Bibi’s last stand

Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photos via Getty Images

Israel is marking the third anniversary of the Oct. 7 terror attacks three weeks before an election where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s personal culpability for the country’s worst-ever security failure will be a central issue, Axios’ Barak Ravid and Dave Lawler write. Why it matters: Netanyahu has defied expectations by keeping his government afloat through years of simultaneous wars and perpetual emergency. Tight polls still leave the ultimate political survivor a path to hang on. The big picture: Oct. 7 still looms over the country and his candidacy. The opposition lambasts him for refusing to take responsibility or allow an independent inquiry into the Hamas attacks that killed around 1,200 people. Netanyahu’s chief opponent, former Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, lost his son and two nephews during the war in Gaza. Sources close to Eisenkot say he sees his main mission as replacing the man he holds responsible for allowing the Oct. 7 attacks Zoom in: Netanyahu blames the deep state, claiming his security chiefs kept him in the dark. His political and media allies have even spread conspiracy theories implying that those officials betrayed Israel. But recent reporting suggests Netanyahu had at least some warning. Israeli outlet Haaretz reported that United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed (MBZ) told Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation days before the attack. Three knowledgeable sources confirm to Axios that UAE intelligence gave a general warning to its Israeli counterparts and that MBZ spoke to Netanyahu to make sure he received it. Netanyahu denies receiving the UAE warning and has sued several media outlets and journalists that reported he had. Between the lines: The vote could determine not just Netanyahu’s political survival, but his legal future as well. Losing power would also mean losing any levers to delay or influence an ongoing corruption trial. But if he wins, Netanyahu could argue he was acquitted by the people of Israel and take stronger action to thwart the proceedings. The intrigue: President Trump could give Netanyahu a boost by endorsing him, but so far he’s declined. Trump has privately blamed Netanyahu for the Oct. 7 failures, according to two people who have discussed the matter directly with the president. He’s also mused about Netanyahu damaging Israel’s international reputation. However, Trump has stuck close to Netanyahu during the war in Iran and may still endorse him .Share this story.

2. Paxton privately blames Iran war

Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photos: Justin Lane-Pool, Sina Schuldt/picture alliance, and Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton privately lamented the impact of the Iran war and gas prices on his campaign in a meeting last month, telling a group of donors and lobbyists, “I don’t make the decisions,” according to audio obtained by Axios’ Andrew Solender and Stef W. Kight. Why it matters: It’s a candid admission from a close Trump ally about the challenging environment Republicans face this cycle. Paxton, the Texas attorney general, was speaking to donors and lobbyists at a closed-door fundraiser in D.C. The audio was provided to Axios by a person, granted anonymity because it was a private event, who was in the meeting and is opposed to Paxton. President Trump is set to rally with Paxton in San Antonio today. What he said: Asked by one attendee what issues are “dragging” on his campaign, Paxton responded, “It’s not tariffs. … It’s the war, it’s gas prices, it’s diesel,” according to an audio file obtained by Axios. “When it’s over $6 per gallon for diesel … people are feeling the pinch,” he continued, adding that the rising cost of fuel “drives up food prices and everything else. “The Republican candidate said affordability is “by far our biggest problem” and “why we’re having a hard time with numbers .”Paxton pointed to his tax cut plan — which includes new housing and health care write-offs and an expansion of the child tax credit — as his proposed remedy on affordability. “I’m just trying to figure out ways I can help people. That’s the only way: I can propose legislation,” he said. “So many factors in this federal race are uncontrollable. I don’t make the decisions, and I don’t … know what’s behind some of the decisions,” he added. Keep reading.

Sign In

Subscribe now

Life

How ancient superbugs could help us fight antibiotic resistance

As the world warms, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are escaping from frozen sediments. But with new monitoring tools, we can identify problem genes and develop treatments before our pathogens acquire them

By Joni Wildman

22 September 2026

As woolly mammoths and scimitar-toothed cats roamed what is now Canada 30,000 years ago, something with a surprising ability lurked beneath their feet. Frozen in the soil were bacteria that – defrosted millennia later – could fight off vancomycin, one of today’s antibiotics of last resort.

Antibiotic resistance is often portrayed as a modern crisis driven by antibiotic misuse. Yet its origins are much older. Many antibiotics weren’t dreamed up in the lab, but evolved in nature long ago to help microbes battle one another in the struggle for survival. Some resistance genes are equally as old, meaning the environment – even in places untouched by recent human activity – is both a sink and source for such genes. 

Worryingly, that source is becoming more potent. A study published in April concluded that global warming is driving the spread of antibiotic resistance among bacteria in grassland soils. Factor in the possibility that our best drugs might not work against some of the resistance genes held by microbes now emerging from melting permafrost, and the future looks bleak.

But there is a silver lining. With modern gene-sequencing tools, we can analyse environmental samples in unprecedented detail, then use the information to identify reawakened resistance genes long before they can establish themselves in the bacteria responsible for some human diseases. “Instead of waiting until a resistance gene causes treatment failure in hospitals, we can begin to identify warning signals earlier,” says Kawther Zaher, a virologist at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia. 

The approach could even herald a new era of medicine – one in which we future-proof antibiotics so they can overcome resistance that human pathogens have yet to evolve.

Advertisement

https://vx.newscientist.com/checkout/template/cacheableShow.html?aid=rba4f1Zcpe&templateId=OTXLOSC84Z65&templateVariantId=OTV7W0GVEILW4&offerId=fakeOfferId&experienceId=EXV2PZ5XJLT8&iframeId=offer_285d92b8298906eddd4d-0&displayMode=inline&pianoIdUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fauth.newscientist.com%2Fid%2F&widget=template&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newscientist.com%2Farticle%2F2585773-how-ancient-superbugs-could-help-us-fight-antibiotic-resistance%2F&isConsentManagerEnabled=true

More from New Scientist

Explore the latest news, articles and features

The cost of shipping a supertanker from the Middle East to China hit an ALL-TIME HIGH of $1.33 MILLION a day. That is 21 TIMES HIGHER than it was a year ago.

EVERY BARREL THAT MOVES OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST CARRIES A HUGE TRUMP WAR PREMIUM.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow just put out a plague alert for Siberia. It’s tracking reports of suspected pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region, tied to 1 death, quarantines and hospital closures, and is telling Americans there to steer clear of affected facilities and see a doctor fast if they get a fever. It also reminded Americans that they shouldn’t be in Russia at all, and that anyone who is should leave now, with an exit plan that doesn’t count on Washington. Plague or no plague, the U.S. message to Americans in Russia hasn’t changed, and it’s basically that they’re on their own. Source: U.S. Embassy Moscow / Writer: Julie

AdvertisementSkip linksSkip to Content

Navigation menu

Economy|Financial Markets

US stock market hits all-time high as investors continue to bet on AI

The benchmark S&P 500 is up 14 percent this year despite elevated oil prices and US government debt sell-off.Listen (3 mins)

Save

Share US stock market hits all-time high as investors continue to bet on AI on social media

Share

Add Al Jazeera on Google

By John Power

Published On 7 Oct 20267

The United States stock market has hit an all-time high as excitement around artificial intelligence continues to fuel a buying frenzy on Wall Street.

The S&P 500, the benchmark stock index, closed 0.58 percent higher on Tuesday, topping the previous peak reached in mid-August.

Recommended Stories

list of 4 items

• list 1 of 4Christa Pike lawyers say she is speaking one week after failed execution
• list 2 of 4Fans flood Buenos Aires ahead of Messi’s final international match
• list 3 of 4‘We are desperate’: Venezuela’s power cuts fuel growing public anger
• list 4 of 4Electric car bursts into flames at charging station in Turkiye

end of list

The Nasdaq Composite, which is more heavily weighted towards tech stocks, also hit a record high, finishing up 0.45 percent.

Tech stocks were among the top performers, with each of the “Magnificent Seven” apart from Meta closing higher.

Amazon led the pack with a 1.95 percent gain, followed by Microsoft and Tesla, which rose 0.78 percent and 0.51 percent, respectively.

Apple and Alphabet both rose 0.22 percent, while Nvidia gained 0.14 percent.

Meta, which has risen more than 20 percent since the launch last month of its new AI assistant, Muse, fell 0.41 percent.

Other big movers in tech included Marvell Technology, which rose 5.81 percent, and Cisco, which gained 4.54 percent.

• Now Playing02:40What does winning the AI race really mean?
• Next11:33US midterms 2026: Trump faces pressure as Latino support slips
• 02:07India’s disappearing islands turn to seagrass to fight rising seas
• 02:13AI digital twins promise to transform media and marketing
• 02:49Brazil’s split reality: Record low unemployment, record high debt

Technology, AI

Keith Lerner, chief investment officer and chief market strategist at Truist Advisory Services in Atlanta, Georgia, said the market rally should be seen as a “technology and AI surge”.

Want to come back to this article? Save it for later.Save

“Every bull market has a dominant theme, and technology and AI remain this market’s dominant theme,” Lerner told Al Jazeera.

“Technology and communication services were the only two S&P 500 sectors to rise last month, while the other nine declined.”

Wall Street has shrugged off a host of challenges facing the US economy amid hyperscalers’ multibillion-dollar investments in AI.

Despite the energy crunch caused by the US-Israel war on Iran and a sell-off of US government bonds partly driven by ballooning government debt, the market is well on track to record its fourth consecutive year of double-digit returns.

The S&P 500 has risen 14 percent so far in 2026, while the Nasdaq Composite is up 18.78 percent.

“Investors remain bullish on the prospects for AI,” Lochlan Halloway, a senior equity strategist at Morningstar Australia, told Al Jazeera.

“They are betting that the money pouring into data centres will earn a good return, and so far, that belief has outweighed rising interest rates, more expensive oil and a 10-year bond yield above 5 percent,” Halloway said.

“We are positive on AI too,” Halloway added. “But the range of outcomes is wide, and the market is concentrated in a handful of companies, so the outlook for US shares, and by extension global shares, relies on the AI story continuing to deliver.”

Lerner at Truist Advisory said the market rally had the potential to continue through the end of 2026 given historical trends and expectations for strong corporate earnings.

“We do not expect a straight line higher for markets,” Lerner said.

“Still, the fourth quarter of midterm-election years has produced an average gain of 7 percent and has been positive 84 percent of the time since 1950.”

Lerner said that rising interest rates posed the biggest risk to the upward trend.

“Still, on balance, the weight of the evidence suggests this bull market still has more upside potential,” he said.

Asian stock markets fell on Wednesday, with key indexes in Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong slumping in morning trading.

The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo, the Kospi in Seoul and the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong were down 0.79 percent, 1.36 percent and 0.71 percent, respectively, as of 02:30 GMT.

Oil prices, which have been elevated since the start of the war on Iran, rose on Wednesday as traders weighed the fallout of fighting between forces aligned with Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the Iran-aligned Houthis.

Brent crude futures for December delivery stood at $101.45 a barrel as of 02:30 GMT, up 0.87 percent.

Plague Sister

Something About Russia Insisting Everything Is Fine After the Lab Leak Death Is Making Us Nervous

A technician at a lab that studied the plague died of “pneumonia of undetermined etiology.”

By Victor Tangermann

Published Oct 6, 2026 12:02 PM EDT

Add Futurism(opens in a new tab)More information

Sign up to see the future, today

Can’t-miss innovations from the bleeding edge of science and tech Email address Sign Up

Last week, a 28-year-old employee at an anti-plague institute in the Siberian city of Irkutsk died at a regional hospital just two days after mysteriously falling ill.

Her unusual occupation drew an international media frenzy, sparking fears over another pandemic. The news sounded just a bit too much like the opening to a cheesy medical horror movie, with US secretary of state Marco Rubio saying that the US is “watching and monitoring” the case “closely.”

Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Deborah Birx called the death “particularly concerning,” saying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are “very much aware and tracking” the situation.

And something about Russian officials’ reassurances hasn’t quite quelled our fears. The deceased worker, Darya Shipilova, was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” per the Moscow Times — a vague diagnosis that left plenty of questions unanswered.

It’s especially unsettling considering the lab has been studying the pneumonic plague, which develops when “bacteria spread to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague, or when a person inhales infectious droplets coughed out by another person or animal with pneumonic plague,” per the CDC.

The Black Death, a global 14th century pandemic that’s believed to have killed tens of millions of people, included all three forms of plague: bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic.

There have been recent outbreaks of pneumonic plague in Madagascar, but there are no known cases of the country exporting plague cases to other countries.

Russian head of the republic of the neighboring Siberian region Buryatia Alexei Tsydenov at first threw fuel on the fire by claiming in a Telegram post that Shipilova had died of the plague — before adding the word “maybe” to his statement.

Many say there’s no reason to panic. Consumer safety watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said it found no evidence that any lab materials had anything to do with the tragic death and that were no signs of foul play or security breaches. Intriguingly, the watchdog confirmed that contact tracing revealed two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus, according to the Moscow Times — but no plague.

The World Health Organization has since publicly stated that the risk of an epidemic in Russia is low. Spokesperson Christian Lindmeier said in a statement today that “all ‌of the patients’ contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for ‌illness, and none to date have shown ​symptoms of illness.”

The lab at the institute where Shipilova was employed is currently under lockdown, including 60 of her colleagues, forcing them to sleep on the floors and in chairs.

Characteristically, president Donald Trump appeared to have received some serious mixed messaging from his aides — or struggled to interpret the details for himself.

“I hate to see them having it,” he said, seemingly implying the existence of a plague outbreak in Russia, one of the United States’ biggest adversaries. “We’ll help. Everybody who has that kind of a problem, we’ll always help.”

More on the plague: Experts Confirm Outbreaks of Black Death, Brain-Eating Amoeba

Add Futurism as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.

Victor Tangermann

Senior Editor

I’m a senior editor at Futurism, where I edit and write about NASA and the private space sector, as well as topics ranging from SETI and artificial intelligence to tech and medical policy.

Neale Hanvey

@JNHanvey

Awards of $2m against psychiatrists & surgeons may concentrate minds on the horrific malpractice at the heart of the insidious gender movement. However, until such clinicians are held criminally liable for inflicting irreversible harm on patients the danger & risk will persist.

Israel is at risk of civil war or state collapse, a classified CIA assessment warns, as years of genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon and Iran deepen political, economic, and social fractures within the country. “CIA experts pointed to a volatile mix of pressures converging ahead of Israel’s elections on October 27: economic crisis and soaring military spending; heavily armed veterans returning from prolonged combat, many carrying serious psychological trauma; growing fury over ultra-Orthodox men who are exempt from military service; escalating settler violence in the occupied West Bank; and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fighting to hold onto power and igniting a constitutional crisis. ” – via

@DropSiteNews

Hundreds of people in eastern Russia have been placed in quarantine after a laboratory worker died of suspected pneumonic plague. Darya Shipolova was an employee of the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia and people thought to have had contact with her are reportedly being isolated. Annie Jacobsen, author of ‘Biological War: A Scenario’, which examines the potential consequences of a large-scale biological attack or the accidental release of a pathogen tells Channel 4 News the circumstances “suggests engineering” which is “troubling”.

https://twitter.com/Channel4News/status/2107416221998063653/video/1

What happens if China wins the space race?

GZERO Staff

October 06, 2026

Make us preferred on Google

What happens if China gets back to the moon first? As the US-China rivalry extends beyond Earth, Ian Bremmer and China expert Elizabeth Economy explore what a new space race could mean for American power, national pride, and the competition between the world’s two biggest powers. With China rapidly expanding its space capabilities, could a Chinese astronaut planting the flag on the moon become a defining moment in the next chapter of the rivalry?