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Just before he left Peltz's side, Beckham took it upon himself to fluff the train of her Alberta Ferretti gown.

Just before he left Peltz's side, Beckham took it upon himself to fluff the train of her Alberta Ferretti gown.

The revelations in Anthropic's threat intelligence report come after a former top researcher at the company warned of the risks of AI to humanity.

Democratic Gov. Josh Green asked President Trump on Wednesday to issue a major disaster declaration.

What More Evidence Does The Blob Need That Michael Gove Was Right?

Authored by Toby Young via The Daily Sceptic,

When I think of Michael Gove perusing the latest PISA league tables, proving yet again that his education reforms have transformed the life chances of English schoolchildren, a line from Broadcast News, the 1987 romcom, comes to mind.

"It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room," says a veteran television news man to a young female producer.

"No," she replies. "It's awful."

When it comes to teaching and learning, the man who ran the Department for Education from 2010 - 14 really does know better. As he has pointed out, a natural experiment has taken place in Great Britain over the last 16 years - longer, if you date the beginning of the reform programme to the Labour and Skills Act 2000 - with England implementing a raft of educational reforms and Scotland and Wales stubbornly sticking to the same old failed formula. The results in the just-published 2025 PISA data are there for all to see.

English 15 year-olds scored 492 in maths, 497 in reading and 516 in science - 29, 36 and 34 points respectively above the OECD average. England now sits comfortably in the upper reaches of the developed world, having climbed into the top 10 in all three subjects.

Wales, by contrast, has fallen below the OECD average, its maths score declining a full 10 points since 2022. Scotland, though still nominally above the international average, has flatlined since its own dismal 2022 showing and now trails England by roughly a year's worth of learning. Just think about that: in Scotland, the average child is a year behind his English counterparts. (In Wales, they are two years behind.)

So Lord Gove has been vindicated. But knowing he was right won't be much comfort, given the resistance to his reforms in the devolved nations. No free schools, no academies, no 'comprehensive grammars'. No phonics, no spelling and grammar tests, no maths mastery, no EBacc, no Progress 8. Just the same old romantic dross - 'problem solving', 'transferable skills', 'child-centred learning' - that has failed Scottish and Welsh schoolchildren for decades.

Instead of replicating Westminster's knowledge-rich curriculum, Edinburgh and Cardiff rolled out a skills-based "curriculum for excellence". Even today, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of its failure, the SNP Education Secretary, Màiri McAllan, is still defending this rag-bag of progressive clichés.

Scotland's education system, she said in response to the latest PISA figures, looks at "artistic expression, problem solving and moral education" so it produces "well-rounded individuals who are ready and capable to be resilient in this world". Not so ready and capable, Màiri, if they can't read, write or add up. As Gove rightly concluded, there's no evidence schools can teach artistic expression, problem solving or character traits like resilience, so it's better to focus on what they can teach.

The unions have a lot to answer for. In England, it was a standing joke among education reformers in the early 2010s that the 'n' in the NUT stood for 'no' because England's largest teaching union had blocked every reform for the last 50 years. Gove and his trusted lieutenants like Nick Gibb faced down the NUT and drove through his reforms in the teeth of ferocious opposition. But his Scottish and Welsh counterparts weren't so robust, quickly abandoning any effort to overhaul their failing schools when the unions objected.

Some of this can be explained by not wanting to copy what the hated Tories were doing down south. But even when the OECD recommended Scotland reproduce some of the measures that were clearly succeeding in England - a pared-down academic core, greater headteacher autonomy, stricter behaviour management policies, more rigorous assessment - the EIS, Scotland's largest teaching union, threw up its arms in horror. Each time Scottish education ministers have so much as gestured towards reform, the union has treated it as an act of war.

All of which must be profoundly depressing for Lord Gove. What more do you need? he must be thinking. Worse, the current Labour Government is in the process of dismantling the Gove reforms. Incredibly, Bridget Phillipson and now Lucy Powell have looked at the PISA data and concluded that England's education system should be more like that of Scotland and Wales - less school autonomy, no more free schools, continuous assessment instead of rigorous exams, toothless behaviour policies, and a neutered Ofsted. At the heart of Labour's new national curriculum, we're told, will be 'sustainability' and 'decolonisation'.

The blob is back and the smartest man in the room must be reluctantly concluding that no amount of evidence will convince his opponents he was right.

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/11/2026 - 03:30

The remains were found on Mount Yonah in White County at about 11:20 a.m. on Sept. 9, according to the White County Sheriff's Office.

Dear Abby advises on navigating an estranged friend's death and mixed emotions over a birthday.

Sports Illustrated model Brooks Nader kicked off New York Fashion Week in a daring sheer black lace midi dress at a CFDA event in Manhattan.

Sports Illustrated model Brooks Nader kicked off New York Fashion Week in a daring sheer black lace midi dress at a CFDA event in Manhattan.

Aaron Judge was out of the lineup Thursday, but there is no reason to be concerned.

NJ hairdresser Jaclyn Diiorio, 28, faces federal charges for allegedly trying to hire a hitman to kill her cop ex-boyfriend and his daughter.

Austria's Headscarf Ban For Under-14 Schoolgirls Comes Into Force

Via Remix News,

Austria's new nationwide ban on "traditional Muslim" head coverings, including hijabs and burqas, for girls under 14 in both public and private schools, has now taken effect as of Sept. 7, 2026. in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland.

The start date coincided with the start of the new school year.

Austria's remaining states will follow with a ban next week as well.

The measure, framed by the government as a child-protection and gender-equality policy, immediately faced visible resistance from Muslims and the first formal legal challenge.

At an Islamic primary school in Vienna, reporters from Austrian news outlet Heute observed young girls arriving to school still wearing headscarves accompanied by their mothers. One child wore a pink hijab coordinated with her dress; two slightly older students entered in simple hijabs without parents. School officials did not immediately clarify how they would apply the ban on private Islamic institutions.

The law requires schools to start with conversations involving the student and her legal guardians. Repeated violations trigger involvement of child-protection services, with fines of €150 to €800 possible for parents as a last resort. Teachers, already under strain, must initiate these talks. There are now fears of real conflict arising in the coming months.

Integration Minister Claudia Bauer of the conservative ÖVP described the headscarf as "a sign of oppression and a means of controlling girls from the earliest childhood." Chancellor Christian Stocker has separately called for a constitutional ban on political Islam, saying he does not "want to live in an Islamic state."

The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the most popular party in the country is known for its even harsher stance toward migrants and Islam in the country. FPÖ politician Ricarda Berger stated there is "no place for political Islam in Austria, and certainly not in our schools."

The party wants a general ban on all headscarves and face coverings in schools for both students and teachers alike, which would cover all ages.

Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of the liberal NEOS acknowledged uncertainty about the law's fate at the Constitutional Court, stating: "You can never be completely certain."

He added that the government and education ministry "carried out very intensive consultations" to draft a constitutionally compliant text.

Only the Greens opposed the bill in parliament. Green politician Sigi Maurer accused Wiederkehr of "creating new conflicts and offloading them onto the teachers," saying the minister wanted to "foist the role of police officers onto them."

Teachers' union chairman Paul Kimberger noted that some communities had already announced they would resist and that certain conversations with parents "will probably have limited success."

The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ), the largest Islamic organization in the country, condemned the ban as discriminatory. Spokesperson Carla Amina Baghajati said, "We believe it unjustifiably restricts the fundamental right to freedom of religion and disproportionately affects Muslim girls. Rather than protecting children, it singles out a specific religious practice and risks excluding the very children it claims to support."

The IGGÖ has pledged to support families challenging the law at the Constitutional Court. A request for annulment was filed on the first day of school.

A 2020 Constitutional Court ruling had struck down an earlier ban limited to children under 10, finding it violated Austria's duty of religious neutrality. The court dismissed premature challenges to the new law in July because it had not yet entered force, but that procedural barrier is now gone. Left-wing student groups have called for protests. An 11-year-old girl demonstrated against the ban in February carrying a banner that, translated into English, read, "My headscarf, my decision."

The Constitutional Court is likely to have the final word on the issue.

Read more here...

Tyler Durden Fri, 09/11/2026 - 02:00

About 8,200 cards were misprinted because of an error by the state’s vendor.

Miami Hurricanes star receiver Malachi Toney may have been sending a message to Heisman Trophy voters in Thursday’s 77-7 blowout over Florida A&M.  Literally.  Toney hit the Heisman pose again after he scored a touchdown early in the second quarter to put the Hurricanes up 27-0. The hopeful for college football’s biggest award has scored...

Follow along for the best snaps from the festival.

Follow along for the best snaps from the festival.

A Minnesota State Fairgoer was savagely attacked by a group of "young men" who fractured his jaw in multiple places — turning his night out with friends into a "hellish nightmare," his fianceé claimed.

The buzz around Vice President JD Vance was palpable after he delivered a keynote address on the final day of the GOP midterm convention, with many attendees deeming him the clear heir apparent to President Trump.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani joined an interfaith walk at an NYC Islamic center to honor 9/11 victims, amid calls for him to skip anniversary events.

A Florida man convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” in the 1990s was put to death Thursday, becoming the state’s 15th person executed this year.