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Maybe we should question this AI “future” before surrendering to it. The post Big Tech Is Building a New Feudalism appeared first on OtherWords.

New York City needs to build 700,000 new housing units over the next 10 years, the Mamdani administration said Wednesday, a figure larger than previous estimates. Meeting that goal would require the city to hit very ambitious construction targets. The report, the first to be issued under a 2023 City Council law requiring regular housing […] The post Mamdani Administration Says NYC Needs to Build 700,000 New Housing Units in the Next Decade appeared first on The City Reporter.

The MTA’s plan to convert to a zero-emissions bus fleet by 2040 has hit enough roadblocks that the target date is “in jeopardy” of not being met, a new report from New York state’s top fiscal watchdog warns. The audit from state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli comes after the MTA acknowledged in June that it had […] The post MTA’s 2040 Goal for Zero-Emissions Bus Fleet Is ‘In Jeopardy,’ NY Comptroller Says appeared first on The City Reporter.

YouTube has blocked “My Life” (Moj život), a channel run by the Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, the Serbian-language service of the Russian state news agency Sputnik said.

Durante casi dos años, la versión oficial israelí negó cualquier implicación en la muerte de Hind Rajab. Ahora, una nueva investigación militar admite que sus tropas abrieron fuego contra el vehículo donde viajaba la niña y también contra la ambulancia enviada para rescatarla, reabriendo uno de los episodios más controvertidos de la guerra de Gaza.

“No más operaciones”, dijo. Era mediados de enero de 2026, y mi esposo Mike Salmon, que entonces tenía 73 años, apenas comenzaba a recuperarse de una odisea de tres meses que incluyó tres cirugías relacionadas con aneurismas aórticos, sepsis y una aterradora caída en el delirio asociada con una estancia en la unidad de cuidados […]

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.Colorado eleventh graders lost some ground on SAT math and reading and writing tests this year, but ninth and tenth graders posted gains on both subjects on the PSAT.The combined results paint a mostly positive picture for student learning in math and reading in high school, with students in 11th grade still performing better overall than they did two years ago. However, state officials said the groups of students who have historically underperformed still lag behind.“The overall story of this year’s assessment release is one of progress, but also one of continued work ahead,” said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, the Colorado Department of Education’s chief assessment officer.The department released statewide assessment data on Wednesday afternoon, a trove of information that includes how students performed on the national standardized tests taken this spring. Colorado measures how well students are learning in subjects by looking at the PSAT and SAT rather than using its own state-created assessment. The drops on SAT math and reading and writing show students backslid slightly.On the 11th grade SAT math test, 31.6% of students scored proficient, a drop of .9 percentage points compared to last year. Students exceeded 2024 measures by .5 percentage points. On the SAT reading and writing sections, student achievement dropped 2 percentage points compared to last year, falling to 59.6% of students rated as proficient. That’s ahead of the 57.6% posted in 2024.Wirth-Hawkins called the spring PSAT results “encouraging” because of the overall increases.Students scored higher overall on 10th grade PSAT tests compared to the year before. Ninth graders also posted higher overall scores on PSAT math tests but only recorded a .2 percentage point increase on the reading test. Wirth-Hawkins said the year-over-year growth on the PSAT reveals that there are still achievement gaps, including among different student racial ethnicities and those from lower-income backgrounds. “Substantial differences in performance remain among student groups,” she said. “So, improvement in the overall percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations does not mean that the gaps have disappeared.”On all tests, white and Asian students continue to post much higher scores than their Black, Hispanic, and Native American peers.For example, on the PSAT grade 10 reading and writing test, 78,9% of white and 76.1% of Asian students scored proficient. But only 40% of Hispanic, 44% of Native American, and 45.1% of Black students scored proficient on that test.Students who qualify for free or reduced lunch also consistently scored about 30 points lower on SAT and PSAT math and reading and writing tests than other students.Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox.New state test results show math scores continued to rise for Colorado elementary and middle school students, with eighth graders making the biggest gains year over year. But literacy test results were uneven. Fourth and fifth graders’ reading and writing scores ticked up, while middle schoolers’ results fell across the board.The data, released Wednesday, comes from last spring’s Colorado Measures of Academic Progress, or CMAS. Students in grades 3 through 8 take the tests, which serve as a benchmark for how well Colorado kids are learning. The story of the latest scores “is one of progress, but also one of continued work ahead,” said Christina Wirth-Hawkins, chief assessment officer for the Colorado Department of Education.Middle school literacy likely falls into the second category. The percentage of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders meeting or exceeding state expectations declined. While 44.2% of sixth graders met that benchmark in 2025, only 41.6% did in 2026, the data shows. In a press conference, Education Commissioner Susana Córdova offered a possible explanation. Colorado has put significant focus on helping young students learn to read, but those same techniques aren’t emphasized in middle school, she said.“I was a middle school and a high school teacher,” Córdova said. “Most of your coursework to become a teacher is about teaching literature, teaching nonfiction, and less about teaching phonics or filling in the gaps when kids are struggling.”The focus on early literacy might be paying off for upper elementary students, state officials said. About 50% of fifth graders statewide met or exceeded expectations on the state literacy test, up from 48% the year before, the data shows. Fourth graders’ scores jumped the most, from 42% meeting or exceeding expectations last year to 47% this year.Math scores were up across the board. Eighth-grade results increased the most, going from 34.7% of students meeting or exceeding expectations last year to 37.8% this year.Córdova said Colorado students had the most ground to make up in math after scores plummeted during the pandemic. “For many students, math might have been harder to stick with during the school disruptions of the pandemic,” Córdova said. She referred to the year-over-year improvement as “stair-step gains.”Students who are approaching expectations can readStudents don’t pass or fail the state tests. They score in one of five categories: did not meet, partially met, approached, met, or exceeded expectations. To gauge whether students are on track, Colorado calculates the percentage who met or exceeded expectations. But this year, state officials emphasized that students who score in the approaching expectations category may still be performing near grade level. Students who are approaching expectations in literacy can read grade-level texts, Wirth-Hawkins said. But they may struggle to consistently demonstrate their understanding or express their knowledge in writing, which is also part of the literacy test, she said.While just 40.8% of third graders met or exceeded expectations in literacy this past spring, that percentage jumped to 60.5% when accounting for students who approached expectations.Test scores varied by school district and student demographicsBig test score gaps remained based on students’ race, family income, disability status, and whether they are learning English as a second language.For instance, about 50% of white students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in math statewide, compared with 21.6% of Black students and 19.4% of Hispanic students.Colorado also calculates how much progress students make compared with students who had similar scores the year before, a measure it calls growth. Elementary school girls showed above-average growth this past spring in both literacy and math.Test scores varied by school district. In math, 118 districts saw an increase in the percentage of students who met or exceeded expectations, while 66 saw a decrease.In literacy, 88 districts saw an increase and 96 saw a decrease. Those counts include boards of cooperative education services, or BOCES. Scores for more than a dozen districts or BOCES were suppressed in the state data because so few students took the tests.Literacy and math scores for the state’s largest school district, Denver Public Schools, increased with two exceptions. Denver’s scores in sixth and eighth grade literacy decreased, mirroring the state pattern. Overall, 42.5% of Denver students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded expectations in literacy, and 35% did so in math.That’s slightly below the statewide scores, with 44.7% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in literacy and 37.3% doing so in math.Some students also took science and social studies testsColorado students in grades 4 and 7 were also tested in social studies this past spring, and students in grades 5, 8, and 11 were tested in science.Science scores were down across the three grade levels, with the biggest dip in fifth grade. About 36% of fifth graders met or exceeded state expectations in science, down from 39% in 2025.In social studies, 25.6% of fourth graders and 36.6% of seventh graders met or exceeded expectations. State officials said it’s not possible to compare the scores with previous years because the 2026 tests were aligned to new state social studies standards.Colorado lawmakers voted in the spring to cut the fourth grade social studies test in future years to save money. Only seventh graders will take it from now on.Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Сьогодні ввечері російські війська атакували Вознесенський район Миколаївської області, постраждала 46-річна жінка

A cantora beninense Angélique Kidjo viveu nesta terça-feira (18), uma consagração histórica ao inaugurar sua estrela na Calçada da Fama de Hollywood, em Los Angeles. Aos 66 anos, ela se tornou a primeira cantora africana a receber a honraria na prestigiada “Walk of Fame”.

A Texas race that would normally focus on oil wells, pipelines and energy policy has spilled into accusations of antisemitism. In a fundraising email last month, Bo French, the Republican nominee for the powerful Texas Railroad Commission, circulated an AI-generated image of Jon Rosenthal, his Jewish Democratic opponent, smiling inside the room where Russia’s Romanov... The post He’s campaigning to regulate Texas oil and gas. Why is he linking his Jewish opponent to the Bolshevik Revolution? appeared first on The Forward.

Qanûna Çarçoveyî di rojnama resmî de hate weşandin, ji vir û pêda piştî lêkolînê dê raportek were amadekirin û pêşkêşî Lijneya Ewlekarîya Netewî were kirin. Hiqûqnas biryardayîna Lijneya Ewlekarîya Netewî hiqşqî nabînin.

In early August, Russia experienced one of its most sweeping waves of VPN blocking yet. Leonid Volkov, a senior figure at the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), called the attack “the biggest in history.” Meduza asked representatives of four VPN services — Liberty VPN, Amnezia VPN, Paper VPN, and BlancVPN — how this attack differs from previous ones and whether Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal censorship agency, is following any logic in its decisions.

The project, which tribes say violates treaty rights, has been the subject of heated controversy and legal battles.

A source in the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, speaking anonymously to BBC News, has dismissed the idea of holding elections while the war continues, responding to a video address in which Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s former defense minister, called for the country to go to the polls.

Les Émirats arabes unis ont annoncé mardi 18 août 2026 suspendre tout commerce et transactions financières avec l'Iran, en réponse à l'escalade régionale entre Abou Dhabi et Téhéran. Mais ce gel des échanges commerciaux entre les deux pays pourrait surtout pénaliser la république islamique.

The West Virginia First Foundation will no longer receive funds from the state’s opioid settlements, according to a Tuesday news release from Attorney General J.B. McCuskey.

Conectar a las personas con ensayos clínicos es complicado. Incluso cuando alguien identifica un estudio prometedor, existe una larga lista de factores potencialmente problemáticos, entre ellos la incompatibilidad geográfica, así como consideraciones de tiempo y dinero. Simplemente encontrar un ensayo adecuado puede representar un enorme obstáculo. En una encuesta en línea reciente realizada a más […]

Mîrgehên Erebî yên Yekbûyî piştî gefên mûşekî hemû danûstandinên bazirganî û darayî yên bi Îranê re rawestandin. Rayedarên Amerîkî jî dibêjin, ew ê fişarên aborî li ser Îranê zêdetir bikin.

Jennie Sweet-Cushman, a professor of political science at Chatham University, said that while yesterday’s Democratic victory is significant, November’s electorate will be different and the likelihood of the district staying blue is a “tall order.” The post Does Democrat’s surprise win in red Butler County predict a wave? Experts urge caution. appeared first on Pittsburgh's Public Source. PublicSource is a nonprofit news organization serving the Pittsburgh region. Visit www.publicsource.org to read more.