China has had a bit of a mixed bag in terms of space exploration over the last few years. Following on from several successful missions to recover samples from the Moon, in June the space-faring nation saw one rocket explode after accidentally launching it during a static test.Now it appears that a rocket used to deliver the first 18 of a planned megaconstellation of satellites has broken apart in low-Earth orbit, sending hundreds of pieces of debris hurtling around the Earth. The Qianfan Constellation project aims to put 14,000 satellites into low-Earth orbit, in order to deliver a satellite broadband network similar to SpaceX's Starlink.While the rocket delivered the first satellites into orbit, the upper stage of the rocket broke apart shortly afterwards, creating a cloud of debris. The debris likely poses no threat to people on Earth, but the US Space Force is keeping a close eye on debris large enough to be trackable. "US Space Com can confirm the break-up of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket launched on Aug. 6, 2024, resulting in over 300 pieces of trackable debris in low-Earth orbit," US Space Command said in a statement posted to X (Twitter). "US Space Com has observed no immediate threats and continues to conduct routine conjunction assessments to support the safety and sustainability of the space domain."While larger, trackable pieces of debris are more of a concern, there are likely smaller pieces of the rocket now in Earth orbit which can only really be tracked through impacts on spacecraft."Large orbital debris (> 10 cm [3.9 inches]) is tracked routinely by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network. Objects as small as 3 mm can be detected by ground-based radars, providing a basis for a statistical estimate of their numbers," NASA explains. "Assessments of the population of orbital debris smaller than 1 mm can be made by examining impact features on the surfaces of returned spacecraft, although this has been limited to spacecraft operating in altitudes below 600 km [373 miles]."Debris is becoming a bit of a problem in Earth's orbit – it's never a great sign when space agencies set up hotlines in case space debris lands on your property. We are a messy species, and low-Earth orbit is apparently no exception to our "we'll clean that up later" rule. One concern about the debris is that it could cause the "Kessler Effect" (or Kessler Syndrome). Simply put, the Kessler Effect is where a single event (such as an explosion of a satellite) in low-Earth orbit creates a chain reaction, as debris destroys other objects in orbit. Should this happen, the debris could keep colliding with other objects, potentially causing communication problems and leaving areas of space inaccessible to spacecraft. Essentially, it could end up like the film Gravity, but with less George Clooney doing great eyebrow work and more "Hey what happened to my GPS". At worst, some speculate it could essentially trap us here on Earth, unable to leave.Space agencies around the world are trying to address the problem, including Japan's Active Debris Removal mission which completed the first stage of its mission earlier this year. The idea is to eventually have a spacecraft that can track space debris and push it into a safe de-orbit. As the latest space incident shows, we need it.

Paignton Zoo in the United Kingdom has welcomed its first Chilean flamingo chicks since 2018, and among the clutch was an egg tended to by a same-sex couple: Curtis and Arthur. The new dads have captured the hearts of many, but it’s by no means the first time this kind of behavior has been seen among birds.“Regarding the same-sex parenting, we aren’t entirely sure how this has come about, although it is a known phenomenon in Chilean flamingos as well as other bird flocks,” said Paignton Zoo birds curator Derek Smallbones in a statement. “The most likely scenario is that the egg was abandoned by another couple, so this pair have ‘adopted’ it.”Chilean flamingos typically take around 28 days to finish cooking in their eggs after being laid, in which time both parents – whoever they may be – will sit on top of the mud pile to incubate the offspring. Unlike the vibrant pink, long-legged adults, they come out a little dumpy in the leg department and with fluffy white-gray downy feathers.The Chilean flamingo chicks are the first born at the zoo since 2018.Image credit: Wild Planet TrustThis most recent clutch are the stars of Love Lagoon, an initiative inspired by the hit reality TV show Love Island. It provides regular updates on the relationships unfolding between the flamingos at Paignton Zoo, where four chicks have already arrived and more are expected to be on the way.“We are pleased at the success of this year’s breeding programme so far,” added Smallbones. “It’s a testament to the skill and hard work put in by the Bird Team and we are hopeful that we may see more eggs hatch over the coming days and weeks.”Flamingos are just one of many birds in which same-sex parenting has been documented. Pairs of male penguins of various species have incubated eggs, hatched and/or raised chicks in zoos all over the place, including gentoos in Australia, Humboldts in England, and African penguins in the Netherlands. There was even a pair of king penguins in Denmark caught chick-napping an abandoned baby.Curtis and Arthur tending to their egg.Image credit: Wild Planet TrustSame-sex behaviors aren’t limited to parenting, either, and observations of same-sex mating behaviors have been seen across a wide range of species, even if science doesn’t always report on it. Author of A Little Gay Natural History, Josh Davis, told IFLScience in a recent interview that vast swathes of the natural world engage in queer behavior.“Whilst it has only been officially recorded in around 1,500 species, this figure is likely a massive underestimate. This is because it can be found in pretty much every branch of the evolutionary tree, from beetles and butterflies to turtles and squirrels, so the idea that it is limited to just a few hundred species out of the 2.13 million described to date is incredibly unlikely.”  So cheers to you, Curtis and Arthur. Congrats on your fluffy bundle of joy.

Even people with little interest in boxing are likely aware of the explosion of anger released when Italian Angela Carini withdrew early from a fight with Algerian Imane Khelif early in the Olympic women's boxing. The issues raised are not purely scientific, but a great many of the comments about Khelif's eligibility to compete in women's boxing implied or assumed facts where genetic knowledge is highly relevant. While academics with qualifications of varying levels of relevance rushed to comment, IFLScience happened to be interviewing leading expert on sex chromosomes Professor Jenny Graves of Latrobe University about other recently published research. We took the opportunity to ask for her take on the situation while we were at it.Many of those who initially objected to the inclusion of Khelif and Lin Yu-ting in the Olympics women's boxing claimed both were transgender. This claim, following on from furor at the Tokyo Olympics over the inclusion of a trans weightlifter (who came last), is false. Both boxers are considered female from birth, and there is no evidence that was even contested until recently.Subsequent objections were generally based on the idea that both boxers have XY chromosomes, potentially meaning they have Swyer syndrome. This is a condition where people have female genitalia, despite having the XY chromosomes usually associated with being male in mammals. Swyer syndrome is referred to as a Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD), a group often formerly termed as "intersex" conditions.The basis for these statements were tests done by the International Boxing Association (IBA), which then disqualified both Khelif and Yu-ting from the 2023 Women’s World Boxing Championships. However, the IBA has not released the results of this test. There is, therefore, no confirmation that Khelif and Yu-ting have XY chromosomes at all. Even if they do, Swyer is not the only syndrome that combines XY chromosomes with genitalia that leads people to be considered female from birth.Although the controversy is partially about genetics, it is a social one as well. Conor MacDonald of the University of South Australia has made the way sports make space for or rejects diversity the focus of his research.In a statement, Macdonald argued that sports are often prone to “black and white thinking”. That’s understandable, particularly at the professional level, where who wins and loses dominates the conversation, and other results may not even be allowed. However, Macdonald said, it makes officials and spectators ill-equipped to deal with situations where complexity cannot be willed away.According to MacDonald the black and white here is not only the metaphor of absolutes. "Historically, black and brown women have been perceived as not fitting white notions of femininity and seen as being too masculine," he said. "I feel terrible for Khelif, but these events haven't surprised me. Her being from where she is, the color of her skin, it's not surprising that her gender has been questioned—especially considering Khelif, a woman of color, was competing against a white Italian boxer."MacDonald pointed to prominent athletes such as Serena Williams and Brittney Griner, whose status as women has been questioned online, as well as trans athletes.A Giant In Genetics’ TakeThere are tens or even hundreds of thousands of people working in genetics research, so it is not hard to find a wide diversity of views among those with qualifications. Few, however, have Graves’ expertise on the topic. Almost 40 years ago, she solved one of the largest problems that had been troubling geneticists about the way sex chromosomes express themselves differently from the rest of the genome in placental mammals, including humans.Since then, she has led teams that have made one advance after another in our understanding of sex chromosomes and their influence on the body, most recently revealing that chickens and platypuses have a different approach to ours. This has won her a string of scientific awards, including the Prime Minister’s Prize For Science, the most prestigious scientific honor Australia can bestow, given to only one scientist a year. Although Graves’ most recent publication did not directly have anything to do with humans, let alone athletes, it is a reminder of how complex these chromosomes can be, and that they can often take multiple paths to apparently similar outcomes.This is the case among humans as well, Graves told IFLScience. “There is so much variation, variation in so many pathways.” Simply saying that someone has a Y chromosome doesn’t always tell us much. The Y chromosome is small, and shrinking, but nevertheless includes some genes generally acknowledged to have little to do with making someone male or with sporting prowess.That job primarily belongs to the SRY gene, but even saying that the presence of this gene equals maleness undersells the complexity and diversity that exists, Graves stresses. “There are 70 genes between SRY activation and making the gonads, so it is not a surprise to find there is variation in sexual differentiation,” she told IFLScience.This means that anyone thinking a single test, or even several tests, could unambiguously sort athletes into male and female categories is mistaken. Someone with an SRY gene, but for whom only a few of the genes Graves refers to activate, is unlikely to gain any genetic advantage over typical XX females. They are also unlikely to have any hint that they are genetically unusual until tested, including in some cases being able to give birth. To prevent someone from entering women’s sport on this basis in the name of fairness would make a mockery of the term.If people are excluded from sporting contests based on genetic characteristics, Graves jokes she will enter an “over-80, under-androgen, short-legged netball team.” If everyone else is excluded for genetic advantages, she might finally achieve the sporting success that has eluded her.More seriously, she added: “I do not think there is any hope of legislating a level playing field,” particularly since no one is trying to do this for genetic variations on other chromosomes that confer an athletic advantage.Women’s and men’s sporting contests are likely to remain distinct, forcing sporting bodies to wrestle with where boundaries should be drawn. Notably, those keen to exclude anyone with a hint of a Y chromosome from women’s sports may well be at least as opposed to anyone with male external genitalia being included. This means they would also demand anyone with de la Chapelle syndrome, where XX chromosomes can be accompanied by a penis and testicles, also be rejected.With so many genetic gradations and variations, Graves does not think any formula will be able to resolve the debate. 

Monday’s CNN This Morning briefly came off the rails when pompous pundit David Frum of The Atlantic (perhaps the most pompous outlet in the liberal media) said that 2024 GOP vice president candidate JD Vance’s criticisms of Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz over his policies and military record are coded language accusing him of being “a sexual deviant of some kind.” Thankfully, conservative strategist Matt Gorman was on-set to unload on Frum for his “ridiculous” assertion. 'CNN This Morning' panel EXPLODES when David Frum claims JD Vance "is trying to suggest...Tim Walz is a sexual deviant of some kind".@MattSGorman & even @Kasie Hunt were NOT amused. Gorman: "What are you talking about? What are you talking about? That’s ridiculous, David." pic.twitter.com/sIHP2HuSHz — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 12, 2024 Frum was teed up by Inside Politics and State of the Union host Dana Bash, who gushed over Walz as having coined “this term ‘weird’” and shown Democrats how they shouldn’t bring “a knife to a gunfight when it comes to the rhetoric of Donald Trump." The smug elitist then claimed: “Vance spends way too much time online and spends way too much time with people who are online, so a lot — a lot of what he says he’s going when we in comprehensible to you unless you participate in or have some acquaintance with this strange underworld that he comes from.” Frum made his move: “So, when — the point to — I’m going to say this — it’s not nice — it’s not true, but what he’s trying to suggest is that Tim Walz is a sexual deviant of some kind.” Both Gorman and host Kasie Hunt were stunned, blurting out, “what?” Gorman hit back, twice asking, “what are you talking about?” Frum doubled down: “That — that’s what he’s trying to do. That’s what he’s trying to imply.” “That’s ridiculous, David. David, no. That’s ridiculous,” Gorman replied. Of course, Frum defended his outlandish conspiracy theory by blaming...Donald Trump Jr.? Amid the cross-talk, Gorman noted the irony that it was Walz who “started this whole ‘weird’ line of attack” (plus eagerly forwarded the fraudulent lie about Vance and a couch) and the Harris-Walz team who created the “brat summer” news cycle (click “expand”): GORMAN: That’s ridiculous, David. FRUM: Of course, I — GORMAN: David, no. FRUM: — that is what he — GORMAN: No, that’s ridiculous. Like, first of all — FRUM: — well, look at — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — a sexual deviant? No, first of all, Tim Walz — FRUM: — look at — GORMAN: — started this whole weird line of attack — FRUM: — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — and you talk about being online? FRUM: — look — look at — GORMAN: We just spent three months —  FRUM: — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — or three weeks on “brat summer”. And you’re going on sexual deviant? That is ridiculous. FRUM: — if you want to — GORMAN: That is ridiculous. Frum eventually arrived at his point blaming Donald Trump Jr., suggesting this was fair game because the First Son’s “Twitter feed” illustrates “the underworld — the lava coming up from the ugliest parts of American life”. Frum continued to implicitly invoke the couch falsehood as he finished with an ironic denunciation of Vance as being “so filled with rage and contempt for others": “[E]verything is couched as a personal attack of the most vicious kind and that’s what he’s doing with Tim Walz. That’s why people think he’s weird because he — he’s so brilliant, he is so capable, so why is he so filled with rage and contempt for others?” Earth to Frum: Isn’t your entire magazine one long-winded elitist hatefest against those moronic rubes out there who aren’t as smart and wealthy as you are? Before moving on, Hunt thanked Gorman “for pushing back on that.” Earlier, Frum strongly implied Harris doesn’t really need to do any TV interviews and answer tough questions because she can just publish TikTok videos: INSANE: David Frum argues that Kamala Harris doesn't have to do ANY TV interviews because she can just post TikTok videos, claiming TikTok is to TV what TV was to radio in the 1950s. pic.twitter.com/EEOqsMyT8F — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 12, 2024 Frum said moments earlier that questions about Harris “slightly shift[ing] her opinions at various points in her career” (read: flip-flops) aren’t really a problem because “[t]he biggest flip-flopper ever on a presidential ticket” is Vance. Showing how ensconced Frum’s worldview was, he vented that, “JD Vance used to publish on my website” and akin to “a Hollywood joke, ‘do you know Doris Day?’ ‘Why, I knew her before she was a virgin.’ I knew J.D Vance when he was a moderate Republican...As late as 2016, he was publishing articles in The Atlantic, our magazine, denouncing Trump”. In one other note, Frum used a separate block to denounce Trump as clinically narcissistic and suggested without evidence that Trump is filled with “worthlessness and self-hatred”, but was countered with Gorman joking “we know a lot” about it since the panelists all work “in media and politics.” To see the relevant transcript from August 12, click “expand”: CNN This Morning August 12, 2024 6:04 a.m. Eastern KASIE HUNT: David Frum, the kind of swirl around Donald Trump this weekend, that Truth Social post he ranted against leakers as well. He clearly seems very rattled by Times piece, by the polling. What do you see here? I mean, these two campaigns are now so starkly different. DAVID FRUM: What I see here is the story we’ve been living with for a decade. In 2016, Donald Trump got a smaller share of the vote than Al Gore, than John Kerry, than Mitt Romney. In fact, he finished — of the 12 people who have run for president in the six elections, from 2000 to 2020, he finished second from the bottom. And in 2020, Donald Trump got less — a smaller share of the vote than John Kerry and Mitt Romney, and Al Gore, and he finished this time third from the bottom of those 12 people. There was not a day in his presidency when, according to any reputable poll, Donald Trump had the support of even half the American people. The story of the Trump era has been how do you lever 46 percent of the vote into 60 percent of the political power? It worked in 2016. It didn’t work in 2020. And what’s going on in 2024 is the anti-Trump majority, which has always been bigger than the pro-Trump minority, is — but has always been less cohesive. Is it reassembling and reenergizing itself to stop the man who tried to make a coup d’etat from returning to the presidency? HUNT: Matt Gorman, there are a lot of Republicans around Donald Trump who are trying to get him to do things a certain way, and he does not seem to be listening to them. I mean, what has stood out to you over the last — MATT GORMAN: A couple of things, right? Like we — a month ago, we were all up in Milwaukee, and it was remarkable kind of the discipline that he had, but again, it was easy to have the discipline when you’re up, you know, two to five points. HUNT: — winning is easy. GORMAN: Exactly, right? And so, I think — HUNT: Winning is very straightforward. GORMAN: — and there’s an Axios piece that came out talking, kind of alluding to that same sentiment that The Times talked about, and he had J. D. Vance in the Sunday shows really effectively levering some strong and probably the best, I assume, polling messaging against Kamala, at least it certainly was when Joe Biden ran into that chameleon type attack. And then Axios piece publishers talking about how kind of Trump is kind of very fuming and angry and then he posts about, you know, Kamala and the rally and A.I. and so, what you have, I think, is Vance trying to have that traditional messaging, the one that follows where the Trump ads are. And then, you know, you end up kind of Trump kind of careens into a whole different set of things. HUNT: We end up in Trump world, right? You’re referring to — they accused — GORMAN: Yes. HUNT: — Harris of putting out an A.I. photo — GORMAN: Yes. HUNT: — of her crowd at a recent event. (....) 6:08 a.m. Eastern FRUM: The Trump campaign has this weird problem. If your main line on attack on Kamala Harris is that she slightly shifted her opinions at various points in her career, who are we going to put this message in the hands of? Who’s going to deliver it? The biggest flip-flopper ever on a presidential ticket. I mean, many of us — I — J D Vance used to publish on my website. You know, there’s a Hollywood joke, do you know Doris Day? Why, I knew her before she was a virgin. I knew J.D Vance when he was a moderate Republican who supported the Iraq war, supported free trade, and that was not when he was in his 20s, that was as a — as a person of making his way in politics. As late as 2016, he was publishing articles in The Atlantic, our magazine, denouncing Trump as a fascist, a Nazi, a threat to everything good and decent. And then, he is the man you’re going to select to deliver the — she’s shifted from like this point on the center left to this slightly different point on the center left, this guy? Incredible. GORMAN: Because he’s the one sitting for interviews, right? He’s had to answer that. Right now, the Kamala Harris kind of tactic is she does an anonymous aides sends out, which — essentially, the anonymous aid disowns everything she — that she talked about from 2019 to 2020. So, you haven’t had that opportunity in whatsoever. So, she’s had really a total 180 from when she ran in 2019 and 2020 and we don’t know why. HUNT: Yeah. I mean, David, do you think Harris is going to have to sit down for these interviews? I mean, she hasn’t — she hasn’t yet, and it has not been her strongest forum in the course of her career. FRUM: Yeah. I imagine she will. I don’t know. But the way you communicate presidential campaigns is also a little different, in the TikTok era from the way it was in the network television — HUNT: Meghan is nodding. She doesn’t think candidates have to do these interviews at all. FRUM: — in the network TV era. And you also sit down with different kinds of people that in the TikTok era from what you did — you know, it — look. this is television. I don’t want to say anything disrespectful of television. But if we were on radio in 1950, wondering when is the candidate going to sit next to — next — his or her next interview on the mutual broadcasting system, they’d say, well, there’s this thing called television that has come along and it may be changing politics. And TikTok has done the same thing. HUNT: Really interesting. (....) 6:17 a.m. Eastern HUNT: David Frum, David Plouffe said this, “these are not conspiratorial rantings from the deepest recesses of the internet. The author could have the nuclear codes and be responsible for decisions that will affect us all for decades.” What’s up with this? FRUM: Well, we often casually use the word narcissism to mean someone who’s self-involved. But that clinical narcissism is different. The clinical narcissist is struggling with deep inner feelings of worthlessness. And he constructs, or she constructs, a giant ideology of self-assertion to cope with their inner feelings of worthlessness. When anything threatens to puncture that — those fantasies, those fictions, the person can spiral into all kinds of mental collapse, into aggression, into violence, into self-hatred, but that’s — that’s the Donald Trump story. I think that down there is seething worthlessness and self-hatred. He’s constructed this fantasy of his life. And now, it’s being contradicted and he cannot cope. HUNT: I will just say none of us are actually card-carrying psychologists. So, we’ll just — we’ll leave that there. I — I take your point. FRUM: But some of us have known narcissists. GORMAN: We’re in media and politics. We know a lot of it. Yes. HUNT: But, Matt, I mean, this is like — I mean, come on. GORMAN: No, I mean, look. I — and I took — I approached from — as I said in the first block, from a communications point of view, right? You have — you have lining it up, Vance, and you have this kind of progression with your messaging and then it gets thrown kind of away and that was — again, that was what we didn’t see a month ago, as much as Democrats kind of — when we were talking in Milwaukee, Democrats are begging for things like this to intrude, to kind of distract from the Joe Biden is old, Joe Biden might drop out narrative. And, you know, we’re having out in spades now and I think that’s the tough part, because, again, I think a lot of Republicans I’ve talked to are very frustrated because there’s really potent attacks on Kamala and Tim Walz right now. There’s a lot of them. And Vance is giving — as we saw on the Sunday shows, a pretty good articulation of them. But when you have the top of the ticket veering off of this stuff, this is why you spend eight minutes talking about this stuff. MEGAN HAYS: And people want to know how they’re going to make their lives better, how each of these people are going to make their lives better, and how their economic policies and what their vision is for the future and when you are not talking about the issues and talking about this nonsense, it is a distraction and you lose voters. GORMAN: Yeah, that’s what we talked about like — HAYS: Yeah. GORMAN: — we had that same problem with Joe Biden, right? When you’re only talking about like Joe Biden during that whole month, that was what you’re distracted from, and Trump was remarkably on-message with that stuff. HUNT: I mean, the sort of irony here, David, is that it just serves to highlight — FRUM: Yeah. HUNT: — the crowd she’s getting that he’s doing this. FRUM: And also, look. the basic grammar, the basic math of the Trump era has never changed. 46 percent of the country either likes him or will put up with him. And a majority of the country dislikes, disrespects, fears him. And that what we are watching is the anti-Trump majority, which has always been there. This is not new. We’re not seeing momentum. We’re not seeing momentum. We — we are seeing — we are seeing the coalition of the decent coming to life. (....) 6:38 a.m. Eastern DANA BASH: But, I guess — look, the point is, is that he’s not afraid to play in this sandbox and that is why the Tim — Tim Walz actually came up with this term weird because Democrats for so long have brought a sort of a knife to a gunfight when it comes to the rhetoric of Donald Trump, and they’re trying to be more in that space. FRUM: Also, look, J.D. Vance spends way too much time online and spends way too much time with people who are online, so a lot — a lot of what he says he’s going when we in comprehensible to you unless you participate in or have some acquaintance with this strange underworld that he comes from. So, when — the point to — I’m going to say this — BASH: Yeah. FRUM: — it’s not nice — it’s not true, but what he’s trying to suggest is that Tim Walz is a sexual deviant of some kind. MATT GORMAN: What? HUNT: Wait, what? GORMAN: What are you talking about? FRUM: That — that’s what he’s trying to do. GORMAN: What are you talking about? FRUM: That’s what he’s trying to imply. GORMAN: That’s ridiculous, David. FRUM: Of course, I — GORMAN: David, no. FRUM: — that is what he — HUNT: No. GORMAN: That’s ridiculous. Like, first of all — FRUM: — well, look at — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — a sexual deviant? No, first of all, Tim Walz — FRUM: — look at — GORMAN: — started this whole weird line of attack — FRUM: — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — and you wanna talk about being online? FRUM: — look — look at — GORMAN: We just spent three months —  FRUM: — look at Donald Trump — GORMAN: — or three weeks on “brat summer”. And you’re going on sexual deviant? That is ridiculous. FRUM: — if you want to — GORMAN: That is ridiculous. FRUM: — if you want to understand this — just — just as a point of analytic understanding, not — look at Donald Trump Jr’s Twitter feed to understand what the underworld — GORMAN: Oh yeah. FRUM: — the lava coming up from the ugliest parts of American life are, and what they’re trying to suggest. The — the point that J.D. Vance — when he says I want to talk about policy, it — he’s in a — he’s a candidate who’s trying to say, when I said that the unemployed are a bunch of lazy loads swilling beer on the couch at 9:00 a.m., what I meant to say is this country needs to do a better job of creating work for people, you know, that everything is couched as a personal attack of the most vicious kind and that’s what he’s doing with Tim Walz. That’s why people think he’s weird because he — he’s so brilliant, he is so capable, so why is he so filled with rage and contempt for others? HUNT: You’re saying that JD Vance’s is — is brilliant, you’re giving him credit for that? FRUM: Yes, he is brilliant. HUNT: Okay. FRUM: He’s a very, very intelligent man. HUNT: I — I — I will — FRUM: Why is he so filled with rage and contempt? HUNT: I — I appreciate Matt — you — being — you pushing back on that. I want to kind of bring it back to Dana’s interview[.]

There is an apparent campaign under way to erase the past in order to help Democrats lock down the future. Republican strategists, conservatives, and other keen-eyed observers highlighted an apparent effort behind the scenes at Wikipedia to downplay Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance's military record while a disputed military accomplishment of Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz has apparently gone untouched on the site. It appears this campaign to bury Vance's medals began in earnest after President Donald Trump named him as his running mate last month. Wikipedia is a massively popular online encyclopedia that nets over 4 billion visits each month. As this repository of supposedly accurate information — whose former leftist CEO stated that the "reference for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done" — is the seventh-most visited domain on the World Wide Web, it has the potential not only to influence AI system but to significantly influence voters and therefore elections. The trouble is that the truth sometimes takes a back seat at Wikipedia or at the very least is relegated to less visible real estate. For instance, cultural Marxism, according to Wikipedia, has been presented as a "far-right" conspiracy theory. The way information is framed on the site is also greatly skewed. The Manhattan Institute recently released the results of a damning and comprehensive study highlighting the site's leftist bias. Among the various indications of bias, the study found that "there is a clear tendency for the names of prominent left-leaning U.S. politicians to be used with more positive sentiment than their right-leaning counterparts." The study further indicated that in "Wikipedia articles, right-leaning terms are more often associated with the emotional categories of anger and disgust than left-leaning terms. In contrast, left-leaning terms are more often associated with the emotion of joy than right-leaning terms." Wikipedia's bias is manifest in a recent scandal over the disparate approaches taken to the vice presidential candidates in this year's election. 'There's no reason to exclude that information.' On Vance's Wikipedia page, there is — as with most politicians and high-profile personalities — an "infobox" on the right-hand side detailing critical biographic details such as his occupation, his educational history, and the particulars of his military service. The revision history log and Talk page reveal a battle over what to include among Vance's military medals. On July 29, the page listed Vance's Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal; his Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal; his Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; his Iraq Campaign Medal; and his Navy and Marine Corps Sea Service Deployment Ribbon. On Aug. 3, editors had cut the list down to three medals. On Aug. 8, the page listed only the former Marine's Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal and his Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal. The next day, Vance was apparently down to just the first of these two medals. At one stage, an editor asked, "What is the point of listing this award[?]" Some behind the scenes have apparently fought back against the efforts to conceal Vance's record. One editor wrote, "I can see the argument against service medals but let's give those who served credit for their service and sacrifice." "At a minimum CAMPAIGN MEDALS should be included. But all earned medals should be listed. There's no reason to exclude that information," wrote one user. Another editor noted, "Wow, just checking the edit history of when and how these medals got removed and it clearly looks like bad faith." According to the Talk page, which is crowded with evidence of a strong desire to politically kneecap Vance, there was a request put in Monday to return "the list of his service awards that was removed between July and Aug 11," which appears to have been temporarily obliged. However, at the time of publication, only two military awards were listed in the infobox. While a leftist cabal of volunteers at Wikipedia may not want it known, Vance's certificate of release from active duty indicates that he received the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal; Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal; Iraq Campaign Medal; Sea Service Deployment Ribbon; Global War on Terrorism Service Medal; National Defense Service Medal; Letter of Appreciation (5th Awd); Meritorious Mast Certificate of Appreciation; Rifle Expert Badge; and Pistol Expert Badge. He left the service with the rank of corporal. Republican strategist Andrew Surabian noted, "To make this even worse, while leftwing @Wikipedia scrubbed @JDVance's military awards from his page, they still falsely list Stolen Valor Tim Walz's rank as 'Command Sergeant Major.'" Blaze News previously reported that Thomas Behrends, a former member of Walz's unit and now a retired command sergeant major of the Minnesota National Guard, has cast doubt on the authenticity of the rank listed for Walz on Wikipedia. Harris' running mate apparently never completed the training or the necessary coursework for a command sergeant major at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy. Additionally, his discharge documents were changed to indicate that — contrary to Walz's claims — he retired with the rank of master sergeant, not command sergeant major. John Kolb, the service member who became lieutenant colonel of Walz's unit after the Democrat's departure, recently confirmed that Walz did "not successfully complete any assignment as a sergeant major," reported the New York Post. Some Wikipedia editors have raised a stink about the false information provided on Walz's page, but it nevertheless remains. Blaze News reached out to Wikipedia and the Trump campaign for comment but did not receive responses by deadline. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

An 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old woman were stabbed Monday in London's Leicester Square in the United Kingdom, police said on X.A male has been arrested and is in custody, police said.'I just saw a kid getting stabbed, and I just tried to save her.'"At this stage, there is no suggestion that the incident is terror-related," police added.The girl "will require hospital treatment, but her injuries are not life threatening," police said, adding that the woman — who also was taken to a hospital — "suffered more minor injuries." Police also said, "We don't believe there are any outstanding suspects." Police officers stand by a cordoned off area in London's famous Leicester Square after an 11-year-old girl and a 34-year-old were stabbed, Aug. 12, 2024.Photo by BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty ImagesAmid Monday's stabbing, a security guard told the Guardian he “jumped on” and took a knife from a male he said stabbed the child.The paper added that the guard by the name of Abdullah, 29, told the PA news agency: “I heard a scream. At that moment I saw there was one person, roughly [in their] mid-30s or early 30s, and he was like stabbing a kid. I jumped on him, held the hand in which he was [carrying] a knife, and just put him down on the floor and just held him and took the knife away from him. Then a couple of more people joined as well, and we just held him until the police came; it took maybe three to four minutes for the police to arrive, and then they just took him into custody.”You can view a video report about the incident here; it includes a clip of officers holding the apparent suspect — with his face blurred — as well as an interview with the security guard. The Guardian reported that Joy Akan, another tour bus company worker, took video of the suspect after his arrest, and it showed he's a "lightly built man in a black T-shirt with an Abbey Road logo on the front. He was wearing black tracksuit trousers. The video was time stamped at 11.41 a.m." (6:41 a.m. EST). Numerous video clips posted to X show the purported suspect in custody without blurring his face.The Guardian said a police cordon surrounded the double doors of the TWG Tea shop, and at least six police officers were at the scene. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty ImagesAbdullah — who told the paper he's worked security at the TWG Tea shop for the past “seven to eight months” — said his colleagues gave first aid to the child before police arrived.“I just saw a kid getting stabbed, and I just tried to save her," he told the Guardian. "It’s my duty to just save them."Ezat Katerzis, who's with a tour bus company, told the paper the attacker appeared "mentally disturbed" and that "he just stabbed the girl out of the blue. She was with her family.”Katerzis added to the Guardian that the girl appeared to have been stabbed near her right eye and that "blood was pouring out of her face" and that "she will survive. They picked her up, and she stood [on her] feet. They took her inside the [TWG Tea] shop, and the paramedic came.”Katerzis also told the paper that the attacker "is only a skinny guy. He didn’t say anything when they arrested him and took him to the van. It was like he was on drugs or something. I don’t think it was a robbery. He just started stabbing her for no reason.”Just two weeks ago, a 17-year-old male was accused of killing three and injuring numerous other victims in a July 29 mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift-themed children's dance class in U.K. seaside town of Southport.Officials initially said there was no evidence that terrorism was a motive in the Southport knife attack, which angered many who accused the government of covering up evidence. Police identified suspect Axel Rudakubana and charged him with three counts of murder and 10 counts of attempted murder. Officials identified him as being from Cardiff but also noted that his parents are Rwandan. Unrest and violence erupted the day after the stabbings and have spread across the United Kingdom.This is a developing news story; updates will be added.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Former President Donald Trump’s campaign confirmed Saturday that an Iranian group hacked its internal communications in June, Politico reported.Politico and the Washington Post stated that they received emails in July from an anonymous account that shared a campaign research paper on Trump’s running mate, vice presidential nominee, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio). The 271-page document listed publicly available information about Vance, including his previous criticisms of Trump, which it labeled as “potential vulnerabilities.” Additionally, the sender provided the news outlets with part of a research document on Florida Sen. Marco Rubio (R), who was one of Trump’s top contenders for running mate.'Intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos.'The hack coincides with a Microsoft report released Friday that claimed an “Iranian group, this one connected with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, sent a spear phishing email in June to a high-ranking official on a presidential campaign.”Microsoft did not identify the presidential campaign targeted in the attack.Politico asked the anonymous sender how it obtained the documents, to which the individual responded, “I suggest you don’t be curious about where I got them from. Any answer to this question, will compromise me and also legally restricts you from publishing them.”Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told Politico, “These documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, intended to interfere with the 2024 election and sow chaos throughout our Democratic process.”“The Iranians know that President Trump will stop their reign of terror just like he did in his first four years in the White House,” Cheung added. “Any media or news outlet reprinting documents or internal communications are doing the bidding of America’s enemies and doing exactly what they want.”Trump wrote on social media in response to the attack, “We were just informed by Microsoft Corporation that one of our many websites was hacked by the Iranian Government - Never a nice thing to do! They were only able to get publicly available information but, nevertheless, they shouldn’t be doing anything of this nature. Iran and others will stop at nothing, because our Government is Weak and Ineffective, but it won’t be for long. What Iran doesn’t realize is that I will make the World a better and safer place, and that’s good for them, also!”The FBI told NBC News that it is “aware of the media reporting” but declined to provide further comments about the matter. Microsoft also declined to provide additional details about its report.A spokesperson for the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told the news outlet, “We do not accord any credence to such reports. The Iranian Government neither possesses nor harbors any intent or motive to interfere in the United States presidential election.”Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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