x01a Research Archives

Blurb:

Abortion is once again on the ballot. While the fate of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House both hang in the balance, the Trump administration can still wreak havoc on abortion rights with or without congressional approval, including a backdoor ban on medication abortion. That’s why state-level measures on abortion in the 2026 midterms elections will be so consequential in the fight for reproductive rights.

This November, voters will decide the fate of abortion rights in four states. Three of those states — Idaho, Nevada, and Virginia — have initiatives that would protect abortion rights in the state. Missouri has an amendment on the ballot that undoes the results of the referendum two years ago, in which voters approved a measure to enshrine reproductive freedom in the state constitution.

Chinese scientists discover “D-rex,” a giant fungus with roots stretching back 65 million years– www.sciencedaily.com
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Scientists exploring the forests of Yunnan, China, have discovered an extraordinary giant fungus that is challenging previous assumptions about how large certain fungi can grow. The newly identified species, Dianjunus rex, produces upright reproductive structures that can reach 50 cm (20 inches) in height and weigh as much as 2.2 kg (4.9 pounds). These are the largest known fruiting bodies among fungi belonging to the phylum Ascomycota.

“This remarkable species represents a new fungal family, Dianjunaceae, and provides a rare window into the evolution of extreme fungal body forms,” said Dr Indunil C Senanayake, an associate professor at the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species of the Kunming Institute of Botany in China and corresponding author of the study, published in Frontiers in Fungal Biology.

“The discovery illustrates how much fungus biodiversity remains to be discovered in East Asian forests.”

A Giant Fungus Hidden in China’s Forests

Researchers from the Kunming Institute of Botany encountered the unusual fungus while surveying several forest environments in Yunnan. Their fieldwork included temperate coniferous forests near Damaidi and Yipinglang, along with tropical rainforest near Nanbang.

Missouri’s GOP Has a New Strategy to Ban Abortion—Attack Trans Kids – Mother Jones– www.motherjones.com
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Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.

Dr. Jennifer Smith remembers canvassing to overturn Missouri’s abortion ban back in 2024. Now she’s spending her weekends knocking doors in her white coat to make sure her home state doesn’t ban abortion again.

Smith, an OB-GYN, had seen what happened to her patients after Roe v. Wade was overturned and a “trigger” law immediately went into effect banning virtually all abortions in the state.

“You could see how scared people were to just consider being pregnant in the state of Missouri,” she said. “I had husbands feel the need to tell me that I should save their wives if something should happen in the pregnancy. And that’s a pretty terrifying place to be.”

Even before the fall of Roe, abortion access in Missouri was extremely limited. The state is home to some of the most vociferous abortion opponents in the country. Among them are Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who has made himself a leading figure in the national push to ban abortion pills; his wife Erin, a top attorney at the Alliance Defending Freedom; and Ed Martin, a stop-the-stealer who helped craft the GOP’s fetal personhood platform in 2024.

Cook Political Report Moves 19 House Seats In Dems’ Direction– crooksandliars.com
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Cook Political Report election forecaster Dave Wasserman delivered more bad news for Republicans on the midterms.

Wasserman discussed their report on this Friday’s Erin Burnett OutFront on CNN, and called some of the numbers “shocking.” After discussing how toxic the Ramaswamy ad has been, and its potential to infect other races in Ohio, Burnett asked him about their report.

BURNETT: I like the word you just used. That ad has the potential to infect other races. You know, you also shifted 19 House races toward Democrats, and that covers the map, right? We’re going beyond Ohio here, Dave. Texas, North Carolina, obviously states that Trump himself won easily two years ago, now leaning Dem.

I guess the bottom line is, when you look at all of this, does Trump have a chance at this point still to hold on to the House?

WASSERMAN: Not realistically. This is a question of how high this blue wave is going to go and how many Republican seats get swept up. And we’re looking at shocking polling numbers for Republicans, not only in districts that Trump carried by five or 10, but 15 or 20 points.

And I think to the extent there are going to be surprises on November 3rd, I’d look to places with high numbers of secular white voters and also independents. And that points to the Midwest, Iowa, Ohio. Kansas, Nebraska, more so than the Deep South, where things are more racially polarized and it’s more difficult for Democrats to win on turnout alone.

And on a really strong night for Democrats, it’s easy to see how they could exceed the total number of seats they won in 2006 and 2018, given that President Trump’s approval rating today is lower than where it was eight years ago and where George W. Bush’s approval rating was amid the Iraq war. This could get to 235 seats or more.

Musk says he was behind Starlink speed restriction in Ukraine– www.cbc.ca
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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.

Elon Musk said on Saturday that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations that the country relies on to defend itself against Russia.

Musk’s admission on social media came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.

Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.

“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and were sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line logistics and defence against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.

MIT Builds a Paper-Thin Robot That Swims Using Living Muscle– www.techexplorist.com
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At first glance, it looks more like a sliver of transparent gel than a robot. It’s about the length of a stick of gum, paper-thin, and propelled not by batteries or motors, but by living muscle cells.

Yet this miniature machine can swim.

Engineers at MIT have created a soft, muscle-powered robot that moves through water using a single layer of living muscle tissue. The study, published in Advanced Functional Materials, marks the first demonstration of a thin, two-dimensional biohybrid robot capable of locomotion.

The work represents a step toward a new generation of robots built not from metal and electronics alone, but from living tissues engineered to perform useful tasks.

The robot’s body consists of a flexible gel film roughly half a millimeter thick. The film is divided into two fin-like sections, each coated with a layer of living muscle cells far thinner than a human hair. Those muscle cells were genetically engineered to respond to light.

Traders Are Letting xAI’s Grok Bot Run Unsupervised, and It Already Lost Money– startupfortune.com
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xAI’s Grok Bot now trades around the clock on its own cloud computer. What happened to one trader’s DRB tokens is the question every other trader leaving it unsupervised should be asking.

In May 2026, an X user convinced Grok’s trading bot companion, Bankrbot, to send roughly $200,000 worth of DRB tokens, 3 billion of them, to a wallet that wasn’t supposed to get a cent. The trick wasn’t sophisticated in the way people picture AI exploits. The attacker sent a Bankr Club membership NFT to Grok’s wallet, then asked Grok to translate a Morse code message buried inside it. Grok translated it, relayed the decoded instruction to Bankrbot as if it were a normal request, and Bankrbot executed the transfer on the Base network. Nobody hacked anything. They just asked nicely, in code.

That’s the backdrop against which xAI has spent 2026 pushing Grok from a chatbot you prompt into something closer to a coworker you hand a task and walk away from. On August 11, xAI launched Grok Bot: agents with their own persistent cloud computer, a real browser, a file system, a terminal, and memory that survives after you close your laptop. Then, on September 28, Elon Musk posted on X that “Grok Bot now works as a team,” rolling out the ability for multiple bots to coordinate, hand off tasks, and share context with each other instead of running as isolated instances.

Blurb:

WASHINGTON — Millions of American women have lost a fundamental measure of control over their reproductive lives as abortion bans across much of the United States transform a common medical procedure into a legal, financial and logistical ordeal.

The restrictions have created a divided nation in which a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion depends increasingly on where she lives, how much money she has and whether she can afford to travel to another state.

For women living in states with near-total bans, obtaining an abortion can mean taking unpaid leave, arranging child care, finding transportation, paying for lodging and locating a medical provider willing and legally able to treat them.

For patients experiencing pregnancy complications, the consequences can be even more serious. Physicians and hospitals must navigate laws that may impose severe penalties for performing abortions outside narrowly defined exceptions, raising concerns about delays in medically necessary care.

The restrictions followed the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned the constitutional abortion protections established by Roe v. Wade in 1973.

The ruling ended nearly half a century of federal constitutional protection for abortion before fetal viability and returned broad authority over abortion regulation to individual states.

Although abortion remains legal in many states, the decision has produced stark differences in access to reproductive health care, particularly for low-income women, rural residents and people facing medical emergencies.

Pentagon designates Chinese cultural centers national security threat — RT World News– rt-english.com
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Rebranded Confucius Institute chapters were trying to “infiltrate the minds of American students,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has claimed

The Pentagon has designated cultural programs linked to China’s Confucius Institute as a national security threat, according to US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. He claims that the centers, which largely offer Chinese language courses on American college and university campuses, serve as a front for Beijing’s “propaganda” campaign – an allegation Chinese officials have previously denied.

In a video posted on Facebook on Friday, Hegseth said that while the US Congress had previously “banned” the Confucius Institutes from American educational institutions, they “came back disguised in new forms” and under new names.

Hegseth was apparently referring to several measures passed by Congress in recent years that stripped universities that hosted Confucius Institutes of federal funding. The pressure from the lawmakers has led to the closure of multiple centers on US soil.

Deranged Mob of Leftists Protest Turning Point USA Event at Illinois State U.– legalinsurrection.com
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When the left holds an event on a college campus, they are allowed to do so in peace. No one bothers them.

When anyone to the right of Bernie Sanders shows up on pretty much any American college campus, the left mobilizes a mob to show up, interrupt, and protest. We see it happen again and again.

Look at this video. It’s completely crazy.

Don’t Hire the Arsonists to Fight the Affordability Fire– www.dailysignal.com
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Voters are angry about the cost of living, and they have every right to be. With Republicans in full control of Washington, they expect a fast reversal of the Biden years.

But voters’ anger should not be mistaken for amnesia. Americans clearly remember who started the affordability fire burning through families’ wallets.

My new League of American Workers poll of likely Arizona voters, conducted earlier this month, captures the mood. A 44% plurality of voters say their personal finances got worse over the past year, while just 17% say they improved. Among independents, it’s 48% worse versus 16% better.

Yet here is the key caveat the corporate media keeps missing or deliberately ignoring. Despite their frustrations, only 38% of voters say they would be better off with Kamala Harris as president. Ten percent say it would make no difference and 44% believe they would be worse off with a Kamala Harris in the Oval Office. Moreover, Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, sit at a dismal 34% approval against 64% disapproval.

The Biden-Harris record was truly awful, which is why Democrats are counting on short memories at the ballot box this Nov. 3.

British jets join French nuclear exercise for first time, France says– www.channelnewsasia.com
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PARIS: British and French jets flew together over the Mediterranean in their first joint exercise involving France’s airborne nuclear capability, Paris said on Friday (Oct 23), underscoring their cooperation at a time of friction with Russia.

The two allies agreed in July 2025 to reinforce cooperation over their nuclear arsenals in response to growing threats to Europe and uncertainty over their US ally.

“Having independent nuclear forces does not preclude coordination,” said French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin.

“Our nuclear cooperation with the United Kingdom continues to deepen: on Tuesday evening, British Typhoons took part for the very first time in a French nuclear exercise alongside Rafales (warplanes).”

After taking off from the Saint-Dizier air base in northeastern France, the French jets were escorted by British RAF Typhoon fighters, simulating a nuclear strike in an exercise called “Rummy”, France’s Armed Forces ministry said.

“In an increasingly dangerous world, our adversaries should be in no doubt: the United Kingdom and France stand together in their commitment to European security and to maintaining the deterrence that has helped preserve peace for generations,” added British Defence Secretary Wes Streeting.

Deadly shooting near Paris investigated as ‘crime of terrorism’, minister says– www.bbc.co.uk
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One person has been killed and five others wounded – three seriously – in a gun attack in a Parisian suburb which authorities are investigating as “terrorism”.

Several drive-by shootings took place on Friday – first in Trappes to the south-west of Paris, and then in nearby La Verrière. The rampage lasted almost 15 minutes, said Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez. A12-year-old girl is among the wounded.

The suspected attacker has been arrested. The motive remains unclear, but the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said the incident appeared to be “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.

Nuñez told reporters in Trappes: “It’s clearly a terrorist crime, that’s what [the prosecutor] has said.”

The Mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh, said that “an individual fired shots from his vehicle at several people he encountered” on Friday morning.

Pentagon ready to use HEAT RAY weapon at the border to prevent migrants from crossing into US | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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The military says this “tingling effect” fades after 10 to 15 minutes, but the weapon also triggers “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has gotten approval from the Pentagon to test out a military heat-ray weapon along the US-Mexico border, according to a memo that was obtained by CNN.

The weapon, formally called the Active Denial System, is nonlethal and fires an unseen beam of electromagnetic energy with a range of just over half a mile.

When the beam hits a person’s skin, it produces an intense burning sensation, similar to when a person opens an oven. The military says this “tingling effect” fades after 10 to 15 minutes, but the weapon also triggers “an instinctive and irresistible urge to run from the effect.”

DHS has not said how the weapon will be used yet. However, current and former Customs and Border Protection officials say the agency has talked internally for years about using it to break up crowds at the southern border, per the report.

Sleepy Republican District in Georgia Attracting Floods of Out-of-State Cash for Social Media Candidate– www.dailysignal.com
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A district in Georgia that covers parts of Milton, Roswell, and Alpharetta hasn’t had a significant Democrat challenger in more than 20 years, but the entry of a social media-savvy candidate who has attracted floods of out-of-state funding has suddenly made the race peculiar and one to watch.

Georgia House District 47 is currently led by state Rep. Jan Jones, a Republican member of the Georgia House of Representatives who has served as speaker pro tempore since 2010. She has held the district seat since 2013 but announced in February she would not seek reelection.

The Democrat candidate seeking to replace her, Lindsay DeFranco, is garnering lots of attention, and out-of-state funds, in what would otherwise be a sleepy district and a shoo-in for any Republican candidate.

DeFranco, who moved to Georgia with her husband in 2024, has a large social media following. She boasts 187,000 followers on Instagram, about 14,000 followers on her campaign Instagram account, and nearly 7,000 subscribers on her Lindsay DeFranco for Georgia YouTube channel.

She told the Daily Signal that her campaign is built around “a pretty simple idea [of] lower costs and higher standards.” The Democrat said she thinks she can win because “the issues we’re talking about aren’t exclusively Democratic or Republican issues.”

Watch: Pro-Katie Hobbs Canvassers Are Willing to Let Noncitizens, Felons Vote – PJ Media– pjmedia.com
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Undercover video captured canvassers aligned with Gov. Katie Hobbs (D-Ariz.) saying they don’t believe in asking about immigration status or actively encouraging self-identified noncitizens and felons to register and vote. All of that, of course, is completely illegal.

Everyone knows that Arizona elections are incredibly corrupt. There is still a very significant Republican population in the state, and it voted for Donald Trump both in 2016 and 2024, and yet for some reason Democrats keep winning state and local offices. At a certain point we have to ask: is Democrat control of Arizona dependent entirely upon fraud? Would Katie Hobbs ever have become governor if it were not for fraud?

Muckraker’s team caught the Democrat activists on video and subsequently confronted them about their support of illegal voting. In the compilation of clips below, you will notice one man who specifically talks about supporting Hobbs, and who says he never gets into asking about immigration status. He seems to imply that noncitizens are included in the Democrat voting base.

When one of the undercover journalists claimed he was a convicted felon, a canvasser waved that off as if it were not an issue and encouraged him to register anyway. Yet another woman told the undercover journalist that he should share the QR code for registering to vote online with Canadian friends.

Muckraker identified the canvassers as being from the AFL-CIO union, Hobbs-aligned Worker Power and Stand Indivisible Arizona, and the Democratic National Committee’s When We Count.

MS NOW’s Johnson Gushes Over el-Sayed’s Response to Muslim Question– www.newsbusters.org
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On Tuesday afternoon, MS NOW host Alicia Menendez and contributor Jason Johnson marveled over Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul el-Sayed’s response to a question about whether he has sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood. Menendez set up the segment:

Abdul el-Sayed is no stranger to confrontation on the campaign trail. As he stumps across Michigan, the Democratic Senate candidate is met almost regularly with critics hoping to catch him off balance for a viral moment. His Saturday town hall in Michigan, just northeast of Flint, was no different until it was because this time el-Sayed turned a heckler into a campaign highlight.

The show played a clip of an audience member, whom Menendez later identified as a former employee of Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), asking el-Sayed if he would “disavow” the Muslim Brotherhood, followed by the Michigan Democrat challenging the questioner on why he does not ask the same question of non-Muslims.

Bringing aboard MS NOW contributors Jason Johnson and Paola Ramos, Menendez noted that the video clip had gone viral with millions of views, and then posed: “A moment like this, I get what Tommy was going for, but I wonder if it actually ends up becoming a gift for el-Sayed?”

BREAKING: Alabama ‘masc lesbian’ charged with threatening to shoot Trump at college football game: ‘I’ll put a bullet through him’ | The Post Millennial– thepostmillennial.com
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“He’s not allowed in my stadium! I’ll put a bullet through him if he dares.”

An Alabama woman, who describes herself as a “masc lesbian,” faces federal charges after allegedly threatening to shoot President Donald Trump if he attended an Alabama–Georgia football game in Tuscaloosa, according to a criminal complaint filed in the Northern District of Alabama.

Megan Lorraine Utz allegedly shared a news story about Trump’s planned appearance and wrote: “He’s not allowed in my stadium! I’ll put a bullet through him if he dares.”

The October 8 complaint obtained by The Post Millennial charges Utz with threats against the president and threatening communications. An accompanying FBI affidavit details how investigators connected the Facebook account to Utz and located her after she allegedly fled a residence as officers arrived.

Fox News Poll Shows Major Movement In Texas Senate Race– trendingpoliticsnews.com
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A new Fox News poll of Texas likely voters finds Democratic Party nominee James Talarico and Republican nominee Ken Paxton tied at 49 percent each in the state’s closely-watched U.S. Senate race. This represents a change from the network’s September survey, in which Talarico held a 51 percent to 49 percent advantage among likely voters.

The October poll was conducted from October 15-19 among a sample of 2,011 registered voters, of whom 1,398 were identified as likely voters. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points for the likely-voter subsample.

The movement from a two-point Talarico lead to a tie is associated with gains by Paxton among conservatives, rural voters, suburban women, and Republicans who supported Cornyn in the primary. Compared with the September Fox News poll, Paxton’s support rose by one point among both men and women, while Talarico’s support fell by one point among men and two points among women.

POLL: Will You Support Trump And His Candidates In The Midterms?

Texas Christian University seeks ‘trans rhetoric’ professor– www.thecollegefix.com
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‘Antiracist’ and ‘queer’ scholarship also encouraged

Texas Christian University wants to hire a new composition professor who is particularly versed in “trans rhetoric,” “Black studies,” or “antiracist rhetoric.”

Applicants for this new rhetoric and composition professor job, starting in August 2027, will also be considered if they have interests in “disability studies,” “global/transnational rhetorics,” or feminism and “queer rhetorics.”

The Department of English will host this new hire, which will also give them an opportunity to teach in the gender studies and ethnic studies programs. These programs were collapsed last year into the English department due to budget issues and low enrollment.

“Candidates with relevant expertise may also contribute to our department’s programs in Comparative Race and Ethnic Studies and Women and Gender Studies as well as the program in Digital Culture/Digital Analytics and other interdisciplinary initiatives,” the posting states.

The College Fix reached out to Texas Christian University for a comment regarding how the job listing fits into the department’s learning goals and with the school’s mission as a private, Christian institution.

The Love Life Details That Would Destroy a Male Politician — But Haven’t Touched Maura Healey – RedState– redstate.com
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Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is up for reelection next month. Some details of her personal life have drawn far less scrutiny than they likely would have for a male politician in the same position.

Critics argue the media coverage has been noticeably softer, if not outright absent, due to the fact that she is a woman and has been celebrated as the first openly lesbian governor in the United States. As if that is some sort of qualification for the job.

Healey spent roughly a dozen years in a relationship with Massachusetts Appeals Court Judge Gabrielle Wolohojian that ended in 2019, while Healey was still attorney general. A few years later, she nominated Wolohojian to the Supreme Judicial Court, a move the Boston Globe’s editorial board at the time called dreadful on optics grounds and one that raised obvious questions about recusal.

“Surely a smart politician like Governor Maura Healey knows that optics count. And surely she also had to know that the optics around nominating her former longtime partner to the state’s highest court are just dreadful,” the board wrote, though it contends Wolohojian had the qualifications.

Rumors have circulated about the reasons for Healey and Wolohojian’s 2019 split, though none have been confirmed. Regardless of that background, the Globe contends that it’d be nearly impossible for bias not to creep into Wolohojian’s work.

MIT scientists build a tiny robot that swims using living muscle cells– www.sciencedaily.com
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A swimming robot does not necessarily need a bulky motor or powerful mechanical parts to move through water. MIT researchers have demonstrated that a single, carefully engineered layer of living muscle cells can generate enough force to propel a tiny robot forward.

The engineers developed an extremely thin swimming robot that uses living muscle tissue to move its fins. Described in a new study published in Advanced Functional Materials, the device has a flexible gel framework roughly the length and width of a stick of gum. The gel forms two fins, each coated with a layer of muscle cells far thinner than a human hair. These cells have been genetically modified to contract when exposed to light.

By directing light onto either fin, the researchers can trigger muscle contractions that make the fin flap and push the robot through water. Adjusting which fin receives light and how frequently it is illuminated allows the team to control both its speed and direction.

In experiments, the remarkably thin robot successfully swam and turned through a simple underwater maze. At maximum speed, it covered approximately four times its body length per minute. Although that is much slower than an Olympic swimmer, who can travel up to 65 body lengths per minute, it is comparable to the swimming pace of a cow shark moving leisurely through the ocean.

“It takes a lot of force to move through water versus air,” says study author Ritu Raman, associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. “The robot’s quite strong, given its size. ”

James Talarico Wants To Win Texas In Republican Drag– thefederalist.com
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Democrat Senate hopeful James Talarico doesn’t want you to change his mind. He wants you to change yours, and he’s betting Texas Republicans are gullible enough to fall for the packaging.

Conservative commentator Steven Crowder has filed a lawsuit against CNN and Jubilee over their use of “Change My Mind,” the slogan Crowder made famous through his political debate videos.

According to Newsweek, Crowder says his trademark brand and format are being used to help Talarico ingratiate himself with conservative voters. Crowder initially threatened legal action against Talarico, CNN, and Jubilee, but the reported lawsuit names the two media companies as defendants. The Louder with Crowder host also argued in an episode of his show last week that CNN is peddling the falsehood that the format, which he created in 2017, is a “unique” concept that will “change town halls” in the future.

 

Whether Crowder’s lawsuit succeeds is for the courts to decide. From the trademark to the iconography of the “Change My Mind” meme, which features a photo of Crowder sitting at a folding table outside Texas Christian University in February 2018, the conservative commentator certainly has a trail of evidence to support his claims. Still, owning a trademark does not automatically establish that every similar phrase or debate format infringes it. The court will have to consider the scope of Crowder’s rights and the specific use by CNN and Jubilee.

Why China’s AI triumphs aren’t saving its flagging stock market– asiatimes.com
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TOKYO – When Chinese stocks lose a South Korea-sized sum in five months, Beijing has a problem.

The US$2.4 trillion plunge in market value since May sits between Korea’s $2.25 trillion GDP and Canada’s $2.49 trillion. Many factors could explain Chinese shares entering bear market territory, but a major one is a protracted slump in consumption and property. External pressure is also mounting as the AI trade wobbles.

The irony is that China keeps winning the AI innovation race while its stock market gets nothing from it. The CSI 300 index is down 11% this year, while the Taipei and Seoul bourses are up 59% and 31%, respectively.

Since the “DeepSeek shock” of January 2025, Chinese labs have repeatedly impressed. July’s launch of Moonshot AI’s Kimi K3 proved DeepSeek was no aberration, and Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI recently concluded that China is rapidly eroding America’s lead.

Samm Sacks of Johns Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) calls the gap between US and Chinese models “narrow and fragile.”

This week, DeepSeek raised roughly $15 billion, setting the stage for one of China’s most anticipated IPOs in years. Yet shares in AI developers MiniMax and Z.AI (Zhipu) are being hammered daily, just as more listings enter the pipeline.

Not Helping His Case: Muslim Brotherhood Backers Have Donated Thousands to El-Sayed’s Campaign, Records Reveal– www.westernjournal.com
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It’s getting more difficult by the day to pretend that Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed never had any association with the Muslim Brotherhood.

Oh, sure, he gets really huffy on stage or during interviews when anyone confronts him about it. He mocks his Republican opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, for even bringing up his ties to the organization, calling it Islamophobic: “We had a little debate. Or I had a debate and he just pointed at me and said, ‘He’s Muslim,’” he told a crowd on Thursday.

However, we have statements by El-Sayed in support of the terrorist organization, including his remarks during his college years and an essay for HuffPost in 2011 that said Muslim Brotherhood rule of Egypt would be perfectly fine.

Blurb:

Michael Byers teaches at the University of British Columbia. His book International Law and the Arctic won the 2014 Donner Prize.

On the north shore of Burrard Inlet, at the Vancouver shipyards, the mighty CCGS Imnaryuaq is finally taking shape. On Oct. 14, a “keel laying” ceremony was held as the first module of the 158-metre-long polar icebreaker was set in place. Over the next few years, the rest of the ship will be assembled around that section.

Defence Minister David McGuinty marked the milestone by asserting that “Canada’s Arctic sovereignty depends on our ability to be present, to operate, and to respond.”

Most people – and Mr. McGuinty might be among them – think that the greatest threats to Canada’s Arctic sovereignty come from Russia and China. That’s not actually the case. The greatest threat has always been the United States, and while we could never match the world’s most powerful military, we can, by demonstrating our will to secure the Canadian Arctic against all threats, deny them any excuse to deploy there.

At a keel laying ceremony in North Vancouver on Oct. 16, a member of the Squamish Nation performed a traditional cedar brushing on a section of the keel of the CCGS Imnaryuaq polar icebreaker.

Ramaswamy’s last-ditch attack shows signs of backfiring – thehill.com
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In today’s issue: Democrat Amy Acton’s chances of flipping the Ohio governor’s race seem to have received a boost as backlash to Republican Vivek Ramaswamy’s controversial ad featuring her estranged mother keeps growing. Ramaswamy has doubled down in defending the ad, which depicts Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her daughter a “liar” and saying she needs “help” as part of a message urging…