Strands

Argentina are preparing a friendly against Burkina Faso, but the match is under threat of cancellation after the Burkina Faso squad, the Etalons, became stranded in Morocco. Papu Gómez has also been an unexpected talking point around Lionel Messi's latest appearance for Argentina. Interest in Benin and nearby countries is rising as fans follow whether the game will go ahead.

Researchers at Maynooth University have built a scaffolded DNA computer in which short DNA strands compete to attach along a long scaffold strand. Mismatched tiles are energetically unfavorable, so they detach and are replaced until the arrangement settles into the most stable configuration, a process that lets the molecular system compute through self-assembly.

AWS's Strands Agents project has introduced Strands Decider 2B, a small open-source model designed to make routing or decision calls within agentic systems rather than generate long text. The release is drawing attention on developer forums, where the small footprint and open licensing are seen as useful for cheap, fast tool-selection steps in agent pipelines.

Richard Kurin's new book 'History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery' examines how a strand of hair found in Thomas Jefferson's Bible was used to investigate the long-debated question of Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings. Early readers are sharing reviews, with one giving it four out of five stars and praising its account of the scientific and historical detective work behind the case.

Firefighters in Xerta, Tarragona, rescued several people trapped in their vehicles after heavy rainfall hit the area. Emergency services attended multiple call-outs as the rains left drivers stranded. The incident comes amid wet weather affecting parts of Catalonia, with local crews warning residents to avoid unnecessary travel.

Stars and Stripes reports that when military marriages end while a service member is stationed overseas, civilian spouses can be left stranded abroad. Without the military sponsor's status, they may lose housing, legal residency in the host country and the transition assistance needed to return to the United States, and there is often no simple process to bring them home.

A new USA Today explainer addresses concerns about electric vehicle range and the risk of being stranded when a battery runs low. It covers how far EVs can realistically travel, factors that reduce range such as cold weather and highway driving, and what drivers should do if their charge runs out on the road.

A commentary argues that a current strand of science policy debate amounts to 'a form of apocalypticism applied to science policy' — in other words, that policy arguments are increasingly framed in catastrophic, end-times terms rather than through evidence and trade-offs. The piece has struck a chord with readers worried about how climate, AI and other risks are debated, and critics of doom-laden framing are sharing it as a succinct critique of the trend.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has created a new Religious Affairs office at the Pentagon, and some military chaplains are voicing concern. They worry the office could promote a single evangelical strand of Christianity rather than serving the religious diversity of US troops, which includes many faiths and denominations.

New reporting suggests that DNA evidence from a strand of hair, believed to belong to Thomas Jefferson, may finally settle the long-debated question of whether the founding father fathered children with Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman at Monticello. The find reignites discussion of Jefferson's family legacy and the history of slavery in America, a topic historians have contested for decades.