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AZ's R&D chief Barr touts internal 'science success story' after IL-33 antibody's stellar showing in COPD
With a detailed data drop that AstraZeneca’s R&D chief described as an internal “science success story,” the British Big Pharma has secured an FDA priority review for what it believes could become a flagship biologic in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). In detailed results from the late-stage Oberon and Titania trials—first teased in March and detailed in full at the European Respiratory Society Congress in Barcelona this week—the drugmaker laid out the extent of its IL-33 inhibitor’s potential to reduce moderate and severe exacerbations in a wide range of COPD patients still struggling with those “lung attacks,” as AstraZeneca’s Sharon Barr, Ph.D., called them, despite using standard-care inhaled therapy. In the headline results, a 300 mg dose of tozorakimab given once every four weeks curbed those moderate and severe exacerbations in the studies’ primary population of former smokers by 29% in the Oberon study and 34% in Titania. In the overall population of both current and former smokers, these reductions were 30% and 29%, respectively, versus placebo and inhaled standard of care. The benefits also extended to clinically meaningful exacerbation reductions in all prespecified patient subgroups and specifically turned up promising signals in patients across a range of blood eosinophil counts, with Barr telling Fierce that “it’s the details that make this even more exciting than the high-level results that we’ve already shared.” In fact, during AZ’s tozorakimab poster presentation at the ERS 2026 Congress this past weekend, attendees were so enamored by the data that event organizers had to encourage people to clear the room and look at the other presentations on offer, Barr said in an interview. “I think it really speaks to the fact that there is a lot of buzz around these data because the entire respiratory community has been so desperate for new therapies for these patients,” she explained. The respiratory disease continues to represent a “staggering unmet medical need,” Barr said, highlighting the COPD exacerbations that the Oberon and Titania studies homed in on, which she added carry a greater mortality risk than a heart attack. “When a patient has a severe exacerbation, only about half of them are still alive within three and a half years,” she pointed out. As for tozorakimab specifically, Barr christened the molecule “an AstraZeneca science success story,” harkening several years back to the point at which researchers began to explore IL-33 as a driver of respiratory disease, and COPD in particular. At the same time, “there was still so much that wasn’t understood,” she admitted, highlighting the insight that IL-33 signals through both ST2 and EGFR through the RAGE pathway, a discovery Barr attributed to AstraZeneca's own scientists. Understanding the need to tackle both pathways in COPD—and aware of competitor candidates in the hopper, including one that bound ST2—the company ultimately had to make some “courageous decisions,” Barr said. These included taking a prior COPD molecule offline and going back to the drawing board to reinvent its potential IL-33 label “to make sure that we had a molecule that could block signaling through both arms of the pathway, through both the reduced form and the oxidized form, knowing that we wouldn’t be first, but striving to be best.” “When we put [tozorakimab] into the clinic, we firmly believed that we had a differentiated molecule, and we saw the other molecules blocking just ST2 or partially blocking IL-33, unable to deliver two positive pivotal studies in COPD,” Barr explained. “We kept marching forward because we believed our molecule was differentiated, and now I think we have the clinical validation that supports that.” Ultimately, AstraZeneca finds itself on much better footing these days when it comes to potential biologic rivals to tozorakimab in COPD. Sanofi and Regeneron’s Dupixent, for instance, is approved to treat COPD exacerbations in patients with high eosinophil counts, but not low ones. Meanwhile, the future has become cloudier for other next-gen IL-33 candidates from Sanofi and Regeneron, as well as Roche, which have suffered trial flops in recent years. One other potential ingredient for AstraZeneca’s success in its duo of studies was that the company was “ambitious in the trial design, willing to look at an all-comers population,” Barr said, “and willing to enroll the most severe patients.” Prior studies for would-be biologics rivals in COPD “avoided enrolling” those patients, she pointed out. She also highlighted the Big Pharma’s painstaking design of exacerbations in its trial, which “gave us a very rigorous readout,” and pointed to “the extra effort and investment” the company put in to understand the effect of mucus plugs in patients. Barr described mucus production as a “key feature in disease diversity,” noting that mucus plugs—obstructing clumps of mucus that block patients’ airways—are associated with worse outcomes in COPD. In its data announcement, AstraZeneca noted that an integrated analysis of Oberon and Titania found tozorakimab “demonstrated a reduction in patients’ mucus plug score,” with the pharma claiming its biologic is the first to deliver such results in a broad COPD population. “So being able to reduce those mucus plugs, we expect, is an important part of driving benefit for patients who are living with COPD,” Barr said. Again touching on the breadth of the study populations, Barr added that tozorakimab “worked across all eosinophil levels in both current and former smokers across all levels of lung function,” which she suggested “really simplifies decision-making for clinicians, and it allows them to offer therapy to the broadest possible patient population.” In the highest patient eosinophil count group, tozorakimab helped chart a 43% reduction in exacerbation risk, which Barr stressed were “unprecedented data.” In the mid-level group, AZ’s drug delivered a 23% reduction and, in the lowest group, a 34% reduction in eosinophils, which Barr said suggests efficacy “in all patient subgroups.” As for AZ’s recent guidance upgrade on the medicine’s sales opportunity, the lift from a $3 billion to $5 billion range to $5 billion plus was informed by multiple factors, Barr said, including the fact that “in 2024, there were multiple competitors, and there aren’t anymore.” Additionally, “we know that this is a massive unmet medical need, and this is a really incredible set of data that we think will be very convincing to the clinical community,” Barr said. Looking ahead to a potential evolution of the COPD treatment landscape, Barr noted that most patients start treatment in the community with an option like a triple therapy, and for them, having an option like AstraZeneca’s inhaler Breztri will remain a “really important part” of that journey. But of the patients uncontrolled on triple therapy, which Barr described as “about half of them today,” just a “small fraction” are currently eligible for biologic therapy, which she emphasized AstraZeneca is working to change. Understanding that COPD is not a “one-size-fits-all” disease, AstraZeneca is also looking at its antibody drug Tezspire for patients with T2-driven disease, and the company continues to think about new mechanisms for tackling COPD through both systemic and inhaled drugs, Barr said.
Mackenzie, Bresnahan, McCormick To Speak at "Trumpapalooza" in Dallas
Pennsylvania will be well represented at the podium as the Republican Party holds a midterm national convention in Dallas on Wednesday and Thursday. A pair of GOP congressmen - Reps. Ryan Mackenzie (R-07) and Rob Bresnahan (R-08) - and Sen. Dave McCormick will be among the 109 officials, candidates and…
SC's Emerging Biotech Industry Receives National Recognition
Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN) recently named the Palmetto State among its “Regional and State Clusters to Watch” in its first-ever Next 10 U.S. Biopharma Clusters report, highlighting emerging life sciences ecosystems beyond...
Trump Boasts New Space Force Uniforms Are “Inspired” by ‘Starship Troopers,’ a Famous Satire of Nazism
Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers literally wears its aesthetic influences on its sleeve.
Arizona Diamondbacks News 9/8: Labor Yay!
Recaps from a wild Labor Day win as well as news confirming Burnes return
Report: Wild willing to pay Quinn Hughes $20.5M annually
Will they only pay him the record-setting amount if he signs for eight years? Or are they willing to make him the highest-paid player on a shorter-term contract?
‘Plastic pollution hotspots’ spawn a public health crisis across Latin America
Since China banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, plastic pollution has been having a growing impact on the people and ecosystems of Latin America. As the region imports an increasing amount of the world’s used and discarded plastic, new research shows that waste infrastructure in many countries is already buckling under the strain […]
Out at sea: York County teacher back at school after science mission with NOAA
Amber LaMonte spent 10 days at sea working as a scientist as part of NOAA’s Teacher at Sea program.
Six decades of politics (but little government)
The first aired episode of “Star Trek,” entitled “The Man Trap,” premiered on September 8, 1966 — 60 years ago today. I’m actually editing a political science fiction issue of The Forum right now, and it’s prompted to me think a lot about the ways that Trek deals with politics and government and what it’s offered us as commentary. The @smotus report is a reader-supported publication. To support this work, please become a paid subscriber. Subscribe The original TV series ran from 1966 to 1969. It had a loyal but modest following, but the audience grew substantially with the series in syndication for years after that. The franchise developed its first motion picture in 1979, followed by five sequels, and then a whole other series of films built around the “Next Generation” series that first aired in 1987. In recent decades, several more TV series have built up around it, including the current “Strange New Worlds,” now in its fourth season. Throughout the past six decades, the franchise has offered us a good many insights into US politics and international relations, although often disguised as science fiction yarns. The original series was largely a Cold War fable, with the United Federation of Planets (a stand-in for the US) perpetually at odds with the Klingon Empire (a stand-in for the USSR). The “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” episode (1969) posited a planet divided into two races, largely indistinguishable to outsiders, but nonetheless constituting a brutal racial hierarchy. “Patterns of Force” (1968) showed a struggling planet where the leader had attempted to construct a benevolent dictatorship — literally Nazism without bigotry — and found that authoritarianism could not exist apart from hierarchy and oppression. (Relatedly, I’d put “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” high on a list of dad films about the end of the Cold War, near “The Hunt for Red October.”) Get 20% off for 1 year Indeed, the original series itself was something of a political statement, with a multi-racial crew running the Enterprise, a diverse and largely peaceful Federation mostly free from want and oppression, and protected by Starfleet, an armed force whose scientific mission was at least as important as its military one. Famously, when Nichelle Nichols wanted to walk away from the role of Uhura on the original series, none other than Martin Luther King, Jr. met with her and urged her to remain on the show, discussing the importance of viewers seeing an intelligent Black woman as part of the command team three centuries hence. Later series in the Trek franchise offered a good deal of political commentary on their own, but probably none as explicitly and incisively as “Deep Space Nine,” which ran from 1993 to 1999. The episodes surrounding the Dominion War, especially the “In The Pale Moonlight” (1998), showed the compromises, sacrifices, and moral rot associated with winning even a just war — probably better than any series would until “Andor” (2022-25). In “Far Beyond The Stars” (1998), Captain Benjamin Sisko is somehow transplanted to the role of a science fiction writer in 1950s New York. The writer is frequently sidelined and his ideas stolen because publishers don’t want to credit a Black writer. Several series have depicted the secretive Section 31 — an unacknowledged black ops security force operating within Starfleet. These episodes often end up using Section 31 as a foil to show the dangers of a lawless group within a lawful society, even (especially) when that group posits itself as essential for everyone else’s freedom to continue. The current “Strange New Worlds” has played with a few political themes. I found the first two seasons of this show among the best that the Trek franchise has produced in decades, but this season and the last have really been struggling for ideas. Yet one interesting thread is the idea that the diplomatic and enlightened leadership style of Captain Christopher Pike will not work in all situations. “A Quality of Mercy” (2022), which I wrote about here, puts Pike in the middle of a battle with a Romulan vessel in an alternate timeline, and finds that Pike’s conciliatory style would actually make a lengthy and deadly war more likely, while a quick and more violent approach might have prevented the war. This season’s opener, “Valles Marineris,” shows a pre-lightspeed civilization locked in a war to the death with a neighboring planet. The idea of an alliance or a federation hasn’t even occurred to them — their ship’s commander is curious but doesn’t see it as an option. For a franchise as political as “Star Trek,” one thing we almost never see is the government. We get occasional glimpses of Starfleet’s council — mostly uniformed people at a rectangular table — but almost no sense of how the Federation is governed. Are there elections? Who is in the legislature? How much power does the president have? What kind of factional divisions do they wrestle with and how? The shows and films are pretty silent on this. We’ve seen a few military tribunals within Starfleet, but little about how civilians deal with crime and injustice. With recent years seeing some of the franchise’s more interesting plot lines and casts, it seems clear that Star Trek is still full of energy and ideas. Given the erosion of American democracy and the reshuffling of the international order, there’s no shortage of material for future shows to comment on. I’m not sure we should toast to 60 more years, but cheers to a show that continues to teach us about ourselves. Share
Court-appointed CHP leader says jailed Erdoğan rival is not a political prisoner
Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, reinstated by a court as leader of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), said Tuesday that jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu was not a political prisoner but signaled that the two politicians’ parties could cooperate if İmamoğlu can run for president. “He is not a political prisoner. He was not jailed because of his […]
Champions League kicks off with Lille, Lens eyeing PSG's crown
The 2026/27 Champions League gets under way on Tuesday night, with French clubs Lille and Lens among the 35 teams hoping to supplant Paris Saint-Germain as champions.
Yakima County's second large-scale solar facility is online
Roughly 3 1/2 years after his predecessor approved it, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson was among 50 people celebrating in a remote corner of Yakima County as the Ostrea Solar project
Singapore ministers, among world’s highest paid government officials, get first raise in 15 years
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysa (AP) — Singapore’s ministers, already among the world's highest paid, are getting a raise for the first time in 15 years, Prime Minister L
Where Chase Burns’ 2026 Season Ranks Among Reds Pitching Greats
Boasting a 2.73 ERA at just 23, the young ace is chasing history. See how his breakout campaign stacks up against legends like Jose Rijo and Johnny Cueto.
Disney’s “Aladdin” reveals first woman to play Genie on Broadway — and she’s a famous former“ View” cohost
“Aladdin” in New York City will host the first woman to ever play the Genie in any of the 11 Disney-produced productions of the show around the world.
CT ranks fifth for union membership among labor force
Connecticut had the nation's fifth-highest union membership rate in 2025, with 16.1% of workers belonging to unions and 63% of public workers unionized.
City Foundry developer suggests entertainment may be the best use for The Armory
Steve Smith wants to get a conversation started about whether The Armory should be converted into office space or kept as an entertainment venue. And the CEO of New + Found says that can’t just be theoretical: Part of developer TerraWatt’s plan to build a data center at the Famous-Barr warehouse next door comes with […]
Tottenham's spending means they 'should be better'
BBC Radio 5 Live's Monday Night Club has been discussing Tottenham's start to the season, with Chris Sutton asking when boss Roberto de Zerbi is going to "take responsibility" for results against a background of the amount of money spent. Spurs are in the bottom three having picked up just one point from their opening three league games, and are yet to score a goal in the competition - though they did put five past Charlton Athletic in the Carabao Cup second round. "I've not seen those comments if he has done, but he's made a fair few excuses so far this season," said former Premier League striker Sutton.
Judging leadership is not a science
Jared Diamond's survey of leaders through history underrates the degree to which evaluating leadership is a subjective art.
Canadian teens still rank among the world's best in reading, math and science — but scores are slipping. Here's why
Canada's decline in 2025 mirrors a global downward trend, according to the latest findings from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Keeping kids safe on ATVs
As ATV-related injuries among Kentucky children continue to rise, experts encourage parents to choose age-appropriate vehicles, require helmets and protective gear, and follow safe riding practices to help prevent serious injuries and deaths.
2,300 Roma fans expected for first Champions League match
The atmosphere in Istanbul will be heated. It won’t be an easy trip for Roma, but Gian Piero Gasperini’s team seems ready to face Fenerbahce among their fans, coming off a 2-1 defeat to Besiktas. ...
Arm CEO says AI could cure cancer but data centers are a bottleneck
Getting there, however, will require enormous amounts of computing power, Haas said.
NFL Melbourne entertainment: Who is performing at LA Rams-San Francisco 49ers MCG extravaganza?
The NFL match between the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers is an entertainment extravaganza. Not only will there be performances on the MCG, but also in the precinct surrounding the famous venue. Sibling superstar group the Jonas Brothers will perform at half-time of the NFL Melbourne match between the LA Rams and San Francisco 49ers at the MCG on Friday, September 11 AEST (Thursday, September 10 ET).
The New BMW 3 Series Gets A More Powerful Six-Cylinder Engine
It looks a lot like the fully electric i3, but it packs a beefy inline-six and a quad exhaust.
Anthony Edwards Says Atlanta Is Among Favorite Places To Play
Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards included his hometown of Atlanta after being asked to name his favorite place to play.
AXA scales governed AI infrastructure across global operations
The insurer's vendor-agnostic hub is already live in five entities, with AXA XL among those building claims and email applications
Paramount Weighs Assets Selloff to Save Deal
Paramount Skydance Corp. is reportedly considering selling off cable and real estate assets as it looks to settle a multistate antitrust lawsuit
Why Trump’s dream of an arch is his most revealing legacy play
The Roman Emperor Titus has one. Napoleon Bonaparte ordered up the world’s most famous example. And the Duke of Wellington’s iconic version is the gateway to London’s Hyde Park.
Fan Optimism in Jaguars Among Highest in the NFL
While national analysts predict a regression following a quiet offseason, Jacksonville fans are among the most optimistic in the NFL.
Stars Surprise With Unannounced Marriages in Entertainment Industry
Stars Surprise With Unannounced Marriages in Entertainment Industry Baek Jin-hee, Yoon Jong-hoon Among Celebrities Announcing Nuptials Without Prior Dating Rumors
💰 Big figures impress, and forward could leave Atlético-MG
Recently, Atlético-MG fans learned that Tomás Cuello had received an offer from CSKA, of Russia.On Monday (7), the GE outlet revealed the figures involved in the foreign offer and that the amount te...
Surreal photos show the mud, chaos, and glamour of Burning Man
Rain and dust storms returned to Burning Man, but the art cars rolled on. These photos offer a glimpse of what the festival looked like in 2026.
D-backs @ Royals discussion
Today’s Lineups DIAMONDBACKS ROYALS Geraldo Perdomo – SS Carter Jensen – C Ketel Marte – 2B Bobby Witt – SS Gabriel Moreno – C Vinnie Pasquantino – 1B Nolan Arenado – 3B Salvador Perez – DH Lourdes Gurriel – DH Michael Massey – 2B Ildemaro Vargas – 1B Nick Loftin – 3B Tim Tawa – […]
Royals vs. Diamondbacks, September 7 Live Discussion
Noah Cameron gets the start on a holiday matinee against a team hanging on to a Wild Card spot.
Why scientists are looking to provoke disagreement among AI brain models
When people wanted to create better artificial intelligence, they looked to the brain for inspiration. Now the tables are turning, and researchers are using AI models to better understand the brain. But ...
Celebrity Traitors Season 2 Gets ‘Intense’ Update Ahead of Return
Celebrity Traitors Season 2 is heading back to the castle with 21 famous faces. However, this season may have a very different energy from the first. Richard Osman, the TV presenter and co-host of The...
ESPN names biggest concern for Panthers going into 2026 season
The biggest concern for the Panthers going into Week 1 could be an area that they've spent a considerable amount of resources on.
For Labor Day: Alfred Russel Wallace, Scientist and Working Man
Unlike Darwin, Wallace grew up among the middle class and had to work for a living. This dictated the contours of his life and research.
Arizona Diamondbacks News, 9/7: Houston, we have no problem…
Recaps [AZ Central] Diamondbacks find a way, tip Astros as E. Rodriguez, Arenado shine – The Diamondbacks took the lead in an unconventional fashion in the third. Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo led off with a single but was struck down by a Ketel Marte line drive, which connected with Perdomo’s helmet. Perdomo stayed down for a […]
Supreme Court Could Resolve Marijuana Business Licensing Disputes, Congressional Report Says
A new report from congressional researchers says that a split among circuit courts about whether state marijuana business licensing systems can discriminate against out-of-state residents “likely increases the odds” that the Supreme Court will take up and resolve the issue. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, published on Thursday, examines the Dormant Commerce Clause of […]
Why Law and Political Science Are Declining in Afghanistan
Law and Political Science are among the most important branches of the humanities, each with its own specialized and applied
Where do the Broncos rank among NFL’s Super Bowl contenders?
Who are the NFL's Super Bowl contenders this season, and where do the Broncos rank among them?
Germany’s ‘Firewall’ Against the Far Right Is Being Tested Like Never Before
A blowout win by the far-right Alternative for Germany party in a state election has revealed a split among voters about whether to uphold a decades-old strategy for sidelining extremists.
Scientists discovered an underwater city of 20,000 octopus nests deep inside California coast; largest known nursery on the planet
Researchers have located the planet's largest known octopus nursery deep off the Californian coast, documenting 5,718 animals in 2.5 hectares and estimating about 20,000 around Davidson Seamount. Known as the Octopus Garden, the nursery is located about 10,500 feet below the surface off Central California.
Adam Schefter names Patriots starter as 2026 fantasy football sleeper
Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson was named by Adam Schefter as being a value sleeper option for fantasy football in 2026.
Lenovo's newest tablets come with Android 17, 7 OS upgrades, huge batteries, and stunning screens
The 11.1-inch Yoga Tab Gen 2 and 13-inch Yoga Tab Plus Gen 2 are without a doubt among the best Android tablets ever released by Lenovo, especially from a software standpoint.
Labor Day 2026: North Carolina ranks best for business economy, dead last for workers
North Carolina is consistently ranked among America’s top states for business. But a new ranking by Oxfam lists the state dead last in this year’s 2026 Best States to Work Index. Oxfam, a global nonpr...
Labor Day 2026: North Carolina ranks best for business economy, dead last for workers
North Carolina is ranked among "America’s Top States for Business.” But a new ranking by Oxfam lists the state dead last in this year's 2026 Best States to Work Index.
Jumping into the lake? Watch out for brain-eating amoebas
The Department of Health is reminding people who are active in Florida’s freshwater to wear nose clips to avoid infections by a brain-eating amoeba presently active.
Ted Cruz racks up private jet flights ahead of midterms
One of the Texas Republican's PACs spent close to $200,000 on private air travel through the first six months of the year, among the most of anyone in Congress.
Everton's unlikely new hero's journey to Merseyside
There was some bemusement among supporters when Everton announced the arrival of Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who has endured something of a nomadic career since making his professional debut for Arsenal in a Champions League tie against Galatasaray in 2014. Following the retirement of Seamus Coleman at the end of last season, Everton chief executive Angus Kinnear spoke about taking their time to find a replacement. When they eventually settled on Maitland-Niles, it was not the coup supporters had envisaged after a tedious, summer-long search.
From TV to TikTok: Social media is reshaping political campaigns
Luke Bronin’s upset of John Larson highlights how Connecticut campaigns are using social media, short-form video and digital targeting to reach voters.
Major CT manufacturer among companies facing consumer lawsuits over tariff refunds
Stanley Black & Decker faces lawsuits alleging it unfairly kept tariff refunds after raising prices, testing a new legal theory in Connecticut.
From TV to TikTok: Social media is reshaping political campaigns
Luke Bronin’s upset of John Larson highlights how Connecticut campaigns are using social media, short-form video and digital targeting to reach voters.
Politics in NI: What are the possibilities for Stormont reform?
A growing question among local politicians concerns whether Stormont should be reformed. If rules or procedures are changed, can that make local politics more effective? Will it better serve the people who live here? Over the course of 2026 these conversations have grown louder and more frequent. It is one of the central topics of...
Generational forward is coming to Liverpool
An exciting wonderkid is coming to Liverpool who is a generational forward. The summer of 2026 could go down as one of the most infamous transfer windows in Liverpool’s recent history. There is no d...
What to Stream: ‘The Paper,’ Bloc Party, ‘Call My Agent!’ and a ‘Halloween’ game
The second season of “The Paper” and a new album from Bloc Party are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week, as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: a new “Call My Agent!” movie, a new
Ddrops® Brings Medical Experts from Damansara Specialist Hospital and Motherhood.com.my Together in Malaysia for Science-Backed Vitamin D Forum
Ddrops®brought together Damansara Specialist Hospital, recognised among the World's Best Hospitals (2026) powered by Statista, and Motherhood.com.my, Malaysia's #1 trusted parenting platform, for a health education forum focused on translating science-backed vitamin D insights into practical, evidence-led guidance for Malaysian families.
Cuba: US Embassy issues health alert due to GI pathogens like norovirus, Shigella
The US Embassy in Havana issued a health alert last week after seeing a significant increase in diarrheal illness across Cuba, associated with the continuing degradation of the water and energy infrastructure. This degradation affects water supply, and food storage and temperature control. Recent cases have included E. coli, norovirus, Shigella, and other gastrointestinal pathogens. This comes after a health alert dated August 28 which noted that Cuba’s water delivery infrastructure is increasingly unstable. The Embassy is aware of reports of residential neighborhoods that have gone for long periods without receiving water from municipal or public sources. Dengue cases surge in the Tampa Bay area Prolonged and worsening water issues and power outages caused by the regime’s mismanagement of public infrastructure impact the entire island. Water often only flows to residences when city power is on for a sufficient amount of time. Media reports indicate wells are running dry across the country due to drought, aggravating the ability to supplement water delivery. The lack of water, coupled with power shortages that have disrupted cold chain networks, can present significant health and safety challenges. We remind U.S. citizens to be aware of the risks when traveling to Cuba and take precautions. Embassy officials offer the following precautions to prevent illnesses: Avoiding Foodborne Illness: Be cautious of meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy, and other perishable foods that may have been inadequately stored. Avoid foods that appear to have been sitting at room temperature for extended periods. Avoid raw or improperly washed vegetables. Be cautious of food cooked and then cooled, stored, or reheated, as improper temperature control can allow pathogens or toxins to develop. Wash hands thoroughly with soap and water before eating and after using the restroom. Hand sanitizer may be less effective against certain gastrointestinal pathogens, including norovirus. Outbreak News Today is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Water Safety: Use only water known to be safe for drinking, brushing teeth, making ice, and cooking. Use bottled or appropriately treated water; check that bottle seals are intact before opening. Avoid ice unless the water source is known to be safe. Do not use untreated tap water to prepare beverages or food. Be aware that contamination can occur when food, utensils, and surfaces are washed with contaminated water. If You Become Ill: Stay hydrated, especially with frequent diarrhea or vomiting. Most illnesses are self-limited and improve within several days. Seek medical attention for persistent or severe diarrhea, bloody stools, high fever, significant abdominal pain, repeated vomiting, signs of dehydration, or symptoms not improving. Common medications (e.g., acetaminophen, ibuprofen, antibiotics) are frequently unavailable in Cuba; consider bringing your own supply. If you like the reporting on Outbreak News Today, please consider a paid subscription for $5/month or $30 a year. Help support the cause of this niche journalism. It is appreciated.
‘The Odyssey’ overtakes ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ at the global box office 8 weeks after release
He can slay Venom with ease, but apparently, Spider-Man is no match for a Mycenaean warlord from the 12th century BCE: ‘The Odyssey’ has overtaken ‘Brand New Day’ at the global box office after eight weeks in theaters.
Analyst predicts Vikings pass rusher to be among league leaders
This ESPN analyst believes one Vikings pass rusher could be among the league leaders in sacks in 2026.
WATCH: Top Plays of Week 3 around the Valley
Week 3 of the high school football season in the Valley delivered plenty of highlight-reel plays, but only five earned a spot among the best of the best.
Kane County regional education office gets new business director from Sycamore schools
The Kane County Regional Office of Education named a longtime Sycamore schools' official as its next director of business and operations.
The core anti-Pangram constituency is phony writers
Welcome to The Closing Argument, our verdict on the news, plus everything The Argument published and appeared in this week. The Verdict, by Kelsey Piper A lot of people hate AI for drowning the internet in slop and displacing human creatives. You might think that these people would be thrilled by a program that can identify and flag AI-generated work. But many people who hate AI also hate Pangram, an impressively accurate AI detector that produces very few false positives, according to high-quality independent research. This loathing found its most recent expression in a bizarre Wired article that amplifies a wide range of false arguments from Pangram skeptics: that AI detectors are racist (they’re not) or ableist (they’re not)1 or don’t work (this one does)2. Rather than starting from the premise that it would be really valuable to have a working AI detector and scrutinizing Pangram to make sure it lives up to that promise, the article starts from the premise that Pangram obviously has bad vibes and sets out to discover why. (One answer: The CEO microwaved lunch during an interview!) Why aren’t writers who resent Pangram more eager to distinguish themselves from posters who are having ChatGPT ghostwrite all their work? There are a few different things at play, but I think one key dynamic is this: These are often the same people. A core constituency for arguments like Wired’s is “writers” who are using AI to write their posts but resent this fact being made public. They stand to lose from AI detectors because AI detectors call them out. Share When Substack announced a partnership with Pangram, a sizable fraction of the platform’s authors rose up in outrage. Some people had experience with other AI detectors that didn’t work, and some felt that AI writing ought to be encouraged — both of which are fair enough. But the fury was fueled by authors passionately insisting that Pangram kept wrongly accusing them on almost every post they published. Pangram can be wrong, especially on short passages. But in the overwhelming majority of cases where Pangram looked at a whole blog post rather than a single paragraph, the program correctly detected work as AI. Even if we can’t be 100% sure in any individual case, we can notice the trend in the aggregate. Wired quotes Sam Illingworth, a professor of critical AI literacy at Edinburgh Napier University, who said, “I don’t think [AI detectors] work. … I think that detectors are prejudiced against certain people.” This spring, he said that he used AI for research and editing; this summer he acknowledged that in addition to research and editing, he also uses it “now and then for a turn of phrase I keep.” Pangram informs us that most of his posts are 100% AI-written (some are mixed AI-and-human) and that 100% AI-written posts started appearing last year. The favorable interpretation is that, as someone whose recent work Pangram consistently mistakes for AI, Illingworth sees Pangram’s flaws firsthand. The unfavorable interpretation is that the tool’s credibility trades off against his own, because its account of who writes his posts is not consistent with his. Illingworth is not alone in insisting the detector does not work. “It’s a Monday night in late July, and I’m pasting my own Substack draft into an AI detector for the first time. Not because I’m worried. Because I’m curious. I wrote every word of it myself, the way I write everything, out loud in my head first, in a rhythm that still carries the accent of a language I learned to think in before I learned to write in this one,” begins one Substack post by an author indignant that Pangram flags her writing as AI. “That’s the part I had to sit with before I could write this.” If you, like me, have worked with AIs a lot, you won’t even need Pangram there. The author of that piece is AI. It is obviously AI! I checked 10 other posts on the blog, and they were also obviously AI! “I have spent 22 years as an award-winning author and essayist. And now this bullshit tool that learned from MY writing is going to accuse me of plagiarism,” popular Substack writer Carlyn Beccia wrote in an anti-Pangram post. “For the last and final time, AI DETECTORS DO NOT WORK.” Here’s what her writing sounded like in 2020: “Most success stories revolve around one person who believed enough in you to say — give it a try. We call these people muses, but they are so much more than that. They are the strong man giants whose shoulders we stand on so we can see the horizon. Throughout the editing process, I am sure my editor felt less like a giant of greatness and more like Atlas with the world on her shoulders.” Pangram says it was 100% human-written. (So were other articles of hers in 2020.) And here’s what it sounds like now: “And then there is the reshuffling, which sounds like paperwork until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork. The Trump regime recently moved special education oversight from the Education Department to HHS. That is not a minor bureaucratic transfer. It changes the frame.”3 Pangram says this is mostly AI. I am not convinced that Pangram is wrong. In my own experience, Pangram is very effective on long texts — if it marks a long essay as AI, the essay was either written by AI or deliberately written to sound like AI. On tweet-length or paragraph-length texts, it’s not perfectly reliable. It seems to work just as well for non-native English speakers as for native speakers. While I have seen dozens of claims of pre-2022 text returning a positive result on Pangram, I have tried repeatedly to corroborate those and have never once succeeded. To be clear, I’m absolutely not saying that complaining about Pangram suggests a writer is a cheat. There are plenty of other concerns. Most are mistakenly premised, such as the false claim that Pangram trains on work you put into it, but others are reasonable: It’s unreliable on sufficiently short text segments; it creates an internet witch-hunt mentality when there are defensible uses of AI; people who are open about their AI use are sometimes blamed, when the only people really doing something wrong are the ones who hide it; and it isn’t perfect, so a single positive result shouldn’t be taken as decisive proof of misconduct. I’m happy to concede that Pangram is imperfect and possible to over-rely on. If an author’s posts are mostly non-AI and one scans as partially AI, this could be a mistake. It’s also possible to defeat Pangram with intentional effort. If you think we need something more robust and more reliable, fine! But if you don’t like AI and don’t like Pangram, your attitude really ought to be that it’s a shame that our existing tools for AI detection are imperfect, and it’s important to invent better ones. If your stance is instead that AI is evil and so is looking for AI, then ultimately you’re contributing to the sloppification of the internet. You’re making it harder for people who write their own text to distinguish themselves, and providing cover for authors who are definitely not writing their own text. Subscribe Top stories this week, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs Commentators often worry that the decline of reading could mean the decline of liberal democracy — but deliberative governance actually predated widespread literacy. This week, Maibritt Henkel pointed out that many liberal cultures thrive on a culture of raucous, interactive debate, which can happen in-person as easily, if not more so, than in text. Read on, dear reader, to learn more. It may actually cheer you up: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) [ Reading won’t save liberalism ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) Maibritt Henkel · Sep 1 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/reading-wont-save-liberalism) It used to be bad to downplay climate change (if we mean denying its reality). Today, it’s actually good to downplay climate change (if we mean keeping the issue out of political fights so we can make real progress). This counterintuitive view is called “climate hushing,” and contributor Alex Trembath argued that it’s the key to enacting good policy going forward. Get up to speed on the latest in climate politics: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) [ We won’t stop climate change by talking about it ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Alex Trembath · Sep 2 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/we-wont-stop-climate-change-by-talking) Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney is standing up for the forces of liberalism against Donald Trump’s assault on our closest ally. So, why is one prominent left-wing commenter attacking Carney? Columnist Matthew Yglesias explains: [ ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) [ When "economic liberty" means central planning ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) Matthew Yglesias · Aug 31 [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/when-economic-liberty-means-central) 🌟Abundance Wins of the Week🌟 Shout out to my home state of California, whose legislature passed two housing bills this week. One requires a housing density minimum in transit-oriented areas of the state’s most transit-rich cities (Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego, and Long Beach). Another bill closes two common loopholes used by third parties to delay housing projects, including an opportunity to challenge maps of a given lot created by the developer after a project has been approved. Shout out to our big-state rival, Texas, where pro-housing SB 785 took effect this week. The new state law requires municipalities to have at least one district permitted for manufactured housing without a special permit. This will promote zoning changes in 44% of municipalities. The company Fervo Energy signed a deal with Google for what is set to be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal facility, proving a technology can work at a scale that could be crucial to a decarbonized, energy-abundant economy. Share Worth watching… This week, forecasting legend Nate Silver joined Jerusalem, Matt, and Jeremiah on a crowded episode of the pod. It was a party. And speaking of parties, our round table debated the factional lines within the Democratic Party: Is it possible to be center-left and also anti-establishment? Watch or listen to find out: The Rio Grande Valley in Texas is one of the areas that swung hardest toward Trump in 2024, but musician Bobby Pulido is running to flip it back. Right now, The Argument/Split Ticket’s model has him running 1.1 points behind his Republican opponent in a district Trump won by 18 points. Tune in to find out how he differs from national Democrats and what he thinks he can to do win this seat. On Thursday, Bernie Sanders was among the first politicians to call for a ban on superintelligence. My guest this week, Andrea Miotti, has been lobbying to ban superintelligence for several years, most recently in the U.K., U.S., and Canada. I asked him how he gets legislators to take speculative risks seriously, and we dug into what plans might look like to actually pass a ban. Listen to learn more: What’s News with The Argument The Argument recommends, by Kobe Yank-Jacobs If we ever lose track of Justin Zuckerman, I’ll have the team split up and check all the movie theaters in the city. I’m shocked (and a little jealous) at how often he gets out to see good cinema. This week, he brings us It Ends, a “horror-ish movie,” which he described as a “Gen Z Waiting for Godot.” I was intrigued before he added that it was “funny, dark and existential” — at which point I was fully locked in. I guess I also had existential themes on the mind this week. One morning, a single line from a poem I read long ago just came to me: “Is death a stretch of time in which a life is just a flash?” The poem is called “From 20,000 Feet” by Heather McHugh. I suggest the version in The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Poetry, which, by tradition, my best friend and I always bring backpacking, extra weight be damned. We’ll stay thematically dark for just one more rec from senior editor John Robert Thomason, whose upcoming trip to Baltimore reminded him to suggest Michael Clune’s memoir White Out (about being addicted to heroin in Baltimore in the 1990s). Ben Lerner’s blurb called it _“_Disturbing, brilliant, hilarious—it’s as if Proust had written Jesus’ Son.” John told me this “seems accurate, with the caveat that I’ve never read Proust.” I, personally, have also shelved Proust until retirement. At this point, I was a little concerned for the team since all of us tossed out such psychologically grim material — maybe we’re all down about the end of summer — but thankfully, at least a few of us were into more upbeat selections. Milan Singh recommended Made In’s 5-quart stainless clad saucier, suggesting he had some fun in the kitchen. Jeremiah Johnson asked if he could recommend yet more Carly Rae Jepsen. Once denied, he offered up Game Changer instead_,_ calling it “the most wildly creative game show, maybe in the entire history of the genre.” Eli Richman mentioned _Lucky, “_a B-tier show with an A-tier cast and an S-tier theme song.” I suppose he was recommending the song, Horns of a Bull. Still, despite these cheerier recs, I couldn’t help but be concerned that we were subconsciously worried about racing toward summer’s end — the end of swim trunks and splashing around. Then a message landed reminding me of the three-day weekend to come. A whole extra day for sunshine. One more swim in the lake. I was grateful this called to mind yet another line from a poem, one by Mary Oliver, the patron saint of every gorgeous summer day (and about whom a documentary is now out). Speaking to God in the poem “Thirst,” she wrote: grant me, in your mercy,a little more time. Love for the earthand love for you are having such a longconversation in my heart. We have merch! We have quarter-zips, keychains, hats, and stickers. Each one is a great conversation starter in its own way. Buy them here. Subscribe More to read: [ The Opening Argument ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite)[ Seeing like an elite ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) Kobe Yank-Jacobs · Sep 4 What do Americans hear when they watch Sen. Bernie Sanders or Vice President JD Vance rail against the elite? Are they thinking of right-wing tech billionaires? Imperious college professors? Liberal magazine writers? [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/seeing-like-an-elite) [ The Weekly Scroll ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline)[ God is back on the timeline ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) Jeremiah Johnson · Sep 5 This week, we’re talking about Substack’s new religious debates, the continuing MAGA influencer scandal, how to retire from YouTube, and aura battles. [ Read full story ](https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/god-is-back-on-the-timeline) 1 This was a legitimate thing to worry about, but doesn’t seem to be a problem given the actual technology: Marijke Van Vlasselaer, Filip Van Droogenbroeck, and Bram Spruyt’s 2026 paper looks at whether Pangram is less accurate when evaluating the work of non-native speakers of English. It isn’t. That’s because Pangram isn’t really looking at how “unusual” a piece of writing is but whether it has the characteristic patterns of LLMs. The Wired article makes an odd gesture at a different Pangram-is-racist argument. There were several controversies this summer during which upcoming books were canceled after being discovered to be AI-written: “The three novels mentioned earlier — Shy Girl, Daggermouth, and Call Me, easily publishing’s biggest AI-detection scandals — were all written by writers of color.” But come on! As Zvi Mowshowitz put it: “They were not primarily written by people of color. They were primarily written by AIs.” That’s the whole problem! And as my colleague Jeremiah Johnson recently observed with respect to Cambridge’s Arday scandal, a community being unwilling to call out fraud if it’s perpetuated by people of color is not an anti-racist tendency; it is ultimately quite racist. 2 Many non-Pangram detectors don’t work, but many possible airplane designs also don’t work, and no one considers this a general argument against aviation; the thing that matters is whether any detection works. 3 The phrase “empires have always loved” mysteriously became all the rage in the last few years. See here, here, here, here and here. Before 2025, the only use of that phrase I have been able to find is a single Tweet. The logic of the sentence, too, is incoherent in an AI-characteristic way. “...sounds like paperwork, until you remember that empires have always loved paperwork”? Does remembering that make it sound less like paperwork? It’s a craft-ful sentence, but what is it actually saying??
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California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?
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California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?
Gavin Newsom’s secret is no secret here in South Carolina
California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?
Gavin Newsom’s secret is no secret here in South Carolina.
California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?
Gavin Newsom’s secret is no secret here in South Carolina
California made Gavin Newsom famous. Will it drag down his 2028 presidential ambitions?
Gavin Newsom’s secret is no secret here in South Carolina.
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