Gloria Steinem as undercover Playboy Bunny in 1963 (Source)
Friday, September 04, 2026
15 US Colleges Now Cost over $100K a Year
Is it worth it?
"Fifteen U.S. colleges now carry sticker prices above $100,000 a year, up from just two last year, according to a new analysis of Princeton Review pricing data. Over four years, that’s nearly half a million dollars per student.
California’s Harvey Mudd College tops the list at $104,512, followed by Duke and the University of Chicago. Brown, Columbia, and Cornell each came in just under the six-figure mark.
In a separate ranking of financial return on investment, Harvey Mudd comes in 50th, and NYU, the 12th priciest, comes in 321st in ROI. New York’s public CUNY schools dominate the top spots for investment returns. ..."
"... To hit their enrollment targets, many colleges now offer hefty discounts, often in the form of merit aid. ..."
Historic: Seniors Outnumber Young Kids Worldwide
Welcome to the Age of Gerontocracy! When will the young rebel? Demography is destiny!
"For the first time in recorded history, people 65 and older now outnumber children under 5 worldwide, according to a new U.S. Census report released this week. Falling birthrates and longer lives drove the milestone, which arrived earlier than demographers expected. ..."
Latin American/Ukrainian Infantry Unit Defeats Russians in Battlefield Assault
Given how many countries are involved in the Russo-Ukrainian War it is fair to say it is a World War III. Here is another example.
This is a reminder of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) that preceded World War II. Volunteers from many countries were fighting on the side of the the side of the Republican Government against General Francisco Franco.
"A Ukrainian combat infantry unit mostly recruited from Colombian and Brazilian volunteers overran Russian positions in the northeastern Kharkiv region in recent fighting, Thursday statements from the unit and its chain of command said. ...
Most of the 23rd Regiment’s soldiers and junior officers are volunteers recruited from Latin America. Colombians, followed by Brazilians predominate in the reportedly 500-personnel unit, but Mexicans, Argentines, Chileans and Paraguayans are also in the ranks, along with an Old-World contingent from Spain, Portugal and Italy. Each fighter is paid the standard AFU salary for a combat infantry soldier. ..."
A Colombian member of the Armed Forces of Ukraine visit the makeshift memorial commemorating Ukrainian and foreign fighters on “Defenders Day”, at the Independence Square in Kyiv, on Oct. 1, 2024.
Living in a multipolar world with more intergovernmental organisations
While the UN, G7, G20 lose their attractiveness, influence and standing more and more other international organisations are winning with China and Russia behind it.
Take BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organisation) for example.
How far and how fast will the post WW II global order change?
CDU-Ministerpräsident Sven Schulze feiert mit der Antifa – trotz Warnung der eigenen Partei
Neues aus der Bananenrepublik D! Unglaublich!
Mit der schrecklichen SED Kanzlerin Merkel ist die CDU tief abgestürzt! Wie hatte sich Helmut Kohl so vergucken können!
Bleibt es nur Schulzes Ankündigung oder wird er tatsächlich auf dieser Veranstaltung erscheinen?
CDU-Ministerpräsident Sven Schulze, Sachsen-Anhalt (Source)
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) clears Hezbollah tunnels in southern Lebanon near border to Israel after lengthy operation
Good news! What did the Lebanese government do about these hostile acts committed by terrorist for about two decades?
"The IDF announced on Thursday that it had completed the clearance of two Hezbollah underground infrastructures on the Ali al-Taher ridge in southern Lebanon and that forces are now working to neutralize them.
According to the military, the infrastructures were built over a period of about two decades and were planned and funded by Iran. ..."
President Trump calls reports of depleting munitions 'treasonous,' insists stockpiles are solid and are being replenished
Indeed, many of these news media reports about the supposed low stocks of ordnance/missiles in recent weeks/months were sensationalism or junk at worst!
National Academies of Sciences faces growing scrutiny as docs reveal deep climate-advocacy bias
No surprise! Too many scientists have subscribed to and are true believers of the climate change religion!
Better be a climate skeptic rather than a climate demagogue!
"A trove of thousands of documents include an email from Marcia McNutt, who was then-president of the National Academies of Sciences, asking to use funding to block the EPA from rescinding the endangerment finding, which she said was supported by “climate deniers.” ...
Now the organization is under pressure from the House Oversight Committee to provide documents it withheld as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of bias, and 22 state attorneys general are calling for an investigation and possible suspension of its federal funding over allegations it's producing materials to help plaintiffs win climate lawsuits. ...
As [Rep. James Comer, R-Ky] was demanding the withheld documents last week, 22 state attorneys general sent a letter to Trump administration officials, also on Friday, calling for an investigation into NAS and possible suspension and debarment of federal funding stemming from the publication of an update to an influential science manual for judges, which included a chapter on climate science. ..."
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky (official photo, Source)
Flock cameras: can we ditch the hysteria? Yes, please!
Headline of the day! Yes, the alarmism and hysteria regarding these latest license plate readers is disturbing! It involves a lot of junk journalism and misguided protests etc.
Even GOP governors like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott could not resist to give in instead of countering the nonsense!
I have recently argued here in a similar vein!
"The recent outcry over Flock cameras is lacking in fact and echoes the same narrative driven hysteria that led people to vandalize Tesla cars just a year ago — only today that hysteria is leading people to vandalize and remove Flock cameras installed in their communities.
The fact is, Flock is simply the newest version of automatic license plate reader (ALPR) technology that has been in use by law enforcement for decades.
With proper safeguards, the technology provides Minnesota’s law enforcement with state-of-the-art tools to help quickly solve serious crimes or locate missing people, while protecting the public from mass surveillance and data misuse. ..."
US military disabled ad tracking on troops' devices following reports of targeted attacks by enemies
Serious stuff! Essentially any and each personal wearable computer device worn by a soldier anywhere in the world could be exploited/spied on by adversaries.
Notice this article is only about government issued devices.
Notice the two articles do not report which country is behind this neither does the letter by the US Senator (e.g. China, Russia, North Korea). Why this secrecy?
"The U.S. Department of Defense has disabled advertising tracking on troops’ phones and computers as part of an effort to protect them from threats that target their locations, according to a letter shared with Sen. Ron Wyden.
Per a letter shared with the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Wyden said that the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and Special Operations Command have all disabled advertising tracking across their government-issued devices. ..."
Latter-day Saints Church set to build its seventh Arizona temple
The Mormons are on a mission! 😊
Mormon temple in Mesa, AZ (Source)
Reentrant superconductivity in two-dimensional systems allowing precise engineering and control
Amazing stuff!
"... in a few unconventional materials, competition between ferromagnetic ordering, where the magnetic moments align to point in the same direction, and superconducting ordering, where paired electron moments point in opposite directions, can lead to a phenomenon known as re-entrant superconductivity (RSC). This is where, in an applied field, the magnetic ordering will at first destroy superconductivity, but when the field increases further, the superconductivity reappears. ...
now observed this phenomenon for the first time in a two-dimensional (2D) unconventional superconductor. ...
RSC has previously been observed in three-dimensional ferromagnetic materials such as CeRh2As2, organic superconductors and possibly in so-called heavy fermion compounds such as UTe2. ..."
From the abstract:
"A magnetic field typically suppresses superconductivity by either breaking Cooper pairs via the Zeeman effect or inducing vortex formation.
However, under certain circumstances, a magnetic field can stabilize superconductivity instead.
This seemingly counterintuitive phenomenon is associated with magnetic interactions and has been extensively studied in three-dimensional materials.
By contrast, this phenomenon, hinting at unconventional superconductivity, remains largely unexplored in two-dimensional systems, with moiré-patterned graphene being the only known example.
Here, we report the observation of reentrant superconductivity at the epitaxial (110)-oriented LaTiO3-KTaO3 interface. This phenomenon occurs across a wide range of charge carrier densities, which, unlike in three-dimensional materials, can be tuned in situ via electrostatic gating.
We propose that the observed reentrant superconductivity can arise from an interplay between strong spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic field–driven modification of the Fermi surface.
Our findings provide insight into reentrant superconductivity and establish a robust platform for exploring unconventional superconducting phenomena in two-dimensional systems."
A magnetic field that kills superconductivity can also bring it back (original news release) "Magnetic fields are generally known to destroy superconductivity in a material. However, in exceptional cases they can lead to what is known as “reentrant superconductivity”— where superconductivity disappears as expected but then unexpectedly returns when the magnetic field is increased further. This behavior is sometimes seen in bulk, three-dimensional materials, but now, in a study published in Science Advances, a team led by the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science (CEMS) in Japan has seen the phenomenon in a very thin conducting layer at the boundary between two insulating oxide materials. Because oxide interfaces can be precisely engineered and controlled, the discovery provides a new platform for investigating unconventional forms of superconductivity and the quantum mechanisms that allow it to survive under unusual conditions."
Reentrant superconductivity at an oxide heterointerface (open access)
Yes, no, yes: Schematic showing how an applied field affects superconductivity in a LaTiO3/KTaO3 heterostructure.
Fig. 1. Properties of the (110)-oriented LaTiO3-KTaO3 interface.
Fig. 2. Experimental visualization of reentrant superconducting response.
Wrinkled or smooth? Cell growth mechanics determine shape of plant organs
Amazing stuff!
"When inner and outer cell layers of sepals – the leaf-like plant organs that cover and protect the flower bud before it opens – all grow upward, the organs stay smooth and uniformly stiff, which is optimal for the plant, according to a new study.
The study ... compared a wild type Arabidopsis plant with a mutant one that grew with wrinkled sepals. For the first time, the researchers were able to image both the inner and outer layers of the sepal to understand factors that controlled smoothness and wrinkles. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Smooth sepal formation requires aligned growth directions and comparable stiffness
• Ectopic expression of AS2 causes buckling of the outer epidermis
• Buckles form due to misaligned growth directions and unequal epidermal stiffness
• Buckling promotes the PIN1 convergence to initiate outgrowths
Summary
Nature exhibits organs of various shapes and forms, ranging from smooth to undulated morphologies.
How cells coordinate their growth to produce smoothly shaped leaves and leaf-like organs such as sepals remains unclear.
We identified a mutant, as2-7D, that exhibits ectopic expression of ASYMMETRIC LEAVES 2 (AS2) on the outer epidermis.
Our analysis reveals that ectopic AS2 expression causes the outer epidermis of as2-7D sepals to buckle during early stages of sepal development.
Buckling is caused by conflicting cell growth directions and unequal tissue stiffness across the epidermal layers.
Overexpression of cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitor Kip-related protein 1 (KRP1) in as2-7D aligns the growth directions of the outer epidermal cells along the longitudinal axis, increases the overall stiffness of the outer epidermis, and restores sepal smoothness.
Further experiments suggest that buckling promotes the convergence of auxin efflux transporter protein PIN-FORMED 1 (PIN1) to initiate pointed outgrowths. Thus, we show that growth along the longitudinal axis during early developmental stages and comparable stiffness across both epidermal layers of Arabidopsis thaliana sepals are essential for smoothness, as seen in the wild type.
Our findings suggest that in addition to molecular cues influencing tissue mechanics, tissue mechanics can also modulate molecular signals, giving rise to well-defined shapes."
Growth directions and stiffness across cell layers determine whether tissues stay smooth or buckle (open access)
Graphical abstract
Figure 1. The ectopic expression of AS2 on the outer epidermal layer disrupts sepal smoothness in as2-7D mutant
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Expands BEYOND Program to Advance Drone Operations
Good news!
"The Federal Aviation Administration has doubled the size of its BEYOND program to help integrate drones into the national airspace system. The second phase will address public safety missions, on-airport drone activity and operations beyond visual line of sight."
"The FAA has launched Phase 2 of BEYOND, doubling the program’s size
Up to eight new state, local, tribal or territorial entities will join as leads
BEYOND Phase 1 logged more than 70,000 flights, including 48,000 BVLOS operations
The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that it is expanding its BEYOND program to support broader drone integration into the national airspace system and address challenges associated with advanced unmanned aircraft operations. ..."
Cancer cells release antioxidants to prevent immune cells from destroying them
Good news! Cancer is history (soon)! Are we finally cracking the secretes how cancer survives/counteracts immune responses and immunotherapy?
"Now, scientists have discovered that certain immune cells depend on these very molecules to activate and destroy cancer cells, and that tumours exploit this dependency by releasing natural antioxidants to shut down the immune attack. ...
A team ... analysed the fluid surrounding cells within tumours grown in mice and found that cancers chemically ‘smother’ T cells, stopping their activation and preventing them from destroying cancer cells.
Tumours do this by releasing large amounts of a protein that is a natural antioxidant, Peroxiredoxin 1 (PRDX1), which mops up reactive oxygen species and deprives T cells of the activating signals they need to perform cancer killing.
Next, the team used CRISPR gene-editing technology to create mouse cancer cells that could no longer make the antioxidant protein. They found that removing the capacity for the cancer cells to produce the antioxidant promoted immune-cell activity and limited tumour growth.
Finally, the team looked for the same mechanism in people. They analysed published data on the proteins released by human cancer cell lines, examined gene activity across thousands of human tumours, and isolated the fluid surrounding tumours removed from patients. All three approaches pointed the same way: human cancers also release PRDX1 into their surroundings, where it can strip away the reactive oxygen species that T cells depend on. ...
The findings also carry broader implications. Several large randomised clinical trials have found that antioxidant supplements fail to reduce cancer risk ..."
"New research reveals a promising new target for treating cancer by harnessing a type of molecule previously thought to do more harm than good.
For decades, reactive oxygen species, or ROS, often called free radicals, have been viewed primarily as harmful molecules linked to aging, DNA damage and cancer. A new study ... finds that cancer-fighting T cells need small amounts of ROS to attack tumors.
The investigators discovered that cancers exploit the T cell need for ROS by releasing an antioxidant protein that removes ROS from the tumor environment, effectively shutting down the attack by the immune system upon the cancer. ..."
From the editor's summary and abstract:
"Editor’s summary
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) have a paradoxical role in cancer.
Low to moderate ROS levels can stimulate tumor growth, whereas excessive ROS accumulation triggers oxidative stress and DNA damage.
Antioxidant therapies aim to neutralize free radicals and reduce oxidative stress, but clinical trials have not (yet) demonstrated improved cancer survival. Wesolowski et al. report that tumors can turn ROS dependency against the immune system, suppressing T cells and escaping antitumor immunity.
Cancer cells secrete antioxidant enzymes, including peroxiredoxin 1 (PRDX1), into the extracellular space, depriving T cells of ROS needed for T cells to attack tumors effectively.
Removing PRDX1 from cancer cells restored antitumor immunity and made otherwise resistant tumors sensitive to checkpoint blockade immunotherapy.
These results suggest that targeting extracellular redox mechanisms could enhance the efficacy of immunotherapy.
Abstract
Reactive oxygen species (ROS) promote genomic instability and fuel oncogenic signaling in cancer, but antioxidant therapies have so far failed to improve, or worsen, cancer outcomes.
Emerging data suggest that T cells depend on ROS for signal transduction.
In this study, we show that tumors exploit this dependency, releasing antioxidant enzymes into the tumor environment to suppress T cell–mediated antitumor immunity.
The interstitial fluid of tumors possesses potent antioxidant activity, associated with enrichment of the antioxidant enzyme peroxiredoxin 1 (PRDX1). Extracellular PRDX1 deprives T cells of ROS, preventing oxidative inactivation of phosphatases required for T cell receptor–driven kinase signaling and effector function.
Prdx1 is up-regulated upon cancer immunoediting, and loss of PRDX1 within tumors enhances antitumor immunity and immunotherapy responses.
These findings define a redox-dependent mechanism of tumor immunosuppression that is potentially amenable to therapeutic intervention."
Cancer cells use antioxidant protein to suppress T cells, resist immunotherapy, study finds (original news release 2) "OHSU co-author helps identify potential therapeutic target in tumors that evade the immune system"
Killer T cells surrounding a cancer cell
Corporate America Is Axing the ‘Micro-Team’ Boss and reducing layers of hierarchy
Some job cuts are different than others! 😊
"The latest broadside against small-team bosses comes from Uber. The ride-sharing giant said Wednesday it would reduce the number of “micro-teams”—those with only one or two direct reports—by nearly half. The move is part of a broader plan to cut 10% of its staff, about 3,300 people. Ultimately, the company will have 20% fewer managers, a spokesman said. ..."
"... Today [9/2/2026], we’re making a number of significant organizational changes across Uber. We are removing layers, simplifying team structures, refining our global location strategy, and focusing our people and investments against the biggest opportunities ahead of us. As a result, we will be reducing the size of our team by about 10%. Everyone whose role has been affected has already been notified, except in countries where we will follow the required local process. ...
Team simplification: We brought together teams where fragmentation was creating duplication and slowing decisions. ..."
Building a simpler, faster Uber (original news release by the CEO)
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi
The launch of golden Cybercab is Tesla's ‘fork in the road’ moment with no steering wheel nor pedals and the NHTSA is investigating it
Good news!
"In a couple of hours, Tesla will “launch” the Cybercab — a small, gold, two-seater sedan with no steering wheel or pedals that uses cameras and AI to navigate the world — in its hometown of Austin, Texas. ...
At the time this story was published, 420 autonomous vehicles were registered in Texas, according to the state’s automated vehicle tracker. ..."
"The United States’ top automotive safety regulator [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)] has opened an investigation into Tesla’s decision to launch its new Cybercab on public roads with no steering wheel or pedals. ..."
Comparison of male and female fly brains is unlocking the secret workings of the mind by sex
Amazing stuff! This is huge! Mind boggling!
"An international team ... has mapped every neuron in the male Drosophila fly’s brain and nerve cord, to produce a wiring map of the 166,700 neurons and the millions of connections between them. ...
Since the female Drosophila fly brain has previously been mapped, involving the same group, this new work allowed the researchers to directly compare male and female connectomes and pinpoint differences between them.
This revealed that neurons can reroute sensory information into sex-specific behavioural circuits to drive different male and female responses to the same stimuli.
For example, male flies detect the smell of another male fly and respond with aggressive behaviour, whereas female flies respond to the same smell with courtship behaviour. ...
This is the first full-scale connectome of an adult animal’s brain and nerve cord ever produced. The entire dataset now exists as a public resource, openly available as a reference and tool for other researchers. ..."
From the highlights and abstract:
"Highlights
• Whole male Drosophila CNS connectome enables sensory-to-motor circuit analysis
• First synaptic-resolution comparison of male and female brains
• Sex-specific and dimorphic neurons concentrate in higher-order, integrative centers
• Analysis of visual, auditory, olfactory, and taste pathways reveals shared principles
Summary
Sex differences in behavior exist across all animals, typically under strong genetic regulation. In Drosophila, fruitless/doublesex transcription factors identify dimorphic neurons, but their organization into functional circuits remains unclear. We present the connectome of the entire Drosophila male central nervous system. This contains 166,700 neurons spanning the brain and nerve cord, fully proofread and annotated, including fruitless/doublesex expression and 11,710 neuron types.
We provide the first comprehensive comparison between male and female brain connectomes to synaptic resolution, finding 8,069 isomorphic, 138 dimorphic, 289 male-specific, and 71 female-specific types.
This resource enables analysis of full sensory-to-motor circuits underlying complex behaviors and the impact of dimorphic elements.
Sex-specific/dimorphic neurons are concentrated in higher brain centers, while the sensory and motor periphery is largely isomorphic.
Within higher centers, male-specific connections are organized into hotspots defined by male-specific neurons or arbors. Dimorphic neurons reroute information across sexes."
5 amazing visuals show how the male fruit fly’s brain map is advancing neuroscience "A years-long project by HHMI Janelia, Google Research, and collaborators has built the first complete brain map for a male fruit fly, a key model organism in science."
Graphical abstract
Figure 1 A densely annotated and cross-matched male CNS connectome
Figure 2 Information flow from sensory input to motor output organizes circuits spanning the brain and nerve cord
Figure 3 Sexual dimorphism in the fly brain
Thursday, September 03, 2026
The Congressional Term Limits and state legislators term limits Movement in the US: The History and the Path Forward
Recommendable! Why only term limits for US presidents? Why accept so many lifelong, mediocre career politicians elected again and again?
With rising population age comes gerontocracy accompanied by senility, dementia and frailty like the 46th President, US Senators Schumer and McConnell!
Maria Bartiromo OUT at Fox News after 12 years. Really!
Bad news! I liked her reporting and I have used her reporting frequently on my blog! Maria Bartiromo was one of the smarter TV news journalists out there!
I hope, she will find a new opportunity soon!
Maria Bartiromo
Der Geruch von Haltung am Morgen
Empfehlenswert, aber ein sehr langer Artikel!
Hinweis, ich habe nicht den ganzen Artikel gelesen.
50,000 to 160,000 in Madrid and plus more in other big cities of Spain protest Ceuta mass invasion
Good news!
Apparently, according to other news sources (e.g. here), the city of Madrid said it were 150,000 protesters.
"In lieu of festivities, tens of thousands of people took to the streets Wednesday across Spain to protest the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Ceuta, demanding solutions and blaming Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez for his government’s handling of it.
In Madrid, authorities said some 50,000 protesters turned out. After the demonstration ended, an Associated Press journalist heard shots and explosions. Spanish newspaper El País reported that police fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse crowds.
There were significant turnouts also in Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. ..."
US Border Patrol Arrests 95 Illegal Alien Truck Drivers In Yuma - AZ during four days in August with 82 of them having Commercial Drivers Licenses from CA & NY
Good, but shocking news! In one southern border city alone within four days?
"Federal authorities arrested 95 commercial truck drivers identified as illegal aliens during a multi-agency enforcement operation in Arizona’s Yuma Sector, with more than three-quarters carrying commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued by California.
The U.S. Border Patrol conducted the operation with local law enforcement partners from Aug. 10 through Aug. 14, resulting in 143 arrests involving individuals from 18 countries, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Of the 95 truck drivers arrested, 76 possessed California CDLs, while six held licenses issued by New York. CBP said the remaining licenses came from other states but did not identify them individually. ..."
German defense exports to Israel soar in the first half of 2026
Good news!
"Germany approved defense exports to Israel worth nearly €800 million (about $930 million) in the first half of 2026, "Der Spiegel" reports, citing data from Germany’s Ministry of Economics and Energy in response to a query from a leftist opposition party.
This is such a significant jump that in the first half of 2026, total German defense exports to Israel were four times higher than in all of 2025 (€260 million). Some of the increase was due to Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s partial [???] lifting of the Israel arms embargo, which ended last November.
Furthermore, €735.8 million of the amount (about 91.9%) was approved in the second quarter, with 67% of that for a "naval project" and 21% for licenses for joint projects carried out by German and Israeli companies together, serving the German military. ..."
European Union is Preparing to Admit 40,000 Gazans starting in 2027
Bad news, if confirmed! Is this another example of the suicide of Western culture?
How many of the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank were sympathizers, supporters or even members of the coward mass killers Hamas?
"A working plan is being discussed to facilitate the departure of Palestinian families from Gaza and their reunification with relatives in Europe, according to reports from well-sourced security channels.
Though European Union officials and member states have consistently rejected mass resettlement schemes for Gazans, the reported proposal, which began taking shape around two months ago, envisions an initial framework starting in early 2027 to transfer around 40,000 Palestinians to European countries over several months. Greece, Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and, of course, the United Kingdom are cited among the prospective destinations. ..."
Floods in Tibet: restrictions and disinformation by China are impeding vital news
Bad news!
Remember China illegally occupies Tibet since 1950!
There have been multiple news reports by different sources that again (like Covid-19) the Communist Party of China is secretive and repressive about the scope and damages of this latest natural catastrophy.
"Censorship in Tibet
In neighbouring Tibet, the difficulties in accessing information are even more worrying, and the contrast with Nepal is striking. At the time of writing, no independent Tibetan media outlet or international news organisation has been allowed access to the disaster-stricken area, according to RSF information.
This reflects a long-standing practice of the Chinese regime, which exercises some of the strictest control in the world over media professionals. As RSF has long noted, only journalists pre-approved by the authorities have been allowed to enter the territory, generally as part of tightly monitored reporting missions.
In the wake of the disaster, the Chinese regime only authorised state media to cover the floods, with reports emphasising the regime’s achievements and successes in relief efforts rather than providing a comprehensive account of the scale and impact of the disaster. According to the Chinese state-run newspaper Xinjing Bao (The Beijing News), the authorities have also punished at least ten internet users for “spreading rumours” related to the disaster. ...
“In recent years, under Xi Jinping’s tenure, Tibet has become a de facto information black hole. No independent Tibetan media, nor any international media, are permitted to freely cover news from this region. ..." ..."
In Nepal, partial cuts to telephone and electricity networks, the lack of accessibility to certain disaster zones and misinformation on social media are hindering journalists’ reporting.
In Tibet, these obstacles are compounded by restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities, who are preventing the press from freely accessing affected areas. This lack of access to reliable information is also fuelling the spread of false reports about the scale and consequences of the disaster."
Despite EU sanctions, Western AI agents serve Russian propaganda on demand
Bad news! How Putin the Terrible wins over naive Westerners!
"... The goal was to determine whether the bots could circumvent the EU sanctions imposed on these Russian state outlets. All the outlets listed in the prompt were sanctioned by the EU in 2022 and 2024, following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They have been banned from broadcasting in the EU because of their role in the Kremlin’s propaganda apparatus.
The answer is clear: yes, public chatbots can access these websites and redistribute their content to users in France. They provide ready-made answers and will even produce press reviews when asked. ...
ChatGPT and Grok emerged as the leading bots for circumventing EU sanctions. They produced comprehensive summaries of articles on international news, retrieving headlines and sharing links and verbatim excerpts without consistently mentioning that the media outlets in question were under EU sanctions. ...
When given the same instructions as its competitors, Google’s chatbot Gemini proved much more reluctant to comply. During an initial test, Gemini refused to share links because of the EU sanctions. It nevertheless provided a summary of the requested information accompanied by links to the original sources, including RT posts on VK. ..."
New AI tool compresses data without losing critical details
Good news!
Data compression has been a fundamental subject for computer science and data science for several decades. How to preserve critical details is one of the major challenges.
"In brief
- The next generation of science experiments will produce vast amounts of data, challenging capacity for storage and analysis.
- SLAC researchers developed a new method that uses AI to compress data without erasing subtle details that are valuable for experiments but lost in conventional file-compression methods.
- The method separates features of a dataset by size, then shrinks and maps these features onto a neural network to preserve them.
...
Conventional data-compression methods can erase some of the fine details in measurements that correspond to valuable scientific information. For example, the tiny speckles in X-ray images of molecules can contain important information about how materials transform. ..."
From the abstract:
"Scientific data acquisition continues to outpace storage and analysis capabilities, making voxel-based representations increasingly intractable.
Implicit neural representations (INRs) offer a promising solution by encoding signals through coordinate-based neural networks, serving as surrogates of data, with computational and storage requirements scaling with network complexity rather than data dimensionality.
However, smaller INRs struggle to faithfully represent multiscale structures, high-frequency information and fine textures that constitute a large proportion of scientific measurements.
We propose WIEN-INR, a theoretically guided hierarchical INR framework that distributes modelling across resolution scales and enables improved representation capacity through a novel enhancement network to recover subtle details.
This multiscale architecture allows smaller networks to retain the full spatial-frequency content of the signal as well as preserve training efficiency and lower storage cost.
Evaluated on distinct raw experimental measurements across scales and complexities, WIEN-INR represents a practical step towards a broader adoption of neural representations in scientific workflows, delivering compact, robust and high-fidelity representations."
The AI-based method uses neural networks to reduce the overall file size while allowing users to control what information is kept. The neural network encodes features of the measurement at different scales in a compact form. At decoding, users can select a small region of interest to decode, and this can be done at different scales and resolutions, allowing finer features to be recovered when needed.
Fig. 1: Efficient INRs preserve HF and physics-related details.
Fig. 2: Schematic of the WIEN-INR architecture.
Mexico: Ricardo Zúñiga Rosas, eighth journalist murdered this year, publicly reported threats linked to his work
Bad news! President Sheinbaum needs to do more!
"... According to press reports such as El Universal or La Jornada, two men on a motorbike arrived at Productos Zuma, Zúñiga’s cleaning-products store, where the media worker was present, entered the premises and shot him, who was taken to Tehuitzingo Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. ..."
Ricardo Zúñiga Rosas
After the vibe-coding rush comes the debugging hangover
Food for thought!
As a software developer myself using Microsoft Visual Studio Code in combination with the free version of Copilot I can confirm this too.
"ZDNET’s key takeaways
- Vibe coding makes features fast, but reliable apps take work.
- Stubborn bugs still demand patient, hands-on investigation.
- AI needs human guidance for architecture, testing, and design.
..."
Scientists identify early signal of dangerous pregnancy complications
Good news! This could be a breakthrough!
"In a study published today [8/31/2026] ... scientists who analyzed blood samples from thousands of pregnant women found that low levels of a protein called ISM2 during the first trimester were associated with higher risk of both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction later on.
Follow-up lab studies of placental cells showed ISM2 likely plays a causal role in the disorders, meaning the findings could help in the development of treatments, too. ...
The researchers measured blood levels of nearly 3000 proteins and found one in particular associated with both preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction: ISM2, a little-studied protein produced by the placenta. Specifically, lower blood levels of the protein at the 12-week blood test were linked to higher risks of preeclampsia, fetal growth restriction, or both. ...
What’s more, ISM2 levels were a better predictor of each condition than currently used proteins. ...
In lab experiments, the team found that blocking the production of ISM2 in stem cells that usually develop into normal, uterus-invading EVTs stopped that process from happening.
By contrast, artificially adding ISM2 into a cell line that usually lacks it induced recipient cells to migrate around lab dishes more like EVTs would. ..."
"... Both of these conditions are known to be linked to problems with the placenta not developing properly early in pregnancy, in particular a failure of specialised placental cells known as the extravillous trophoblast (EVT) to invade the mother’s womb and establish a healthy blood supply. ...
Of all mammals, humans have the deepest placental invasion, which reflects the massive demands of oxygen and nutrients required to manufacture the most complex machine ever known, the human brain. ..."
From the abstract:
"Preeclampsia and fetal growth restriction (FGR) are major causes of global morbidity and mortality.
Both conditions are associated with impaired invasion of the uterus by extravillous trophoblast (EVT).
We performed proteomics in maternal serum obtained at ~12 weeks of gestational age in a prospective pregnancy cohort (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study). Here we show that low maternal serum isthmin-2 (ISM2) was the strongest protein signal (out of 2,904) in the first trimester of pregnancy for preeclampsia or FGR.
We validated the association in two independent cohorts (Pregnancy Outcome Prediction Study 2 and Improving Maternal Pregnancy And Child ouTcomes study).
ISM2 protein and mRNA are almost exclusively produced in the placenta, and, within the placenta, ISM2 mRNA is highly enriched in EVT.
Knocking down ISM2 in cultured human trophoblast stem cells profoundly inhibited EVT invasion.
Conversely, expressing ISM2 in a cell line lacking endogenous ISM2 (HEK293 cells) promoted migration.
We conclude that ISM2 may be causally involved in the early pathophysiology of failed trophoblast invasion and that the protein and its associated pathways are potential targets for the prediction and prevention of preeclampsia and FGR."
Pre-eclampsia discovery could lead to new test and treatments for at-risk pregnancies (original news release) "Cambridge scientists have identified a key protein that could act as a predictor for pre-eclampsia and fetal growth restriction, two of the major causes of stillbirth and of sickness among mothers and newborns."
Fig. 2: The association between ISM2 and PE and FGR.
Fig. 3: ISM2 regulates EVT differentiation.
Hamas Won Gaza’s Last Election in 2006. Twenty Years Later, Palestinians May Finally Get the Chance to make better choices in November 2026
Will the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip finally get smart and choose peace with Israel and get rid of the terrorists living among them and exploiting them!
When will the Arabs living in the West Bank rid themselves of the PLA, Fatah and Mahmoud Abbas!
Hope and pray, the Arabs living in the Gaza Strip and West Bank will make much better choices and become Palestinians for once!
"In January 2006, Palestinians went to the polls to elect a new parliament. This was the first legislative election since 1996, and none have happened since.
In 1996, Fatah had emerged victorious, winning 50 out of the 88 available seats. Hamas, meanwhile, had boycotted that election, rejecting the Oslo peace framework that had established the Palestinian Authority (PA), which was supposed to be a temporary and transitional body that would eventually be dissolved with the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Following Yasser Arafat’s death in November 2004, a presidential election was held in January 2005. Once again, Hamas did not field a candidate. This allowed Fatah’s Mahmoud Abbas to win easily. ...
If November’s election goes ahead, Palestinians will finally have the chance to pass judgment on what followed 2006 and decide whether they want something different. The result will reflect the views of voters who have lived with its consequences for two decades. ..."
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