In major win for voters, judge blocks Trump’s mail voting restrictions for midterms

In major win for voters, judge blocks Trump’s mail voting restrictions for midterms

Democracy Docket reports: A federal judge in Massachusetts barred the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) Friday from advancing new mail voting restrictions that, if carried out, could leave vast numbers of people unable to cast a ballot by mail this fall. The decision is a massive win for access to the ballot, though the administration is all but certain to appeal. Issuing her ruling a day after a pivotal hearing in Boston, U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said USPS’s rule, which…

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Trump administration rushes to Supreme Court in ongoing effort to upend midterm elections

Trump administration rushes to Supreme Court in ongoing effort to upend midterm elections

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to immediately allow new restrictions on mail-in balloting, potentially setting up a major legal clash that could affect millions of voters for November’s midterm elections. The fight could possibly upend election procedures just as states begin to send out mail-in ballots in pivotal contests that will determine control of the U.S. House and Senate. Some communities in Wisconsin mailed ballots to voters this week, North Carolina is…

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Price of diesel hits a record high

Price of diesel hits a record high

NPR reports: The price of diesel has reached an all-time high, according to AAA. The national average for a gallon is now $5.85. That exceeds the previous high in June 2022, when the average for a gallon reached $5.81 a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, according to AAA data. The record high is significant because diesel powers much of the industrial supply chain in the United States via the “three t’s” of the economy: trains, tractors, and trucks, says…

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Arab diplomats fear Iran is widening the war — and there’s no way out

Arab diplomats fear Iran is widening the war — and there’s no way out

Politico reports: Iran’s renewed attacks against Arab countries are raising the stakes for regional powers, with some saying they are losing hope that there’s any way out of the war — and that things will get worse before the November elections. The fear is that Iran is particularly motivated to increase strikes right now — ahead of the U.S. midterms — making a widening regional conflict more likely. “Iran would like to prolong this status of controlled escalation and retaliation…

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Gary Marcus: Pause OpenAI, now

Gary Marcus: Pause OpenAI, now

Gary Marcus writes: I simply don’t believe that they are trustworthy enough or responsible enough to be good stewards of the technology that they are developing. As a company, they simply don’t have good judgment. Here are four considerations. 1. Sam Altman cannot be trusted. I have been writing about that for a long time. Ronan Farrow’s reporting backs that up. So does the just-dropped bombshell below that I am about to get to. 2. The just-released Astra reduces Chain…

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Reform UK suspends two senior officials after undercover report on donations

Reform UK suspends two senior officials after undercover report on donations

The Guardian reports: Reform UK has suspended two senior officials after they were filmed in an undercover investigation appearing to plot to get around electoral laws on foreign donations. In a blow to Nigel Farage hours before his conference speech, the party said it had launched an investigation into the actions of James Orr, the party’s head of policy, and Dan Jukes, a senior aide to Farage, after the broadcast by Channel 4 News. Jukes and Orr were filmed by…

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Huge genetic study finds strong links between DNA and personality traits

Huge genetic study finds strong links between DNA and personality traits

John M Lund / Getty Images By Briar Wormington, QIMR Berghofer and Michelle K Lupton, QIMR Berghofer Personality is something we all share, but the different ways we think and feel also make us unique. Personality is relatively stable and influences nearly every aspect of human life, from academic performance and career choices to health behaviours and longevity. For example, someone who is responsible might avoid taking risks or alcohol and drug use. Our new study, published in Nature, has…

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Sanders proposes pause on advanced AI development and ban on ‘artificial superintelligence’ after rogue AI incidents

Sanders proposes pause on advanced AI development and ban on ‘artificial superintelligence’ after rogue AI incidents

If the leaders of the major AI companies admit that they are losing control of their extremely dangerous technology, it is time for an immediate PAUSE on advanced AI development and a permanent BAN on superintelligence. pic.twitter.com/0FQo4risiD — Sen. Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) September 3, 2026 The Washington Post reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) called Thursday for the United States to ban so-called artificial superintelligence, saying a summer hacking spree by rogue OpenAI agents had revealed…

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Anthropic deliberately trained an extremely misaligned, reward-seeking AI and it became dangerous

Anthropic deliberately trained an extremely misaligned, reward-seeking AI and it became dangerous

Futurism reports: Earlier this year, Anthropic’s Mythos AI model made headlines when it was caught infiltrating third party systems, a cybersecurity nightmare years in the making. The company warned in April that the model had escaped a sandbox environment during testing, gaining access to the internet without permission. The model was challenged to break out and then find a way of sending a direct message to the human researcher in charge — a feat it pulled off with aplomb, catching…

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‘Supersizing before our eyes’: UN warns of record El Niño approaching

‘Supersizing before our eyes’: UN warns of record El Niño approaching

The Guardian reports: The El Niño climate phenomenon is “supersizing before our eyes”, the UN has said. The event is near certain to shatter temperature records, according to the latest forecasts. The El Niño is likely to be the largest in at least 1,000 years and will pile extra heat into an atmosphere where temperatures are already rising rapidly due to global heating. The combination means 2027 is set to “blow apart” the record and be the hottest year ever…

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Nepal’s glacial collapse foreshadowed a future of climate disaster

Nepal’s glacial collapse foreshadowed a future of climate disaster

Michael Mann writes: For millennia, the high peaks of the Himalayas were held together by an invisible, frozen cement – permafrost and glacial ice that bound ancient rock into seemingly unshakable fortresses. But as the planet continues to warm, this alpine glue is liquefying. The glacial collapse and deluge in Nepal and Tibet was not a freak weather event; it was the structural failure of a mountain itself, nature’s latest commentary on the deadly consequences of human-caused planetary warming. And…

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ICE plans to pay $5 million to create national voting database

ICE plans to pay $5 million to create national voting database

Wired reports: In a bid to tackle alleged voter fraud, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing to award a contract worth up to $5 million to a company that will create a massive national database of voters. ICE first detailed what the contract would entail in a document published last week. “The purpose of this acquisition is for the handling and secure delivery of publicly available voter registration files and voter history files to support Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) fraud…

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Gloria Steinem’s revolution is unfinished

Gloria Steinem’s revolution is unfinished

Nikki McCann Ramirez writes: Gloria Steinem never held elected office. She never ran for one, never seemed particularly interested in pursuing power inside the governing systems she strove so hard to change. Steinem was, over the course of her lifelong activism, a beacon of the manner in which Americans can shape their nation for the better, without ever having to put their name on a ballot. Steinem died on Monday at the age of 92, after nearly seven decades as…

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Ancient ‘living fossils’ may reveal how complex life began

Ancient ‘living fossils’ may reveal how complex life began

Science Daily reports: At first glance, stromatolites and their close relatives, microbial mats, can look like little more than dark, ancient rocks. In reality, they are densely packed, layered communities built by microbes. Billions of years ago, before animals and plants existed, stromatolites helped release some of the earliest oxygen into Earth’s atmosphere. Now, a study published in Current Biology suggests these unusual formations may also preserve clues to another major event in Earth’s history: the emergence of complex life….

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