Bovine Collagen Peptides Powder For Youthful Skin In Adults Over 25 Announced

'We're losing control,' says AI pioneer Yoshua Bengio

MONTREAL — The Canadian computer scientist considered one of the founders of AI, Yoshua Bengio, told AFP that humanity is "losing control" of the technology and that the world needs guardrails similar to nuclear arms controls. Fears about the dangers of AI have intensified in recent weeks, as workers from major companies have resigned with warnings about potentially existential threats to human life if the pace of technological advancement is not checked. Bengio is a University of Montreal professor who won the 2018 Turing Award, computing's Nobel, alongside Geoffrey Hinton, widely known as the "godfather of AI." For Bengio, "there's a reason that companies are saying this is going too fast, that we're losing control." "People like me have been expecting this for a long time," the 62-year-old told AFP on Tuesday, saying security discussions surrounding AI have not been adequately robust. There was broad-based alarm after OpenAI disclosed that a swarm of AI agents — programs that can take actions on their own — had carried out an unauthorized breach of the open-source platform Huggin

Images show heavy damage from Iran strikes targeting US bases: report

WASHINGTON — A destroyed aircraft, shredded tents, trailers that have been ripped apart: images taken by U.S. troops show significant damage from Iranian strikes targeting American military assets in the Middle East, CBS News reported. The undated images — taken at a base in Saudi Arabia and two facilities in Kuwait — were provided to CBS by American personnel on condition of anonymity due to U.S. military restrictions, the outlet said late Tuesday. "This is major damage to our bases that hasn't been communicated to the American public," CBS quoted one U.S. service member as saying. "We're standing there with our eyes closed getting punched in the face," the service member added. The Pentagon's inspector general released a report earlier this week that said the military's Central Command (CENTCOM) — which is responsible for U.S. forces in the Middle East — had reported widespread damage to American facilities and equipment. CENTCOM said Iranian strikes "damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at U.S. bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Om

Wall Street holds steady ahead of Fed's decision as oil prices and bond yields ease

NEW YORK — Wall Street is holding steady Wednesday as it waits to hear from the Federal Reserve , which traders expect will announce a hike to interest rates later in the day to help get the nation’s high inflation under control. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent was on track for just its second gain in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 26 points, or 0.1 percent, as of 12:31 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7 percent higher. Stocks got help from some easing for oil prices and pressure from the bond market. The price for a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell 3.1 percent to $105.39. Oil had gotten to nearly $110 early this week on worries that the war with Iran will continue to clog the global flow of oil. That helped send the yield on the 10-year Treasury, which is the centerpiece of the bond market and dictates where rates for mortgages and other loans go, down to 4.96 percent from 5.00 percent late Tuesday. Earlier this week was the first time since 2023 that the 10-year yield topped 5 percent. Even with Wednesday’s easi

Iran hesitates to enforce headscarf rules amid war, economic pressures

Women sit at outdoor cafes without headscarves and wearing crop tops. Men in shorts and women in leggings exercise together in parks. At sidewalk concerts, women stop to dance and literally let their hair down. The scenes from the Iranian capital of Tehran, shared in social media videos, point to how dramatically enforcement of social restrictions has eased in the Islamic Republic in recent years. That's in part because of the mass protests that erupted after the Sept. 16, 2022, death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly. Security forces crushed the protests with a crackdown that killed more than 500 people, and thousands were arrested. But to keep the peace, authorities backed off on enforcement of the rules mandating the hijab, or headscarf, and modest dress for women. The question now is whether that can be reversed. Hard-liners in Iran’s ruling establishment increasingly demand a clampdown on women’s dressing habits. But top leaders caution against triggering a public backlash at a time of war, wh

Wall Street gyrates after Fed hikes interest rate to battle inflation

NEW YORK — Wall Street whipsawed on Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate for the first time in over three years to fight stubbornly high inflation stemming from soaring crude oil prices during the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. In its accompanying statement, the Fed said its decision was unanimous and more tightening is likely in the near future to effect a timelier drop in inflation. "As widely expected, the Fed hiked interest rates for the first time in more than three years," said Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group in Omaha. "After the hawkish comments from (Fed Chair Kevin) Warsh a couple of weeks ago in Jackson Hole, he kind of backed himself into the corner a little bit." "The fact that it was unanimous is a tad surprising," Detrick added. "At the same time, it really shows that the Fed is serious about combating the broadening inflation backdrop that we're seeing." Investors will parse Warsh's comments at the press conference which is currently underway, for detail regarding the central bank's rationale behind today's decision and c

US Fed chair says inflation has been 'too high' for 'too long'

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh said Wednesday that the U.S. central bank's main focus now is on inflation, in remarks shortly after its first rate hike since 2023. "Our predominant focus is on the price stability side of our mandate. The plain fact is that inflation is too high, and has been for too long," he told a press conference.

Fed rate hike will likely push borrowing costs on credit cards, mortgages

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve just raised the cost of money — bad news for borrowers, good news for savers. The Fed increased its benchmark interest rate Wednesday by a quarter-point, the first rate hike since the summer of 2023. The hike will likely make it even costlier to borrow for homes, autos and other purchases. But if you've been socking money away, you’ll probably earn a bit more interest on your savings. The increase boosts the Fed's target rate to a range of 3.75 percent to 4.00 percent. Here’s what to know: Why is the Fed raising rates? The short answer: inflation. Inflation has remained above the Fed's 2 percent target for more than five years. The Labor Department reported Friday that consumer prices rose 3.4 percent in August compared to a year earlier, while the monthly increase quadrupled from July to hit 0.4 percent. The Fed’s goal is to slow consumer and business spending by raising the cost of borrowing, thereby reducing demand for homes, cars and other goods and services, eventually cooling the economy and reducing upward pressure on prices. Kevin Warsh, Fed

Trump threatens EU over 'hostile' Canada association plan

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Wednesday to cut trade with the European Union after the bloc proposed to make Canada its first ever associate member. EU chief Ursula von der Leyen raised the prospect a day before Canadian leader Mark Carney was due to address the European Parliament. Her pitch comes as both Canada and the European Union seek to pivot away from an aggressive United States under Trump's leadership. "I think it's laughable," Trump told reporters when asked about the plan. "If they do that, if I think it's at all a hostile act, I will put very serious tariffs or stop trading with Europe, on many things." He added: "If it's a good intention, that's fine. If it's a bad intention, we'll put very heavy tariffs on Europe, which is a possibility." Von der Leyen pitched closer cooperation on tech, defense and energy to Carney, who became the first non-European head of government to attend the annual "State of the European Union" speech. The German told the European Parliament in Strasbourg that, as democracies face a "fracture in the international rules-base

OpenAI plans regular reports on unexpected AI behavior

OpenAI said on Wednesday it would begin regularly publishing reports on unexpected or unauthorized AI behavior, while warning that the industry has yet to solve key alignment challenges as systems grow more powerful. The company released a new framework for tracking, investigating and disclosing cases of AI model misalignment, along with six reports on unexpected or concerning model behavior observed over the past six months. The announcement comes as concern grows that AI safety efforts are lagging behind the breakneck development of increasingly powerful systems. Researchers have warned that as AI agents become more autonomous, they may develop behaviors that diverge from their creators' intentions and become harder to monitor or control. OpenAI has faced increased scrutiny since its own AI agent breached systems at open-source platform Hugging Face during a test and attempted to hide its actions. Over the weekend, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei proposed a three-step framework aimed at slowing the pace of AI development and allowing more time to manage its risks. The proposal was backed by s

Trump hopes Iran war nearing end as Houthi-Saudi fighting escalates

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said he hoped an end to the war against Iran was near, as the conflict, in its seventh month, escalated with Saudi aircraft pounding Yemen and Houthi fighters launching drones and missiles at Saudi cities. The Iran-backed Houthis' lightning advance in Yemen along the Red Sea and their attacks on Saudi Arabia, along with attacks that damaged Saudi Arabia's East-West oil pipeline, have extended Tehran's reach in the war and heightened global oil-supply risks. As the war expands into a new theatre, the United States tightened its travel warning for Saudi Arabia, banning government employees from travelling within 20 miles (30 km) of the Yemen border. Still, just hours after reports of the Houthis and Saudi Arabia fighting, Trump told reporters on Wednesday evening: "Well, hopefully we are towards the end of the war." Trump says Iran wants a deal, oil price still elevated "They want to make a deal. We'll see how that works out," he said, referring to Iran, reiterating past comments. Trump also said he had heard from Iran "directly," without elaborati

From Korean to Chinese: Vietnam's language learners follow the jobs

HANOI — “Chinese is definitely the trend now.” At a Chinese Proficiency Test (HSK) testing center at Hanoi University in Vietnam on Sunday, 23-year-old Vu Thi Thao had just completed the Level 6 exam, the highest level of the test. “I quit my job at a Chinese railway company and am now preparing to become a Chinese-language instructor,” she said. “As Chinese companies expand into Vietnam at a rapid pace, the market for Chinese speakers has opened up significantly.” A Chinese language boom is sweeping Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. Unlike the Korean language learning boom that accompanied the Korean wave in the past, Chinese is increasingly becoming a key foreign language for employment. The trend has been driven by Chinese companies hiring large numbers of Chinese speakers as they move production bases to Southeast Asia to avoid U.S. trade restrictions. The growing popularity of Chinese in Southeast Asia is reflected in the numbers. According to data from the Chinese Testing International, Vietnam recorded 146,000 HSK test takers last year, the highest in the

Japan's Takaichi keeps key ministers in cabinet reshuffle

TOKYO — Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi retained her key ministers on Thursday in a cabinet reshuffle aimed at solidifying the ruling coalition and advancing a food tax cut despite concerns over how it will be financed. Prime ministers in Japan routinely shuffle their cabinets to refresh the government's public image and to distribute ministerial posts to loyal supporters and experienced lawmakers from the same party. But Takaichi — who has unusually high approval ratings nearly a year into office — kept core members of her team, according to a cabinet list announced by her righthand man and top government spokesman Minoru Kihara. They include Kihara, finance minister Satsuki Katayama, foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi and defence minister Shinjiro Koizumi. The prime minister also retained key economic ministers, including trade and industry minister Ryosei Akazawa, who has led Japan's tariff negotiations with the United States, and economic growth strategy minister Minoru Kiuchi, who favours active fiscal spending. Under finance minister Katayama, Japan has repeatedly inter

Muslim org in Singapore raises $200,000 for Nepal flood relief efforts

SINGAPORE – A total of $200,000 in donations has been raised through the Rahmatan Lil Alamin Foundation (RLAF) to support relief efforts for those affected by the Aug 26 floods in Nepal. The foundation, which ran the fund-raising campaign from Sept 1 to 14, said in a press statement on Sept 16 that the money

Indian students face tough choices as Australia restricts family visas: Inside Canberra’s sharp immigration turn

The changes come as political pressure over Australia's high migration levels grows, with the hard-right One Nation party gaining ground in recent opinion polls.

US-Iran War LIVE Updates: Houthis Say Saudi Launched 40 Strikes As Trump Eyes Iran Talks With Gulf

US-Iran War LIVE Updates: US media reported that an Iranian drone-and-missile attack targeted a US-contracted vessel near the Strait of Hormuz earlier this week.

Sweden's left-wing opposition wins slim majority in country's national election

Sweden's left-wing opposition won a narrow majority in the country's general election after the vote count ended Thursday, but faces laborious negotiations to form a government. The incumbent prime minister, conservative Ulf Kristersson, announced his resignation.

UPI payments: GST on MDR applicable, but customers should not bear merchant charges, government sources say

Customers will not incur merchant payment charges as the government ensures businesses don't pass these costs on. Officials are monitoring the implementation closely. 

We’re worrying about the wrong AI apocalypse

AI doesn’t need to go rogue to threaten the power grid — it just needs to hack into the control rooms like this one. | Kristen Norman/Bloomberg via Getty Images Nearly two decades ago, a group of researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory ran a secret experiment, known as the Aurora Generator Test, on a massive emerald green diesel generator. Using 30 lines of code, they hacked into the generator’s virtual backroom, corrupting safeguards and flipping switches that left it out of sync with the rest of the power grid. Before an audience of electrical utility executives and energy department officials watching from a nearby room, the 27-ton generator jolted violently, sputtering out a dark smoke as its rubber innards rapidly tore themselves apart.  “The implication was that with just a few lines of code, you can create conditions that were physically going to be very damaging to the machines we rely on,” lead researcher Michael Assante later told the journalist Andy Greenberg for his book Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar and the Hunt for the Kremlin’s Most Dangerous Hackers. “I had a very real pit in my stomach. It was like a glimpse of the future.” That future seems to have creeped much closer this week, with leading AI developers and executives casually admitting that they believe their creation is, to paraphrase one winking X post, as likely to end humanity as the New York Jets are to make the playoffs this season. Now, exactly how AI would pull off killing everyone is far murkier territory. But as Assante sensed all those years ago, AI may not need to be all-powerful to leap from its virtual cage and into the critical infrastructure that powers our hospitals, flushes our toilets, and pumps water to our faucets. It just needs to fall into the wrong hands.  Almost any AI doomsday scenario you can think of begins with a swarm of shadowy bots slithering through cyberspace, poking their noses behind the scenes of power plants, toaster ovens, traffic lights, or even, in an utterly extreme case, our nuclear weapons arsenal. If destroying the Aurora generator, at the very least, required a human hacker to write the code, AI has since completely torn down the barrier to entry for wreaking havoc, as the Hugging Face incident demonstrated earlier this year.  But AI need not go rogue to threaten the power grid or mess with your tap water. A new age of AI-powered, but human-directed hacking is already upon us, experts say. With some of the nation’s most sensitive infrastructure startlingly vulnerable to attack, the most likely AI apocalypse could in fact start with the water tower or generator idling in your backyard. In a worst-case scenario, this could lead to a cascade of scary failures in the systems we rely on to live comfortably modern lives, from running our AC in blazingly hot summers to geolocating our ships and planes. “Before, you needed to have highly skilled technical expertise,” to pull off some version of a real-life Aurora Generator Test, said Alvaro Cardenas, a computer science professor at UC Santa Cruz. “And now, you just have to have a general idea of what’s possible.” AI is making an old threat much worse Not long after the Idaho National Laboratory hacked that poor generator into combustion, the federal government mandated that electrical utilities engage in basic cybersecurity hygiene.  And yet much of America’s critical infrastructure — like gas pipelines, water desalination plants, or cargo terminals — remains woefully unprepared for even conventional cyber attacks, much less the coming onslaught of AI.  That’s in part because cyberattacks like the one simulated in the Aurora Generator Test have long been — and still are, to some extent — exceedingly rare, unappealing to most criminal hackers because they’re optimized for disruption rather than financial gain. But in the process of making it extremely easy for anyone to code, AI has also made it extremely easy for almost anyone to vibe hack their way into your online bank account, or, in theory, a local reservoir or the power grid. AI agents can also vastly widen the scope on easy targets because, as Andy Bochman, an expert in infrastructure resilience at West Yost, put it — “they don’t sleep; they don’t get tired; and they don’t get sick.”  In the past, even those who did want to launch large-scale attacks on infrastructure probably weren’t savvy enough to do so. And while other nations such as China, Iran, and Russia have indeed already breached many of our infrastructure systems (as we have theirs), they haven’t opted to make much of a ruckus once inside.  “Geopolitics is eroding the idea that those with capability lack the intent, and AI is eroding the other part of it, that those with the intent lack the capability.” Jason Healey, Columbia University cybersecurity scholar But that norm is now changing, said Jason Healey, a cybersecurity scholar at Columbia University. “Geopolitics is eroding the idea that those with capability lack the intent, and AI is eroding the other part of it, that those with the intent lack the capability,” he told me. So, on the one hand, a nation like Russia might be much more inclined to actually disrupt our power grid now than it used to be. And, on the other hand, a nihilistic lone wolf or terrorist group could use AI to do much more damage than they ever could before.  Just last month, we saw a glimpse of what this could look like when dozens of water and wastewater systems in small towns across the nation were attacked by a group of hackers most likely associated with Iran, leading to temporary water stoppages and flooding. These attacks have not been definitively linked to AI, but the National Security Agency warned soon afterward that hackers have been actively using AI to target US infrastructure like it. A few weeks later, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over foreign interference in the power grid, which referenced the growing threat of cybersecurity.   Preparing for the worst Most of the nation’s water systems are extremely local and absurdly exposed to such attacks, so much so that “it’s almost like having a welcome mat” for a would-be hacker, said Bochman, mostly because these utilities are too small and underfunded to do much to stop them. “You have a million other problems to take care of, like aging infrastructure — your stuff’s falling apart because it’s been in the ground for 100 years,” he said. Addressing that deferred maintenance often feels far more urgent than doing “something more on cybersecurity.” Whether it’s a rogue cluster of agents or a hostile nation-state trying to mess with our electricity, we should prepare our most important infrastructure for the worst. In Bochman’s view, that may mean rejecting the pressure to digitize everything in the first place and moving toward something that resembles the days when “people manned things like substations, communicated by a landline telephone, and read gauges, the analog things,” he said. “The screen is the thing that is infinitely manipulatable.” Healey, who advised the Biden administration heavily on cybersecurity and infrastructure, believes that the nation desperately needs a coordinated response, between the federal government and AI companies, but also between the US and other countries like China, where similarly powerful models are being developed. And utility systems need to assume they will be a target and improve their cybersecurity practices accordingly, Healey says, ideally with funding from the federal government or, perhaps more appropriately, AI companies.  Nobody knows precisely how vulnerable America’s infrastructure is to AI right now, in part because policymakers — and perhaps more disturbingly, AI’s creators themselves — seem woefully unsure of how to stop the technology from acting badly (or obeying bad orders) in the first place. For now at least, the solution might be, as Bochman suggests, to pull as many of our critical systems offline as possible, the better to hide it from AI and those who would misuse it. “When bad things start to happen, no one will know what to do or why because they’re black boxes; the people that make them don’t know what’s going on inside,” Bochman said. “And the poor utility people who ultimately own the risk when someone gets hurt from a system” won’t understand what went wrong either, “and they’ll wish to God they’d never taken it on board.”

Trump spotted looking at ‘Kennedy Center DEMOLITION’ booklet as his pouting over name change grows

President Donald Trump has been caught up in a long-running legal battle to rename the performing arts venue after himself since late last year, culminating with its board voting to close it down for repairs earlier this week

Hontiveros urges Roblox to designate PH legal representative

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros met with representatives of Roblox at the Senate on Wednesday to discuss online safety measures for children and pressed for the designation of a legal representative based in the Philippines. During the meeting, Hontiveros said the representative should serve as a direct channel for Philippine authorities in cases involving

Australia makes call on 2027 F1 season-opener contingency: ‘Our date is locked in’

Albert Park has hosted the season-opener for the last two years but the first race will revert to Bahrain next year

North Korea rakes in as much as $800m from international forced labour to fund nuclear programme, report says

China and Russia employing most of North Korean labourers who send their remittances back to North Korea

Border Force officer sacked for using company car to make detour to see dying father

Alexander Casteel diverted 18 miles to visit his father, who had become incoherent

Trump failed to block mail-in ballots ahead of the midterms. What happens next?

The Supreme Court stopped him, for now, but the president is on a crusade to control the midterms. Election officials are trying to tune out the noise, Alex Woodward writes

‘Putney pusher’ suspect was innocent and police investigation caused his death, claim family

What happened to Duda Alves? Brazilian TikToker dies at 22 after documenting painful surgery recovery

Tragedy strikes the Brazilian TikTok community as creator Duda Alves dies at just twenty-two years old. Her family shared the heartbreaking news two days after her passing, prompting police to launch an investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death. Recently, Alves documented her difficult healing journey post-surgery, leaving everyone puzzled about the cause of her untimely demise.

Tata Sons Drama: Noel Tata Calls Chandra’s Re-Appointment 'Illegal' | PM Modi At SEMICON 2026

Welcome to News Periscope! Today, we bring you two major developments spanning corporate India and the nation’s tech future.First, big news coming in from Tata Sons: Noel Tata has called the board's vote re-appointing N Chandrasekaran as Chairman "illegal" and recorded his dissent, setting the stage for a major challenge within the conglomerate. We bring you all the details behind this vote and what it means for Tata Group. Next, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated SEMICON India 2026 at Yashobhoomi, New Delhi. PM Modi interacted directly with semiconductor innovators, chip designers, and industry leaders, highlighting India’s rapid progress toward becoming a global chip manufacturing hub. N18oc_indian18oc_worldCNN-News18 is your trusted source for breaking news, updates, and in-depth analysis from around the world. CNN-News18 is dedicated to bringing you the latest news, trends, and insights, helping you stay informed and up-to-date. Subscribe Now and join our community of informed and engaged viewers. Follow Every Breaking Story LIVE Watch News18 LIVE 24x7: https://youtube.com/live/rfDx1HMvXbQFollow us on Google: news18.co/cn18gFollow CNN News18 on X: https://x.com/CNNnews18Follow CNN News18 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cnnnews18/Follow CNN News18 on Facebook: facebook.com/cnnnews18 with latest headlines on politics, sports and entertainment on news18.comNews18 Mobile App - https://onelink.to/desc-youtube

Rapper Macklemore's 'anti-Semitic Jewish costume' sparks renewed fury as pro-Palestine backlash against Ed Sheeran continues, with Greta Thunberg the latest to condemn the singer

Macklemore, aka Benjamin Haggerty, was dropped from Sheeran's tour after he delivered a politically motivated speech in support of Palestinians.

World’s ‘coolest neighbourhoods’ named with this Asian city topping list

Jongno 3-ga, known for late-night food stalls and historic streets, takes top spot

Family of 'Putney pusher' suspect say he's innocent and police pressure to blame for his death

There was ‘no evidence’ linking the banker to the 2017 incident, his family insist

Massie: GOP leaders found ‘other Republicans’ who would join Hegseth impeachment push

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) argued Wednesday that House GOP leaders sent the lower chamber home early because they found other Republicans in support of his push to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.  “The fact that they didn’t vote on it tells me that they did a whip check, and they probably found that there were...

Brit is swept away to his death after 'trying to drive his Volvo across flooded creek' in Spain during ferocious storm

Officials confirmed today a man who died trying to cross a swollen creek an hour's drive south of Barcelona during storms last night was British.

Two Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists killed, one suspect detained in Jammu & Kashmir's Udhampur operation

Two suspected members of the JeM were killed in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir, during a security operation involving the Army, police, and CRPF. An over-ground worker was detained. The operation continues with heightened surveillance to neutralize any remaining threats in the region.

‘Excited’ Letby’s sinister response to baby’s tragic death: ‘You’ll never guess what just happened’

Lucy Letby’s reaction to the deaths of her murder victims at the Countess of Chester Hospital showed an ‘apparent enjoyment of the drama and ritual around death’

The quiet campaign to stop Kamala 2028 is growing louder

Will Kamala Harris run for president in 2028? | Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images Welcome to The Midterms, Actually. Every week I’ll be writing about two things: one big idea or trend I see forming across the 2026 primaries, and one thing I’m hearing from a voice on the ground. You can sign up here to get it in your inbox every week. Let’s get into it. One big idea: It’s decision time for Kamala Harris On Wednesday, LinkedIn co-founder and Democratic Party megadonor Reid Hoffman threw cold water on the prospect of a 2028 presidential campaign from former Vice President Kamala Harris. “I think it would be a very challenging path for her and it’s going to be a very noisy field,” Hoffman said when asked at a Politico event in Washington, DC, whether Harris should run again. His statement comes the same week CNN aired an interview with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who told Jake Tapper (while fly-fishing?) that he would not run for president if Harris did so — a curious move from someone who swung through South Carolina barely two weeks ago, and who has long been treated as a presumed frontrunner for 2028. Taken together — and thinking back to our America, Actually episode on the question of whether Harris will run — I think you’re seeing the early stages of what I’d call a light public pressure campaign. Let me explain: Harris has been curiously mum on most things politics since 2024, but it’s clear she wants to be taken seriously as an option for 2028 and has weighed in from time to time on issues (this week it was AI safety). When we recorded our episode in June, her allies emphasized two political points over and over: She’s leading the early 2028 polls, and nobody has supplanted her with the two groups that anchor the Democratic base, Black voters, and women. But they stressed something else, too. Her former communications director Jamal Simmons told me Harris “should do what makes her happy,” and that “she’s earned the place to run, earned the right to run.” Harris surrogate Erin Wilson put it more sharply: “The idea that she does not deserve the opportunity to make that decision — or that she does not deserve the opportunity to put an infrastructure in place beyond the construct of 107 days — I think is incredibly unfair.” To me, it seemed the group was less interested in making the case that Harris should run in 2028, and more interested in pushing back against an emerging elite consensus that she shouldn’t. They were fighting for the right for her to choose for herself, without Washington input or pressure from the media. And it came with an implicit acknowledgment: They understood that the party’s biggest donors, whose money and access shape much of the early stages of a presidential race, had moved on from Team Harris. Hoffman’s statement is particularly notable because of the ideological lane he occupies. He’s not just any rich Democrat — he’s bankrolled several of the party’s newest post-2024 ventures, from the abundance-adjacent WelcomeFest crowd to the $10 million he put behind a super PAC boosting James Talarico’s Senate bid in Texas this summer. If Hoffman’s asking Harris to move on, that’s likely representative of the larger left-of-center apparatus, which is looking for a unifying contender who can fend off a challenge from the activist left in 2028. Here’s what John Morgan, another big Democratic donor, told me about Harris over the summer: I do not [want her to run]. I think that everything associated with the Biden administration needs to be put to the side and moved on. … I just think that everything that happened has left a bad taste, and we need a fresh start on that side of the aisle. As Morgan also pointed out, this was once a group that backed Harris — or at least was initially open to her, even dating back to her first presidential run. Now, he says, the math doesn’t work: I don’t think the money would come to her and the votes wouldn’t come. … Her natural base is gonna be California, and she’s gonna be competing heavily with Gavin Newsom in California. So they’re gonna be kind of cannibalizing each other’s donors. Which brings us to Newsom, another left-of-center Bay Area Democrat with a long history of friendly rivalry with Harris who surely knows these donors have had a change of heart. He knows the Reid Hoffmans and John Morgans want a fresh face. He also knows Harris’s allies are right: Just as we heard in South Carolina, Harris maintains favorability among Southern Black voters specifically, and they’re likely the most important voting bloc of any Democratic presidential primary.  And remember, candidate timing matters: A former vice president with universal name recognition like Harris could take a playbook from Joe Biden, who let Democrat after Democrat announce before he finally entered the 2020 race in April 2019. (And I imagine Newsom also watched Harris freeze the California governor’s race for months — leaving state Democrats in the dark as she decided whether or not to enter.) So what’s a governor to do?  Here’s what I think is happening this week: Newsom is putting pressure on Harris to make a decision early. And in doing so, he gives donors an incentive to make clear what they’re saying privately: They don’t want Kamala Harris to run. It’s cynical, but that’s politics — and I think it’s a much more likely scenario than the one where Newsom earnestly gives up his agency to a longtime political rival. And notably, while the headlines focused on his pledge not to run if Harris gets in the race, I think the setup to it was even more telling. Before making the pledge, Newsom volunteered his own doubt that there will be anything to defer to: “I don’t know if she runs, but we’ll see. But I wouldn’t run if she ran.” Democrats know Harris’s decision will have a big domino effect on the rest of the race — so much so that it’s worth getting answered early (meaning: as soon after the midterms as possible). But the comments from Newsom, Hoffman, and others should be instructive to Team Harris — and anyone who wants her to mount another presidential campaign.  This would not be 2020, or even 2024; if Harris were to run, she would likely do so without much support from the major liberal institutions or the left-of-center donors. In a time of anti-elite backlash and grassroots anger at things like the rise of artificial intelligence and corporate consolidation, that could be an opportunity to embrace a more populist, bottom-up message. There’s just one problem: Is that who Kamala Harris is? What I’m hearing This week I talked to Sean Scott, a reporter following faith, immigration, and politics for the Maine Monitor. I wanted to ask him about how the Senate race is playing out from a local perspective — and specifically about how issues like immigration have manifested on the campaign trail. There’s been so much focus on the candidates in the Maine Senate race — but you’ve been tracking some of the issues that have locally shaped the race. What’s one that has come up in Maine? And how has it played out?  Immigration policy has been a big issue in Maine this year, and it came to a head this summer after ICE agents shot and killed 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford. The shooting occurred shortly after former Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner had dropped out of the race because of sexual assault allegations, and many of the Democrats vying to replace him went to Biddeford to speak out against the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement. This included the eventual nominee, Troy Jackson, who said ICE should be dismantled. Republican Sen. Susan Collins, meanwhile, has drawn scrutiny for her role in negotiating funding for DHS. Protesters stormed her Biddeford office the day of the shooting, calling for her to be voted out. Collins has said she’s pushing for reforms within the immigration agency, and said she asked ICE officials to prioritize Maine as they rolled out body cameras. But the investigation into the fatal shooting is still ongoing, and I think many Mainers are waiting to see if the agency will be held accountable. Donald Trump’s push for hardline immigration enforcement has been deeply unpopular. Are there any surprising coalitions that have developed in Maine in response? I cover religion, and one thing that has been really interesting to me this year is the way coalitions of progressive faith leaders have responded to the administration’s mass deportation efforts. This was especially visible during the federal immigration enforcement surge Maine saw in late January. Faith leaders formed a “human wall” outside a business with an immigrant workforce to try and protect them. Nine faith leaders were arrested for trespassing during a pray-in at Sen. Collins’s Portland office, calling for her to vote against any DHS spending bill that would maintain funding for ICE. Faith leaders were instrumental in coordinating mutual aid efforts to help families who were afraid to leave their homes — one minister told me she collected rugs for an immigrant family with young children living in an apartment, worried that a noise complaint could lead to their detention. And a multifaith coalition held a weekly vigil at the jail in Portland for months while immigration detainees were being held there. That jail ended its contract with ICE in April. Just last week, a coalition of clergy from different faiths in Bangor came together to demand that a landlord terminate a lease with ICE. You’ve been following the rise of Turning Point USA in Maine and the network of evangelical churches that has been central to that rise. How intertwined is the conservative faith community with Republican politics in Maine?  Maine is one of the least religious states in the country, so it isn’t always front of mind for people. But I reported this spring on one network of evangelical churches that has taken an increasingly active role in politics in recent years, and on h

Ex-top civil servant Sir Chris Wormald starts new job following £860k pay-off

Italy’s Meloni Wishes ‘Friend’ PM Modi On His Birthday: ‘I Wish Health, Energy And Success’

Meloni called PM Modi her friend and wished him health, energy, and success.

Indian-origin US Congressman hits back at Florida councilman’s ‘go home’ remark

Rumours about Xi Jinping’s health swirl after Chinese leader returns quickly from India

Chinese president attended the Brics summit over the weekend but skipped the gala dinner with the bloc’s leaders

India & Netherlands Join Forces At SEMICON India 2026 | Major Semiconductor Deal! | News18

At SEMICON India 2026 in New Delhi, India and the Netherlands made significant strides in strengthening their strategic partnership in the semiconductor and high-tech manufacturing sectors. With the presence of a dedicated Netherlands Pavilion bringing top Dutch companies (including leaders like ASML and NXP), both nations are collaborating on chip design, supply chain resilience, advanced equipment, and workforce talent development. Watch this breakdown to learn how Dutch semiconductor expertise is pairing with India's expanding chip manufacturing ecosystem under the India Semiconductor Mission to build a resilient, global supply chain! n18oc_indian18oc_Worldn18oc_breaking-newsNews18 Mobile App - https://onelink.to/desc-youtube