Texas A&M faculty, students rally against policy they deem censorship – Texas Standard

Texas A&M faculty, students rally against policy they deem censorship

A professor says he’s speaking up for others “deathly afraid” of losing their jobs or being targeted by state leadership.

https://atx.audio/4qc1gz8 – Listen to audio…

By Laura Rice, January 30, 2026, 12:50 pm, Education, Race & Identity, Texas Standard Original

The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) estimated as many as 400 people attended a rally on the Texas A&M campus on Jan. 29.

Hundreds of students, faculty and alumni rallied at Texas A&M University on Thursday, many holding signs saying “Aggies for Academic Freedom” in response to what they characterize as the university’s censorship of course material.

In the fall, Texas A&M fired a lecturer for class material that included gender identity in children’s literature. Before the spring semester began, the A&M University System implemented a policy requiring campus presidents to sign off on courses that could be seen as advocating “race and gender ideology” – or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.

» RELATED: From Plato to sociology: How Texas A&M’s new curriculum policy is impacting the start of the semester

The rally consisted of students and alumni alongside members of the TAMU American Association of University Professors and other faculty, staff and student groups. They’ve formed a coalition and are laying out demands to A&M including the removal of “censorship” on teaching topics and that the university reinstate all “improperly canceled” courses. They’re also requesting the fired literature lecturer, Melissa McCoul, be reinstated.

» RELATED: Texas A&M removes administrators, orders course review following viral video

Texas Standard reached out to Texas A&M to invite them onto the program. A spokesperson let us know the university is releasing the findings of its course review today (Friday, Jan. 30). The university also provided a statement which can be found in its entirety at the bottom of this story.

Leonard Bright is president of the Texas A&M University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors. Listen to Texas Standard’s interview with Bright in the audio player at the top of this story or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: Are you concerned you’re putting your job at risk by participating rallies and doing interviews like this?

Leonard Bright: Well, you know, it shouldn’t be being placed at risk. Part of my job is to discuss matters of public concern. That is literally written in our policies and in my contract.

But of course, I cannot be silly of the fact that there are those that would love to potentially use this as an opportunity to try to get me fired or dismissed. But those are not really my concerns.

I believe that in the importance of speaking up, being truthful and try to fight for this most important thing called academic freedom, but also a deep quality education. So I think that’s more important to me.

I don’t certainly want to lose my job, but at the same time, I want to be truthful, thoughtful, and do my job with the highest level of integrity.

One of your graduate-level courses was canceled this spring. The Houston Chronicle reports the dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service repeatedly asked you for more information about the content in question that you didn’t reply.

How do you respond to those reports?

Yeah, so what actually happened is that they were asking me to be dishonest.

They asked their questions. I answered them as thoroughly as I can. I mean, they wanted to know the extent to which I’m discussing issues of race, gender, and sexuality in a graduate-level course, for students who are going into public service.

And my answer was repeatedly “every day, in every reading.” I mean, this topic of race, gender and sexuality is sort of central to the issue of ethics, which is how we treat people, and people are their identity.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Texas A&M faculty, students rally against policy they deem censorship | Texas Standard

How does #Netflix scale personalization to 300M+ users without drowning in technical debt?

Moumita Bhattacharya breaks down UniCoRn (Unified Contextual Ranker) and their proprietary User Foundation Model.

Learn how Netflix moved from bespoke models to a single transformer-based “Harry Potter” model to drive personalization across the entire platform.

🎬 Watch now | 📄 #transcript included ⇨ https://bit.ly/3NV5UEm

#InfoQ #CaseStudy #AI

In this #InfoQ video, Laurent Doguin shows how #WASM components supercharge Function as a Service (#FaaS) - making it faster, safer & way more flexible.

The takeaway❓ An optimistic view of WASM’s potential to reshape serverless computing, unlocking broader adoption and more flexible function deployment across platforms.

🎬 Watch now: https://bit.ly/4cdkZuO

📄 #transcript included

#WebAssembly #Serverless #FaaS

The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump’s Trade Experiment – The New York Times

The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump’s Trade Experiment

Five charts show the impact on the economy after a year of sweeping trade changes by the Trump administration.

Listen to this article [online link to listen, see URL at end] · 5:39 min Learn more

Note: Data is through Oct. 2025. Source: U.S. International Trade Commission. The New York Times.

By Ana Swanson

Ana Swanson covers international trade and reports from Washington.

Feb. 2, 2026, Updated 11:34 a.m. ET

Over the past year, President Trump carried out what was essentially a grand experiment with the U.S. economy, by raising tariffs to levels not seen in a century. It was an exercise that pitted Mr. Trump, a longtime proponent of tariffs, against business owners who paid the levies and mainstream economists who criticized the plan.

America imports trillions of dollars of foreign goods each year, and tariffs are a tax on those purchases. Over the past year, Mr. Trump raised average U.S. tariffs to about 17 percent, the highest level since 1932, in the wake of the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. Mr. Trump’s stated aim was to reinvigorate American industry and bring jobs back to the United States.

These new surcharges have had a significant impact. They have caused businesses to speed up, delay and cancel purchases, or find new countries to source products from. They have raised a significant amount of revenue for the government, much of it from American businesses. And they have caused the U.S. trade deficit to shrink and prices of American goods to rise. At the same time, they have not yet been the panacea for the factory sector that Mr. Trump had promised.

Here are some of the effects.

Skyrocketing revenue

One of the most tangible effects of Mr. Trump’s trade policy has been a drastic increase in the revenue the government takes in from tariffs. The United States collected an estimated $287 billion in customs duties, taxes and fees last year, nearly triple the amount in 2024.

Source: Treasury Department. The New York Times.

This amount is still small compared with the more than $2 trillion earned annually from income taxes, but it gives the government a significant new source of money for its spending, whether that’s funding the military or Social Security, or paying interest on the U.S. debt.

There’s an important caveat, however. This money was paid to the government by so-called “importers of record,” most of which are American companies.

While the Trump administration has said that foreign firms will end up paying the tariffs, most economists believe that American businesses and consumers bear most of the burden.

Editor’s Note: Featured image at top is WP AI. –DrWeb

Continue/Read Original Article Here: The Effects of Tariffs, One Year Into Trump’s Trade Experiment – The New York Times

On episode 519: Password Is All Zeros, we're joined by Mark Omo and James Rowley to talk about safecracking, security, and the ethics of doing a bad job.

Check out the show's transcript here: https://embedded.fm/transcripts/519

#security #engineering #embedded #r everseengineering #cybersecurity #transcript

In the pursuit of High-Performing Engineering Teams, we often focus on code commits & metrics.

But what if the most important signals live in the relationships between teammates?

In this #InfoQ talk, Lizzie Matusov explores how trust and psychological safety are critical indicators of team success.

🎥 Watch the video 👉 https://bit.ly/4iE0Vlk

📄 #transcript included

#TeamWork #PsychologicalSafety #EngineeringCulture

10 Shots: Federal Agents Kill Another Person in Minnesota – The Daily – The New York Times

Podcasts

The Daily

Jan. 26, 2026, Updated 9:10 a.m. ET

Hosted by Rachel Abrams, Featuring Devon Lum and Ernesto Londoño, Edited by Liz O. Baylen and Lisa Chow, Original music by Pat McCusker, Rowan Niemisto, Dan Powell and Diane Wong. Engineered by Chris Wood. Produced by Diana Nguyen and Nina Feldman.

Warning: This episode contains strong language.

Border Patrol agents shot and killed Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis resident, on Saturday. It was the second fatal shooting by federal agents in the city during protests against a ramped-up immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration.

Devon Lum, from the Visual Investigations team, and Ernesto Londoño, who covers the Midwest, explain how the shooting unfolded and what may come next.

On Today’s Episode

Devon Lum, a New York Times reporter working on the Visual Investigations team.

Ernesto Londoño, a reporter for The New York Times based in Minnesota, covering news in the Midwest.

Background Reading

• Timeline: A moment-by-moment look at the shooting Mr. Pretti.
• Here’s what we know about the shooting.

Listen to and Follow ‘The Daily’

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube | iHeartRadio

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Feedback

Tune in, and tell us what you think at thedaily@nytimes.com. For corrections, email: nytnews@nytimes.com. Follow our hosts on X: Michael Barbaro @mikiebarb, Rachel Abrams @RachelAbramsNY and Natalie Kitroeff @Nataliekitro

The Daily is made by Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Sydney Harper, Michael Benoist, Liz O. Baylen, Asthaa Chaturvedi, Rachelle Bonja, Diana Nguyen, Marion Lozano, Rob Szypko, Elisheba Ittoop, Mooj Zadie, Patricia Willens, Rowan Niemisto, Jody Becker, Rikki Novetsky, Nina Feldman, Carlos Prieto, Ben Calhoun, Susan Lee, Lexie Diao, Mary Wilson, Alex Stern, Sophia Lanman, Shannon M. Lin, Diane Wong, Devon Taylor, Alyssa Moxley, Olivia Natt, Daniel Ramirez, Brendan Klinkenberg, Chris Haxel, Maria Byrne, Anna Foley and Caitlin O’Keefe.

Our theme music is by Jim Brunberg and Ben Landsverk of Wonderly. Special thanks to Sam Dolnick, Paula Szuchman, Lisa Tobin, Larissa Anderson, Julia Simon, Mahima Chablani, Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Jeffrey Miranda, Maddy Masiello, Isabella Anderson, Nina Lassam, Nick Pitman and Kathleen O’Brien.

We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily

Jack Smith testifies in House over Trump investigations – NPR

Law – Jack Smith defends Trump investigations to House Republicans

Updated January 22, 20263:06 PM ET, Heard on Morning Edition

By Carrie Johnson, 2-Minute Listen, Transcript

Former special counsel Jack Smith on Thursday defended his decision to secure two criminal indictments against President Trump and asserted his team had gathered enough evidence to convict.

Smith gave his first public testimony about his work Thursday, appearing before the House Judiciary Committee. Republican members of the panel attacked Smith’s move to collect phone records of lawmakers who had been in contact with Trump allies around the time of the Capitol riot in 2021. And they cast the historic investigations of Trump as politically motivated.

“It was always about politics and to get President Trump. They were willing to do almost anything,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the panel’s chairman.

“I am not a politician, and I have no partisan loyalties,” Smith responded. “My office didn’t spy on anyone.”

Neither of Smith’s cases reached a jury before Trump won the 2024 election and returned to the White House last year.

Law – Jack Smith defends his prosecutions of Trump in closed-door session in Congress

In a videotaped deposition, Smith said the president had only himself to blame, for charges he tried to overturn the will of voters in 2020.

“The evidence here made clear that President Trump was by a large measure the most culpable and most responsible person in this conspiracy,” Smith said in the deposition, which congressional Republicans released on New Year’s Eve. “These crimes were committed for his benefit.”

Smith said the violent attack at the U.S. Capitol, which injured 140 law enforcement officers, would not have happened, except for Trump. He said he could not understand the president’s mass pardon of members of the Capitol mob on Trump’s first day in office and predicted many of them would commit new crimes in the years ahead.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Jack Smith testifies in House over Trump investigations : NPR

What are the 3 fundamental ideas every developer should know if they're unfortunate enough to have to work on a #DistributedSystem?

In this #InfoQ video, Sam Newman breaks down the essentials:
1️⃣ Timeouts – “giving up”
2️⃣ Retries – “trying again”
3️⃣ Idempotency – “making it all a bit safe”

🎥 Watch the video to dive deeper: https://bit.ly/41dPAm0

📄 #transcript included

#SoftwareArchitecture #Microservices #Resilience