SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " crack " 889 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Hackers crack PS3 bootloader, opening path to custom firmware on Slim and Super Slim consoles
PS3 researchers have recovered a real lv0ldr per-console body key by glitching the Cell processor's SPU, potentially opening a path toward full CFW on later Slim and Super Slim consoles.
Canadian doctor cracks the ‘science of a healthy, happy retirement’ — and anyone can do it
While you might be focused on your financial portfolio, don’t forget to make contributions to your ‘life’ portfolio.
Trump supercharged ICE. Now battleground candidates look for a message
Republican and Democratic congressional candidates are wrestling with how to talk about immigration. They consistently call for a strong U.S.-Mexico border but then diverge, with some calling for ICE to be abolished while others support President Trump's immigration crackdown.
Canadian doctor cracks the ‘science of a healthy, happy retirement’ — and anyone can do it
While you might be focused on your financial portfolio, don’t forget to make contributions to your ‘life’ portfolio.
Mental health screening: “We don’t want anybody to fall through the cracks”
LIBERTY — Just 10 minutes during fall semester makes a difference in the mental health of Liberty students. The school district, in partnership with the Rural Behavior Health Institute (RBHI) […]
New proposal aims to crackdown on influencers paid to support political campaigns
A new proposal aims to crackdown on social media influencers paid to support political campaigns in Chicago.
✂️ Coach cracks down: top nation banned from the barber!
Modern footballers are certainly known for sporting extravagant looks and occasionally setting one hairstyle trend or another.Here and there, however, the pros seem to spend a little too much time on ...
Dunlap calls for crackdown on price gougers
Dunlap said if he’s elected to Congress, he would support cracking down on companies that gouge consumers, push to add more food safety inspectors and vote to end the war in Iran to bring down oil prices.
Earth is tearing apart beneath the Pacific Northwest
Scientists have captured a subduction zone off Vancouver Island in the process of tearing itself apart, revealing that these massive tectonic systems may die piece by piece rather than all at once. The discovery could help explain ancient plate fragments, volcanic activity, and how hidden breaks beneath Cascadia may influence future earthquakes.
India orders crackdown on nicotine pouches, citing health risks, letter shows
India's government has ordered states to crack down on the sale of nicotine pouches, which it considers a major health risk, saying globally popular brands are being widely sold illegally in the country, a letter from the health ministry shows.
India orders crackdown on nicotine pouches, citing health risks, letter shows
By Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - India's government has ordered states to crack down on the sale of nicotine pouches, which it considers a major health risk, saying globally popular brands are being widely sold illegally in the country, a...
Unused tents and uneaten food: Watchdog finds ‘waste’ in immigration crackdown
In a report Thursday, the Government Accountability Office said the Trump administration squandered millions of dollars to expand detention.
Texas Senate race puts North Texas suburbs in focus ahead of early voting
New reporting shows cracks among some traditionally Republican voters as Ken Paxton and James Talarico battle for suburban support.
Rally calls on Congress to protect healthcare workers amid Trump's immigration crackdown
Advocates gathered on the University of Rochester Medical Center campus Thursday to rally in support of immigrant healthcare workers.
Meta Launches $1M Developer Competition to Stock 'VR Glasses' with More Hand-tracked Apps
At Meta’s annual developer conference today, the company announced its next VR Start Developer Competition, this time slated to award a prize pool of $1 million to spark the community to get cracking on Meta VR Glasses-compatible content. Meta is hoping to appeal to developers of both new and existing projects across entertainment, gaming, and […]
Vita Coco's Cofounder Cracked Open The Coconut Water Business
No doubt about it, Michael Kirban knew introducing coconut water to America would be a tough nut to crack.
Science Debunks Cracked Solar Panel Fears
Scientific studies suggest cracked solar panels present little environmental danger, with protective designs limiting chemical exposure and testing showing contamination levels remain below established safety limits.
Federal immigration policy may be worsening Wisconsin’s caregiver shortage, leaders say
An immigration crackdown is weakening an already struggling workforce that helps care for Wisconsin's older adults and disabled population.
GOP cracks widen over Iran war as vulnerable candidates break with Trump, demand its end
Vulnerable Republicans Ashley Hinson, Mike Rogers and Jon Husted break with Trump on the Iran war as gas prices reshape toss-up Senate races.
Stand Up for Science to Rally Scientists & Academic Leaders Against Trump Administration's Higher Ed Crackdown
Virtual rally comes ahead of 2025 Ed Compact anniversary; calls on university leadership to reject administration’s demands and defend academic freedom.
Reform and the UAE – a threat to British politics
By Alex Carlen The United Arab Emirates likes to present itself as part of the solution to the climate crisis. The oil-rich Gulf state has committed to Net Zero by 2050, hosted COP 28, and even declared “championing climate action” as one of three strategic objectives for this week’s session of the United Nations General Assembly. But behind the scenes the UAE has quietly built one of its closest political relationships in Europe with the party most hostile to climate action in Britain: Nigel Farage’s Reform UK. There is no evidence that the UAE is funding Reform. But a new FairSquare report, Petro-populism: the UAE–Reform threat, published today, documents a growing political relationship that should concern anyone interested in the integrity of British democracy. Reform’s leaders have embraced the UAE’s political model and promoted positions that align closely with the Emirati government’s priorities, while the UAE has given Farage and his party unusually warm access and public backing. What is emerging is not simply a relationship between British politicians and a wealthy Gulf state, but a channel through which an authoritarian government can cultivate political influence here, and abroad. Democracy for Sale relies on its readers. If you already support us, thanks so much. If you don’t, sign up to support fearless independent investigative journalism. Subscribe Back in January, Nigel Farage appeared at a GB News event in Dubai. On the 50th floor of a tower overlooking the luxury resorts and upscale residences of Palm Jumeirah, the Reform leader declared: “I want Clacton to look like this.” At the event – which Farage never declared on his official register of interests – senior Emirati officials mixed with British expats. Farage was keen to flatter. “We recognise you are our friends”, he said, assuring them that “a Brexit London, a Reform London, will remember you.” Controversy surrounding Reform’s finances and its susceptibility to foreign influence have centred around high-profile donations from billionaire crypto donors, and the jailing of Nathan Gill, Reform’s former leader in Wales, for accepting bribes to give pro-Russia speeches. Far less attention has been paid to Reform’s blossoming new alliance with the UAE, an oil-rich authoritarian state with a track record of ruinous anti-democratic interventions. Farage wasn’t always so fond of the UAE. Back in 2023 he called it an “absolute monarchy with an abysmal human rights record.” Now Reform’s hierarchy calls the UAE home. Deputy leader Richard Tice splits his time between his constituency and Dubai and has called on the UK to learn from the UAE. The party’s treasurer Nick Candy runs a firm which has been in partnership with a UAE-state linked firm since 2024. Nadhim Zahawi sits on the board of an Abu Dhabi think tank alongside an array of the most senior UAE officials and is reportedly close to three brothers of the country’s despotic ruler Mohammed Bin Zayed. Reform’s leading lights have effusively praised the UAE’s governance model, defended it from criticism, and advanced its political agenda in the UK. GB News, whose two major shareholders – the Legatum Foundation and Paul Marshall – have strong links to the UAE, has been more than happy to broadcast UAE propaganda and was forced to pay damages in 2025 after airing a false claim about a UK charity by the UAE “disinfluencer” Amjad Taha. The UAE has responded in kind. When the UAE Minister for Foreign Affairs conducted an official visit to the UK in May, Farage was the only non-government figure granted an audience. UAE state media publicised the meeting, and said that they discussed “the strategic relations between the two countries and ways to enhance them in a manner that serves mutual interests.” For the UAE these ‘mutual interests’ largely concern its paranoia over political Islam, and in this regard the UAE-Reform alliance is part of a broad and troubling pattern. Following a crackdown on dissent at home in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, the UAE has offered material and political support to a range of violent and authoritarian actors willing to oppose the Muslim Brotherhood with no regard for the consequences. Its meddling in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and most notably Sudan, have been devastating. The UAE’s strategy of seeking out partners on the political fringes who it believes will advance its interests is not unique to Britain – it extends beyond the Middle East to Europe and the US. In France, it has offered clandestine support to Marine Le Pen through secret meetings, as well allegedly funding trips to the region after which Le Pen returned with a renewed focus on the UAE’s perceived enemies – Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood. Left-wing opposition leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has accused the UAE of smearing him and of “encouraging discrimination, hatred or violence”. In the US, the UAE actively supported the rise of Donald Trump, establishing itself as a key ally during both his first and second terms. Around these relationships sits a wider ecosystem of figures willing to amplify UAE narratives, that even extends to Andrew Tate and Tommy Robinson. Subscribe In Britain, the UAE has used a combination of aggressive diplomacy and illicit, disruptive tactics to achieve its policy goal of eliminating any perceived threat from political Islam. In 2012, for instance, it threatened to block billion-pound arms deals with the UK and stop inward investment if David Cameron did not act against the Muslim Brotherhood and rein in the BBC’s coverage of the group – going so far as to suggest, with no supporting evidence, that the group had infiltrated the BBC. It has financed smear campaigns against a high-profile UK charity and funded a mercenary to secretly surveil, and possibly assassinate, a British national on British soil. In Reform UK, the UAE has finally found an ally willing to not only ban the Muslim Brotherhood, but to publicly vilify the group and repeat the UAE’s claims that dangerous Muslims are a fifth column in British society, a narrative that aligns with the Islamophobia and anti-immigration sentiments that underpin Reform’s populist politics. The Rycroft review into foreign interference concluded that “hostile states and non-state actors have a clear incentive to attempt to undermine UK democracy.” The UAE’s network and alliance with Reform must be understood within that framework. It is a powerful, disruptive and deeply authoritarian actor with the resources and networks to intervene in our politics, and a track-record of doing so in a multitude of other countries. The evidence of the threat the UAE poses is overwhelming. The question is whether parliamentarians are willing to call the UAE out and demand action using the tools that the government has to respond. Placing the UAE on the “Enhanced Tier” of the Foreign Registration scheme alongside Russia and Iran would send a powerful signal to the UAE that its meddling will no longer be tolerated, and would place Farage’s next trips to the UAE under the scrutiny they deserve. Alex Carlen is research and advocacy manager at London based human rights organisation FairSquare and author of its new report Petro-populism: the UAE–Reform threat. Subscribe
What's next for NYC delivery apps after Mamdani's $131.5M DoorDash win
Mayor Zohran Mamdani finished what Eric Adams started with DoorDash. Here's what's next in NYC's delivery app crackdown.
Hundreds of Hawaii residents could lose Obamacare health insurance benefits in fraud crackdown
Hawaii’s ACA marketplace is run on the federal exchange Healthcare.gov, so the state doesn’t know how many of Hawaii’s enrollees are caught up in Trump's national fraud sweep.
How Robert Pattinson cracked Chris Hansen's voice for 'Primetime'
Robert Pattinson had no intention of playing Chris Hansen.
Vance pushes for health fraud legislation in the Senate
The White House is working with Senate leadership to get health care fraud legislation over the finish line before the end of the congressional session, Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday during an announcement about cracking down on health care fraud. As part of that announcement, Vance said the Trump administration has removed about 760,000 enrollees […]
Trump officials plan to cut hundreds of thousands from ACA, claiming fraud
Vance targeted ACA enrollment as part of a broader administration crackdown on suspected fraud.
A 12-year-old in California built a Braille printer from a $350 Lego robotics kit for a school science fair, at a time when the cheapest commercial machine cost about $2,000, and Intel invested in it
When a middle schooler cracked an accessibility problem that the technology industry had left unsolved for decades, major investors took notice.
John Oliver Takes Swipe at David Ellison and His ‘Business Daddy’ Larry Ellison on ‘Last Week Tonight’
The HBO host cracked jokes at the expense of his probably future bosses on the Sept. 20 episode of “Last Week Tonight.”
As states crack down on sweepstakes casinos, VGW makes $351,000 play into Alabama politics
An Australian sweepstakes casino has contributed $351,000 to Alabama politicians and political groups as other states move to ban or restrict the industry.
California Cracks Down on Influencers’ Undisclosed Political Ads
Under a new law, creators could face fines of $5,000 per post if they don’t disclose that they were paid to make political content.
Trump Faced Loss After Loss. He Then Turned to a Familiar Target: The Press.
The president’s ban of three media outlets from the White House fits a pattern of using the apparatus of government to crack down on his perceived enemies.
Georgia Tech Cracked The Code At Southern Showcase
Georgia Tech's cross country squads dominated the Southern Showcase with a historic men's finish and multiple personal bests. See the full breakdown.
Stone County Health Department partners with VSO to help local veterans access earned benefits
Navigating military benefits can often feel overwhelming, but a local initiative in Stone County is working to ensure area veterans don’t fall through the cracks.
Kremlin seizes Nestlé’s assets in Russia as crackdown on private business grows
The Kremlin has moved to seize the Russian assets of Nestlé and French retailer Auchan amid a broader nationalization drive in the country that has seen a surge in seizures of private assets.
Marysville police shut down 21 illicit massage businesses in trafficking crackdown
Six business license applications were denied, and one applicant withdrew a request to open.
ICE agent accused of shooting a man and lying about it arrested in Minnesota
An ICE agent accused of shooting a man during an immigration crackdown was arrested Thursday in Minnesota, where he made his first appearance in court on charges of felony assault.
Ole Miss vs LSU: A CFB27 simulation
Forgive me for allowing the first two games of the season to slip through the cracks. If it makes you feel any better, EA Sports did simulate a 2-0 start to the season! But, just like last season, we will simulate each game and see how accurate CFB27 is to the real world. Last year […]
Can researchers trust that AI models won’t leak their ideas?
Research funders are asking how they can stop confidential scientific ideas in grant proposals from leaking out through large language models (LLMs), for example if reviewers use AI to help them judge applications. Last week, a row erupted in mathematics after OpenAI announced it had solved a notoriously difficult problem, only for another mathematician to demand answers over whether the company had used ideas he had fed into its models. The spat, and the broader issue of idea leakage through AI models, was discussed by funders at an R&D policy conference held in Paris on September 14. At worst, it threatens to undermine the correct attribution of breakthroughs, one of the foundations of modern science. The mathematics dispute around OpenAI is “certainly something we're looking at” Jason Gallo, head of the newly established Office of Metascience at the US National Science Foundation (NSF), told the Blue Sky Forum, hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The controversy started on September 8, when OpenAI announced it had cracked a mathematical problem that had gone unsolved for 90 years. Using a swarm of AI agents, millions of dollars’ worth of computing power and a new internal model, the company said it had finally proved that a long-used formula for modelling fluid dynamics breaks down under certain conditions. However, Tristan Buckmaster, a New York University mathematician who had been independently working with collaborators on the same problem using OpenAI’s Codex tool, hit back with a statement questioning whether the company had snooped on his Codex sessions to gain an advantage. OpenAI has always denied it looked up the “specific user data” of Buckmaster and colleagues. However, the company initially admitted that “while unlikely, we cannot rule out that de-identified data derived from their usage of our products helped improve our models,” although its proofs “differ significantly” from Buckmaster’s. The firm later said that, following an investigation, it concluded that Buckmaster’s Codex prompts “could not have influenced the [OpenAI] system in any way, including through training.”Funder concernYet OpenAI’s initial admission that its model might have ingested Buckmaster’s ideas, then spat them out to its own mathematicians, has scientistsworriedthat their work could leak out if shared with AI. Some AI tools give users an opt-out option to stop their sessions from training the model. If such guarantees can be trusted, this gives scientists some confidence they can use an LLM to develop an idea without the risk of it leaking out.But there’s a bigger potential vulnerability. To win money to investigate ideas, scientists have to share them with funding bodies. These grant proposals are normally kept strictly confidential, to prevent other scientists from scooping them, or to protect commercially valuable intellectual property. To preserve this confidentiality, when the NSF uses AI models, “we have to be sure that it's not making server calls out to an external party, leaking that data,” said Gallo to delegates in Paris. Leaks through reviewersHowever, funders normally use external academic reviewers to assess proposals. And there are growing worries that these reviewers are feeding grant ideas into AI models to help them make a judgement. Research funders have noticed that peer review reports and funding recommendations have “suddenly become much longer, more detailed and complex,” said Diogo Machado, head of the data science unit at Technopolis, a science and technology-focused consultancy. “The sense is that reviewers are increasingly using generative AI in their review work, even where guidelines sometimes forbid it,” he told Science|Business. “This is very difficult for funders to control or prove.” Happening at scaleThis sharing of confidential proposals with AI models is “happening at scale already,” said James Wilson, executive director of the Research on Research Institute, based at University College London, during the debate in Paris. In response, Gallo said the NSF had “strict guidance” around the uploading of proposals to AI models. But he added the NSF was mulling new types of assessment to make sure applicants were truly the originators of their ideas, such as following a short-form proposal with an oral presentation, which would allow the foundation to “really interrogate the investigator on their intellectual contribution.” Related articlesHow can Europe cope with a flood of AI-assisted research grant proposals?The risks and benefits of AI in screening research grant proposals Viewpoint: AI could make scientific overload worse“For us as funders, a lot of the ways to ensure that the application remains the applicant's own intellectual contribution, those ways are quite regressive,” Peter Clifford, head of strategy at Research Ireland, told delegates. “They're maybe ten or 15 or 20 years old, and they don't scale particularly well.” Disputes over the origin of ideas are as old as modern science. Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spent more than a decade arguing over who invented calculus, for example. And long before LLMs emerged, academics would agonise over how much of their early work to reveal at conferences, in case their colleagues scooped them, Jack Leahy, a senior metascience advisor to the UK government, told delegates. But AI was “accelerating” the “problems of the system,” he said.
Pediatricians raise the alarm on the effect of Trump's immigration crackdown on kids
The Trump administration has been pursuing a quiet immigration crackdown strategy: limiting access to health care and public services. The American Academy of Pediatrics is sounding the alarm about the impact on children.
NASA’s New Horizons spots signs of liquid nitrogen flowing on Pluto
Scientists have found the first evidence that liquid may have flowed across Pluto’s surface in the recent past. Dark features on the enormous Sputnik Planitia glacier appear consistent with liquid nitrogen rising through cracks from deep beneath the ice. Computer models show that nitrogen could melt at the glacier’s base and travel upward like fluid through small conduits. The finding reveals that Pluto may be much more geologically active than its frozen appearance suggests.
Trump’s latest branding battle: From the Politics Desk
Plus, new GOP cracks emerge over the Iran war as midterms loom.
Gators could crack AP Top 25 with win over Auburn
The Florida Gators are on the outside looking in on the AP Top 25 poll, but have played solid football so far. Here's what they have to do next.
Truth and Politics in the Age of Post-Truth
Get E-International Relations delivered to your inbox, free of charge. As you sign up, consider becoming a paid subscriber, or make a donation, to support our work. Subscribe This is an excerpt from Global Politics in a Post-Truth Era. You can download the book free of charge from E-International Relations. The term post-truth is by now so ubiquitous in describing the state of politics in the Western world and even beyond that the most pressing issue of the day appears to be about making democracy work in the era of post-truth rather than questioning the normalisation of the term itself in the first place. The critical turning point appeared to have occurred in 2016 when the term was chosen by the Oxford English Dictionary as ‘The Word of the Year.’ On its website, the Dictionary notes the transformation of post-truth from ‘being a peripheral term to being a mainstay in political commentary and connects ‘the spike in frequency’ directly with the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom and the election of Donald J. Trump in the United States – both occurring in 2016. Paired with the noun ‘politics,’ post-truth is defined as an adjective ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.’ The Oxford English Dictionary traces the first use of the term to a 1992 essay in The Nation by the playwright Steve Tesich as he reflected on the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal and the 1990–91 Gulf War: We are rapidly becoming prototypes of a people that totalitarian monsters could only drool about in their dreams. All the dictators up to now have had to work hard at suppressing the truth. We, by our actions, are saying that this is no longer necessary, that we have acquired a spiritual mechanism that can denude truth of any significance. In a very fundamental way we, as a free people, have freely decided that we want to live in some post-truth world (Tesich 1992, 13; emphasis added). He then continued, The Gulf War is over but the war at home goes on. The gulf between rich and destitute widens – between those of us who live in a modern post-industrial nation and those of us who live in the Third World countries of our inner cities. The present administration’s response to this internal crisis has shifted from benign to malignant neglect. The current levels of misery and decomposition of our cities and the economic gulags of our ghettos are acceptable. Since there is only so much hope to go around, there is a freeze on hope. The have-nots have now been reclassified as never-will-haves (Tesich 1992, 13). In the context of Tesich’s essay, truth includes both facts, as in what happens, and ‘moral absolutes,’ as in the ‘self-evident truths mentioned in our Constitution’ (Tesich 1992, 14). Together, these two notions of truth entail the obligation to both act and react. The two passages cited above show that even in the early post-Cold War years, Tesich was already deeply concerned that the American people are neither prepared to act on truth nor react to truth that is disconcerting, or what he calls ‘bad news’ (Tesich 1992, 12). Accordingly, Tesich’s insight as captured by the term post-truth is not that truth is irrelevant to what we know, but rather it is irrelevant to how we act. In contrast, ‘post-truth politics,’ as defined by Oxford as a term that pitches ‘objective facts’ against ‘emotion and personal belief’ such that the latter appears to have overtaken the former in shaping ‘public opinion’ and thereby, democratic politics. When Tesich’s post-truth politics and its current usage are juxtaposed, the two are in fact not identical in terms of what truth is and how it relates to politics. Against such consideration, this chapter provides a critical survey of selected historical events and theoretical considerations for the purpose of gaining a more nuanced understanding of the relation between truth and politics. Truth and Language One notable impact of post-truth politics is that language is being overtly deployed as a political weapon not only by politicians and those in power, but among the general population. It seems that once facts are irrelevant to the validity of what is being said, language becomes the platform for an all-out political contest in which what is said is no more than an act of will expressed as an assertion of power and/or an exercise in defiance. As early as in the writings of Thucydides (460–400 BCE), the vulnerability of logos – which is the human capacity for rational discourse in tumultuous times – was already noted. Thucydides belonged to a school of Greek thought which maintained that language is conventional and that the association between name and things is a result of ‘human use and habit’ rather than ‘nature or divine dispensation’ (Connor 1984, 99). The conventional nature of language means that it is incapable of providing its users with any independent criteria for judgement. In Thucydides’ study of the Peloponnesian War (431–405 BCE), the subversion of logos as seen in the manipulation of language was introduced through his account of the civil war in Corcyra (Thucydides 1972, 236-245). The war first broke out in 427 BCE between the pro-Athenian democratic faction and the pro-Spartan oligarchic faction before it spread to the rest of the Greek world. There was a general breakdown of law and order, resulting in extreme violence and death. Language underwent changes that were reflective of the events of the time. The English philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) translated Thucydides’ description of the situation as follows: The received value of names imposed for signification of things, was changed into arbitrary. For inconsiderate boldness, was counted true-hearted manliness: provident deliberation, a handsome fear: modesty, the cloak of cowardice: to be wise in everything, to be lazy in everything... he that had been so provident as not to need to do the one or the other, was said to be a dissolver of society, and one that stood in fear of his adversary. In brief, he that could outstrip another in the doing of an evil act, or that could persuade another thereto that never meant it, was commended (Hobbes 1839–1845, 8: 348; Thucydides 1972, 242-243). What concerned Thucydides most was that the meanings of words are no more than linguistic conventions that require logos to support them. The Corcyrean civil war was a reminder that such capacity cannot be assumed. This is why history understood as an authentic account of what happens matters. Guided by logos, the historian’s task is ‘the search after truth’, which is established through ‘the absence of the fabulous,’ including ‘the rejection of myth and unverifiable stories’ (de Jonge 2017, 2). Thus, history plays an important role in facilitating the stability of language – without which distinctions and judgements cannot be rendered communicable. Just like Thucydides, Hobbes was a nominalist who subscribed to the view that there is no inherent meaning to words. Hobbes’ state of nature, where there is no common authority, is precisely one in which distinctions cannot be made. As Hobbes put it, there is ‘no Mine and Thine distinct’ nor is there distinction between ‘the notions of Right and Wrong, Justice and Injustice’ (1968, 188; emphasis in original). This is clearly an unsustainable condition for everyone. Behind Hobbes’ famous words that life in the state of nature is ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short’ is his uncompromising argument for the ‘Leviathan’, which is described by the late American political theorist, Sheldon Wolin (1922–2015), as the ‘sovereign definer’ (Hobbes 1968, 186; Wolin 2004, 238–243). Accordingly, the social contract is importantly a ‘linguistic contract’ that binds all parties to ‘general names agreed upon’ (Peters 1979, 125; Hobbes 1968, 111). Through Thucydides and Hobbes, we can identify a line of thinking that sees politics as a contestation over the use of language, which is based on shared conventions and norms. Thus understood, politics is not a collective quest for the true nature of our being or an epistemological exercise in pursuit of true knowledge. Rather, politics is about humans living with one another by finding a shared language to communicate with one another on matters that affect them all. Truth is in that sense contingent on what is being said as opposed to setting the standard for it. In other words, truth is the embodiment of shareability among us. While truth as such ensures the viability of a political entity, truth by no means represents a normative standard to adjudicate among contesting actors in what they say, let alone in what they do. During Thucydides’ times, ancient China was also experiencing a tumultuous time as the ruling Zhou dynasty deteriorated into the period of the Warring States (481–221 BCE). This was when the rulers of Zhou no longer presided over the territories brought under its control through conquest. Instead of professing allegiance to the Zhou royalty, the lords of these territories became kings themselves to rule over their own land. The period was one marked by endless military campaigns as each of the seven major states aimed to conquer the rest (Lewis 1999). Yet, the period was also known for its intellectual vibrancy as different thinkers challenged the restoring of order among these warring states – including offering ideas and advice to rulers on good governance. Among these thinkers was Confucius (551–479 BCE). His thought, which came to be known as Confucianism, went on to become the state ideology of China from the Han dynasty (206 BCE–222 CE) until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911 when China became a republic. The founding text of Confucianism was the Analects, which is a collection of dialogues between Confucius and his students as recorded by them. One key concept Confucius advanced is the ‘rectification of names’. Though the term only appears in one exchange in the Analects, it is considered a major aspect of Confucius’ thought. Generations of Confucian scholars from past and present, including Western academics, have debated over its interpretation (Makeham 2003). The passage in question reads as follows: Zi Lu said: ‘The monarch of the state of Wei wants you to govern the country, what is the first thing you plan on doing?’ Confucius said: ‘First it is necessary to rectify the names.’Zi Lu said: ‘Is that really what has to be done? You are being too pedantic, aren’t you now? How will you rectify these names?’Confucius said: ‘Zhong You, you are too unrefined. A gentleman, faced with a matter that he does not understand, takes a skeptical attitude. If names are not correct, one cannot speak smoothly and reasonably, and if one cannot speak smoothly and reasonably, affairs cannot be managed successfully. If affairs cannot be managed successfully, rites and music will not be conducted. If rites and music are not conducted, punishments will not be suitable. And if punishments are not suitable, the common people will not know what to do. So, when the gentleman uses names, it is necessary to be able to speak so that people understand. If one can say it, one can definitely do it. A gentleman should not be careless with words’ (Analects 13:3 in Cao 2016, 148). This translation is offered by the contemporary philosopher Cao Feng. As Cao notes, the passage is what started the whole debate over ‘exactly what kind of names did Confucius... wish to rectify’ (Cao 2016, 148). Of the three major groups of interpretation examined by Cao, beginning with classical Confucian scholarship, one is arguably the most influential and certainly most pertinent to the issue of language and politics. This is the interpretation that was first associated with the Neo-Confucian master, Zhu Xi (1130–1200), who argued that the ‘rectification of names is simply the rectification of politics’ (Cao 2016, 149). Within this interpretive framework, rectification has the dual functions of correction and prescription by ensuring that predetermined hierarchical roles are strictly adhered to through following ‘the system of rites and propriety’ (Cao 2016, 151). In addition, the rectification of names entails ‘using names to rectify actuality’ (Cao 2016, 151). Yet Cao rejects this whole body of interpretive works by arguing that these were ideas developed later. Instead, Cao suggests the following: The original meaning of Confucius’ rectification of names may, then, be quite simple. Confucius did not mean to establish a concrete, normative system of “names”; rather, Confucius was simply the first person in history to realize or remark upon the importance of language in politics. As a politician, he noticed and foresaw the impact that the indeterminacy, ambiguity, and arbitrariness of names would have on politics. Confucius recognized the political consequences of language’s not accurately expressing meaning or not being accurately received by people. He realized the great role that names, as a means of distinguishing right and wrong and establishing norms, could play in society and politics (Cao 2016, 168). Scholarly debates aside, Cao’s view has the advantage of identifying an interpretation of this controversial exchange in the Analects that enables its readers to extrapolate from it the observation that the meaning of words depends as much on their users as on their interpreters; neither of which can be predetermined. Accordingly, a good ruler is someone who can speak without ambiguity to his subjects and make good his words through actions. Stated differently, Cao’s view on what concerned Confucius then, who was living through times of protracted political upheaval, is that language is an indispensable political tool for those in power and can be deployed by both good and bad rulers alike. To sum up, this historical survey shows that politics as a war of words is by no means a distinctive marker of contemporary politics nor the Western world. Be it ancient or current, east or west, language is subject to manipulation to serve political purposes and when there is an outright war of words that defies existing norms, it is indicative of a political situation in which people no longer share a language and truth becomes irrelevant. Accordingly, political order entails stability in language use. Truth and Politics As previously noted, current use of the term post-truth as an adjective to the term ‘politics’ suggests that once there was a time when politics aligned with truth. Indeed, if we start with Plato’s Republic as the key founding text of Western political thought, we see that the ideal polis (city-state of ancient Greece) is where truth and politics converge, and justice is achieved. Written around 380 BCE when Athens was still coping with its defeat by the Spartans in the Peloponnesian War, the Republic is a defence of the rule of the ‘philosopher king’, defined as someone who is ‘guided by the truth’ and is ‘always and in every way’ in pursuit of the truth (Plato 1974, 490a). For Plato, truth converges with virtues and hence, letting the philosopher take charge of politics is to let the wisest and the most virtuous lead the less wise and the less virtuous even if it requires compulsion (Plato 1974, 499b). In Plato’s words, ‘…until the philosophers attain power in a city there will be no respite from evil for either city or citizens…’ (Plato 1974, 501e). The uncompromising rule of philosopher-kings is made palatable by the claim that we are all ‘earth- born brothers’ with random mixtures of gold, silver, bronze and iron, but only the gold can rule (Plato 1974, 414–415). Understandably, academic debates over the interpretation of Plato’s Republic revolve around the question of whether truth as attained in philosophy can be realised in politics as action and whether such a connection is even desirable. Without getting into the details of these scholarly exchanges, I suggest that they all share the concern that truth acquired through the rigorous process of philosophical reasoning is not without problem when applied to the real world of living humans. This is because not all humans are philosophers – and indeed, in Plato’s view, not everyone is capable of becoming a philosopher given the protracted and arduous training that one needs to endure to become one. Hannah Arendt (1906–1975), a highly influential political philosopher of the twentieth century, notes that ‘Plato was the first to introduce the division between those who know and do not act and those who act and do not know’ and that such a separation has remained ‘at the root of all theories of domination’ (Arendt 1958, 223, 225). What Arendt points out in this remark is not the gap between theory and practice, but rather that Plato provides the normative ground for those who know the truth to tell those who do not know what to do. Arendt herself took on the challenge of understanding the relationship between truth and politics through her analysis of Nazism and Stalinism. Arendt’s insight, which was controversial when The Origins of Totalitarianism was published in 1951, was to identify Nazism and Stalinism as representative of a new form of political rule – totalitarianism – making it distinct from ‘other forms of political oppression... such as despotism, tyranny and dictatorship’ (Arendt 1973, 460). Arendt defines totalitarianism as a self- contained system of ideas driven by their ‘logic’ and marked by a mode of reasoning called ‘ideological thinking.’ Ideological thinking as such is a distinctive form of political reasoning defined by three characteristics. First, ideological thinking claims to provide a ‘total explanation’ of all historical happenings, encompassing the past, the present, and the future. Second, while ideological thinking is an attempt to account for ‘factual reality’ in its totality, this mode of thinking is paradoxically divorced from reality and experience. This is because experience, being rooted in specificity, is clearly limited in its claim to totality. It follows that as its third characteristic, ideological thinking aims to emancipate thought from the limitation imposed by experience through a ‘specific method of demonstration.’ The method involves arranging facts into an ‘absolutely logical procedure’ that starts from an ‘axiomatically accepted premise’. It is, in short, a ‘process of deduction from a premise’ – which is the only possible movement in the realm of logic that leads to one definitive conclusion. This is how the ‘logicality of ideological thinking’ provides the basis for total explanation and the ‘principle of action’ for totalitarian movement (Arendt 1973, 468–474). Stated differently, totalitarianism is a form of uncompromising idealism that exists in one’s head irrespective of shared reality as experienced. It is the perverse form of what Arendt later refers to as ‘rational truth’, which is the product of the ‘speculative mind’ that belongs to philosophy, mathematics and the sciences. The ‘speculative mind’ is the mind working on its way to generate axioms and theories by relying on the cognitive capacity of the human brain (Arendt 1977, 231). The presence of others has no bearing whatsoever on rational truth. In contrast, ‘factual truth’ is what happens when humans are ‘living and acting together’ (Arendt 1977, 231). Factual truth is therefore particular and temporal by definition. But more importantly, factual truth is ‘political by nature’ because it can only be validated in the context of the human community (Arendt 1977, 238). In other words, factual truth is about humans in their plurality rather than in their singularity. For factual truth to be sustainable, we need what Arendt calls ‘common sense’ – understood as ‘community sense’ (Arendt 1982, 72). There is also another distinction about truth that Arendt makes which is pertinent to understanding how totalitarianism works. The issue is whether the so-called totalitarian ideology is simply an unnecessarily cumbersome way of saying that it is an all-round and polished lie. Here, Arendt calls totalitarian ideology the ‘modern lie’ – in contrast to the ‘traditional lie’. The latter is restricted by two conditions: that it is a lie about the ‘particulars’ and that it deceives only the ‘enemy’ – which means that the liar is not engaged in self- deception. The modern lie, however, involves a ‘complete rearrangement of the whole factual texture’. It also intends to deceive everyone alike, to the extent that those who initiate the lie eventually ‘fall victims to their own falsehood’ (Arendt 1977, 249–254). This distinction between the traditional and modern lie is important. It indicates that not only is totalitarianism a lie, but the lie is in fact too big to fit into the standard meaning of the word. To tell a lie from truth, we need a common standard. In the case of a traditional lie, the common standard is precisely ‘the fabric of factuality’. As such, a lie always appears as a ‘tear’ to that fabric. Yet, modern lies require making a surrogate reality with a completely different context for facts to fit ‘without seam, crack, or fissure, exactly as the facts fitted into their original context’. Arendt notes that as long as those who concoct the surrogate reality are prepared to engage in self- deception to ‘create a semblance of truthfulness’, there is nothing to prevent ‘these new stories, images, and non-facts from becoming an adequate substitute for reality and factuality’ (Arendt 1977, 253–254). Totalitarianism therefore requires a person to stand outside of the system itself in order to make sense of it. Arendt points out that it is futile for us to argue with (for example) a Nazi or a Stalinist on race or class. To confront totalitarianism requires more than just a confrontation with specific facts. It is a more fundamental confrontation between reality as experienced and its total rejection. This means that Nazism and Stalinism are more than radical ways of conducting racial conflict or class struggle. Rather: Totalitarian politics – far from being simply antisemitic or racist or imperialist or communist – use and abuse their own ideological and political elements until the basis of factual reality, from which the ideologies originally derived their propaganda value– the value of struggle, for instance, or the interest conflicts between Jews and their neighbours – have all but disappeared (Arendt 1973, xv). Accordingly: The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (that is, the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (that is, the standards of thought) no longer exist (Arendt 1973, 474). Who then is the ‘ideal subject’ of totalitarianism? Although there is a revival of interest in Arendt’s observation on truth and politics since the onset of post- truth politics, not enough has been said about her reply to the question (Hyvönen 2018; Klinkler 2018; Lee 2019; Zerilli 2020). Yet if we take a look at Arendt’s portrait of this ideal subject, her view is even more pertinent to our current challenge. As a self-contained system of ideas that is detached from experience, totalitarian thinking offers consistency in ways that reality cannot. Arendt notes that this kind of consistency is especially appealing to those who have lost a sense of bearing in the world (Arendt 1973, 353). They constitute what she calls the ‘masses’. The ‘mass man’ is thus a highly isolated and atomised individual, who is ‘obsessed by a desire to escape from reality’ (Arendt 1973, 318, 352). In his ‘essential homelessness’ the mass man can ‘no longer bear its accidental, incomprehensible aspects’ (Arendt 1973, 352). This longing for escape from reality is a ‘verdict against the world’ in which one is ‘forced to live’ but ‘cannot exist’ (Arendt 1973, 352). Such a situation is ripe for the ‘revolt of the masses’ against ‘common sense,’ which is ‘the result of their atomisation, of their loss of social status’ and with it, the ‘whole sector of communal relationships in whose framework common sense makes sense’ (Arendt 1973, 352). In short, the masses are people who are considered to be ‘superfluous or can be spared … [who] cannot be integrated into any organisation based on common interest’ (Arendt 1973, 311). Whether one agrees with Arendt’s analysis of the social conditions in the interwar years that led to the formation of the ‘masses’, her portrait of the ‘mass man’ is a powerful account of what can happen to an individual who has become disposable to the society that they used to belong to. Hand in hand with this phenomenon is indeed the collapse of ‘common sense’ that leaves the dislodged individual scrambling for reconnection. By offering the masses a substitute reality validated by the ‘logic of an idea’ rather than by experience, totalitarianism makes it possible for them to live in a world where there is no condition of plurality. Between ‘facing the anarchic growth and total arbitrariness of decay’ and ‘bowing down before the most rigid, fantastically fictitious consistency of an ideology’, the masses will likely ‘choose the latter’ (Arendt 1973, 352). A world created by ideology, then, is more attractive to the masses not because ‘they are stupid and wicked, but because in the general disaster this escape grants them a minimum of self- respect’ by conjuring up ‘a lying world of consistency which is more adequate to the needs of the human mind than reality itself’ (Arendt 1973, 353). Moreover, it is precisely this ability to guarantee consistency that makes it possible for the leaders of totalitarian movements to demand ‘total, unrestricted, unconditional and unalterable loyalty of the individual member’ (Arendt 1973, 323). While this chapter is not a study of the social factors that led to specific contemporary developments such as the result of the Brexit referendum or the election of Donald Trump in 2016, Arendt’s ‘mass man’ seem to have found their counterparts among the supporters of Brexit and Trumpism. Studies of voters’ profiles in both events point to a disproportionate share of supporters from white male lower income backgrounds without university educations. These are individuals who have either already lost their jobs to globalisation or who are at high risk of losing their job with very little capacity to be retrained for the twenty-first century market economy of advanced industrialised states (BBC 2016; Pew Research Center 2018). In short, these displaced workers are part of the tapestry forming the modern equivalent of Arendt’s ‘mass man’ – ready to be the recruits of totalitarianism. Conclusion If we step back to take a more comprehensive approach to the relationship between truth and politics, both historically and theoretically, it is not so obvious that 2016 is a defining moment. From ancient China and ancient Greece to our so-called post-truth age, the indeterminacy of language appears to be a persistent political challenge. Language is always open to manipulation by its users to serve power. Nonetheless, the tendency these days is to single out the ubiquity of social media and the proliferation of Internet platforms as the incubator for the countless cyberwars of words that in turn fuel the real world of politics. In this context, language is no longer the conveyor of objective facts and accurate information, but rather the medium for expressing subjective opinions and feelings, as captured by the Oxford Dictionary’s definition of the term ‘post-truth politics’. In contrast, the historical approach used in this chapter shows that it is in fact too easy to point the figure at the Internet and digital communication for the political challenge that we face today. What is being suggested here is that with or without the Internet, language, be it used to convey facts or emotions, is simply a tool for communication that humans have invented. While language per se cannot adjudicate what is true or not true, what is right or wrong, it embodies such capacity when language is a shared norm. That shared norm cannot be sustained without some semblance of cohesion in any given community. Any war of words, irrespective of its platform, is indicative of the breakdown of such cohesiveness. Returning to the original context in which the term post-truth politics was first used by Steve Tesich helps to identify the important distinction between truth as the standard for knowledge and truth as the standard for action. The two do not necessarily coincide. Placed in the context of the history of political thought, this distinction is in fact at the heart of Plato’s Republic. Yet when the philosopher as the quintessential bearer of truth becomes king, the polis that he rules over is far from the ideal of a just state that it purports to be. Instead, it is one that is held together by lies and coercion. What Arendt reveals through her study of Nazism and Stalinism is that it is dangerous for the kind of truth that philosophy generates – ‘rational truth’ – to become the guide to politics. Politics guided by rational truth can only be uncompromising and follows a logic of its own that cannot afford the ambiguity and indeterminacy of reality as lived experiences of humans. A world of post-truth politics can be an opportunity for a new kind of politics if it is indeed about dismantling the idea that truth is the ideal that politics should strive for. But as it stands, the post-truth politics of today is more about invoking a past that never exists to judge the presence as a crisis in naming when the real crisis is about rebuilding a shared space that has room for all – be they of the left, right or centre; cosmopolitan or parochial; civic-minded or self-centred; liberal-minded or bigoted. Politics is and always will be about striving for that space, without which no human can thrive. References Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Arendt, Hannah. 1973. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Rev. ed. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Arendt, Hannah. 1977. “Truth and Politics.” In Between Past and Future, 227–264. New York: Penguin Books. Arendt, Hannah. 1982. Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy, edited by Ronald Beiner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. British Broadcasting Corporation. 2016. “Brexit vote: The breakdown.” BBC News, December 7, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-38227674 Cao, Feng. 2016. “A New Examination of Confucius’ Rectification of Names.” Journal of Chinese Humanities 2: 147–171. https://doi-org.subzero.lib. uoguelph.ca/ doi/ 10.1163/23521341-12340032. Connor, W. Robert. 1984. Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. de Jonge, Casper C. 2017. “Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Thucydides.” in The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides, edited by Sara Forsdyke, Edith Foster, and Ryan Balot. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780199340385.013.17 https://www-oxfordhandbooks-com.subzero. lib.uoguelph.ca/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199340385.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199340385 Hyvönen, Ari-Elmeri. 2018. “Careless Speech: Conceptualizing Post-Truth Politics.” New Perspectives 26 (3): 31–55. https://www.proquest.com/ scholarly-journals/careless-speech-conceptualizing-post-truth/ docview/2204515132/se-2?accountid=11233. Hobbes, Thomas. 1839–1845. The English Works of Thomas Hobbes, edited by Sir William Molesworth. London: John Bohn. Vol. 8. Klinkner, Melanie. 2018. “Reasonable Truth.” International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics 14 (3): 393–99. doi:10.1386/macp.14.3.393_7. Lee, Haiyan. 2019. “When Nothing Is True, Everything Is Possible: On Truth and Power by Way of Socialist Realism.” PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America 134 (5). Cambridge University Press: 1157–64. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2019.134.5.1157 Lewis, Mark E. 1999. “Warring States Political History.” In The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC, edited by Michael Loewe and Edward Shaughnessy, 587–650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Makeham, John. 2003. “Zheng ming (Rectification of names).” In RoutledgeCurzon Encyclopedia of Confucianism, edited by Xinzhong Yao. Vol. 2: 813-814. New York: Routledge. Oxford Languages, n. d. “Word of the Year 2016.” Accessed 19 August 2017. https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2016/ Peters, Richard. 1979. Hobbes. Westport: Greenwood Press. Pew Research Center. 2018. “An examination of the 2016 electorate, based on validated voters.” Report, August 9, 2018. https://www.pewresearch.org/ politics/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on- validated-voters/ Plato. 1974. Republic. Translated by G. M. A. Grube. Indianapolis: Hackett. Tesich, Steve. 1992. “Watergate Syndrome: A Government of Lies.” The Nation: 12-14. January 6/13, 1992. Thucydides. 1972. The Peloponnesian War. Translated by Rex Warner. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books. Wolin, Sheldon. 2004. Politics and Vision: Continuity and Innovation in Westen Political Thought. Expanded Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Zerilli, Linda M. G. 2020. ‘Fact-Checking and Truth-Telling in an Age of Alternative Facts.’ Le foucaldien 6, no. 1: 2, 1–22. Theresa Man Ling Lee is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Guelph (Canada). Lee is a political theorist who specializes in contemporary political thought. Her research and teaching areas include continental philosophy, Marxism and critical theory, feminism, postmodernism, philosophy of social science, psychoanalysis, multiculturalism, human rights, disability studies, modern Chinese political thought and comparative political theory. Lee has published on a wide range of subjects in these areas, including intercultural pedagogy and the challenges of teaching as a person with multiple minority designations in a Canadian university classroom.
Orioles vs. Mets discussion
Pete Alonso takes another crack at home run #300 in game two at CitiField.
Moritz Seider Cracks NHL Network’s Top 30 Players
NHL Network put a number on Moritz Seider, and Detroit will like where it landed. #RedWings
Cincinnati Bengals Week 2 Power Rankings Roundup
The Cincinnati Bengals are 1-0, and they seem to have at least somewhat improved their defense in real ways this past offseason. That wasn’t enough for them to crack the top 10 quite yet for most NFL analysts, but they are moving up. Here is the roundup of power rankings from around the NFL content […]
Scientists create 'super ice' that is ten times stronger and far harder to shatter
Ice is cheap, abundant and surprisingly strong. But it has one major weakness: Cracks can race through it, causing it to shatter without warning. Now, scientists have developed a new material that could ...
State gambling crackdown hits two St. Pete businesses
163 illegal slot machines were seized locally during Operation Final Spin.
Unsolved for 90 Years, OpenAI Says AI Cracked Millennium Prize Problem in 88 Hours
OpenAI says one of its AI systems has solved a math problem that has stumped mathematicians for nearly a century. The Navier–Stokes problem is one of seven Millennium Prize Problems, some of the toughest problems in mathematics, with a $1 million prize attached to each one. If OpenAI’s proof holds up, it would be a […]
NFL, MLB, NBA, other pro leagues band together to crack down on betting-related harassment
Arizona Cardinals crack top 20 in new NFL Power rankings
The Arizona Cardinals crack the top 20 in one set of power rankings.
ComEd’s crackdown thins the data-center pipeline — a break for the strained power grid
ComEd’s tougher requirements are weeding out speculative data-center projects, reducing projected power demand and potentially easing pressure on the grid.
Trump administration begins fraud crackdown on COVID-era small-business loans
Starting Tuesday, the Small Business Administration inspector general will send demand letters to those suspected of defrauding the SBA
Trump administration begins fraud crackdown on COVID-era small-business loans
Starting Tuesday, the Small Business Administration inspector general will send demand letters to those suspected of defrauding the SBA
Truth #3: Protecting Small Businesses and Elderly Neighbors
“In moments of crisis, people appreciate you just asking them how you are doing. As someone who has suffered from PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], it is important to have moments of humor, cracking a joke, simply talking to somebody that you knew for years. Just doing those things can really
Vault: Credit card politics on the trail
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti is vowing to crack down on credit card fees as part of her campaign to flip Rep. Rob Bresnahan’s seat in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Immigration crackdown continues to hurt Sunnyside businesses
The Trump administration’s immigration crackdown continues to take an indirect toll on Latino-owned businesses in Sunnyside.
California attempts to crack down on health spending
Hospitals warn there will be consequences for patient access.
Should race affect BMI guidelines? Doctors are split
BMI is a quick, cheap way for doctors to estimate body fat and screen for conditions like heart disease and diabetes. But medicine has long known that BMI is problematic and unnuanced. By using it, groups of people have fallen through the cracks and conditions have been caught late. So, some doctors want to add nuance – to consider race when using BMI. But using race in medicine comes with its own problems. So what’s the way forward? To find out, we talk to Katie Wu, a science writer at The Atlantic.Read more of Katie’s reporting on BMI and race.Interested in more science health stories? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.
Michigan cracks Yahoo Sports top 10 after upset win over Oklahoma
Despite early season criticism, Michigan football has secured a spot in the top 10 after defeating Oklahoma.
Premature to offer new deal to Borthwick
IT’S hard not to see a large crack in England’s runway to the 2027 World Cup with the RFU’s decision to give head coach Steve Bothwick a contract extension until after the 2028 Six Nations. It is reminiscent of the tangle that RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney, and his Teflon-coated performance director, Conor O’Shea, got […] The post Premature to offer new deal to Borthwick appeared first on The Rugby Paper.
‘Immature playground boasting’: Mathematicians uneasy at OpenAI’s latest scalp
As OpenAI model cracks Millennium Prize Problem that puzzled experts for decades, many feel shocked at pace of change
Mystery Science Redux at the Majestic This Weekend
The noble art of cracking wise at bad movies is one of the last of our culture's great oral traditions to be co-opted by professionals. But co-opted it was, in the late ’80s, by Mystery Science Theatre 3000, which at its best was humblingly brilliant TV.
Should Cannabis Tax Revenue Motivate Law Enforcement? California Says Yes
The California Statewide Law Enforcement Association highlighted the need to continue crackdowns on illicit operations to bolster state tax revenues.
What are tomorrow's quantum threats?
Most people trust that the passwords, bank accounts, medical records and private messages they use every day are protected by encryption. But as quantum computing advances, some of today’s most widely used security tools could eventually become breakable. That means information stolen now could potentially be saved and unlocked years later, when quantum computers are powerful enough to crack protections that current computers cannot.
Scientists May Have Cracked the Mystery of the Moon’s Unequal Hemispheres
Chang’e-6 samples suggest the Moon’s two very different sides may have formed when uneven heating drove magma from one hemisphere to the other. The Moon presents two dramatically different faces. Its Earth-facing hemisphere is rich in dark volcanic plains, while the farside is dominated by older highlands and a much thicker crust. New analyses of
Banijay Entertainment’s The Detective Club Cracks Its First International Adaptation
Media and entertainment group, Banijay Entertainment, today announces the first international adaptation of hit reality series The Detective Club, with Banijay Productions Germany producing a local version (Club der Reality Detektive) for SAT.1 and JOYN. Originally created by B Prod, part of Banijay France, The Detective Club is a strategic game of deduction and deceit, […]
American Kratom Association lobbyist Mac Haddow on kratom regulation, science and why he calls it a life saver
As the federal government and states crack down on some kratom products, Mac Haddow joins ‘Untold’ to talk regulation and science.
Labor premiers join business groups in warning Albanese government over immigration cuts
Federal Labor is poised to announce a migration crackdown despite fears slashing visa numbers could damage economy
EFL Cup: Chelsea's mad comeback, 6 goals in one half
There wasn’t only the Champions League on Wednesday night...That’s right, there was also a cracking EFL Cup clash in England between Chelsea and Leeds!The two teams lived up to the spectacle on of...
Florida cracks CBS Sports' power rankings after Week 1 win
The Florida Gators' 66-21 rout of the FAU Owls earned them a spot among the top 25 teams in CBS Sports' college football power rankings after Week 1.
The Case for a Psychiatric Deprescribing Clinic
Psychiatric medication prescribing practices have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration announced its plan to crack
The Case for a Psychiatric Deprescribing Clinic
Psychiatric medication prescribing practices have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration announced its plan to crack
Insurer markups only a small part of premium increases
Just cracking down on insurer overhead won't meaningfully bring down premiums.
What Trump’s new study says about support for trans rights — and why experts are worried
This story was originally reported by Orion Rummler and Jasmine Mithani of The 19th. Meet Orion and Jasmine and read more of their reporting on gender, politics and policy. A new study from the Trump administration is sending alarm bells through pro-democracy groups for its potential to fuel a crackdown on Americans who support LGBTQ+ […]
OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’
The company’s announcement is the most dramatic sign yet that artificial intelligence is fundamentally transforming the field of higher mathematics.
Dodgers Owner’s MAGA Stance Leaves Los Angeles Advocate ‘Very’ Disappointed
The Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner is under local scrutiny for “sending money to Trump’s administration” following ICE crackdowns.
Man Utd fans group call for derby-day ticket protest
The 1958 Manchester United fans' group is organising a protest ahead of Sunday's derby clash with Manchester City in protest at the club's handing of its ticket touting crackdown. United identified numerous instances of what they felt was ticket touting and in July placed restrictions on a large number of accounts and demanded details for why single devices were being used for multiple accounts, amid a threat of them being withdrawn. The message also warned the fan their season ticket could be deactivated for a Premier League game if they didn't buy a ticket.
Science says ancient roman concrete could repair its own cracks: The secret was hidden in tiny white chunk
Modern concrete can become vulnerable when cracks allow water and chemicals to seep into its interior. Ancient Roman concrete, by contrast, appears to have contained a reserve of reactive, calcium-rich material that could contribute to its long-term durability.
Germany's far-right surge rattles Europe's political foundations
AfD's landslide win in Saxony-Anhalt could be the prelude to far-right forces governing alone across Europe. Germany's 'grand coalition' model, and the centrist alliance underpinning EU politics, are starting to crack.
Why is Kenya cracking down on foreign traders and small retailers?
President Ruto says small businesses should be reserved for Kenyans as his government moves against foreign traders.
What Should Fans Expect From Bogdan Bogdanovic This Season?
After a surprising free agency signing, the Serbian sniper must overcome age and injury history to crack Houston's crowded rotation and prove his health under Ime Udoka. If not, he can hopefully still be a good veteran presence for someone like Reed Sheppard.
Poll: Cracks emerge in GOP support for Trump and his handling of the Iran war
The share of Republicans who strongly approve of Trump and how he’s managed the war has dropped significantly in recent months, according to the new NBC News Decision Desk Poll.
Where is the 'True Lies' cast now? See the stars more than 30 years later
The lies, they are true! More than 30 years later, catch up with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the rest of James Cameron’s crackerjack 'True Lies' cast.
Matt Quatraro Explains Royals Starter's Rough Outing Before Rematch
Seth Lugo gets a second crack at Max Scherzer tonight, six days after giving up nine earned runs in Cleveland.
US Open Influencer Credentials Double, And Tennis Etiquette Cracks
The U.S. Open nearly doubled its creator credentials to close to 100 this year. A halted Osaka match and viral ring-light clips show the cost of reach without onboarding.
Opinion: Are cracks beginning to show in the Nurmagomedov dynasty?
Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov created one of MMA’s great coaching legacies, but recent setbacks raise questions about whether the team built around his methods has already reached its peak.
Kenya's President William Ruto orders crackdown on foreigners operating small businesses
It comes amid concerns over the growing number of traders from neighbouring countries.
Federal judge blocks Trump’s newest attempt to crack down on birthright citizenship
A federal judge on Wednesday blocked President Donald Trump’s renewed attempt to limit birthright citizenship, partially halting an executive order the president issued after the Supreme Court struck down his more sweeping effort last year.
Repression of political opposition surges in post-election Zambia
Following Zambia’s contested presidential and parliamentary elections almost three weeks ago, the crackdown on political opposition has intensified, raising concerns about the future of democracy in the country, according to a UN Human Rights Council-appointed expert.
Western Conference power rankings: Can Suns crack top-6?
The Lakers, Suns, Jazz and Mavericks all have star power. Where are they in Kellan Olson's Western Conference power rankings?
Massachusetts Senate Primary Election 2026 Live Results
See live results from the 2026 Massachusetts Senate primary election as Republican and Democrat votes are counted by candidate and county.
Massachusetts House Primary Election 2026 Live Results
See live results from the 2026 Massachusetts House primary election as Republican and Democrat votes are counted by candidate and county.
Trump admin shuts down 270 driving schools in fraud crackdown
President Donald Trump's administration continued its nationwide campaign against fraud with new announcements targeting trucking fraud in Detroit.
Instagram cracks down on AI accounts pretending to be human
Give us a proper AI filter, you cowards.
A new recipe unlocks “impossible” nanocrystals for LEDs, implants, and superconductors
Scientists have cracked a long-standing chemistry problem, creating nanocrystals from tough metal nitrides that were previously extremely difficult to produce at this scale. The breakthrough could turn familiar materials used in LEDs, implants, and superconductors into building blocks for flexible electronics, printable devices, and other technologies.
For at least 1 week, Bill Belichick has quieted the noise at UNC — and even cracked a smile
The Tar Heels played tough defense, didn't kill themselves with huge mistakes or penalties and generally made life tough for TCU. Sounds a lot like a Belichick-coached team, doesn't it?