age 50. They also ate less overall, and their diets were healthier and more diverse. This suggests that the level of sweetness people are exposed to very early in life may shape their taste preferences for a long time.
A rise in lawsuits over AI use in employment decisions is raising questions about how companies hire and fire
For the last four years, Erin Kistler has applied for thousands of jobs at companies like Paypal, Microsoft and Netflix, only to find her résumé disappear into a black hole. A product manager with nearly 20 years of experience, Kistler believes she was qualified for every role, yet she never received a single interview.
Now, Kistler is suing Eightfold AI, the Silicon Valley maker of hiring software used by hundreds of companies, including those where she applied, in a class-action lawsuit. The case, filed in January in California court, is one of the first to argue that automated screening functions as an undisclosed consumer report or applicant dossier, ranking job applicants on their likelihood of success without giving them the chance to see or challenge the results, according to Kistler’s legal team.
Harvard University has agreed to pay $53 million to resolve lawsuits by families alleging it mishandled the bodies of loved ones donated to its medical school.
Move could be confirmed along with $100m US Open pot
Slams have been in dispute with players for 18 months
Tennis’s grand slam tournaments have agreed to establish a formal player advisory council in a move aimed at defusing the row over prize money. The joint venture could be confirmed on Wednesday as part of the US Tennis Association’s (USTA) announcement of this year’s US Open prize money, which is expected to top $100m (£74m) for the first time.
The four slams have been in dispute for almost 18 months, with leading players – including Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka– demanding a greater share of tournament revenues as part of a wider overhaul of the sport’s finances and operations that would also lead to the major tournaments making contributions to player welfare and offer meaningful player representation.
Rightwing populist’s inconsistent positions on Europe and Russia suggest he is testing how far he can push partners and electorate
One evening nine years ago in the Bulgarian town of Balgari, a Brazilian tourist approached the casually dressed, middle-aged man surrounded by bodyguards, bystanders and photographers. “Why are you important?” she asked. “I’m not so important,” he replied. She repeated the question and he admitted: “I’m the president.”
Now, in 2026, the rightwing populist Rumen Radev is no longer the president, but the prime minister – the more powerful of the two positions – after his Progressive Bulgaria party secured an overwhelming majority in April’s election. While many in Europe breathed a sigh of relief that month at the demise of Viktor Orbán in Hungary, others wondered if Radev would become the EU’s next disruptor-in-chief.
Ahead of U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds’ win in Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary, he launched an attack ad against Democratic nominee David Jolly over transgender issues.
The Friends of Byron Donalds PAC ad shows short clips of Jolly speaking about issues involving transgender people, including Florida’s crackdown on rainbow street art and school sports participation.
The ad’s text says Jolly supports “gender changing surgeries on kids” and plays a clip of Jolly saying, “We embraced it, the medical pathways, the gender-affirming care.”
The ad echoes what Donalds told patrons of a Doral restaurant in July, when he said that Jolly believes “it’s okay to change the gender of young kids.”
Did Jolly say he supports surgeries for children to affirm their gender? No, the ad twists Jolly’s words from a 2025 podcast interview.
In context, Jolly was quoting someone else when he made the comment about gender-affirming care — a broad term that isn’t limited to surgery.
When asked by reporters about medical care for trans youth, Jolly has said he supports families making medical decisions with a doctor. It is not standard medical practice for doctors to provide gender-affirming surgeries for young children.
PolitiFact contacted Jolly’s campaign about the ad and his position on gender-affirming surgeries for minors but received no response.
Although he relayed a story about healthcare for a youth transitioning from one gender to another, we found no examples in the public record of Jolly talking specifically about gender-affirming surgeries for kids. The Donalds’ campaign did not provide any in response to our inquiry.
“I do not know what further statement you need when he says it pretty plainly himself,” Donalds spokesperson Skylar Swanson said.
The clip of Jolly speaking about gender-affirming care comes from his September 2025 interview with “For St. Pete’s Sake,” a LGTBQ+ focused podcast hosted by members of Pinellas County’s Stonewall Democrats. In the interview, Jolly talked about a grandfather whom he said called Jolly a few years earlier about the man’s trans grandchild in high school.
Jolly said the man said his grandchild was experiencing suicidal thoughts and wondering whether they should leave home. “As a family we embraced it, we sought the right pathways, the medical pathways, the gender-affirming care, for this grandchild,” Jolly recounted that the man as saying.
Jolly said the call happened a few years ago, when state lawmakers were weighing SB 254, which criminalized providing gender-affirming medical care to minors, making it a third-degree felony. By Jolly’s account, the man told him the family’s doctor could be arrested for providing gender-affirming care for his grandchild and the parents could lose custody under the bill.
The bill became law in May 2023. In addition to criminal penalties for healthcare providers, the law grants courts emergency jurisdiction over child custody disputes in cases where a minor is receiving gender-affirming care.
What Jolly has said about gender-affirming care for minors
Gender-affirming care includes a range of approaches to support a person’s gender identity, including using a different name or the person’s preferred pronouns. According to medical best practices, gender-affirming treatments available to adolescents can include puberty blockers, hormone therapy and, in rare cases, surgeries for older teens. Medical intervention for minors requires parental consent.
When Politico asked Jolly in July for his position on “gender medicine for minors,” he responded: “I simply subscribe to the old-school Republican position that government should stay out of your life, out of your doctor’s office, and out of your bedroom. The last person you need sitting on the foot of your bed during hard family conversations is Byron Donalds.”
In August, Jolly told a crowd in The Villages that Donalds was stoking a culture war because “I believe that local communities should be able to celebrate their own and that government should stay out of your medical decisions.” His campaign labeled the clip, “My response to Byron Donalds.”
Our ruling
A Donalds PAC campaign ad said Jolly said that he supports “gender-changing surgeries on kids” and uses a clip of him speaking about gender-affirming care.
The clip was deceptively edited to make it look like Jolly was saying he “embraced” giving kids gender-affirming surgery. The full video shows Jolly was quoting another person, and he doesn’t mention surgery.
When asked by reporters about medical care for trans youth, Jolly said he supports families having the ability to make medical decisions with their doctor. Gender-affirming care can include using a different name or a person’s preferred pronouns, and treatments are typically available only to adolescents and adults. In rare cases, that can include surgeries for older teens with parental consent — not young children.
Dearborn, Michigan — Roughly 2,000 protesters and counterprotesters gathered Tuesday outside the Henry Ford Centennial Library as a Christian nationalist demonstration led by pardoned Jan. 6 rioter Jake Lang brought heightened tensions to the heavily Arab American community.
Lang organized what he called a “Christian Crusader March” and later addressed the Dearborn City Council, accusing Muslims of attempting to gain political and demographic control. Police in riot gear formed a line separating Lang’s supporters from counterprotesters as both sides traded chants and insults.
The council meeting was moved to the library because of safety concerns. Although several confrontations appeared close to becoming physical, much of the hostility remained verbal. Dearborn police had not immediately released information about arrests or injuries.
Lang organized the event with Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell, a Trump supporter who serves on Republican Senate nominee Mike Rogers’ Faith Coalition Leadership Team. Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s campaign called on Rogers to disavow the rally and Sewell’s participation.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Elissa Slotkin and Rep. Rashida Tlaib were among Democratic officials condemning the demonstration as anti-Muslim.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said fear surrounding the rally caused some businesses to remain closed. Resident Muhammad Al-Thibabawi said many participants ultimately saw Dearborn as “just a normal city” whose residents value their constitutional rights and America.
Poll after poll shows the same thing. The American people know that the current economic system is rigged
The media pundits have written article after article desperately trying to understand why progressive candidates, despite being heavily outspent, keep defeating establishment Democrats in primaries around the country. Well, the answer is not complicated.
Whether it is a corrupt campaign finance system, unprecedented income and wealth inequality, a broken and wildly expensive healthcare system, the enormous threats posed by AI or an immoral and destructive foreign policy, progressives are talking about the real issues facing working families. And they are providing real solutions. Establishment Democrats are not.
Klaire Rhodes was attacked by a brown bear in state park but spray helped her escape with ‘relatively minor injuries’
An Alaska marathon athlete used a repellant spray to fend off an attacking bear that officials say injured her while she ran on a popular trail recently – an encounter that she has since described as “a nightmare come to life”.
The particularly harrowing episode unfolded on 13 August, when a woman who later identified herself online as marathon winner Klaire Rhodes, 28, was running alone on the Wolverine Bowl trail in Chugach state park, officials with Alaska’s fish and game department said. A brown bear on the trail attacked and injured her, according to the agency.
What Happened: Citing reporting by ProPublica, eight Democratic U.S. senators have criticized the Trump administration’s demands to access the health data of millions of people as a condition of giving lifesaving aid to other countries. In a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the senators, including minority leader Chuck Schumer, said the U.S. demands were “unprecedented and at odds with U.S. policy concerning the data of American citizens.”
The inquiry into the administration’s approach to foreign health data referred to a ProPublica story published in June about agreements the U.S. struck with African countries — and the risks they posed to people there. Experts told ProPublica that the deals are vague and lack language used in most data-sharing agreements to adequately limit what information is collected and how it can be used. As a result, they said, there is an increased risk that individuals’ personal data could be exposed, misused or commercialized without their consent.
The senators — who include Tim Kaine of Virginia; Chris Van Hollen of Maryland; Brian Schatz of Hawaii; Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; Christopher Coons of Delaware; Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who led the effort — requested a briefing on the healthcare agreements’ data requirements. They also asked Rubio to respond in writing to a list of questions by the end of August.
What They Said: In the letter, which was sent last week, the senators expressed concern that the requirement to access foreign health data might reverberate beyond the countries where the aid agreements were struck and “set international precedents that ultimately harm Americans.” They noted that the demands for data appear to be at odds with the Trump administration’s National Cyber Strategy, which emphasizes the right to privacy for Americans and their data.
“These new demands set an alarming precedent that is seemingly contrary to the Administration’s longstanding support for the privacy of U.S. citizens’ data,” they wrote.
The senators also laid out the details of a data-sharing agreement between the U.S. and Uganda that were first reported by ProPublica. The deal demanded that Uganda provide the U.S. — and its contractors — with logins “or other secure access mechanisms” to directly enter the nation’s health data systems.
“While global health programs have historically included data sharing components,” the senators wrote, “they have never required direct access to privileged electronic systems for U.S. government representatives.”
The letter ends with more than a dozen questions for Rubio, including why the State Department has not made the health care agreements public, as federal law requires, and whether any of the data will be shared with “U.S.-based third parties for any commercial purpose, including to train any artificial intelligence models.”
The senators also asked what privacy rights foreign citizens will have over data that is transferred to the U.S. and how those rights will be enforced in the case of a data breach or another unethical use of their personal information.
Background: After the Trump administration dismantled the U.S. Agency for International Development and drastically reduced funding for international health work done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Congress required the executive branch to continue providing foreign aid. The State Department has since faced the challenge of finding new ways to get the funding to countries, ensure that it was being spent wisely and address potential pandemics. The task has been especially challenging because the administration cut ties with most of the international partners and fired staff the government had previously relied on to carry out this complex work.
In the past, PEPFAR, the U.S. program that provides aid for treating and preventing HIV around the world, built its own systems to handle anonymized data, separate from foreign government health records. In contrast, the Ugandan agreement provides the U.S. with direct access to the government’s own health data systems.
Through separate agreements, the U.S. has also arranged for countries to provide it with specimens of pathogens that could cause pandemics, along with related information.
The effort to establish these new aid arrangements was led by Brad Smith, an entrepreneur who founded three healthcare companies, one of which sold for a reported $2.7 billion. Before joining the State Department, Smith led the government efficiency panel that would become the Department of Government Efficiency and oversaw some $67 billion in cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. agreement with Uganda provides up to $1.7 billion in aid for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, among other diseases. As a condition, the deal calls for the sharing of aggregated data with all personally identifiable information removed and specifies that the information should be used for delivering and auditing healthcare services. But experts told ProPublica that it is possible to reverse-engineer data that has been anonymized.
The shift in the approach to health data is part of the America First Global Health Strategy, which is intended to make America “more prosperous” and “promote American health innovations.” Rubio explained in September that under this new strategy, aid will be given “in a way that directly benefits the American people and directly promotes our national interest.”
Why It Matters: Privacy experts say that, if health data is mishandled under the agreements, it could have serious consequences. Revealing healthcare histories, including whether someone has had an abortion, a mental health condition, substance-use treatment or a sexually transmitted disease can be devastating anywhere. In Africa, research has shown it can lead to discrimination and violence.
In the age of artificial intelligence, health data has become especially valuable. But the agreements reviewed by ProPublica provide no guarantee that Africans subject to them will have a say in how their data is used or whether they would receive any potential financial benefits.
Response: The State Department declined to answer specific questions about the senators’ letter, saying that it does not respond to questions about congressional correspondence. In a statement sent to ProPublica, a State Department spokesperson defended the data requirements in the health agreements.
“Neither the U.S. government nor any private American companies receive or review any personally identifiable information (PII) under these data sharing agreements,” the statement said, going on to note that the new deals “share only the same kinds of aggregated, de-identified data that has been shared and used for years in the fight against HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases. All data sharing is consistent with each country’s laws and approvals.” The spokesperson also said no country has been coerced to sign the agreements with the U.S.
(The Center Square) – U.S. Sen. Dan S. Sullivan and Mary Peltola advanced to November's general election for U.S. Senate in Alaska's crucial race to determine control of the upper chamber.
The Devotion of Suspect X, Keigo Higashino (2005) This is one of those books that stays with you long after you finish it. The hit from Japanese mystery writer Keigo Higashino, who died last month, puts a dark twist on a story about loyalty and the obligations that come with it. This was my first interaction with Higashino’s famous “Detective Galileo.” Think of a police procedural wrapped in a shroud of mathematical philosophy. This book is a dark gem. — Akela Lacy
Good People, Patmeena Sabit (2026) It’s easy to be lulled into thinking this propulsive, polyphonic novel is a true crime beach read: The book opens with a disclaimer about police refusing to weigh in on an open investigation, followed by short vignettes that serve as witness testimonies to an unfolding crime narrative. But it’s actually a beautiful picture of community, family tragedy, and the court of public opinion, and a wonderful reminder that, despite the current political climate, we should be proud to be a nation of immigrants. — Celine Piser
Questions 27 & 28, Karen Tei Yamashita(2026) It’s become almost cliché in this era of wanton imprisonment of immigrants to invoke the incessant relevance of the United States’ WWII concentration camps for Japanese Americans, but Karen Tei Yamashita brings hundreds of new lives to one of the country’s most infamous domestic crimes. She once thought “that about ‘the camps,’ we’d been there, done that,” she writes in a postscript to Questions 27 & 28, “but as those who continue to research and write about these events know very well, it’s never done.” The questions that make up the novel’s title were the last two in an infamous loyalty questionnaire administered to incarcerees: The first asked if they would enlist in the Army for the same United States of America that had incarcerated them; the second if they would swear undying allegiance to the U.S. and forsake any ties to Japan. Between those two questions, “There are eight possible answers,” Yamashita writes, some of which would get you sent to war, others that would deepen your incarceration. “But or if answers are useless … it doesn’t matter what you think or believe; only your answers to 27 and 28 matter.”
In a rigorous history lesson coated in a fun, twisty work of fiction, Yamashita sets out to capture the varied political leanings and personal narratives that might lie behind a single checkbox marked yes or no or left blank. The novel — and it is one, despite being stuffed with historical figures who really lived through the incarceration — is multi-formatted and polyvocal, making use of the kind of staggeringly varied structure that has become something like Yamashita’s signature. It’s broken into three “boxes,” as if in a historical archive, which Yamashita plumbs for precisely reproduced documents and imagined conversations about how they came to be. With stories spanning more than a century, it grapples with the role of Japanese imperialism in constructing racial identity, the place for violence in politics, what it means to be a citizen of a state — and whether one that would lock people up over race or nationality is worth having at all. — Maia Hibbett
The Vivisectors, Missouri Williams (2026) I read a lot of contemporary fiction and have the scars to prove it. And, candidly, I haven’t even finished Williams’s sophomore novel, which takes place in a lightly dystopian college town being consumed by enemies both plant and animal. Let that make this endorsement all the more ringing: It’s truly rare that I slow my reading of a novel because I want to take in each sentence fully, and that I want to immediately start re-reading before I’ve even closed the hardcover. Williams is a sly, darkly funny observer of our world and what she imagines as the next. Jump on board now, or risk being left behind on one of literature’s up-and-coming voices. — Katherine Krueger
The Full Catastrophe, David Carkeet (1990) We often say a string of words in a very specific order that intentionally has no meaning. Or spit out a different combination of them that has the opposite meaning of what is spoken. Why is it hard to say what we want to really say?
A lovelorn, laid-off linguist who gets enraged by empty expressions like “Have a good one” and “We’ve come full circle” finds a new job at the Pillow Agency, run by the rich, eccentric, incomprehensible Mr. Pillow, a believer of love. The linguist is to embed (“occupy”) with an assigned couple at their home, listen to their verbal interactions, and analyze whether this marriage can be saved, despite his own lack of experience in the field of commitment. This is somehow not the premise of a couple’s therapy reality TV show today; it’s much funnier and less self-conscious! Perhaps because it published in 1990? I thought it was headed in a surreal “Being John Malkovich” direction at the start, but The Full Catastrophe author, David Carkeet, takes a more difficult path and, with serious honesty, tackles the later-stage, post-honeymoon relationship troubles — excavated down to their true awkwardness — that come from miscommunication. Brutal things get said and heard! Because of that, I was surprised by how romantic (and hilarious) this book is. Pairs well with Ross McElwee’s 1986 film “Sherman’s March.” — Nara Shin
The Makioka Sisters, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1948) This quiet, deeply thoughtful novel follows several years in the lives of four sisters in a once-prominent upper-middle-class family in a suburb between Kobe and Osaka in the late 1930s. The slowly building characterization of each sister’s personality and how she moves through the world is one of the most artfully realistic portraits of family life I’ve ever read.
While mostly focused on the relationship between the sisters, the novel takes place in the shadow of the impending world war, and in scattered moments throughout the book Tanizaki sketches a compelling depiction of people who — despite being otherwise caring, empathetic, and worldly — are reflexively loyal to a government that is, at the time of narration, actively committing unspeakable crimes abroad.
For fans of: Thomas Mann, Colm Tóibín, Elena Ferrante. — Noah Hurowitz
The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson (2017) A great contrast from the Nolan movie, which simply regurgitates the male heroic stereotype — I think (I have not seen it). — David Bralow
Nonfiction
The Kentucky Cave Wars, David Randolph Kem (2014) Soliciting recommendations, our editor helpfully intoned that “It doesn’t have to be a nonfiction book about war!” So, naturally, this is a nonfiction book about war.
Beneath the gentle rolling hills of Kentucky are hundreds of both mapped and hitherto yet uncharted miles of labyrinthine subterranea which have wormed their way through hollowed limestone over queer aeons. Yet all is not sanguine in these netherworlds, the mirthful perusal of which has been rendered “quixotic” if one is attempting the maintenance of a fairly fairy tale vernacular (or “illegal,” if one is not) through the corrosive joint forces of State and Capital, which seep hideously into the ground, oozing from the words and deeds of those who have no business being alive.
And so, we have the Kentucky Cave Wars, wherein to stop people from killing one another over rival private cave enterprises, the government stepped in and closed off miles of caverns under the standard doublespeak veneer of ostensibly opening them up under the hollow promises of a cavernous national park. This is America, land of the free, where entry into cave systems now requires government permission.
The real losers of the cave wars weren’t manipulative businessmen, who were arguably already losers by simple clear cut reason of being businessmen in the first place; no, they were those of us who were imprisoned in the outer realm by the unbridled malignity that is the National Park Service, condemned to beg for entry into the Earth on which we live, and into which we die. — Nikita Mazurov
Things in Nature Merely Grow, Yiyun Li (2025) “Grieving mother’s resilience in the face of repeated tragedy” doesn’t feel quite right here. While I hesitate to call the word “resilience” trite, the way Yiyun Li narrates the process through which she navigates her two sons’ deaths makes me feel like the word does not encompass enough — that living through Terrible Things necessitates a kind of self-justification, but also doubt, denial, and optimism, that threatens the living and spurs it on. Things in nature do merely grow, and they’ll develop based on different external conditions. But their interiority, we’ll never know. — Fei Liu
Learn Faster, Perform Better: A Musician’s Guide to the Neuroscience of Practicing, Molly Gebrian (2024) Some really interesting discussion that is applicable to everything we do. — David Bralow
Double Eagle, Charles McCarry (1979) A chronicle of the first successful balloon journey across the Atlantic. Previous attempts claimed five lives. Written in 1970s magazine style with occasional odd asides about the crew’s marriages, it’s a fascinating tale of rich men determined to do the impossible for no particular reason. — Matt Sledge
A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs, Andrew Hickey(launched October 2018) Fair warning: Host Andrew Hickey is the kind of obsessive cataloguer of popular culture who never met a parenthetical — say, about the session drummer’s later production credits — that wasn’t worthy of explication. So while I can’t recommend this podcast for the kind of casual half-listening that the medium often invites, I can promise that your attention to detail will be well rewarded.
Over and over again, Hickey offers a helpful corrective to the various mythologies of early rock ’n’ roll, especially by later (mostly white) critics who have policed genre boundaries and exalted a narrow range of guitar gods and studio auteurs. From the beginning, he is careful to emphasize the communal and collaborative nature of musical production, drawing attention to figures who’ve been marginalized in other histories. Along the way, he smuggles in some fascinating lessons in social history, political economy, and even music theory. — Michael Sherrard
The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century, Amia Srinivasan (2021) It is incredibly well-written and easy to read. The book grapples with the realities of gender, class, race, and politics in really thought-provoking ways. — Jessica Washington
Days of Love and Rage: A Story of Ordinary People Forging a Revolution, Anand Gopal (2026) Defiance: A Memoir of Awakening, Rebellion, and Survival in Syria, Loubna Mrie (2024) The constant onslaught of news these days can make us forget that, just a decade and a half ago, the Middle East and North Africa were rocked by a series of uprisings and revolutions that changed the face of the region. Perhaps none was more consequential than Syria’s eventually successful revolution, and yet so few people have an in-depth understanding of the circumstances. If the old saw about being doomed to repeat history holds true, we would do well to educate ourselves, to better understand the pitfalls and potentials of our paths. That’s where two new books from Anand Gopal and Loubna Mrie come in.
Gopal’s Days of Love and Rage traces the story of the Syrian Civil War through the eyes of the mid-sized city of Manbij. A masterwork of literary reporting, Gopal’s hearty volume recounts the waves of political power that swept over the city — a revolutionary movement, a more neoliberal city council, the Free Syrian Army, the Islamic State group, and so on — with Gopal deftly reporting out intimate views of each, provided by those who fought for, against, or simply lived through them.
Loubna Mrie’s striking memoir about the war, Defiance, provides the one view Gopal doesn’t go deep on: Syria’s ruling Alawite sect. Neither does Mrie, however, provide a straight-ahead understanding of the regime that controlled the country for more than half a century. Instead, it provides a window into that world precisely by departing from it. Mrie’s family was firmly in the pro-regime fold, but her observations, empathy, and intellect quickly led her to become a revolutionary. What follows from there is a harrowing personal journey whose contours are best left to Mrie herself, who lets the reader so far into her travails and inner life that it feels almost intrusive to keep reading — but also makes it impossible to stop. — Ali Gharib
Here Where We Live Is Our Country, Molly Crabapple (2026) At this point it is perhaps redundant to recommend this extraordinary, beautifully written history of the Jewish Labor Bund, by friend-of-The-Intercept, Molly Crabapple. But for those who have yet to read it, I couldn’t recommend a book more highly. Molly offers us a gift: richly rendered revolutionary characters, rigorously researched history, and a corrective to Jewish historical narratives that treat Zionism as transhistorical and inevitable. Here’s to Molly! — Natasha Lennard
The Railway Journey: The Industrialization of Time and Space in the Nineteenth Century, Wolfgang Schivelbusch (1977) I first read German historian Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s The Railway Journey about 20 years after it was published. My mind wasn’t blown. It was blown up.
I suspect that almost 50 years after it was published, the book still packs a formidable punch. Every page seemed to be a revelation, drawing on myriad sources from 19th century philosophy, sociology, psychology, literature, physics, medicine, and, seemingly, everything else. The volume was slim, but it seemed to be packed with more startling information than any three great books. It wasn’t a history of train travel, it was an exploration of modernity and an explanation of how human perceptions of distance, time, space, speed, personal autonomy, psychological integrity, and physical trauma were shattered and remade by the advent of railway travel, creating a new “industrialized consciousness.”
Much of The Railway Journey now exists as a blur in my mind, much like the sheer speed of the train fundamentally changed how people experienced the landscape, forcing passengers to focus only on distant vistas and transforming what had been an immersive experience in nature to a series of (window-)framed, here and gone, two-dimensional images of a panoramic landscape. But for all that I’ve forgotten of the book, for every fact that has long since fled my mind, I have never looked at the world in the same way again.
“The notion that the railroad annihilated space and time was not related to that expansion of space that resulted from the incorporation of new spaces into the transport network,” Schivelbusch observed. “What was experienced as being annihilated was the traditional space-time continuum which characterized the old transport technology.” Travelers had, that is, experienced the physical space between cities as a “living entity” and had been embedded in that landscape before the train obliterated such “travel space.” Schivelbusch called on 19th-century poet and writer Heinrich Heine to explain the incredible disorientation experienced by early train travelers. Without The Railway Journey, I would probably have been ignorant of the existence of Heine (and so many other forgotten thinkers past). But I’d pick up a copy of the book for Heine’s commentary on the opening of railway lines from Paris to Rouen and Orléans in 1843, alone:
What changes must now occur, in our way of looking at things, in our notions! Even the elementary concepts of time and space have begun to vacillate. Space is killed by the railways, and we are left with time alone. … Now you can travel to Orléans in four and a half hours, and it takes no longer to get to Rouen. Just imagine what will happen when the lines to Belgium and Germany are completed and connected up with their railways! I feel as if the mountains and forests of all countries were advancing on Paris. Even now, I can smell the German linden trees; the North Sea’s breakers are rolling against my door.
Why Should Delaware Care? For years, policymakers have debated why Delaware public school students have consistently scored low on standardized tests. The state’s 2026 assessment and accountability results showed some growth for third through eighth grade English language arts and math proficiency rates.
Delaware’s public school students continue to struggle academically, but kids who attend schools with specialized literacy coaches have shown signs of improvement.
According to annual proficiency scores released by the state Tuesday, less than half of Delaware’s third through eighth graders read and do math at a proficient level. And just 18% of 11th graders were proficient in math.
The scores, taken from the 2026 statewide assessment and accountability results, reflect an average for Delaware’s public schools across all three counties. They are the first of multiple performance releases coming from the education department in the coming weeks, which includes multilingual learner progress.
The proficiency scores showed that the highest performing traditional school district in Delaware was Cape Henlopen. The lowest was the Capital School District. Among charters, the highest performing school was Newark Charter while the lowest was Positive Outcomes Charter School in Camden.
Delaware Secretary of Education Cindy Marten says the scores show the state’s students are not where they need to be. But she said there are bright spots.
Students who attend nine schools in Delaware that received state-supported literacy coaches last year showed increases in their English proficiency rates.
Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten.
Third graders at Johnson Elementary School in the Red Clay Consolidated School District and third graders at Las Americas ASPIRA Academy charter school saw their English proficiency increase by 12 percentage points.
The other schools with new literacy coaches saw more modest gains for their third graders, except for South Dover Elementary where reading proficiency dropped.
Marten said the results should not be seen as a “victory lap,” noting that the proficiency rates in these schools are still low.
But the gains for schools with literacy coaches are one of her “proof points.” The next step, she said, is to “scale and replicate” the literacy coach initiative into more schools.
“Lock it, load it, replicate it,” she said.
Overall, 42% of Delaware’s third through eighth graders scored proficiently in English on the state’s assessment, compared with 41% the year before. The same age group’s math proficiency crept up from 34% to 35%.
The report also included SAT results for 11th grade students, which showed that high school mathematics remains a concern for the state.
According to the report, Delaware’s SAT mathematics proficiency rate remained at 18% for the third consecutive year.
Earlier this year, Marten unveiled what she said was the Department of Education’s first strategic plan in over a decade.
According to the plan, the department’s funding would focus on four central pillars.
Those include expanding access to early childhood education; supporting student well-being and teacher retention; improving student achievement and test scores; and transitioning to a school funding formula that would send additional dollars to schools with large numbers of low-income students or English-language learners.
At the time, Marten also announced the Delaware Department of Education’s target goals for 53% proficiency in third grade English, and 35% proficiency in eighth grade math by 2028.
During a legislative budget committee hearing earlier this year, Sen. Dave Lawson (R-Marydel) said he has heard similar sentiments for the last 14 years as test scores have declined.
“So if [performance metrics] aren’t accomplished, what are going to be your actions? Are you still going to be secretary?” he asked.
In order to meet Marten’s goals, Delaware’s third grade students’ reading proficiency would have to jump 13 percentage points within two years. Eighth graders’ math scores would have to increase by 6 percentage points.
Marten told Spotlight Delaware that Delaware students can meet those goals within the next two years, but reiterated that what she wants to see is “sustained movement, not quick fixes.”
“Not, ‘They hired this consultant, or they bought this program, and they went up 15%,’” she said.
More accountability to come
In recent years, Delawareans across the political spectrum have grown increasingly frustrated with the state’s education spending, compared to students’ test scores.
Marten said the fact that the SAT math proficiency rate has remained at 18% for three consecutive years means the state must look at how students are faring in middle school algebra and other earlier coursework, which impacts students’ understanding of more complex math principles later.
She also said greater accountability is needed.
To do that, state education officials are working with school districts, charter schools, and other stakeholders to discuss how Delaware can strengthen its support and responses to low proficiency.
“We’ve got to create a clearer and a more differentiated support system for monitoring and accountability as a state,” Marten said.
Gov. Matt Meyer, who previously spent time as a middle school math teacher, has plans to reform the state’s education system. | PHOTO COURTESY OF MEYER CAMPAIGN
Her statements come just two months after Gov. Matt Meyer signed into law two bills that would lay the groundwork for Delaware to implement a new school funding system.
One of the bills, sponsored by State Sen. Laura Sturgeon (D-Brandywine Hundred), would enable the Delaware Department of Education to begin implementing the hybrid school funding model.
The hybrid model will shift education spending away from a per-student basis to one that directs more dollars toward students with higher need.
The bill also includes a provision to mandate that no school receive less money under the model than it would have under the previous funding model. It also allows for the hybrid model to be implemented during the 2028 fiscal year.
It is not immediately clear whether any financial accountability mechanism will be in place under the new funding model.
But, because the new formula offers tiers of support, there will be “real action” taken if a school continues to underperform “for so many numbers of days, weeks, months, years,” Marten said.
Marten did not specify what those actions may look like, but said the Delaware Department of Education’s responses to districts’ proficiency rates would be made available to the public.
“When you provide the support and the funding, which we’re doing, you’re going to move, and if you’re not moving, you get another treatment from the state,” she said.
Why Should Delaware Care? A boom in the construction of data centers to power the artificial intelligence industry has sparked a nationwide backlash over fears that the facilities’ electricity use could cause power bills to surge. In Delaware, the backlash has centered most recently around Kent County where residents have called for moratoriums and even outright bans on data centers.
About 100 people crammed into a Harrington Public Library meeting room on Monday for a city council meeting discussing the future of data centers in the Kent County municipality.
The crowd spilled into the hallway and out the back door, many wearing stickers that said “No data center.”
It was the largest showing at the small city’s council meeting in at least six years, Assistant City Manager Amanda Marlow said.
When attorney Max Walton asked the crowd who was against a proposed rule change that would allow data centers in the city, every resident in the room raised their hand.
“It’s really a shame that you guys would even consider a cute town like this to have a horrible data center,” Harrington resident Ardyn Overko said during the hour-long public comment period.
At issue during the council meeting was a measure to change the city’s zoning code to allow data centers in manufacturing areas. Developer Maguire Hayden requested the change so it could build a data center on the site of a former cold storage warehouse. The proposed facility would use 24 megawatts of energy — or about the same as 20,000 homes.
Ultimately, the council voted unanimously against the zoning change, prompting cheers and a standing ovation. Also eliciting support from the crowd was a call from Vice Mayor Darrin Simpson for a ban on data centers in the city, although the council did not discuss that measure further.
The council’s denial of the zoning change came after the developer behind the proposal offered the city of about 4,000 people contributions totaling $1 million, according to a summary of a proposed community benefits agreement.
The offer was particularly striking because historically in Delaware, governments have offered money to companies to attract them, rather than the other way around.
But, for the case in Harrington, the proposal came amid rising opposition to data centers across the county, which has made it more difficult for developers to find sites to build the sought-after facilities.
Following Harrington’s vote, the developer’s attorney, John Paradee, said the team does not have any additional plans for the site and may have to return it to the bank.
Proponents argue that the facilities, which are the backbone of the booming artificial intelligence industry, would bring construction jobs and tax revenue to places that desperately need it.
Harrington rejected a plan to change zoning for a property to allow for a data center. Pictured above is the Cloud HQ data center facility in Loudoun County, Virginia | SPOTLIGHT DELAWARE PHOTO BY OLIVIA MARBLE
Despite those arguments, when data center proposals come before elected bodies, local residents have made passionate pleas to officials to reject them. Many cite concerns about the impact they could have on electricity bills and the local environment.
“Just say no!” Harrington residents shouted repeatedly during the meeting.
Communities across the country have also opposed data center development, just as tech companies race to build the massive energy-hungry facilities needed to train and operate their artificial intelligence technologies.
Over the past year, the Delaware legislature passed several laws to try to ensure data centers do not raise energy bills. New Castle County Council also passed other regulations aimed at preventing environmental harm.
The flurry of regulations continued last month when Kent County Levy Court passed regulations similar to New Castle County’s.
In nearby Dover, city leaders also advanced a proposed moratorium on data centers earlier this month in order to writing updated zoning regulations to address the industry.
Why Should Delaware Care? Next month’s primary elections will decide the fate of more than half of Delaware’s statewide or statehouse races this cycle. Gov. Matt Meyer’s recent endorsement of two candidates seeking to unseat sitting senators has bucked historic precedent and opened new controversies within the state Democratic Party.
Gov. Matt Meyer’s endorsement of two Working Families Party-backed candidates looking to unseat Wilmington-area state senators in next month’s primary election has drawn the ire of a top Democratic leader.
The endorsements — of Adriana Bohm and Shay Frisby over Sens. Dan Cruce (D-Wilmington) and Ray Seigfried (D-North Brandywine), respectively — were part of a larger slate of 10 candidate backings the governor released Tuesday morning, and they drew swift criticism from Delaware’s top senator.
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Senate President Pro Tempore Dave Sokola (D-Newark) — who is not seeking reelection this year — said the endorsements amounted to political grudge-holding by the governor.
Sokola said Meyer’s endorsement of Frisby comes after he “failed in his 11th hour effort to run roughshod over State code and State Party rules to undermine the special election in Senate District 5.”
“As Democrats, we shouldn’t be trying to undo past elections that didn’t go our way,” he added.
Sokola’s comments harken back to the intra-party conflict among Delaware Democrats surrounding the 2025 special elections that first sent Seigfried and Cruce to the Senate.
“After County Executive Meyer hid the results of his botched reassessment from the public until he was elected Governor, he refused to sign legislation that largely cleaned up the mess,” Sokola said, referring to Senate Bill 228.
In an interview with Spotlight Delaware, a spokesperson for Gov. Meyer rebuffed Sokola’s statement, saying Meyer chose to endorse candidates who “align most closely with his values.”
“No one is entitled to his endorsements,” said Nick Merlino, Meyer’s deputy chief of staff.
Merlino also said Meyer chose candidates who are willing to buck “The Delaware Way,” a term often used to describe the go-along-to-get-along mentality of First State politics, and work against the grain.
Bohm and Frisby both expressed gratitude on Tuesday afternoon for receiving Meyer’s endorsement.
Adriana Bohm secured the endorsement of Gov. Matt Meyer Tuesday morning. | PHOTO COURTESY OF ADRIANA LEELA BOHM FOR STATE SENATE / FACEBOOKShay Frisby secured the endorsement of Gov. Matt Meyer Tuesday morning. | PHOTO COURTESY OF SHAY FRISBY FOR DELAWARE / FACEBOOK
Both candidates said they could not speculate on Meyer’s motives, but highlighted their respective advocacy and community-focused work they said stretches far beyond their current campaigns.
Along with Bohm and Frisby, Meyer also endorsed the following candidates on Tuesday, part of what his statement called his first slate of endorsements:
Kathy Jennings for Attorney General
Nisha Lodhavia for Senate District 15
Rep. Alonna Berry for Representative District 20
Rep. Krista Griffith for Representative District 12
Rep. Nnamdi Chukwuocha for Representative District 1
Rae Krantz for Representative District 6
Dave Redlawsk for Representative District 23
Kyle Grantham for New Castle County Council District 3
Meyer’s endorsements, motives aside, mark an unusual move for a sitting governor, as they have not historically endorsed candidates in statehouse races ahead of a primary election.
Special election drama turns into deja vu
Sokola’s grudge-holding claims date back to late 2024, and the campaigns to replace then-state Sens. Sarah McBride and Kyle Evans Gay.
After McBride and Gay were elected to higher office — the U.S. House of Representatives and office of Lieutenant Governor, respectively — in November 2024, two special elections were needed to fill their seats inside the Senate Chamber.
When a senate seat goes vacant in Delaware, the head of that legislative chamber must issue what state law calls a “writ of election” within 10 days. The law further directs the state to hold a special election between 30 and 35 days after the issuance of the writ of election.
The law also directs committees from the political parties of the relevant district to submit someone as their nominee. Due to the quick turnaround, state law does not call for a primary election. As a result, a small number of active political party insiders ultimately choose who could represent these districts for years.
Meyer criticized that system, arguing in a letter to Democratic Party leaders at the time that they should hold a primary prior to special election slated for February 2025.
Such a process “would require our candidates to organize, persuade, and get out the vote in order to earn the Democratic nomination,” he said in the letter.
Party leaders, however, said there was not enough time to amend the special election structure.
“We welcome a dialogue to evaluate the current official replacement process under the Delaware Code, the Delaware Democratic Party rules, and the laws of other subdivisions and municipalities,’’ then Delaware Democratic Party Chair Betsy Maron wrote in a response letter, first reported by WHYY. “At this time, however, we cannot support your proposal.”
Along with Meyer’s critiques, Spotlight Delaware also reported that a handful of political influencers coalesced around the establishment candidates, Cruce and Seigfried, and lobbied others to do the same.
Both men would go on to win the Democratic Party nomination, beating out the women they are once again facing in this election cycle.
Earlier this year, a bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers attempted to change how special elections are conducted in Delaware, but their efforts stalled in the House of Representatives.
That bill, House Bill 183, would have called for special elections to include primaries, moving the state away from its current process of political party leaders choosing candidates.
Karl Baker contributed to this report.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Rae Krantz’s name. We regret our error.
I have been considering getting this for some time. I recognize that it is quite rare to find one locally, with essentially no retailers carrying it here. Still, do you know any active Malaysian Onewheelers? I would also like to know how shipping to Malaysia works. I am aware that Malaysian law restricts riding it publicly, but I am simply curious. Quick Google search brings me nowhere.
Labour could lose dozens of seats to the Green party if the government allows new drilling in the North Sea, according to internal research shared with the Guardian.
Green party analysis suggests up to 50 Labour MPs, including Andy Burnham’s key ally Louise Haigh, could lose their seats at the next election if the government fails to make urgent climate action a priority or allows new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
The Guardian’s climate forum 2026: On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington and our panel of experts, including Prof Andy Haines, Katie White, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh, Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman, for a hopeful and solutions-focused evening. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
The Ebola outbreak in Congo has passed 5,000 cases, government data showed, an unprecedented rate of spread that's outpacing efforts to slow it in one of the country's remotest regions.
Beto Coral held up banners in Florida warning fellow Colombians to not vote for Abelardo de la Espriella
In the week before Colombia’s presidential election, Beto Coral, a well-known activist living in the United States, travelled to Florida to persuade fellow Colombians not to vote for the far-right candidate Abelardo de la Espriella.
Coral held banners outside polling stations in Miami warning that the millionaire lawyer, whose candidacy was endorsed by Donald Trump, would “help deport all of you”.
Human by day, vampire by night, Coen has difficult choices to make – beginning here in the 1300s, his adventure could span centuries in upcoming sequels
The Blood of Dawnwalker could be the start of an epic saga. Created by some of the talent behind The Witcher 3, this dark fantasy role-playing game takes place in the 14th century in the fictional land of Vale Sangora, a Carpathian valley of wetlands, mountains and forests cut off from the rest of the world and under the rule of a vicious vampire clan.
The developers envisage Dawnwalker as a trilogy. And because protagonist Coen is half vampire himself, that trilogy can skip across time, culminating in the modern day.
Speculation about US president’s executive assistant sparks furious backlash from White House
Wearing shoulder-length blonde hair, gold earrings and a red dress, cancer survivor Natalie Harp introduced herself to the 2020 Republican national convention as “a formerly forgotten American from California” and compared Donald Trump with George Bailey, the everyman hero played by James Stewart in the classic film It’s a Wonderful Life.
“George Bailey’s father was right,” smiled Harp, her voice echoing in the Andrew W Mellon auditorium in pandemic-hit Washington. “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away. Mr President, that makes you the richest man in the world.”
Baseball showman Bill Veeck’s most audacious stunt sent Eddie Gaedel to bat for the lowly St Louis Browns in 1951 – and created an unforgettable diamond spectacle
Bill Veeck had a track record for designing some of the most elaborate marketing promotions during his four stints as a Major League Baseball owner, including an exploding scoreboard in 1960. But his most outlandish publicity stunt was sending 3ft 7in inch pinch-hitter Eddie Gaedel to the plate at a game 75 years ago Wednesday.
Sporting uniform number 1/8, Gaedel was greeted with a standing ovation at Sportsman’s Park in St Louis as he came to bat in the second game of a doubleheader on 19 August 1951 for the St Louis Browns. A famous Associated Press photo shows Detroit Tigers catcher Bob Swift sitting on his knees with a ball in his glove, towering over Gaedel and his tiny strike zone. Not surprisingly, he walked on four pitches, and was immediately lifted for a pinch-runner.
Illustration by Shoshana Gordon/ProPublica. Source images: Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Francine D. Martin, Army National Guard photo by Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Nelson, Stuart Lutz/Gado/Getty Images, Jake Warga/Corbis via Getty Images, Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images, Getty, U.S. Treasury via Wikimedia Commons.
ProPublica is examining U.S. military budgeting, spending and contracting, and we’re asking for your help.
We’ve spent years talking to people who’ve worked in the defense industry, the Pentagon and the armed services, so we know that these topics are critically important.Every day, Pentagon contracting officers, defense industry workers, congressional staffers and others make decisions that affect the most expensive military in the world, with great consequences for the safety of soldiers and for the country at large. Yet it’s well documented that, even when those involved have good intentions,many Pentagon projects end up mired in delays, cost overruns and performance issues. The causes of these problems are often opaque to the taxpayers who foot the bill.
“There’s no way that you can follow the money, because it keeps getting twisted like a Rubik’s Cube,” said John Ferrari, a retired Army major general and now a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “None of it is set up to be transparent.”
ProPublica is setting out to untwist this Rubik’s Cube with the help of those who understand the issues best. These topics are especially relevant right now, with Congress considering the president’s proposal to increase the defense budget to a record $1.5 trillion next year. To help the public understand what’s really at stake here, we need to speak to experts in this world,which means anyone who knows how the Pentagon is spending taxpayer money and what defense contractors are doing with it.
We especially want to learn from those who can help us understand whether things are working as they should. In our first story in this series, we spoke to dozens of people who’ve worked for General Dynamics, the Army and the Pentagon. Many of them spoke to us because they felt that things they were seeing on the job weren’t good uses of taxpayer money or weren’t helping to keep the country safe.
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The sums are vast, but the explanations for the spending range from vague to inscrutable. Consider these items in the law that funded the Department of Defense this year:
For “Other Procurement, Air Force”: $32.6 billion. For “Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide”: $35.2 billion. And for “supplies and associated support services” related to U.S. Code Title 10 Section 3601 subsection(c)(3)(B) clauses (i) through (iv): a mere $650 million.
Determining what, exactly, all this public money is paying for requires cross-referencing thousands of pages of financial tables, accounting records and congressional committee documents that will leave all but the most determined budgeting sleuth at a loss. Yet this is how the U.S. government explains its funding decisions for the most expensive military in the world. And the cost is growing.
“There’s no way that you can follow the money, because it keeps getting twisted like a Rubik’s Cube,” said John Ferrari, a retired Army major general and now a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “None of it is set up to be transparent.”
ProPublica is setting out to untwist this Rubik’s Cube in a series of investigative articles, and we’re asking for your help. In the months to come, we will grapple with how President Donald Trump is spending taxpayer money at the Department of Defense (or the Department of War, as his administration calls it). With your assistance, we hope to emerge with vital, previously untold investigative stories.
While accounting is rarely the stuff of action thrillers, the black box that is the Pentagon budget contains a world of grandiose plans and staggering consequences, from extraordinarily expensive jets, ships and missiles, to high-stakes projects gone terribly awry, to closed-door dealmaking with the world’s most powerful arms sellers. (Consider our first story in this series, about the epic dysfunction of an artillery factory bankrolled by $533 million from the U.S. Army.)
The scale is hard to fathom. Congress appropriated $1 trillion for defense this year, more than the combined appropriations for agencies overseeing health, veterans affairs, education, housing, agriculture and justice — twice as much, in fact. If the president prevails in his priorities for next year’s budget, defense spending will soar dramatically higher still, to $1.5 trillion. That would be more, adjusted for inflation, than the country spent annually on defense during the height of World War II. The Pentagon’s balance sheets are opaque even to the Pentagon itself: The agency as a whole has never received a passing grade on a comprehensive financial audit. (The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.)
One thing is clear: Vast sums are funneled into developing costly weapons systems that often come in over budget, get delivered behind schedule or are rendered obsolete by the time they’re finished — if they’re finished at all.
These poor outcomes follow grand promises. The Zumwalt class of naval destroyers was lauded for its “affordable and flexible design.” A ground-control system for GPS satellites called Next Generation Operational Control System was billed the “best-value GPS control system for the future.” And the F-35 jet was promised as “a truly remarkable, capable and affordable multirole fighter” that would be built “on schedule and on cost.”
Each of these programs went years past their original delivery deadlines and cost far more than originally budgeted. In 1998, the price tag for Zumwalts was estimated at $1.5 billion per ship, according to the Government Accountability Office. Now the expected price exceeds $10 billion per ship (in part because the Navy reduced the quantity it ordered). Expected costs for the GPS control system increased from $4.5 billion to over $7.5 billion. And developing, producing and maintaining the F-35 is anticipated to require $2 trillion, making it the DOD’s most expensive weapon system in history, according to the GAO. (A Lockheed Martin spokesperson called the jet “a critical capability for the United States and our allies” and said the company “is proud to serve as its prime contractor.”)
Estimates include research and development costs. The Zumwalt increase was in part because the program was reduced from 32 ships to three. All numbers are in 2024 dollars.
After the delays and cost increases, these projects have not exactly delivered reliable marvels. Only three of the originally expected 32 Zumwalts have been built. The GPS system was canceled — after 16 years and $6.27 billion in program costs, including payments to defense contractor RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies). And F-35s are able to perform all of their missions only a quarter of the time.
Experts in defense spending cite many systemic causes for such outcomes, including the Pentagon’s frequent preference for complex designs, its habit of starting production before the design has been finalized and, not least, its dependency on companies operating virtual monopolies over niche defense products. There are few lasting consequences for contractors who fail to deliver, the experts said. “Industry just says, ‘Shucks, write us another check,’” said one defense congressional staffer, who requested anonymity to speak about internal defense spending deliberations. “Congress just throws cash at the problem.”
Other types of notable figures abound, like the $7 million that the Pentagon reportedly spent on lobster tail in one month last year, the thousands of pages of regulations that would-be Pentagon contractors must navigate, the 4,000% by which a company was found to be marking up products sold to the DOD and the $111 million that RTX fraudulently extracted from the Pentagon by misleading the agency, according to the Department of Justice. (In 2024, RTX admitted to engaging in two schemes to defraud the Pentagon, including for Patriot missile systems, and paid over $950 million to resolve federal investigations. RTX did not respond to a request for comment.)
Those in positions to reform U.S. military spending can benefit from the high-spending status quo. Former four-star generals, Pentagon officials and congressional staffers alike find a welcome reception in the industry they once oversaw. Defense spending bills present excellent opportunities for members of Congress to direct jobs to their districts. And the largest defense firms enjoyannualprofits in the billions of dollars.
This windfall ends up in the hands of a powerful few. From 2020 to 2024, just five companies — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, RTX and Northrop Grumman — received DOD contracts worth a combined $771 billion. (General Dynamics and Boeing declined to comment. Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin did not respond to requests for comment on the value of their DOD contracts.)
None of this is a secret. It was four decades ago, during another military buildup under a Republican president, that reports of the Pentagon paying $400 for a hammer led a presidential commission to study wasteful defense spending. It’s because this dynamic has been allowed to persist (despite periodic reform efforts) that ProPublica believes the topic deserves renewed attention.
The current administration, for its part, says that it is undertaking its own reforms, limiting stock buybacks by defense contractors, boosting new entrants to the defense industry and promising new financial accountability. Yet some fear Pentagon spending is becoming even more unrestrained in the second Trump era. Two of Trump’s marquee Pentagon programs, panned by some as boondoggles, are estimated to collectively cost more than $1 trillion. Companies connected to the president’s family and appointees have scooped up numerous DOD deals. The administration gutted the office that tests weapons systems for safety and efficacy. All in all, Lockheed Martin CEO Jim Taiclet told investors in April: “This is a golden opportunity right now based on who’s in government.”
Not everyone views U.S. military spending as excessive — some defense hawks have spent years clamoring for more of it. Measured as a percentage of gross domestic product, they note, U.S. defense spending has fallen from previous highs. A large chunk of the defense budget goes toward paying the salaries of service members. And even if they take longer and cost more than expected, American defense products are sought after the world over. “Weapons are expensive because our standards are high,” said longtime defense lobbyist Jim Dyer. “The outcomes are good.”
ProPublica is setting out to examine military spending and its outcomes. If you have worked in the world of defense budgeting, spending or contracting, we’d like to hear from you.
Many Pentagon projects face delays, budget increases and performance issues. The causes of these problems are often opaque to the taxpayers who foot the bill. Help point us to the most important stories.
Turn the Volume Up! at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University highlights the activism of everyday people who have confronted injustice. New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, quoting the Bronx rapper KRS-One’s song Turn The Volume Up during his election-day victory speech inspired the name of the exhibit. Featuring work by artists such as Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and the Guerrilla Girls, the show examines how protests and collective action can create and inspire social change
July’s increase in inflation, to 2.9%, is likely to be the first of several, underlining the challenge facing Andy Burnham in shielding consumers from a fresh cost of living squeeze this autumn.
Rising energy bills, as an increase in Ofgem’s quarterly price cap came into force, were the main driver of the jump in inflation, from 2.6% in June. That was partly offset by cheaper fuel prices – the knock-on effect of hostilities easing in the Middle East, after Donald Trump hailed his “memorandum of understanding” with Iran in June.
Virgin Australia has apologised to a disability advocate who said he was “humiliated” by his removal from a flight over his wheelchair motor.
The airline called Shane Hryhorec on Wednesday afternoon to offer an apology, two days after the Adelaide-based man published a viral video showing the incident onboard a flight from Sydney.
Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump has delayed a planned 50% tariff on roughly $20 billion in Canadian imports for three days after the United States and Canada reached a tentative agreement aimed at keeping broader trade negotiations alive.
The tariffs had been scheduled to take effect Aug. 19 and would have covered products including dairy, liquor, cement, honey and hockey sticks. Energy products, potash, fish and critical minerals were among the goods excluded from the tariff action.
Trump said the temporary pause would give negotiators time to complete documentation for the agreement. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had intensified talks with the administration as the deadline approached, while Canadian officials prepared possible retaliatory measures if the tariffs took effect.
The dispute has centered partly on automobiles, alcohol and dairy products, areas where Trump has repeatedly accused Canada of maintaining unfair barriers to U.S. exports. Business groups on both sides of the border have warned that prolonged tariff uncertainty could disrupt supply chains and raise costs for companies and consumers.
Canada sends roughly 72% of its exports to the United States, making the trade relationship especially important to its economy. The latest pause prevents an immediate escalation but does not resolve the broader disagreements between the two governments.
Negotiators now have three additional days to finalize the terms of the agreement.
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: Optical fibers are already the backbone of global communication systems. Recently, however, physicists have started to explore how their functionality could be boosted further by conveying information via entangled quantum particles -- potentially enabling instantaneous exchanges of information across vast distances. Such a system could eventually be the basis of a future 'quantum internet,' offering a level of security and computing power beyond anything possible today. In new research published in Physical Review Letters, a team led by Xi-Yu Luo at the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei has pushed that vision further than ever, entangling two quantum memories across 420 kilometers (261 miles) of optical fiber -- more than four times the previous record.
Tallahassee, Florida — State Rep. Angie Nixon scored one of Tuesday night’s biggest primary upsets, defeating former National Security Council official Alex Vindman for Florida’s Democratic U.S. Senate nomination despite being dramatically outspent.
Nixon, a progressive lawmaker and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won about 56% of the vote to Vindman’s 44%, according to election results. Vindman had raised roughly 16 times as much money as Nixon, making her victory particularly unexpected.
Vindman became nationally prominent after testifying during President Donald Trump’s first impeachment proceedings in 2019. Following Tuesday’s defeat, he congratulated Nixon and pledged to support her against Republican Sen. Ashley Moody in November.
Nixon has emphasized her labor activism and progressive economic policies while downplaying ideological labels. Although she belongs to the DSA, the national organization did not endorse her campaign. Her victory comes amid uneven results for democratic socialists: Rep. Jared Moskowitz easily defeated DSA-backed challenger Oliver Larkin elsewhere in Florida.
Nixon now faces a difficult general-election environment. Florida has shifted substantially toward Republicans in recent election cycles, and Moody, a former state attorney general appointed to Marco Rubio’s Senate seat, enters the race as the favorite.
The November winner will serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s Senate term.
Lee Jae Myung has long pushed for stronger homegrown defences, yet Donald Trump’s move has sparked alarm in some quarters
At their first summit, in August last year, the South Korean president, Lee Jae Myung, told Donald Trump: “If you, Mr President, become the peacemaker, then I will assist you as the pacemaker.”
The remark at the Oval Office captured the thrust of Lee’s approach to North Korea: dial down the military posturing and make repeated peace overtures to revive dialogue, even if they have been consistently rejected by Pyongyang largely over Seoul’s insistence on denuclearisation.
Food Foundation sounds alarm over supply risks and price shocks as about 40% of Britain’s food is imported
The UK is vulnerable to food price shocks because of its dependence on imports of fruit and vegetable from countries even more exposed to the climate crisis, researchers say.
The City of Newark is once again facing a budget shortfall, and officials warn that residents should expect to pay more in taxes and utilities next year.
Alpine communities hit out after influencer videos draw huge queues to Friedrich August refuge in Dolomites
Hundreds of people overwhelmed a mountain hut in the Italian Dolomites, not for the panoramic views but in search of a creamy pastry, reigniting the debate about social-media-driven tourism.
The visitors ventured en masse to the Friedrich August refuge – perched at 2,300 metres (7,500ft) above sea level, between Col Rodella and Passo Sella in Val di Fassa – some reportedly waking up at dawn or camping overnight, just to ensure they could buy a freshly baked krapfen, a traditional German pastry similar to a doughnut, before they ran out.
The steep levies, announced last month, were set to take effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Trump said the pause would last three days, subject to the finalization of the agreement.
US president delays 50% tariffs by three days, and says contentious oil project ‘may be awoken from the grave’
Canada has temporarily avoided a bruising 50% US tariff, reaching a Tuesday-evening agreement with Trump administration officials hours before a hike that would have affected $20bn worth of goods was set to take effect.
Donald Trump posted late on Tuesday on social media that he had paused the tariffs for three days “based on the fact that Canada and the USA, subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”
Milwaukee match major-league record dating to 1887
Yelich, Hamilton and Lara hit three-run home runs
Catcher Sánchez completes five-hitter with slowballs
The Milwaukee Brewers matched baseball’s modern-era record for the biggest shutout, beating the Seattle Mariners 22-0 on Tuesday night behind three-run homers from Christian Yelich, David Hamilton and Luis Lara and a two-run shot by Jake Bauers.
The major league-best Brewers (78-48) matched a franchise record for runs in a game.
GOP Sen. Ashley Moody and Democratic State Rep. Angie Nixon will face off in November after winning their primaries for U.S. Senate on Tuesday night, the Associated Press projects.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The release of a new album by Taylor Swift might be a cause for celebration among her fans, but such events have also been linked to a more sombre phenomenon: an increase in fatal car crashes. The team behind a new study say it sheds light on the impact of distracted driving. Writing in the journal Jama Network Open, [Vishal Patel, first author of the study based at Harvard Medical School] and colleagues report how they focused on the release of 10 major albums, launched between 2017 and 2022, selected for having the highest number of Spotify streams over a single day. [...] The team found streaming volume for the top 200 songs in the US was 43% higher on the date of major album releases compared with the days surrounding the releases -- although such data does not reveal whether the music was being streamed in a car.
[...] The researchers used data from a population-based registry of fatal US motor vehicle crashes to look at the number of traffic fatalities on the dates these albums were released, as well as for the 10 days either side. After taking into account the day of the week upon which the album was released, as well as federal holidays, and time of year, the researchers found the number of US traffic fatalities showed a relative increase of 15.1% on the date of major album releases, compared with similar days either side. "This is equivalent to approximately 182 fatalities in the US attributable to the release days of the 10 included albums," the team writes.
Patel said the release of a new album could distract drivers because accessing music is a search task, not a single button press. "You unlock the phone, open the app, find the release, read down a tracklist, tap the right song. That's several seconds of looking at a screen," he said, adding unfamiliar music also demands more attention, while research has suggested listening to new, high-energy music measurably degrades driving performance. The researchers add the rise in traffic fatalities was greater among certain groups -- such as younger drivers, male drivers, people who were driving alone, and people driving cars with a built-in infotainment platform. The authors say the results suggest that "online music streaming through smartphones may significantly contribute to distracted driving and traffic fatalities."
Saints’ Bell alert as he was driven from the field
At least six fights mar joint practice at training camp
Donovan Ezeiruaku ejected for throwing punches
New Orleans wide receiver Ronnie Bell was carted off the field because of the effects of Southern California heat after being involved in one of several fights during a chippy joint practice between the Saints and Dallas Cowboys on Tuesday.
“He just had to go inside for a little bit. He just got a little bit overheated,” New Orleans coach Kellen Moore said.
President Trump ordered the exercises be scaled back, citing what he said was a good relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea's refusal to join the U.S. war against Iran.
South Korea’s military has confirmed that joint military drills with the US will be cut short, days after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercises.
In a statement on Wednesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said at the request of the US side, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise – which began on Monday would end on Friday, six days earlier than originally planned.
Relatively new (under 100 miles) rider on a new GT. I was riding down a long, straight gradual downward-slope road with headphones on and I realized could not slow down. I kept my cool and just kept trying to lean my body back but it was so awkward as the board was leaning back but wasn’t slowing down. Holy shit that feeling was intense panic but I just kept breathing and hoping. I finally was able to slow down right before the end of the road and didn’t crash thank god. I got back after a shaky ride home and googled and found I was caught in a speed loop because I ignored the pushback noises and vibration and got into a condition where the board was at maximum speed and couldn’t respond to subtle feedback. I had switched a few days before to the “flow” profile maybe this contributed. I switched to highline. Any advice from those with a lot of experience if I ever make this blunder again?
Greenbelt, Maryland — A former senior adviser at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to conceal federal records connected to COVID-19 research and government grants.
David Morens, 78, admitted using a personal Gmail account and other methods to keep communications outside government systems and evade Freedom of Information Act requests. Prosecutors said the conduct began in 2020 as scrutiny intensified over coronavirus research grants and the origins of the pandemic.
Morens worked in NIAID’s Office of the Director and served under longtime agency director Dr. Anthony Fauci. According to prosecutors, Morens also shared nonpublic government information with associates while helping coordinate efforts related to an EcoHealth Alliance grant involving bat coronavirus research.
Court records cited by The Hill say Morens received bottles of wine from an associate while engaging in what he called “behind-the-scenes shenanigans.” His guilty plea covers conspiracy to commit offenses and defraud the United States. He faces up to five years in prison, with sentencing scheduled for Nov. 12.
Fauci has not been charged in the case and previously said Morens was not an adviser on policy matters. The case grew from investigations into government transparency and pandemic-era research funding.
This follows comments made on Friday at a speech at a police academy on Long Island, New York, where Trump said “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz strait a territory of the United States. … Essentially, that’s what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.”
PALO ALTO, Calif. and TOKYO, Aug. 18, 2026 — D-Wave Quantum Inc. and NTT DOCOMO, INC. today announced that DOCOMO has deployed a second D-Wave-powered quantum computing application in production. The new application reduced location registration signals generated when devices cross tracking area list (“TA-List”) boundaries by 65.3% at the daily peak while also reducing paging signals by 7.0%, lowering network signaling load and improving operational efficiency. TA-Lists group geographic areas within a mobile network and must be carefully optimized to reduce signaling load while maintaining network performance and connectivity.
The deployment expands DOCOMO’s production use of quantum computing to a broader network optimization challenge. While its first D-Wave-powered application reduced paging signals within tracking areas, the new application optimizes TA-Lists across multiple tracking areas, balancing location registration and paging signals that typically move in opposite directions.
The application reduced the daily peak volume of location registration signals by 65.3% and paging signals by 7.0%. In a representative problem spanning 333 base stations, three TA-Lists and nine tracking areas, it completed the optimization in approximately five minutes, with the results incorporated into DOCOMO’s network planning and day-to-day operations.
“DOCOMO is showing telecom operators around the world what production quantum adoption looks like: move beyond a single use case and apply the technology to distinct, increasingly complex operational challenges,” said Dr. Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave. “Telecom networks are highly complex, resource-constrained environments, and these results demonstrate how D-Wave’s annealing quantum computing technology can help operators improve network performance and efficiency today.”
“With our second production application powered by D-Wave’s hybrid quantum technology, we are applying quantum optimization to a broader and more complex area of network operations,” said Hiroshi Kawakami, Senior Manager of Data Platform Department, NTT DOCOMO, INC. “The application balances two competing network requirements, significantly reducing location registration signaling while also lowering paging signals. Together with our first production application, it demonstrates how quantum computing can help us address multiple aspects of network optimization and use our infrastructure more efficiently.”
About D-Wave Quantum Inc.
D-Wave is a leader in the development and delivery of quantum computing systems, software, and services. It is the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, and the first and only to offer dual-platform quantum computing products and services, spanning both annealing and gate-model quantum computing technologies. D-Wave’s mission is to help customers realize the value of quantum today through enterprise-grade systems available on-premises and via its Leap quantum cloud service, which offers 99.9% availability and uptime. More than 100 organizations across commercial, government and research sectors trust D-Wave to address complex computational challenges using quantum computing. Learn more about realizing the value of quantum computing today and how D-Wave is shaping the quantum-driven industrial and societal advancements of tomorrow: www.dwavequantum.com.
Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis.
Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor.
Ossoff, running for re-election in Georgia, intensifies White House feud after remarks about ‘Natalie’ drew ire of president and allies
The Democratic senator Jon Ossoff called Donald Trump a “draft-dodging, crook president” while defending the senator Mark Kelly as a hero during a Tuesday campaign appearance in Georgia, escalating his public feud with the US president.
“I don’t think anything illustrates the times more aptly than that the draft-dodging, crook president, who has plunged our nation recklessly into a war he knows not how to end or to win, tried to imprison this man, who embodies American heroism,” Ossoff said while appearing alongside Kelly and his wife, the former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
The AI boom has largely been powered by standardized hardware, including powerful GPUs, all-purpose CPUs, and as much HBM and DRAM as one can comfortably grab. But recent events–including AMD’s acquisition of Taalas, Etched’s $700 million fundraising round, and frontier AI labs developing their own chips–suggest that custom-built hardware could play a bigger role in AI’s future than initially thought.
There has always been a tradeoff between performance and flexibility in hardware design, and there likely always will be one. For instance, general-purpose CPUs can run all sorts of workloads, and do it somewhat efficiently. But if you want to run math- or graphics-heavy workloads in parallel, you’re better off with a more specialized chip, like a GPU.
Talaas HC1 demonstration chip plugs into the PCIe bus
Even within GPUs, chipmakers make decisions about the types of workloads they’ll run. AMD has decided that double-precision 64-bit computing is important for its HPC customers, so it’s loading its upcoming Instinct MI430X GPUs with loads of FP64 cores. Nvidia, on the other hand, foresees more demand for AI workloads that run with 4-bit to 32-bit precision, so that’s how it designed its latest data center-class GPU.
As the focus in AI moves from training to inference, it’s shaking up the chip design precepts again, forcing the big chipmakers to rethink their priors. It’s also driving the big AI labs and cloud companies to double-down on developing their own custom chips.
For instance, instead of delivering the DRAM-heavy Rubin CPX GPU, which it announced nearly one year ago as its flagship AI inference chip, Nvidia pivoted in December 2025 and spent $20 billion to acquire the assets of Groq, which developed a speedy chip, heavy with Static Random Access Memory (SRAM), called a language processing unit (LPU). At its March conference, Nvidia announced the Groq 3 LPU, which is optimized for extreme low-latency token generation, with rates in the thousands of tokens per seconds, while quietly removing the Rubin CPX from its roadmap.
Source: Talaas
AMD is now making a similar move with its planned acquisition of Taalas, which it announced two weeks ago. Like Groq, the Talaas ASIC was designed to do one thing: generate tokens as fast as possible. When it came out of stealth in February, Talaas touted a demo chip, the HC1, that could generate 16,000 tokens per second, nearly 10x faster than the next fastest chip on that particular AI model.
There was just one catch: HC1 only works on Meta’s Llama 3.1-8B model. The Toronto-based chipmaker had achieved that tremendous token generating figure by essentially hard wiring Llama 3.1-8B weights directly onto the silicon. This allows the chip to generate tokens at an astounding rate, but it eliminates nearly all programmability. It also forces Talaas to tweak its hardware to adapt to new or changing software, which slows its responsiveness to changing market forces. This reduced flexibility is the cost of gaining speed.
It’s not clear exactly what AMD has in mind for the Talaas’ chip. The deal–terms for which were not disclosed–has not closed. In any case, we do know that AMD plans to combine a Talaas ASIC with other chips, including its Epyc CPUs and Instinct GPUs into its new Helios rack, which it unveiled last month. Perhaps AMD will have an easier time incorporating Talaas into its ROCm software stack by utilizing the newly announced AI capabilities in ROCm.ai.
Meanwhile, the startup Etched is taking a similar approach to developing custom hardware. The company’s flagship Sohu chip is an ASIC that’s designed specifically to run transformer models. Sohu can run multiple transformer models, so it’s not restricted to running just Llama, like Talaas’s chip. But it also cannot run other types of AI models, including concurrent neural networks (CNNs), long short-term memory (LSTM) models, and recurrent neural networks (RNN). (Anybody remember those?)
By specializing the hardware to a certain workload and stripping out all the extraneous stuff, Etched is able to reap huge performance gains out of the ASIC. The company claimed that its Sohu chip could generate 500,000 tokens per second on Llama 70B, which it says is 20x the throughput of an eight-GPU H100 system.
Etched Sohu ASIC (Image source: Etched)
“We co-design chips, racks, software, and manufacturing methods so frontier models can run with best-in-class throughput, latency cost, and power efficiency for both prefill and decode workloads,” the company claims.
Today, Etched announced it has raised $700 million at a $21 billion valuation. The round was led by Jane Street with participation from other investors. In addition to being an investor, Jane Street is also a customer, and is running an Etched cluster in production. All told, Etched said it has $1 billion in orders across public and private frontier AI companies and clouds.
Etched also announced that it’s looking to innovate further up the stack. The company has developed what it dubs Low Voltage Inference (LVI), which boosts the overall efficiency and density of a cluster by throttling down the math cores during AI inference. It also touts Cluster Scale Memory (CSM), which is “a hybrid memory subsystem that creates a massive shared memory pool across an entire cluster rather than a single chip.”
“Our inference systems are built to push the entire pareto curve on frontier models, including many-trillion-parameter MoEs, long context, and agentic workloads,” the company says on its website. “This required intense co-design, from new chips, packages, PCBs, cold plates, interconnects, and more.”
To be sure, there are technical challenges up and down the AI stack that have yet to be solved. For instance, we’re still waiting for Nvidia to start shipping the BlueField4 DPUs, which are the last and critical components for its CMX architecture that it hopes will address the KV cache bottleneck. You can have the fastest processors in the world, but they’re useless if you can’t move data in and out of them.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (left) and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan displaying the Jalapeno wafer
Meanwhile, the leading AI labs are also looking to get into the custom-processor game. First we had OpenAI announcing the first custom-built AI inference processor. Dubbed the Jalapeno, the chip was co-developed by OpenAI and Broadcom, with help from Celestica. The company promises to provide performance details in the months to come.
Not to be outdone, Anthropic is also looking to make a move with custom chips. The company reportedly is in discussions with Samsung to take advantage of its advanced 2nm fabrication nodes and packaging technology to develop custom chips for AI training. While the Claude maker will still continue to rely on chips from Nvidia, Google, and Amazon, it also sees a future in custom hardware.
All three cloud giants have their own custom hardware too, Google Cloud with its TPU, Amazon Web Services with Trainium, and Microsoft Cloud with Maia. When you’re running a certain fraction of the world’s computational workload, the economies of scale work in your favor to develop a chip that meets your exact needs, as the cloud giants have done.
As the AI boom plays out and companies demand to see returns on AI investments, squeezing as much performance from hardware will become even more important. The two stages of the AI inference workload, prefill and decode, are unique enough from other AI and HPC workloads that the costs of not only developing custom silicon–but also the cost of eliminating the flexibility to do anything else with it–are such that it makes financial sense to do so.
Police report shows Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at Greenville, South Carolina, residence
Hayden Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, were at the South Carolina apartment where the actor died over the weekend, according to a police report released on Tuesday.
A Greenville police officer who responded to the residence on Sunday afternoon was met by the brothers and then observed paramedics performing CPR on an unresponsive woman, the report states.
More than 40 charities write to Pat McFadden and review head Alan Milburn over fears of stricter eligibility rules
More than 40 of the UK’s leading charities have warned ministers against imposing tougher benefit sanctions or cuts on disabled young people, as the government considers how to encourage more young people into work.
The charities raised concerns that an imminent review of young people and work by Alan Milburn could bring in stricter eligibility rules for keeping disability benefits – or remove them altogether – as part of a wider plan to boost flagging youth job rates.
Cursor has launched Origin, a GitHub-style code hosting platform built directly into its AI coding environment. The company is initially positioning Origin as a low-risk layer on top of GitHub, keeping GitHub as the "source of truth," but the launch landed just as a major GitHub outage highlighted growing concerns about reliability in the age of AI-generated code. VentureBeat reports: Cursor began rolling out Origin, its own code hosting platform, to paid users on Monday morning. Roughly three and a half hours later, GitHub's status page lit up with what became a six-hour-and-forty-two-minute global degradation -- error rates near 20% across pull requests, issues and the API, and near 50% on archive and raw file downloads, according to GitHub's incident log. Enterprise single sign-on went down with it: SAML, OIDC, SCIM provisioning and Team Sync all failed. So did Copilot.
The developer internet did what the developer internet does. "You can now host your repos in Cursor Origin and deploy to Vercel via Cursor Origin which is itself hosted on Vercel," Vercel chief executive Guillermo Rauch posted on X. "And unlike GitHub, it's online [smile emoji]" Asked why he was smiling, Rauch replied: "trying to make light of the situation. We ourselves are stuck because of github rn!" Matt Palmer, who works at Cursor, quote-tweeted his own company's launch with the day's best line: "We were going to ship this earlier, but GitHub was down." A GitHub outage, in other words, delayed the launch of a GitHub competitor.
Product launches get locked weeks in advance, and no evidence suggests Cursor timed this one. But the coincidence did the company an enormous favor, because it dramatized the argument Origin exists to make. For eighteen years, choosing where to host your team's source code has been the least interesting decision an engineering organization makes. Cursor is betting that AI agents have made it interesting again -- and for technical decision makers, that is the real news here. Not a new product, but a new procurement question with a governance problem attached.
US supreme court declined to halt execution of William Frances Silvia, and state has two executions next month
A Florida man convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and wounding his mother-in-law was executed on Tuesday, continuing the state’s aggressiveuseof the death penalty in the final term of the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.
William Frances Silvia, 61, was pronounced dead at 6.11pm after receiving a three-drug injection at the Florida state prison near Starke.
Researchers find capacity stunted by pollution was restored after introduction of ultra-low emission zone
Children’s lungs grew bigger and stronger after the most polluting vehicles were restricted from entering London, a study has found.
Examinations of London schoolchildren before and after the introduction of the city’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) found a restoration of lung capacity that had been stunted by exposure to pollution.
If you put your front foot at the very front and your rear foot as close as you can to the tire push back doesn’t turn on and you can send it but you’re playing with fire we do(already crashed myself multiple times lol all I did is bad road rash) lol
Mykhailo Fedorov’s appeal is most direct challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since Russian invasion in 2022
Ukraine’s recently dismissed former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for a wartime presidential election in the most direct political challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
The politician, whose abrupt sacking last month triggered a wave of protests, said that Ukraine had to “restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war” in a video address released online late on Tuesday evening.
(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump's 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian goods, including cars, dairy and alcohol, take effect Wednesday, and the U.S. importers who pay them still have no federal estimate of what the levies will…
National Trust for Historic Preservation filing comes after president made emergency bid for construction to continue
A historic preservation group that sued to block construction of Donald Trump’s White House ballroom urged the US supreme court on Tuesday to suspend the project while it considers whether the work can continue.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation filed its request less than a week after the Trump administration asked the nation’s highest court to allow the White House to continue construction on its $400m ballroom project during the appeals process.
Advice and guidance services for doctors in England found to be creating risk of missed or late detection of illness
Cancer diagnoses have been missed or delayed because of a system designed for GPs to seek specialist advice before referring patients to hospital, according to an investigation.
The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) identified patient risks linked to how advice and guidance (A+G) services have been implemented across England.
Comcast is activating Wi-Fi motion sensing on millions of compatible Xfinity gateways, allowing the routers to detect movement by measuring disruptions in signals between the gateway and connected devices. The free feature, part of Xfinity Shield, can send activity alerts through the Xfinity app and offers Home, Away, and nighttime monitoring modes without requiring separate motion sensors. The Verge reports: Wi-Fi motion sensing is a technology that has been around for a while, but it's only recently that it's become accurate and reliable enough to catch on. Linksys launched a similar service in 2021, but discontinued it a few years later. Lighting company Wiz launched a line of Wi-Fi-sensing smart bulbs in 2023, and more recently Philips Hue deployed a similar radio-frequency sensing technology in its products (using Zigbee rather than Wi-Fi). Comcast's motion sensing pairs with new modes in the Xfinity app -- Home Watch, Away Watch, and Dark Watch (a night/sleep mode) -- allowing you to turn sensing on or off based on your activities.
(The Center Square) – After months of not commenting on federal border wall and barrier construction in the Big Bend region of Texas, including barrier construction underway in Big Bend National Park, Gov. Greg Abbott broke his silence on Monday.
(The Center Square) – The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will implement several new diagnosis codes that medical watchdog Do No Harm says are important for supporting those who underwent transgender procedures and later detransitioned.
Following an executive order that called for breaking up the combination measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that a “recent” study “just came out” that “very strongly supports” the idea. But there’s no evidence of any such credible study, past or present.
In a CNN interview that aired on Aug. 15, Kennedy defended President Donald Trump’s Aug. 10 executive order on childhood vaccines, which among other things, asked officials to begin pursuing a way to offer single-disease shots. Those vaccines have not been available in the U.S. for nearly two decades. The combination MMR vaccine has been in use for more than 40 years.
The order did not present a scientific reason to split up the shot, but while signing the document, Trump falsely claimed that in contrast to single vaccines, the combination shot is “quite lethal” and that breaking it up “will have a huge impact on autism.”
The president doubled down the next day, claiming that given separately, the MMR is “fine,” but when combined, the vaccine is “sort of like a nuclear weapon, according to some.”
In the CNN interview, after the host noted that the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website says there is no evidence showing a benefit to separating out the MMR vaccine, he asked Kennedy who was right — Trump or the CDC.
Kennedy replied that the CDC website “probably is outdated.”
“There is a recent study that just came out that supports President Trump on that,” he continued. “It looks at the timeline for when the autism epidemic began and … it’s a synthesis of — essentially a meta review — of all the existing science. And it very strongly supports the president.”
Later, Kennedy again suggested that new evidence had emerged, saying that “particularly in light of recent science,” he thought people “should have that option if they want to go with a single antigen vaccine.”
Throughout the interview, he emphasized that while he thought the MMR was effective in preventing measles, he did not think there was enough evidence on its safety, including on whether the shot causes autism. The MMR vaccine has been rigorously studied and no credible link to autism has been found.
We searched PubMed, the National Library of Medicine’s online database of the biomedical literature, but did not find any new study suggesting that the MMR vaccine needed to be split up. Experts, too, said they were not aware of one.
“There are no data to suggest that the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine, if divided into its three component parts, will make the vaccine safer,” Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told us.
“Quite the opposite,” he added. “It will mean that children will get six shots instead of two. It means that there will be a delay in when they receive these shots, which will only increase the period of time during which children are susceptible to these diseases with no benefit.” (The MMR is typically given in two doses at 12 to 15 months and 4 to 6 years.)
“Since the current combined MMR vaccine is safe, it does not make sense” to split it up, Dr. Andrew Pollard, an immunologist and director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, told us.
“There is no safety problem that is trying to be fixed by separating MMR and doing so would take a tremendous amount of time and effort” since those shots aren’t currently licensed, Daniel Salmon, a vaccinologist and director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, told us. “This is a solution in search of a problem.”
HHS did not respond to our inquiry asking what study Kennedy was citing or whether the CDC website would be revised.
Contrary to Kennedy’s claim, in our search, one recent study, published on July 28 in the Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, supported the safety of the combined shot. Consistent with many previous studies, it analyzed electronic medical records from more than 2.5 million American children and found no association between the MMR vaccine and autism.
Similarly, we also identified a review published last month that compared the vaccination policies for mumps in the U.S. and Japan. It noted the shortcomings of the Asian country’s approach. In the CNN interview, Kennedy briefly mentioned Japan, saying the country has “a single vaccine … and it works for that population.”
As we’ve noted before, and as Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease specialist at Stanford Medicine explained in the same CNN segment, Japan did discontinue its combination MMR vaccine in 1993 after a rare side effect was observed with that vaccine’s mumps component, which was never used in U.S. vaccines. Autism rates did not decline after Japan stopped using the MMR shot.
Today, however, Japan doesn’t split out all of the components. Instead, there is a combination measles and rubella vaccine, along with an optional mumps standalone vaccine. And the country may be moving back to a fully combined vaccine. In May, Japan licensed a new combination MMR vaccine with a mumps component similar to the one used in the U.S. and much of the rest of the world.
According to the recent review, Japan’s policy has not been very successful in controlling mumps, in contrast to the U.S., which still has some outbreaks but is not plagued by the same large-scale issues.
“Low vaccination coverage has led to a lack of herd immunity and recurrent epidemics, and ‘mumps deafness’ is an unresolved public health concern,” the review states. Mumps is usually mild, but the disease can cause complications, including brain or testicle inflammation. Deafness, usually in a single ear, might occur in as many as 1 in 1,000 cases, according to a study in Japan.
Years of relying on separate shots has also likely contributed to low vaccination rates for measles. A massive measles outbreak in 2001 infected more than 250,000 children, and Japan was for many years a major source of imported measles cases in the U.S.Scott, who wrote about this concern in October 2025 when health officials first broached the idea of separating out the MMR, said then that Japan “provides a cautionary tale.”
A ‘Junk’ Autism Review
We did identify a paper that Kennedy might have been thinking of, but it is not new evidence, nor is it published in a reputable journal.
“It’s junk and would never be published in a legitimate medical journal,” Salmon told us.
The paper, which purports to be a review on the “determinants” of autism, is from May 2026 and roughly matches Kennedy’s description of a study looking at a “timeline.” It was mentioned in a Children’s Health Defense news story about Trump’s executive order. Children’s Health Defense is the nonprofit that Kennedy used to lead and that has long been a source of inaccurate vaccine information.
Citing Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician who fraudulently proposed the MMR vaccine might cause autism in 1998 and first suggested the vaccine be split up, the CHD story described the paper as a “comprehensive review” that “identified vaccination as the leading ‘modifiable risk factor’ for the condition.”
Wakefield is in fact one of the authors of the paper, as are several otherindividuals, such as Peter McCullough, whom we andothers have fact-checked before for sharing inaccurate medical information.
The paper appears in an outlet called the Journal of Independent Medicine, which is not indexed on PubMed — a very basic indicator of at least some reliability — and is published by a group that has promotedunproventreatments for COVID-19.
“This is a narrative review of previous studies,” Anders Hviid, head of the epidemiology research department at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, who has studied the MMR vaccine in large studies in his home country, told us. There is a short section titled “Compound Vaccination,” he said, “but there is no evidence there to suggest breaking up the vaccine would be beneficial.”
“There is no credible study which links MMR vaccine to autism and a very large body of data which finds no association between vaccination and autism,” Pollard said.
If there were a legitimate new study showing a problem with the combined MMR vaccine, which has been used for decades and given globally to more than a billion people, it would almost certainly be major news. Offit said in that case, scientists would act upon that information.
“Historically, when vaccines have been shown to be harmful, we do act on it,” he said. “We care about vaccine safety deeply — deeply. And that’s why we are very responsive to studies that are well done, well controlled, and published in reputable journals and reproduced by others.”
“That’s not this,” he said, of Kennedy’s claim. “This is just a sort of vague handwaving reference to a study that doesn’t exist.”
Splitting the Vaccine Could Lower Vaccination Rates
Multiple experts told us that splitting up the MMR vaccine was not necessary and was unlikely to happen — but if it did, it would not lead to greater vaccine uptake, as Kennedy suggested.
Kennedy said in the CNN interview that if single-disease shots were available, “maybe then more people are going to end up taking the vaccine because they don’t want to take all three.”
While that’s possible in some cases, vaccine experts told us it’s likely that more people overall would miss one or more shots or be left unprotected for longer periods of time.
“I think splitting up MMR will lead to lower uptake,” Hviid said, noting the burden of six appointments rather than two. “Some of these will be postponed or missed completely. I am speaking as a parent myself here.”
He cited a 2017 study that found that kids in the U.S. who get combination shots when they are available were more likely to complete their vaccination schedule and to do so on time. Scott, the Stanford doctor who fact-checked Kennedy’s claims for CNN, also pointed to this study.
“Delaying vaccines or separating doses unnecessarily does not make vaccination safer and can leave children unprotected,” the World Health Organization said in a statement two days after Trump signed the executive order.
When “vaccines are split and more doses or visits are needed,” Pollard said, “the result is that doses are missed and protection in the population drops. This is very dangerous in the cases of these viruses, not least with outbreaks of measles already [o]ngoing,” he said in an email. “[T]he last thing we need for the health of our children is to have more doses missed.”
Kate Yandell contributed reporting to this story.
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(The Center Square) – As the national debt quickly approaches $40 trillion, economists warn that skyrocketing deficits will distinctly impact Americans of all generations, including students, families and retirees.
Disney and ABC are suing the FCC to block an early review of eight station licenses, arguing the Trump administration is using the agency's regulatory power to punish the network over programming and editorial decisions it dislikes. Reuters reports: In a lawsuit (PDF) filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, Disney said the FCC was seeking to coerce and retaliate against "a network that refuses to bow to the administration's demands," calling the agency's actions an "extraordinary assault on free speech."
Trump has waged an aggressive series of attacks on the news media and the latest move follows a two-year-long battle between Trump and Disney. Last month, Trump again called for ABC stations to lose their licenses because the network refused to air a prime-time speech on elections. The court case will pose a key test of the free speech rights of media outlets. Disney and ABC asked the court (PDF) to quickly issue a temporary restraining order halting the license renewal proceedings and preventing the FCC from scheduling a hearing. The company said the public comment period ended earlier this month and the FCC could act at any time.
The lawsuit alleges that the administration is violating the company's First Amendment free speech rights, saying that the FCC "is using its regulatory power to retaliate against (Disney and ABC) for programming and editorial decisions the administration dislikes." The FCC said the move stemmed from a year-long investigation into whether Disney's diversity policies amounted to unlawful discrimination, an allegation the company denies. U.S. District Judge Loren AliKhan issued an order on Tuesday directing the company and the FCC to propose a schedule for considering the request for a temporary restraining order and told the agency to notify her if it moves to start the process of revoking the ABC licenses.
Larry Montes, already facing state charges, allegedly attacked 63-year-old woman and security guard on Friday
The man accused of attacking a woman and security guard at a New York City synagogue during Shabbat services Friday has been charged with hate crimes in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors said.
Larry Montes, who is already facing state-level hate crime charges, allegedly struck a 63-year-old woman as security was trying to boot him from Central synagogue. He allegedly spat at, and head-butted, a security team member and damaged synagogue property, authorities said.
Almost 45m acres of national forests could be potentially opened to road construction, drilling and logging
The Trump administration said on Tuesday it plans to rescind the “roadless rule” that has protected old-growth forests in the US for 25 years, potentially opening up almost 45m acres of national forests to road construction, drilling and logging.
Conservationists had feared the announcement was coming since last summer after Brooke Rollins, Trump’s secretary of agriculture, targeted a rule brought in by Bill Clinton’s administration, describing it as “overly restrictive” and an “absurd obstacle” to development.
Washington, D.C. — The Trump administration is moving to eliminate a 25-year-old federal rule that limits road construction, logging and other development across millions of acres of national forest land.
The U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday formally proposed rescinding the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Agriculture Department says the change would return more authority to local forest managers, who could approve projects aimed at reducing overgrowth, insect damage and wildfire hazards.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the current rule has prevented managers from taking steps needed to improve forest health. The administration argues that removing the restrictions would make it easier to thin forests and respond to dangerous conditions.
Environmental groups strongly dispute that reasoning. The Natural Resources Defense Council says the rollback could expose roughly 45 million acres to new roads and development, threatening wildlife habitat, drinking-water sources and recreation areas. Research cited by conservation groups has found wildfires are more likely to start near roads than in roadless forests because of increased human activity.
The Roadless Rule covers about 30% of National Forest System lands, although state-specific protections in Colorado and Idaho reduce the acreage directly affected by the federal change.
The Forest Service is accepting public comments on the proposal through September 21.
RAM prices have exploded over the past year, with some DDR5 kits approaching 500% year-over-year increases and a 128GB kit now selling for $3,399, which is more than 10 times its previous low. Tom's Hardware reports: Things improve as you step down the memory capacities and speed tiers, but not as much as we'd like. You're still looking at $392 for a memory kit that was just $72 last year. To reinforce the point, I pulled the latest average price data from PCPartPicker, comparing where we are today (August 2026) to exactly one year ago. This data is somewhat approximate, but it should be broadly accurate. [...] A standard 64GB (2x32GB) DDR5-5600 kit that would have cost you under $200 last summer is now demanding over $1,100. It is a 5x multiplier on a component that used to be a fairly boring and predictable line item in a PC build budget.
If you plan to just wait it out on an older AM4 or LGA1700 motherboard with DDR4, you'd better hope your memory holds out too, because DDR4 isn't safe from the fallout. With DDR5 entirely out of reach for most builders, the resulting scramble for older platforms running DDR4 memory has created a massive knock-on effect, and as a result, DDR4 kits are up anywhere from 120% to nearly 180% across the board. Nowhere near as bad as DDR5 pricing, but it still stings when a kit that was $105 last year is $281 this year.
This phenomenon is by no means exclusive to the US, either. German tech site ComputerBase have also been tracking this global trend, reporting just this week that average RAM prices in Europe have skyrocketed by 345% compared to September 2025. Their data shows the squeeze is bleeding into other components too, with hard drive and SSD prices both climbing over 125% in that same timeframe. In fact, the situation is so severe that hyperscale buyers have reportedly already locked in almost all of the global DRAM production capacity for 2027, handing over advance deposits to guarantee their supply of precious DRAM, which is now among the highest-value commodities in the world by weight; mainstream DRAM chips are worth over half as much per kilogram as solid gold.
Harvard, Yale, Stanford and others face directive to review and cut alliances Pentagon deems national security risk
Thirty US universities could lose federal funding unless they review and cut foreign academic partnerships the Pentagon considers a national security risk within the next two weeks, under a Pentagon directive aimed largely at ties to Chinese institutions.
Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown and Cornell are among the institutions ordered to conduct and report the reviews – and end partnerships deemed problematic – by 31 August, according to a US official who provided the full list to the Guardian.
The Trump admin. pressured attorneys to investigate allegations of antisemitism at elite universities even though there was no factual or legal basis to do so, former DOJ lawyer says.
(The Center Square) – Seventeen Iranian men have been charged in a cybercrime case being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: Your iPhone, SamsungGalaxy, andGoogle Pixel have a 1-year warranty. Unless you cough up extra dough for an extended service plan, you'll pay a hefty fee if you damage the screen and need a replacement (around $329 for an iPhone 17 done directly from Apple). But it doesn't have to be this way. What if you could order the part from the manufacturer and do the repair yourself? That dream is finally being realized for American consumers, thanks to Fairphone.
The Dutch company is bringing its repairable and sustainably built Android smartphone -- the Fairphone (Gen 6+) -- to the US. Each one comes with a screwdriver. A replacement screen from Fairphone costs just $90. A new USB-C port is $20. A fresh battery is $40. In all, there are 12 modular elements you can swap yourself. It remains the only smartphone series with a 10/10 repairability scorefrom iFixit, not to mention an unmatched 5-year warranty and software updates through 2033.
The new Fairphone (Gen 6+) is a small upgrade over the Gen 6 that the company launched last year. It has a newer Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 processor and double the RAM at 12 GB, but is otherwise largely the same device (hence the "plus" in the name). It now comes in Cobalt Blue, a nod to the miners who extract the cobalt used to make phone batteries, and the company's efforts to improve working conditions in mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The new Fairphone is available on Amazon and at Fairphone.com for $650, and it's officially certified to work on T-Mobile and AT&T's networks. While this will mark the U.S. debut of its flagship smartphone, the company first entered the stateside market last year with its repairable earbuds and headphones. It also plans to launch its next-generation Fairbuds 2 wireless earbuds later this year.
As President Donald Trump has pressured Congress to rewrite election laws, many of his allies have said Democrats support requiring identification for all sorts of activities — but not voting.
Most recently, a Florida Republican congressman said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani will require ID to shop at city-owned grocery stores.
“He’s requiring ID to prevent non-residents (and non-citizens of NYC) from walking in and snatching up the discounted food,” U.S. Rep. Randy Fine said in an Aug. 16 fundraising email.
“Democrats are perfectly fine putting up barriers and demanding identification when it comes to rationing cheap groceries,” Fine’s email said. “But the second we talk about protecting the integrity of our elections, they act like requiring ID is some kind of civil rights violation.”
Fine’s fundraising email called on Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, which would require people to provide documentary proof of citizenship such as a passport or birth certificate when registering to vote, and a government-issued photo ID when voting.
Fine’s accusation about Mamdani came nearly two weeks after the mayor and his spokespersons said they will not require an ID to shop at the stores. Fine’s congressional office referred us to his reelection campaign, which did not respond to our queries.
Official mentioned a ‘library card-esque thing,’ but Mamdani has said no ID will be required
On July 27, New York City officials announced they will create five municipal grocery stores where certain items such as fresh produce, meat and milk will be 30% cheaper than in retail stores.
Mamdani asked grocers and operators to apply to run the stores.
City officials aim to reduce the price of food for New Yorkers who struggle to pay their bills, but the discounted prices will be available to anyone who shops there, regardless of income. The first store is expected to open by the end of 2027.
A written announcement from the city did not say shoppers would need ID, and Mamdani didn’t say it either. However, an official with a city-affiliated organization raised the possibility during a July 27 press conference.
A reporter asked whether there will be a limit on the number of discounted items someone can purchase.
Mamdani replied that the goal is to help New Yorkers put food on the table and not to let people “make a quick buck through reselling.”
He then asked Jeanny Pak, interim president and CEO of New York City’s Economic Development Corporation, to provide details.
Pak said the city is seeking proposals from potential store operators, and she floated the idea of “a library card-esque thing” for shoppers.
Republican politicians and others — including the House Republicans X account; U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C; and podcaster Joe Rogan— took a clip of Pak saying “library card-esque” and shared it online. They said her statement was evidence that Mamdani will require ID at the grocery stores.
Mamdani has refuted those claims.
He chuckled at the idea of requiring ID in an Aug. 3 interview with liberal commentator Joy-Ann Reid. “When we’re talking about a city-run grocery store — one in each borough, which, by the way, you do not need an ID to shop at, no matter what you’ve just heard.”
Mamdani spokespersons said on X there is no ID requirement.
“The only card we’ll have is a voluntary savings card like they have at any typical supermarket,” Dora Pekec wrote.
A New York City Economic Development Corporation spokesperson told PolitiFact that officials are discussing the possibility of a customer card to prevent people from buying large quantities of discounted staples for resale. The card, which will have a bar code, is expected to function similarly to a supermarket loyalty card. However, details have yet to be decided because store operators have not been chosen.
The city’s July 27 request for proposals said that the operator(s) “will create a voluntary free-to-access membership card program to monitor sales activity, and implement the discount program and any associated demand management measures.” It said that the card will not be required to access the stores and will be made easily available to anyone requesting one.
Fine sent his email more than a week after multipleoutlets, including the conservative New York Post, debunked the grocery store ID requirement idea.
Fine said Mamdani is “requiring ID” to shop at city-run grocery stores.
An official with a city-affiliated organization said the city was considering a “library card-esque thing,” without elaborating, at a news conference.
But Mamdani has said people won’t need an ID to shop. The city is considering having the stores’ operator develop a card that would prevent people from buying at a discount and then reselling large quantities of food.
The burden of proof is on the speaker, and Fine provided no evidence to support the statement.
Aug. 18, 2026 — Biology doesn’t happen at one scale. Molecular interactions unfold in milliseconds and nanometers, while disease-associated change such as in Alzheimer’s spreads across millimeters of brain tissue. Understanding complex biological systems requires scientists to watch both — ideally at the same time and with the same sample. Historically, this has meant shuttling samples between specialized instruments, often damaging biological context and slowing results. There’s also a common crux across microscopes: the closer you look at living tissue, the more the image blurs, and the more detail you capture, the more overwhelming the resulting data becomes.
Five imaging modes provide complementary views of the same dividing human retinal pigment epithelial cell (hTERT-RPE1). From top left, clockwise: Lattice Light-Sheet Structured Illumination Microscopy (LLS-SIM), widefield, 3D-SIM, oblique illumination, lattice light sheet. This shows how different microscopy techniques compare when imaging the same cell, giving them a more complete picture of what’s happening inside. (Credit: Fu, Liu, Milkie, Ruan et al., Nature Methods, 2026)
A new instrument aims to address these problems — and has revealed a third, arguably harder challenge that Berkeley Lab is uniquely positioned to address.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and collaborating institutions have developed the Multimodal Optical Scope with Adaptive Imaging Correction (MOSAIC) — a reconfigurable microscope that consolidates more than ten imaging techniques into one compact instrument. It processes its massive datasets using computational tools developed at Berkeley Lab, funded by a Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) award and supported by the Perlmutter supercomputer at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC).
Featured on the cover of Nature Methods, MOSAIC allows scientists to track biological processes across scales and compare imaging methods on the same sample. It generates data at a pace that is pushing the boundaries of what biology can discover.
“MOSAIC can generate up to four terabytes of data per hour — far beyond what conventional processing workflows or human inspection can handle,” said Srigokul “Gokul” Upadhyayula, a faculty scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division and co-corresponding author. “The microscope is only as useful as our ability to process those data and extract biological meaning from them. Berkeley Lab’s expertise in high-performance computing and large-scale data analysis is essential to closing that gap.”
How MOSAIC Works
MOSAIC grew from the adaptive-optical lattice light-sheet microscope reported by Nobel laureate Eric Betzig, Upadhyayula, and their colleagues in 2018. That earlier system delivered exceptional performance but was so large it occupied a 10-foot by 4-foot optical table. As demand from the broader research community grew, the team designed the MOSAIC to retain and expand those capabilities while reducing the instrument’s footprint.
“MOSAIC has been built over a dozen times in different places with over 50 research licenses already shared. We also created comprehensive documentation on how to build this instrument — think an IKEA-style instruction set geared towards a scientist who has no deep optical expertise but is willing to learn.”
MOSAIC’s main innovation is that it can be quickly reconfigured in two to five seconds to switch between a dozen distinct imaging modes. The team designed a smart modular system where the same lasers, mirrors, cameras, and computational hardware serve multiple imaging functions through a custom optical switching system. Critically, every one of those modes is enhanced with adaptive optics: a technology borrowed from astronomers who developed it to sharpen images of distant stars blurred by Earth’s atmosphere. This corrects blurring caused by aberrations in the living tissue itself.
“ Sample-induced aberrations distort and redirect light, reducing both signal and resolution,” said Upadhyayula. “Adaptive optics measures those distortions and corrects them. It is like turning on the windshield wipers while driving in the rain: the information is present all along, just obscured.”
MOSAIC also relies on fluorescent molecules that allow biologists to mark specific cellular structures and molecular activities in living cells, fast and gentle light-sheet imaging that captures cellular dynamics with minimal stress or damage, and high-speed data transfer infrastructure capable of moving and processing massive imaging datasets.
What Becomes Visible When You Clear the Windshield?
MOSAIC’s ability to image with minimal invasiveness at large scales over long durations has already enabled several experiments: tracking single molecules in living cells, observing organelle dynamics in developing zebrafish embryos, mapping neuronal architecture in expanded human brain tissue from a person with Alzheimer’s, and imaging neural activity in live mouse brains. In that last application, adaptive optics correction revealed roughly 2.5 times more detectable neural calcium events than imaging without it — suggesting conventional microscopy has been quietly undercounting brain activity.
MOSAIC is also the instrument that powered a related study on Volumetric Imaging via Photochemical Sectioning (VIPS), published in Science in 2025. That project used MOSAIC and the computational tools developed at Berkeley Lab to image two complete adult mouse olfactory bulbs at nanoscale resolution, generating roughly a petabyte of data in approximately two weeks. Analyzing it took two years: an illustration of the gap between what these instruments can see and what researchers can currently process.
“ The bottleneck is no longer our ability to acquire the data,” said Upadhyayula. “These microscopes can generate massive datasets at staggering rates. The key bottleneck is turning dense five-dimensional observations into biological understanding.”
Berkeley Lab’s contribution helps to target this gap.
Round-the-Clock Data Collection for Biological AI
Supported by an LDRD award, Eric Betzig and Upadhyayula’s group developed PetaKit5D, an open-source software toolkit that can handle MOSAIC’s terabyte-per-hour output in real time and cuts processing costs by more than an order of magnitude compared to previous approaches. The team also secured computing allocations on the Perlmutter supercomputer at NERSC to process and visualize portions of the largest datasets. But processing data efficiently is only half the equation. The other half is generating enough of it — consistently, at scale, and of sufficient quality — to train the kind of AI model that could one day make sense of it all.
At UC Berkeley, two MOSAIC instruments now run around the clock, capturing the five-dimensional data — three spatial dimensions, time, and molecular identity — that will be needed to train a new state-of-the-art AI model.
The data flowing from those instruments already represents a fundamental shift in how biology can be practiced. For the first time, researchers can watch in vivo biochemistry unfold inside cells living within their native tissues, inside a living organism.
What comes next, he believes, could be transformative: a vision language model that reasons natively over biology, connecting what it sees with molecular identity, experimental context, and prior biological knowledge to determine which observations matter and which experiments should come next.
“Connected to automated microscopes, sample handling, and perturbation systems, that capability could provide the foundation for self-driving biological laboratories — and fundamentally change the rate at which we can make discoveries,” said Upadhyayula.
Latest LightBundle eKit delivers terabit-class optical connectivity with up to 335 microLED channels operating at 3 Gbps each
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Aug. 18, 2026 — Avicena today announced that it has begun shipping 1 Tbps LightBundle evaluation kits (eKits) to customers and partners developing next-generation AI infrastructure. The shipment milestone follows the introduction and demonstration of the LightBundle eKit in March 2026 at the Optical Fiber Conference (OFC26) and advances the platform from initial evaluation availability to terabit-class operation in customer laboratories.
The latest LightBundle eKit incorporates a 335-channel microLED array, with each microLED data channel operating up to 3 Gbps, coupled with an Avicena multicore fiber bundle to a 335-element integrated photodiode array. Together, the channels provide up to 1Tbps of aggregate raw throughput displaying the core advantages of Avicena’s laser-free optical architecture: low power, high bandwidth density, robust operation at elevated temperatures, and flexible reach beyond the practical limits of copper interconnects.
The platform enables hyperscalers, AI accelerator and memory developers, networking companies, and system architects to evaluate terabit-class microLED optical connectivity for both AI scale-in and scale-up applications. Target use cases include die-to-die and die-to-memory links, XPU-to-XPU connectivity, and XPU-to-switch interconnects.
A Terabit-Class Platform for AI Connectivity
AI systems are driving rapid increases in the bandwidth required between accelerators, memory, and switch fabrics. As link rates rise, copper interconnects face increasing challenges in reach, routing density, and energy efficiency. Conventional optical solutions based on lasers and silicon photonics can extend reach, but have power, bandwidth density, cost, and reliability challenges.
Avicena’s LightBundle technology replaces lasers with dense microLED transmitter arrays coupled through a multi-core fiber bundle to integrated photodetector arrays. This architecture is designed to deliver high bandwidth density and energy-efficient optical connectivity while operating reliably across demanding system temperatures.
The 1 Tbps eKit gives engineering teams a complete platform for evaluating link behavior in their own laboratories. Host interface boards, integrated diagnostics, and a graphical user interface support a set of features, including characterization of optical signal integrity, link budgets, eye quality, crosstalk, power efficiency, and bit error rate performance.
“Shipping our 1 Tbps LightBundle eKits extends Avicena’s microLED-based optical interconnect leadership and represents a significant milestone in delivering the terabit-class connectivity required to scale next-generation AI infrastructure,” said Marco Chisari, CEO of Avicena. “LightBundle addresses the bandwidth density, power, reliability, reach and cost requirements that are critical for scale-in and scale-up links, such as XPU-to-XPU, XPU-to-memory, XPU-to-CPU and XPU-to-switch connectivity.”
“Avicena shipments of a 1 Tbps LightBundle evaluation platform is a meaningful milestone for the optical-interconnect industry and reinforces the company’s pioneering leadership in microLED-based connectivity,” said Bob Wheeler, Analyst at Large at LightCounting. “Providing AI infrastructure developers with a practical terabit-class platform enables them to evaluate microLED technology for demanding XPU-to-XPU, XPU-to-memory, and XPU-to-switch links. This advances microLED interconnects towards production for next-generation AI scale-in and scale-up architectures.”
Availability
Avicena is now shipping 1 Tbps LightBundle eKits. Organizations interested in evaluating the platform or discussing LightBundle integration may contact Avicena at nigel@avicena.tech.
About Avicena
Avicena Tech Corp. is a privately held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, pioneering microLED-based optical interconnects for AI infrastructure. Avicena’s LightBundle technology enables low-power optical connectivity with high reliability, scalability, and bandwidth density, helping semiconductor and datacenter innovators build the next generation of AI systems.
Enables vendors and consumers to test custom workloads and run proprietary models for greater flexibility and security
GAINESVILLE, Va., Aug. 18, 2026 — The Standard Performance Evaluation Corporation (SPEC) today announced the release of the SPECapc for Siemens NX 2024 Workload Development Kit (WDK). Integrated directly into the existing SPECapc for Siemens NX 2024 benchmark, the new WDK offers a powerful, standardized framework for users to run and measure their own GPU-specific workloads and proprietary graphics models.
Siemens NX is award-winning, processor-intensive software that helps designers and manufacturers deliver better products faster through a powerful combination of CAD and CAM solutions. The SPECapc for Siemens NX 2024 benchmark executes graphics tests that include rotation, pan, zoom and clipping for each model. Viewport tests within the benchmark measure performance for field of view and feature regeneration operations.
Professionals, students, and artists, as well as hardware developers and vendors, use the benchmark to discover how different hardware configurations affect the performance of their applications. The addition of the SPECapc for Siemens NX 2024 WDK gives these users a framework to evaluate internal models and specialized workflows, providing greater flexibility and security for proprietary information.
“Adding the SPEC Workload Development Kit to the SPECapc for Siemens NX 2024 benchmark means users have the flexibility and framework to gain greater insight into the performance of workloads that matter most to them,” said SPECapc Chair Jessica Heerboth. “This is another important way that SPEC is responding to the needs of our user communities.”
Seamless Integration for Current Users
The WDK operates as a parallel customization framework and does not modify the base benchmark or baseline scoring. Current licensees can access the WDK immediately by downloading and reinstalling the updated benchmark package.
About SPEC
SPEC is a non-profit organization that establishes, maintains and endorses standardized benchmarks and tools to evaluate performance for the newest generation of computing systems. Its membership comprises more than 120 leading computer hardware and software vendors, educational institutions, research organizations, and government agencies worldwide.
Once again, the subject of changing how many justices sit on the Supreme Court—and for how long—is in the news.
On Aug. 13, 2026, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spoke at the National Association of Black Journalists conference about the various changes he felt were needed at the Court. Jeffries was upset with the Court’s April 2026 decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down a state law that allowed the use of race as a determining factor in creating election districts, and a related decision about districts in Alabama, Allen v. Millgan (2026)
“The Supreme Court steps in and overturns that decision [in Alabama], it tells me that they don't have the credibility for us to move forward, acting like everything is okay and the status quo is acceptable. It's not. And we're going to push for dramatic reform of the Supreme Court,” Jeffries said.
Among the various Supreme Court changes proposed recently, and in prior years, are establishing term limits for the justices; changing the number of justices on the bench; creating an enforceable ethics code for justices; and regulating cases appearing on the Court’s emergency or interim docket.
Some of these ideas are hardly new. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, President Joe Biden formed a presidential Supreme Court commission to study possible reforms. In 2015, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee openly discussed Supreme Court term limits during his primary campaign. There was a robust academic debate on term limits nearly a decade earlier in the aftermath of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s death.
And famously, President Franklin D. Roosevelt fell short in his 1937 attempted to change the number of justices on the Supreme Court.
Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices
Limiting the time served by the justices on the Supreme Court is perhaps the idea most discussed among reformers.
Article III of the Constitution defines the Supreme Court’s basic role in the separation of powers and the lifetime tenure of the justices. “The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish,” it states. And the justices serve as long as they show “good behavior” in office.
In Federalist 78, Alexander Hamilton supported the idea of lifetime service from the justices to serve the principle of judicial independence. “The standard of good behavior for the continuance in office of the judicial magistracy, is certainly one of the most valuable of the modern improvements in the practice of government,” Hamilton wrote. “It is the best expedient which can be devised in any government, to secure a steady, upright, and impartial administration of the laws.”
The 2021 Biden commission report identified several arguments made by Supreme Court term limits supporters. Supporters argued that the United States is the only democracy without term and age limits for high court justices. Also, many supporters believed a staggered system where each justice was limited to 18 years on the bench would allow a president to appoint two justices during a four-year presidential term, thus reflecting the voice of the electorate in choosing the president and senators who take part in the nomination and confirmation process.
Lifetime tenure supporters countered that the Constitution’s text and history strongly supported the system of service during “good behavior” in office, and a staggered system with term limits would make the Supreme Court nomination process more political as a recurring election issue.
One of the key challenges for supporters of Supreme Court term limits is the method of implementing change. The Congressional Research Service, in a December 2023 report, raised questions about the ability of Congress to set term limits by statute and not by a constitutional amendment. “Because Article III guarantees that Supreme Court Justices ‘shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,’ most commentators agree that Congress could not impose a term or age limit for Supreme Court Justices without amending the Constitution,” wrote legislative attorney Joanna R. Lampe.
Others argue that Congress can pass laws to create an active/senior justice model where justices serving on the Supreme Court would become senior justices after 18 years and move on to other duties in the judicial system. Justices with senior status would be fully compensated members for life and able to exercise official duties on and off the bench for as long as they choose.
If a term limits law survived the Senate filibuster and passed Congress, opponents could still bring a challenge to the law in court.
Changing the Number of Justices and Other Ideas
Unlike the idea of term limits, the Constitution grants Congress the power to choose how many justices serve on the Supreme Court—a power that Congress has exercised many times across American history. The Judiciary Act of 1789 established the first Supreme Court, when Congress decided that six justices should serve. The number of justices on the Court varied from 1802 to 1869. A Judiciary Act sponsored by Sen. Lyman Trumbull in 1869 put the number at nine Justices. Since then, the number has remained stable.
Some proponents of reform would like to see the number of Supreme Court justices increased for several reasons. During a House hearing in May 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D- Md,) offered one rationale for a change to 13 justices to match the number of federal circuits in America. But a bill changing the size of the Court is still subject to a filibuster and would face opposition.
In 1937, the Judicial Procedures Reform Bill sponsored by President Roosevelt failed in the Senate, where the Democrats held 76 out of 96 seats. The bill would have allowed the president to appoint an additional justice for every sitting justice who was over 70 years of age.
Also, creating an enforceable ethics code for the justices faces its own set of problems. In November 2023, the Supreme Court adopted a voluntary code of conduct. However, the ability of Congress to sanction the justices is limited by the Constitution. Article III of the Constitution bars Congress from altering the justices’ compensation. The House could impeach a Supreme Court justice, as it did when Justice Samuel Chase faced charges in the Senate in 1804, but the removal decision would still be left in the hands of the Senate. Chase was acquitted by the Senate, setting a precedent that justices shouldn’t face impeachment for political reasons.
Congress could have role in determining how cases are presented to the Court’s non-merits interim or emergency docket. According to the Congressional Research Service, “Judicial procedures are generally based on statutes or court-created rules rather than constitutional mandates, and Congress can alter those procedures through legislation.” In May 2026, Rep. Raskin offered several reforms that would require the Court to explain in writing how it issued orders on the docket and would create a panel federal appellate judges to decide which emergency cases go before the justices.
Such efforts likely would face resistance in Congress. Reforms also could raise separation of powers issues, especially about the ability of Congress to compel the Supreme Court to write non-merits opinions on short notice.
Scott Bomboy is the editor in chief of the National Constitution Center.
I bought the Sidewinder motor from TFL to use with the x7 powertrain, but the cable is too long to use on stock XR rails. Does anyone know if there’s an easy way to shorten the cable?
I'm considering buying a Onewheel, but I constantly see wipeout posts (mostly on my FB feed) of people getting injured. Breaking bones, needing surgery, etc. Ones that concern me especially are the ones that say they knew about board pushback but - for whatever reason - they didn't get pushback before the nosedive.
So my question is, is it pretty much inevitable to have a nosedive crash at some point in one's onewheeling life, even if you're careful and aware of pushback?
Has anyone who has been riding for a while successfully avoided it? If so, what are your techniques for doing so?
Wildfires and extreme heat show climate change is now Europe’s biggest security threatExpert commentthilton.drupal
The continent is increasingly vulnerable to arson attacks, while climate disasters are diverting militaries from other threats. Policymakers must respond with a security-based approach to climate change.
Climate change is now Europe’s biggest systemic security risk. As the continent faces its worst ever summer of extreme heat, drought and wildfires, no other threat is simultaneously affecting so many countries, people and critical systems.
The extreme heat contributed to an estimated 10,000 excess deaths during the June heatwave, which also destroyed roughly 9 million tonnes of crops from the European harvest. Drought and wildfires have affected almost the entire continent; so far this year over 600,000 hectares of land and forests have burned, with hundreds of thousands of people forced to evacuate.
The disruption extends far beyond the immediate disaster zones and across national borders. Extreme heat and water shortages are threatening water and food security, restricting river and rail transport and putting strain on health and emergency services.
Homes, businesses and essential infrastructure have been damaged. Falling river levels have forced nuclear reactors to shut down due to a lack of suitable cooling water, threatening to disrupt energy supply chains.
Climate terrorism
Climate change is also making Europe more vulnerable to non-conventional attacks. Prolonged heat and drought can turn countries into a ‘tinderbox’, as UK prime minister Andy Burnham warned last week, before his government sent a national emergency alert over wildfires.
Arson attacks are easy to carry out and difficult for authorities to prevent.
In these conditions, a single act of arson can cause mass evacuations, destroy infrastructure and overwhelm emergency services. These arson attacks are easy to carry out and difficult for authorities to prevent. This makes wildfire a potentially devastating instrument of terrorism or asymmetric warfare.
This year, France has arrested almost 500 people on suspicion of starting fires; as of 30 July, the interior ministry said around 70 per cent of those detained were accused of deliberate arson.
Meanwhile, Russian strikes have repeatedly set forests ablaze in Ukraine. In May 2026, drone attacks caused multiple forest fires in the Chernobyl exclusion zone and Zhytomyr.
Demands on militaries
Climate change also affects European military readiness by damaging bases, airfields and transport networks. For example, prolonged dry conditions contributed to wildfires that began at military training grounds in the Netherlands in April.
Any disruption to wider infrastructure such as electricity or transport networks can also directly undermine military operations.
Europe’s armed forces must now prepare to be called upon more frequently to fight fires, reinforce flood defences, support evacuations, deliver emergency supplies and restore critical infrastructure. This will divert personnel and logistical capacity away from other security threats.
This is already happening. According to the Council on Strategic Risks, militaries were deployed over 30 times in response to wildfires across Europe in June and July alone. In July, Spain deployed more than 1,200 military personnel and 400 vehicles for a single major fire. In the UK, around 200 military personnel are currently fighting wildfires in south Wales.
How to respond
The scale and scope of these risks require action.
The NATO Science and Technology Organization’s January 2026 climate security assessment already acknowledges climate change as a ‘systemic problem’ that impacts all other security risks.
It concludes that NATO’s existing Climate Change and Security Action Plan (published in 2021) should be thoroughly updated and translate climate knowledge into practical action. This should be supported by better, more institutionalized coordination between scientists, defence professionals and policymakers.
Beyond NATO’s plan, a broader European security-based approach to climate change is needed. It must achieve four goals.
Deal with wildfires
First, it must strengthen preparedness for climate disasters that are already happening.
In the case of wildfires, this means acting before they break out. This involves managing dry vegetation and landscapes, enforcing fire-safe building and land-use rules, monitoring high-risk areas and reducing preventable sources of fire. It must account for both deliberate and accidental fires.
It also requires adequately staffed and trained emergency services, better specialist equipment such as ‘water bomb aircraft’, stronger early-warning and evacuation systems, and greater capacity to respond to several emergencies at once.
The military has an important supporting role within this system. Armed forces will need to provide aircraft, engineering expertise, communications, logistics and personnel when civilian capacity is overwhelmed, particularly during large-scale evacuations or simultaneous disasters. But they should form part of a planned, multi-agency response rather than become a permanent substitute for underfunded fire and rescue services.
Consider climate spending as security
Second, governments need to consider spending on climate as a core security investment.
European NATO members have committed to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, including up to 1.5 per cent on broader investment related to defence and security, such as critical infrastructure and resilience.
Despite NATO recognizing climate change as a security threat, it has not explicitly designated climate adaptation as defence-related spending. But investing in climate change adaptation can make a critical contribution to long-term resilience.
Likewise, investments in infrastructure, civil protection and preparedness should all be climate-resilient and future proof. These could potentially be categorized under the vaguely defined 1.5 per cent of broader security-related spending.
Considering climate measures as important security investments would therefore help to focus scare resources and improve resilience, while also potentially helping members to meet their spending commitments.
Address underlying causes
Third, a security approach must accelerate decarbonization to mitigate climate change as the underlying cause of the escalating threat.
European climate and energy policies have helped cut EU27 emissions to approximately 35 per cent below their 1990 levels, but the EU27 is still responsible for 3.2 gigatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions annually, or six per cent of global emissions. Europe’s decarbonization matters not only for reducing emissions but also for its global signalling effect in encouraging other countries to follow suit.
Preparedness and adaptation can reduce casualties and damage, but they cannot keep pace indefinitely with worsening heat, drought, floods and fires. Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent. Its existing policies and climate pledges will not be sufficient to adapt fully to the expected 2.4°C to 3.9°C increase in global mean temperature this century.
Investment in resilience must therefore be accompanied by rapid emissions reductions and stronger political commitment to decarbonization. This is the principal way to prevent the threat from becoming progressively more severe and unmanageable.
Public involvement
Fourth, building societal resilience to climate shocks will depend on governments working with the public.
This does not mean just issuing one-off instructions during emergencies. People need trustworthy information, practical guidance and opportunities to participate in local preparedness activities. Examples include ‘heat-health’ plans to protect people from heat-related risks, water conservation to cope with drought, and evacuation exercises and support for vulnerable neighbours.
Such measures are all part of the basic infrastructure that allows society to continue functioning during a crisis.
The benefits outweigh the costs
What will all this cost? Assessments suggest the EU needs to invest approximately €70 billion a year in climate adaptation until 2050 to prevent the worst impacts. The UK needs to invest around £11 billion annually, according to a May report by the UK Climate Change Committee.
Although these sums may appear substantial, they are modest compared with the escalating cost of inaction. Climate-related disasters caused a yearly average of €45 billion in direct EU losses during 2020–2024, while inadequate adaptation could cost the UK £60-260 billion annually by 2050.
Many measures will pay for themselves several times over. For example, according to the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, every euro invested in protection against coastal flooding can avoid around €6.35 in damages while also saving lives and protecting other resources.
The estimated costs for adaptation are small compared to the risks averted and damage avoided. Climate adaptation should therefore be understood not as an environmental expense, but as a cost-effective and necessary investment in European national security and strategic autonomy.
Tune in to our upcoming episode of the Independent Thinking podcast this Friday to hear more from our experts on the challenges of climate change.
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors hopes to close those knowledge and coordination gaps through Delaware’s inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit on Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach.
Delaware’s inaugural statewide summit will bring survivors, national experts, professionals and concerned citizens together to improve prevention, identification and survivor support.
By George Rotsch, Editor of Delaware LIVE
DEWEY BEACH — Human trafficking can remain hidden in plain sight, leaving teachers, medical professionals, police officers, business leaders and concerned residents uncertain about how to recognize the warning signs or respond safely.
The Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors hopes to close those knowledge and coordination gaps through Delaware’s inaugural Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit on Friday, Oct. 2, at Hyatt Place Dewey Beach.
The summit is open to professionals, organizational leaders and members of the public who want to better understand human trafficking and help Delaware build a more informed and coordinated response.
“It’s for everybody,” said Jennifer Cooper, the coalition’s Community and Continuing Education Committee chair and one of the summit’s organizers. “It’s not just for people doing the work. It’s for people who may want to learn a little bit more.”
Cooper, a registered nurse and forensic coordinator at Nemours Children’s Health, said the program will explain trafficking, challenge common misconceptions and help participants understand how exploitation occurs in Delaware.
“We’re going to break down the myths, dispel the myths and talk about what trafficking looks like in Delaware,” Cooper said.
Public engagement is part of the response
Marcia Ferranto, board chair of the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors, said public involvement is essential because human trafficking cannot be addressed solely by law enforcement agencies or organizations serving survivors.
“Human trafficking affects Delaware communities, but too often it remains unseen or misunderstood,” Ferranto said. “We need residents, business leaders, educators, health care professionals, faith communities and policymakers to understand the warning signs and recognize that each of them can play a role in prevention.”
Ferranto said trafficking affects Delaware even when victims are not immediately identified and cases are not publicly described as trafficking.
“Trafficking does not happen only somewhere else; it is affecting people here in Delaware,” Ferranto said. “When the public understands what exploitation looks like and knows how to respond, we become better able to protect vulnerable people, support survivors and make Delaware a much more difficult place for traffickers to operate.”
Delaware needs its own summit
Cooper has worked with the forensic team at Nemours since 2012 and became its coordinator in 2019. Through that work, she began seeing more young patients affected by or vulnerable to exploitation.
Her involvement in Delaware’s anti-trafficking efforts also showed her that professionals frequently had to travel outside the state to receive advanced training.
“I went to a lot of conferences, and I realized that I wasn’t going to anything in Delaware,” Cooper said. “I was traveling. And I said, ‘Delaware needs its own.’”
That realization helped lead to the October summit.
National experts and local authorities are expected to participate as keynote speakers, panel moderators and breakout-session presenters. The program will include learning tracks focused on survivors, law enforcement, mental health, direct-service workers and medical providers.
Continuing education credits for eligible medical and other professionals are planned, with additional details to be announced.
Bringing Delaware’s response together
Cooper said the summit has two immediate goals: raising awareness among leaders and bringing together the professionals and organizations already working with vulnerable people and survivors.
“I want to bring together the people who are doing the work,” Cooper said. “There are organizations doing phenomenal work, and right down the street there may be another organization doing something a little differently. They really could benefit from each other.”
Better coordination could help Delaware identify trends, determine where services are missing and direct resources toward needs involving young people, labor trafficking, health care, housing and other areas.
“By bringing all of the people together, we can see what our trends are in Delaware and where we need more services,” Cooper said.
The summit also is intended to support professionals engaged in emotionally demanding work.
“From a trauma perspective, this is very challenging and very tough work,” Cooper said. “Making sure that everybody has their own resources and people to bounce things off of is really important.”
A private executive roundtable will precede the public summit Thursday, Oct. 1. Attendance at the roundtable is by invitation only.
The roundtable is expected to bring Delaware leaders and decision-makers together to review state-level information and consider potential policy, training and legislative responses. The public summit the following day will focus on education, professional development and building connections among participants.
A problem that can be difficult to identify
Cooper said one of the challenges involving young people is that victims may not identify themselves as having been trafficked. They may believe they willingly participated in an exchange or may not recognize food, housing, drugs, alcohol or other items of value as part of commercial sexual exploitation.
Under federal and state law, proof of force, fraud or coercion is not required when a minor is induced to perform a commercial sex act. A commercial exchange also does not have to involve cash.
Cooper said 80 juvenile cases were referred to Delaware’s Juvenile Trafficking Oversight Team last year. Those cases involved young people identified as being at risk of trafficking, suspected of being trafficked or confirmed as victims.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline has identified 301 trafficking cases involving 662 victims in Delaware since 2007. The hotline received 51 signals from Delaware in 2024, including eight from victims or survivors.
Hotline figures reflect only situations reported to the organization and should not be interpreted as representing the full extent of trafficking in the state.
Survivors and experts lead the program
Opening keynote speaker Kevin McNeil is a retired police officer, trafficking and sexual-abuse survivor and motivational speaker. His presentation, “Stuck in Traffic,” will compare the experience of being trapped in vehicle traffic with the sense of being trapped in exploitation.
Marty MacGibbon, a trafficking survivor, therapist, author and comedian, will discuss the intersection of human trafficking and substance abuse. She also will close the program with a presentation addressing mental wellness, self-care and trauma-informed practices.
Breakout sessions will address trafficking fundamentals, myths and realities; care for survivors; familial trafficking; legal and law enforcement considerations; trauma among children and adults; and the development of multidisciplinary response teams.
The program also will include survivor perspectives and discussion of vulnerabilities affecting boys and members of the LGBTQ community.
Why leaders and residents should attend
For leaders in government, health care, education, law enforcement, hospitality, nonprofits and other community institutions, the summit offers an opportunity to examine whether their organizations have adequate training, policies and referral relationships.
Front-line professionals can learn more about recognizing possible exploitation, interacting with survivors without causing additional trauma and coordinating with other service providers.
For parents, faith leaders, volunteers and concerned residents, the summit offers a clearer understanding of what trafficking can look like, which warning signs deserve attention and how to report concerns without placing a potential victim at greater risk.
Established in 2014 as Meet Me at the Well Delaware, the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors provides individualized assistance to survivors seeking to leave sex trafficking and rebuild their lives. Its work includes education, street outreach, advocacy, mentoring and connections to housing, employment and treatment resources.
The larger objective of the summit is to create a more unified statewide response capable of recognizing exploitation sooner, supporting survivors more effectively and making Delaware a more difficult place for traffickers to operate.
To Go Box
What: Human Trafficking Awareness, Prevention and Action Summit
When: Friday, Oct. 2, 2026
Where: Hyatt Place Dewey Beach, 1301 Coastal Highway, Dewey Beach
Who may attend: Professionals, organizational and community leaders, service providers and members of the public
Hotel: A discounted room rate is available through Sept. 3. Call 1-855-556-1297 and request the Delaware Coalition for Human Trafficking Survivors rate using group code G-DECO.
Information: Visit the coalition’s summit information page, call 302-250-5918 or email contact@dcfhts.org.
lately the weather has been so nice that it feels ridiculous to work indoors. i’ve been taking my lightweight camp chair and laptop outside on my onewheel and hotspotting with my phone. it’s magical
Melting ice and power shifts: Europe and Canada should seize their Arctic momentExpert commentLToremark
As geopolitical competition heats up in the Arctic, security and science must go hand in hand.
The Trump administration has once again churned up the frozen waters of the Arctic. This time by ending federal support for an annual Arctic climate report. On 10 August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced it will no longer produce the well-respected Arctic Report Card, which for two decades has collated, analyzed and published key data on the health and changes of the greater Arctic environment. More than 100 international scientists and organizations have fed NOAA information ranging from ice coverage measurements to sea depth and weather patterns, expanding US situational awareness and scientific leadership of the Arctic.
Trump’s team now says that someone else must take the lead.
While detrimental to both the US and the greater Arctic research community in the short term, this is an opportunity for an allied Arctic nation or organization to take the lead – with the potential to gain both a strategic and data edge. The Arctic is in the crosshairs of almost all top geostrategic interests – including energy, defence, tech, transportation, minerals and fishing – and is changing quickly as ice melts and previously unnavigable areas open.
Controlling data collection, priority-setting and analysis at a time when data is one of the most valuable assets to have should be high on the list of many nations. It certainly is for China. Although it is a non-Arctic nation, China has seven polar research stations – compared to America’s four – a fleet of dual-purpose ice breakers, and prioritizes polar research within its annual $1 trillion research budget.
It is ironic that the Trump administration is diminishing the US position in the Arctic research community while at the same time raising the alarm about Chinese and Russian ambitions in Greenland and the North Atlantic. US military leaders know well that their ability to defend against submarine and other incursions in the north will depend on a continuous research and development process using every scientific input available.
Even the US’s own Arctic Research Commission has stressed the link between national security and research. In 2025, it identified research topics within four key sectors – military, community, energy and economy – which ‘inform both domestic and foreign policy, ideally, in a mutually reinforcing manner, and are often interlinked’. The key to securing the vast North American Arctic area is cutting edge research and knowledge, from reinforcing US national scientists to linking arms with partners, allies and indigenous communities.
This is not the first time the Trump administration has made counterintuitive policy moves in the Arctic. Key to Trump’s foreign policy doctrine is the concept of geographical spheres of influence. US control of Greenland – an autonomous territory of US ally Denmark – as a geographical security imperative has become a regular talking point for Trump. It has also inspired significant new European and Canadian activity in the region.
European governments are stepping up under the rubric of increasing Arctic security against Russian and Chinese expansion. This is a good outcome from an unnecessarily tense standoff with their American ally. Indeed, underneath it all, Trump’s concern about Chinese and Russian activity in the Arctic is well founded. And it requires concrete European Arctic leadership and action.
Such recent action includes a growing strategic presence in Greenland. Norway, France, Canada and the European Union all have (or soon will have) diplomatic offices in Nuuk. Meanwhile, European leaders and their defence teams have met regularly this year to discuss Arctic security and Greenland, while the seven Arctic NATO members (Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and the US) gather as a NATO subgroup. In May, following a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Sweden, they called out the shift in American policy in a joint statement noting the increased role played by Europe and Canada.
More recently, Denmark announced that it has begun to rotate groups of new conscripts through Greenland for training, while the UK sent a carrier strike group to the North Atlantic/High North as part of NATO’s new Arctic Sentry mission, completing its first phase in July.
This increased activity is well timed. Russia and China are taking historic steps this summer that signal future intentions.
In an unprecedented operation, Russia is sending a convoy of tankers carrying up to one million tonnes of oil along a rarely used route north of 81.5°N, accompanied by nuclear-powered icebreakers. Meanwhile, six Chinese carriers have signed up to use Russia’s northern sea route (NSR) this month to avoid the treacherous Red Sea. For the first time, the ships will go from Ningbo-Zhoushan to Felixstowe, saving an estimated 22 days. Crucially, it is also the first time Chinese ships will have access to predictive rather than observational ice data from the Chinese Ministry of Transportation – made possible thanks to China’s years of investment in Arctic research.
This should be a wake-up call for the US and its allies. Domain awareness is and will continue to be the linchpin for success for all nations with interests in the Arctic. To take the lead, European allies and Canada should focus on three key areas.
One, they should extend and resource initiatives that enhance shared domain-awareness assets: satellite coverage; underwater sensor arrays in the GIUK gap (the open waters between Greenland, Iceland and the UK) and the Barents Sea; and maritime patrol aircraft rotations. A priority satellite project could be the Hybrid Alliance Layered Operations in Space (HALO), launched at this year’s NATO summit, through which seven European allies and Canada have agreed to connect and integrate their military satellites into a shared ‘mega constellation’ architecture. For underwater awareness, both the UK’s new Atlantic Bastion and NATO’s Arctic Sentry programmes are building underwater sensing technology networks. In the air, Germany and Denmark have new or planned Boeing P-8 capabilities to add to substantial operations already run by the UK, Norway and Canada.
Two, Arctic research and development should be prioritized in national planning and budgeting processes. This should include establishing a joint Europe–Canada Arctic data consortium – within or tightly connected to the existing research architecture to avoid duplication of efforts – to take on the Arctic Report Card work and build a top-in-class digital research infrastructure. European and Canadian leaders should also reorient the Arctic Council to overcome the stagnation stemming from Russia’s suspended engagement following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, compounded by a consensus system that makes formal workarounds difficult. They must also work to resolve a key Arctic research dilemma: the current lack of Russian data.
Three, NATO’s Arctic seven should establish a shared policy position on Chinese and Russian control of the NSR, which could include building Arctic maritime support systems and physical infrastructure to erode Russia’s monopolistic claim. As one proposal highlights, ‘the goal is not confrontation, but normalization, so that the rules of the High North reflect global interests – not unilateral control’.
As Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen famously said: ‘adventure is just bad planning’. While there was arguably never a time for adventure in the Arctic – it’s too brutal, too vast and too changeable – now is the moment for European Arctic nations and Canada to take the lead in both Arctic research and security. One without the other would be a foolish adventure.
Why Should Delaware Care? Proposed data centers could have major impacts on electric bills and water use in New Castle County. Three primary races for New Castle County Council seats could shape the future of the debate over how to regulate the facilities beyond rules passed earlier this year.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the district number that Syam Kosigi and Valerie George are running in. The story has been updated.
The debate in northern Delaware over how best to regulate data centers has reemerged this primary election season between candidates for the New Castle County Council.
And whoever ultimately wins could have outsized influence over the future of data center policy in the county.
Two seats in contention this year are currently held by retiring council members Janet Kilpatrick and Penrose Hollins. Earlier this year, each voted against a narrowly rejected measure that would have retroactively imposed new data center regulations onto projects that had already been submitted to the county – including the controversial Delaware City data center project, known as Project Washington.
Another of the no votes on the measure, Valerie George, also is facing a primary challenger.
Now, each of the three races for those council seats includes one candidate who wants to impose the county’s new stricter data center rules onto Project Washington, as well as other existing data center plans.
The others argued that such retroactivity moves may not be legal or effective. The policy split also extends to a potential county moratorium on new data center land-use applications.
Primary Election Delaware’s primary election will be held from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 15, with early voting running from Sept. 2 to 13. Polls are closed Sept. 6 and 7 for the Labor Day holiday. The new voter registration deadline for the primary is Aug. 22.
The debate, which has played out largely on social media, has grown testy this month, most recently from dueling posts by candidates Jason Hoover and Curtis Linton, who are seeking to replace Hollins.
Earlier this month, Linton accused his opponent of misleading the public about his stance on a previous county measure to regulate data centers.
“Jason Hoover is playing politics with the truth,” Linton said.
In response, Hoover said Monday that his critique of Linton’s stance on data center regulations was simply taken from comments he made about the measure last year.
“I have relied on primary sources: his own public comment before County Council,” Hoover said in his post.
A year since the Delaware City data center
Jason Hoover, an engineer and web designer, is running for the New Castle County Council. | PHOTO COURTESY OF JASON HOOVER
Last March, New Castle County passed data center regulations that require new data centers to maintain buffer zones around them, and to use energy-efficient backup generators, among other regulations.
Councilman Dave Carter first proposed the rules last summer, after developers submitted their proposal for Project Washington, which would consume 1.2 gigawatts of energy – or roughly the same amount as a million homes.
What followed was a monthslong political fight that largely pitted the Delaware trade unions against an array of individuals concerned about the environmental and affordability impacts of data centers.
Curtis Linton, business manager for the Delaware Laborers Local 199, is running for New Castle County Council. | PHOTO COURTESY OF CURTIS LINTON
The fight hit its height in November when Councilman Tim Sheldon flipped the middle finger at Councilman Kevin Caneco, a data center opponent.
Shortly after that, the debate also veered into electoral politics when a union leader from the Delaware Building Trades announced what became a short-lived challenge to Carter for his seat.
Shortly after that, Linton announced his candidacy.
Although he is also a trade union leader, Linton at the time told Spotlight Delaware that he was not as staunch in his support for data centers as others in organized labor.
Over the months after Carter proposed the regulations, other data center proposals have also been submitted to New Castle County. If all are ultimately built, they collectively could double the state’s electric demand.
What do the candidates think?
There are only three competitive primaries for New Castle County Council seats, and all of them are Democratic.
Syam Kosigi, a former nonprofit executive, is running against the incumbent Valerie George in District 5.
Kira Alejandro and Kyle Grantham are competing to replace Kilpatrick in District 3.
Syam Kosigi, a former nonprofit executive, is running for New Castle County Council. | PHOTO COURTESY OF SYAM KOSIGI
And in the three-way primary for Hollins’ District 4 seat, Helena Creamer is running against Linton and Hoover.
George and Creamer did not respond to requests for an interview.
Kosigi, Hoover and Alejandro all said they support a data center moratorium out of worries that the recently-passed regulations do not do enough to protect residents from potential effects of the facilies to the electric grid and the environment.
Hoover, an engineer and web designer, cited a study that suggested the proposed data centers in New Castle County could raise the wholesale electric rate in Delaware by 80%.
He said he supports the laws the Delaware legislature recently passed to try to put those costs onto the data center companies. But he said the scale of the proposed data centers are so unprecedented that the county needs more time to study their impacts.
“Our laws are clearly not ready for data centers,” Hoover said.
Alejandro, a barista and community advocate, also expressed concerns about electric bills rising, as well as potential environmental impacts of data centers.
“I think [a moratorium] gives us more time to learn about some of these consequences, which are still coming to light,” Alejandro said.
Kira Alejandro, a barista and community advocate, is running for the New Castle County Council. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KIRA ALEJANDRO
Kosigi, an IT professional, said a moratorium would allow the council to create additional regulations with more public input.
“The approach should be bottom up,” Kosigi said.
Kosigi, Hoover and Alejandro said they would use the moratorium to try to figure out a way to make the county’s existing data center regulations apply retroactively to data center projects currently in the pipeline.
Two of the opposing candidates, Linton and Grantham, also said they are worried about the effects of data centers.
Kyle Grantham, a documentary filmmaker, is running for New Castle County Council. | PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE GRANTHAM
Grantham said he personally dislikes the idea of new data center development and supports further regulations. He also wants the county to look closely at its code for any loopholes data center developers could exploit.
Linton said he is open to the idea of more regulations, but would need to hear the specific proposal and the reasoning behind it.
But Linton and Grantham were both hesitant about the idea of a moratorium, and both opposed making the current data center regulations retroactive.
Grantham, a documentary filmmaker and a former New Castle County communications staffer, said he doesn’t think the moratorium or applying the regulations retroactively would be legal moves.
“We’re probably going to wind up going to court, probably going to spend millions of dollars, and probably lose,” Grantham said.
But he said more regulations may act effectively as a moratorium.
“If we can change those things and make this an area where they’re going to pay their fair way … then this no longer becomes an attractive area,” Grantham said.
Linton, a local union leader, said he may support a moratorium, but he is concerned it may not be effective.
“If we do that, are we actually going to take a deeper dive and research … or are we just going to say we’re putting a freeze on them because we don’t want them here?” he said.
Linton said he would likely oppose making the regulations retroactive because it could discourage other industries from coming to Delaware.
“They might be saying, ‘OK, I don’t know if we want to invest in Delaware because we could be investing, and next thing you know, they change the rules on us,’” Linton said.
Participants race during the 2025 Special Olympics Delaware Cycling Classic. Photo Courtesy of Special Olympics Delaware.
The Special Olympics Delaware Annual Cycling Classic will be held on August 22, at DelDOT’s Danner Campus in Dover.
Special Olympics Delaware announced that the 2026 Special Olympics Delaware Cycling Classic will be held at the Danner Campus located in Dover, Delaware, on Saturday, August 22, via a press release on August 13.
The event will bring over 90 athletes and 30 coaches from Delaware and surrounding states to the campus to compete in multiple different cycling events. The other states represented in the event are Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, according to the release.
“Cycling showcases so much more than athletic achievement. Behind every athlete is a network of coaches, family members, volunteers, and supporters who help make success possible,” said Director of Sports & Area Engagement for Special Olympics Delaware, Kylie Lavelle, via the press release. “The encouragement athletes receive throughout training and competition builds confidence, creates meaningful connections, and reinforces the sense of belonging that is at the heart of Special Olympics. It’s inspiring to see our community come together to celebrate each athlete’s accomplishments both on and off the course.”
The event will start at 8:00 a.m. with registration and warm-ups for participants. The opening ceremonies will begin at 9:30 a.m. and the racing will start at 10:00 a.m. The event will end around 3:00 p.m.
Awards for racers will be given out throughout the day.
To learn more about the event and Special Olympics Delaware check out their website here.
Hospitals set up special testing sites to prevent measles patients from spreading the disease in waiting rooms. The virus can linger in the air for up to two hours after an infected person leaves. Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images
The U.S. recently reached a grim milestone: As of July 23, more measles cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention than in any year since 1991. It took less than seven months to blow past the three-decade high recorded last year.
This potentially deadly disease is easily prevented. Shots are widely available and, in many cases, free. Still, since the beginning of last year, more than 4,850 people here have been infected, and three have died. Among them were two unvaccinated girls in West Texas whose deaths made national headlines.
It may feel like the continuous stream of cases is just the way things are now. But it is dangerous to shrug off the resurgence of measles. In a story I reported earlier this year, I showed what’s happened in parts of the world that have let their guard down to vaccine-preventable diseases. My reporting found that long-forgotten scourges roared back, killing and disabling children. Even countries that made what seemed like subtle changes to immunization policies suffered disastrous consequences years later.
Babies were born blind, deaf and with intellectual disabilities because their mothers caught rubella in the early weeks of pregnancy. Parents saw why diphtheria used to be known as “the strangling angel of children.” Doctors told me they couldn’t undo the damage when these horrors returned. Modern medicine can do a lot of things, but it can’t reverse paralysis from polio.
The story also showed how Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, and President Donald Trump have been transforming a government that for decades promoted the lifesaving benefits of shots into one that sows doubts about their safety. Last week, the president issued another executive order that’s sure to fuel further hesitancy about the shot that has protected children from measles, mumps and rubella for decades.
It’s a sharp departure for a government that, since the 1960s and with bipartisan support, built vaccination programs that shielded kids from deadly and disabling diseases. Federal and state health leaders strengthened those policies based on lessons learned from measles outbreaks. That’s because measles, among the most contagious diseases in history, is almost always the first vaccine-preventable disease to strike when immunization rates fall.
Some U.S. schools have set up vaccination clinics as immunization rates have dropped in many parts of the country.Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images
In my many months of reporting for that story, I learned that measles is like the bright dye that plumbers flush through pipes to find leaks in a complex system. The continued appearance of the virus’ telltale rash in state after state since last year warns of cracks in our once-solid protection, leaving communities vulnerable to other deadly contagions.
My reporting also found that access to vaccines may be in peril: Since last year, Kennedy has been considering changes to an obscure but crucial government program that could prompt the few companies that make vaccines for American kids to flee the U.S. market. If that were to happen, even parents who still want vaccines for their kids wouldn’t be able to get them.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the agency has not limited access to vaccines. In an email, the spokesperson wrote, “Secretary Kennedy believes that trust is rebuilt through an open review of safety data, the willingness to ask the hard questions, and ensuring the American people have all emerging information as soon as we know it.”
Several dozen people who’ve worked on U.S. government vaccination programs here and around the world conveyed to me a sense of foreboding about America. They fear that children will wind up fighting for their lives against infections that have long been preventable.
“I think there always was a worst-case scenario,” said Dr. Melinda Wharton, who retired last September after more than three decades leading CDC immunization programs. “I don’t think I imagined it could or would be this bad.”
Doctors I spoke to told me they had seen images of those diseases in textbooks, but these were problems medicine had solved long ago. They never thought they’d see an actual patient until an unvaccinated child lay before them, gravely ill with one of these ancient scourges.
I’ll never forget what one German doctor, whose hospital treated an unvaccinated boy who later died of diphtheria, told me of the infection: “It was taught as history,” he said.
Here in the U.S., measles was taught as history, too. Now it isn’t.
We’ve been covering public health and vaccine policies for years. Let me walk you through reporting from my colleagues and me that helps show how we ended up here and where we might go.
In 2020, I reported with my colleagues on how the world’s greatest public health organization was brought to its knees by COVID-19, the president and the capitulation of its own leaders. And we also foreshadowed how the government’s response to COVID-19 led to a loss of trust in public health institutions — a lingering resentment that RFK Jr. has tapped into. (The CDC and the White House declined to comment on this story.)
At the beginning of the second Trump administration, I learned that CDC leaders ordered staff not to release their experts’ assessment that found the risk of catching measles was high in areas near outbreaks where vaccination rates were lagging.
In an aborted plan to roll out the news, the agency would have emphasized the importance of vaccinating people against the disease that had then infected fewer than 500 people in 19 states, the records show. (At the time, the CDC told us that the agency decided against releasing the assessment “because it does not say anything that the public doesn’t already know” and that the agency continued to recommend vaccines as “the best way to protect against measles.”)
Not long after I broke the news about the buried measles forecast, I learned more about a vaccine program that RFK Jr. plans to overhaul, one that’s vital to Americans’ access to immunizations. I showed how dramatic changes to this little-known program — which offers payouts for people who suffer rare side effects from shots without having to prove that drugmakers were negligent — could prompt vaccine makers to stop selling them here.
(HHS declined to answer detailed questions about Kennedy’s plans. Previously, an HHS spokesperson had said that Kennedy is “not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety.”)
That story laid bare how surprisingly fragile the nation’s vaccine system is. Kennedy still hasn’t revealed what he plans to do.
Two Stanford epidemiologists had modeled the scenario. My colleague Lucas Waldron created a chilling visualization that allowed us to depict how many people could die or be disabled in 25 years if vaccines for polio, measles, rubella or diphtheria were no longer available.
ProPublica shared the key findings of that scenario with HHS. An agency spokesperson didn’t address the modeling but said “HHS has not limited access or insurance coverage to any FDA-approved vaccines” and routinely recommends the shots for children.
As measles cases continued to rise, a team at the CDC was investigating whether the disease has become endemic in this country again. In June, my colleague Nat Lash and I showed how hard it will be for them to prove that it isn’t, after what Nat found when he analyzed the genetic code of cases around the country.
A CDC spokesperson told ProPublica that the agency was conducting a more comprehensive investigation and that genetic sequences “alone cannot determine whether” measles is endemic.
Cruising around the local lake with my kids a couple days ago, I actually remembered to snag a picture of my OW this time! Meet "Mongoose," so named for its green and gold (yellow) livery—made me think of Master Chief from Halo, and this puppy isn't big enough to be a warthog!
The Loco Beach Coconuts and Texas Tailgaters played the first ever Banana Ball series in Wilmington, Delaware, from August 13 – August 15.
Fans enter the plaza before the gates to the stadium officially open for the game.
A young fan dressed as a Banana walks around the plaza pregame.
Delaware resident Mike Husni came dressed in a hot dog costume to see Banana Ball in person for the first time.
Husni meets Tailgater assistant coach Andrew Bartman pregame.
A couple young Banana Ball fans pose for a picture with their signed yellow baseballs. Players from both teams spent over an hour in the plaza signing autographs before the game.
The Hulagans share the stage with the Coconuts’ traveling band “Sitting on Saturn” during the Loco Beach Live Show during the pregame festivities.
Tailgater head coach Joe Mikulik (No. 00) and Coconuts assistant coach Anthony Marks pose for a selfie with a group of fans on the field pregame.
Texas Tailgater Zach Watson leads off the first Banana Ball ever played in Delaware.
Coconuts Peyton Chatagnier (No. 1) fields the throw down to second on Sal Jacobo’s (No. 2) shoulders during warmups.
Tailgater outfielder Travis Moniot (No. 16) bumps the ball into the air to intiate a trick play out between him and Jordan Hussein (No. 5).
Hussein completes the trick play out, catching the ball in his cowboy hat.
Catcher Ashby Vining (No. 11) looks into the Loco Beach dugout ready to celebrate after driving in a walk-off run in the bottom of the first inning. Banana Ball rules require teams to win the inning to earn a point. The team with the most runs in an inning wins the inning and the point.
(To read more about the Banana Ball experience click here.)
Coconut players Grady Morgan (No. 31) and Dane Tofteland (No. 23) recreate the scene from “Titanic” after Tofteland as hit by a pitch.
Coconut outfielder Gideon Antle (No. 18) just barely gets a hand in before the tag from Tailgater catcher Taj Porter (No. 26) winning the fourth inning for the Coconuts. They led, 2-1, through four innings.
A pair of dualing fathers pick up their youngest children on first base as they race around the diamond to collect there children before reaching home during the fourth inning. The two dad’s hilariously “forgot” their middle child on second base.
Both teams broke out into an impromptu water balloon fight during Nick Lopez’s (Tailgaters’ No. 9) at-bat. Lopez was not allowed to step out of the box because a rule of Banana Ball requires the hitter to stay in the box no matter what. If the batter steps out of the box the batter is out.
Tailgater Kyle Martin (No. 27) gets the handoff from his head coach on his way home after hitting a solo home run.
The stadium goes dark in the middle of the eighth as the teams and crowd sing along to “3 Little Birds” by Bob Marley.
Tailgater Jose Gonzalez (No. 28) celebrates after getting a hit. The Tailgaters ended up winning the game, 6-3.
All photos courtesy of Dave Reeder. To see more of Dave’s work check him out on Instagram @bfr_photo
One of my neighbors is in his early 40s, drives a fancy German sports sedan, and seems to always be on his way to the golf course by the way he's dressed. One day he says out loud, as I'm OneWheeling by his driveway to the community mailbox, "Aren't you a little old to be riding one of those?"
I am old, like deep in my 50s old, so I turn around and without blinking shoot back, "Aren't you a little stupid to be talking?" Which came out way harsher than I intended. He gives a weak laugh, I give a weak laugh, which makes it worse, and I think really hard for a few seconds how to make this less awkward and apologetically say, "Hey, man, sorry about that stupid comment... When I ride, I feel like a thirteen-year-old and thirteen-year-old me was quite the asshat. I'm sorry about that."
With a weak smile, he gets in his car and says, "Ya, no problem," unconvincingly.
My question is... how many days, weeks, or months do I wait before I leave a flaming bag of dog poop on his porch? Kidding!
Hey friends - I’ve been riding Onewheels for about 6 years. I’m on my 7th board and probably around 50-60k total miles. I think I’m ready for my first non-FM board. Can y’all please recommend what would be best on my requirements here?
Needs to be plug and play. I hate tinkering. I don’t mind initial set up but I don’t have much free time and I’d rather be riding than fixing my board. I’m more of a rider than a gear head. Can’t break down too often. I try locally get around 10k miles out of a board and would hope for something similar.
Flat footpads. I love the feel of the original XR footpads. I ride 50-100 miles a day and concave is not comfortable.
Flight fins system. I love my fins and the board needs to be compatable.
Long range. I typically ride 25-30 miles at a time.
Tire. I love the maxxis 5.5-6. Carvy treaded tires are for me. Do any boards come with something like that stock?
So that’s it. Is there an out of the box VESC board that would meet these requirements?
After three years of construction, the glistening, state-of-the-art new Hodgson Vocational Technical High School that opens next week is "a place that will change lives for generations," Principal Christine Colihan said.
My Onewheel XR sat unused for a couple of months. When I went to use it, the battery was dead, so I put it on charge. After charging, it turned on, the lights came on for a moment, then it shut off. After that, the blue power-button ring started flashing. At the time, the app also showed Error 16. I opened the controller, disconnected/reconnected all the connectors and harnesses, and Error 16 eventually disappeared, but the blue power-button ring keeps flashing and the board still won’t work and won’t turn off. I then opened the BMS, inspected everything, disconnected/reconnected it, and checked the battery voltage — ~58 V. Everything looks reasonably clean, no obvious burns or serious corrosion. Still flashing! Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this or what I should test next?
Any XR veterans who have dealt with this before? 🙏
If I can repair the original XR first, I’d prefer that. But if I go VESC, which setup would you recommend for mainly city riding, floatwheel XRV kit or fungineers powertrains?
Image: Hillary Olson comes to Hagley Museum and Library with nearly 30 years of experience working in natural and cultural history museums, science centers and planetariums. Photos courtesy of Hagley Museum and Library and image created using AI on 8/17/26
Museum innovator Hillary Olson plans to invite employees, visitors, educators and the wider community to help shape Hagley’s future
WILMINGTON — For Hillary Olson, Hagley Museum and Library is more than a place to study what inventors and business leaders accomplished in the past. It is a place where a child, family or researcher can begin imagining what might be possible in the future.
Olson, who became Hagley’s CEO in July, wants to build on that sense of inspiration and discovery as the museum prepares for its next era.
Hagley is now in the fifth and final year of its current five-year strategic plan, which will conclude at the end of 2026. In 2027, Hagley will begin developing its next strategic plan through a collaborative process involving employees, volunteers, board members, visitors, educators, community organizations and other stakeholders.
The new plan has not yet been written. Input gathered during the 2027 planning process will help establish Hagley’s priorities and direction for the years ahead.
“In any strategic planning process I’m a part of, when we say that we’re engaging our stakeholders, it’s not just our board, it’s not just our members,” Olson said. “It is people who don’t visit, because it’s a great time to find out why.”
The effort will consider how Hagley can reach more people, strengthen its educational programs, expand community partnerships and maintain its historic property for future generations.
“I can tell you that it will probably be a visitor-focused strategic plan,” Olson said.
Visitors will be broadly defined to include families, students, museum guests, scholars and researchers who use Hagley’s library.
A career built around museums and stories
Olson comes to Hagley with nearly 30 years of experience working in natural and cultural history museums, science centers and planetariums.
Her original academic background is in astronomy and geology. She later returned to school and earned a master’s degree in museum leadership, bringing together her interest in science with a passion for helping museums tell stories in engaging and understandable ways.
Before joining Hagley, Olson served as president and CEO of the Rochester Museum and Science Center in New York. There, she led an organization with three sites and more than 1.2 million collection objects. Her work included strategic and master planning, capital improvements, fundraising and building relationships with regional communities.
Olson said her passion is helping people engage with authentic artifacts, documents and historic places in ways that encourage them to see history, science and culture differently.
A museum visit, she said, should do more than present facts. It should give visitors an opportunity to encounter an object, understand how it was used and consider what they might create or improve themselves.
That focus on storytelling and discovery made Hagley especially appealing.
Olson had visited Hagley when she lived in Philadelphia and later returned with her young children. She remembered the powder yards, exhibitions and setting along the Brandywine.
When she learned the CEO position was available, she began studying the museum, its library, finances and programs. She was drawn to the complexity of an institution that combines industrial and business history, science, technology, horticulture, historic preservation and public education.
“I saw the wonderful complexity of it all, which is something that I’m drawn to,” Olson said.
Hagley’s board also helped persuade her to take the position. She said its members are open to change and new initiatives while remaining committed to protecting Hagley for future generations.
Inspiration built into the property
Hagley occupies 235 acres along the Brandywine and includes the site of the gunpowder works founded by E.I. du Pont in 1802. Its working machinery, millrace, historic homes, gardens, museum artifacts and collections, and business history archives allow visitors to encounter history through objects and experiences.
Olson sees those resources as tools for inspiring people to ask how things work, how they can be improved and what problems they might solve.
“The historic gunpowder yard is full of STEM,” she said. “It’s an engineering endeavor.”
Visitors can watch water turn machinery installed during the 19th century. They can study small patent models created to demonstrate inventions and improvements. They can also see how science, mathematics and engineering helped transform a gunpowder operation into the foundation of a major American company.
Olson said innovation does not always require creating something entirely new. Frequently, it begins by improving something that already exists.
“You’re not just inventing the wheel; you’re improving the wheel,” she said.
That message could be particularly valuable for children who may not yet think of themselves as scientists, engineers or inventors.
During Hagley’s gunpowder demonstrations, the sound of a small explosion immediately captures people’s attention. Olson said that excitement creates an opening to ask how people solved difficult problems hundreds of years ago — and what problems today’s students might one day solve.
“What are you going to figure out, fourth grader, in your life?” Olson said. “What is the problem that you’re going to solve?”
Bringing classroom lessons to life
Expanding school partnerships is expected to be an important part of Hagley’s planning.
Olson wants the museum to speak directly with teachers about their curriculum requirements and develop field trips that support what students are learning in school. Hagley guides create programs using the working equipment in the powder yards to demonstrate technology concepts that can be difficult to understand from a textbook.
Hagley also offers opportunities involving history, social studies, horticulture, and science. Its DuPont Discovery Loft includes current technologies like 3D printers and space for hands-on STEM activities.
Olson described the goal as providing “hands-on, minds-on” experiences that offer something beyond what children can receive in a classroom.
The programs must be educationally useful because teachers often need to demonstrate that a field trip meets curriculum standards before a school can approve the cost.
Hagley will also expand fundraising to provide free or subsidized field trips for students from underserved communities. Olson said access to transportation and admission should not prevent students from experiencing the museum’s resources.
Expanding partnerships with community organizations could help Hagley reach new audiences while also bringing in expertise and connection, meeting the needs of community members in setting rooted in the history of innovation.
Asking the community what it needs
Olson began listening immediately upon arriving at Hagley.
During her first several days, she sent a survey to the museum and library’s more than 150 full- and part-time employees. She asked what they wanted her to understand about their jobs, what they believed Hagley was doing well and what opportunities they saw for its future.
The responses reflected considerable pride in Hagley and its mission, as well as an interest in more collaboration and connection with each other.
That internal conversation is expected to grow into a broader community discussion when Hagley begins developing the new strategic plan in 2027.
Olson said outreach should include people who attend Hagley’s popular events, families who visit its museum and gardens, teachers who bring students and scholars who travel to Delaware to use the library. It should also reach residents who live in the region but have never visited.
Their absence, she said, is itself valuable information. Hagley must understand whether people are unfamiliar with its programs, do not see something that speaks to their interests or face practical barriers to visiting.
The objective is to make Hagley welcoming and relevant to more people while staying true to its strong connection to northern Delaware.
Local roots and a wider reach
Olson believes Hagley can remain a community institution while attracting more visitors from the broader region.
Its museum audience is largely local, but its library already has a national and international reputation. Scholars travel from around the world to examine its collections of business records, advertising materials and other primary-source documents. Some researchers visit for a few hours, while others remain on campus for months.
Olson sees an opportunity to expand the museum’s regional reach and impact, introducing Hagley to new visitors and people who are traveling to the Brandywine Valley.
But expanding Hagley’s audience will not mean leaving the local community behind.
“Serving the people in the immediate community is step one,” Olson said.
Preserving a complicated historic site
Hagley’s future also depends on maintaining the property that makes its educational mission possible.
Historic buildings, waterways and working machinery require specialized skills and regular investment. Hagley must address rising costs while raising money for capital improvements, operations and educational programs.
The 2027 planning process is expected to examine philanthropic support as well as earned revenue from admissions, memberships and programs.
Olson said Hagley benefits from long-serving employees, dedicated volunteers, support from members of the du Pont family and many other donors, and a board willing to consider change while protecting the institution’s legacy.
That balance — preserving the past while encouraging discovery — helped attract her to Hagley.
Few institutions bring together industrial history, science, a dynamic library and archive, gardens, historic homes and hands-on education in one place. Olson believes those resources can be used to inspire more people to understand how earlier generations solved problems and to imagine what they might make possible themselves.
The answers will come not only from Hagley’s leadership. They will also come from the employees who care for its collections, the teachers seeking new ways to reach students, the families and guests who use its grounds, and the community that surrounds it.
At a glance
What:Hagley Museum and Library’s next strategic planning process
When:Hagley is in the final year of its current five-year strategic plan, which concludes at the end of 2026. Development of the next plan will begin in 2027.
Who will participate:Hagley employees, volunteers, board members, donors and sponsors, visitors, educators, community partners, academics, researchers and people who do not currently visit
Likely areas of discussion: Visitor engagement, educational access, community partnerships, digital engagement, regional growth, fundraising, capital improvements and long-term sustainability
Central question: How can Hagley use its history, library, land and collections to help more people discover what they can create, improve or make possible?
Image: State Rep. Josué Ortega and Councilwoman Shané Darby want the Delaware Department of Justice to use its authority to obtain records from the city and its towing contractor and independently examine the program.
Officials cite 19,083 vehicle tows, incomplete financial records and questions about how cars are selected, held and disposed of
WILMINGTON — A state representative and Wilmington City Council member are asking the Delaware Attorney General’s Office to investigate the city’s vehicle-towing and parking-debt collection practices, citing records they say raise questions about financial accountability, enforcement and the loss of residents’ vehicles.
State Rep. Josué Ortega and Councilwoman Shané Darby submitted the referral after reviewing city records covering 19,083 vehicles towed from fiscal years 2020 through 2025.
The officials are not alleging that any individual committed a crime or asking the attorney general to accept their conclusions. They want the Delaware Department of Justice to use its authority to obtain records from the city and its towing contractor and independently examine the program.
“The reason we are asking the attorney general to look at this is straightforward,” Ortega said. “Some of the questions raised by those records can be answered only by an office empowered to compel the city and its towing contractor to produce records that a member of the public cannot reach on their own.”
The Attorney General’s Office had not publicly announced whether it would open an investigation as of Monday.
Wilmington’s tow volume questioned
According to the referral, Wilmington towed more vehicles during the six-year period than all other Delaware municipalities that responded to related public-records requests combined.
The officials said Wilmington’s per-capita towing rate was roughly twice that of comparable Delaware cities.
They contrasted Wilmington’s system with Newark, which generally immobilizes vehicles for parking debt instead of towing them. Immobilization allows an owner to recover the vehicle after resolving the debt without the vehicle being immediately removed and impounded.
The figures and comparisons were presented by Ortega and Darby based on records obtained through Delaware’s Freedom of Information Act. They have not been independently audited by the Attorney General’s Office.
Questions about money collected
A central issue is whether the city can document how much parking debt it collects when a vehicle is towed.
According to the referral, an assistant city solicitor responded to a public-records request by saying the city “does not maintain records responsive to this request” when asked for the amount of ticket revenue collected through towing.
Ortega and Darby said the city’s reported revenue appears to account for a flat vehicle-release fee but does not separately identify payments toward the parking tickets that triggered the tow.
“Delawareans expect that when a government takes a person’s car, the records will show the debt that justified the tow,” Ortega said. “When those records cannot be produced, an independent look is warranted.”
Thousands of vehicles reportedly scrapped
About 29% of all vehicles towed during the period were scrapped rather than returned to their owners, according to the referral. Among vehicles towed specifically for parking debt, the figure was approximately 58%.
Under the city’s arrangement, the towing contractor retains proceeds from vehicles that are scrapped or resold, the officials said. The city then waives the underlying ticket debt when ownership is transferred to the contractor.
Ortega said towing itself is not evidence of misconduct but argued that government must be able to document what happened to a vehicle and the debt associated with it.
“Cities tow cars,” he said. “But how a city tows cars matters.”
Few appeals and no recorded owner victories
The referral also raises questions about the appeals process.
Of approximately 4,564 tows reviewed over an 18-month period, only 30 vehicle owners appealed, according to the officials. None of the records showed an appeal decided in favor of the owner.
Appeals are heard within the same city department responsible for ordering tows and collecting the debt, the referral said.
Darby said investigators should examine whether the process provides vehicle owners with a meaningful opportunity to challenge a tow.
“Why not one appeal is recorded as decided in an owner’s favor — those are questions that require access to records the council cannot reach on its own,” she said.
Uneven enforcement alleged
The officials also questioned how the city selects vehicles for enforcement.
More than 2,000 vehicles reportedly carried balances above the city’s threshold for booting, but only a small percentage were towed during any particular month. Some vehicles with the largest unpaid balances were apparently not targeted.
The referral does not conclude that the differences resulted from favoritism or intentional discrimination. It asks investigators to determine whether the city follows consistent criteria when choosing which eligible vehicles to boot or tow.
Vehicles held for years
Ortega and Darby identified 182 vehicles that were held for more than 180 days after the city ordered them towed under collection-related accounts.
Fifty-eight of those vehicles had no recorded release or final disposition, according to the referral. Some had reportedly remained in the records for more than five years.
The city identified five vehicles as having been disposed of through Justice of the Peace Court lien proceedings initiated by its towing contractor. However, the officials said the contractor’s operational records did not contain corresponding entries documenting a release, sale or other disposition.
One was a 1990 Lotus Esprit whose record reportedly contains only its towing date. The five vehicles had a combined estimated private-party value of at least $55,000 based on current published valuation guides, while the contractor’s records listed each with a zero balance, according to the referral.
Those valuations are estimates and do not establish the vehicles’ condition or value when they were towed.
Earlier review raised similar concerns
The referral contends that questions about Wilmington’s towing records predate the current contractor.
In 2018, an assistant city solicitor told AAA Mid-Atlantic that the city had never received vehicle-sale records from its towing contractor and said monthly reporting would begin.
AAA’s 2019 report examined 3,671 vehicles towed during a 15-month period. It found records of only 468 notices to owners and said 1,320 vehicles appeared never to have been released.
Although Wilmington has since changed towing contractors, Ortega and Darby contend that gaps in recordkeeping remain.
City did not respond before referral
The officials said they presented their questions to the city in July and gave the administration until Aug. 14 to respond or announce an audit. According to their release, the city did neither.
Darby sponsored a 2024 City Council resolution calling for a comprehensive audit of Wilmington’s towing and parking-enforcement practices. The administration declined to conduct it, she said.
Ortega previously worked in the city’s Office of Constituent Affairs from 2016 to 2021, where he said he handled complaints from residents about towing.
“This request is not adversarial to the city of Wilmington,” Darby said. “I represent the city. I want its systems to work fairly, uniformly and lawfully.”
The referral asks the attorney general to determine what the city collects when it tows a vehicle for parking debt, whether payments are reconciled with the underlying tickets, how enforcement targets are selected, whether appeals are handled fairly and what happens to vehicles that are not reclaimed.
At a Glance
What happened: State Rep. Josué Ortega and Wilmington Councilwoman Shané Darby asked the Delaware Attorney General’s Office to investigate Wilmington’s towing, impoundment and parking-debt practices.
Period examined: Fiscal years 2020 through 2025.
Vehicles involved: 19,083.
Vehicles reportedly scrapped: About 29% of all towed vehicles and approximately 58% of those towed for parking debt.
Appeals reviewed: Thirty appeals among roughly 4,564 tows during an 18-month period. None was recorded as decided for the vehicle owner.
Long-term impounds: The referral identifies 182 vehicles held longer than 180 days, including 58 with no recorded release or disposition.
What the officials want: An independent investigation with authority to obtain records from the city and its towing contractor.
What happens next: The Attorney General’s Office must decide whether to open an investigation. The referral itself does not establish wrongdoing.
How much of learning curve is there, really. Is there much more to it then adjusting endless sliders? Is there any actual coding or more complicated alignment procedures that are dangerous if done incorrectly?
New signs in the City of Newark's downtown parking lots depict a cartoon rabbit holding a coffee cup – part of the way the city is promoting its new program that offers visitors free parking for up to 15 minutes…
One of the Loco Beach Coconuts’ mascots, Peter Colada, interacts with a fan during the first Banana Ball game in Wilmington, Delaware. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The Texas Tailgaters and Loco Beach Coconuts of the Banana Ball Championship League played the first ever Banana Ball game in Delaware in front of a sold out crowd Thursday, August 13.
WILMINGTON, DE — “You’re going to see the most entertainment during a baseball game with tricks and being fans first [both] players and staff.”
That’s how Texas Tailgater Zach Watson said he’d sum up Banana Ball in a sentence to a new fan.
Watson got to meet with many new fans as Banana Ball took over Frawley Stadium, Thursday night, in the first ever Banana Ball game in Wilmington, Delaware. The game featured Watson’s team — the Texas Tailgaters — in a matchup against one of Banana Ball’s newest teams, the Loco Beach Coconuts.
Banana Ball isn’t a traditional baseball setting. For starters, the Coconuts were the home team but in this format they’re deemed the “headliners”. That’s because Banana Ball is geared to constantly entertain its fans with more than just the product on the field.
“I don’t think there’s ever a quiet moment,” Watson said.
Pregame
Fans lined up outside the front parking lot of Frawley Stadium around 3:00 p.m. waiting to enter the plaza area for the “rope drop” at 3:30. The plaza was themed in accordance with the weekend’s headliners. Beach themed signs, palm trees and surf boards transformed the parking lot into “Loco Beach”. The Coconuts’ players and staff greeted the fans under the Loco Beach Coconut themed archway and welcomed them into the plaza over three hours before the game was set to officially start.
The minute fans enter the plaza their Banana Ball experience begins.
Fans could check out the merchandise available for both teams at merchandise tents or grab free refresher samples at the Dunkin truck. Tropical Smoothie Cafe served smoothies out of a small tiki hut and a couple of food trucks were available for hungry patrons.
The real excitement of the plaza experience wasn’t any of that though. It was the players and cast members themselves.
The players spent over an hour outside meeting with fans, taking pictures and signing autographs. Each interaction was genuine. Players not only signed but had a conversation with each family or fan that approached. Cast members like the Hulagans and Loco Beach lifeguards did the same, creating an environment completely in line with the Banana Ball motto of “Fans First. Entertain Always.”
“Just going out there and making sure a fan has the best time of their life,” Watson said. “Even if it’s trying to influence one fan, hoping they’re having fun and introduce yourself and talk to them, so yeah, fans first.”
A member of the Hulagans poses for a picture while out in the plaza interacting with fans. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
The players eventually left the plaza area, but some fans didn’t even notice, because a pregame party was erupting on the stage to the right of the stadium. The official band of the Coconuts — Sitting on Saturn — ushered in the start of the Loco Beach Live Show — a portion of the pregame festivities.
The Band
Sitting on Saturn is a band from California that found their way to Banana Ball through a direct message from Banana Ball creator Jesse Cole.
“I guess he saw like one of our TikToks and listened to like our album and was like ‘I’m starting up a team called the Coconuts and I would love if you guys would be like, you know, play some music for us’ and I’m like, ‘dude I’m so down’,” said lead singer Hoyt Yeatman.
The three person band includes guitar players and singers Yeatman and Kyle Hart as well as drummer Trevor Smith.
Yeatman and Hart said the band was thrown right into the action performing their first show with the Coconuts at Petco Park — the home of the San Diego Padres — in March of this year, becoming the official band of the Coconuts. The band travels with the team, plays pregame and postgame shows and are a part of the action during the game whether that be playing a song on the field or in the stands.
“We can’t like see what the players are doing behind us so we’re just playing our, what we normally do, and yeah, they’re dancing and stuff and we normally [don’t] see it until we watch the video after,” Hart said.
“We’ll be playing a song or something and then they have like a dance that they’re doing with us and it’s like you got the whole team, like it’s just like when two worlds collide kind of. I don’t think it’s ever really been done honestly. It’s cool,” Yeatman said.
Sitting on Saturn performs during the pregame Loco Beach Live Show. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
Yeatman and Hart said their experience in Banana Ball and playing live music in coordination with a live baseball game is still a little strange, but it’s an experience they’re thankful to be a part of.
“Honestly, it’s cool. We have like our own baseball card, Banana Ball card, and I’m like, I would never in a million years think that our band would have like a baseball trading card, but like here it is,” Yeatman said. “It’s so cool we’re very blessed, very fortunate.”
Game Time
The Loco Beach Live Show continued up until the gates to the field opened at 5:30 p.m. entertaining fans with the band’s music and interactive games coordinated by each team’s Banana Ball Host.
The entertainment didn’t stop once the fans entered the stadium.
Even as fans were finding their seats or grabbing concessions for the game there was a member of the Banana Ball cast interacting with a fan, hosting an activity or setting up for the next activity.
As fans entered the stadium, the excitement to see the actual on field product was palpable. First time viewers speculated on what they were about to witness while some fans that had seen clips or portions of Banana Ball before, speculated on what trick plays they’d get to see.
Once the clock hit 7:00 p.m. anticipation and speculation became reality.
Banana Ball is a fast-paced game that never lacks in action. Banana Ball rules like no mound visits, no bunting and no stepping out of the batter’s box keep the game moving to fit within the two hour time limit. The players on the field are always participating in something whether that be the game itself, cheering from outside the dugout or interacting with the audience from the field.
“I say to anybody that’s joining, it’s Crossfit baseball,” Watson said. “You got two hours of nonstop movement. You don’t sit down ever.”
Zach Watson turns toward second base after getting a hit against the Coconut pitcher. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder
Some normal baseball rules still apply. There are nine defenders, one batter in the box and the pitcher still initiates the play with a pitch. The bases are the standard distance and when a runner crosses home it still counts as a run scored, though that doesn’t mean the team is up one to nothing.
In Banana Ball, the goal is to get the most points. Points are earned by winning an inning. The team that scores the most runs in an inning earns the point, making each frame its own mini game. The final inning is more traditional where every run that crosses the plate counts as a point.
On Thursday, the Tailgaters won the game 6-3, earning a point with wins in the second, sixth and seventh innings. The Tailgaters also won the equalizer point awarded to the team with the most trick plays going into the final inning. The Tailgaters pulled off 14 trick play outs sending hitters back to the dugout with tag team catches and grabs with a cowboy hat.
The trick plays are an exciting feature to what is still a competitive baseball game at its core.
There is still plenty of entertainment to the product on the field. Players have creative walk-up dances, skits and antics during play. For example, after a hit by pitch the Coconuts recreated the scene of Jack and Rose from “Titanic” and during one at-bat Coconut player, Kaden Bowler, took an at-bat while riding a hoverboard designed to look like a surfboard. Those creative entertainment features add spectacle to what is a high level baseball game played by high level athletes.
“It’s a completely different game than what you see on TikTok,” Watson said. “You just see the dances and everything mostly on TikTok so when you actually come to a game you’re like dang these boys are actually, we’re actually playing baseball. You don’t expect that.”
Coconut Kaden Bowler glides to first on a hoverboard designed to look like a surfboard. Photo Credit: Dave Reeder.
Postgame
After the game is over there is still more to experience.
Players from both teams returned to the plaza to sign autographs and talk with fans. Sitting on Saturn played more music and the entertainment continued until about 9:30 p.m. when the venue closed. The postgame plaza party ends a Banana Ball experience that begins over three hours before a pitch is even thrown.
“I’m excited for these fans, if they have never been, to experience Banana Ball in a different way,” Watson told Delaware Live before the game.
The Tailgaters and Coconuts wrapped up their three game series in Delaware, Saturday night, with a 4-3 win from the Tailgaters giving them the 2-1 series win. The Tailgaters have already secured their spot in the Banana Ball Championship League postseason, but the Coconuts are still fighting to claim one of the three remaining spots.
Fans that want to keep track of the rest of the 2026 Banana Ball World Tour can check the Banana Ball website for upcoming events and ways to watch the games.
This story was updated on August 17 to include pictures from gameday.
Studies have shown no connection between COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy and increased risk of miscarriage. Despite this, Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Ron Johnson resurrected a long-debunked claim of an astronomical rate of miscarriage after vaccination while also accusing Dr. Anthony Fauci of deceiving the public about the safety of the shots during pregnancy.
On Aug. 10, the lawmakers released texts from the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’s government-issued cell phone from January 2021.
“Privately over text, Fauci admitted concerns about COVID vaccine side effects ‘associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester,’ yet told the public there was nothing to worry about,” Paul, of Kentucky, said in an Aug. 11 post on X. “Once again, we expose Fauci’s dishonesty.”
“The safety signals, the red flags, were screaming at these people, and you got Anthony Fauci there lying bold-faced to the American public,” Johnson, a senator from Wisconsin, said in an Aug. 12 Fox News appearance.
“We will never know how many babies were miscarried because of Fauci’s lies,” Johnson said in an X post the following day.
In a video accompanying Paul’s post and in an Aug. 10 press release, the senators juxtaposed a single text from Fauci about a theoretical concern about vaccination and miscarriage — which was not subsequently borne out by data — with a series of public comments from Fauci between Feb. 3, 2021 and Aug. 30, 2021.
The senators’ claims of deception are missing key context, both on what Fauci said and how information on maternal vaccine safety evolved in the months after the COVID-19 vaccines were first authorized, as we will explain.
“By January and February of 2021, we knew that COVID infection during pregnancy increased the risk of pregnancy loss and other pregnancy complications, such as pre-eclampsia,” Victoria Male, an associate professor of reproductive immunology at Imperial College London, told us in an email. “On the other hand, the limited evidence we had about the safety of COVID vaccination in pregnancy was reassuring, and evidence was accumulating rapidly.”
Paul and Johnson also resurfaced a claim that a study found an 82% rate of miscarriages after COVID-19 vaccination — a falsehood that some other Republican politicians amplified. We originally fact-checked this claim, based on an incorrect calculation from vaccine safety monitoring data, in 2021.
Meanwhile, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya told Martha MacCallum during an Aug. 11 Fox News interview that it is “certainly possible” that COVID-19 vaccines could have led to miscarriages. He also said that the debate about miscarriage and COVID-19 vaccines “rages on in the scientific literature.”
Those claims are unsupported. “The current data continue to show no increased risk of miscarriage (or any other pregnancy complication) associated with COVID-19 vaccination,” Male said.
We asked the NIH for more information on the literature Bhattacharya was referring to, but we did not receive a reply. Paul’s office did not reply to our request for comment.
Johnson’s communications director, Grace Carnathan, did not directly defend the 82% figure. “The question isn’t what the actual percentage of miscarriage risk is — we probably will never know because of grossly inadequate and negligent, if not corrupt, safety surveillance,” she said. “The question should be why federal health officials consistently withheld information on safety signals, thereby depriving the public of fully informed consent.”
Citing the testimony of a gynecologist who has made incorrect claims before, she maintained that “there is controversy over what the data shows” and that “Fauci withheld information from pregnant women that they had the right to know.”
What Fauci’s Early Texts and Interviews Show
Fauci’s January 2021 texts, which shared reassuring information alongside the theoretical concern Paul and Johnson highlighted, were sent the month after the first two COVID-19 vaccines received emergency use authorizations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical organizations at the time did not make a recommendation as to whether people should get vaccinated during pregnancy, citing a lack of data.
The posted exchange begins on Jan. 25, 2021, with then-Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy asking Fauci and then-CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky if they are “aware of any data or theoretical reason why vaccinating early vs late in pregnancy would be preferred.”
At first, Fauci replied that there was none. But a bit later that day, he said, “I asked around a bit more and another issue came up that you need to be aware of. Since many people have significant cytokines storm and fever after the 2nd dose, this theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.”
Sens. Ron Johnson and Rand Paul prior to an Aug. 6 committee vote to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images.
High fever is associated with certain poor outcomes in pregnancy, as we will explain below, although it’s not clear it can cause miscarriage. The term cytokine storm isn’t strictly defined, although it generally refers to a level of severe inflammatory response that isn’t seen after COVID-19 vaccination, but can occur with severe COVID-19. Vaccination triggers an immune response that temporarily increases the levels of certain cytokines to coordinate that response, but not to the degree of a cytokine storm.
“In January 2021, when there was very little evidence about the safety of COVID vaccination in pregnancy, it was sensible to be cautious and consider the theoretical possibility that fever associated with vaccination might be harmful in pregnancy,” Male said.
“Subsequent evidence found no increased risk of pregnancy loss, or any other pregnancy problems that might be caused by fever, following vaccination,” she added.
The day after passing along the point about fever, Fauci shared his overall thoughts on COVID-19 vaccination and pregnancy in the text message thread.
“I would say that in any vaccine in which data are lacking in pregnant women one must weigh the potential risks against the benefits,” he said. “COVID-19 can be a serious disease especially in pregnancy. In the vaccine trials, pregnant women were not allowed but following the EUA, a large number (more than 10,000) pregnant women have been vaccinated. No issues have arisen.”
Fauci went on to acknowledge recommendations giving pregnant women a “choice” on whether to get vaccinated while adding that toxicity studies in animals “did not raise any red flags.”
Paul and Johnson portrayed Fauci’s private comments as contrasting with his public ones. But while he did not publicly mention risks of fever during pregnancy in the interviews we reviewed, his contemporaneous statements in fact hewed fairly closely to his Jan. 26 text message.
Fauci accurately shared on several occasions in late January and February that in the data on people vaccinated during pregnancy to date, therewereno “redflags” — comments the senators highlighted in their video and press release. He also repeatedly noted that the vaccines had not been tested in clinical trials on pregnant women and described the need to weigh the benefits versus potential risks, given the dangers of COVID-19 during pregnancy.
Male, who was tracking data on pregnancy and COVID-19 vaccination in early 2021, explained that data on the subject grew quickly. Originally, scientists knew that among the few dozen people who got pregnant while participating in the clinical trials, “there was no difference in the rate of miscarriage between the vaccinated and unvaccinated groups,” she said.
As the vaccine rolled out after the original two EUAs in December 2020, U.S. health agencies tracked outcomes. As of Feb. 28, 2021, “35,691 people had been vaccinated during pregnancy and spontaneous reporting to VAERS did not suggest any safety concerns,” Male said, referring to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
A day later, a CDC scientist presented data to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices from multiple vaccine safety monitoring systems, finding that thus far, miscarriage and other pregnancy outcomes did not appear to be elevated.
“So even by the end of February, we were beginning to have good, reassuring data on the safety of COVID vaccination in pregnancy – although of course we got lots more later,” Male said.
Fauci’s Comments Evolved With the Evidence
To give an impression of duplicity, Paul and Johnson misleadingly mixed Fauci’s comments from different time periods, following a pattern of deception Paul has used before. The video Paul posted sandwiched an abbreviated version of Fauci’s moretempered comments from early 2021 betweencomments from around six months later.
During this interval, the data supporting vaccination during pregnancy had continued to mount. By mid-August 2021, many medical organizations and the CDC had endorsed vaccination for pregnant people.
At the time, the U.S. was experiencing the Delta wave of the pandemic, and data would go on to show that this was a particularly dangerous phase of the pandemic for those who were pregnant and unvaccinated. Such people had higher rates of preterm birth and stillbirth than had been seen previously.
“It’s very, very clear that it is safe in pregnant women,” the video shows Fauci stating on the “Today” show on Aug. 12, the day after the CDC recommended that pregnant people get vaccinated. In that interview, Fauci cites “the extraordinary amount of data now that’s accumulated with pregnant women” demonstrating safety, as well as the harms of COVID-19 to the woman and the fetus.
“It’s pretty clear that pregnant women should get vaccinated,” Fauci said during an interview posted Aug. 30, which was highlighted in both the video and press release.
The Facts on Fever in Pregnancy
Fauci’s January 2021 comment was also in keeping with longstanding general knowledge that fever can be associated with risks during pregnancy — a fact that prominent guidance on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy shared at the time.
“The complication of pregnancy that is most closely associated with fever is congenital abnormalities,” or birth defects, Male said. She explained that primarily because of this, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advises that pregnant people take acetaminophen, or Tylenol, if they have a fever, in consultation with a doctor.
Since the beginning of the vaccine rollout, this recommendation has included pregnant people who get a fever following COVID-19 vaccination. “Pregnant women who experience fever following vaccination should be counseled to take acetaminophen, as fever has been associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes,” December 2020 guidancefrom ACOG and the CDC both said. Both the CDC and the medical organization continue to recommend treating fever in consultation with a doctor, including after COVID-19 vaccination.
That said, birth defects “are associated specifically with high fevers (higher than would be expected from vaccination) early in the first trimester,” Male said. And indeed, studies have not gone on to show COVID-19 vaccination in the first trimester is associated with an increased risk of birth defects, she added.
Male explained that when it comes to miscarriage, fever itself may not even be what increases the risk. “Some infections that cause fever also increase the risk of miscarriage, but it isn’t clear that the fever (or the cytokines that cause the fever) are causing miscarriage in these cases: it could well be other aspects of the infection,” she said.
Persistent, False Claim of High Miscarriage Rate
Despite datathat has failed to show that COVID-19 vaccination increases miscarriage risk, Johnson and Paul in their press release elevated a false claim of an 82% miscarriage rate after COVID-19 vaccination. The senators highlighted a January 2022 letter on the topic from Dr. James A. Thorp, an gynecologist whose erroneous and misleading claims we have written about before.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas, repeated the false statistic on X on Aug. 12, while referring to an episode of his podcast titled in part, “Bombshell Data: Fauci Covered up that Covid Vaccine Produced 82% Miscarriage Rate.” The post and podcast were subsequently taken down, and Cruz noted a correction on his podcast, although he maintained that the broader point about Fauci was still true.
Rep. Lisa McClain, a Republican from Michigan, falsely claimed on Fox Business on Aug. 11 that “in fact, The New England Journal of Medicine said 82% of women who got the vaccine in their first or second trimester had a miscarriage.” (The next day, the host of the show followed up to “clarify” the segment.)
We first wrote about the 82% claim in July 2021, when it was circulating in multiple online posts. As we explained at the time, the statistic relies on distortion of CDC data in a New England Journal of Medicine study published in April 2021 that summarized early information on COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy.
The study tracked results for 827 people who got vaccinated during pregnancy between December 2020 and the end of February 2021 and had already completed their pregnancies by the end of March, preliminarily finding that 104 had miscarriages. The false claim of an 82% miscarriage rate comes from dividing the 104 miscarriages by the 127 people in the study who got vaccinated in the first or second trimester — a calculation that the paper did not present.
It’s an improper calculation because most people vaccinated during the first or second trimester would not have yet had time to complete their pregnancies unless their pregnancies ended early.
“It’s like calculating a school’s dropout rate in October by looking only at the students who have already left,” Dr. Jake Scott, an infectious disease physician at Stanford Medicine, said in an Aug. 11 X post explaining the claim.
Dr. Eve C. Feinberg, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told us in July 2021 that the 82% was “pure number manipulation and propaganda” and “a ridiculous claim and simply not observed clinically.”
A subsequent paper was published in September 2021, also based on the CDC data, showing a miscarriage rate of lower than 15%, which the researchers said was not higher than expected during pregnancy. Miscarriage is common, especially early in pregnancy.
A final analysis of CDC pregnancy monitoring data, published in February 2026, found a miscarriage rate of 10.79%. “It looked at the week-by-week risk of miscarriage in 12,097 people vaccinated before they were 20 weeks pregnant, finding that there was no increased risk,” Male said.
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Today, you can get low-quality knockoffs of just about any popular smartphone on sites like AliExpress or Temu, whether they be iPhones, Galaxy phones, or whatever else. They have terrible build quality, bottom-of-the-barrel components and specifications, and all run outdated versions of Android – badly. At the same time, various consumer electronics brands, once popular in a bygone era, sell the rights to their brand name to unknown companies, who then put these brands on generic hardware to give their products a sheen of legitimacy. That’s why today, you can still buy Nokia smartphones, Polaroid cameras, and low-effort Hi-Fi equipment from various once-respected brands.
None of this is new, however. In the late ’90s and early 2000s, companies were already doing the same thing. In fact, there’s one device from this era which combines both business practices – it’s both a cheap knockoff of a wildly successful device, and it carries a once-revered brand name. Also, just to add some juice, this story involves stolen source code.
Let’s take a look at the worst PDA of all time, the Olivetti daVinci.
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In 1997, Palm launched the Palm Pilot, and it and its successors proved to be a massive hit. Where countless before it had failed, Palm found the magic formula to make pocket computing work. I wrote an in-depth article about Palm over 13 years ago which goes into much (much) more detail, but the reason the Palm Pilot succeeded where things like the Newton, PenPoint OS, and Windows for Pen Computing failed, is that Palm’s founder, Jeff Hawkins, realised that they were competing with paper, not with desktop computers. Instead of trying to shove the capabilities of a full personal computer into a (barely) pockatable device, a pocket computer had to be as fast and convenient as paper, and therefore extremely strict about which features to add, and which to omit.
To this day, the entirety of smartphone computing stands on the shoulders of Palm. Palm’s ideas, implementations, approaches, paradigms, and even people were absorbed by Apple and Google, where they shaped both iOS and Android. The phone you’re looking at right now has a ton of Palm DNA in it, still. After all, you’re still using the homescreen-with-apps paradigm Palm already perfected in the late ’90s and early 2000s.
The success of the Palm Pilot and its successors did not go unnoticed. Microsoft, most prominently, felt incredibly threatened by Palm’s success:
The success of Palm’s products got the attention of Microsoft, and the company pretty much announced it was going to crush Palm. According to Hawkins, Microsoft had a sales conference, where, at some point, a big target appeared on the projector screen, with the Palm logo dead in the centre of it: “we are going to crush and kill these guys”, was the central message. Hawkins recalls that he got condolence letters after that, stating things like “Sorry Jeff. Too bad.”
While Microsoft proved to be unable to “kill and crush” Palm, it did manage to build a relatively successful business selling PDAs running various incarnations of Windows CE. Together, Palm and Microsoft dominated the PDA market pretty much throughout its entire existence, and while the market was a mere fraction of the smartphone market of today, other companies still wanted a piece of this pie too. One of these companies was Olivetti, a storied Italian company with a long history making typewriters, computers, and other electronics.
I’m not going into detail about Olivetti’s history, but the company was renowned for its attention to design, creating iconic products like the Lexikon 80, Lettera 22, Elea 9003, Programma 101, and so, so many more. Olivetti also entered the personal computer market, first with a variety of custom machines featuring Z80 and later Motorola 68000 processors running a variety of custom operating systems developed by Olivetti (including its own UNIX variant, X/OS). After a few machines using MIPS and Alpha processors in the early ’90s, the company would eventually focus entirely on Intel-based PCs (including this amazing failure) running Windows. Like so many other computer makers from that era, Olivetti eventually left the PC business by selling it off in 1997.
To this day, Olivetti PCs tend to cost more on the used market than those from other brands, despite no technical merits dictating so.
At around this time, our current story begins. Seeing the success of the Palm Pilot and the emergence of copycat devices running Microsoft’s Windows CE, Olivetti wanted in on the action. And so, in the late ’90s, the company introduced the Olivetti daVinci, a line of PDAs whose software looked suspiciously like Palm OS. There’s not a ton of information out there about the development history, but it seems that while Olivetti designed the hardware, it contracted the development of the operating system out to a company from Hong Kong, Echolink Design.
And this is where things went horribly wrong for Olivetti. The software Echolink Design developed for the daVinci didn’t just look like Palm OS, it was Palm OS – at least, according to Palm. After being on the market for about a year, the Palm Pilot maker, then a subsidiary of 3Com, filed for an injunction, alleging that the daVinci operating system designed by Echolink Design contained actual Palm OS source code. In addition, Palm also filed suit against CompanionLink Software, the company that developed the Outlook synchronisation software for the daVinci. Palm won handily, and within a day of the filing, temporary restraining orders were put in place on both Olivetti and CompanionLink, stopping sales of the daVinci and its software dead in its tracks.
It seemed to have been a pretty clear-cut case. From The Wall Street Journal at the time:
U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled Olivetti’s Royal daVinci organizer contains software that appears to have been copied from the operating system for 3Com’s Palm organizers. Judge Ware said a review by a software expert found the daVinci software contains private Palm code and even grammatical mistakes that appear to have been “copied verbatim.”
It’s difficult to ascertain what code, exactly, was stolen, but my personal educated guess is that it probably involved Palm’s unique Graffiti handwriting recognition system. Graffiti actually predates the first Palm Pilot, and was available on a variety of non-Palm devices; it doesn’t seem entirely unlikely to me that the code for it escaped containment that way, eventually finding its way to Echolink Design. I’m just guessing here, though, as I can’t seem to find any of the original court documents concerning the case.
In a bind, Olivetti claimed the copied code represented less than 2% of the operating system’s code, and set about to release a new version of the software for the daVinci.
And so we end up at the device I have in my collection. Several years ago, I bought a boxed version of the Olivetti daVinci DV3, including all of its original accessories for a pittance on eBay, and I’ve been fascinated and repulsed by this device ever since. It looks like a cheap Palm knockoff, and it feels like one too; the hardware is made out a really unpleasant form of plastic, with buttons worse than what you find on the cheapest possible pack-in remote control. The case feels creaky and unrefined, like the cheapest possible children’s toy.
The display has a resolution of 128×99, much lower than the 160×160 of even the first Palm Pilot, and it’s incredibly dim and hard to read without the backlight on; even with the backlight on, it’s difficult to read anything. Worse yet, the various hardware tap targets on top of and at the bottom of the display are not backlit at all, making them unreadable in all but the most illuminated environments. Considering you need these buttons a lot, it’s a major stumbling block. Turning on the backlight is confusing, too, as it you need to hold down the on/off button (while the display is on) to engage it, something only mentioned in the manual.
The display is, of course, a resistive touchscreen, as was the norm at the time, but its precision seems much lower than anything Palm ever offered. The accompanying stylus, too, is plasticky and cheap, definitely worse than the plastic styluses Palm shipped with its earlier models, and obviously no match for the metal styluses that would accompany later models.
Finding out exactly what type of processor the daVinci DV3 uses is remarkably hard. A contemporary review by Smart Computing claims it’s using an unspecified Epson processor, without giving any further details. There’s only one source that specifically states what processor it has, and considering that source is the only person to have written a third-party application for the DV3, I’m inclined to believe they’re right (opening the device up is of no use, as the SoC is of the epoxy blob type). According to them, the DV3 runs on a Sharp SM6010 microprocessor, for which a datasheet and more detailed documentation exists. The SM6010 is a very basic 16bit single-chip microcomputer of an unspecified architecture (probably something custom and proprietary), running at 30Mhz.
The SM6010 is a 16-bit single-chip microcomputer incorporating a 16-bit CPU core, LCD controller, watchdog timer, serial interface (UART, SCI), SIR, PWM output, real time clock, A/D converter and bus controller.
The DV3 stores its operating system in flash memory – making it upgradable – and has 2MB of RAM, stated proudly all over the box and on a sticker on the device itself. Performance is actually not that bad, but it’s not quite as instant and responsive as Palm OS. The operating system and its user interface are rather inscrutable; there doesn’t seem to be a single home screen you can always go back to like on Palm OS, and closing/leaving applications/screens is done differently for each individual application/screen (tap the hardware “OK” button? An on-screen “OK” button? Press the cancel button? Tap one of the hardware application shortcuts atop the display? Who knows!).
The core tools of the DV3 are incredibly basic, and cover merely the bare necessities of a PDA in the late ’90s, with things like an address book, notes application, calendar, calculator, and a few others. There’s no consistency among any of these tools, and they all look, feel, and work just differently enough to be confusing. The daVinci is also Very Serious™, as there’s no games or even a simple drawing gimmick; in fact, while there is a button labeled “Apps.”, it doesn’t actually do anything (we’ll get back to that). There’s barely any preferences to fiddle with either.
Input is done via a terrible Graffiti ripoff called daVinci Script, which uses strokes much more cumbersome than its inspirator, not aided by the absolutely trash recognition algorithms. This input method is effectively unusable, as it’s impossible to predict which strokes will produce what character or action. Even something as simple as the right-to-left stroke to delete a character is entirely unreliable, ensuring this is more of a random character generator than a text input system. Luckily, there’s a tiny on-screen keyboard you can use to hunt and peck with the stylus, but this isn’t exactly a particularly fast input method either.
It’s hard to convey just how utterly terrible the software experience is, especially in 2026 when many people reading this lack the frame of reference of its time. This isn’t utter trash compared to what we’re used to today – this is utter trash compared to the competing devices running Palm OS and Windows Pocket PC of its time. Even in 2026, I love using Palm OS and Pocket PC, but I absolutely despise, dread, and hate using the daVinci. I’m struggling to find a comparison with something contemporary, but the best I can come up with is like comparing an Apple Watch or WearOS device with one of those cheap knock-off smartwatches that run some shitty custom low-res UI on an underpowered SoC, but honestly, even that does a disservice to these knock-off smartwatches.
The daVinci I have came with all of its original accessories. There’s a vinyl pouch, a dock, and an external, fold-up keyboard. The pouch has not withstood the test of time, and has shrunk, so much so the daVinci no longer fits inside of it. The dock is, well, a dock, and uses the connector at the bottom of the daVinci. This connector looks and feels exactly like a crunchy ISA slot from the ’80s, as if the PCB was cut off with a hacksaw. The keyboard is the most interesting, and can be connected straight to the device’s bottom connector, or to a passthrough port at the back of the dock. Unsurprisingly, this keyboard is really bad, with dome-shaped mushy rubber keys with very little stability and a featherlight base that moves at the slightest of touches, making it almost impossible to type on.
Thanks, I hate it.
I mentioned the mysterious, non-functional “Apps.” button earlier, and there’s actually a bit of history here. It turns out that Olivetti fully intended for people to write third-party applications for this thing, promising to release an SDK at some point in time. Of course, this never ended up happening as the daVinci is trash and nobody in their right mind bought one or would want to develop for it, but it does mean that somewhere out there, perhaps in an attic somewhere in Ivrea, Italy, there’s a dusty hard drive or CD-ROM carrying this unreleased official SDK.
SDK or no, there’s always someone crazy, skilled, and determined enough to develop something for any computer, and for the daVinci DV3, that person was Alex Zwiesele. Zwiesele figured out that while the official SDK was never released, the CD-ROM that came with the daVinci DV3 contained the entire operating system of the DV3 and a loader program. This was enough for Zwiesele and a few other people to start disassembling the operating system and inject their own custom code into the binary file, reassemble it, and load it onto the DV3 using the loader program.
This was not a walk in the park. Zwiesele documented the entire process on their website, and it involved Zwiesele and several others writing their own disassembler and assembler (still available from their website!) based on the available Sharp SM6010 documentation, as well as learning how to actually program for the device’s hardware. In the end, they managed to develop an actual game for the daVinci DV3, a Breakout clone. You load the game onto your DV3 in the same way you’d load the operating system; as such, the game will replace the entire operating system and load automatically on power-on. That’s as far as they got back in 2003, as efforts seem to have stalled after that.
Back when I bought my daVinci, about 6-7 years ago, I mentioned online that I had bought the worst PDA of all time, without mentioning it by name. Immediately, fellow hardcore PDA enthusiasts (we exist) knew I was talking about the daVinci. This thing is just plain trash, e-waste before the term had been popularised, a waste of everyone’s time, effort, and money. Not even its one redeeming quality – its low price of just $99 compared to the cheapest Palm device at $249 – could make anyone want to use it.
Still, I’m glad I have it in my collection, if only to serve as a reminder that shitty e-waste devices aren’t something exclusive to our current smartphone era. It also serves to underline just how great Palm OS and Windows Pocket PC (yes, I will fight you on this) really were, and how many things they each got right out of the gate. So much so that especially Palm OS laid the foundations for every smartphone we use today.
Now that I’ve finally written and published this article, I can put this abomination back in its box, and never take it out again.
The accelerator does not simply improve permitting for every business, developer and organization. It creates a priority lane, with the Governor’s Office deciding which applicants receive expedited attention and which remain in the regular bureaucratic process. Image created with AI on 8/14
JobsFirst promises permitting decisions within 120 business days, but leaves government deciding which projects move first — and which applicants must continue to wait
WILMINGTON, Del. — Delaware will fast-track three broadband and health care projects through a state permitting system designed to produce decisions within 120 business days, but the announcement is also raising a broader question: If state government can move quickly for selected applicants, why can’t it do so for everyone?
Gov. Matt Meyer announced Thursday that a rural broadband expansion and two ChristianaCare health campuses have been accepted into the JobsFirst Permitting Accelerator.
The program gives designated projects a single government contact, coordinates reviews across state agencies and creates a process for escalating unresolved problems. Reviews that might otherwise take 18 to 24 months are targeted for completion in about six months.
“JobsFirst is about tackling Delaware’s biggest challenges with urgency, not bureaucracy,” Meyer said. “Whether it’s expanding access to health care, closing the digital divide or building the infrastructure our communities need, Delawareans shouldn’t have to wait years for projects that people need now.”
That argument makes a strong case for faster permitting. It also highlights the unequal treatment built into the program.
The government chooses who moves first
The accelerator does not simply improve permitting for every business, developer and organization. It creates a priority lane, with the Governor’s Office deciding which applicants receive expedited attention and which remain in the regular bureaucratic process.
Executive Order 18 establishes eligibility categories covering housing, broadband, energy, water and sewer, and mixed-use development. However, meeting an eligibility definition does not guarantee admission. The order says the governor or the governor’s designee “may designate” a nominated project as a priority.
The state’s published process says the Governor’s Office considers eligibility, readiness and permitting constraints. It does not provide a public scoring system explaining how competing qualified projects are ranked or why one applicant moves ahead of another.
That distinction matters. Without clearly published selection standards, the accelerator gives state officials significant discretion over who receives a dedicated coordinator, enforced deadlines and direct access to an expedited review.
The administration’s announcement did not say how many projects applied, whether any were rejected or why these three were selected over other potentially eligible projects. It also did not identify the category under which the two ChristianaCare health campuses qualified. Health care is not listed among the program’s five initial project categories.
Projects promise public benefits
The projects themselves promise substantial public benefits.
Talkie Communications plans to install buried fiber within existing roadway rights-of-way, bringing gigabit-speed internet service to 1,448 unserved homes and businesses in Kent and Sussex counties. The project is supported by the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund.
ChristianaCare’s planned Georgetown campus would combine a health center and neighborhood hospital. It would provide primary, specialty, behavioral health and outpatient services, along with an eight-bed emergency department and eight inpatient beds.
A similar campus planned for Camden would expand health care and community-based hospital capacity in Kent County.
Accelerating those projects does not mean environmental or public safety requirements will be waived. The administration says JobsFirst changes the speed and coordination of reviews, not the standards applicants must meet. The 120-business-day target also promises a decision, not necessarily an approval.
Those safeguards make the faster process easier to defend. But they also support extending it to other applicants.
Why shouldn’t every applicant receive faster service?
If agencies can review applications simultaneously instead of sequentially, provide applicants with a single checklist and hold employees accountable for missed deadlines, those practices should become the normal permitting system — not a special service reserved for projects selected by the executive branch.
There is also a question of agency capacity. Unless the state has added staff or eliminated unnecessary work, moving priority projects ahead could divert attention from businesses and organizations already waiting.
The administration has not disclosed whether the accelerator is reducing the overall permitting backlog or rearranging the order in which applications are processed.
Small businesses could be especially disadvantaged. Large institutions often have attorneys, engineers and government-relations professionals to help navigate state processes. Smaller applicants are more likely to need the coordination and accountability provided by JobsFirst, but they may be less likely to propose projects large enough to receive priority status.
Transparency should begin with selection
The state has created a public dashboard to track designated projects, participating agencies, required permits and approaching deadlines. That is a meaningful transparency measure once a project is accepted.
Transparency should also cover the selection process. The public should be able to see all applications, the standards used to evaluate them, the reasons projects were accepted or rejected, and whether giving one project priority caused delays for others.
The administration says JobsFirst is being introduced in stages and could eventually lead to a coordinated permitting system covering the full range of state approvals.
That should be the objective.
Everyone should have access to the fast lane
Broadband service and health care facilities should not remain trapped in government bureaucracy. Neither should a housing project, a new employer or a small Delaware business simply because the Governor’s Office did not put it in the priority lane.
The real measure of JobsFirst will not be whether government can move three selected projects faster. It will be whether Delaware uses what it learns to give every qualified applicant a clear, accountable and timely decision.
To Go Box
Program: JobsFirst Permitting Accelerator
New priority projects: Talkie Communications broadband expansion and ChristianaCare campuses in Georgetown and Camden
Target: State permitting decisions within 120 business days after applications are complete
Central question: Why aren’t the same coordination, deadlines and accountability available to every applicant?
Newark’s Shop Take 15 shows how business coaching and grant support can help entrepreneurs expand
DOVER, Del. — Applications are now being accepted for the Business on Main Street Accelerator, an eight-week program designed to help Delaware entrepreneurs strengthen their operations, pursue funding and prepare for growth.
The program’s potential impact can be seen in Shop Take 15, a Newark self-care business led by founder and CEO Asia Coleman.
Coleman began working with the Delaware Division of Small Business while Shop Take 15 was primarily an online business. Through the Main Street program, she received help structuring the company, developing marketing ideas and updating its business plan.
The improved plan helped Coleman position the business to pursue funding and qualify for grant support. That grant had a tangible impact: Shop Take 15 grew from a virtual business into one with a physical Newark location.
Coleman also expanded the company’s product offerings and began providing courses. She said the business continues to grow.
Shop Take 15 sells handmade self-care products, including body butters, scrubs, soaps, oils and home fragrances. Its mission encourages people to devote at least 15 minutes each day to their mental and physical well-being.
Coleman’s experience provides a practical example of how technical assistance and access to funding can translate into measurable growth for a small business.
The Business on Main Street Accelerator is a joint initiative of the Delaware Division of Small Business and Launcher. It includes six virtual sessions and two in-person sessions in Dover.
Participants receive assistance with preparing a comprehensive business plan, examining their companies’ financial health, developing compelling pitch decks and using modern marketing strategies. Individualized coaching is also included.
“The feedback that I’ve gotten on the program, which began June 9, 2025, is incredibly positive,” said Anastasia Jackson, coordinator for Delaware on Main Street. “Participants are telling me that the financial reviews and personalized coaching are invaluable to them as business owners.”
The accelerator has graduated 37 small-business owners since it began last year.
Applications for the next class will be accepted through Aug. 31.
To Go Box
What: Business on Main Street Accelerator
Program: Eight weeks, including six virtual sessions and two in-person sessions in Dover
Who: Delaware small-business owners and entrepreneurs seeking assistance with planning, finances, marketing, funding and growth
The Aug. 13 program was hosted by Yvonne Johnson of First State Educate, a Delaware nonprofit working to strengthen school governance and increase public participation in education, focused on the new funding model for our schools.
Discretionary funding could rise from about 8% to more than 30%, increasing local responsibility and accountability
By George Rotsch, Editor, Delaware LIVE
WILMINGTON, Del – First State Educate brought state and local education leaders together Thursday night to explain how Delaware’s new funding model will give school boards significantly more control over spending — and greater responsibility for the results.
During the organization’s monthly “Board Matters” webcast, panelists said school boards could soon have discretion over more than 30% of their districts’ funding, up from about 8% today.
The change means boards will need to better understand student needs, establish clear priorities and make informed choices about where resources can produce the greatest results. They will also face greater accountability for explaining those decisions and demonstrating whether the spending improves student outcomes.
The Aug. 13 program was hosted by Yvonne Johnson of First State Educate, a Delaware nonprofit working to strengthen school governance and increase public participation in education.
Johnson led a discussion featuring Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten; Emily Falcon, chief operating and financial officer for the Colonial School District; and Brittany Mumford, an Appoquinimink School Board member.
First State Educate organized the forum to help school board members, families and community leaders understand how the new formula will work and how local governance responsibilities will change.
“With greater flexibility comes greater responsibility,” Mumford said. “The buck literally stops with us.”
Although superintendents, financial officers and instructional leaders will develop many spending recommendations, school boards have final responsibility for approving district budgets.
Moving beyond restricted funding
Delaware’s traditional unit system provides districts with state-funded positions and money based on enrollment and student demographics. Much of that funding is assigned to specific positions or purposes, limiting districts’ ability to move resources when local needs differ from state categories.
The new hybrid model retains parts of the unit system while adding weighted funding based more directly on student needs. Additional resources will be directed toward multilingual learners, students from low-income households, vocational students and students receiving special education services.
Falcon said approximately 32 separate appropriations or funding categories will be consolidated into three broader tiers.
The first will provide base funding for teachers, paraprofessionals, principals and other essential employees. The second will expand opportunity funding for multilingual learners and students from low-income households. Falcon said that investment is expected to be about four times its current level.
A third tier will provide flexible operational funding based on enrollment and student characteristics, including special education and vocational education needs.
Federal and state special education requirements will remain in place. The primary funding changes are expected to begin in fiscal 2028, which starts July 1, 2027.
Decisions move closer to students
First State Educate’s discussion focused heavily on what greater local flexibility will mean in practice.
A school struggling with early literacy could invest in reading specialists or intervention programs. Another with a growing multilingual population could expand language services, while a school facing chronic absenteeism could add attendance or mental health support.
Marten said those decisions are often best made closer to students rather than through a statewide, one-size-fits-all system.
“If you’re treating every school identically at the board level and just sending out a common treatment to everybody, that does not create equity,” she said.
But flexibility does not mean every school can spend independently without a districtwide strategy.
“Flexibility is not freedom from accountability,” Marten said. “It means people closest to the students have more ability to solve the problems in front of them.”
Boards must connect budgets to results
Marten urged school boards to begin with student needs and a clear strategic plan rather than starting with the amount of money available.
Before approving an investment, boards should ask what student problem the district is trying to solve, what results it expects and how progress will be measured.
“A budget is an expression of the strategy,” Marten said. “It’s not a separate document.”
She said boards should establish priorities and define the results they expect without becoming involved in daily management decisions.
“Know your lane. Own your lane,” Marten said.
The board determines what the district should accomplish and why it matters. The superintendent and administrative team determine how the work will be done, who will be responsible and when it will happen.
Marten also warned boards against assuming their oversight work is finished once a budget is approved or a clean financial report is received.
“A board can receive a perfect financial report and still fail at governance,” she said.
Following spending rules does not necessarily mean the spending helped students. Boards should regularly determine whether programs are being implemented as promised and producing measurable results.
Marten described the process as a continuing cycle: identify a need, select a strategy, make the investment, implement the plan, examine the evidence and adjust when necessary.
“If your superintendent doesn’t have a plan, ask for one,” she told board members.
State and community oversight
Marten said the Delaware Department of Education will not consider its work finished after distributing the money.
The department intends to examine the strategies districts select, whether those strategies reach classrooms and whether early indicators show students improving. It also wants to identify successful approaches that could be replicated elsewhere.
Marten said that accountability system must be built as the new formula is implemented rather than added years later if questions arise about how districts spent the money.
First State Educate also used the webcast to encourage families and community members to follow district budgets, attend school board meetings and ask how spending decisions are connected to student outcomes.
The organization provides school governance information through its Knowledge Hub and Delaware School Board Index. The resources are intended to help residents learn about their school boards, district priorities and education issues.
Marten said families, educators and community organizations should participate before district priorities and budgets are finalized.
“If a decision is essentially finished before people enter the room, that’s not engagement,” she said.
Districts should explain the student problems they are trying to solve, share relevant data and identify the choices and trade-offs involved, she said.
Equalization reform remains ahead
One significant part of Delaware’s education funding system remains under review.
Equalization funding is intended to offset differences in property wealth and local tax-generating capacity among districts. Falcon said statewide property reassessment produced data that requires additional review, particularly in New Castle County.
Officials hope to develop an equalization proposal during the next legislative session and implement changes in fiscal 2029, she said.
That means the full effect of the funding overhaul will vary among districts depending on student needs, property values, local revenue and state funding.
Marten said the ultimate test will not be whether Delaware successfully reorganizes its funding formula. Success will be determined by whether students can read, receive support when they struggle and graduate prepared for college, careers, military service or other opportunities.
“The formula is a means to the end,” she said. “The accomplishment is what changes for students.”
To Go Box:
What: Delaware is moving to a hybrid school funding model that combines the existing unit system with weighted funding tied more closely to student needs.
Local control: School boards could have discretion over more than 30% of district funding, up from about 8% today.
Accountability: Boards will be expected to establish priorities, connect spending to student needs and measure whether investments improve outcomes.
When: Major funding changes are expected to begin July 1, 2027, with fiscal 2028.
Who hosted the discussion: First State Educate presented the Aug. 13 program as part of its monthly “Board Matters” webcast series.
Panelists: Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten; Colonial School District Chief Operating and Financial Officer Emily Falcon; and Appoquinimink School Board member Brittany Mumford.
What remains: Equalization funding reforms are expected to be considered separately, with possible implementation in fiscal 2029.
Learn more: First State Educate offers school governance information through its Knowledge Hub and Delaware School Board Index.
Should Egypt join the Mecca Pact?Expert commentthilton.drupal
Egypt may yet join Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan in their mutual defence pact. But for now, Cairo is continuing its cautious approach as it seeks to avoid taking sides.
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, known as the ‘Mecca Pact’, on 7 August. The pact states that any armed attack on one member will be considered an attack on all members. It sends a message to both Iran and Israel, while diversifying regional security away from the US.
However, the pact leaves two key questions unanswered: can regional countries build deterrence without the US? And why hasn’t Egypt joined the pact, at least for now, given it has worked closely with all three members?
Not a Middle Eastern NATO
The Mecca Pact builds upon the Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement signed between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan last September. However, it is a separate deal. The new agreement includes Turkey and leaves space for other states to join.
The pact has been compared to NATO; Indeed, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan described the pact’s mutual defence element as being ‘technically the same’ as NATO’s Article 5 collective defence clause.
However, comparisons to NATO are overblown. Once they are put aside, the pact looks relatively modest.
Saudi officials have played down the scope of the agreement, presenting it as an exercise in ‘sustainable capabilities’ rather than a joint defence front against any country. Turkey has likewise emphasized that the pact is not directed against Iran or any other country. Pakistan described the agreement as ‘purely defensive in nature.’
While Pakistan is a nuclear power, the agreement does not mention Turkey and Saudi Arabia coming under its nuclear umbrella. And while mutual defence featured in the September 2025 agreement between Riyadh and Islamabad, the latter has continued to engage Tehran as a mediator amid Iranian attacks on Saudi Arabia.
The Mecca Pact should therefore best be understood as an experiment in regional self-reliance rather than a joint defence front or war-fighting alliance.
Wider regional impact
Yet while the agreement is modest in scope, it has deeper implications for the regional order.
The pact provides Saudi Arabia with another means of diversifying and strengthening its security and defence architecture. It gives Riyadh leverage in any future engagement with Tehran over regional security, and reduces its dependency on the US.
For Ankara, the deal could lead to financial support and a huge market for its defence industrial technology, while Islamabad could benefit from Saudi economic backing and position itself as an active and responsible player in the Middle East.
Tehran and its proxies are likely to test the agreement in the near future, potentially by attacking Saudi Arabia via the Houthis or Iraqi militias. The three signatories’ response to that first stress test will tell the region far more about this pact than official statements.
Why Egypt hasn’t joined
Egypt is not a signatory of the Mecca Pact, despite working closely with all three countries as part of an informal four-country grouping that has been referred to as ‘STEP’ or ‘the quad’.
Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said on Friday that Cairo is studying the pact ‘very seriously’ and that deciding whether to join ‘requires deep studies in the light of Egypt’s constitution and legal commitments.’
Turkey’s Fidan previously said he believed that Egypt would join the pact ‘at the next stage’ once ‘a few technical issues’ were implemented.
Regardless of whether it eventually joins the pact, Egypt’s absence is in line with the country’s strategic hesitancy since Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi became president in 2024.
Egypt views itself more as a mediator, which requires maintaining positive relations and open channels with all actors.
For decades, Egypt’s leaders have taken a cautious approach, embracing non-alignment and avoiding military blocs to prevent entrapment. But joining the Mecca Pact could signal that Egypt is choosing sides to the three members’ various geopolitical rivals – which together could be seen as including Iran and the Houthis, Israel, the UAE, Greece, Cyprus and India. This perceived alignment could negatively impact Cairo’s relationships with these actors without delivering a significant payoff.
This reflects the pact being more about political signalling than military value. The pact is short on public details but could potentially include air and missile defence cooperation, intelligence sharing, expanded maritime security and defence-industrial cooperation. However, Cairo already cooperates with the three countries on many of these areas through the quad grouping and its support for the Saudi-led maritime coalition in the Red Sea.
Under Sisi, Egypt views itself more as a mediator, which requires maintaining positive relations and open channels with all actors. It seeks to avoid being entangled in military alliances that would complicate this role or escalate regional tensions.
Israel and the US
Egypt may share the alliance’s security concerns around non-state actors, maritime security, and Sudan. But for many Egyptian policymakers, a potential conflict with Israel will remain the greatest future security threat, despite the two countries’ peace treaty and security coordination.
Given Israel’s status as the US’s key regional ally, there is no other security alliance that can conceivably provide Egypt with sufficient protection in a potential conflict with Israel.
Therefore, while joining the Mecca Pact may help confront Egypt’s immediate concerns in Sudan, Libya or the Horn of Africa, it won’t solve its long-term security priorities. For now, the US remains Egypt’s most important security partner.
Cairo is also concerned about its sovereignty. Integration in Saudi-led security arrangements would boost Riyadh’s pursuit of Arab leadership. From Cairo’s perspective, this risks creating a patron-client relationship with Riyadh.
The case for joining, eventually
For Egypt, the risks of joining the pact likely currently outweigh the rewards. But this assessment may change with time.
The Mecca Pact is less a military alliance than a statement of intent about the shape of the next regional order. While Washington remains the most important partner for most regional powers, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, they are seeking to reduce their reliance on the US. This trend is likely to accelerate.
The pact also allows its members to hedge against Iran and Israel’s regional ambitions and test a new balance of power anchored in middle powers. Egypt has every interest in taking the initiative by participating in these arrangements.
There is no harm in waiting.
Egypt will be more motivated to join the pact if the agreement’s binding mutual defence obligations are not implemented in practice. This flexibility would ensure that Cairo could join without surrendering its ability to mediate or deepen coordination with the pact’s rivals, even as it would raise questions about the alliance’s credibility.
This room for manoeuvre matters, as Egypt needs diversification and partnerships across the region’s fault lines due to its chronic economic plight and its declining standing in the Arab world. At the same time, joining the pact would enhance Cairo’s ability to assert influence by being central in regional security arrangements.
Wait, watch and keep options open
Egypt should be patient, but not hesitant. The pact is appealing in principle but not yet a pressing priority for Egypt. There is no harm in waiting.
The new accord is less sophisticated than NATO. But it is more serious than previous regional coalitions. The pact may converge into a more focused, issue-based partnership rather than a binding bloc. This would be the best-case scenario for Egypt.
The real test of any alliance lies in its implementation, especially in wartime. With uncertainty around the Iran war’s end and periodic escalation in the Red Sea, Egypt should watch and evaluate the alliance’s reaction when a member is threatened.
For now, Cairo should take its time to observe the pact’s structure, military commitments and operational integration. It should reserve judgement on membership until all these aspects are more certain.
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