From cockroach milk to stepping on snakes, Ig Nobel awards celebrates science at its oddest

A motley crew of scientists was honored this week for its unusual contributions, which included studying cockroach milk, the evolutionary history of kissing and testing soil health by using underwear.

The satirical Ig Nobel ceremony, which honors unusual but real studies, took place in Zurich Thursday and was presented by the digital magazine, the Annals of Improbable Research.

The awards, which were founded in 1991, took place outside the U.S. for the first time this year over the concern that the honorees wouldn’t be able to get a visa.

Other winners included researchers who found upper-class people were more likely to engage in unethical behavior, such as stealing candy from a baby, a study on proper nose blowing and gently stepping on snakes to see what provokes them into biting people.

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"The general pattern seems to be that, with wealth and rising power, you become less engaged with the needs of others and less burdened by the needs of social relationships," Dr. Paul Piff, a social psychologist at the University of California, Irvine said, according to the Guardian. 

"Taking candy from children might be the least of our worries, but it’s emblematic of the tendency to prioritize one’s own needs over those of others."

The final four honorees included those studying the power of having mutual enemies, attempts at a splash-free urinal, using dead mosquitos for 3D printing and research that found parents love the smell of their newborn babies but not teenage children.

In case you’re wondering, the team studying the history of kissing has defined it as "a non-agonistic interaction involving directed, intraspecific, oral-oral contact with some movement of the lips/mouthparts and no food transfer." Romantic.

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"Next time you kiss someone, you can think, 'This is a 21.5 million-year-old tradition that I'm honoring here," evolutionary biologist Matilda Brindle of the University of Oxford said, according to NPR. "It's not just a modern human behavior. It's really ancestral.' And to us, that suggests that it probably has quite a useful evolutionary function."

Brindle said her team believes that Neanderthals not only kissed each other. They may have also kissed early humans.

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All the honorees receive a trophy that looks like a cross between a mushroom and a human foot while the audience throws paper airplanes at them.

The Ig Nobel has no relation to the actual Nobel Prize, which will announce its honorees in October.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Migrants spark outrage after video shows baby dolphin beaten during beach celebration

Migrants in the North African Spanish enclave of Ceuta were captured on video hitting a young dolphin and possibly killing it while celebrating.

Video circulating online shows a group of men and boys triumphantly lifting what appeared to be a baby bottlenose dolphin calf above their heads as onlookers gleefully cheered. 

The dolphin swam too close to shore when a group of men allegedly pulled it from El Trampolin beach.

The celebration appeared to enrage local residents, who tried to stop the group's actions during a confrontation.

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One of the men reportedly struck the dolphin with a stick, mortally wounding it. Some people were heard shouting "no" in the video, and some men were cheering. Others appeared concerned at the treatment of the marine mammal.

Someone eventually took the mammal and placed it back in the water. The incident has sparked outrage among Ceuta residents.

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"On Wednesday, September 2, 2026, a disoriented dolphin calf swimming near the shore at Trampolin Beach, in Ceuta, was brutally pulled from the water," Nadia Garcia Gomez wrote in a social media post announcing a petition to have those involved arrested. 

"Eyewitnesses and local media reported that the animal was handled as if it were an object and violently struck on the head with a stick, causing its immediate death."

Gomez called the migrants' actions an act of "extreme and unjustifiable cruelty" that cannot go unpunished. She noted that dolphins are a protected species under Spanish and European laws.

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Other Ceuta residents have called for the migrants involved to be prosecuted and expelled from the country.

Ceuta has been gripped by an influx of migrants from neighboring Morocco. In July, more than 70,000 migrants stormed the tiny enclave's border defenses. Although most of the migrants returned home shortly afterward, thousands have remained.

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Some residents have called for deportations and tougher action from the central government in Madrid. Last week, angry locals tore down migrant tents and shelters at the beach.

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Trapped Nepal workers pulled alive from tunnel 9 days after deadly flooding, raising hope for more rescues

Rescue teams in Nepal pulled two workers alive from a hydropower tunnel nine days after catastrophic floods swept through the country, leaving more than 1,000 people dead and thousands more missing.

Nepalese lawmaker Shri Ram Neupane told The Associated Press that searchers first heard men's voices in the tunnel on Friday morning. Images distributed by the Nepal Army showed a rescuer carrying one of the workers on his back while soldiers on either side helped.

The breakthrough has raised hopes that the dozens of others believed to be trapped will be rescued. One of the rescued men said more people are alive inside the tunnel, according to Brig. Gen. Raja Ram Basnet, who said the search is ongoing.

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"I can’t explain what we are feeling at the moment. We are just grateful to God," Amir Maharjan, the brother of one of those rescued, told the AP.

Both men were flown to a hospital in Kathmandu, and one of them was in critical condition, the AP reported, citing a statement from the prime minister's office.

Officials identified them as a mechanical foreman and a mechanical supervisor at the Trishuli 3A plant.

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The AP reported that about 115 people are believed to remain trapped in the Trishuli 3A tunnel alone, citing the Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal.

In total, authorities say there are about 900 workers missing from 12 hydropower plants in Nepal, with about 500 of them believed to be trapped in tunnels.

Nepal’s Communication Minister Bikram Timilsina wrote on his Facebook page that officials "are waiting for the rescue of more and more people."

"A heartfelt thank you to everyone who worked tirelessly day and night to rescue two people alive!" Timilsina added.

The AP reported that at least 1,287 people have been killed and more than 5,000 remain missing after the Aug. 26 floods, which scientists believe were likely triggered by a glacier collapse.

China said on Wednesday that on the Tibet side of the border, 21 people were killed and 541 are missing.

Nepal's disaster agency chief told Reuters on Friday that the flooding has likely caused at least 387.5 billion Nepalese rupees (about $2.5 billion) in damage to infrastructure and property.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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US adversary turns up the heat on America’s AI lead with an underestimated edge

China is racing to build the data centers and energy infrastructure needed to power artificial intelligence, raising concerns that Beijing’s ability to rapidly construct massive projects could help it get closer to America’s commanding lead in the physical infrastructure underpinning the AI race.

The U.S. remains far ahead in sheer numbers. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index, using Cloudscene data, counted 5,427 U.S. data centers in 2025 compared with 449 in China. Stanford cautioned that the count does not account for differences in facility size, computing capacity or utilization.

But China is moving quickly.

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"We know that China is far behind, but we also know that they are moving at great speed," China expert Gordon Chang told Fox News Digital.

Chang argued that Beijing understands the U.S. advantage will be difficult to erase if America continues building at the same pace and said growing opposition to data-center development could slow that expansion.

President Donald Trump made a similar argument this week, warning communities fighting new projects that China stands to benefit.

"China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!" Trump also argued that communities embracing data centers would gain jobs and tax revenues.

Vice President JD Vance sharpened that warning Thursday, telling Fox Business there was "a very good chance" the U.S. could lose the AI race to China if Democrats regain control of Congress.

Vance said the broader problem is America’s ability to build enough power to support data centers and other major infrastructure. "We cannot be a country that says we’re not going to build more power," Vance said, arguing that the administration is trying to make it easier to construct power plants alongside data centers while protecting residential ratepayers from higher electricity costs.

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He also pointed to the widening US-China electricity gap, saying China now generates roughly three times as much power as the United States. "We’ve got to build more power plants. We’ve got to make the regulatory state easier to work with."

Asked about China’s rapid infrastructure expansion, the Chinese Embassy in Washington rejected the premise that AI should primarily be viewed as a geopolitical contest.

"AI should not be owned by major countries, still less dominated by contests and rivalry," Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang told Fox News Digital.

Liu pointed to China’s 2025 Global AI Governance Action Plan, which calls for accelerating construction of clean power, next-generation networks, computing capacity and data centers. He said China advocates cooperation with the U.S. and wants AI development to benefit both countries and the broader international community.

Behind that diplomatic message, Beijing is undertaking a massive geographic reorganization of its computing infrastructure.

Under China’s "East Data, West Computing" initiative, Beijing is directing more computing capacity toward western regions where land is available and wind and solar resources can help reduce energy costs.

Five of China’s eight national computing hubs are located in western China, according to a June 25 report from the government-backed Digital China initiative. More than 30 data centers were under construction within a three-kilometer area in Horinger, Inner Mongolia, while intensive construction was also underway in Zhongwei, Ningxia.

That buildout caught the attention of members of the bipartisan US-China Economic and Security Review Commission during a recent fact-finding trip to China.

"I left with an intense belief that the Chinese see this as the frontier in terms of competition," Commission Vice Chairman Mike Kuiken told Fox News Digital, describing AI as increasingly intertwined with robotics, biotechnology, advanced materials and manufacturing.

Kuiken said China has one significant advantage when it comes to constructing the infrastructure needed to support that technology.

"The Chinese, because they write the rules as they go, and the rule of law largely does not exist, are able to just move faster in terms of building things," he said.

But Kuiken also identified a major Chinese weakness: access to the most advanced chips.

"The constraints that are real though, the Chinese do not have the ability to procure advanced chips," he said, while describing Beijing’s ability to rapidly construct coal plants and other infrastructure as "quite incredible."

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The U.S. retains major advantages beyond its data-center lead. The Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence’s 2026 AI Index found that America produced 59 notable AI models in 2025 compared with 35 from China, and U.S. private AI investment reached $285.9 billion, compared with $12.4 billion in China. Stanford cautioned that private investment figures understate Beijing’s overall spending because of Chinese government-backed funds.

At the same time, Chinese models have rapidly narrowed the performance gap. Stanford’s 2026 AI Index found that as of March 2026, the top U.S. model led the top Chinese model by just 2.7%.

Chang also alleged that Beijing is seeking to exploit American opposition to data centers and claimed China-linked networks have helped support protests against projects in the US. "These protests are not entirely organic," Chang told Fox News Digital.

Kuiken was cautious about portraying those local disputes as part of a broader anti-China fight, saying genuine U.S. opposition to data-center projects has also emerged over concerns including electricity costs, water use, noise and land development.

"We are building things in the U.S. faster than we have in a long time," he said, adding that policymakers are working through infrastructure constraints. "Usually there are local issues that are driving those things."

The emerging competition, therefore, is not simply over who develops the smartest AI model.

It is increasingly a race over who can build the electricity, data centers, chips and networks needed to run those models at enormous scale — and how quickly they can build them.

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Iran prefers conflict with US over peace to suppress internal uprising, human rights activist warns

Regime leaders in Iran are more content to see continued confrontation with the United States and its Gulf neighbors rather than pursuing peace in an effort to keep their disenchanted population at bay, one expert says.

U.S. forces have launched airstrikes against Iran in recent days following a brief pause in hostilities amid renewed flare-ups in the Strait of Hormuz.

Tehran isn't as concerned about military action against the country, but rather discontent among Iranians, Dr. Majid Sadeghpour, a human rights activist and the political director of the Organization of Iranian-American Communities, told Fox News Digital.

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Sadeghpour noted that U.S. officials offered guarantees to Tehran that provided a pathway to peace for Iran.

"You get America to give you a guarantee that it wouldn't seek regime change. Nevertheless, they still attacked ships afterward," Sadeghpour said. "They still attacked our bases in Jordan and Bahrain. So that speaks to the fact that the real threat to the regime is not the bombs from outside, but rather the population uprising."

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"For a regime that's militarized and requires friction, its survival now depends on that friction," he added.

Iran has experienced major uprisings in recent years driven by economic collapse, high inflation, and deep discontent with the regime's strict religious interpretation of Islam. In addition, the Iranian government has suppressed anti-government riots and protests with deadly force and arbitrary arrests and detention, according to human rights observers.

The war with the U.S. helps the regime, Sadeghpour said, by refocusing the Iranian public's attention elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Iran has continued to target commercial ships in the strait in violation of an agreement not to do so, Vice President JD Vance said Thursday.

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"The Iranians are doing what the Iranians do," Vance said. "I think that they're losing their capabilities by the day. I think they're realizing… that their control over the Strait of Hormuz is effectively gone, and it's a diminishing asset."

In order to effect regime change, the U.S. should focus its efforts on the Iranian population, said Sadeghpour, because Iranian leaders will likely drag out the conflict with the U.S. for as long as they can.

"The regime is thinking about the day, the hour after the exhausted population gets calm, and will immediately look around, 'how am I going to get rid of this regime? And who's going to help me do that?' And so that is what the regime is afraid of," he said.

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Meanwhile, President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he isn't focused on bringing Tehran to the bargaining table, saying he "couldn't care less" if Iran signs a "worthless" agreement.

"They are just playing out the inevitable," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?"

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Maduro claims immunity, asks judge to dismiss drug-trafficking charges against him and his wife

Former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss the drug trafficking charges against them, arguing, among other things, that the pair have sovereign immunity, according to court documents.

"No American court has ever presided over the criminal trial of a foreign leader who was recognized by their own country as the sitting head of state at the time the charges were brought. That is not an accident of history. It reflects a rule older than the common law: heads of state are exempt from the criminal process of any national court but their own," a memorandum Maduro's lawyers filed in support of their motion to dismiss read.

"That immunity flows not from goodwill that can be withdrawn on a whim, but from the perfect equality and absolute independence of sovereigns. Thus, this Court lacks jurisdiction with respect to Mr. Maduro, who is recognized by the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela as its head of state," the document continued.

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In January 2026, the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York unsealed a fourth superseding indictment against Maduro and Flores. The indictment charged Maduro with narco-terrorism conspiracy, and both Flores and Maduro with cocaine importation conspiracy, possession of machine guns and destructive devices and conspiracy to possess machine guns and destructive devices.

The indictment alleged that for decades, Maduro used his position — first as a deputy in Venezuela's National Assembly and then as the country's president — to conspire with narco-terrorists from some of the world's largest cartels to import cocaine into the United States.

Maduro's lawyers, however, claim that sovereign immunity prevents the U.S. from taking action against Maduro.

"The official character of these acts — such as issuing diplomatic passports, deploying the military, and announcing Venezuelan foreign policy — is apparent from the face of the Indictment. Because these actions were undertaken in his official capacity on behalf of a foreign sovereign, he may not be required to respond in this Court to the Indictment’s characterizations of his motives and intent in taking these actions," the document reads.

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The U.S. government officially declared Maduro to be an illegitimate president in 2019 after Maduro declared victory in the disputed 2018 presidential election.

Maduro's lawyers also argue that the indictment violates his and Flores' due process, according to court documents.

The document asserts that Maduro "vehemently denies that he had anything to do with drug trafficking or intended to benefit anyone engaged in terrorism."

The motion to dismiss then argues that the charges against Maduro fail to establish that his alleged crimes took place in or were aimed at the United States, and therefore do not meet the standards of due process.

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"The narcoterrorism statute, which was enacted in 2006 in connection with the reauthorization of the USA PATRIOT ACT, was intended to target foreign conduct. Recognizing that its power to police the rest of the world is not unlimited, Congress included a jurisdictional element that authorizes the use of the statute to prosecute foreign conduct under only five enumerated scenarios in which the foreign conduct is connected to the United States. Ignoring those parameters set by Congress, the Indictment fails — even by tracking the statutory language — to allege any basis for jurisdiction over the solely foreign conduct it alleges," the motion to dismiss reads.

The U.S. apprehended Maduro and Flores during a January military operation, titled Operation Absolute Resolve, in which U.S. forces captured the couple in Venezuela's capital of Caracas and extradited them back to the United States to be prosecuted in New York federal court.

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Maduro is set to appear in court in November to begin oral arguments in support of his motion to dismiss.

Fox News Digital contacted Maduro and Flores' legal team and the SDNY for further comment.

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Tens of thousands flood streets to protest Spain border crisis

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets across Spain to protest the government's handling of a mass crossing of migrants into Spain in July.

Authorities say 50,000 protesters were on the streets in Madrid alone, furious at Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez as the migrant crisis in Spain's North African city of Ceuta continues.

Violence continued for hours after the major protests ended, with gunshots and explosions audible throughout the night on Wednesday.

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The protesters bore signs reading, "A united Ceuta will never be defeated," "Sánchez to prison," and "Invaders — go home!"

Spain is still dealing with the fallout after over 70,000 foreign migrants surged across its border from neighboring Morocco in late July.

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Thousands of those migrants remain in Spanish territory even now.

"What happened to us was not a migratory crisis," Ceuta's regional leader, Juan Jesús Vivas, said Wednesday. "What happened was the violation of Spain's territorial integrity."

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The protests came days after Ceuta residents tore down and burned makeshift migrant shelters found in their city.

Demonstrators carrying Spanish flags moved toward beachside migrant camps last week, destroying shelters and setting fires as police attempted to keep protesters and migrants apart, according to Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE and news agency EFE.

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Meanwhile, Sanchez has blamed Russia and Israel for amplifying the migrant crisis via social media, saying the July surge across the border was due to a misinterpretation of a Spanish Supreme Court ruling.

Sánchez told radio station SER that research by the European Union’s diplomatic service, the European External Action Service, indicated Russian and Israeli networks had participated in spreading disinformation alongside far-right networks, Reuters reported Aug. 31.

"Without facts, without materials backed up by numbers, dates, names, there is simply nothing to talk about," Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told reporters.

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar accused Sánchez of "lying shamelessly," and said in a post on X that the Spanish leader was attempting to divert attention from domestic policy failures.

Fox News' Efrat Lachter and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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