Google is working with NASA to develop a robotic medical assistant that could help astronauts on future deep-space missions.

Chocolate Factory's public sector VP Jim Kelly said in a Tuesday blog post that the company's latest moonshot could take its technology far beyond the lunar surface, with Google's public sector arm partnering with NASA's Human Research Program, Johnson Space Center's robotics team, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop a robot that could assist astronauts with medical tasks, cargo handling, and routine maintenance.

The robotics project builds on the Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA), an AI-powered medical decision-support system Google has been working on with NASA since last year. CMO-DA, which is powered by the Red Hat-supported open source local AI tool RamaLama, is already being evaluated on Earth-bound copies of computers used aboard the ISS. It's designed to run AI models locally for evaluation of medical issues, which will be a key part of future space missions due to the communications lag between Earth and astronauts in deep space.

"An astronaut on a future deep space mission to Mars could face severe operational challenges—including round-trip communication latencies of up to 44 minutes, making real-time medical guidance for crew nearly impossible," Kelly said in this week's blog post.

Google and NASA envision the robot as an assistant to a human crew medical officer, helping with medical tasks and doing other work when bedside assistance isn't required.

"To maximize its utility for a lean crew, the robotic system is designed as a versatile 'payload' handler capable of managing cargo, logistics, and equipment," Kelly explained. "When not needed for routine maintenance like organizing tools or securing compartments, it can pivot to medical support."

As one example of its potential use, the Google public sector VP explained that, were someone to experience severe back pain potentially caused by kidney stones, the robot could fetch and prep an ultrasound machine, leaving the crew medical officer to interpret the scan and decide on treatment.

"The ultimate goal is to build a robotic system that can execute a variety of tasks via simple voice instructions, under the astronauts' direct supervision and command," Kelly said. "For instance, the robot might be directed to assist with routine health monitoring—such as capturing basic vitals or simple ultrasounds—under the strict guidance of a human crew medical officer."

So, not a full-fledged digital medical officer as much as an extra set of hands for an overworked human doc.

As for the status of the project, it doesn't appear to have advanced too far yet. Google outlines several technologies being explored, including JPL's work adapting satellite situational-awareness tools originally used to track objects in orbit to help the robot navigate 3D spaces. The project remains at the proof-of-concept stage, with early laboratory demonstrations conducted, but Google hasn't confirmed whether a fully integrated, space-ready robot exists.

Kelly explained that Google used DeepMind's MuJoCo physics simulator to test the robot's movements, and that the system scored an initial 85 percent success rate in early lab tests involving locating and moving a medical bag - not exactly proof that it's ready to assist with medical procedures, but it's a start.

Google referred us to NASA for questions, but the space agency declined to get into specifics. The agency only told us it's working on a variety of "super intelligence" (eye roll - that's AI to those of us operating in reality) projects for its many missions, and that it's working with partners to assess them for future applications. ®

Why ask a human to complete a coding test when they can just use an AI to help them? Anthropic engineering manager Felix Rieseberg says he has stopped using traditional coding interviews for his team.

"Being able to quickly define problems and find elegant solutions was a weak but useful predictor for how successful you'd be on my teams," Rieseberg explained in a blog post on Tuesday. "Small coding challenges in real code did tell us something meaningful about candidates."

No longer, he says. The coding interview is dead, as far as he's concerned.

"There's no more point in giving you a little React challenge than there is in quizzing people about assembly; Claude is now better at both," he insisted. "Our most impactful builders are successful regardless of how good they are at these tests."

In a response posted to social media, Jaana Dogan, principal engineer at Google, said much the same. "I'm not doing a ton of coding interviews nowadays but I'd be interested to interview how people use coding agents," she wrote. "That itself gives me more signals about candidates' coding skills."

Several months ago, Google reportedly began reevaluating how it conducts coding interviews and what it looks for in candidates. And while it would be surprising if similar conversations haven't already occurred at other large technology companies where AI agents have demonstrated their coding capabilities, the rest of the tech industry appears to be moving more cautiously than the AI enthusiasts.

"We are not seeing tech companies abandon skills assessments widely across the industry—at least not yet," said Nicole Bachaud, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, in an email to The Register. "In fact, based on our October 2026 Employer Survey of 1,500 employers, we see the tech industry (Information sector specifically) is actually the most likely to test for skills, with 62.5 percent of employers requiring formal skill tests on initial applications."

Coding interviews at Microsoft, and later Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other tech giants, vary, depending on what the hiring organization aims to evaluate. They may probe technical knowledge related to a specific subject, coding ability in a particular language, general problem-solving skills, team-oriented behavior, or other skills.

Stripe's software engineer interview process, according to Educative, consists of a phone screening stage, a technical phone interview, and several further on-site interviews.

Rieseberg actually worked there and describes how founder Patrick Collison urged new hires to pay attention to things that seemed out of place. "His bet was that newcomers would spot friction and opportunities that old-timers had long stopped noticing," he said.

And Rieseberg appears to have absorbed that viewpoint based on his dismissal of experience: "Hunger beats tenure," he said, perhaps unaware that technology companies have gotten into legal trouble for jettisoning costly veteran employees so they can be replaced by hungry, less expensive young professionals.

Technical interviews are seldom just about technical mastery. There are after all many other ways that employees can add value to an organization beyond testable computer science skills. And when employees have access to AI models that can answer technical questions better than job candidates, it makes sense to look more closely at the creativity and social skills people bring to the table.

"The change at Anthropic might be reflecting a shift away from technical skills towards more human, soft skills," said Bachaud. "As AI becomes fully capable of writing code, tech employers may be pivoting away from rote technical testing and heavily toward human-centric soft skills."

She argues that while AI may be able to code well, it can't replace critical thinking. "A staggering 61.5 percent of Information employers now report that 'critical thinking' is a primary skill lacking in today's candidate pool," she said.

"I don't think the coding interview is going to come back," said Rieseberg. "It's easy to get sentimental given how many copies of 'Algorithms and Data Structures' were bought in hopes of unlocking good jobs and a better future — or how the death of the coding interview is another milestone in software engineering reaching a new level of abstraction."

At the same time, he's not certain what will replace it.

"I'm probably not the only manager trying to figure out how to interview for people who build well with AI," Rieseberg wrote. "I haven't quite gotten there yet — but I'm scanning resumes and portfolios for little prototypes that exhibit taste, empathy, and principled thinking. If you have figured out something better, I'd love to hear how."

Bachaud sees technical evaluations changing instead of going away, noting that 70 percent of Information sector employers have switched to proctored or in-person skill assessments as a way to deter cheating with AI.

"Ultimately, tech companies aren't necessarily testing less, but the way they are testing is changing," she said. "As AI automates a lot of manual and technical components of jobs, work skills may become more universal. That could lead to an increase in job switching and turnover once economic conditions improve. In our recent survey of workers, we found that AI-related work concerns are causing a quarter of workers to start thinking about their next role. And as assessments and skills are changing, what roles are available to them might look more different than ever before." ®

Attackers are probing a critical Oracle E-Business Suite vulnerability that can lead to remote code execution (RCE), despite Oracle issuing a patch earlier this month.

Meanwhile, new analysis indicates that an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day exploited by ShinyHunters as early as May involves three distinct vulnerabilities that can be combined to achieve RCE. Patching alone may not remove attackers from already compromised systems, particularly if they've installed web shells.

First up: CVE-2026-101767, a critical, unauthenticated SQL injection bug in Oracle EBS that can lead to RCE.

"Our Oracle E-Business Suite decoys recorded exploratory exploits against CVE-2026-101767, an unauthenticated SQL injection in EBS's Thin Client Framework servlet that chains to remote code execution, this morning, Oct 27," Defused Cyber said in an X post.

Horizon3 researchers found and disclosed the bug to Oracle, and the vendor patched the issue in its October release.

"An attacker can send a crafted request to the vulnerable servlet to execute SQL with the privileges of the APPS database user," Horizon3 explained at the time. "The attack chain also enables operating system command execution with the privileges of the EBS application account."

This means an unauthorized user can modify application data accessible to APPS, and execute commands. "Depending on the deployment, affected data may include financial, payroll, HR, and procurement records," the bug hunters said.

The Register reached out to Oracle with multiple questions for this story - including whether it has documented any successful exploitation of CVE-2026-101767 - and did not receive an immediate response.

Moving on to the PeopleSoft-ShinyHunters fiasco: TrendAI's Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) found and reported the PeopleSoft issues on June 10, and Oracle issued a patch under one vulnerability identifier: CVE-2026-35273.

In early June, ShinyHunters told The Reg that the group hacked more than 100 organizations via an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day, CVE-2026-35273.

Google's consulting and incident response biz, Mandiant, later confirmed the data theft and extortion crew exploited CVE-2026-35273 as a zero-day, mostly against schools and the education sector.

By late September, however, Mandiant said ShinyHunters massively expanded its targeting, "deploying web shells on dozens of systems globally, spanning higher education, technology, IT services, healthcare, agriculture, transportation, and government."

According to ZDI bug hunter Bobby Gould, there are actually three distinct vulnerabilities across multiple PeopleSoft components, and each should receive its own CVE identifier rather than being grouped under CVE-2026-35273.

Gould, along with TrendAI researchers Minh Giang and Lucas Miller, originally found and reported three distinct bugs to Oracle in June. "We are coordinating with Oracle to assign separate CVEs for each issue," he said in a Tuesday blog.

The first issue is a Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in the PeopleSoft Integration Gateway (PSIGW), which gives attackers a foothold in the PeopleSoft application. In June, Oracle introduced a "validateClient" method to allow PeopleSoft system administrators to restrict access to certain functionality. The SSRF bug, however, allows crims to make requests that satisfy the validation requirement to access endpoints vulnerable to RCE, Gould wrote.

"While this solution does restrict access, an attacker on any trusted host can still reach PSEMHUB," he said, referring to PeopleSoft Environment Management Hub (PSEMHUB). "Because Oracle allows localhost by default, the PSIGW SSRF provides exactly that access."

The second bug is an external control of file path vulnerability in PSEMHUB's ExecuteProcessActivityCommand handler. This message handler is designed to allow remote clients to write log entries to the PeopleSoft server's filesystem - but it doesn't properly validate requests, which allows an attacker to write a web shell into a file path and achieve RCE.

The third vulnerability, also in PSEMHUB, is a deserialization of untrusted data flaw. An attacker can use a file-write vulnerability to plant a malicious XML file inside a PeopleSoft directory that stores environment configuration data, then wait for PSEMHUB to initialize, such as after a service or system restart. This triggers deserialization of the malicious XML file, potentially allowing the attacker to achieve RCE.

"Attackers can combine these vulnerabilities to compromise affected instances of PeopleSoft," Gould warned.®

Introducing The Trip, the first of a new generation of Moto Guzzi.

TECHNOLOGY FROM MOTORCYCLES OF THE CLASS ABOVE, ICONIC YET CONTEMPORARY DESIGN AND AN AGILE, ENTERTAINING CHASSIS: THE TRIP COMBINES INNOVATION AND EMOTION IN PURE MOTO GUZZI STYLE.

MOTO GUZZI THE TRIP WILL BE UNVEILED AT EICMA (Motorcycle show) IN MILAN, ITALY FROM 5 TO 8 NOVEMBER - HALL 9.

AN EASY, LIGHTWEIGHT AND FUN 500 ROADSTER.

Beautiful to look at and to ride, for those coming to the Moto Guzzi world and for those who already love it. A motorcycle that is authentic and quick, and that can stir even the most experienced riders, without being over-complicated.

At some point we started to believe that motorcycling had to mean extreme performance, outlandish power and ever more demanding machines.

Meanwhile, life has changed.

Cities have become more frantic, free time more precious, and the desire for authentic experiences stronger than ever.

Today, true luxury isn't about more horsepower. It's about more time. More freedom. More chances to break out of the daily routine.

That's why we created Moto Guzzi The Trip.

The new 500 roadster ushers in a new generation of Moto Guzzi. A motorcycle for those who want the character of a legendary marque and the ease of use modern life demands.

A bike that makes every journey special. From the commute to an impromptu ride after work. From the quickest route to the finest trip.

Because the journey isn't about how far you go, but about how you choose to use your time.

TECHNOLOGY IN THE SERVICE OF ENJOYMENT

The Trip is designed to feel intuitive from the very first moment.

At just 180 kg in running order, with a natural riding position and an accessible seat starting at 790 mm from the ground, everything feels simple, easy, immediate.

No stress when manoeuvring. No nerves in traffic. Nothing stands between you and the pleasure of riding.

With a technology package from motorcycles of the class above, contemporary design and an agile, entertaining chassis, Moto Guzzi The Trip combines approachability and liveliness like few other bikes in its class. This bike can win over anyone coming to two wheels for the first time, satisfy the most experienced motorcyclists and rekindle the passion of those returning to riding after years away.

A mid-capacity Moto Guzzi with a big personality.

STYLE THAT DOESN'T NEED TO SHOUT

The Trip introduces a new design language for Moto Guzzi: pared back, contemporary and authentic.

Every element has been designed by taking away rather than adding, letting what really matters come through: balanced proportions, clean surfaces and the stage presence of the twin-cylinder engine in its deep, minimal black finish.

The 15-litre metal fuel tank combines elegance with practicality. The full LED headlight gives a modern twist to the iconic Moto Guzzi eagle. The circular 3.6-inch TFT display connects seamlessly with a smartphone and provides clear, immediate information on every journey. The backlit handlebar switchgear is easy and intuitive, keeping everything under control at night too. The bike's name is elegantly embroidered on the seat.

Because the best technology is the technology that makes life simpler.

THE PLEASURE OF RIDING, EVERY DAY

At the heart of The Trip is a modern parallel-twin engine producing almost 48 hp, fully compatible with an A2 licence.

Its strength lies in making every kilometre a pleasure.

It responds smoothly, with most of its torque available from low revs. Riding is relaxed in urban traffic and engaging when the road opens up beyond the city.

Everything is designed to instil confidence, naturalness and riding pleasure.

Because fun doesn't come from complexity. It comes from feeling instantly at one with your motorcycle.

TECHNOLOGY THAT FOLLOWS YOU, NOT TECHNOLOGY THAT DISTRACTS YOU

The Trip gives you all the technology you need, exactly when you need it.

The Ride-by-Wire electronic throttle and three riding modes let you tailor the bike's character to suit any situation:

Road. For taking on every day with smoothness and comfort.

Sport. For adding energy and fun on your favourite routes.

Rain. For tackling the most difficult conditions with greater safety.

Integrated pictogram navigation and the Quick Shifter (available as accessories) complete the experience, making every ride even simpler and more engaging.

THE CITY IS ONLY THE STARTING POINT

The Trip is built to get you around in style in everyday life, but it can do a great deal more.

It is the bike that makes a detour on the way home special. That takes you to discover a new neighbourhood. A tucked-away bar. A road you have never ridden.

It is the perfect companion for a spur-of-the-moment escape out of town, to the sea at dawn or a hilltop at sunset.

For anyone after new experiences, and for anyone who loves to travel, even if only in their head.

For those who believe adventure can begin the moment you turn the key and click down into first.

THREE LIVERIES. THREE WAYS TO LIVE THE TRIP.

Black Metropolis: The contemporary elegance of the city.

Green Grove: Where Moto Guzzi tradition meets nature.

Red Beat: The eagle's energy at its most dynamic and sporty.

And to celebrate the start of a new era, there is also The Opening special edition, for anyone who wants to be part of it from day one.

The new The Trip 500 will take centre stage on the Moto Guzzi stand at EICMA, held at Rho Fiera from 5 to 8 November 2026, and will be available from official dealers in early 2027.

The post Moto Guzzi Introducing 500cc Parallel Twin Streetbike appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

TL;DR: Get ChatPlayground AI's Unlimited Lifetime Plan for just $79 (MSRP $619), with side-by-side comparisons across 20-plus AI models and more.

Asking three chatbots the same question shouldn't require three tabs and a spreadsheet. ChatPlayground AI's Unlimited Lifetime Subscription is on sale right now for just $79 (MSRP $619), putting multiple AI responses in one window so you can spend less time copying and more time deciding. — Read the rest

The post Get lifetime of ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini + more in a single workspace for $79 appeared first on Boing Boing.

If you need a lot of fake blood for Halloween this year, this is the video for you. It's a tutorial that shows you how to make realistic fake blood.

It starts with a base of corn syrup plus red food coloring. — Read the rest

The post How to make realistic fake blood for Halloween appeared first on Boing Boing.

Distributed Denial of Secrets (DDoS) has been steadily pushing the limits of transparency and accountability for several years now. The project — spearheaded by Emma Best — does what other activists won't… or perhaps simply don't have the expertise to carry out.

DDoS made a name for itself by hitching Best's non-stop FOIA onslaught to data and info exfiltrated from government agencies by hackers and data breaches. Add it all together and it's a project that actually delivers transparency and, consequently, increases government accountability.

From releasing files about Russia that Wikileaks selectively chose to ignore to dumping multiple terabytes of law enforcement helicopter camera footage none of these agencies would ever have voluntarily released, DDoS does what it says on the tin: refuses to let the government's secrets remain secret.

Today, it's releasing information on nearly 40,000 DHS employees — something that is estimated to cover nearly 20 percent of its total workforce. This covers all DHS component agencies, including ICE, CBP, HSI, and another dozen or so subsidiaries that don't make the headlines nearly as often as the Big Three.

But it's not just a data dump. As Best points out in DDoS's press release, this info — leaked by an "Okta single sign-on service" — has not only been vetted, it's been cleaned up to give viewers a clearer picture of organizational structures as well as make it easily searchable. It's not about dumping data on thousands of foot soldiers. It's about drawing connections between the boots on the ground and those who have put those boots on the ground.

"Rather than an indiscriminate directory of every DHS employee, Icepick identifies many of the architects and drivers of DHS policy and operations," said journalist and DDoSecrets cofounder Emma Best. "The leak is extraordinary but deceptive in it's simplicity as it identifies the officials responsible for overseeing covert and undercover operations, the government's hunt for leakers and the failed BlueLeaks investigation — along with key personnel in DHS's ever-escalating rendition and deportation programs."

The "Icepick" referred to by Best is the front-end for searching this database. The data on these 40,000 federal employees was obtained by a source that has only referred to itself as the "Department of Peace." Journalist/hacktivist "crimew" (assisted by journalist Ryan Fae) did the dirty work of creating a rather sleek front end for the search engine, as well as doing the even dirtier work of cleaning up the data to deliver relevant results more frequently.

The end result is useful for everyone from journalists to people suing DHS employees. Here's a sample shot providing details on David Easterwood, an ICE Deputy Field Office Director currently working in Minnesota:

Everything underlined is a link that opens a new search. It allows users to climb up the chain of command (the "Manager" field), as well as drill down to the specifics of those in Easterwood's command ("Manager of"). It also pulls up a list of all related groups Easterwood is a member of in this Okta instance, ranging from the instantly worrying (ERO St Paul Intelligence Team) to the "it's just offices all the way down" banality of "Adobe-Acrobat Pro DC Users."

While it may have been possible to brute force email addresses by dialing in on shared nomenclature among federal agencies, it's highly unlikely most people would be able to suss out direct phone lines, much less cell phone numbers. To be sure, this small amount of immediately visible (and searchable) info will provoke outlandish reactions from government officials. On the other hand, any arguments that this makes things more "dangerous" for DHS agents and officials should be immediately dismissed.

What this does do is allow people to figure out who's calling the shots wherever they're experiencing surges in ICE activity and the violence that so often comes with it. And this allows plaintiffs seeking to hold the government accountable the ability to go up and down the chain of command to find names to add to lawsuits. If their rights were violated by masked ICE thugs in a certain area, perusing city and state data could potentially allow them to identify the officers who were directly responsible for these acts.

And, going back to the inevitable claims that this will allow people to "target" government agents, let's not forget these same people have access to way more data about citizens and aren't particularly shy about using that info to track and surveil critics and activists. The info released here shouldn't make anyone fear for their safety. What it might do, however, is remind federal officers that they're not untouchable.

Indian Motorcycle Restructures Operations to Strengthen U.S. Manufacturing and Advance Transition to Independent Operations

Key Highlights:

Increases long-term efficiency and profitability as part of ongoing transition from Polaris' ownership to stand-alone motorcycle business.

Move expands Spirit Lake capabilities

Net-neutral impact on overall staffing strengthens core corporate capabilities and U.S. manufacturing

Golden Valley, MN — October 28, 2026 — Indian Motorcycle today announced the next phase of its strategic transition to a free-standing company, strengthening its manufacturing capabilities in Spirit Lake, Iowa, adding dedicated business functions, and restructuring its organization to support long-term profitability and growth.

The changes include adding manufacturing jobs to support recently expanded capabilities at the Spirit Lake facility that will significantly reinforce Indian Motorcycle's commitment to manufacturing its motorcycles in the United States. The company is also filling essential finance, corporate administration, and other positions that were previously handled by Polaris employees through the initial stages of its multi-faceted transition process.

Further to the restructuring, Indian Motorcycle has eliminated positions across several business functions as part of its efforts to detangle the business from Polaris, reduce operational overlap and better align its organization with the needs of an independent motorcycle business.

"As we stated when we assumed control of the business in February, we are committed to strengthening this business for long-term success with American manufacturing at its foundation," said Mike Kennedy, CEO of Indian Motorcycle. "Expanding manufacturing capabilities and jobs in Spirit Lake and building a team dedicated to the needs of this business are critical aspects of our long-term plan. That said, we are also making some difficult organizational decisions that are reducing some positions. While we recognize the challenges that presents to the individuals impacted, it remains necessary to establishing a more efficient operation that can support sustained profitability and future growth."

SPIRIT LAKE'S STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE

The critical hub of the company's U.S. manufacturing network, Indian Motorcycle recently added engine manufacturing to the broader scope of Spirit Lake manufacturing operations, while also strengthening its paint operation at the plant. To support the combined expansion of capabilities at the facility, the company will be adding up to 60 additional manufacturing positions.

"Spirit Lake is strategically foundational for our future," Kennedy said. "The skills of our employees and the capabilities of that manufacturing operation are absolutely essential to taking this business to the next level and we are excited to be doing so right here in America for riders around the globe."

TRANSITION FROM POLARIS

The transition from a business supported by Polaris' shared corporate functions to a free-standing company requires Indian Motorcycle to establish its own capabilities in several essential areas. To that point, Indian Motorcycle is filling positions in finance, corporate administration, and other business functions. This will include filling as many as ten existing positions focused on responsibilities previously performed for Indian Motorcycle by employees who remained with Polaris following the transaction. Establishing these dedicated functions further transitions responsibility for the day-to-day operations to an independent Indian Motorcycle.

At the same time, the company has spent the past 7 months identifying areas of staffing overlap and other structural inefficiencies to simplify its organizational structure to be more responsive, nimble, and efficient in serving the needs of its dealers and customers. This effort required the elimination of approximately 70 positions across various divisions of the business.

"This is an unfortunate and difficult aspect of this process, because these decisions affect people who have contributed to Indian Motorcycle over the years; and we recognize the impact on them and their families," Kennedy said. "We are incredibly grateful for their work and are committed to treating them with the utmost care and respect throughout this process."

The restructuring efforts advance the strategies established by Carolwood when it assumed official ownership in February of this year: reinforce American manufacturing; establish independent operating capabilities; and position Indian Motorcycle and its dealers for long-term profitability and growth.

"We are building the manufacturing capabilities, dedicated team, and operating discipline Indian Motorcycle needs for its next chapter," Kennedy said. "Our responsibility is to make decisions today that strengthen this company for our employees, dealers, and riders over the long term."

For more information, visit IndianMotorcycle.com.

ABOUT INDIAN MOTORCYCLE

Indian Motorcycle is America's First Motorcycle Company. Founded in 1901, Indian Motorcycle has won the hearts of motorcyclists around the world and earned distinction as one of America's most legendary and iconic brands through unrivaled racing dominance, engineering prowess and countless innovations and industry firsts. Today that heritage and passion is reignited under new brand stewardship. To learn more, please visit www.indianmotorcycle.com.

The post Indian Advances Transition to Independent Operations appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

Applications to join the 2027 grid will open on 4 November 2026 and run until 15 January 2027.

Prospective competitors looking to apply for 2027 entries for the FIM Moto3 Junior World Championship, Moto2 European Championship, Stock European Championship or Momoven Moto4 European Cup can now save the date for when applications open:

KEY DATES

• Applications open: 4 November 2026

• Applications close: 15 January 2027

• Confirmation of selected riders: no later than 2 February 2027 (via email)

• Selected riders must register online: no later than 2 March 2027

Participants applying for the FIM Moto3 Jr WCh, the Moto2 ECh and Stock ECh categories are required to make an advance payment of the registration fee of €1,500.

Please also note that, for the FIM Moto3 Jr WC and the Moto4 EC, a 30% discount will be applied to the Season and One Event entry fee for each rider whose nationality makes up less than 10% of the MotoGP grid across the three clas-ses in 2026*. Here you can check the Season and One Event entry fees.

It is reminded that the incentive programme for riders and teams will also be in force in 2027. Full information about the riders incentives is available here and about the teams incentives, here.

The 2027 calendar can be checked here or, alternatively, downloaded here.

*The two nationalities that would not qualify for this discount in 2027 are Spanish and Italian

The post FIM MotoJunior: Applications Open November 4 for 2027 Grid appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

10 Things I Can't Wait to See at Maker Faire Orlando Maker Faire Orlando has been on my bucket list even before I joined Make: in 2014. It is a long story I will refrain from.  But one that has never lined up for me to attend until now! In excited anticipation as I was […]

The post 10 Things I Can't Wait to See at Maker Faire Orlando appeared first on Make: DIY Projects and Ideas for Makers.

• 'New course on energy'
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

Chancellor John Healey has announced a "new course on energy" for the UK, focused on keeping bills low amid the global crisis triggered by war in the Middle East.

As he laid out his first budget, Healey said the Labour government would still prioritise the expansion of clean power and remain "unshakably committed to net-zero".

The budget sets out what the chancellor calls a "radical reform of energy", including a longer-term effort to "break the grip of gas on bills".

There are also a variety of short-term measures to curb energy bills, including a council-tax rebate and the removal of the gas "standing charge", though these fell far short of pre-budget calls to tackle high prices.

Moreover, in order to fund defence spending, the government is cutting £1bn from its "warm homes plan" and £700m from hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.

The budget also appears to cut up to another £4.7bn from the warm homes plan - as well as ending zero-rated VAT for solar panels and extending a "temporary" 5p cut in fuel duty.

Finally, the government set out plans to ensure new data centres meet strict environmental regulations, while leaving the door open to on-site fossil-fuel power generation.

Below, Carbon Brief runs through the key climate- and energy-focused announcements from the budget.

• 'New course on energy'
• Energy bills
• Warm homes plan
• Fuel duty and EVs
• CCS and hydrogen
• Data centres
• Other announcements

Conflict in the Middle East has driven up energy bills for people in the UK, as the global trade in oil and gas has been thrown into disarray.

In this context, the new budget sets out a "shift in the government's approach to energy", focusing on "cheaper energy" as the main priority.

At the same time, Healey was clear that fossil fuels were driving the price increases and that clean power would be essential for the government's cost-cutting agenda.

In its accompanying analysis, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) notes that "fossil-fuel prices rose by 83% in the year to September 2026".

In his speech, the chancellor announced a "radical reform of energy to reduce bills", stating: 

"Today, I'm setting a new course on energy. To get UK energy costs down in line with Europe, from this point, our Labour government priority is first and foremost cheaper energy, with clean power key to achieving this. This is possible because of the progress we have made towards clean power over the last two years."

Conservative and Reform politicians have argued that the UK should abandon its net-zero targets, including Labour's "clean power by 2030" goal, in order to cut energy prices.

This is despite expensive gas driving most of the recent price increases and renewables saving the UK billions in gas imports since the start of the Hormuz crisis.

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The government has not explicitly rolled back any climate targets and Healey stressed in his speech that "this government remains unshakably committed to net-zero by 2050".

Nevertheless, the budget document speaks of a "new energy pathway" on which the government's upcoming "10 year plan" will build. It also states:

"Cheaper electricity will boost electrification, increasing the UK's energy security and helping to decarbonise the whole economy."

The budget mentions short- and long-term measures to bring costs down, including expansion of the electricity grid. (See sections below for more details.)

Healey also used his speech to welcome the recent approval of the controversial Jackdaw gasfield, which he framed as a "pragmatic" decision that would boost UK "energy security".

The government is yet to make a decision on the Rosebank oilfield, but OBR forecasts released alongside the budget assume that it will be approved.

The budget offers short-term relief on household and industrial energy bills, as well as promising longer-term sectoral reform.

Nevertheless, it falls far short of proposals for cutting bills that had been set out by industry bodies, thinktanks, charities and energy companies ahead of the budget.

This has stoked expectations that the government may be forced to offer further support on energy bills after the price cap for January 2027 is announced later this year.

Forecasts suggest bills could rise by a quarter - some £470 - to around £2,200 a year.

The only substantive and immediate new bills measure in the budget is a £100 council-tax rebate for English households in bands A-D, which Healey said would cost £2.6bn.

Devolved governments will receive a share of the funding to provide their own support. Meanwhile, local authorities will receive an additional £100m to provide targeted support to households "acutely impacted" by rising energy bills.

In addition, Healey announced that the temporary removal of VAT from household electricity bills - worth around £45 per year - will be extended by three months, from April to July 2027. 

Healey also made a commitment that no new policy costs would be added to energy bills until a comprehensive "cost-control framework" is in place. This is expected at the spending review in 2027. The budget says:

"The government will introduce a new comprehensive cost control framework (CCF) at the spending review in 2027 that will set budgets for components of energy costs, including policy costs, to ensure government action drives bills down over the next 10 years."

"As part of this, the budget specifies that going forward, the government will only procure new clean-power projects that lower bills and can easily connect to the grid. 

It specifically notes that the upcoming eighth "contracts for difference" (CfD) auction (AR8) "will lower bills, as well as deliver[ing] a good outcome for energy security and climate".

Speaking to Carbon Brief, James Dyson, senior researcher at E3G says that an effective framework should "set out a specific, timebound commitment to remove the hidden costs from energy bills which have accumulated over the last two decades", as well as providing oversight of system costs in the future.

A planned levy on gas bills - a long-term funding mechanism for the low-carbon hydrogen dubbed the "gas shipper obligation" - will be moved into general taxation, so that "government rather than consumers fund the costs of hydrogen projects".

On the morning of the budget, the government announced that the "unfair and outdated" gas standing charge would be removed for around 23m homes in the UK. 

A standing charge is a fixed daily fee paid by households as part of their bill, regardless of how much gas they use. This costs around £108 a year for a typical household. 

The government says it will ask energy regulator Ofgem to move the cost of the standing charge onto gas unit rates in 2027, or as soon as possible. It says this will save 60% of households an average of around £45 a year on their gas bill

The change will disproportionately benefit the poorest households, according to analysis from thinktank Nesta shown in the figure below.

Nesta says the shift will reduce the "spark gap" - the ratio between electricity and gas prices - by around 0.3 points, from 3.3 under the current price cap to 3.0. This could help encourage a shift to electrified technologies, such as heat pumps and electric vehicles (EVs).

The budget also includes a commitment to "reform" standing charges on electricity bills, with further details to be published in 2027.

However, Jess Britton at UKERC tells Carbon Brief that "simply moving [electricity standing] charges on to unit costs risks disincentivising electrification".

From next year, the government will introduce a new "energy debt circuit breaker", which will save billpayers £30 by 2030, according to the budget.

This is designed to "tackle the scourge of energy debt", which currently adds around £60 to typical household energy bills each year, according to Carbon Brief analysis. . 

The initiative follows warnings from trade association Energy UK that customer energy debt is on course to hit £7bn by the end of 2026, potentially adding another £10-15 to bills. 

The budget also confirmed additional support for business energy bills. It says the "British industrial competitiveness scheme" (BICS) will be expanded to provide a 20-25% electricity discount to 10,000 energy-intensive manufacturing firms from April 2027. This will include back-payments for 2026-27. 

In the longer term, the budget includes a commitment to "breaking the grip of gas on bills".

A consultation published alongside the budget fleshes out the options for a proposed "wholesale contracts for difference" (WCfD) scheme, initially outlined in April. This would offer fixed-price contracts to eligible renewable-energy generators.

The expansion of renewables is already helping to decouple gas and power prices, with gas setting wholesale electricity prices around 60% of the time in 2025, down from around 90% in the early 2020s.

Following speculation in the run-up to the budget, chancellor Healey confirmed a cut to the UK's flagship energy efficiency programme. 

His budget cuts £1bn from the "warm homes plan" to help cover a shortfall in defence spending. 

The warm homes plan is supposed to provide up to 5m households with £15bn of grants and loans to support the installation of heat pumps, rooftop solar panels and insulation. 

The budget states that the "government remains committed to heat-pump deployment".

It says it will continue to fund the "boiler upgrade scheme" (BUS) at current funding levels of £400m in 2027‑28, after which it will rise broadly in line with inflation.

However, this represents a significant cut in funding for heat-pump deployment of around £800m, relative to previously announced levels. Analysts tell Carbon Brief that this could lead to around 100,000 heat pumps not being installed over three years.

Andrew Sissons, director in sustainable future at Nesta tells Carbon Brief:

"The chancellor has announced that funding for future heat-pump subsidies will be reduced by nearly £800m over three years. This is a backward step at a time when Britain urgently needs to move away from using gas."

In addition to the £1bn in lost grants for the warm-homes plan, the budget also suggests that significant additional funding for the scheme has been cut.

It says a new £4.7bn "your first home" scheme is being funded by reallocating "financial transactions" previously allocated to the energy and environment departments.

While the details of this shift remain sparse, this suggests funding for the warm homes plan could end up being reduced from the headline £15bn to as little as £9bn, analysts tell Carbon Brief.

E3G's Dyson adds: 

"An unknown amount of funding has been cut from the 'financial transactions' pot, which is money that is used to loan to businesses and households. The cut is between £1.5bn and £5bn. 

"The government's not even tried to spend this money, it only officially launched its [warm-homes] loan scheme today. Businesses and households need certainty to invest in decarbonising homes and this kind of reaction does not support it."

Ben Westerman, director of policy and advocacy at campaign group Electrify Britain, tells Carbon Brief that "all in all, [the budget is] really disappointing for electrification".

The budget comes the day after the government launched its "warm homes loan" scheme, which offers households no- and low-interest loans of between £7,500 and £35,000 for installing technologies such as solar panels, batteries and heat pumps. 

According to the government, households that install a heat pump, a battery and solar panels could save £550 a year on their energy bills. This could rise to £800 a year when combined with a time-of-use tariff. 

The budget froze fuel duty once again - for the 16th year in a row. 

Chancellor Healey also confirmed the extension of the 5p per litre fuel-duty cut announced in 2022 under Conservative then-chancellor Rishi Sunak, in response to the energy crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

The cumulative cost of these freezes has now reached £139bn since 2010-2011, according to the OBR. If fuel duty continues to be frozen until 2029-30, the OBR says that public-sector net borrowing will rise by £4.3bn.

Alongside the budget, the government published an independent review of the cost of public EV charging. This includes plans to cut prices at local, lower-powered public chargers, saving drivers around £150 a year on average, according to the government. 

This will be funded through £100m of government money over two years from spring 2027.

Additionally, the government states that it is "laying the groundwork for a better system in the future" by taking forward a recommendation by the review to launch a "tariff porting" taskforce. This will explore ways to allow drivers to use cheaper domestic tariffs at certain public chargers.

However, the budget also specifies that "electricity supplied through publicly accessible and workplace electric-vehicle charging points is subject to 20% VAT and is not considered domestic use". This definition will take effect from 1 November 2026, as part of legislation in the finance bill 2026-27. 

Industry bodies criticised this categorisation, with Shane Brennan, CEO of ChargeUK, writing in a statement on LinkedIn that it will "do serious damage to the EV transition". He continues: 

"Instead of listening to the call of EV drivers for fairness on VAT, the government has slammed the door shut on ending a rank unfairness between at-home and out-of-home charging…[which] even the courts ruled to be illegal earlier this year."

Within the budget, the government confirmed some changes to the electric-vehicle excise duty (eVED) pay-per-mile tax, announced in last year's budget. This includes introducing a mileage estimate tool, developing an opt-in system for connectivity and other changes. 

The government will publish its response to the zero-emissions vehicle mandate review by the end of 2026, with a view to changes taking place in 2027. 

The government has confirmed a £200m cut in capital-grant funding for CCS and £500m for low-carbon hydrogen projects.

This is part of the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) "reprioritising its budget" to contribute more to the UK's defence spending.

There are four planned CCS "clusters" in the works across the UK - part of a government-backed effort to make the nation an "early leader" in the sector.

The budget says the government will "prioritise" the two "mature" clusters under development on Teesside, and on Merseyside and North Wales. These include "blue-hydrogen" production, gas power with CCS and industrial uses.

It also says the government will "maintain grant funding" for the Viking cluster in the Humber region.

The £200m in removed funding will therefore come from the Acorn cluster, which was planned for north-east Scotland.

At the same time, the government says it is "actively looking at how loan or equity investments can support the continued development of future CCS and hydrogen projects…including for the Acorn cluster".

While the Labour government has stressed the importance of CCS for reaching the UK's net-zero targets, the billions in public spending committed to these projects have drawn criticism from both climate activists and climate sceptics.

Details of the cuts remain limited, but Prof Rob Gross, director of the UK Energy Research Centre, tells Carbon Brief:

"The history of CCS investment in the UK is not a happy one and if the government wishes to retain investor confidence and the regional economic benefits that the clusters could bring then a repeat of the precipitous cuts made in 2015 must be avoided. It appears that the government is aware and treading carefully."

As part of efforts to boost the UK's use of artificial intelligence (AI), the budget sets out a "data-centre covenant", with "tests" that data centres must meet to gain approval.

These include a stipulation that developers must pay for "any energy costs they create", while also "support[ing] grid resilience, flexibility and clean power".

The "covenant" will also require data centres to "adhere to the highest environmental standards", including protecting nature, curbing water use, publishing energy-use data and using waste heat to heat nearby buildings "wherever practical".

In return, the government will use new planning powers to accelerate the grid connection of data centres, alongside other "strategically important" projects.

When grid connection is not immediately available, the government says it will set out a framework to allow on-site generation until a grid connection can be secured.  

The government stresses that on-site generation will be "tightly controlled" and "only…available for exceptionally strategic projects".

Nevertheless, NGOs raised the likelihood that "on-site power" would come in the form of gas or diesel generation, rather than clean power, potentially threatening the UK's climate goals.

There were various other climate- and energy-related announcements in the budget, including: 

• The government has not extended zero-rated VAT for "energy saving materials" - including solar panels - when installed on homes beyond the end of March 2027.
• The budget confirms the establishment of an "energy wealth fund", which was recently announced as a way to invest revenues from North Sea oil and gas into low-carbon energy infrastructure.
• The government is legislating for the "oil and gas revenue levy" to replace the "energy profits levy" when that ends by April 2030 at the latest.
• It freezes the electricity main rates of the "climate-change levy" from April 2028, in order to "reduce electricity costs in real terms for businesses".
• As part of the government's efforts to promote housebuilding, it has introduced an exemption from "biodiversity net gain" requirements for residential brownfield developments on sites up to 1.5 hectares in England.

The post UK budget 2026: Key climate and energy announcements appeared first on Carbon Brief.

It seems that every election cycle over the last decade has had concerns being raised about the state of "political deepfakes" and their ability to impact the election. So far, these have always been overblown, and there's been little evidence of deepfakes having any real impact at all — perhaps other than creating the concept of "the liar's dividend" enabling politicians caught doing actually bad things to falsely claim that it's "fake news" and a "deepfake." That could change, of course, and there are already concerns being raised about the impact of deepfakes midterms along with the fact that most of the major models are letting people create deepfake content.

The concern raised in the Tech Policy Press piece is less about putting a politician in a compromising photo or video (those don't seem to get very far before people recognize they're fake) and more about using these tools to produce ancillary artifacts that help support claims of other conspiracy theories:

Every AI tool that we tested produced convincingly false content. Different chatbots created images that included an AI-generated person stuffing a stack of mail ballots into a drop box, a fake memo from the federal government on "official" letterhead reporting millions of ineligible voters, and a raid on a voter registration drive that never happened. We then fed those fake pieces of content back into chatbots and asked whether they were authentic. Most chatbots got it wrong, even when given images they had generated themselves. After California's AI Transparency Act — which requires companies to provide provenance data for images they generate as well as free, public tools for detecting synthetic media — took effect, we conducted a follow-up test. The chatbots still failed to spot AI-generated images.

When we re-ran our image generation prompts this month, we found that two of the AI models we previously tested made it easier to create convincing fakes. Gemini no longer put a visible watermark on its generated images, as it did in the spring, and Meta AI produced an image of a fake executive order on mail voting that it refused to make in April, though it did garble some of the text.

I'm still not convinced this is as big a risk as others have made it out to be, but it's definitely worth watching how things play out as the tech gets better… and as some people are more and more desperate to hold onto power.

That said, there's potentially a much bigger issue regarding AI and elections. As Will Oremus notes at The Atlantic, this is the first big US election where all the major AI tools don't just "generate" content, but can also search the web as a part of that process. And that means the results they generate can steer people in the wrong direction:

In a forthcoming report, Forum AI, a start-up that evaluates AI models' performance on questions about controversial topics, found that about 40 percent of chatbots' answers to election-related questions contained at least one factual inaccuracy. When Forum's researchers asked one widely used model when they needed to request a mail-in ballot to vote in the midterms in Pennsylvania, the chatbot said November 3. The actual deadline is a week earlier. (Forum did not specify the precise AI model.) In the same report, shared with The Atlantic ahead of its publication, Forum determined that about one in three responses cited an unreliable information source, such as posts on Reddit or Quora. Google's Gemini answered a question about why America's global power is declining by citing an article from People's Daily, a Chinese state-run news outlet. "These aren't trick questions," Campbell Brown, a co-founder of Forum AI, told me. "There's no excuse for chatbots to keep getting them wrong."

Now many people respond to this by blaming the AI companies — and they should be taking some responsibility to figure out ways to validate the quality and truthfulness of their sources — but it also feels like the media is partially to blame here. As we've been discussing, many of the big, more trustworthy news sources are suing AI companies, and demanding licensing fees for being trained on old content. As part of that fight, more and more such sites are also blocking all AI scraping tools. While I can understand blocking access for training purposes, in many cases, they're also being blocked for search.

A NewsGuard study (from two years ago, admittedly) found that 67% of top news sites block AI tools, while 91% of low-quality sites allow AI scraping. That's a pretty drastic difference. This is a variation on the now-familiar complaint that the lies are free while the truth is paywalled. And plenty of news sites debate whether or not it's worth blocking those tools. And then there are the purely fake sites, many of which appear to exist just to poison AI tools.

There is some evidence coming out suggesting that media sites blocking AI could regret that decision, as it's showing up in diminished traffic numbers (as much as 23% decline!) as more people rely on AI for news (for better or worse). But plenty of sites still think blocking is the better approach.

So far, it sounds like the AI tools are mostly able to handle the deluge of attempts to poison their results, debunking foreign propaganda narratives roughly three-quarters of the time in NPR and NewsGuard's testing. So perhaps this never actually turns into a major issue (just like deepfakes never really became a huge problem). But I do worry about how much the more trustworthy publications have been walling themselves off from these tools, even as a larger percentage of the public relies on them.

And at least some questionable info is definitely getting through. Though, some of it is also fooling the traditional media as well. You may have heard the recent stories about sketchy polling operations* such as Wedgewood Polls, which admitted to faking its data, and SoCal Strategies, which vanished from the internet once people started asking questions (both caught by the poll aggregator FiftyPlusOne).

Researchers from Innovating for the Public Good and Dewey Square Group looked at whether or not Wedgewood's totally fake polls were showing up in AI results, and found that, yes, they absolutely did.

Findings on Wedgewood in Those Answers

While Wedgewood's own website is nowhere in the AI platform citations we collected, its fake polls decidedly are in the answers.

• We found 869 AI answers that quote a Wedgewood poll as a data point, on 83 of the 85 days we collected between July 24 and October 20, with no change through October 20, the day of the admission.
• Wedgewood's numbers appear in 15 of the 63 races we analyzed the AI answers for.

The interesting thing here, though, is not so much that AI tools were "tricked" by this fake polling data, but rather that it only got into the AI answers by first landing on more trusted sites:

The route for the fake pollster's data into the AI platforms was the polling aggregator websites.

The answers that repeat Wedgewood's numbers cite polling tables from the websites at 270toWin (481 of the 869 answers), Pollsmax (465), RealClearPolling (261), PollingSource (144), Decision Desk HQ (144), Call The Map (135), PoliAgg (127), and FiftyPlusOne itself (97).

Because an answer can cite more than one aggregator, these source counts overlap and do not sum to 869; 72 of the 869 answers cite none of these eight sites.

So, basically, right now the infrastructure for handling truth and lies in AI remains shaky, but maybe not as shaky as some people suggest. The real problem shows up once sites the AI tools treat as trustworthy — here, the poll aggregators — accept the faked information as accurate, effectively "laundering" it for the AI tools. But it can't help that news sites that might do a better job of putting polls in context are frequently blocked from the AI tools.

None of this is settled (and it never really will be). It's going to continue to be something of a cat and mouse game between those trying to pollute the information tools, and those trying to resist. But keeping fake info out of political discourse only gets harder if the most trustworthy sites keep hiding themselves from the search side of the popular AI tools.

* While we also recently wrote about Brendan Carr whining about "fake" polls, it's pretty clear that he wasn't talking about the recent stories that have cropped up about fake polling operations, but rather polls that make Trump look bad. Even if he actually was talking about these supposedly fake polling organizations, the target of any investigation should be those operating the services for misrepresenting things to the public, and not journalists reporting on those numbers, which would not qualify for the "news distortion" policy Carr mentioned.

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With voters set to cast ballots in two critical races that could help determine control of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, fears of potential voter suppression are running high in Maine.

Officials in the state have prepared for months against the possibility of election interference from federal officials, and the state remains on high alert in the run-up to the general election on November 3.

Training materials were updated this year to include references to federal statutes barring armed federal agents from polling sites.

Training materials for law enforcement officials in the state, obtained by The Intercept through a public records request, were updated this year for the elections to include explicit references to federal statutes barring armed federal agents from polling sites. 

In an interview with the New York Times this week, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said the inclusion of such references was a direct defense in response to the fearmongering around election integrity from President Donald Trump and his administration.

"This is the first time ever that we have had to engage in scenario planning to safeguard against potential federal interference in elections," Bellows said. "It seems like the federal government is now adversarial to the states."

Bellows's office offered up the training slideshow, which cites a U.S. law that bars armed civil or military officers from posting at voting sites, to law enforcement personnel in the run-up to Maine's primary election in June and again in the lead-up to the general election on November 5.

Nationwide, Democratic officials have expressed fears that the Trump Administration might weaponize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or other federal agencies to undermine the rights of voters. In New York, state Attorney General Letitia James issued a reminder to voters that federal officials may not "police the polls," and the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP called out the assignment of federal election monitors to two counties in the state as potential intimidation.

Related DHS Was Designed as a Weapon

The Trump administration, meanwhile, has sounded the alarm about the alleged scourge of non-citizens on the voter rolls, sending agents from the FBI and ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division to probe alleged fraud. A handful of people in California, New York, and North Carolina have been indicted for allegedly voting as non-citizens, but a review of similar cases by the Washington Post found that such cases were often the result of honest mistakes.

In Maine, worries about federal interventions at polling places flared when — following a slew of social media videos from Trump allies suggesting that fraud is already taking place among the state's Somali American community — a local outlet reported that the Department of Justice would be sending election monitors to the state.

Jon Fetherston, a journalist with the far-right Maine Wire, which is funded by conservative megadonor Leonard Leo, was seen following people in and around an early voting site at Lewiston City Hall and aggressively questioning them. (The Maine Wire did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)

Critics said the moves were tantamount to voter harassment, but Maine Wire editor-in-chief Steve Robinson later defended them as an act of election transparency. Robinson, who has led a crusade against what he alleges to be a network of fraud in the state's Somali American community, questioned the role of interpreters tasked with helping "jobless Somali bums" cast their ballots.

In the wake of the Maine Wire controversy in Lewiston, Bellows confirmed to the Maine Morning Star that a wave of federal election monitors would be headed to polling sites in Lewiston and Portland.

Related GOP Megadonor Leonard Leo Is Bankrolling a Website on the Warpath Against Somalis

The Department of Justice on Tuesday confirmed to The Intercept that it intends to send election monitors to Maine for Election Day, but did not elaborate or respond to specific questions about where the monitors were to be sent. 

"We will have around 1,000 monitors in counties throughout the United States, but we will not share the full list until Election Day," a Justice Department spokesperson told The Intercept in an email Tuesday. "All monitors must meet the same legal and ethical requirements, including that they not interfere with the voting process. Every monitor has the same role: observe for potential violations of federal law and report concerns to the Department, which the Department will review after Election Day and act where appropriate."

Robinson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With Maine a key battleground state for control of Congress — Democratic challenger Troy Jackson is seeking to topple long-serving GOP Sen. Susan Collins, and the Democratic House candidate Matt Dunlap is seeking to best former Gov. Paul LePage in Maine's 2nd Congressional District — temperatures are running high in the state.

Progressives in Maine worry that even without a robust federal presence at voting places — whether monitors are armed or not — activist campaigns like the one undertaken by the Maine Wire journalists could pose a potential threat to voters' rights.

"Basically, if you were walking into City Hall and you were Black, you could expect to have this guy come up to you with his phone and ask you all sorts of rude and obviously racist questions," said Ben Chin, co-director of the progressive Maine People's Alliance. "We're trying to encourage everyone to come out to vote, but it makes sense why that might give people pause. You hear a guy like that is outside a polling location, it's reasonable to wonder, 'Should I go down there right now?'"

"We have received complaints about the intrusive filming, photography, and harassment of voters in the City of Lewiston by political operatives."

In a statement to The Intercept, Bellows said the state and the city of Lewiston were taking steps to ensure that voters could cast a ballot free of harassment.

"We have received complaints about the intrusive filming, photography, and harassment of voters in the City of Lewiston by political operatives," Bellows told The Intercept in a statement. "All voters should be able to exercise their right to vote without feeling watched, questioned, or harassed, and we take these allegations seriously, particularly when it appears that voters were targeted for no other reason than their race or ethnicity. We understand the City of Lewiston has taken steps to address the problem, and we will continue to monitor the situation."

Collins, meanwhile, took the Maine Wire's reporting seriously after Fetherston asked the senator at a campaign event about the role of interpreters, which he and the Maine Wire cast as "electioneering."

"I'm unaware of those allegations, but certainly only Americans should be voting in American elections," Collins said. "And it is troubling to me if people are being accompanied into voting booths and handling ballots in a way that is not sanctioned by law."

The post Trump Vows to Send Election "Monitors" to Maine After Far-Right Conspiracies Spread appeared first on The Intercept.

Watch any major fundraising marathon and the causes printed on running vests tell you something about modern Britain. Cancer. Mental health. Dementia. Youth services. Community safety. Every so often, something less expected catches the eye: runners raising money for Crimestoppers - an organisation that enables anonymous reporting of crime to the police.

Since 1988, Crimestoppers has facilitated over 151,000 arrests and the seizure of more than £367 million in illegal drugs. Its track record isn't in question. What is in question is why the reporting of crime is funded as a charitable activity at all. If a service is essential to public safety, it should be a statutory duty, not dependent on the goodwill of marathon runners.

Running and charity are intertwined at every level, from the village road race to the biggest events in the national calendar. Take the Tiptree 10, a ten-mile race through the Essex countryside. Entry costs £18 for affiliated runners, £20 unaffiliated. An optional commemorative t-shirt is £6 which is relatively inexpensive. Every finisher goes home with a miniature pot of Wilkin & Sons strawberry jam - 28 grams of the sort you'd find on a hotel breakfast tray, retailing for £1 on Ocado or roughly 35p per pot at trade prices. Nobody's getting rich.

This isn't a charity cash cow. It's a community event, locally sponsored by Wilkin & Sons - the jam manufacturer based in the village - and organised by Tiptree Road Runners. In a single year the race donated £6,500 to five charities including Disability4Sport, Helen Rollason Cancer Charity and Action For Family Carers. In previous years it supported the Tiptree food bank, Kids Inspire, and the Active Essex Foundation. Lean, transparent, and rooted in its community.

Now scale that up to the London Marathon, where charity places carry registration fees of £50 to £100 and minimum fundraising targets of £2,000. Runners spend months training and fundraising. The event generates tens of millions of pounds. At that scale, it becomes far harder to say with any confidence who truly benefits - the runners, the causes they support, or the institutions sitting between the two.

St John Ambulance is a case worth examining. The charity provides first aid cover at sporting and community events using over 40,000 unpaid volunteers. To run for St John in the 2027 London Marathon, runners are asked to pay a £100 registration fee and raise a minimum of £2,000 - money used, in part, to fund the training and equipment that keeps those same volunteers on the course.

Think about what that means. The first aid provision at one of the world's largest sporting events is being funded by the very runners whose safety it exists to protect, through a charity that depends on unpaid labour to deliver it. We've normalised this arrangement to the point where we don't even notice the circularity.

If the first uncomfortable question is why are these services provided by charities rather than the state, the second is where the charitable money goes once it's been raised. Not all of it reaches the frontline.

The headline numbers on charity executive pay are stark. The median salary for a charity CEO in the UK is around £60,000, according to the ACEVO Pay and Equalities Survey. Among the top 100 charities, that median jumps to £192,000. The CEO of the Wellcome Trust earns over £500,000 a year. For context, the Prime Minister is expected to earn £174,039 per annum.

Defenders will say that large charities are complex organisations managing hundreds of millions of pounds, and that skilled leadership commands a premium. Fair enough. The research, though, suggests the public doesn't buy it. A study by Maas and De Waegenaere at Tilburg University found that when media coverage exposes high executive pay at charities, volunteer numbers fall. People give less, and they volunteer less.

There's a deeper structural problem here. In some cases, the charity sector has started to serve itself more than its beneficiaries. When a charity spends a significant share of its income on a senior management team, a communications department, a fundraising consultancy, and a brand strategy, we're entitled to ask whether those functions serve the mission or whether they've become instruments of institutional self-preservation.

I've seen this at a local level in Harlow. We have community organisations doing brilliant, lean, often voluntary work on a shoestring. We also have larger charities that have won local authority contracts, grown their staffing structures accordingly, and now spend considerable effort maintaining those structures. The people at the top aren't bad people. There is, however, a gravitational pull in any organisation toward preserving what already exists, and charities are no more immune to it than the rest of us.

Then there's the issue that rarely gets discussed. Many charities exist because a problem should have been solved by government policy but wasn't. If the state properly funded cancer research and care, we wouldn't need 268 cancer charities, each with its own management structure and overhead. If social care were properly resourced, we wouldn't need a multitude of charities filling the gap. Once a charity exists to fill a gap left by the state, though, it develops institutional interests of its own - and the gap becomes harder to close.

In 2025, the British public donated an estimated £14 billion to charity. Nobody knows for certain the exact number of not-for-profit organisations in the UK; there are around 170,000 registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales, and the true number is far higher.

What we've done in this country, particularly since the 1980s, is gradually and deliberately withdraw state provision from areas where it was once expected. The charitable response is then celebrated as evidence of community spirit, rather than acknowledged for what it really is: evidence of a gap that should never have been created.

If the UK is to maintain a strong and sustainable charity sector, we need an honest conversation about what the state should provide, what the private sector contributes, and what should not be left to goodwill alone. That conversation should address the sector's transparency, its proportionality, and its efficacy. We owe it to those generously fund raising or benevolently donating, because their billions are at stake.

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The post Funding essential services the competitive way first appeared on East Anglia Bylines.

Ahead of Grand Theft Auto 6's preload early next month, I and many others have been wondering how much space to clear before it smacks into our collective hard drives with the force of a thousand suns. Triple-A games have been steadily ballooning in size, after all, partially to force other games off of your system and partially because devs don't seem to care much about compression anymore. — Read the rest

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Who wouldn't love the chance to clear themselves of misconduct? I guess not the Trump DOJ, which decidedly won't be investigating itself, even though it could cook the books to an acceptable temperature (155-170 internally) to let itself off the hook in the Reflecting Pool prosecution debacle.

It's too many metaphors to be sure, at least in the previous sentence. But here's the thing: the DOJ Inspector General, in theory, could examine these cases, get stonewalled by everyone, and selectively choose to ignore any input from the Department of Interior (which apparently had always known the problem was faulty work rather than vandalism) to deliver a clean bill of (rights violation) health to the DOJ.

Given that it won't, we have to believe the DOJ Inspector General would rather not get involved because the only possible outcome is the end of a career, rather than a dispassionate recounting of the facts on the ground.

The Department of Justice's inspector general has declined to investigate the handling of the criminal case against a former Olympian cleared of accusations that he intentionally damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to a letter Wednesday from the man's lawyers.

The man referred to here is David Hearn — the high-profile former Olympian Trump hoped to see swing from the metaphorical (or maybe not!?) gallows for exposing the shoddiness of the Reflecting Pool revamp Trump was so proud of.

Hearn's case was dismissed by the DOJ, after none other than Trump's hand-picked prosecutor/former Fox personality Jeanine Pirro told the judge the Department of Interior had hidden evidence of flawed repair work from her until after she had already filed charges.

But the DOJ refused to dismiss the case with prejudice. This matters. This meant the DOJ could go after Hearn again if it managed to find a prosecutor more besmitten by Trump than respectful of the law. The court handling this case made this moot by doing the prejudicial dismissal itself, blocking the DOJ from attempting to re-string Hearn up for the same (non) crimes at some point in the future.

It all looked shady as fuck. And that's why people beyond the (falsely) accused David Hearn are demanding an investigation of the DOJ's actions. But the Inspector General isn't going to do it. Instead, Trump-appointee Don Berthiuame [break for relevant content]:

Berthiaume, 51, worked as an attorney in the Justice Department inspector general's office for 10 years until 2020. Among his highest-profile assignments was detailing errors in the use of wiretaps in the federal investigation into alleged ties between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

*cough* Berthiuame is attempting to have this turfed to the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).

He's not wrong, necessarily. While this would be the sort of thing we might expect a DOJ watchdog to take a look at, it does intersect with what the DOJ OPR is supposed to be perpetually keeping an eye on.

OPR's primary mission is to ensure that Department attorneys perform their duties in accordance with the high professional standards expected of the nation's principal law enforcement agency.

But this buck-passing by Berthiuame looks especially obvious now that we know the DOJ OPR is no longer in the "ensuring DOJ attorneys perform their duties in accordance with the law" business. It's now in the business of… going out of business.

Nearly half the workforce at the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has left during Trump's second term, while about 17% have departed the Office of Inspector General, government records show. Many retired or took buyouts the administration offered to shrink the federal workforce, according to the records and three people familiar with the departures.

[…]

The number of new OPR investigations has declined to a 20-year low even as misconduct complaints soar, the review found. The government watchdogs are "afraid of doing any watching," said one former DOJ official who left last year.

This is the cowardly Inspector General punting and expecting an office that has low-octane blend of loyalists and people browsing Indeed.com to move forward with something he wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pension plan.

The whole thing is so corrupt and toxic that career government officials won't even wade in when they're given the chance to clear their own oversight subjects of wrongdoing by performing a cursory investigation and selectively releasing supporting documentation. Instead, they're trying to see if anyone else is willing to possibly incur the wrath of an administration that has never met a scapegoat it doesn't like.

If anything, this demonstrates how absolutely fucked the DOJ is, especially in terms of the concept of "justice." There's nothing to be had by anyone who isn't part of the president's in-group, or who doesn't care what he does, so long as he's the one doing it.

Following the release of his acclaimed album Barely Making Much and a series of self-released projects, Ugandan producer Masaka Masaka returns with XA on Creaked Records,
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