This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

On the evening of Oct. 11, just weeks before the 2026 midterm elections, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to stop airing taxpayer-funded television advertisements praising President Donald Trump.

Yet two of the ads continued running past the court's deadline, including during broadcasts of "60 Minutes" and "ABC World News Tonight."

The commercials in question aired in violation of a decades-old congressional prohibition against using federal money for unauthorized publicity and propaganda. Yet Republican congressional leaders did little to stop the president's ad spending. That left outside organizations and a political candidate to challenge them in federal court.

The episode illustrates a larger development in Trump's second presidency. Across disputes involving federal spending, government agencies and military operations, the administration has asserted authority that is either restricted by law or that the legislative branch has reserved for itself.

But responsibility for enforcing those limits is increasingly falling to organizations, institutions and individuals outside of the legislative branch.

As a scholar of the American presidency and deliberative democracy, I pay close attention to how the nation's chief executive exercises power and communicates with the public.

When presidents are allowed to break rules and disregard democratic norms without consequence, I worry that citizens will grow cynical and lose faith in the idea of self-government.

As this happens, citizens may come to see the law as something that applies selectively, depending on who holds power, and lose confidence in the institutions responsible for holding their leaders accountable.

They may also begin to accept the absence of accountability as a normal feature of political life, weakening the public expectations on which democratic government depends.

Congress is not the only branch of government demurring from holding the president accountable.

In July 2024, the Supreme Court provided presidents sweeping protection from criminal prosecution for actions taken in office under the "core constitutional powers" of the position.

In "Trump v. United States," the court held that former presidents cannot be criminally prosecuted for actions taken under powers the Constitution gives exclusively to the president. Along with this "absolute immunity," the justices also granted "at least presumptive immunity" for other official acts.

In their decision, the court's conservative majority extended the meaning of official conduct to the "outer perimeter" of presidential responsibilities and prohibited courts from examining a president's motives when determining whether an act was official.

The ruling only addressed criminal liability and did not curtail Congress' constitutional authority to investigate presidential conduct, control federal spending, enact statutory restrictions and, in serious cases, pursue impeachment.

Yet the Republican majority in Congress has largely declined to exercise these powers against Trump, in areas ranging from declaring war to spending money.

Their acquiescence is helping create a new form of official protection, which I call "practical immunity." In using this term, I am borrowing from the work of scholars who study abuse in the American penal system.

Those thinkers argue that legal obstacles, institutional hesitation and political incentives sometimes make it difficult to hold public officials accountable, even when the law suggests there has been illegal conduct.

That is what appears to be increasingly happening now with Congress, the courts and the president.

The television ads case illustrates the conundrum of practical immunity.

In opposing the temporary restraining order, the Trump administration's attorneys did not contest the argument asserted by the plaintiffs - Common Cause and two unions - that the expenditures violated federal appropriations law. Instead, they said the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. They also argued that the case was moot because the advertising campaign was ending.

Those arguments failed in court. Yet the administration's defense demonstrated how elusive enforcing a law can be when Congress fails to assert its constitutionally granted role, even when the underlying legal restriction is clear. To win, a plaintiff must establish a concrete injury and persuade a judge to intervene. While this happens, the disputed conduct often continues.

In this case, the president went on spending public money in violation of the law. The GOP-led Congress, meanwhile, remained silent, even though its own role was being usurped.

Another boundary that Trump has repeatedly tested is the so-called "power of the purse", which is among the legislative branch's most important constitutional responsibilities. Presidents may spend federal money only for purposes Congress has authorized. The Impoundment Control Act of 1974 protects lawmakers' decisions against presidential efforts to ignore congressional appropriations.

In September 2026, Trump's administration canceled more than US$800 million in congressionally approved spending for immigrant services, climate change and civil rights for minority groups. The cancellation was done through a maneuver known as a pocket rescission. The administration timed its action to make it difficult for Congress to consider or stop the rescission. The Government Accountability Office - an independent agency that examines how taxpayer dollars are spent - said tactics like these violate federal law.

When this happened, a few members of Congress tried to intervene and stop the rescission, but the Republican majority blocked their efforts.

The separation of powers divides authority among the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government to prevent too much power from becoming concentrated in any one place.

The architects of the Constitution anticipated that officials in different branches would compete to preserve their authority. In Federalist No. 51, James Madison argued that maintaining the balance established by the separation of powers depended on the ambitions of public officials coming into conflict. Members of Congress could be expected to resist presidential encroachments because those encroachments diminished their own power.

Fierce partisanship has complicated this arrangement.

Legal scholars Daryl Levinson and Richard Pildes have shown how political competition mostly now happens inside and between parties, rather than among branches of government. When one party controls Congress and the presidency, legislators may become more invested in advancing their party's agenda than they are in defending their institution's constitutional authority.

Trump's influence over Republican voters intensifies these incentives. Lawmakers who oppose him risk public ridicule, primary challenges and diminished political support. Defending congressional authority may therefore carry greater immediate - and personal - political costs than allowing presidential power to expand.

The result is a political system in which a president can act in ways that may violate federal law, undermine democratic norms and encroach on Congress' constitutional authority.

Madison's constitutional design assumed that public officials would defend the powers entrusted to them. The danger to the American constitutional system emerging in Trump's second term is that congressional leaders have begun to regard those powers as expendable, allowing the president to exercise authority under conditions of practical immunity. He faces little fear of meaningful institutional consequences.

Stephanie A. (Sam) Martin is the Frank and Bethine Church Endowed Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University

Ready, set, and stop in Lusail for the 20th round of the 2026 season. The appointment is set in Qatar, a track where the Desmosedici GP boasts a fantastic tradition with as many as 9 overall victories: From the historic three wins in a row by Casey Stoner (2007, 2008, and 2009), to the successes of Andrea Dovizioso and the Gresini Team with Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio. In 2024, the factory team returned to the highest step of the podium with Pecco Bagnaia, repeating the feat in 2025 with Marc Márquez. The red bike from Borgo Panigale arrives on track leading the constructors' standings with three races to go in the Championship.

Control and strategy paid off with P2 in Saturday's Sprint in Malaysia, then pure instinct and talent allowed Marc to dominate the GP in Sepang. Bolstered by his 80th victory in the premier class, Marc is ready to play his first match point for the Riders' Championship right in Doha, a track where he proved to be competitive already last year.

Always very fast on this track, Pecco Bagnaia is putting a bittersweet weekend in Malaysia behind him. After a solid P6 in the Sprint, Sunday brought a more uphill battle. He is constantly working to close the gap and get back to fighting with the strongest.

Marc Márquez (#93, Ducati Lenovo Team)
"Qatar is a great track, but not one of my favorites, and in the past, in some years, I've really struggled a lot here. Last year, on the other hand, we were really fast and competitive. In Malaysia, we managed the weekend in the best way possible; especially on Saturday, it was easy to make mistakes. The strategy won't change here: we work day by day and aim to give our absolute best in Sunday's race".

Francesco Bagnaia (#63, Ducati Lenovo Team)
"Qatar is another really nice track, but very tough in this final stretch of the season. A circuit that has always brought out the best in the Desmosedici GP and where I have always been very competitive. We continue to work hard to get closer to the front group".

Circuit Information

Country: Qatar
Name: Lusail International Circuit
Circuit record: M. Màrquez (Ducati), 01:50.499 - 2025
Maximum speed: Zarco (Ducati) 362.4 km/h - 2021
Track length: 5,38 km
Sprint race distance: 11 laps
Race distance: 22 laps
Turns: 16 (10 right, 6 left)

2025 Results
GP Podium: 1° M. Màrquez (Ducati), 2° Bagnaia (Ducati), 3° Morbidelli (Ducati)

Sprint winner: M. Màrquez (Ducati)

Pole Position: M. Màrquez (Ducati) - 01.50.499

GP Fastest Lap: M. Márquez (Ducati) - 01:52.561

Racing Statistics

Marc Márquez

GPs Starts: 302 (224 x MotoGP, 32 x Moto2, 46 x 125cc)

Wins: 106 (80 MotoGP + 16 Moto2 + 10 125cc)

Podiums: 172 (133 MotoGP + 25 Moto2 + 14 125cc)

Sprint wins: 24

Pole positions: 105 (77 MotoGP + 14 Moto2 + 14 125cc)

World Titles: 9 (MotoGP 2025, MotoGP 2019, MotoGP 2018, MotoGP 2017, MotoGP 2016, MotoGP 2014, MotoGP 2013, Moto2 2012, 125cc 2010)

Francesco Bagnaia

GPs Starts 253 (148 x MotoGP, 36 x Moto2, 69 x Moto3)

Wins: 41 (31 MotoGP + 8 Moto2 + 2 Moto3)

Podiums: 86 (63 MotoGP + 16 Moto2 + 7 Moto3)

Sprint wins: 14

Pole positions: 35 (28 MotoGP + 6 Moto2 + 1 Moto3)

World Titles: 3 (MotoGP 2023, MotoGP 2022, Moto2 2018)

Info Championship

Rider Standings
Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) -399 points - 1°
Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) - 173 points - 9°

Constructors Standings

Ducati - 537 points - 1°

Team Standings

Ducati Lenovo Team - 572 points - 2°

The post MotoGP: Ducati Heads To Qatar With Marquez & Bagnaia appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

MotoAmerica Expands Mission King Of The Baggers For 2027 As Indian Motorcycle Increases Presence

Bagger Class Now Open To Non-US Manufacturers In 2027 Along With New Rules Package

Irvine, CA (Nov. 4, 2026) — MotoAmerica is happy to announce changes for the Mission King Of The Baggers class for 2027, with Indian Motorcycle committing to an increased paddock presence, new technical regulations, and the class opening to additional manufacturers.

"We are excited about where Mission King Of The Baggers is headed for 2027," said MotoAmerica President Wayne Rainey, three-time MotoGP World Champion. "We created this class for the American V-Twin Bagger. Our fans were surprised that Harley-Davidson had decided to run in a spec exhibition series abroad and not compete against the other manufacturers in America for a national championship. Their departure has opened the door for other manufacturers. Indian Motorcycle has stepped up in a big way that puts more bikes on the grid, and now new manufacturers are interested in competing in King Of The Baggers for 2027 as well. MotoAmerica racing is always about competition, the more, the better."

The revised technical rules target longer engine life and fewer rebuilds while preserving the close racing seen in previous seasons. MotoAmerica is also working with multiple engine suppliers to improve access to competitive equipment.

Rev limits will be set at 7000 rpm for Harley-Davidson and 7500 rpm for Indian. The existing balancing framework remains in place to maintain competitive parity between manufacturers.

Full-season competitors will be required to use the MotoAmerica Maxx ECU Race unit with controlled firmware. The standardized engine-control system prohibits traction control and lift control while supporting consistent data collection. Exceptions are in place for single-event entries and teams competing in three rounds or fewer.

"Our approach is to make targeted changes that address the demands teams face over a full season," said MotoAmerica Technical Director Tige Daane. "Reducing the frequency of major engine work should help teams better manage their budgets and spend more time on track."

Additional manufacturers may request approval to enter production-based touring and bagger motorcycles, subject to technical and competitive evaluation.

The final rules package and any supporting technical bulletins will be published prior to the start of the 2027 season.

The post MotoAmerica King Of The Baggers Opening Up To More Brands appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

By Mat Oxley:

It's been said that to a rider, Sepang is 'the worst 45 minutes of your year', both physically and mentally. The first goes without saying: you're manhandling what is essentially a giant combustion engine on wheels through a track in the tropics, clad in leather. And that's before the debris and rocks start flying!

But then there is the psychological side of it all: this is where you win or lose it, where you discover if your remaining races will be an upward line or a steep fall from the top. Just ask Bezzecchi, coming in after a rather unnecessary collision with Ogura. The Bez wasn't fast enough to grab those precious points, and his Aprilia compatriot Ogura came in rough and hard. Carbon and aero fly all over the place, and now Mat and Peter have to lay down the law to keep the kids from fighting…

And speaking of flying aero: did anyone notice how the lack of it didn't seem to slow Ai down a bit? That's odd enough by itself, but then you see Marc absolutely dominating this race without using a ride height device. A race where significant moves were made without aero, no RHD? Surely it can't be! I assume the world must be ending?

Well, that depends on who you ask - but if it does end, it might start next week during the race in Qatar!

Okay, I kid, but let's not beat around the bush here: next week's race is vastly more important than Sepang - or any other race, for that matter. Shortly put, against all sane advice and reason, MotoGP is going to an area that could turn into a potential conflict zone at any second. 

Fun fact: did you know there's a giant American air force base, just a stone's throw away from the track? 

Well, the riders and even some manufacturers aren't taking the risk. According to Jack Miller, there's currently about 19 riders who are going to decline the invitation and everyone's favourite Aussie is amongst them. And they're not alone: Yamaha, too, has decided not to go, spurting Liberty Media to lay down the law in truly draconian fashion. 

So here we are, at what might be the eve of an escalating conflict, with the first rider strike in almost thirty years against the corporate power of a media giant. And don't think for a second that this is 'just politics', because the outcome of this conflict might have massive effects on MotoGP, Liberty Media, Formula 1 and even a slight bit of global politics. 

Yeah, I think we'll have plenty to talk about…

• LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE! 

—

Want more? Visit our website or support us on Patreon. With big thanks as always to Brad Baloo from The Next Men and Gentleman's Dub Club for writing our theme song. Check out The Nextmen for more great music! 

Oh, and a quick word in regards to sponsors: 
If you're interested in connecting with a really unique MotoGP audience — we're working with Smash Brand Group out of Sydney to manage partnerships. Curious? Just head to smashbrandgroup.com.au and get in touch!

The post Oxley Bom MotoGP Podcast: Sepang 2026 appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (Nov. 3, 2026) — The 21st annual Barber Vintage Festival honoring the life and legacy of founder and visionary George Barber drew thousands of motorcycle enthusiasts and hundreds of AHRMA racers from 48 states and 14 countries to Barber Motorsports Park and the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum.

The three-day weekend kicked off early, Wednesday, Oct. 7, with a private event for museum members and invited guests showcasing two new exhibitions, "DUCATI 100" and "GSX-R FORTY YEARS." Both exhibitions were curated by board member Ultan Guilfoyle and designed by Pierre Terblanche, resident mentor of the Barber Advanced Design Center.

Guilfoyle co-curated the 1998 "Art of the Motorcycle" exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. "George Barber is the reason we're here," he told attendees, "and I'm proud to be asked to curate these two exhibitions in his honor." Housed on the fifth and third floors of the museum, the exhibitions will run through this spring.

With Hurricane Isaias expected to reach central Alabama, Saturday's AHRMA "Legacy Laps" were moved to Friday. Executive Director Brian Case led the way in John Surtees ' Ferrari 158, followed by Lee Clark at the wheel of Barber's Brabham BT8, Stephen Mathews on a Matchless G50, and Chuck Huneycutt riding the Ducati 750 Sport that Mathews raced.

MotoGP Legends Kenny Roberts, Kenny Roberts Jr., and Kevin Schwantz—with a combined five 500cc world titles among them—also took part in the event, hustling around the 17-turn, 2.38-mile road course with Roberts on an ex-Surtees MV Agusta 500 Four, Roberts Jr. aboard a Team Roberts KR211V, and Schwantz piloting a 40th anniversary Suzuki GSX-R1000R.

Friday night's "Motorcycles by Moonlight" gala is a festival tradition. Nearly 400 guests attended this year's dinner and silent auction supporting the "Discovery and Innovation Motorsports Fund." George Barber believed motorsports is a powerful platform for student engagement, and this fund perpetuates the museum's leadership role in innovative STEM education.

In his post-dinner speech, Case lauded the efforts of Education Programs Manager Liz Johnson, Ph.D. "Each year, thousands of students come through this museum," he said. "Many of them don't arrive here because they love motorcycles—at least not yet. They come here to discover engineering and design; they discover science and technology."

Board Chair Charles Miller was among the colleagues and friends interviewed for a short documentary film on George Barber's many contributions. "George left a blueprint for us," he noted. "And the blueprint is, 'No job is too small. Nothing is beneath you. Always be curious. And put other people first.'" View the film on the museum's YouTube channel.

Isaias swept through the area overnight, bringing with it high winds and heavy rain. On Saturday morning, hundreds of visitors were lined up to enter the museum, their dampened spirits lifted by the promise of two new exhibitions, seminars with high-profile guests, twice-daily engine startups, book signings, and access to the basement conservation area.

Around the 880-acre park, AHRMA monitored the weather conditions and adjusted its programs to suit. Road racing featured throughout the weekend, with cross-country, motocross, and trials competitions at discipline-specific locations. Flat track was held off-site at the nearby Talladega Short Track. By Sunday, the rain was gone, and the sun was shining.

BMW Motorrad Days Americas, Isle of Triumph, demo rides, stunt shows, live music, and the American Motor Drome "Wall of Death" filled the park with countless activities. The vintage swap meet is one of the largest of its kind in the U.S. "The weather wasn't ideal," admitted Guest Services Manager Sunny Crew, "but the vendors and attendees enjoyed great deals."

The 22nd annual Barber Vintage Festival presented by BMW Motorrad is scheduled for Oct. 8-10, 2027. The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum thanks Ducati North America, Suzuki Motor USA, and the Italian American Heritage Society of Birmingham, Alabama, for their support of the "DUCATI 100" and "GSX-R FORTY YEARS" exhibitions.

About the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum: 

The Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt, private operating foundation dedicated to the preservation, interpretation, exhibition, and history of motorcycles, vintage vehicles, and motorsports located at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Ala. For more than 30 years, the museum has focused on various aspects of motorsports, from displaying motorcycles and cars spanning more than 120 years of production to the Barber Advanced Design Center, a high-tech workspace for design exploration. The museum embraces the culture of motorsports enthusiasts by hosting programs, such as the Barber Design Camp, and events, including the annual Barber Vintage Festival. With five floors housing 1,800 motorcycles, 150-plus automobiles, 60 of which are Lotus race cars, and numerous vintage and iconic vehicles, the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum is the ultimate family-friendly environment for education, exploration, and inspiration. Additional information is available at www.barbermuseum.org.

The post Barber Vintage Museum Honors Founder George Barber appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

Aprilia Racing in Qatar for last GP of flyaway tour:

JORGE MARTÍN BACK ON TRACK IN QATAR, MARCO BEZZECCHI READY FOR TWENTIETH ROUND OF SEASON

The MotoGP flyaway tour concludes at the Lusail International Circuit, ahead of the return to Europe for the final two races of the 2026 season. Marco Bezzecchi and Jorge Martín will both be in Qatar, with the Spanish rider ready to get back on the track after his injury at Phillip Island.

Jorge Martín, who had decided to withdraw before qualifying in Sepang on Saturday to focus on his recovery from the non-displaced distal radius fracture sustained in the sprint at Phillip Island, will travel to Qatar to take part in the Grand Prix weekend.

Bezzecchi arrives in Qatar following his seventh sprint podium of the season at Sepang. In the long race, however, the Italian couldn't make his potential count and finished sixth. He now aims to round off the flyaway tour with a result to show for it.

The Lusail International Circuit, near Qatar's capital, Doha, is 5.38 km long, with a main straight of over a kilometre. The circuit has 10 right-handers and six left-handers. Qatar staged the first night Grand Prix in history in 2008. The move to night racing proved successful and has made this one of the most spectacular rounds on the MotoGP calendar.

Jorge Martin: "It was a shame not to be able to carry on with the weekend at Sepang, but just having the chance to try was an achievement in itself. I went back to Spain to continue the treatment I need to recover from the injury and to get to Qatar in the best shape possible. Now we'll see how the body responds and start working with Aprilia from this Thursday to see how far we can go."

Marco Bezzecchi: "Sunday's long race in Malaysia wasn't easy, so I'm keen to put that right. I'm happy to be heading to Qatar. It's a track I really like. We'll aim to get it right from the start, put together a good weekend and finish as well as we can before we head back to Europe."

The post MotoGP: Aprilia Commits To Racing In Qatar appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

By Stuart Smith: 

Join me for a closer look at the Ducati Panigale V4 Speciale, one of just 1,500 limited-edition bikes released in 2018/2019. I'll walk around the bike, highlight some of its features, then take it out on track at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway and share what it's like to ride at speed.

The post Stuman Rides Video: The Ducati Panigale V4 Speciale appeared first on Roadracing World Magazine | Motorcycle Riding, Racing & Tech News.

I'm a Professor of Economics at the University of Limerick in Ireland, I've helped create some interesting courses in Software Engineering and Bioscience. I love reading these and thought it might be nice to do one of my own. — Stephen Kinsella

• Halfday Garment Duffel Bag. I travel at least once a week and it is a pleasure to use this bag. It is perfectly formed around a specific need. It helps me carry one suit, a spare shirt, some workout gear, and some toiletries, in a designed bag that is exactly adapted to the use case I have. It makes me happy using it.
• Lamy Fountain Pen 2000. A luxury item, mine is twelve years old now, with the fine nib. It feels great to use, looks great, and it is a little piece of design excellence you get to enjoy daily. I use Asa-gao Iroshizuku ink because it looks fantastic on the page and works well with this pen.
• Rodd and Gunn Jacket. I love all of this brand's products, and have several, but this jacket is my favourite.

• Freedom. I bought a lifetime subscription a while ago. It blocks the stupid stuff when you need to try to be focused and clever.
• YNAB. A budgeting app that saves you money because it forces you to focus for a minute on money. I keep it as simple as I can with this.

᚛ᚐᚏ ᚐᚌᚆᚐᚔᚇᚆ᚜ This is Ogham, an ancient Irish alphabet, written linearly and on stone. What you are looking at is 'Ar Aghaidh', or 'Onwards'.

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Now that Democrats have secured earth-shattering wins in both chambers of Congress, the party's progressives are sending a message to their more moderate leaders: It's time to deliver for voters who are demanding meaningful action.

"Even where the candidate wasn't a self-described progressive, progressives won big last night," said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Greg Casar, D-Texas, during a press call on Wednesday. "Across the country, so-called moderate candidates ran on ending forever wars," he added, pointing out that Democrats went after the GOP for voting down congressional attempts to stop President Donald Trump's unpopular military actions — efforts that the progressive caucus had organized.

With comfortable majorities in both chambers — 54 seats in the Senate and 237 in the House, as of 4:30 p.m. ET Wednesday — Democrats now have the legislative breathing room to deliver on their promises to reduce the cost of living, root out government corruption, and end Trump's failed war in Iran.

But they'll have to notch these achievements under an angry lame-duck president who vowed last night — via a Truth Social post of one of his signature red hats — to wield his veto against the new class of Democrats. The current Democratic leaders in each house of Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, both have long track records of sparring with the left. And which of their goals will progressives prioritize when their ranks swell come January?

"We will have an H.R. 1 through 10 that focuses on costs and healthcare and corruption," Casar said Wednesday, referring to the first 10 House resolutions he wanted to see his party push. "Every single week, we should now be sending a bill to Donald Trump's desk that is overwhelmingly popular with the American people, that cracks down on corporate greed, that cracks down on price gouging, that cracks down on big money and politics."

Related Lesson From Lansing: To Win in Swing Districts, Fight Data Centers

To Will Lawrence, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement and a former member of the Democratic Socialists of America who beat Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett in a Michigan swing district on Tuesday, the Democrats' historically successful night translates into a responsibility to achieve transformative change.

"It's undoubtable that this was a sweeping mandate around the entire country," said Lawrence, who ran a campaign focused on his opposition to data centers, a notoriously unpopular area of tech development that the left has pushed Democrats to oppose. 

"Every year, we see record-breaking numbers for the most expensive races in history by the millions."

The outsized influence of the artificial intelligence industry is another critical area for progressives to tackle, Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., told The Intercept. She said that she and other progressives will push legislation to end the outside influence of billionaire and super PAC money in elections, including her bills to ban super PACs and overturn the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. 

"Every year, we see record-breaking numbers for the most expensive races in history by the millions," Lee said. "In the 120th Congress, I look forward to our party recognizing the detrimental impact of special interests and billionaire influence in our politics, whether it be from crypto or AI or AIPAC." 

Related How AIPAC and AI Spent Their Money This Midterm Election

Other progressive priorities include passing policies like Medicare for All, ending corporate corruption, and investing in affordable housing. The ideas are tenets of the redistributive platform popularized by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who rallied voters across the country to "fight oligarchy" earlier this year and helped elevate many of this cycle's upstart candidates.

On Wednesday, progressives did not yet seem prepared to commit to which single issue they would push for first. Asked by The Intercept about their Day-One priorities when they return to Congress, Casar said progressives planned to keep up the legislative pressure throughout the two years of the coming congressional term.

The Working Families Party, which backed Lawrence and often works to push Democrats to the left, saw Tuesday's results as a sign that "voters want Democrats to stop the buildout of data centers and rein in the AI industry," said Ravi Mangla, the group's spokesperson. Like the congressional progressives, WFP cited a range of priorities for the years to come: guaranteeing healthcare and low-cost childcare, lowering housing costs, and providing more union jobs to American workers.

In fact, candidates who signed onto a promise to push a suite of pro-labor policies organized by labor leaders in swing states were among the Democrats' biggest winners on Tuesday night. Signatories to the "Contract with Working America" included Troy Jackson, who toppled three-decade incumbent Republican Sen. Susan Collins in Maine; James Talarico, who flipped the Texas seat for the first time in almost 40 years; and Gina Hinojosa, who ousted 10-year incumbent Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

Jackson pointed to the pledge during his victory speech in Maine on Tuesday night and thanked the union members who canvassed for him.

Related Troy Jackson Ousts Susan Collins in Maine, Replacing 30-Year Republican Senator With a Progressive

"On Labor Day, brothers and sisters, I stood before you and I made a pledge to working Mainers," Jackson said to cheers at his election night party in Portland. "And I'm going to keep that promise. Because I am a union member tonight. I'll be a union member when I walk into that Senate chamber." 

"The way things are set up in our economy right now, the money is just moving up and concentrating at the top, and squeezing the people at the bottom," said Maine AFL-CIO President Cynthia Phinney. Her organization helped develop the labor platform Jackson signed onto, and she said they "fully anticipate that we're going to need to continue to organize around these issues that matter to the folks who voted for him, and a lot of folks who didn't vote for him."

Referring to Hinojosa, Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., noted that Latino voters "delivered a gubernatorial seat in Texas," as well as a U.S. senator. Ramirez, who has introduced a bill to abolish the Department of Homeland Security, argued that her party should not lose sight of outrage over violent immigration enforcement.

"Shame on us Democrats if we again do not meet the moment when it comes to immigration and when it comes to justice as it pertains to ICE and CBP and DHS," Ramirez told The Intercept.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., pointed out that the issues that defined this cycle were often first championed by progressives. 

"We were the first to fight back against the war in Iran. We were the first to call out corruption on so many levels. We were the first to push to rein in ICE and CBP, a shift that really drove a lot of Latino voters across the country that mattered in this election," said Jayapal. "Hopefully, this puts to rest the idea that you can't be a progressive and win with your ideas in any district in the country." 

If history is any guide, it won't. As the wins rolled in on Tuesday night,  Jeffries, the next likely speaker of the House, threw cold water on the idea that the vote marked a seismic rebuke of the Republican Party's way of doing things, saying the results were "patriotic," not "partisan." 

On Wednesday, Jeffries said voters had chosen Democrats "because they want to see a dramatic change in direction."

"I agree, and I'll go one step further," Casar said. "The American people delivered a demand for bold change."

The post The Progressive Agenda: End Iran War, Rein in AI, Get Dems to Actually Do Something appeared first on The Intercept.

Spain's Nabrawind has developed a way to install exceptionally tall wind turbine towers without bringing an enormous crawler crane to the site. Its Nabralift system uses a tubular upper tower supported by a three-legged steel structure. Hydraulic equipment raises the assembled turbine while modular sections are inserted below it near ... [continued]

The post Nabrawind's Crane-Free Wind Towers Face a Supplier Test appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Recently exhibited at Newlyn Art Gallery, Holdfast is an ongoing project by Teän Roberts — an imaginative photographic investigation into the folk-history of kelping in the Isles of Scilly.

All that is left of this 150-year-long subsistence practice - of collecting, drying and burning seaweed for glass making - are the stone-lined pits where the kelp was burned.

Teän has kindly allowed us to share some images from the project.

Visit Teän's website here, or follow Teän on Instagram here.

Can a brick be a meme?

US federal court have overwhelmingly ruled (10,000 orders and counting) that migrants are — just like natural-born citizens — entitled to constitutional rights. Among them is the right to due process. This means that detained migrants have a right to a hearing to see whether they can be held in custody until a hearing on the issue. And that issue is whether or not they can be held indefinitely.

The courts have said migrants have rights, far more often than not. The Trump administration has sought to counter this with an extremely novel interpretation of immigration laws that have been on the books for decades, claiming there's ultimately no difference between someone caught crossing the border illegally (who can be detained and deported without worrying about the Constitution) and someone who has been in this country for months or years and poses no actual flight risk, much less a threat to public safety.

Since it's not on the right side of the law, the party of "law and order" has encouraged ICE to thwart the law and/or flat-out ignore court orders. ICE has made it a habit to immediately move detainees from detention center to detention center in hopes of preventing their cases from being heard. Not only does it distance migrants from their legal representation, it keeps the venue in permanent flux, which means habeas petitions are doomed to fail because they were filed in place other than where the rights violation took place (the location of the arrest).

ICE also tends to route most detainees to large concentration camps in Texas and Louisiana because they're ultimately overseen by the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court, which has (now) repeatedly decided migrants don't have rights.

Apparently, the usual ICE bullshit isn't working well enough or often enough. Now, the administration is straight up mocking the 10,000+ decisions in favor of due process rights by deliberately targeting migrants who have been freed from detention by federal court orders.

Immigrants who have been granted release from detention after winning habeas corpus petitions in court are being re-arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Guardian has identified at least 20 cases nationwide relating to people who were detained after being released on habeas corpus petition in the last year, according to court records, attorneys and media reports.

Twenty cases may seem like an immeasurable drop in the bucket compared to the nearly 100,000 habeas petitions that have been filed since Trump's assault on migrants began early last year. But it's also an obvious undercount. This determination relies on what can be gleaned from court records, which means there are likely hundreds of "re-detainees" who haven't been able to file a motion due to ICE's deliberate attempts to separate migrants from their rights and representation.

And this effort is amazingly brutal. No normal human being would consider this to be acceptable US government behavior. But this is something the psychopaths and sociopaths running the GOP are willing to do to indulge the whims of their preferred demagogue.

And in Minnesota, seven immigrants were re-detained before even exiting the Whipple federal building detention facility on the outskirts of Minneapolis, as first reported by MPR.

"I don't think being taken out of a building and directly into the arms of four or more officers complies with the court's order," Daniel Suitor, attorney to two of the men, said in a phone interview .

In Louisiana (Fifth Circuit, yo!), immigration officials were held in contempt after re-arresting a single migrant three times after he'd been granted release by federal judges. More of the same is going on in Minnesota (see above) and Pennsylvania.

Not only are migrants being re-arrested immediately after securing their release via court orders, but they are increasingly being deported to countries with which they have no ties. Cruelty on top of cruelty on top of hideous displays of inhumanity. That's just the day-to-day operations of our current administration, one completely consumed by hatred and capable of little more than inflicting whatever pain it can until it runs out of time… or victims.

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Last week, Ofcom, the UK regulator in charge of all this stuff, released its "rapid assessment of highly effective age assurance at 16." That came right on the heels of its quietly released (only because the law required it) report showing that the Online Safety Act's duty of care wasn't actually having any noticeable impact on kids' access to "harmful content."

Even as the Online Safety Act was being rolled out after years of debate, UK politicians started whining and screaming that they had to follow other countries towards banning kids from social media entirely. Ofcom is supposed to help put together a plan for such a social media ban by the end of the year, with implementation set for next spring. As part of this, Ofcom was tasked with reviewing the state of technology that can determine whether someone is under or over 16, and in doing so basically confirmed what many activists have been pointing out all along: if you're putting an explicit age limit on social media, you are requiring kids to hand over private information and put themselves at risk.

The report includes this handy chart, which basically notes that if you're trying to determine if someone is between the age of 16 and 18, you're really talking about having them hand over private information:

That first column on the left is the telling one. That's the one that says there are only four(ish) "highly effective" means of doing age assurance… and basically all of them are actually "send private info to a company." The first two are obvious: uploading a photo ID or banking info, both of which are incredibly risky, especially since you'll be uploading them to companies which are clear targets for hackers. The third one is really the same thing, because even as "digital identity services" are coming online with the goal of doing the ID part as a third party and then issuing some sort of "old enough" / "too young" token, those services are still getting that information via the uploading of private info.

But it's the last one that's the funniest. For years, age verification providers have insisted that no one would have to upload private info, because they could estimate your age just based on scanning your face. But we've always called bullshit on that. Such scanning may be able to tell the difference between a 50-year-old and a 15-year-old but it's effectively useless for determining the difference between a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old.

And Ofcom kinda admits that. It still lists facial age estimation as "highly effective," but only with that parenthetical caveat. And the full paper concedes that the technology falls apart for exactly the kids closest to the age line:

The margin of error for facial age estimation becomes more significant for the ages closest to the target age gate (16 in this case). For example, if the facial age estimation algorithm is accurate within two years for children aged 15, it could estimate them as aged 17. This could result in significant numbers of children under 16 gaining access to services or functionalities that are restricted. It could also result in a 17-year-old being denied access if they are estimated to be 15, unless they use another method. However, this is only likely to affect users who are close to the target age, as most adults offered this method would be estimated to be clearly above 16.

So, yes, if you're much older, perhaps a facial scan gets you onto a website without uploading your ID. But if you're anywhere near 16, you're basically out of luck, because Ofcom's fix for the margin of error is to kick anyone who looks young-ish over to a different method… and a different method is always going to be "upload an ID."

In order to account for the margin of error in a facial age estimation algorithm, services should implement a 'challenge age' (sometimes known as a 'buffer age'). A challenge age approach is widely used in an offline context when selling age-restricted products like alcohol in retail environments, for instance, through the retailing strategy 'Challenge 25.' In this approach, anyone who appears to the provider of restricted products to be under the age of 25 should be challenged to provide acceptable ID proving that they are over the age of 18 if they wish to buy alcohol.

Of course, requiring kids to upload their photo IDs or banking info is going to be difficult given that many kids… don't actually have photo IDs or banking info at age 16. Ofcom argues that 89% of 16-year-olds have a passport while 19% have a provisional driving license. But passports also aren't the kind of ID that kids regularly have at the ready any time they're reaching an internet service. Perhaps I'm out of touch with the youth of the UK, but I'd be surprised to find many of them regularly have passports at arms length most of the time.

The likely result is forcing more kids to get IDs at younger ages than they would otherwise need them, again creating privacy questions for those kids. Either way, teenagers are in for a lot of "your papers please!" and Ofcom says so pretty directly:

Our preliminary assessment suggests that 16- and 17-year-olds are more likely than users of other ages to need access to a photo ID document. Of the methods listed as capable of being highly effective at 16, a photo ID will likely be needed at some point in the process. This is either because the method itself requires a photo ID, because ownership of a photo ID is part of the underlying process for accessing another method (such as opening a bank account or using a digital identity service), or because a 16- or 17-year-old will most likely fall within the challenge or buffer age for facial estimation methods and be asked to prove their age with a secondary method.

In other words, what UK politicians (and plenty of "child safety activists") are demanding here is that a bunch of kids have to give up their privacy and hand over documents that can put them at risk. For their safety. At a time when there remains little to no evidence that barring kids from internet services will actually improve their safety.

For some drivers, horsepower is the be-all and end-all, and for others, horsepower decides very little about how much they enjoy their car on an ordinary day. Much of the driving happens in slow traffic and supermarket car parks, with the odd motorway on weekend trips. That doesn't mean there's no enjoyment to be found while driving.

The upgrades that make driving more enjoyable are usually the ones that make that time behind the wheel better. While some of them cost less than a tank of fuel, others take a bit of saving.

A good set of tyres from a premium manufacturer lets a car drive more quietly on the motorway and take a wet roundabout with more traction. Plenty of owners replace worn tyres like-for-like without much thought.

A premium set of tyres is an expensive first purchase, and sometimes it's worth starting from the inside and working your way outward. Quality tyres can have a night-and-day effect on how driving feels, so they're not a bad place to start if the budget permits it.

Seats are always about personal tastes and preferences, and many drivers put up with a position that's nearly right for a very long time. Before spending anything, try exploring the adjustments the car already has. The steering column moves in and out and up and down on most modern cars, and many seats have a cushion that tilts or extends.

Where the seats themselves are tired, a specialist trimmer can retrim worn leather or install a new material of your choosing. Some owners go further and swap in the sports seats. That's a bigger piece of work, with wiring for heating and side airbags involved, so it's a project for someone who specialises in this line of work.

The steering wheel gets handled more than anything else in the car. Every junction, turn, and every parking manoeuvre goes through it, so a rim that's gone shiny and smooth with wear gets noticed on every drive.

Enthusiasts who want something more personal look at custom steering wheels, where the owner chooses the rim shape and the covering. Perforated leather on the sides improves grip, smooth leather or carbon fibre across the top and bottom keeps it sleek, and a flattened base makes getting in and out of a low car a little easier.

For some drivers, changing the interior trim has been on their minds since their very first drive. The dashboard inserts and the surround around the gear selector are in sight the whole time the car is moving, and swapping glossy plastic for carbon fibre gives the cabin a more expensive look without touching anything mechanical.

It's very tempting to do the whole cabin at once. Starting with the pieces closest to the driver makes more sense; the passenger side can come later.

Enthusiasts glance back at their car after locking it, and what they notice is the exterior styling. Carbon fibre mirror caps and a gloss-black grille are an easy place to start. They don't take long to install, and they change the face of the car the same afternoon, which is a lot of visual return for a modest job.

A front splitter and a rear diffuser go a little further, giving a standard model the stance of something higher up the range. Seeing the car on the driveway with both fitted is a real lift for most owners.

Quality varies between suppliers. Photos of finished cars on real driveways say a lot about how evenly the weave lines up under the lacquer, and a decent warranty on the parts is worth asking about before buying.

Everyday enjoyment comes from the most frequent interactions drivers have with their car, so the best upgrades are the ones that are visible on the most ordinary journeys. Try starting while in the driver's seat with the engine off, have a look around, and notice which parts of the cabin you'd like to customise.  

Don't forget to confirm compatibility with the exact model and year before ordering anything, and leave any work involving airbags or wiring to an approved fitter.

By Nathan Spears

Alex Karp, CEO of US spy-tech company Palantir, used this week's historic US midterm election results to claim an unlikely mantle for a military software supplier: pioneer of an antiwar movement.

Palantir's Q3 revenue rose 96 percent year-on-year to $2.31 billion, although its shares fell 8 percent following the results, which it reported on Tuesday as US voters were delivering a resounding defeat for Republicans in the voting booth. For Karp, the figures represented "the reality that this moment has become a real focal point of understanding" and might help explain "what is happening in our society."

From the CEO's perspective, they not only reflected the company's financial performance, but also its overall "mission."

"That mission reason is we support your alpha [above average performance], we support your sovereignty. We support the war fighter. We are delighted that we can support the war fighter even more because we're making so much money. But we believe we have a moral imperative to be the dominant player in our industry," he told investors.

For Karp-watchers, this is familiar self-serving shtick: turn Palantir's work for military and intelligence customers into a moral crusade, and goad its critics along the way.

"There's this larger question of what does it mean to have a business that was built around what we believed and believe now is the most important mission in the world, supporting our war fighters, [and] bringing them home," he said.

None of this stops him presenting Palantir as a force for peace. "We see ourselves as the pioneers of a genuine and viable antiwar movement," he wrote in his shareholder letter.

He expanded on the point during the Q3 earnings call. "Our products are built to avoid war, meaning the adversary knows that they will have such pain inflicted upon them that, in fact, it's not worth going to war and also to create social cohesion because we're going to bring back our troops healthier, safer, undamaged and that makes our society much more effective," he said.

That antiwar pitch sits awkwardly alongside Karp's $1 million donation in December 2024 to MAGA Inc., the super PAC supporting Donald Trump. Trump subsequently launched a US military operation in Venezuela and went to war with Iran, repeatedly promising the latter conflict would be short-lived as it dragged on. Karp did not address either topic on the call.

Elsewhere, Karp claimed that Palantir "built products that would protect civil liberties and stop terrorism. If you don't stop terrorism, you're going to get a radical fringe on the right. If you stop terrorism without rights, none of us wants that."

That civil liberties pitch also invites scrutiny of Palantir's longstanding relationship with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), whose treatment of people it targets and detains has drawn criticism from US judges.

Karp seems to enjoy the circus of controversy he and his colleagues have created. He also offered investors this insight: "The future is becoming the present and the present is now." Whatever that future holds, he seems confident Palantir has a moral imperative to invoice it. ®

One cornerstone of Elon Musk's fraud-packed SpaceX IPO prospectus includes the claim that they'll extremely quickly (as in a year or two) boost Starlink subscriber totals from 13 million to something closer to 300 million. Given the network's congestion problems and physics constraints, that's simply not realistic. Also: more users means even greater capacity problems and weird network restrictions.

To try and goose growth, Starlink has recently been making it clear they'd like to try and get into the cellular and smartphone business. But the actual plan is, as with all things Musk, a misleading, hot mess.

A key part of Starlink's plan includes plunking down thousands of meshed femtocells installed on customer rooftops alongside existing LEO satellite dishes, something one telecom analyst recently stated was "one of the top three dumbest ideas in my four decades of being in this industry."

In part because the femtocell installations are just logistically annoying and complicated, and will further will eat up capacity on the increasingly congested network (recall that Starlink customers in some areas already face "congestion fees" as high as $1500).

To goose growth Starlink and SpaceX have been gobbling up valuable wireless spectrum (with the help of Trump FCC boss Brendan Carr). They are also apparently in conversations to buy Echostar's Boost Mobile prepaid brand:

"SpaceX has held talks with telecom firm EchoStar in recent months about launching its own signature wireless service through a deal with the company, the report said, citing ​people familiar with the negotiations. The move would support the Elon Musk-led ​company's plans to build a hybrid satellite-terrestrial mobile network through Starlink ⁠Mobile, combining its satellite constellation with ground-based infrastructure to challenge US wireless ​giants AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile."

One problem? Boost mobile is just a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO). It's primarily just customer-facing retail artifice that runs on the back of existing AT&T and T-Mobile networks; neither of which is keen to have their cozy regional telecom dominance disrupted. To actually compete, Musk and Starlink would still need to invest hundreds of billions of additional dollars in a high-powered 5G network over the next decade. And even then there's no guarantee of success.

You might recall that Boost Mobile was offloaded to Echostar as part of that doomed first-term Trump administration effort to approve the Sprint-T-Mobile merger, then hide its labor and competition impact by pretending that Dish Network would build a successful replacement 5G network. That of course never happened; the real impact was mass layoffs, higher prices and worse service for everybody.

I should note that the Trump FCC under Brendan Carr not only launched a fake "investigation" into Dish to try and force it to offload much of its spectrum to AT&T and Musk, but recent reporting suggests the Trump administration threatened Charlie Ergen with additional scrutiny if he didn't ramp up his donations to Trump's ballroom. So there's entire layers of grift going on here.

Regardless: U.S. telecom is just generally a shitty market to try and disrupt. It's extremely expensive and time consuming, and at every turn you're likely to get creatively ratfucked by giants like AT&T and Verizon, whose political influence over Republicans historically rivals Musk's. Again, even traditionally staid and bullish telecom trade mags have expressed concerns that Starlink's smartphone push is doomed.

I think this mostly all exists as a way for Starlink to hoard valuable spectrum and goose stock valuations. There may be some people at Starlink who have convinced themselves this will actually work (the fact SpaceX has been lobbying for phone unlocking rules suggests some potential earnestness), but U.S. telecom history is littered with these sorts of half-assed disruption efforts that routinely go nowhere.

I'm not prone to believe things that come out of the mouths of Verizon executives, but in this case I think Verizon CEO Dan Schulman is correct when he states it would cost SpaceX something akin to $300-$500 billion and five years build a network capable of really competing with cellular giants.

And that's just network infrastructure; you still need to convince users to sign up, provide a quality experience, and provide useful customer support (something Musk companies historically aren't interested in). While fending off the political machinations of AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile, who all but own the legislature in most states after a generation of lobbying and campaign contribution.

The Musk cult and our shitty corporate press will spend the next few years enamored with the fiction that "Musk is disrupting smartphones," but this mostly just reads as further stock-fluffing performance by a man with more money than sense.

Abdul El-Sayed handily defeated Republican Mike Rogers for Senate in Michigan early Wednesday morning, retaining Democratic control of the seat and solidifying the party's Senate majority. To become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate, the former public health official overcame rampant, bipartisan Islamophobia and bigotry. For the country, and the Democrats, to move forward, we must cast it out of public life forever. 

The Michigan Democrat's victory felt almost like an afterthought compared to the upset Senate victories won by Democrats in South Carolina and Texas. The 2026 midterms were a referendum on President Donald Trump and his control of the GOP, and voters delivered their verdict, turning control of both houses of Congress over to the opposition party. 

Related Abdul El-Sayed Wins Senate Seat With Pro-Palestine Campaign

But we should neither forget nor forgive how we got here. El-Sayed faced an uphill battle from the beginning, which included a protracted, venomous primary, and the call was often coming from inside the house. 

No detractor was as vicious as his former primary opponent Rep. Haley Stevens, whose eleventh-hour betrayal of her party's nominee — she formally switched her endorsement to Rogers on Sunday — was a transparent attempt to turn the seat red.

Backlash was swift and harsh and came from all corners of the party. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the powerful leader of the Senate who has made little secret of his disagreements with El-Sayed on Israel, called Stevens's actions "a despicable betrayal." Michigan Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell and state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, who finished third in the primary, went as far as to express personal concern for Stevens. 

And Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., just days after implying El-Sayed and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani were antisemites for opposing ethno-supremacy in Israel, said Stevens chose "to dangerously betray Michigan families' healthcare, freedoms, and future with her horrific endorsement of Mike Rogers."

In the 48 hours-plus since she threw in with Rogers — which increasingly seems like it was motivated primarily out of spite when she was boxed out of a Sunday campaign event with Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., in Detroit — Stevens embarked on a media tour of justification that got weirder and weirder.

A 15-minute, rambling interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN Sunday night didn't provide insight into her motivations, or much else; on Monday evening, Stevens followed up with a long statement posted on X owning the decision to destroy her political career with the Democratic Party. She also denied that her fiancé, political donor Jason Turkish, played any role in the endorsement: "I made this decision, and I am proud of it. Do not question my independence simply because you disagree with my conclusion."

Related Radical Centrists Like Haley Stevens Are the Real Extremists in the Democratic Party

Congressional staffers to Stevens resigned en masse on Sunday, and former campaign aides told the Washington Post that they had to run defense to keep Turkish — who had endorsed Rogers before Stevens did — out of the spotlight and marginalize his influence. 

"Any campaign staff being directly quoted in this article, I was made miserable by working with them," Stevens told the Post in response, adding, "I have nothing else to say about the campaign at this time."

But a singular explanation of Stevens's decision lets Democrats off the hook far too easily for the anti-El-Sayed campaign waged by leaders in the House and Senate. For the party to move forward after the midterms, the Democrats need to take a hard look in the mirror and purge institutionalized Islamophobia from their ranks. 

They can start with their friends in the media. The Atlantic's Jonathan Chait, in a screed published Sunday, whined that "during the same period of time that El-Sayed has been winking at a political movement inflected with anti-Semitism, he has been targeted by a political message that is not merely inflected with racism but saturated with it." 

We should get ready for a long overdue, but almost certainly painful, intraparty debate on how Democrats policed dissent in their own ranks.

Political commentator Van Jones noted on X ahead of Election Day that "the Republicans are conducting a campaign of blatant anti-Muslim fear mongering." But in the same post, he also argued El-Sayed's "refusal to outright denounce" a little-seen ad produced by an outside PAC — an ad which El-Sayed distanced himself and his campaign from — tying the rise of grocery costs to U.S. support for Israel was comparable.

"Something is going horribly wrong in the Senate race in Michigan," Jones added huffily. "And I am going to keep calling it out."

Related Lesson From Lansing: To Win in Swing Districts, Fight Data Centers

After last night's massive blue wave, it should be undeniable that the left was a major factor in flipping the House and Senate. That means the party's progressive wing can now credibly claim a seat at the governing table without compromising on domestic or foreign policy. We should get ready for a long overdue, but almost certainly painful, intraparty debate on how Democrats policed dissent in their own ranks in this election, and how to disentangle leadership from unconditional support for Israel.

There's always the possibility that the party's centrist wing comes together with the left and repairs the damage. A good first step would be for leadership to make clear that Stevens, and anyone else who indulged in anti-Muslim arguments to score political points, has torched any possible future in the Democratic Party. Any advocacy or lobbying group that offer Stevens or her ilk safe political harbor should also be blacklisted. 

Related Democrats, Don't Mess This Up

Party discipline applied to the treacherous center doesn't appear to be the top priority for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the presumptive next speaker, who devoted his first remarks after the election to downplaying partisanship in this "patriotic moment." 

But without backup from party leadership, El-Sayed will continue to be met with hostility. On Wednesday morning, CNN asked fellow incoming Texas Sen. James Talarico if he would "stand up" to El-Sayed and other, unnamed left-wing members of his caucus. To his credit, Talarico demurred from directly challenging his fellow future senator. Still, it's a sign of a long battle to come. 

The question for "unity"-caping Democrats remains: Who will they rally around — and who will be left out in the cold?

The post Haley Stevens Destroyed Her Political Career for Absolutely Nothing appeared first on The Intercept.

Fedora 45 is here, after not one but two week-long delays as the team found last-minute issues. Although both the original and second announcements were irksomely non-specific, in general we prefer this "when it's ready" approach to the rigid calendar-based schedule that Canonical favors for Ubuntu. It includes six main editions, five immutable desktop variants, and 12 "spins" with different GUIs.

The combined version 45 release notes detail some of the bigger individual component changes and note the hardware requirements. The recommended spec is now a 2 GHz quad-core CPU with 8 GB of RAM and 20 GB of disk space, and at least 1024×768 graphics. Fedora 45 supports most display adapters, but 3D acceleration may not work on older GPUs, including Intel models prior to GMA9xx, Nvidia models prior to NV30 (GeForce FX5xxx series), and AMD Radeon models prior to R300 (Radeon 9500).

We took a quick look at the beta back in September, focusing on its new next-generation text console, which is a welcome change. We especially liked the ability to zoom in and out on the text console on the fly, which is something we've missed since the superb "Laptop Ultravision" for DOS, about a third of a century ago. (The company is long gone, but we found a downloadable version for all you DOS users.)

The desktop flagship editions are Workstation 45, which comes with GNOME 51 "A Coruña", and Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, with KDE Plasma 6.8. We covered some of the new features in GNOME 51 when we looked at the Ubuntu 26.10 beta, and those changes apply here too - notably, improvements in the Settings app, but removal of some older Nvidia GPU support.

Both the big names are Wayland-only environments now, but by our reckoning, X11 fans have seven of the 12 official spins to choose from: Xfce, Cinnamon, MATE, i3, LXQt, LXDE, and Sugar (SOAS) all still use X.org if you prefer. There is also a combined What's New page for all the Atomic Desktops, Fedora's immutable variants - the main shared feature here being the new web-based installer.

The new version of main Fedora is accompanied by Fedora Asahi Remix 45 for Apple Silicon Macs. This is a more notable release than the cross-platform editions, as Asahi 45 brings initial support for M3-based Macs as well as M1 and M2 kit. As The Reg described in September, though, the M3 support is preliminary and limited - for instance, it excludes the M3 Ultra. If you have an M3 Mac, for now, you're better off sticking to macOS.

The most important changes in Fedora 45 are under the hood, which is what the Red Hat release announcement focuses on. It now uses RPM version 6.1, with enhanced package signature checking, and blocks the vendor of packages silently changing. The GNOME keyring now uses the oo7 secrets manager. Support for two old VPN plugins has been removed, because the packages were unmaintained.

A feature that we are happy to see land at last is better support for Red Hat's Stratis next-generation storage subsystem. We gave a potted overview of Stratis 3.3 back in 2022: it was on version 3.3 back then. It's the same main Stratis version 3.9 we saw in Fedora 44, but the installation program now has support for installing Fedora 45 on Stratis storage.

Stratis is Red Hat's rival to OpenZFS. The plan is that Stratis offers similar features and resilience to ZFS, especially in the field of copy-on-write snapshots and simple multi-device logical volume management, but built from all-GPL code. Rather than a whole new filesystem, Stratis integrates XFS, LVM, and the kernel device-mapper functionality. Stratis 1.0 appeared in Fedora 29 eight years ago, and Fedora 45 has version 3.9.3. It's good to see it finally making real progress: if nothing else, we've seen Btrfs irretrievably corrupt a full volume far too many times to ever trust it again, so an alternative is very welcome.

When we looked at Fedora 44, we noted the difficulty of doing custom disk partitioning. It was there, but very well-hidden. Now, the installer can launch the Cockpit web-management tool to make it easier to set up your drives however you want.

An interesting side-effect of the delayed release is that Fedora 45 ships with kernel 7.2 - specifically, version 7.2.15, which is the last release of this short-term series. In other words, it's an end-of-life kernel version. It's an amusing contrast to its near-contemporary Ubuntu 26.10, which shipped with a pre-release kernel. Our test Ubuntu box was automatically upgraded to the release version by the background automatic updates process, but to our surprise, it didn't receive the kernel update for over a week. This shouldn't be a problem: unlike Ubuntu, Fedora releases routinely receive updates to whole new kernel versions, so we're sure Fedora 45 users will get kernel 7.3 very soon.

We upgraded the same test machine on which we tried GNOME 48 in Fedora 42 early last year. You can skip one Fedora release on upgrade, but not two, so we had to go via Fedora 44 — which took some time, and threw up a minor packaging glitch, but it got there. The result runs surprisingly well, although this 2008 machine is well below the recommended spec. ®

Your new robot servant doesn't have to look anything like a person or walk on two legs. In fact, it might just be a claw that hangs from the ceiling instead.

That's the future envisioned by Nathaniel Nifong, founder of Neufangled Robotics, and its Stringman robot. Put simply, Stringman is an AI-equipped claw suspended from four strings running through the corners of a room (up to 10 meters diagonally). Two motorized anchors adjust the lengths of the strings to move the claw around the room, from ceilings up to 4 meters high down to the floor to pick stuff up. With a payload capacity of around 2 kg, depending on its position, Stringman can move items to designated locations - like a toy box - and perform tidying tasks.

Stringman can also be manually controlled if you'd prefer to play a room-sized crane game by yourself.

According to Stringman's documentation site, the device is currently a public prototype that "can self-calibrate in a new room and run policies, but is not yet reliable enough to be called a home appliance."

That said, demonstration videos on the website show it in action, and it's neat to watch.

Stringman is shown picking up laundry and dropping it in a basket, putting Lego bricks and other kids' toys back where they belong, and generally zooming around rooms and demonstrating its agility. One could imagine a properly trained Stringman could even grab the remote you left on the other side of the living room and drop it in your waiting hand if you're that incredibly lazy.

"Our mission is to give people an organized home," Neufangled says on its future roadmap page. "We prioritize robots that are narrowly effective at something that helps today rather than a general purpose robot that may be in development for years."

The company further describes its goal as designing robots that are low cost and capable of doing things that people hate to do - e.g., pick up after a messy toddler - and making a robot that can do that while camouflaging itself into the home "as well as possible."

As long as you think a foot-long claw robot hanging from the corner of the ceiling is camouflaged, this is the robot for you.

Neufangled lists Stringman for $795, which is a lot to ask for a public prototype that isn't reliable enough to be called a home appliance yet. Luckily for those who're interested in this sort of niche home automation, it's fully open source, too.

"A complete Stringman is three Raspberry Pis on your Wi-Fi network," the documentation site reads: One in the gripper, and two in the corner anchor mounts that store line reels and have cameras to track the claw's location as it moves around the room. A third camera mounted on the claw provides visual feedback. Oh, you'll also need a dedicated PC or Mac to run the robot's motion-control software.

As for Stringman itself, to build your own, you'll need a 3D printer, a supplier to manufacture the PCBs, motors, Raspberry Pis, and other components listed in the bill of materials. You'll also need to follow the guides on the documentation site to get it up and running, calibrate it for your space using printed markers, set up drop-off points using visual tags, and program it to perform tasks.

But is it safe? One could imagine getting tangled in the lines if you get in Stringman's way. Nifong admits that can happen, writing in the documentation that he has walked into the lines himself without injury.

"I live with two of these, and I've walked into the lines before. It's startling, but harmless — they're light and they give," he writes. According to the robot's website, it has a tension limit of 28 newtons, or around six and a quarter pounds of force. If that limit is reached, all of the lines relax and can be pulled loose.

Those who want to play with a simulated Stringman can do so on Stringman's web portal, which includes options to connect to a personal machine over LAN, the cloud, or a simulated version. Hopefully it's easier to work with than an arcade claw. ®