Why Evolution is True is a blog written by Jerry Coyne, centered on evolution and biology but also dealing with diverse topics like politics, culture, and cats.
Welcome to CaturSaturday, September 25, 2026, and the last Friday of the month. There will not be a Caturday post this week due to the visit of the Black D*g. It’s National Pancake Day; here’s a stack of blue corn pancakes with piñon nuts I ate in Santa Fe eight years ago:
Iran has offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume talks on its nuclear program in seven days if the United States lifts its naval blockade, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that would include Lebanon.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi detailed the proposal in a private gathering on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, according to one attendee.
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute think tank, who attended, said Araghchi suggested that a speedy agreement would help U.S. President Donald Trump ahead of November’s midterm elections.
There was no immediate comment from Iran’s U.N. mission or other Iranian officials.
The proposal strongly resembles the so-called Memorandum of Understanding reached in June, but with an accelerated timetable. The earlier agreement, which had called for a 60-day interim period, quickly collapsed as Iran resumed attacks on shipping in the strait.
Trump has said he is in no rush to reach a deal, even as high oil prices fuel inflation and exacerbate cost of living concerns. On the Iranian side, there are questions as to whether the hard-liners who dominate the security forces will accept compromises championed by relative moderates, like President Masoud Pezeshkian.
“If Trump calculates this arrangement is worthwhile and can bring political benefit before the midterms and reduce gas prices, perhaps we’ll see flexibility not seen in previous weeks,” Parsi said. But he noted “deep suspicion,” especially around the prospect of Iran merely buying time to get out more of its oil and ease its economic pain.
President Trump rejected Iran’s latest proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart talks aimed at reaching a deal on the country’s nuclear program, according to U.S. officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
Earlier this week, Iran’s foreign minister offered a proposal to implement a seven-day ceasefire, reopen the strait and restart talks with the U.S. aimed at reaching a final nuclear deal.
However, U.S. officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal reportedly said Mr. Trump is “skeptical” Iran would meet his demands and that he expects to resume a bombing campaign.
Indeed; this shows that Iran is being economically squeezed, and although Trump has a political loss in the offing if he holds firm with Iran, he also has a military gain. Do I know what he’s going to do? Of course not. Do I think he should stay the course? Yes, of course.
*After a federal judge order restoration of White House press pool access to MS NOW, Politico, and CNN journalists on Thursday morning, on Thursday evening some of them were still blocked from access to the White House, and enforcement of the judge’s order was also spotty throughout the day. After all, Trump thinks they purvey “fake news”:
Journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were allowed reentry to the White House on Thursday, days after being banned by the administration, and hours after U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly ordered their credentials restored.
This followed a chaotic morning in which journalists from all three outlets were initially turned away from the White House, and some had their press credentials seized by the U.S. Secret Service.
But later in the day CNN and MS NOW reported that some of their journalists were denied access to cover the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House for a state dinner.
CNN said that a reporter and producer were blocked from the event, while a photojournalist and audio technician were able to attend. MS NOW said its White House reporter Laura Barrón-López was denied entry to President Xi’s arrival ceremony.
President Donald Trump berated the two media outlets in a post on Truth Social Thursday, falsely claiming they had “refused to cover” the arrival.
“The event was magnificent — Actually made for Television but, because they’re Fake News, and because they knew how good it would be, they didn’t want credit to be given to “TRUMP,” they refused to be there,” he said.
It remains to be seen whether the White House pool system — which splits video coverage of the president among five major networks — will resume to cover the remainder of the visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, MS NOW White House reporter Akayla Gardner said. ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC said they would halt TV coverage of presidential events after the White House banned CNN, while other outlets, including The Washington Post earlier this week, temporarily refrained from publishing new photos of Trump in a show of support.
“This is a historic moment. We have President Xi coming here to Washington for a major state visit, and at this moment, we’re seeing tremendous solidarity among the news outlets,” Gardner said on air Thursday, adding, “I think we can assume that if the White House does comply with this order, that the pool potentially will be back in effect once again, and the public can get information the same way that they had before.”
The White House on Friday night blocked CNN from accompanying President Trump on a Saturday trip to Tennessee, a network spokeswoman confirmed, in the latest twist in a weeklong standoff between Mr. Trump and the Washington press corps.
The decision immediately raised the question of whether the television pool would cover the president’s trip. The TV pool, a rotating group of networks that share the work of filming the president’s daily activities, had boycotted those responsibilities this week after Mr. Trump first banned CNN from participating in the pool.
I’m glad the news outlets, including Fox News, are standing together to oppose Trump’s clearly unconstitutional act, and the administration might as well realize they’re on a Losing Cause Train and stop censoring the press pool.
*According to the NYT, the University of Cambridge has abandoned plans for a full investigation of the Jason Arday affair, including examining the University’s hiring practices, and instead will focus largely on “whether the school offered [Arday] sufficient support amid accusations that he plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis and embellished his personal narrative.” This, of course, reflects the University’s desire to avoid at all costs an analysis of how the school could hire a completely unqualified fabulist, apparently because he was both black and claimed to be disabled.” (h/t Greg; article archived here).
The University of Cambridge has abandoned plans to fully investigate its hiring of Jason Arday, the professor who became a lightning rod in the debate over diversity-and-inclusion efforts in higher education, following his abrupt death last month.
Instead, the university said, the inquiry will examine whether the school offered him sufficient support amid accusations that he plagiarized portions of his doctoral thesis and embellished his personal narrative. Dr. Arday may come up as part of a broader look at university hiring practices, but he will not be a focus.
That marks an abrupt shift from the plan announced this summer, when the school’s vice chancellor, Deborah Prentice, promised a “thorough and transparent” investigation into Dr. Arday’s appointment.
Dr. Arday died last month amid intense scrutiny of his biography and a deluge of personal, sometimes racist, taunts online. No official cause of death has been released, but his family said that the “campaign of misinformation was too much for Jason.”
The change in investigative focus means that Cambridge may never publicly address questions about how it vetted Dr. Arday for a senior teaching job and why it repeatedly downplayed concerns about his work and biography.
That has upset some professors, who are circulating a letter demanding full institutional accountability and an examination of how the university promoted Dr. Arday’s personal story, according to a draft seen by The New York Times.
. . .Cambridge has appointed a respected former prosecutor to lead the review but has narrowed the scope. The investigation is “not about the allegations made against Professor Arday or about his academic record,” the former prosecutor, Nazir Afzal, said recently. “It’s about his welfare, his care, his well-being.”
It will go “deep on a narrow question rather than broad on all of them,” Mr. Afzal, who is also chancellor of the University of Manchester, noted in a post. A second, broader inquiry by an expert panel may touch on Dr. Arday’s years at Cambridge but will not focus on him.
The second review “will consider the wider context of Professor Arday’s time at the University of Cambridge” by examining policies on hiring and academic misconduct, along with “the support available to academics who are subject to extraordinary public and media scrutiny,” a university description of the inquiry reads.
A university spokesperson declined to explain the change or answer questions about it
The reason for the change is pretty clear. First, Arday is dead, so one could say that there’s no point to investigating him, which could lead to his demotion or firing. But that investigation would lead to Cambridge being accused of racism. Second, if the investigation does reveal a form of antiracist or DEI hiring, whereby a deficit of merit can be made up by a surfeit of pigmentation and claimed handicaps, it would also look bad for Cambridge, despite the rest of us wanting to know why he was hired. The benefits accrue to us and to academic, and none to Cambridge.
*As usual, I’ll steal a few items from Nellie Bowles’s weekly news-and-snark column in the Free Press, called this week “TGIF: I am the code.”
→ Claudine Gay is back: Former Harvard president Claudine Gay, who resigned after six months amid criticism over her handling of campus antisemitism as well as plagiarism allegations, has returned to teach a seminar called “What Is a University?: Purpose and Politics in Higher Education.” The 16-person course examines institutional power struggles, donor influence, and Harvard’s controversies, with students ultimately proposing their own vision for university reform.
I love this for her. She gets to teach a whole class on how she got fired. The final exam will be to throw darts at the head shots of Harvard board members. It’s a practicum on why the hell she ended up teaching that class. I hope they bring in donors and scream at them. Enroll me, please!
Don’t forget that Claudine Gay’s salary as a professor is a total of about $1.55 million per year, including $1,397,749 base compensation and $150,802 for “other compensation”, mostly university housing. How can she deserve that much, which is far more than regular Harvard professors make?
→ Sunny Hostin once served on a jury: This week on The View, Sunny Hostin said that when she was on a jury in the early ’90s, she was the holdout juror who prevented a good, if ill, man from going to prison. That’s right: She claims to have been the holdout in the “Butcher of Tompkins Square Park” trial (which might not be true but let’s go with Sunny). Here’s Sunny on his crime: “He did not mean to kill her and once he killed her, he panicked. He chopped up her body, yes, boiled her body parts, tried to commit the perfect crime,” she continued, talking over the other panelists to make one final important point: “And he fed her body parts to the unhoused.” So crucial. He fed her body parts to the unhoused. She really wants to be sure you heard that part. Because, well, that’s honestly admirable. The unhoused are famously hungry. If someone slaughters your mother but then feeds her flesh to the homeless, it’s morally neutral. What? You want to starve our unhoused community of human flesh? You’ve never panicked and accidentally chopped up, boiled, and served human body parts? Okay, Ms. Perfect!
→ Oh, Lauren Boebert: Boebert is facing a House ethics complaint alleging sexual relationships with three staffers, including a four-year relationship with a woman to whom she allegedly paid $200,000 after it ended. Boebert—who has promoted “Christian values,” criticized Major League Baseball for “forcing” players to promote “the LGBTQ agenda,” and was famously caught vaping and groping a male companion in a theater—called the allegations “utterly false” and “politically motivated,” adding: “I’m not a lesbian or bisexual, and I have never, ever been in any inappropriate relationship, nor have I ever been sexually involved with any staff.” I want to believe her. And I typically am suspicious of allegations. But I saw that theater grope video. And just knowing how she presents to the world as a sort of sexed-up secretary. . . I don’t know, my gut says this one may be real. Boebert swinging both ways is extremely believable. Based on no knowledge, I’m gonna say it probably happened.
In the weeks after Passover each year, Israeli-New Zealander Daniel Rosenbaum is already at work preparing for Sukkot, a Jewish festival six months away.
As the incoming chairperson of the Wellington Jewish Community Center, Rosenbaum spends months navigating the legal and administrative requirements to import sets of the Four Species — plants that Jews are biblically commanded to gather together and wave on the Sukkot holiday.
The country’s approximately 5,500 Jews, a pittance among a broader population of 5.3 million people, face an enormous challenge getting supplies for the festival of Sukkot each year because New Zealand has some of the world’s strictest biosecurity laws.
Any natural materials, leaves, plants or fruits are considered a biosecurity hazard to New Zealand’s fragile island ecosystem, and their import into the country is tightly controlled. The lulav and etrog, or palm frond and citron, along with the myrtle and willow branches used on the festival of Sukkot, are caught under these strict restrictions.
This year, Rosenbaum is overseeing the legal import of 14 sets of the Four Species for all of New Zealand, some of which will be sent to the Auckland Hebrew Congregation. Under him, there are two teams. One looks after compliance and legislation, and the other acts as the importer.
“We have to go through the same rigmarole as a massive company, like one that brings in 1,000 tons of tomatoes from Spain,” said Rosenbaum.
To get import approval, the Wellington Jewish Community Center and Auckland Hebrew Congregation separately review their biosecurity risk management plans, submit them to the Ministry for Primary Industries for review, and undergo individual biosecurity verification audits.
MELBOURNE, Australia — In the weeks after Passover each year, Israeli-New Zealander Daniel Rosenbaum is already at work preparing for Sukkot, a Jewish festival six months away.
As the incoming chairperson of the Wellington Jewish Community Center, Rosenbaum spends months navigating the legal and administrative requirements to import sets of the Four Species — plants that Jews are biblically commanded to gather together and wave on the Sukkot holiday.
The country’s approximately 5,500 Jews, a pittance among a broader population of 5.3 million people, face an enormous challenge getting supplies for the festival of Sukkot each year because New Zealand has some of the world’s strictest biosecurity laws.
Any natural materials, leaves, plants or fruits are considered a biosecurity hazard to New Zealand’s fragile island ecosystem, and their import into the country is tightly controlled. The lulav and etrog, or palm frond and citron, along with the myrtle and willow branches used on the festival of Sukkot, are caught under these strict restrictions.
This year, Rosenbaum is overseeing the legal import of 14 sets of the Four Species for all of New Zealand, some of which will be sent to the Auckland Hebrew Congregation. Under him, there are two teams. One looks after compliance and legislation, and the other acts as the importer.
“We have to go through the same rigmarole as a massive company, like one that brings in 1,000 tons of tomatoes from Spain,” said Rosenbaum.
To get import approval, the Wellington Jewish Community Center and Auckland Hebrew Congregation separately review their biosecurity risk management plans, submit them to the Ministry for Primary Industries for review, and undergo individual biosecurity verification audits.
The government ministry checks the community building protocols and its plans for managing the sets. It then prepares a report indicating whether the synagogue’s proposed management of the biosecurity risk is acceptable or whether anything must be adjusted.
Anyone handling the Four Species must undergo “staff training” on how to handle the restricted plant material, so in Wellington, the synagogue includes a reminder of the community’s biosecurity protocols at their annual meeting and in the weekly synagogue newsletters leading up to the festival.
The sets of the Four Species are grown in Israel, but are imported via the nearest large Jewish community, Australia. Before the plants reach New Zealand, each synagogue’s biosecurity team puts up posters at all synagogue entrances, reminding congregants that they are entering a secure facility authorized under the Biosecurity Act.
Posters at all exits also remind people not to take the sets outside the synagogue. A green and red line is drawn around the synagogue’s secure and non-secure zones, and the sets cannot cross the red line, including into the sukkah, where they are traditionally waved in other communities. Although in other parts of the world many Jews purchase their own sets, no one in Wellington or Auckland may have one in their own home; the synagogue stores all sets in its secure facilities.
The process is extremely expensive. After all is said and done, the cost of a set — usually the cheapest and simplest available for purchase — comes out to around $1,200 to $1,700. In other communities around the world, such sets can often be obtained for as little as $40.
Well, such is religion. I have no truck with this minutely observed form of worship, but I do applaud the New Zealand government for applying its biosecurity laws to everything. And of course because Jews control everything, including the banks, they have the dosh to pay these enormous fees.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili has an exchange with her nemesis Kulka. Is Kulka being insulted?
Kulka: Does absolute emptiness exist?
Hili: Some suspect it can be found in many heads.
In Polish:
Kulka: Czy istnieje absolutna próżnia?
Hili: Niektórzy podejrzewają, że jest w wielu głowach.
You seem to have found common ground in your recent meeting. So I have one request: can you find a common ground on this too help us stop the execution of these innocent Iranian protesters?
From Brianna Wu, a trans-iudentified male whom I much admire, not only because she walks the walk but because she’s a liberal who dunks on progressives. And here she explains that in her case she was compelled to transition. That’s certainly true.
It’s not choice to transition. Do you have any idea how well I did with gay men? I must’ve prayed 1000 times for God to just let me be a gay man instead.
If I were one of these helpful otters, I’d demand fish instead of no stinking ice cube:
Em um aquário no Japão, após o horário de fechamento, alguns filhotes de lontra espertinhos ajudam seu avô a arrumar os brinquedos deles. Como recompensa, ele dá cubos de gelo a eles. pic.twitter.com/5a3llyhCjq
Three Dutch Jewish siblings were likely murdered in a gas chamber together with their mother. One of them would have been 90 today. https://t.co/zJ0wQB1byi
The new prickly pal needs a name! 💖Our prehensile-tailed porcupette is doing really well, gaining weight (now 2 lbs), and trying solids. She also loves hibiscus! The one-month-old wasn’t getting enough milk from her mom, so staff is hand-rearing her to ensure she continues to grow and thrive. 1/2
Keepers have selected three name options: Amora, Bristle, and Bramble. Voting is open now and closes on Wednesday, September 30. We'll announce the winning name later next week.VOTE: pdza.org/name-the-porcupette
Music today: a new feature that may be transient. This is the famous melange of songs on the second side of Abbey Road. I’m not sure of the occasion, but the video notes “Music for MONTSERRAT 15th September,1997”. Besides McCartney, there’s Phil Collins on drums, and Mark Knoepfler and Eric Clapton on guitar. Besides that, the orchestra is conducted by George Martin.
I for one most heartily endorse the Music Today feature and hope it may continue for at least a time. It need not be every day, certainly.
It heals. It prepares one for the day.
The Cambridge decision not to investigate Arday’s appointment is, in essence, saying, We don’t care if appointments like his happen, we just want to make sure that, if they are found out, the individuals have a support network. That is Progressive politics in a nutshell.
Well congratulations Cambridge, you had the perfect opportunity to examine your policies and reflect upon them. Asking yourselves if you did enough to support someone so manifestly unsuited to the position you appointed them to is simply ludicrous and shows just how ideologically captured you are as an institution.
Once more, I sympathise with his friends and family, but his final act was a betrayal of them and a cowardly act in the face of his impending dishonour.
Blaming media attention is unworthy, what were they meant to do? Ignore increasing evidence of malfeasance to protect an evident con artist who is “special”? Give. Me. A. Break.
Thank you Reese, I appreciate that. Some of the opprobrium I have encountered elsewhere for my attitude has led me to expect his impending canonisation any time now.
The truth is that everyone, particularly Cambridge, just wants all the fuss to die down, and they will probably get their wish because it just isn’t newsworthy any longer, despite the wider ramifications of an institution appointing a conman to a prestigious academic position.
I’m glad that Trump rejected the Iranian proposal. The President seems to have gotten the message that any proposal from Iran is a scam.
The vegetation rules in New Zealand are interesting. The problem is probably not the etrog or the other ritual plants themselves. It’s probably insect pests that can be brought in with them. Here in Washington State, when you drive south on Interstate 5 from Snohomish County into King County, a large sign at the county line warns drivers not to bring apples into the county in order to keep the Apple Maggot out. It’s a huge risk to our agricultural industry. The restrictions in New Zealand make sense. Besides, full compliance makes it harder to blame the Jews for pest infestations or crop failures.
Those Dutch Jewish kids—murdered by the Nazis—were so cute. I can picture the parents out of the frame making faces to get them to smile for the camera. That picture is not just of the kids; it’s of an entire family.
In the comments to Paul &friends someone writes: “If you were around for the Beatles, then be thankful, for such a phenomenon will never again be seen…” So true
“Music for Montserrat” was a benefit concert for the Caribbean island of Montserrat after it was damaged by a volcano eruption.
Thanks for that. I was just going to look it up. How I would have loved to be at that concert! Music today is a great feature.
I for one most heartily endorse the Music Today feature and hope it may continue for at least a time. It need not be every day, certainly.
It heals. It prepares one for the day.
And holy crap, that was an awesome Episode 1!
The Cambridge decision not to investigate Arday’s appointment is, in essence, saying, We don’t care if appointments like his happen, we just want to make sure that, if they are found out, the individuals have a support network. That is Progressive politics in a nutshell.
Well congratulations Cambridge, you had the perfect opportunity to examine your policies and reflect upon them. Asking yourselves if you did enough to support someone so manifestly unsuited to the position you appointed them to is simply ludicrous and shows just how ideologically captured you are as an institution.
Once more, I sympathise with his friends and family, but his final act was a betrayal of them and a cowardly act in the face of his impending dishonour.
Blaming media attention is unworthy, what were they meant to do? Ignore increasing evidence of malfeasance to protect an evident con artist who is “special”? Give. Me. A. Break.
Mark, Serendipitydawg, I wish we had an upvote feature for both your comments. And ProfCC, please keep the music feature.
Thank you Reese, I appreciate that. Some of the opprobrium I have encountered elsewhere for my attitude has led me to expect his impending canonisation any time now.
The truth is that everyone, particularly Cambridge, just wants all the fuss to die down, and they will probably get their wish because it just isn’t newsworthy any longer, despite the wider ramifications of an institution appointing a conman to a prestigious academic position.
I’m glad that Trump rejected the Iranian proposal. The President seems to have gotten the message that any proposal from Iran is a scam.
The vegetation rules in New Zealand are interesting. The problem is probably not the etrog or the other ritual plants themselves. It’s probably insect pests that can be brought in with them. Here in Washington State, when you drive south on Interstate 5 from Snohomish County into King County, a large sign at the county line warns drivers not to bring apples into the county in order to keep the Apple Maggot out. It’s a huge risk to our agricultural industry. The restrictions in New Zealand make sense. Besides, full compliance makes it harder to blame the Jews for pest infestations or crop failures.
Those Dutch Jewish kids—murdered by the Nazis—were so cute. I can picture the parents out of the frame making faces to get them to smile for the camera. That picture is not just of the kids; it’s of an entire family.
Lots of bad news (as always) but the baby porcupine is very cute!
In the comments to Paul &friends someone writes: “If you were around for the Beatles, then be thankful, for such a phenomenon will never again be seen…” So true