These trips have seemingly influenced the way traditional politicians spread diplomatic messages on their own social media accounts. When the Trump administration first partnered with the Nayib Bukele government this spring to send migrants detained in the US to the El Salvadoran megaprison Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), government officials traveled to the prison, and images of the visits were blasted online. Department of Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem stood in front of dozens of CECOT’s prisoners who were lined up behind the prison’s bars where she took photos and videos warning immigrants that this prison could be “one of the consequences” they face if they’re caught unlawfully entering the US.

The strategy hasn’t been confined to explicitly political influencers either. In July, Israel prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined popular YouTuber group the Nelk Boys for their Full Send Podcast. The more than an hourlong podcast provided Netanyahu with a new audience composed primarily of young men who rarely tune into traditional news, allowing the world leader to reach a coveted demographic credited with helping Trump win reelection in 2024. Netanyahu’s team reached out to Full Send to schedule the interview, John Shahidi, who manages the Nelk brand, tells WIRED.

“We are so not qualified to do this,” Kyle Forgeard said at the beginning of the podcast, shortly before Netanyahu joined. “That’s what’s interesting about this.”

The podcast also showed how these kinds of political collaborations could blow up in the creators’ faces. Clips of Nelk’s interview with Netanyahu drew fierce criticism from both the right and left online, with critics accusing the Full Send crew of trivializing Israel’s war on Gaza and extending Netanyahu a platform to spread propaganda.

“Asking him if he prefers Burger King or McDonald’s … while people are starving … this is insane,” one YouTube commenter wrote. (After going on the Israel365 trip and getting some similar blowback, Zirkle “parted ways” with Bannon’s War Room, Axios reported.)

For foreign governments seeking approval from the MAGA base, meeting with these creators provides them with insight on US voters and a platform to speak directly to them.

“If you want to understand MAGA, you have to understand the online ecosystem that fuels our movement. That’s why it’s no surprise countries around the world are eager to engage with creators who have the ear of the administration and finger on the pulse,” says CJ Pearson, a MAGA-aligned creator.

Conducting diplomacy via influencer may in some cases have the additional advantage of falling into blind spots in social media regulation and existing laws governing lobbying, allowing creators to operate on behalf of foreign governments without traditional disclosures.

“Part of the challenge with political influencers is that it’s unclear the extent to which they’re being paid by various competing interest groups and organizations,” says Samuel Woolley, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies digital propaganda. “Political influencers exist in this liminal space where they’re one part campaign mouthpiece and another part independent actor.”

This points to what’s new—not trips and conferences for potentially sympathetic and influential people but rather using them to establish a new type of diplomatic messenger. Partisan influencers with millions of followers can amplify foreign policy talking points on behalf of the MAGA movement and any foreign governments eager to access their platforms—all beyond existing rules and oversight.

“It makes them very valuable,” says Woolley, “given discrepancies and extant holes in the law to political organizations that are hoping to do things a little more under the table and in a little bit more of a casual or less trackable manner.”

A new study, led by Warren Jasper, professor at the US’ Wilson College of Textiles has demonstrated how machine learning can help reduce waste in textile manufacturing by improving the accuracy of colour prediction during the dyeing process.

The research, titled ‘A Controlled Study on Machine Learning Applications to Predict Dry Fabric Color from Wet Samples: Influences of Dye Concentration and Squeeze Pressure’, addresses one of the industry’s longstanding challenges: predicting what dyed fabric will look like once it dries.

Fabrics are typically dyed while wet, but their colours often change as they dry. This makes it difficult for manufacturers to determine the final appearance of the material during production. The issue is further complicated by the fact that colour changes from wet to dry are non-linear and vary across different shades, making it impossible to generalise data from one colour to another, according to the paper co-authored by Samuel Jasper.

“The fabric is dyed while wet, but the target shade is when its dry and wearable. That means that, if you have an error in coloration, you aren’t going to know until the fabric is dry. While you wait for that drying to happen, more fabric is being dyed the entire time. That leads to a lot of waste, because you just can’t catch the error until late in the process,” said Warren Jasper.

To address this, Jasper developed five machine learning models, including a neural network specifically designed to handle the non-linear relationship between wet and dry colour states. The models were trained on visual data from 763 fabric samples dyed in various colours. Jasper noted that each dyeing process took several hours, making data collection a time-intensive task.

All five machine learning models outperformed traditional, non-ML approaches in predicting final fabric colour, but the neural network proved to be the most accurate. It achieved a CIEDE2000 error as low as 0.01 and a median error of 0.7. In comparison, the other machine learning models showed error ranges from 1.1 to 1.6, while the baseline model recorded errors as high as 13.8.

The CIEDE2000 formula is a standard metric for measuring colour difference, and in the textile industry, values above 0.8 to 1.0 are generally considered unacceptable.

By enabling more accurate predictions of final fabric colour, the neural network could help manufacturers avoid costly dyeing mistakes and reduce material waste. Jasper expressed hope that similar machine learning tools would be adopted more widely across the textile sector to support efficiency and sustainability.

“We’re a bit behind the curve in textiles. The industry has started to move more toward machine learning models, but it’s been very slow. These types of models can offer powerful tools in cutting down on waste and improving productivity in continuous dyeing, which accounts for over 60 per cent of dyed fabrics,” stated Warren.

A study led by Warren Jasper shows machine learning can reduce textile dyeing waste by accurately predicting dry fabric colours from wet samples.
A neural network model trained on 763 samples achieved near-perfect accuracy, helping avoid costly errors.
Jasper urges wider adoption to boost sustainability and efficiency in continuous dyeing.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (HU)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called Tuesday for “more flexibility” from the EU in the transition to electric cars as resistance grows over plans to phase out combustion-engine vehicle sales by 2035.

Merz made the appeal at the opening of the IAA motor show in Munich, as Europe’s struggling automakers line up to plead for the bloc to reconsider the plan aimed at combating climate change.

German titans VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz as well as US-European giant Stellantis have voiced concerns as they struggle to build up competitive electric vehicles (EV) against Chinese rivals like BYD.

While he did not openly criticize the EU’s deadline to halt sales of new combustion engine cars in a decade, Merz said he wanted to see “more flexibility” in European regulation.

“We are of course committed to the transition to e-mobility,” the conservative leader, who took office in May, told the show.

But he added that “we need smart, reliable and flexible European regulation—it is more necessary than ever”.

“We want to achieve climate protection as cost-effectively as possible through technological openness. Unilateral political commitments to specific technologies are fundamentally the wrong economic policy approach.”

Markus Soeder, the leader of Bavaria state where the motor show is taking place and a political ally of Merz, was more blunt.

“This combustion engine ban is wrong,” he told the show.

“We need other options because, to be perfectly honest, combustion engines still have a future. Electric mobility will prevail in the long term but we need significantly more time to organize the whole thing in Europe.”

‘Supportive’ speeches

Jan Vlasak, who works in software for a German carmaker, praised the speeches as “really supportive of the automotive industry”.

The 35-year-old agreed the 2035 ban should be reviewed, calling for it to be pushed back by five to 10 years.

A stuttering shift to EVs is one of the major challenges facing Europe’s auto sector. Manufacturers have invested huge sums in the transition, but sales have grown far more slowly than anticipated.

On top of that, the industry has faced rising production costs at home along with fierce competition in China from BYD and other EV makers that has eroded sales for foreign manufacturers in the world’s biggest auto market.

In Germany, the auto sector has already shed more than 50,000 jobs over the past year, according to EY.

Volkswagen is planning 35,000 layoffs between now and 2030 and taking the unprecedented step of halting production at two of its sites in Germany.

Plans for redundancies have been coming thick and fast at Porsche, Audi, and at hundreds of German auto sector suppliers.

Merz is planning to host meetings with key auto sector players soon to chart a way forward.

“Our goal is for Germany to remain one of the world’s leading places for automotive and manufacturing in the future—we want to shape the transformation of the automotive industry,” he said.

Chinese competition

On the other side of the argument, more than 150 businesses in the EV sector wrote an open letter to EU chief Ursula von der Leyen on Monday urging her to “not row back” on the 2035 target.

When the IAA winds down on Friday, carmakers are expected to have a meeting with von der Leyen in Brussels to discuss how to save the sector.

Underlining the competition the German car sector faces, more Chinese carmakers are expected at the fair than ever before.

Fourteen Chinese carmakers—as opposed to just 10 European ones—are displaying new models.

Around 100 of the 700 firms taking part overall in the IAA will be from China, up 40% from the last show in 2023.

Chinese carmakers there range from BYD, whose sales in Europe rose dramatically in the first half of this year, to GAC, which is taking its first steps in the European market.

BYD on Monday presented its compact Dolphin Surf model, which has been on sale in Europe since May for around 20,000 euros ($23,500).

From later this year it will be produced in a new facility in Hungary, with the company hoping to avoid EU tariffs on Chinese imports.

Volkswagen is trying to fight back with its own models at the more affordable end of the market.

© 2025 AFP