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Sixers Mount Historic Comeback, LeBron James Wins Home Debut
The Philadelphia 76ers made history on Thursday night in LeBron James’ home debut at Wells Fargo Center.Fueled by an electric 32-point performance by Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers erased a 29-point deficit to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 114-106 in their home opener.The 29-point comeback is the Sixers’ biggest comeback victory in the play-by-play era. The improbable […] The post Sixers Mount Historic Comeback, LeBron James Wins Home Debut appeared first on HEAVY.
Argonne welcomes Chicagoland mayors to campus for meeting and tours of user facilities
Argonne hosted the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus for its quarterly meeting, where dozens of Chicagoland leaders learned about the lab’s work in super intelligence and resilience planning and toured the Advanced Photon Source and Aurora supercomputer.
World News in Brief: Aid for Ethiopia, Abyei drone strikes condemned, extreme heat and newborn health
The World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up emergency health response operations across Afar, Amhara and Tigray in Ethiopia to address growing humanitarian and health needs resulting from ongoing hostilities.
WECT NEWS NOW: Downtown Business Alliance Andrea Arth previews Cargo District Fall Fest
Downtown Business Alliance President Andrea Arth joined the show to talk about the Cargo District and two upcoming fall events for families.
Sundar Pichai: Google’s Frontier Imperative, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products and Businesses
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has little patience for doubts about Google’s willingness or capacity to compete at the frontier of AI. His company’s latest Gemini 4 Argon model — long-promised and recently delivered — beats OpenAI and Anthropic’s latest public models on coding, math, science, and knowledge-work benchmarks and has placed Google’s AI back among the world’s best. Amid chatter that Google was fine with good-enough lightweight ‘Flash’ models, Pichai pushed back hard against any suggestion that company is limiting its research ambitions. “We won’t do it any other way,” he told me in a Big Technology Podcast interview recorded this week at Google’s Mountain View headquarters. Pursuing cutting-edge research is costly for Google, requiring compute and chips that otherwise could be sold at a high markup by its cloud business. But Pichai said allocating resources to frontier AI development is “ground zero” for Google. “Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development,” Pichai told me. In our conversation, we discussed Argon (which Pichai says processed three times as many tokens as Gemini 3 in the 72 hours after launch), AI’s role in developing better models, the AI interface of the future, competition with OpenAI, Google’s partnerships with Anthropic and Apple, data centers in space, and the nature of his optimism. You can read the full conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, below, or listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your podcast app of choice. Alex Kantrowitz: Google is back at the frontier with Gemini 4 Argon, which beats OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s public models on benchmarks spanning coding, math, science, and knowledge work. The conventional wisdom was that Google had given up on the frontier to focus on fast, good-enough models for its products. That was wrong? Sundar Pichai: Very wrong. Look, we are so committed to being at the frontier. It’s in our DNA. We won’t do it any other way. We’ve been thinking about the AI frontier for well over a decade now. The frontier is very dynamic. It’s very competitive. It’s very exciting. I couldn’t be more pleased with how Argon has come together. We took our time with it. We made sure we tested it safely and deployed it carefully. We took a bit longer than our other models, given its capabilities. Across the board, be it for agentic work, knowledge work, coding, creative tasks, Argon is one of the really good frontier models. The first 72 hours since we launched, it’s almost up to 25 trillion tokens used, which is about three times what Gemini 3.0 had in the first 72 hours. And we are capacity constrained as we are serving it. Excited, but there are always areas….. You know, the frontier is very dynamic, and you have to keep evolving the models. There are areas which we can see we need to improve as well. We’ll be at work on all of that as well. Which areas? On any given model, Argon would be across the board better at everything if you just look even two months back. But the space is so evolving. Even on coding, for example, there are pockets where we know we need to do better, and there’s clear feedback. We’ll make it better. The argument for standard models is that they’re already good enough to build great products, with the frontier valuable only for certain tasks. Meta built Muse with good models rather than the best, and Google could put standard models into Maps, Gmail, and Search. Why isn’t that sufficient? It’s definitely not how I have thought about it at all. We are deeply committed to driving the state of the art and actually pushing where this technology can go, all the way from transformers. That’s a journey we’ve been on. You will see us continue to do that. When you’re at the frontier, you get an earlier look into the emerging capabilities, earlier than others, which helps you better prepare for the future. We are fortunate to have a wide set of opportunities across consumer and enterprise. Some of our cloud customers, for sure, want the model at the frontier. The frontier models will be better at developing the next set of models in an era of recursive self-improvement. I would argue it matters there. Internally, we have definitely seen a steep point of inflection by deploying Argon to our developers. It definitely tackles problems which our previous models could not do. Being at the frontier puts you at the innovation frontier and helps you drive that as well. There is room for models of all sizes and capabilities. That’s why we did Flash, Flash-Lite, etc. I agree with you that you can develop very good product experiences with not necessarily the most frontier model, because they tend to be slower and more expensive too. But we care about the Pareto frontier, and we’re committed to doing all of that. You said developing frontier models gives you a look at what’s coming. What do you see on the horizon? What makes this moment so exciting is you build something which you think is a culmination of months of work, and you put it out. You already see clear headroom ahead. We’ve all been working on these agentic, long-horizon capabilities, but clearly the frontier is going to have multiple of these agents working together to do things. That’s an example of an exciting paradigm underway. It’s also clear to me that users, both in consumer and enterprise, will have access to some multi-agent framework for them, working all the time doing things. It feels like a moment of infinite possibilities. Sergey Brin said one of Argon’s core innovations was relying more on the model to help develop the model. Yet incidents involving OpenAI’s bots breaking containment and Google’s bots accessing a site they shouldn’t have suggest these systems still aren’t perfectly aligned. Isn’t there reasonable cause for concern about accelerating toward recursive self-improvement? There are three parts to your question. Let’s first talk about RSI itself. You’re right, Sergey mentioned RSI being a critical contributor as we are developing Argon. But to be very clear, today, in a continuum, we are pretty far from the end state of RSI or something like that. The right way to describe it is you have RSI loops along with AI researchers in various aspects of model development. You almost have agents helping AI researchers in some automated way work together to build these models. It’s good to at least understand where we are today, and it’s super exciting. I expect that continuum to keep making progress as we go into next year. The second question is around safety. Security comes from defense in depth. You’re talking about alignment, obviously. We all are doing a lot of work to make sure the models are as aligned as possible. But it’s an active area of research, and there are clear gaps. That’s not the only thing we rely on. You have the work you do on alignment, but beyond that, we put a lot of effort into real-time monitoring as these models are working. Making sure you have good telemetry into what’s happening so that you can intervene in real time if you see unexpected behaviors. How you do that, the architecture with which you do that, how you make sure it’s all sandboxed and isolated in a way that it can continue doing its job during real-time monitoring — these are all areas of investment. Obviously, when we deploy these models, giving customers, enterprises, control, both with real-time monitoring, but their ability to decide where they deploy, what type of data which models ever have access to, etc. All that work is very, very important, and we are doing a lot of that. As an industry, we need to constantly up our game and take the time to do all this stuff, including dedicating the compute required to make sure you can safely deploy these models. The third part is: Is it all enough? This is why there are a lot of conversations in the industry, and I think it’s reasonable to be worried. The right way to approach something you worry about is early on thinking about what more we can do. As an industry, you’re definitely seeing increased levels of work on alignment, testing for safety, etc., as we deploy these models. The next step would be developing better standards so there are cross-industry standards of how we do these things, including the ability to evaluate using independent evaluators. If you look at areas like financial controls, we have accounting standards, we have independent auditors. Those are all the next natural steps for us as an industry to work toward, and regulation will end up playing a role as we go through all of that as well. Google pursues both language models and world models, while some other AI companies like OpenAI have focused more heavily on LLMs as the path to AGI. Why is world-model research important to you? As humans, you obviously perceive the world around you, and you’re taking all those inputs. Making sure these models are able to understand the laws of physics, simulate the world in high fidelity. All that, I think, are key enabling blocks for intelligence. We are working across all possible applications of this. Take an area like robotics. It’s not an accident: If you look at embodied reasoning benchmarks, Argon is state of the art. That all comes from our experience building world models. Inherently, I would expect there will be architectures which will converge all of this in the future. But for us, we view this as, today, this jagged frontier that is intelligence. We want to be at the frontier of all the possible approaches, and that will help us both drive better research, better insights, and develop a much better AGI model, is how we think about it. Some people argue Google should focus on selling its computing resources rather than using them for AI research. Cloud wants to sell compute at a high markup, while researchers need a very big computer to build the best models. How do you balance those demands? Ground zero for us is making sure we are investing in the compute that’s needed to be at the AI frontier. In 2015, I set the company to be AI-first. AI is that key horizontal ingredient across everything we do, all the way from Search to Cloud to Waymo. That is ground zero for us, making sure both for research and developing the models that we have enough compute needed. Beyond that, we have these independent businesses which each have their own long-range plans. They’re using those long-range plans to project forward, and we plan for compute for all of them. The cloud team, they have a business and they have a projection and they have demand signals. They have committed contracts. With that help, we can plan on a long-term compute trajectory for them. We’re fortunate to have this wide set of opportunities. There’s no company in the world which isn’t making trade-offs at any given moment in time. But the first principles we operate on is making sure we have enough compute to invest in the frontier, and that’s non-negotiable, and everything else works on top. Remember, we are building our own compute, our own data centers. There are long lead times. The compute we have today is a function of decisions I made in 2024. Even if you think back to a year from today, last year the agentic coding takeoff hadn’t happened. Today, obviously, when you sit and look at anything, everyone is short—not just us, other companies—and everyone wishes you had two times what you had planned for. That comes with the territory. At any given moment in time, we are planning for what we would need two to three years out in the future. You’re going to find some decisions you make may look suboptimal two years out, depending on where the state of the art is. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. The way I think about compute allocation is making sure Google DeepMind, both for research and frontier model development, is cutting edge in terms of compute access. After that, we plan for all our businesses. It’s great we can provide our compute to other people too, like we have done. It allows us to scale that up, get real tests for it in the widest application set possible, test it in the real world, and make sure we are at the cutting edge of technology at every layer of our AI stack as well. Ben Horowitz relayed on a podcast that Andy Jassy had said compute was sold out until 2028. Are you seeing the same thing? If today a customer is coming out and asking us for compute in ’27, that is incredibly difficult to do. Even last year we went out and leased some short-term compute to accommodate some customers and help them out. But yes, we are all dealing with similar timelines. Every major technology shift seems to involve overbuilding, from railroads to fiber. Do you think that’s happening here? It depends on the time frames you’re looking at. This level of build, if I take a long enough time frame, it makes complete sense to me. We are at early stages of the most consequential technology ever, and this is not like fiber. It’s not dark. We are using it. We are capacity constrained on a daily basis. The applications, the underlying technology is improving rapidly. But running a company, the way I work through the moment is you look at your demand signals. You look at your committed revenue opportunities that you’re getting in the form of contracts. You balance that with the underlying technical capability, or internally you balance how we are using it internally, the model trajectories. Based on all that, you take a disciplined approach—a confident, aggressive, but disciplined approach—to plan out compute. But when you talk about the broader economy as a whole, you’re having people operate with various levels of risk. I focus on what I can control as a company and plan through it. If your question is, can there be an overbuild? Yes, because you can have some constrained components. Remember, what matters is a set of everything you need to build out that compute. Memory, electricity, electricians…. Land. Like 2,000 components or more. You could get constrained at some point. There could be things which cause bottlenecks, and then you could have overbuilds. There could be external shocks to the economy. There are macro risks. All that is possible at any given time. But am I confident that the compute we are planning for, we will have uses for it given enough time? Absolutely, yes. I was in the room when you said AI would be as profound as fire and electricity. If you believe that, shouldn’t you give researchers the biggest possible computer, even at the expense of today’s cloud profits? We’re all doing some form of that. Our cloud business is at any given moment in time forgoing short-term revenues because we are making compute trade-offs to support frontier AI development. What you’re seeing is true already. But you want to be thoughtful. Even our AI researchers have some constraints, which are also good. That’s what inspires creativity. That’s what helps you come up with a more efficient algorithmic breakthrough, maybe to use less memory. What we are committed to is to invest what’s needed to stay at the frontier. OpenAI President Greg Brockman told me a few months ago that the ideal AI product might have no interface at all—just as natural as conversation. What do you think the interface looks like in the age of AI? Computing historically has been humans adapting to computing. With AI, it’ll be the other way around. The technology will adapt seamlessly to how humans live and go about their day-to-day life. You want to be able to speak to that AI when you want to. It has context. It can be persistently running somewhere, give you continuity. You’re not dealing with a lot of complexity. It’s natural. All that makes sense to me. That doesn’t mean it won’t have any interface, however. Nowadays, even on my phone, Gemini voice models are so good. I can just press the microphone button. I can just ramble. That’s why we call it Rambler. I can ramble. It intelligently corrects with my personal context. Even my friends’ names, weird names, it gets it right, even if it first guesses it wrong. It’s amazing. I’m not going in, backspacing, editing once I finish saying it. It’s remarkable how good it’s gotten. But there are going to be moments you will need an interface. You may want to entertain yourself. You may want to watch a video. You may ask your AI to create something, and you want to watch it, consume it. The way I think about it is, you want it to be as seamless and as natural as possible, and that you are not doing the hard work adapting to whatever the interface is. The technology is adapting to how you’re working at any given moment in time. When I asked Sam Altman about competition from Google, he argued that OpenAI was building AI-native products and implied Google was bolting AI onto existing ones. Do you accept that framing, and can a “bolt-on” compete with an AI-native product? First of all, it’s a very dynamic moment. We are all pushing each other. OpenAI has pushed us as a company too. This is not just we are doing something to them. Far from it. Yes, Google went into its own version of a code red too. In the AI moment, all of us have to respond with varying levels of urgency at any given moment in time. We are constantly building new products as well. Gemini was built from the ground up as a product—the Gemini app I’m talking about. Or tomorrow, as all of us are adapting to agents, are you bolting agents onto ChatGPT, or are they building it natively? How would you think about that? You can always put these questions back. I don’t think of it that way. I think of it as you want to build world-class product experiences that are AI-native and they are winning. Some of it is adapting products, some of it is rethinking new experiences. They will all be part of how you approach this moment. How do you expect to make money from these AI interfaces? If an agent recommends a product and I buy it, should it take a cut of the sale, even if that’s disclosed? I’m going to put enterprise aside. Consumers are going to increasingly value this technology. Take software developers today. Developers are willing to pay for these coding models because it really helps make them more productive. Nobody would want to code the way they were coding three years ago, or even the same time last year. When you’re delivering value, there’s value to be had. I’ve never seen examples where consumer products really scale to billions of users, where people are using it intensely, and haven’t had monetization to go along with it. If you’re providing value to people, there is inherent value to be had. The nature of it may change. You’re asking a scenario in which agents are doing stuff for you. At the end of the day, you will have commercial needs. The agents need to fulfill those commercial needs. The providers on the other side are going to see value in that. There’s going to be some mechanism by which it gets fleshed out. That’s what an efficient system does. But what matters is that you’re building those world-class consumer experiences. I promised myself one product feature request: Can you make Gemini-powered search in Gmail as good as searching Gmail through ChatGPT? What’s going on here? One of the exciting things we announced recently is the unified Gemini agent for enterprise, and we’re bringing that to consumers. These are persistent agents which run 24/7 in the cloud. We’re spinning up a micro VM effectively for every query, and from the runtime, the harness, the model—it’s all a headless service. It’ll work everywhere, and it has your context with you. You can address this agent whether you’re in Workspace, in Search, in Gemini. Agents are going to drive this unification from a customer experience, which people are looking for. When you have a broad product portfolio and you’re moving forward fast, there are always areas where you’re moving forward faster than some other areas. That’s valid feedback. But we are putting a lot of time and effort into making sure, as we build out our agentic experience, that unification and that capability works well across all these services. People have asked where Google’s equivalent of Muse or Dots is. Do you anticipate creating a new product to compete with them? Our goal with Gemini is to be a personal, proactive, and powerful assistant. That’s what we are working toward. You saw us describe the early versions of it at Google I/O this year with Spark. Effectively, already, if you open the Gemini app as a Pro or an Ultra user, you see Chat and Task, and they start giving you that agentic experience. With Argon now, that capability is dramatically accelerated. What we announced recently in our enterprise event, we are bringing that to consumers as well. Soon in Gemini, you will be able to ask something, and it’s a continuum. You don’t need to think about whether you’re asking a chat or an agentic task. It’ll just automatically do the right thing, and it can work persistently in the background securely and get things done for you. Already, empirically, when I look at what’s coming into Gemini in our app, last year you would have tagged them and most of them would have been chats. But a steadily growing percentage is already agentic tasks in Gemini. Yes, we are going to bring personal agents to our consumers. It’ll work in the Gemini app. It’ll work in Google Search. It’ll work in Gmail. You can address it, call it, etc. We want to make sure we’re getting it right. It’ll be powered by Argon, and we are very excited to bring it to our users. Google has invested and committed tens of billions of dollars to Anthropic. What do you see in Dario Amodei that makes you want such a deep investment and partnership? Very early on, when we looked at the founding team of Anthropic, it was very clear to us this was a world-class team which was involved in some of the earliest GPT models. We were quickly able to assess that they would be at the frontier. We’ve always tried to identify and partner with companies which would be at the cutting edge of technology. We’ve done that with SpaceX. We’ve done that with Anthropic. That’s what we saw, and we had a chance to partner. Is your partnership with Apple to license Gemini for Siri expanding, contracting, or standing still? For both us and Apple, that partnership was about translating the capabilities of AI into better experiences for users. I thought Apple has done a phenomenal job of incorporating—they customize these models and build it into Siri—and it’s been great to see the reception. We are committed to doing more. You’re going to do more with them? There’s nothing specific to comment, but it’s a partnership. It’s working well. What have you learned so far about the feasibility of data centers in space? It’s a very exciting project. Projects like this remind me—I still recall that moment in the desert for the DARPA Grand Challenge, watching the Stanley car compete in it, which ended up being the basis for Waymo. With all these technologies, you’re at a moment in time where it looks a bit like sci-fi, but 10 to 20 years down the line, it’s actually working in a meaningful way. I feel the same in space. We’ve always believed in betting big on these technologies. Quantum has been a great example of it. We’re probably 10 years into the journey. Waymo, we are almost 20 years into the journey. Space, we are two to three years into the journey. It’s clear to me that it’s an approach which will make a lot of sense in the future. Being in sub-synchronous orbits with 24/7 access to the most abundant form of energy we have access to will make a lot of sense for this exponential increase in compute that we are going to need. Having said that, this is a challenging project. The team has disciplined milestones. It was a super exciting milestone to send the TPUs up to space. Sometime, as we are speaking, we are expecting a “hello world” moment from them. I look forward to seeing that happen, and we’ll continue investing here too. You previously said 25% of the code written within Google was written by AI. What’s the number today? That number in our world today is meaningless in the sense that every part of what we now touch is influenced by AI deeply. What we are tracking with Argon, for example, it’s been a point of inflection. People are using Argon to really go tackle complex projects, including projects which affect millions of lines of code. In the four weeks since we have launched Argon, we have seen a 30% increase in CLs, and more importantly, almost a similar increase—a one-third decrease in rollbacks. People are writing code more productively and better code with it. We are tracking it with newer metrics now. How are you dealing with opposition to data centers? If you can’t build in the U.S. the way you want to, where else do you go? We’re very committed to building our data centers very responsibly. When I look at our largest data centers in some of the communities where we have been the longest, I visit them, I talk to people. There are people who come and tell us their kids have gone to college because of our investments in these communities, and we’ve grown in those communities. To me, this is about doing it right. Engaging with the communities early, doing it transparently. We are committed to making sure we are bringing incremental power, and we cover 100% of the cost of our power needs for these projects. It’s understanding the impact on neighborhoods and making sure you’re working thoroughly to address them. Done rightly, you can continue making progress. But we are constantly taking feedback into account. I do worry not everyone operates the same way. People have been surprised by data centers showing up in their backyard. Those are all important. As an industry, we should continue to do better. But part of the reason, in a 20-year time frame, we are thinking about things like data centers in space is making sure we are able to put these data centers where maybe the trade-offs will be different. What unproven area of AI is Google working hardest to crack? Is it continual learning—getting models to keep updating after release—or something else? There are multiple parallel paths. You saw with Argon we have a million output tokens. With our Gemini models early on, we had a one-million context window on the input side. These are all examples of breakthroughs we are constantly working on. How do you think about synthetic data? How do you think about continual learning? How do you think about more efficient architectures? We do dedicate a meaningful percentage of our compute to these research bets too. It always goes hand in hand, including our world models. Those are all bets we are placing. Sometimes, as part of these bets, there are ideas that emerge which just make their way into the mainline models. Maybe we don’t fully talk about it, but we have multiple steps in these areas. Working in technology requires optimism that building something will improve the world, but those bets can leave real consequences when they fail. I recently returned to a town in El Salvador where enthusiasm for Bitcoin had given way to unfinished construction and something resembling a ghost town. How do you maintain the optimism you spoke about in your Stanford commencement address while accounting for those risks? I genuinely have a deep conviction that improving technology and improving access to technology makes people’s lives better. It’s been my personal experience in my life, out of which comes that deep conviction, optimism. But with that, I’ve always felt humanity’s journey is always about working hard to harness that technology to make it work well for society. The optimism is not an optimism that you just build whatever you want, whenever. You work hard to make sure you’re building technology in the service of humanity, to make the human condition better. That’s got to be the defining goal as we are approaching it. With that framework, I’m very, very optimistic. We are in very early stages of the kind of progress that we are going to see on many areas. We’re all talking about areas like healthcare. A lot of the progress is ahead. The ability to make things in a fundamentally cheaper way on many things where things have been getting expensive for a long, long time, discovering new materials, etc., which really bend the curve—it’s tough to step today and understand the impact of all that, but they’re going to be very profound. I’m very optimistic, but we have to be rightfully concerned about all the ways this technology can go wrong. Sundar, I know you don’t do many of these. Thank you. Thanks, Alex. Appreciate it.
Essentia Health hosting joint-replacement seminar in Fargo
Essentia Health on Tuesday, Oct. 27, will host a seminar in Fargo highlighting available surgical options for joint replacement.
Toppenish School District receives $7.5 million federal grant to expand mental health services for students
The BriefThe Toppenish School District has been awarded up to $7.5 million through Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education), a federal grant administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).The grant will provide up to $1.5 million annually over five years to expand mental health services, strengthen substance use prevention and intervention, and improve access to support for students.District officials say the funding will help address identified gaps in services, particularly drug and alcohol counseling at the high school level, and will allow the district to build capacity for long-term mental health support.TOPPENISH, WASHINGTON — The Toppenish School District has been awarded up to $7.5 million through Project AWARE (Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education), a federal grant administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), to expand mental health services and substance use prevention for students.District officials said access to mental health resources has been limited, making it difficult for some students and families to get the support they need. The federal Project AWARE grant will help address those challenges by bringing schools and local healthcare providers together to better support students.The grant will provide up to $1.5 million annually over five years to expand mental health services, strengthen substance use prevention and intervention, and improve access to support for Toppenish students. Deputy Superintendent Dr. Jeff Camero said the district is focused on coordinating with service providers in the area to work as a unified team."We made the awareness with the grant. But looking at all the service providers in the area and how can we all together work as a team?" Camero said.Camero said the district wants to use those resources to reach students earlier and provide more support for those struggling with their mental health. The district plans to address a range of mental health challenges, from anxiety and depression to youth suicide risk. Camero emphasized the importance of supporting students in grades eight through twelve, where suicide rates are a particular concern."Making sure from anxiety to depression, making sure that we can help support our students at those levels, but also the youth suicide risk, looking at that as a top in this area, in our grades, you know, eight, for example, eight through 12, looking at suicide rate and looking at how whether we look at the ACES or whatever program we're looking at, that's federal, how that connects and how we can better serve our students with this extra funding," Camero said.The funding will allow the district to bring in additional staff, including mental health and substance use specialists, to work directly with students and connect families with community resources. The district is already posting positions, including a director role, with additional positions expected to follow.District officials are also thinking beyond the grant's five-year timeline. Brittany Kaple, Director of Public Relations for the Toppenish School District, said the intent is to build capacity and establish connections that will sustain mental health services even after the grant funding ends."We do have the director position already posted, with some of our other positions following really close behind that. But the intent is to, you know, it's a five-year grant, so those positions would be funded for that five years. But there's also the intent to build capacity and make those connections so that at the end of the grant, when that money, you know, if that money is not renewed," Kaple said.As student mental health needs continue to evolve, access to drug and alcohol counseling has become an important priority for the district. Kaple said teachers and staff have been raising concerns about the need for more support, especially at the high school level."And that was something that was also an identified need by our high school staff when the superintendent met with them last school year. They said that that was a really great need, something that they felt was a gap in services that we were providing for our students. And so this is going to be one way to help support that need," Kaple said.The Toppenish School District says its goal is to ensure students and families have access to the support they need, both now and in the years ahead. Additional positions, including drug and alcohol counselors and family engagement specialists, are expected to be posted in the coming weeks. News Sunnyside City Council navigates 2027 budget planning Monique Garcia News "Dancing with the Stars" champion J.R. Martinez shares message of resilience during Central Washington visit Tyler Wargo News Toppenish, Mattawa educators honored at state Educator of the Year Awards Erin Wencl News Kennewick educator named 2027 Washington Teacher of the Year Erin Wencl News Voters to decide the next Yakima County Sheriff Monique Garcia COPYRIGHT 2026 BY APPLE VALLEY NEWS NOW. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.
1.7K views · 25 reactions | ON-ORBIT SCIENCE🔬 Astronaut Anil Menon...
ON-ORBIT SCIENCE🔬 Astronaut Anil Menon welcomed the arrival of a SpaceX cargo capsule at the International Space Station as the crew kicks off a "busy season of science." Menon said they are...
Ports Post Record Trade In September
The twin ports of the San Pedro Bay combined to move more than 2 million TEUs of cargo in September, setting individual and combined records for any month
WHO scales up Ebola readiness in 22 countries across three continents
The World Health Organization (WHO) is strengthening Ebola preparedness amid conflict and displacement affecting millions of lives in a region that spans parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.
‘Make America Great Again’ and ‘Socialism’: Orange District 7 ads tout national themes
Vargo said she’s never owned a MAGA hat. While she wouldn’t say if she voted for President Trump, she said she “had concerns the first time he ran.”
Scientists discover an ancient shipwreck dating to when the Great Pyramid was built
The wreck was found with relatively intact cargo on the seabed off the coast of Türkiye and is believed to be between 4,400 and 4,700 years old
WHO urges faster action to end lead exposure which kills 3.5 million annually
Countries must accelerate efforts to prevent lead exposure, which is estimated to cause more than 3.5 million deaths globally each year and affects hundreds of millions of children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.
Gemini 4 Argon Arrives With Big Claims for AI Agents and Scientific Discovery
Google just released the new Gemini 4 Argon, which it claims can generate up to a million tokens in a single run, a big jump for long code migrations and multi-step agent work. Competitors top out around 128,000 output tokens per request, so based on that claim, Argon’s 1 million is roughly 8x higher. Argon […]
Health workers tackle taboos over drinking with new AI tool
A new AI-powered hub for health professionals aims to help identify alcohol-related risks and launch discussions with patients, including the link between drinking and cancer, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday.
WHO calls for urgent health action across the Eastern Mediterranean
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has called for promoting, providing and protecting health in the Eastern Mediterranean region, home to some of the world’s top humanitarian crises such as Sudan, Yemen and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
BUSINESS UPDATE: Port Perseveres Despite Tariffs’ Negative Impact
‘We are hanging tough ... in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now,” the port’s director says By Stefan Yablonski Tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have hurt the Port of Oswego by slashing Canadian aluminum cargo volumes and reducing revenue. “We’re doing good. We are hanging tough. It is a tough time for our line of business in general, you know with these tariffs and the amount of Canadian aluminum that we see through our docks,” said the new executive director, Tom Drumm. “Compared to 2025, we are doing exceedingly well in traffic coming in; not necessarily the volumes we were seeing, but yeah we are hanging tough in an environment that is incredibly difficult to do business in right now.” “I don’t know where people get these numbers to be honest. We have never publicly stated how much our revenue is down or up or left to right. We don’t have a strong sense of those revenue numbers until the shipping season really closes up. We won’t have an accurate picture of the revenue standpoint until after the shipping season, typically in late November,” he added. “What I can tell you is several of our Canadian vessels that carry the aluminum cells — the volume of aluminum on those vessels we have seen decreasing. That is attributed to a few factors. One is where Novelis is in in their restart process. Novelis is rocking and rolling right now. They are starting to pull a lot of aluminum from the port of Oswego, the aluminum that they roll down into coils. “Another factor plainly is the tariffs. Canadian aluminum is tariffed at 50%. So, on those vessels we are seeing lower numbers than we would like. We’d like to see vessels carrying roughly 10,000 metric tons of aluminum. Over the course of this year, we have seen more in the range of 4,000 to 6,000. “Every piece of that aluminum that we receive here by vessel at the port is from Canada and is subsequently hit with the 50% tariff. It directly affects us because we’ve received less volume than we would traditionally see pre-tariff times.” When the port receives less aluminum from those vessels it means less hours for the ILA (International Longshoremen Association) as far as folks that work on the dock, he said. When cargo declines, it affects everyone, fewer hours for longshoremen, fewer loads for truck drivers, fewer rail shipments and less business for local suppliers. “Outside of the aluminum that comes in by vessel, the port topped out at having roughly 4,600 aluminum ingots stored on site at the port. That project had never been done before. The port of Oswego had never had that many of those size ingots in our yard,” he said. “It has been a busy summer for the ILA. Would we like to see more work for them? Sure. They are working all those barges when they come in, but as opposed to working 15 hours they might be working seven or eight hours. It hasn’t been a distinct decline in ILA hours. There has been plenty of work to keep our guys busy throughout the summer.” More salt “We just brought salt back to the port in several, several years. Around Harborfest time at one point we had a salt barge here with about 24,000 metric tons of rock salt and we had an aluminum barge here the same week. We had close to 40 men working,” he said. “Yeah, the other products definitely keep us busy. The salt project was a massive project, one that we are proud of. I’ve got 24,000 metric tons of salt on site that has to go somewhere — that’s going to be another project.” It is important for the port to continue to look at different products, different commodities to try to diversify some of its revenue, he said, adding, “We have done a pretty good job of that in my first five months here … particularly with the rock salt we have on site right now. It is important to continue to try to stand out and work through some projects outside our usual business. I enjoy it. It is a challenge every single day we put our head down and we try our best.”
SpaceX launches NASA science and cargo to the International Space Station
The sunrise launch on Oct. 13 was the 35th SpaceX flight under the Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with NASA.
NASA Science, Cargo Launch on 35th SpaceX Resupply Mission to Station
NASA’s SpaceX 35th commercial resupply mission lifted off at 6:33 a.m. EDT Tuesday aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral
Man charged with endangering by fire after blaze found near Fargo business
Police say fire was set to strip copper wire just feet from the building’s walls
Five new startups join Argonne's entrepreneurship program
Chain Reaction Innovations at Argonne National Laboratory announces five new innovators who will join its 10th cohort. These entrepreneurs have been awarded two-year fellowships to advance their energy and science technologies.
Sustaining livelihoods amid crisis in Gaza
Nidaa, Hanaa and Hanin have different stories, but share a common thread: the determination to build something of their own and keep it going despite extraordinary challenges facing them in war-ravaged Gaza.
Qualities women bring to business
Women continue to thrive in the workforce. Wells Fargo reports that, from 2019 to 2023, the growth rate of women-owned businesses outpaced the rate of men-owned businesses in relation to
No injuries after early morning fire at Elkhart County business
WSBT CBS 22 provides news, sports, entertainment and public interest programs to the South Bend, Indiana area including Mishawaka, Notre Dame, Granger, Osceola, Elkhart, Jimtown, Dunlap, New Carlisle, Goshen, Middlebury, Bristol, New Paris, Nappanee, Howe, Lagrange, Topeka, Bourbon, Milford, Syracuse, North Webster, Warsaw, Bremen, Plymouth, Walkerton, Argos, Tippecanoe, Culver, Grovertown, Delong, Rochester, Akron, Winamac, North Judson, LaPorte, North Liberty, Wakarusa, Lapaz, Millersburg, Knox, and Michigan City, Indiana – and these areas of Michigan: St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Buchanan, Niles, Three Oaks, New Buffalo, Harbert, Bridgeman, Stevensville, Watervliet, Berrien Springs, Dowagiac, Marcellus, Cassopolis, Decatur, Vandalia, Constantine, White Pigeon, Galien and Edwardsburg.
Port of LA sets all-time monthly cargo record amid 'resilient' consumer demand
September was the busiest month
Gears of War: E-Day sells 230K copies
Gears of War: E-Day has sold 230K copies since its advance-access launch on October 1 and full release on October 6. Steam accounts for 168K of those, with Xbox (console and PC) selling 62K. But there’s more to this story, as Xbox makes up the bulk of revenue. E-Day is the best-reviewed Gears game in nearly two decades (and the best one ever made, in my opinion). The Coalition has made a banger here (it’s currently in my top 10 of the year). Despite E-Day’s undeniable quality, this is a soft result. And it’s down to the business model, really. E-Day has made $37M so far, thanks to the Premium upgrade On Xbox, Game Pass is cannibalising much of the premium revenue. Our estimates show that 1.7M folks accessed E-Day via their subscription rather than a copy. But Xbox is having it both ways – or having it halfway, at least – via its Premium Edition Game Pass upgrade. Game Pass subscribers could pay $30 (or their local equivalent) for up to five days of early access starting October 1. Our estimates show that of the 1.7M who accessed E-Day through Game Pass, 722K paid for the upgrade. Between the review embargo lifting on October 1 and the full release, E-Day managed to shift another 250K early-access upgrades – no doubt helped by the campaign’s rave reviews. So despite selling far fewer copies on Steam, Xbox accounts for almost three-quarters of the revenue (roughly $26M of the $37M, versus about $11M on Steam). So “230K copies” undersells the paying audience. Including the 722K upgrades, nearly 950K people actually paid something for E-Day. The $30 upgrade is a halfstep from cannibalisation, but will Xbox go all the way? While E-Day is a sublime game, these are soft numbers for a flagship when Xbox badly needs revenue wins. E-Day sold 62K copies on Xbox against 722K Premium upgrades, so for every one copy sold on Xbox, nearly 12 Game Pass upgrades were sold. The $70 premium SKU is – functionally – dead on Xbox. Normally you can’t see what a Game Pass player would have paid, because the game’s just there in the subscription. But the $30 early-access upgrade estimate shows that 722K people demonstrated they’ll spend real money on this game. In a world without day-one Game Pass, many of these folks would have bought E-Day at $70. They paid $30 for five days early access to something they don’t own. Xbox is, in effect, charging its most valuable customers the least, based on a hangover from a tried-and-exhausted strategy from a previous administration. Those 722K willing-to-pay players generated about $21.7M via the upgrade. If three quarters of this group – mostly US and European audiences – bought E-Day outright, that’s nearly $40M. Of course, Game Pass does bring in meaningful recurring revenue, and E-Day is adding value for hundreds of thousands of subscribers. However, Game Pass is no longer growing, so Xbox is at a crossroads. Xbox is reportedly looking to do a Netflix and bolt on an ad-supported tier to pad it further. But that will just set a new floor, and leadership keeps telling us the priority now is revenue growth, which is subscriber-speak for ARPU. Xbox has already pulled Call of Duty from day-one Game Pass after day-one inclusion hammered its sales, with new CoD titles now arriving on the service around a year late. We know that some Microsoft executives believe the service devalues games outright, and rumours (which Microsoft has dismissed so far, to be fair) suggest that day-one releases could be taken off Game Pass. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe When a game this well-reviewed does this softly on its home platform, the model – not the game – gets brought into question. What else E-Day’s early adopters have played (including this month so far) Looking at E-Day‘s players on Xbox, most have played the franchise before (86% have played Gears 5, 76% Gears 4), and every game on the crossover list is either a shooter or a title from an Xbox-owned studio (though Game Pass is inflating those numbers, of course, more on that later): As for what else Xbox’s E-Day players have played this month, the top three are Fortnite (16%), Roblox (7%), and Call of Duty (6%). Another 5% played Minecraft Dungeons II, which is also on Game Pass and launched a couple of days before Gears‘ advance-access date. Many Game Pass players are happy to check out most big new additions. Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe Over on Steam, the top crossover games are also mostly shooters (slightly more PC-coded ones), including Space Marine 2, which was itself heavily inspired by Gears: Looking at what E-Day‘s Steam players are into this month shows who they are – as subscriptions don’t skew the data. The top three are Wardogs (13%), Deadlock (12%), and CS2 (10%), so you’ve got the restless shooter crowd checking out the new hotness. A little further down are Helldivers 2 and Space Marine 2, your co-op PVE shooter players who’ll feel right at home in Horde mode. Game Pass is skewing the playtime distribution on Xbox Looking at the playtime distribution in our platform, E-Day players on Steam are – relatively speaking – playing for longer: 54% of E-Day players on Xbox have played for five hours or less (versus 32% on Steam) 19% of Xbox players played for over 15 hours (versus 33% on Steam) 14% of Xbox players played for over 20 hours (22% on Steam) The absolute number of people playing for over 15, 20, and 50 hours is, of course, bigger on Xbox, thanks to the sheer volume of folks who came in through Game Pass (upgraders included). None of that is cause for alarm. Game Pass is the reason Xbox playtime skews lower, as when a game is free to try, people try it and bounce without putting in even an hour (17% under an hour on Xbox versus 6% on Steam). Want more free estimates and insights in your inbox twice a week? Subscribe below! Subscribe The subscription brings in tourists alongside the committed, dragging down the average even when the game is excellent (but also perhaps winning over the uninitiated). It’s standard across every subscription-included title, on PS Plus too. Forza Horizon 6, for instance, had 11% of its Xbox players bounce under an hour, versus just 2% on Steam. So, Xbox’s crossroads So there we have it. Gears of War: E-Day is an incredible game whose revenues have been stifled by subscription inclusion and exclusivity. It’s the best-reviewed entry in the series in fifteen-odd years, but it still turned into one of the year’s softer flagship launches, not because players didn’t want it, but because Xbox’s own storefront gave its most willing buyers a reason not to pay. Which leaves Xbox at a crossroads. Will it keep making Gears games when the financial returns are this thin and the margins this low? And if it does, does the next one arrive off Game Pass at day one – the way CoD now does, or even on PlayStation? I think it should. Alright, back to E-Day for me! The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
Scaling the Rocks: CarGo joins elite Colorado club
Colorado Rockies news and links for Friday, October 9, 2026
“Boston Blue ”showrunners reveal what it would take to get Tom Selleck on “Blue Bloods” spinoff
“It’s a long, never-ending conversation,” co-showrunner Brandon Margolis said.
Darfur: Healthcare needs outstrip resources as Security Council extends Sudan sanctions
More than 700,000 displaced people in Tawila, in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region, face severe shortages of healthcare, food, water and protection, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday as it called for an urgent increase in resources.
Wells Fargo faces regulator probe over efforts to boost black homeownership, WSJ reports
The Donald Trump administration's housing officials are launching a probe into Wells Fargo over programs and commitments the bank made nearly a decade ago to increase homeownership among Black Americans, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
Growing military cargo volumes raise commercial supply chain risks
Rising volumes of military cargo moving through freight forwarders, road haulers, port operators and shipping lines are creating complex safety, security, regulatory and political risks across…
Argonne Uses AI Agents to Get Closer to Self-Driving Microscopes
Scientists often wait months to get their hands on some of the world’s most powerful research instruments, such as state-of-the-art microscopes. At facilities like Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source, these machines allow researchers to use extremely bright X-rays to study materials at microscopic scales. Once they get access to such instruments, every hour counts. […]
Argonne-Led Campaign Aims to Improve Midwest Storm Predictions
A new U.S. Department of Energy research campaign will deploy advanced instruments from Ames, Iowa, to Chicago, Illinois, to study how differences in land surfaces, from farmland to cities, impact the formation and intensity of energy-disrupting storms. LEMONT, Ill., Oct. 7, 2026 — Every year, destructive storms cause billions of dollars of damage to homes, […]
Critical funding gap threatens health response in Yemen
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that significantly more resources are required to scale up its response in Yemen amid escalating conflict and rising needs.
New X-ray Technique Helps Scientists Watch Quantum Materials Respond to Laser Pulses
Argonne researchers developed an X-ray imaging technique to track silicon carbide’s response to ultrafast laser pulses.
WHO releases first global guidelines on child obesity as cases surge
Child and adolescent obesity has quadrupled since 1990, rising from two per cent to around eight per cent of youngsters in the five-to-19 age group, according to the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO).
Sanford Health Fargo offering flu shots at clinics, hosting vaccine events including ‘Boo to the Flu’
Sanford Health Fargo is now offering flu vaccinations to patients 6 months and older at all Fargo metro area primary care clinics.
Scientists develop new X-ray technique to watch quantum materials respond to laser pulses
Argonne scientists have developed a new X-ray imaging technique that reveals how silicon carbide responds to ultrafast laser pulses. The work provides new insight into creating quantum defects exactly where scientists want them — a longstanding goal for scalable quantum technologies.
Argonne: Building Scientific Computing Ecosystems for AI-Enabled Discovery
Trustworthy AI-enabled scientific discovery depends on software, people, institutions and community action. Oct. 1, 2026 — Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing scientific computing rapidly. AI systems can now generate and analyze code, synthesize information, assist with hypothesis generation and carry out complex reasoning tasks within scientific workflows. Alongside advances in computing architectures and data-intensive research, […]
Rogers becomes sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment after purchasing remaining stake
The telecommunications giant now has total control over the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena.
Rogers becomes sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment after purchasing remaining stake
The telecommunications giant now has total control over the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena.
Google’s overdue Gemini 4 Argon reaches the frontier with mixed results for science
Google’s Gemini 4 Argon brings competitive AI performance at introductory prices, but independent tests show uneven results against leading rivals.
Free health clinic in Largo: What's available Oct. 3 and 4
Many free medical, dental and vision services will be available in Largo this weekend at Prince George’s Community College. Shary Jones, a volunteer with Remote Area Medical, told News4’s Melissa Mollet and Jummy Olabanji about the offerings. No insurance or identification are required.
Milestone integration for Goshen Health in century long history
WSBT CBS 22 provides news, sports, entertainment and public interest programs to the South Bend, Indiana area including Mishawaka, Notre Dame, Granger, Osceola, Elkhart, Jimtown, Dunlap, New Carlisle, Goshen, Middlebury, Bristol, New Paris, Nappanee, Howe, Lagrange, Topeka, Bourbon, Milford, Syracuse, North Webster, Warsaw, Bremen, Plymouth, Walkerton, Argos, Tippecanoe, Culver, Grovertown, Delong, Rochester, Akron, Winamac, North Judson, LaPorte, North Liberty, Wakarusa, Lapaz, Millersburg, Knox, and Michigan City, Indiana – and these areas of Michigan: St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Buchanan, Niles, Three Oaks, New Buffalo, Harbert, Bridgeman, Stevensville, Watervliet, Berrien Springs, Dowagiac, Marcellus, Cassopolis, Decatur, Vandalia, Constantine, White Pigeon, Galien and Edwardsburg.
Sapphire discovery could reshape future brain-inspired electronics
Using X-ray beams from Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source, researchers discovered that a substrate beneath a vanadium dioxide film is not just a passive host. Data reveal mutual interactions that could shape future low-power, brain-inspired computing.
Cove handed season-long registration embargo
Cove Rangers are "considering all available options" after having a season-long registration ban imposed upon them by the SPFL over rule breaches.
Working Ports | Episode 5: Charting the Course - Connecting the Port, Business and Opportunity
Galveston's port does more than move ships, cargo and passengers. Its economic impact reaches into businesses, infrastructure, jobs and industries throughout the community.
Scientist whose work revealed immune system-hypertension link to receive the 2026 Joseph A. Vita Award
Embargoed until 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 DALLAS, Sept. 30, 2026 — A groundbreaking scientist whose discoveries revealed how immune activation and inflammation contribute to high blood pressure will be recognized by the American...
Eastview Mall owner, town of Victor accused of attempting to avoid debts
Mortgage lenders U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo have filed for foreclosure.
The Beclowning of Scott Bessent
One iron law of current politics is that nobody who associates themselves with Donald Trump emerges with a shred of credibility. For some, that’s not a big loss — it’s not as if anyone respected Pete Hegseth even before he decided that the key to military success in an age of drones and AI was more testosterone. For others, however, the costs are real. I’m old enough to remember when Marco Rubio was widely considered a reasonable, thoughtful politician. Right now, however, my candidate for the biggest loser is Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury. Bessent started out with significant reputation to lose: When Trump selected him, this was the headline in the Financial Times: Jason Furman, Barack Obama’s chief economist, described him as a “credible Treasury secretary who has a real understanding of the global economy”. But Bessent has now transformed himself into the Baghdad Bob of bonds. Three weeks ago, after intervening (for reasons that remain somewhat unclear) to support the Japanese yen, Bessent boasted about his ability to move markets and dared investors to bet against his, declaring “I am the house now.” He then tried to push long-term interest rates down, buying 30-year U.S. Treasuries in a move some have compared to paying down part of your mortgage by running up your credit card balance. Here’s how that’s going so far: To get some perspective on how high interest rates have gone, here’s a longer-term perspective: We haven’t seen interest rates this high since the fading days of the dotcom bubble. Why are interest rates hitting new records? The backdrop, as I argued in last Sunday’s primer, is the huge AI-driven investment boom; more on that next week. But the immediate cause of the latest interest rate spike was Trump’s rejection of an Iranian proposal to end the war. This rejection sent crude oil prices, which for a while had fallen considerably, shooting back up: It’s notable, by the way, that oil prices remain high even though a significant amount of oil is now being shuttled through the Strait of Hormuz by night, on smaller vessels. That’s an interesting story, which has a lot to do with the fact that oil from the Hormuz shuttle runs must be transferred to larger vessels before being shipped to markets in Europe and Asia; around 15 percent of the world’s large crude carriers are now parked off the coast of Oman, waiting to be tanked up. This is creating a shipping crunch: But that’s a topic for another day. For now, the point is that with oil still high and refined products, especially diesel, still close to record levels, inflation will remain elevated. And this in turn means that the Federal Reserve will keep short-term interest rates high, an expectation that is feeding into longer-term rates. Hence Bessent’s bond-market humiliation. The truth is that Bessent might not have been able to get interest rates down even in the best of circumstances. But he certainly won’t get anywhere as long as Trump keeps believing that he can somehow convert his Iran debacle into a triumphant victory. And Trump will keep believing that as long as he is surrounded by sycophants who tell him what he wants to hear. Sycophants like, for example, Scott Bessent, who is predicting the imminent collapse of the Iranian economy, possibly within two weeks. Bessent is right to say that the embargo on Iranian oil exports is placing the country under great economic strain. But his implicit prediction that this will quickly produce a deal that Trump can call victory looks no more plausible than his boasts about the bond market. The big question now is, why would anyone with a reputation to lose work for Donald Trump? As the beclowning of Bessent shows, joining the Trump team won’t just damage your reputation; it will utterly destroy it.
DR Congo Ebola emergency: Calls grow for urgent humanitarian access
Aid teams trying to keep deadly Ebola disease from spreading in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are increasingly concerned about ongoing fighting and violence that has forced thousands of people to flee a displacement camp in the vast, resource-rich east of the country.
Peyton and Peter’s Power Hour: Professional athletes and their political opinions
What’s more important in fandom: an athlete’s play or what they say?
Scientists use Pompeii’s exact eruption date to make volcano dating far more precise
Scientists used precisely recorded date of the Vesuvius eruption that buried Pompeii to make argon-argon dating significantly more accurate.
The Witcher 3 Remastered Download Size, Global Release Times and Review Embargo Lift Dates Revealed
In case you missed the big announcement at gamescom last month, CD Projekt RED is set to unleash The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Remastered this coming week, and it'll be…
Essentia Health-Fargo opens $2 million suite to expand heart rhythm care
FARGO (KFGO) - Essentia Health-Fargo has opened a second electrophysiology procedural suite, a $2 million expa...
Essentia Health-Fargo adds new electrophysiology procedural suite
Essentia Health-Fargo has added a new electrophysiology (EP) procedural suite, a $2 million project that repurposed a general operating room.
Essentia Health-Fargo opens second electrophysiology procedural suite
Essentia Health-Fargo is proud to highlight the addition of a state-of-the-art electrophysiology (EP) procedural suite.
Twilio (TWLO) Keeps Climbing as Investors Rediscover its AI Business
Twilio Inc. (NYSE:TWLO) rose another 3.1% on September 24 to close at $299.66. The run has come alongside a series of analyst upgrades. TD Cowen lifted its target to $300 from $260, and Rosenblatt, Wells Fargo and UBS all raised theirs in the same stretch. The stock has roughly tripled from its low of $98.44 […]
Advanced Health Tech Research Continues to Protect Astronaut Health
Advanced health research, including ultrasound scans, blood tests, and exercise studies, using the latest technology in microgravity was on Thursday’s schedule for the Expedition 75 crew. The orbital residents also continued their ongoing cargo operations and maintenance tasks aboard the International Space Station.
Airline trio take final steps towards launch of joint cargo business
Qatar Airways Cargo, IAG Cargo and the cargo division of Malaysia Airlines have nearly finished integrating their operations and systems for their upcoming joint cargo business.
What can AI do for science? Four Argonne interns investigate
This summer, four Argonne interns used AI to advance research on vaccine development, weather forecasting and high performance computing. Their work shows how AI can speed discovery and help tackle major scientific and public health challenges.
Reform and the UAE – a threat to British politics
By Alex Carlen The United Arab Emirates likes to present itself as part of the solution to the climate crisis. The oil-rich Gulf state has committed to Net Zero by 2050, hosted COP 28, and even declared “championing climate action” as one of three strategic objectives for this week’s session of the United Nations General Assembly. But behind the scenes the UAE has quietly built one of its closest political relationships in Europe with the party most hostile to climate action in Britain: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. There is no evidence that the UAE is funding Reform. But a new FairSquare report, Petro-populism: the UAE–Reform threat, published today, documents a growing political relationship that should concern anyone interested in the integrity of British democracy. Reform’s leaders have embraced the UAE’s political model and promoted positions that align closely with the Emirati government’s priorities, while the UAE has given Farage and his party unusually warm access and public backing. What is emerging is not simply a relationship between British politicians and a wealthy Gulf state, but a channel through which an authoritarian government can cultivate political influence here, and abroad. Democracy for Sale relies on its readers. If you already support us, thanks so much. If you don’t, sign up to support fearless independent investigative journalism. Subscribe Back in January, Nigel Farage appeared at a GB News event in Dubai. On the 50th floor of a tower overlooking the luxury resorts and upscale residences of Palm Jumeirah, the Reform leader declared: “I want Clacton to look like this.” At the event – which Farage never declared on his official register of interests – senior Emirati officials mixed with British expats. Farage was keen to flatter. “We recognise you are our friends”, he said, assuring them that “a Brexit London, a Reform London, will remember you.” Controversy surrounding Reform’s finances and its susceptibility to foreign influence have centred around high-profile donations from billionaire crypto donors, and the jailing of Nathan Gill, Reform’s former leader in Wales, for accepting bribes to give pro-Russia speeches. Far less attention has been paid to Reform’s blossoming new alliance with the UAE, an oil-rich authoritarian state with a track record of ruinous anti-democratic interventions. Farage wasn’t always so fond of the UAE. Back in 2023 he called it an “absolute monarchy with an abysmal human rights record.” Now Reform’s hierarchy calls the UAE home. Deputy leader Richard Tice splits his time between his constituency and Dubai and has called on the UK to learn from the UAE. The party’s treasurer Nick Candy runs a firm which has been in partnership with a UAE-state linked firm since 2024. Nadhim Zahawi sits on the board of an Abu Dhabi think tank alongside an array of the most senior UAE officials and is reportedly close to three brothers of the country’s despotic ruler Mohammed Bin Zayed. Reform’s leading lights have effusively praised the UAE’s governance model, defended it from criticism, and advanced its political agenda in the UK. GB News, whose two major shareholders – the Legatum Foundation and Paul Marshall – have strong links to the UAE, has been more than happy to broadcast UAE propaganda and was forced to pay damages in 2025 after airing a false claim about a UK charity by the UAE “disinfluencer” Amjad Taha. The UAE has responded in kind. When the UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs conducted an official visit to the UK in May, Farage was the only non-government figure granted an audience. UAE state media publicised the meeting, and said that they discussed “the strategic relations between the two countries and ways to enhance them in a manner that serves mutual interests.” For the UAE these ‘mutual interests’ largely concern its paranoia over political Islam, and in this regard the UAE-Reform alliance is part of a broad and troubling pattern. Following a crackdown on dissent at home in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the UAE has offered material and political support to a range of violent and authoritarian actors willing to oppose the Muslim Brotherhood with no regard for the consequences. Its meddling in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and most notably Sudan, have been devastating. The UAE’s strategy of seeking out partners on the political fringes who it believes will advance its interests is not unique to Britain – it extends beyond the Middle East to Europe and the US. In France, it has offered clandestine support to Marine Le Pen through secret meetings, as well allegedly funding trips to the region after which Le Pen returned with a renewed focus on the UAE’s perceived enemies – Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. Left-wing opposition leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has accused the UAE of smearing him and of “encouraging discrimination, hatred or violence”. In the US, the UAE actively supported the rise of Donald Trump, establishing itself as a key ally during both his first and second terms. Around these relationships sits a wider ecosystem of figures willing to amplify UAE narratives, that even extends to Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson. Subscribe In Britain, the UAE has used a combination of aggressive diplomacy and illicit, disruptive tactics to achieve its policy goal of eliminating any perceived threat from political Islam. In 2012, for instance, it threatened to block billion-pound arms deals with the UK and stop inward investment if David Cameron did not act against the Muslim Brotherhood and rein in the BBC’s coverage of the group – going so far as to suggest, with no supporting evidence, that the group had infiltrated the BBC. It has financed smear campaigns against a high-profile UK charity and funded a mercenary to secretly surveil, and possibly assassinate, a British national on British soil. In Reform UK, the UAE has finally found an ally willing to not only ban the Muslim Brotherhood, but to publicly vilify the group and repeat the UAE’s claims that dangerous Muslims are a fifth column in British society, a narrative that aligns with the Islamophobia and anti-immigration sentiments that underpin Reform’s populist politics. The Rycroft review into foreign interference concluded that “hostile states and non-state actors have a clear incentive to attempt to undermine UK democracy.” The UAE’s network and alliance with Reform must be understood within that framework. It is a powerful, disruptive and deeply authoritarian actor with the resources and networks to intervene in our politics, and a track-record of doing so in a multitude of other countries. The evidence of the threat the UAE poses is overwhelming. The question is whether parliamentarians are willing to call the UAE out and demand action using the tools that the government has to respond. Placing the UAE on the “Enhanced Tier” of the Foreign Registration scheme alongside Russia and Iran would send a powerful signal to the UAE that its meddling will no longer be tolerated, and would place Farage’s next trips to the UAE under the scrutiny they deserve. Alex Carlen is research and advocacy manager at London based human rights organisation FairSquare and author of its new report Petro-populism: the UAE–Reform threat. Subscribe
Column: Dolly Parton transcended politics by putting humanity first
Americans don’t agree on much these days. Dolly Parton was the rare exception. Country bumpkins and city drag queens. God-fearing Christians and queer people. Conservatives and progressives. Younger fans who discovered her decades after her rise to fame and generations who grew up alongside her. Parton’s reach was seemingly boundless, her audience a study in...
Qualcomm launches two new smartphone chips with emphasis on AI
Qualcomm said that its new top chip can run 30B mixture-of-expert model locally
Scientists develop real-time AI monitoring for an advanced nuclear reactor component
Just as a clogged kitchen sink can bring household routines to a halt, a blockage in a nuclear reactor's heat exchanger can slow operations and require urgent attention. Researchers at the U.S. Department ...
Telestroke program offers fast stroke care in rural areas
Technology has made healthcare more accessible. The telestroke program at Sanford connects neurologists in Fargo with patients in Bemidji.
Kargo's Emissions Reduction Targets Verified by the Science Based Targets Initiative
Near-term targets through 2030 hold 76.4% of Kargo's suppliers by emissions to science-based targets of their own...
Bobcat Company pledges $1M to Fargo Moorhead Science Museum
Plans for a regional science museum in Fargo received a major boost after Bobcat Company committed $1 million to the project, the Fargo Moorhead Science Museum announced Monday.
Fargo-Moorhead Science Museum receives $1M corporate investment
Bobcat Co. has committed $1 million in financial and in-kind support to help develop hands-on exhibits for the future Fargo-Moorhead Science Museum.
How GLP-1s Are Reshaping the Business of Healthcare
John Teasley, Market Executive, Wells Fargo Healthcare Banking joins Good Day DC.
Argonne develops real-time AI monitoring for an advanced nuclear reactor component
Argonne National Laboratory researchers proposed an AI-powered monitoring system that can spot blockages in the heat exchangers of molten-salt-cooled reactors in real time, helping prevent costly shutdowns and improve reliability for next-generation nuclear energy.
Is Elevance Health (ELV) Fairly Valued On Its Conference Outlook Reassurance?
Elevance Health (ELV) used its appearance at the Wells Fargo 21st Annual Healthcare Conference on 10 September 2026 to reinforce its earnings outlook and cost discipline, keeping the recent valuation conversation very much alive. Recent trading has been mildly soft, with the share price down 0.8% on the day and 1.9% over the past week. Even so, Elevance Health still carries a 16.0% year to date share price return and a 33.6% 1 year total shareholder return, indicating that momentum has cooled...
The race to build a pandemic-proof world
Six years after COVID-19 killed millions, battered health systems, disrupted lives and brought the global economy to a virtual standstill, the world is still grappling with how we can prepare better for the next pandemic.
From a WWII drone to cargo pants, a Lake View military surplus store marks 80 years in business
Army Navy Sales, a third-generation family business at 3100 N. Lincoln Ave., touts itself as the last authentic military surplus store in Chicago.
Port of Galveston launches new era for cargo
When people think about the Port of Galveston, cruise ships are probably the first thing that come to mind. And for good reason. Galveston is one of the leading cruise
Charlotte's Allspring on block for perhaps $4B, FT says
Allspring Global Investments, a Charlotte-based business that was formerly the asset management division of Wells Fargo, is considering a sale that could be as much as $4 billion, the Financial Times reported Friday. No decision has been made and talks are in early stages, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the transaction. […]
Make small business accounting way easier with this $60 lifetime tool
Make bookkeeping as easy as snapping a photo with Argo Books.
Control Resonant review leaks before release date, praising performance and combat
One site broke Remedy Entertainment's review embargo ahead of the Control Resonant release date. The article gives a positive evaluation of the revamped melee combat. Performance in the open-world-like maps also impressed, but the storytelling may not enthrall players.
World News in Brief: Shipping alert from IMO, democracy vanishing in Nicaragua, alert over political ‘denialism’
Amid a rising number of attacks on shipping in key waterways in the Middle East linked to the US-Iran war, the head of UN maritime agency, Mr. Arsenio Dominguez, has insisted that the conflict is not a “pretext” to target “innocent seafarers”.
UNICEF says thousands of children require mental health support after Nepal floods
Three weeks after the devastating flash floods in Nepal, about 17,000 children require urgent mental health and psychosocial support in the country, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday.
Ebola responders grapple with widening outbreak in DR Congo
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
Amazon suspends use of 21 Air, cargo carrier whose plane careened off runway
The North Carolina carrier had flown packages for Amazon since 2024
Amazon suspends use of 21 Air, cargo carrier whose plane careened off runway
The North Carolina carrier had flown packages for Amazon since 2024
Amazon suspends use of 21 Air, cargo carrier whose plane careened off Miami runway
Amazon says it has suspended its partnership with 21 Air after one of the cargo carrier’s planes careened off a Miami runway last week and killed five people.
CVS Health Flagged “High-Trend” Costs on September 9. Here’s Where the Stock Could Go
CVS Health told the Wells Fargo Healthcare Conference that medical costs are still running hot, and the warning pulled the whole managed care sector down with it. Underneath the caution, management detailed an operating-efficiency push most investors skipped past.
In 1996, NOAA scientists pumped 2 dyes beneath Key Largo to learn where groundwater went; 18 days later, 2 bay-side wells showed it flowed toward the Atlantic
By the mid-1990s, seagrass die-offs and deteriorating water quality had caused coral reefs throughout the Florida Keys to show signs of decline for years, leading scientists to search for explanations other than the apparent ones like boat traffic and coastal development. One notion that kept coming up among academics investigating the region was that contaminants and nutrients could be carried directly into the reef tract by groundwater seeping silently beneath the islands, where no one could witness it.
NRF: Import cargo volume peak continues into September
The National Retail Federation (NRF) has revised its outlook for U.S. container import volumes as this year remains unpredictable in large part because of global geopolitical issues. After forecasting import...
Leukemia patient finishes bone marrow transplant marathon
Just six months after her bone marrow transplant, Taylor Rings ran her first race since a leukemia diagnosis: a 5K in Fargo.
Small Business Spotlight: Guitar shop aims to strike a chord
WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO OPEN STRING THEORY GUITARS INC.? ALLISON & LEE WILLIAMS: “We are lifelong musicians with a passion for playing. We love Wilmington and the live music scene here, and we wanted a way to be a part of the music community without having to start work at 9 p.m. We also want to be a destination for residents and musicians performing in and around the downtown area.” WHAT DOES YOUR BUSINESS PROVIDE, AND HOW DO YOU THINK IT HELPS CUSTOMERS? We love Wilmington and the live music scene here, and we wanted a way to be a part of the music community without having to start work at 9 p.m. We also want to be a destination for residents and musicians performing in and around the downtown areaTHE WILLIAMSES: “We’re a true basics-to-boutique destination. If you’re someone who’s just starting out, we can set you up with high-quality, brand-new equipment at a great entry-level price point. When you’re ready for your dream guitar, we can help you design and create a fully custom electric or acoustic guitar to your specifications. We have a broad selection of both guitars and amplifiers for players of every level. We also have a community board in the store to connect bands, students, instructors, repair technicians, and anyone providing a service to the local music community.” WHAT PAST EXPERIENCE DO YOU HAVE THAT LED YOU TO CREATE STRING THEORY GUITARS? THE WILLIAMSES: “Lee has played guitar for almost 40 years, from middle school band to gigging rock bands. Allison has a background in orchestra and musical theater, as well as retail management. We worked together as a husband-and-wife team in manufacturing for many years prior to moving to Wilmington. Having shopped in countless music stores over the years, we set up our shop with the goal of being welcoming and inviting. Our philosophy is ‘if it’s on display, it’s for play.’ No instrument or amplifier is out of reach in our store.” WHAT GOALS DO YOU HAVE FOR GROWTH? THE WILLIAMSES: “We would love to grow the bluegrass and folk instrument segment of our business. We carry banjos, mandolins, resonator guitars, ukuleles and related accessories. We’ve seen and heard plenty of talented bluegrass and folk musicians around Wilmington, and we look forward to expanding our selections to support this growing segment of the local music scene.” WHAT CHALLENGES ARE YOU FACING RIGHT NOW IN YOUR BUSINESS? THE WILLIAMSES: “Getting the word out about our brand and some of the unique brands we represent is a challenge for any new business. Online exposure through the Cargo District, Wilmington Downtown Inc. … and our online following is steadily growing. Our other challenge is the logistics of our streets. Our neighborhood is amazing, and you could spend the entire day walking around the Cargo District. As the District continues to grow, we’re seeing more pedestrian traffic, particularly in crossing 16th and 17th streets. We’ve seen some improvements in traffic calming, but the sooner we can improve safety with crosswalks and pedestrian signals, the more welcoming our neighborhood will be.”
UConn Student Justin Fargo Went from Family iPhone-Fixer to Small Business Cybersecurity Champion
'There is a massive shortage of security professionals, and the opportunity for information security-related roles is only increasing'
Amazon Cargo Jet Pilots Appeared to Try Aborting Landing, N.T.S.B. Investigation Indicates
The sequence of events detailed by National Transportation Safety Board investigators showed that the pilots lost crucial seconds before the plane ran off the runway in Miami.
Local businesses brace for gigantic cargo moves starting next week
Locals anxiously waiting for superloads of heavy equipment — weighing up to 380 tons — to travel through their towns will have to hold on until next week. The first trip, on a giant, specialized truck, is expected to leave a dock in Gilpin’s Schenley section on Monday morning. Officials
Andy Serkis’ ‘Nevatars’ Brings a New Kind of Storytelling to Venice Immersive
Andy Serkis' Nevatars brings interactive XR storytelling, alongside ambitious projects featuring Margot Robbie, Omar Sy and Mark Ruffalo.
Astronaut Health, Lunar and Earth Photography Fill Crew’s Research Schedule
Exploring astronaut health and photographing the Moon and Earth topped the research schedule for the Expedition 75 crew aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. The orbital residents also kept up life support maintenance following the departure of cargo spacecraft the day before.
Political strategists outline their plan for Senate control and the algorithm cutting vital Medicaid funding
Plus, the NTSB investigators receive flight recorder data from the aircraft that crashed in Miami.
A university professor spent 100 days living in a 100-square-foot habitat 22 feet beneath a Key Largo lagoon — and when he finally surfaced, he measured half an inch shorter after spending the entire mission under elevated pressure
Joseph Dituri went into the water at 73 inches tall. He came out, 100 days later, at just over 72. The final measurement came on a Key Largo dock in June
5 things a tiny-home builder says to consider before construction
Before building a tiny home, HGTV host Margo Fairchild says one of the biggest things to consider is if a small space will truly fit your lifestyle.
Amazon plane barrels off runway; at least 5 dead
MIAMI — An Amazon cargo plane barreled off a runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday, killing at least five people and injuring five others as it struck vehicles and
Healthcare billing startup leases RiNo office after $120 million raise
Candid Health, which says it has 250 health care organizations as customers, is upgrading from the 2,000 square feet it had in the Wells Fargo Center downtown.