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The Download: energy transmission and US threats against Chinese AI

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.

The power line that could reshape New York’s grid is hitting snags 

During a heat wave on July 3, New York State’s grid imported enough electricity from Canada to meet about 9% of its total demand that day.

Some of that power shuttled in on a 339-mile power line stretching from Quebec to Queens. It opened in May and is officially the longest underground transmission line in North America. It could provide up to 20% of New York City’s electricity demand, largely with abundant hydropower from Quebec.

One wrinkle: The line has been down for most of this month, and some experts are concerned about how drought will affect the power supply feeding it. 

Still, the line could help shape the future of our grid, if it can overcome these sorts of snags. Read our story to understand how.

—Casey Crownhart

This story is from The Spark, our weekly climate tech newsletter. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday.

The must-reads

I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.

1 The US Treasury is threatening to sanction Chinese AI companies
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent has accused Moonshot of improperly distilling Anthropic’s Fable model. (TechCrunch)
+ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is arguing that America has nothing to fear from Chinese AI. (Axios)
+ Like it or not, Chinese models are now part of the global AI infrastructure. (Rest of World)
+ China’s AI models have Trump’s AI world at war with itself. (MIT Technology Review)

2 Why the OpenAI hack is the scariest AI mishap yet
AI’s capabilities seem to be starting to outpace our current ability to control them. (The Economist $)
+ Hugging Face had to turn to a Chinese AI model to rescue it from the hack. (BI)

3 Visually impaired Europeans can now get an implant that restores sight
And Americans may not have to wait long to receive it, too. (STAT)
+ This retina implant lets people with vision loss do a crossword puzzle. (MIT Technology Review)

4 A bellwether lawsuit suing Meta for social media addiction has been dropped
There are, however, many more waiting in the wings. (NYT $)

5 Here’s how ICE gets its hands on Americans’ data
As soon as you open a credit card or phone account, its agents can see where you live. (404 Media)
+ States are warring with the Trump administration over the right to see ICE agents’ faces. (Wired $)

6 We urgently need to grapple with AI’s environmental impact
As the world warms, is the price we’re paying worth it? (The Verge)
+ We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. (MIT Technology Review)

7 Privacy issues with smart glasses need an industrywide fix
That’s according to Samsung, which is unveiling glasses it developed with Google this fall. (Bloomberg $)

8 The US Army is begging soldiers to limit their AI use
The token crisis comes for us all eventually, it seems. (Ars Technica)

9 Why does lettuce keep making Americans sick? ??
It’s pretty simple: a lot of people eat it, and it doesn’t get cooked. (Wired $)

10 Pokemon Go is the perfect game to play this summer
It’s fun, collaborative, and it gets you outdoors. (Guardian)

Quote of the day

“It went off and did this hack all by itself, as far as we can tell. This is the highest level of autonomy that we’ve seen in the use of a large language model for cyber operations.”

—Colin Shea-Blymyer, a cybersecurity research fellow at Georgetown University, tells NPR why the OpenAI hack on Hugging Face is so alarming. 

One More Thing

a helicopter with two passengers flies away from a crowd of professionally dressed people looking after it

KAGAN MACLEOD

Welcome to the dark side of crypto’s permissionless dream 

Jean-Paul Thorbjornsen is a founder of THORChain, a blockchain through which users can swap one cryptocurrency for another and earn fees from making those swaps.  

But is he responsible for what it’s used for? It’s a question that matters because in January last year, its users lost more than $200 million in cryptocurrency after THORChain transactions and accounts were frozen by an admin override, which users believed was not supposed to be possible given the decentralized structure. It’s also been used by North Korean hackers to move $1.2 billion of stolen ethereum. 

Thorbjornsen explains this all away as a function of THORChain’s decentralized and permissionless nature. Read our story exploring whether we should believe him or not. 

—Jessica Klein

We can still have nice things

A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)

+ A musician developed an ingenious way to strum a guitar with an electric fan.
+ Ukraine’s tunnel of love is a leafy green corridor of romance that’s straight out of a fairy tale.
+ The driver of a giant banana has been pulled over 100s of times, but still won’t ditch his treasured ride.
+ Ever wonder which albums and songs truly stand the test of time? The Greatest Music tries to answer that via an algorithm that analyses hundreds of “best of” lists.

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Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease with circular RNA from blood

Nature Medicine, Published online: 23 July 2026; doi:10.1038/s41591-026-04563-8

Early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease is important to ensure timely and accurate treatment. We show that a blood-based circular RNA signature can accurately detect Alzheimer’s disease as well as, or better than, current biomarkers and even predict who will develop symptoms before they appear. This less invasive approach could offer earlier diagnosis and improved monitoring of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Optimizing Veteran-Facing Materials for Vending Machine-Dispensed HIV Self-Testing: Formative Qualitative Study

<strong>Background:</strong> Veterans face stigma, privacy concerns, and access barriers to HIV screening. For studies that use at-home HIV self-testing (HIVST) kits distributed through vending machines (VMs), recruitment and educational materials must communicate study purpose and participation options clearly, minimize confusion and stigma, and provide actionable next steps for participants who test outside of clinical settings. <strong>Objective:</strong> This study aimed to elicit structured feedback from a small group of veteran advocates living with HIV on recruitment flyers and education, survey, and interview materials for a Veterans Health Administration pilot evaluation of VM-dispensed HIVST kits and to document how this feedback informed prelaunch revisions. <strong>Methods:</strong> Using participatory action research, we recruited veteran advocates with lived and living expertise with HIV (August 2025). Veteran advocates completed structured written reviews of study materials and returned written feedback forms; feedback was also discussed during a 1-hour virtual focus group in September 2025. We analyzed written feedback and the focus group transcript using a rapid, team-based consensus thematic approach. Two study team members independently reviewed each feedback source and documented key recommendations and candidate feedback domains using analytic notes; the team then met to cluster feedback into domains and reach consensus on final domain labels and definitions. To ensure findings directly informed material improvement, we created a revision matrix mapping each feedback domain to the relevant study material or materials, a summary of feedback, and the resulting changes made. This matrix served as an audit trail linking feedback to the “feedback and revisions” tables presented in the Results section. <strong>Results:</strong> Four veteran advocates provided structured written feedback on study materials, and 3 participated in the 1-hour focus group. Across study materials, veteran advocates desired (1) clearer, plain-language descriptions of study purpose, eligibility, and participation pathways; (2) reduced potential for confusion between research recruitment, VM access, and HIVST kit promotion; (3) reduced text density and participant burden; and (4) more actionable “next steps,” including human support and linkage-to-care resources appropriate for at-home self-testing. Revisions included a streamlined recruitment flyer with simplified calls to action and clearer survey versus interview pathways; a more cohesive and condensed education packet oriented around self-testing steps, results interpretation, and support resources; questionnaire updates to reduce redundancy and improve usability; and an interview guide with improved flow, more participant-centered framing, and optional questions on emotional reactions and support needs. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> In this small formative review, veteran advocate feedback was systematically mapped to prelaunch revisions across multiple study materials. Transparently documenting stakeholder input and material adaptations may support future refinement of veteran-facing HIV screening and self-testing materials in Veterans Affairs and similar settings.
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Single-Cell Maps Reveal Genome Reorganization in Alzheimer’s Brain Cells

While Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia, many of the molecular mechanisms that drive its progression remain poorly understood. While researchers have cataloged changes in gene activity across different brain cell types, a key unanswered question has been how the genome’s 3D organization influences those changes. Now, researchers have linked alterations in genome folding to disrupted gene regulation in Alzheimer’s disease, providing a new layer of insight into the biology of neurodegeneration.

The findings, published in Science in the paper “Single-cell multiomics connects 3D genome and transcriptome alterations in Alzheimer’s disease,” were reported by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the University of Washington, and collaborating institutions. Using single-cell multiomics, spatial transcriptomics, and artificial intelligence (AI), the team generated a multiscale view connecting genome structure, gene expression, and tissue organization in Alzheimer’s disease.

To investigate the role of genome architecture in Alzheimer’s disease, the researchers analyzed postmortem prefrontal cortex tissue from individuals with and without the disease. They used GAGE-seq (genome architecture and gene expression by sequencing), a technique that measures both gene expression and physical genome contacts in the same single cell. The team combined those data with chromatin accessibility data, spatial transcriptomic maps, and a transformer-based AI model called Hicformer, which integrates DNA sequence and 3D genome features to predict cell-type-specific gene activity.

The study revealed widespread changes in chromatin organization across major brain cell types. According to the paper, Alzheimer’s disease was associated with “reduced short-range interactions and increased longer-range interactions” within the genome. Active and inactive genomic regions also exhibited increased mixing, consistent with weaker compartment segregation. The researchers linked these structural changes to cell type–specific alterations in gene expression programs involved in disease-relevant pathways.

Researchers also observed weakening of promoter-proximal interactions and changes in regulatory elements, alongside evidence of senescence-related activation in microglia and sex-dependent dysregulation of X-linked genes in females. Integrating the molecular data with spatial transcriptomics revealed altered cellular neighborhoods and disrupted coordination of gene programs within diseased brain tissue. The authors wrote that the results connect “genome structure, gene regulation, and tissue organization through a unified multimodal analysis.”

Their predictive model Hicformer also demonstrated that “3D genome features provide information beyond DNA sequence alone for explaining AD-relevant gene expression, enabling prioritization of distal regulatory elements whose effects are mediated through chromatin contacts,” the authors wrote.

“Measuring gene activity and genome folding in the same cell allows us to directly connect chromosome structure with disease-related gene programs,” said Yang Zhang, PhD, a project scientist in Carnegie Mellon’s Computational Biology Department and co-lead author. “Across several kinds of brain cells, this paired view revealed a consistent signature of 3D genome reorganization in Alzheimer’s disease and helped us prioritize regulatory regions for future mechanistic and therapeutic investigation.”

The researchers concluded that genome folding represents a previously underappreciated regulatory layer associated with Alzheimer’s pathology. By creating a detailed map linking 3D genome remodeling to gene expression and tissue organization, the study provides a framework for future experiments aimed at determining which structural changes contribute directly to disease progression. This may also provide clues to future therapeutic focuses.

“Alzheimer’s disease cannot be understood one layer at a time,” said senior author Jian Ma, PhD, the Ray and Stephanie Lane Professor of Computational Biology at Carnegie Mellon University. “The genome’s 3D structure is a fundamental regulatory layer that helps to connect DNA sequence to gene activity. By integrating genome folding, cell state, and tissue context, we can move beyond cataloging disease-associated changes toward understanding how they fit together and which mechanisms to test next,” said Ma. “Alzheimer’s disease cannot be understood one layer at a time.”

The post Single-Cell Maps Reveal Genome Reorganization in Alzheimer’s Brain Cells appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Usability and Feasibility of an In-Home Full-Color Imaging Scale for Remote Monitoring of High-Risk Patients With a History of Diabetic Foot Ulcers: Retrospective Observational Formative Evaluation

Background: Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a leading cause of hospitalizations, amputations, and health care costs among individuals with diabetes, often due to delayed detection and treatment. Early identification of skin changes is critical for preventing ulcer progression, yet daily visual foot self-inspections are often limited by impaired mobility, visual deficits, and poor compliance. Although some foot-focused remote patient monitoring technologies are in use, most of these approaches do not provide standardized, full-color visual documentation, which can affect clinicians’ ability to interpret findings using familiar visual cues. Objective: This formative evaluation aimed to assess the usability, compliance, and feasibility of an in-home full-color imaging scale for the remote monitoring of patients with DFUs to inform the design of larger prospective studies. Methods: We conducted a retrospective formative feasibility evaluation analyzing 7 months of preexisting data from adults with a history of DFUs who had enrolled in an outpatient remote monitoring program. During this program, participants were provided with an internet-connected in-home scale that captured high-resolution, full-color scans of the plantar surface of the feet during daily use. Scans were securely transmitted to a HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act)-compliant web portal for podiatrist review. Usability was assessed through compliance with daily scanning, patient and physician surveys, and descriptive review of clinical workflows. Results: A total of 21 participants aged 43 to 86 years (median 65, IQR 59-74; mean 65.3, SD 10.6 years) were retrospectively analyzed. Participants demonstrated high compliance and feasibility of home use, with device use on 82.5% (3638/4410) of possible days, a median use of 27 days (IQR 21-30) per 30-day period, and a mean use of 23 (SD 6.4) days per 30-day period. Participants reported high satisfaction and minimal burden associated with daily use, with most rating the device as physically easy to use (median 7.0, IQR 7-7; mean 6.9, SD 0.45), expressing willingness to use it daily (median 7.0, IQR 7-7; mean 6.9, SD 0.31), and indicating trust in the system (median 7.0, IQR 7-7; mean 6.9, SD 0.32) on a 7-point Likert scale (1=worst; 7=best). Clinician usability was supported by podiatrist review of 3295 scans, of which 3220 (97.7%) were rated as usable for clinical assessment. Three representative cases illustrated real-world device use and longitudinal image review, demonstrating the ability to visualize skin changes such as foreign body presence, new ulceration, and early skin breakdown. Conclusions: This retrospective formative evaluation demonstrates the preliminary usability and feasibility of an in-home, full-color imaging scale for daily remote visual monitoring of diabetic feet in a real-world outpatient setting. High compliance and usability in clinical workflows suggest that this approach may support early identification of foot-related concerns. Future prospective studies are warranted to evaluate the impact of this technology on clinical outcomes, including ulcer progression and health care use.
<img src="https://jmir-production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/thumbs/62c36c98001a2405fd323033480cbaa8" />

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A Digital Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Education Intervention for Caregivers of Very Preterm Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Parents of very preterm infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) experience high levels of psychological distress, yet access to timely, evidence-based mental health support is limited by staffing and resource constraints. Digital mental health interventions offer a scalable approach to addressing this gap; however, their effectiveness has not been well established in NICU caregiver populations, particularly during periods of acute stress. Objective: This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a self-guided digital acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)–based intervention combined with NICU-specific education (NICU parent acceptance and commitment therapy [NPACT]). The study explored the intervention’s effects on stress among parents and primary caregivers of very preterm infants, compared to a digital education-only intervention, and active control. Methods: We conducted a 3-arm, single-center, randomized controlled cluster trial in a tertiary NICU. Parents and primary caregivers of very preterm infants (<32 wk’ gestational age,<1 wk old) were randomized by family cluster to (1) NPACT (ACT+ education), (2) a digital education-only intervention, or (3) active control. Digital interventions were delivered via a web-based platform over 2 weeks. The primary outcome was NICU-related stress on the Parent Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU) at 2 weeks postrandomization. Secondary outcomes included caregiver anxiety, depression, perceived stress, and selected neonatal outcomes. Engagement and perceived helpfulness were assessed for digital interventions. Results: A total of 102 caregivers from 68 family clusters (79 infants; mean gestational age 28.1, SD 2.2 wk) were enrolled. There were no statistically significant between-group differences in the mean PSS:NICU scores at 2 weeks (NPACT 3.0, SD 0.9; education-only 2.5, SD 1; active control 2.6, SD 0.9; adjusted mean difference for NPACT vs active control 0.04, 95% CI −0.39 to 0.47). No between-group differences were observed for secondary psychological outcomes at any time point. However, caregivers in both digital intervention groups had higher odds of full breastfeeding at discharge compared with active control. Engagement with the digital interventions was high, with 97% (28/29) of NPACT participants and 76% (19/25) of education-only participants completing at least 5 of 7 modules, and both interventions were rated as very helpful. Conclusions: In this trial, an unguided digital mental health intervention delivered during NICU admission did not reduce NICU-specific parental stress or other psychological outcomes relative to active control. However, the intervention was highly used by caregivers. These findings suggest that while a brief digital mental health intervention can be successfully implemented in a high-stress clinical setting with caregivers, its capacity to reduce acute psychological distress may be limited. Secondary findings indicate potential benefits of the digital intervention on breastfeeding, generating hypotheses for future research. Digital mental health interventions in neonatal settings may be most effective when integrated within hybrid models of care and/or delivered beyond the acute admission phase. Trial Registration: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12623000641695; https://tinyurl.com/2e8677bb International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID): RR2-10.1016/j.cct.2024.107519
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Examining Social Media User Types and the Impact on a Reproductive Health Web-Based Intervention for Young People in Francophone West Africa: Randomized Factorial Design Using Latent Class Analysis

Background: Web-based interventions present an opportunity for addressing reproductive health outcomes among young Francophone West Africans, but little is known about how social media use impacts such interventions. Objective: This study aimed to identify social media use patterns among young French-speaking West Africans and assess the impact on a reproductive health intervention delivered on Facebook. Methods: French-speaking social media users (aged 15‐24 years) were recruited from Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, and Burkina Faso via social media advertisements. Using a factorial design for a multiarm parallel study, participants were randomly assigned via block randomization to 4 conditions: comparison (standard content), peer role models (personal narratives from similarly aged peers), online influencers (popular online figures), and a mixed peer role model and online influencer strategy. Participant blinding was implemented. Respondents completed pre- and post- self-administered online surveys between December 2023 and February 2024. Latent class analysis using maximum likelihood estimation was used to examine social media use patterns and related outcomes: contraceptive knowledge, provider awareness, and online service use. Results: In total, 353 participants were randomized to each group, with a final analytic sample of 262 participants. Two social media user types were identified from the completed study: selective users (daily use of WhatsApp and Facebook) and multiplatform users (daily use of WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok). Being 20-24 years old, compared with 15‐19 years, was associated with increased odds of multiplatform use (odds ratio [OR] 3.61, 95% CI 1.46‐9.36; =.008). Furthermore, residing in Senegal was associated with a greater likelihood of multiplatform use, compared with Côte d’Ivoire (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.08‐0.88; =.03) and Burkina Faso (OR 0.23, 95% CI 0.07‐0.76; =.02). Among selective users (daily users of WhatsApp and Facebook), the peer role model approach demonstrated a 1.84-unit increase in contraceptive knowledge (OR 1.84, 95% CI 0.27‐3.41; =.02), a 1.81-unit increase in provider awareness (OR 1.81, 95% CI 1.15‐2.47; <.001), and a 1.49-unit increase in service use (OR 1.49, 95% CI 0.06‐2.93; =.04), compared with the comparison group. For multiplatform users, the peer role model approachwas associated with a decrease in provider awareness (OR 0.33, 95% CI −0.64 to −0.01; =.04). Unlike the peer role model approach (n=70), generally, online influencer (n=63) and mixed approaches (n=57) did not yield significant outcomes, relative to the comparison group (n= 72). There were no adverse events reported. Conclusions: This study applies latent class analysis in a novel way for this population: examining how a comprehensive measure of social media use moderates digital interventions. This approach is underused in other social media studies in sub-Saharan Africa. Findings suggest that a one-size-fits-all approach in web-based interventions is not ideal, and online peer-to-peer communication is still an important strategy for certain social media users. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07636629; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07636629
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Snacking Behaviors in Relation to Stress and Physical Activity Using Automated Dietary Assessment: Observational Study

<strong>Background:</strong> Snacks contribute 19% to 34% of daily energy intake, yet studying snacking behaviors faces challenges due to self-report biases. The SnackBox, an automated dietary assessment tool, enables structured measurement of snacking in seminaturalistic settings. <strong>Objective:</strong> This study explored the relationships between snacking and perceived stress (case study 1) and physical activity (case study 2) using the SnackBox technology. <strong>Methods:</strong> Forty-seven office workers (n=29, 61.7% female; mean age 28.8, SD 4.1 years) used the SnackBox at work and home for 2 weeks. The device recorded snack consumption (grams and time). Participants reported perceived stress via ecological momentary assessments and wore a Chill+ band and a Garmin wearable to track physical activity. <strong>Results:</strong> Across the study period, 1455 ecological momentary assessments, 2933 hours of wearable data, and 2199 snacking events were recorded. Participants consumed a daily average of 769 (SD 772) kcal from snacks. Stress did not significantly impact snacking likelihood (<i>χ</i><sup>2</sup><sub>1</sub>=0.2; <i>P</i>=.69). Snacking was more likely before vigorous physical activity (odds ratio 2.00; SE 0.39; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). <strong>Conclusions:</strong> The SnackBox demonstrated utility as a technology probe for exploring relationships between snacking and physiological and contextual factors. This approach enhances our understanding of snacking and supports personalized interventions and predictive models. <strong>Trial Registration:</strong> ISRCTN Registry ISRCTN45046481; https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN45046481
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STAT+: In win for RFK Jr., FDA advisory panel narrowly votes to allow compounding of unapproved peptides

In a win for peptide proponents and for health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration recommended on Thursday that compounding pharmacies be allowed to manufacture the drugs BPC-157, KPV, TB-500, and MOTS-c.

The FDA panel will vote on additional compounds on Friday.

The votes are not binding, and the FDA will ultimately decide whether to lift current restrictions on these peptides and make them more easily accessible to people who’ve been turning to the little-researched but highly popular drugs to improve their health. It’s unusual for the FDA to go against the recommendations of the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee (PCAC), but it has happened at least once before. 

Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…