News Reel

President Trump said the U.S. has been successful in diminishing the Iranian military and regime, and will continue to expand its targets inside Iran.

Producers Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Rey discuss mysterious injuries suffered by government officials, known as Havana Syndrome. Their reporting revealed U.S. government testing of a directed energy weapon.

Son of Ali Khamenei named as his successor by Iran’s assembly of experts, state media reports

• Full report: Iran rejects Trump’s demand for unconditional surrender as a ‘dream’

• Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?

The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes “across Iran” on Sunday, targeting military sites.

A military statement said it had “initiated a wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime military infrastructure across Iran”.

CNN reports on a company called Automated Architecture (AUAR) which makes "portable" micro-factories that use a robotic arm to produce wooden framing for houses (the walls, floors and roofs): Co-founder Mollie Claypool says the micro-factories will be able to produce the panels quicker, cheaper and more precisely than a timber framing crew, freeing up carpenters to focus on the construction of the building... The micro-factory fits into a shipping container which is sent to the building site along with an operator. Inside the factory, a robotic arm measures, cuts and nails the timber into panels up to 22 feet (6.7 meters) long, keeping gaps for windows and doors, and drilling holes for the wiring and plumbing. The contractor then fits the panels by hand. One micro-factory can produce the panels for a typical house in about a day — a process which, according to Claypool, would take a normal timber framing crew four weeks — and is able to produce framing for buildings up to seven stories tall... She says their service is 30% cheaper than a standard timber framing crew, and up to 15% cheaper than buying panels from large factories and shipping them to a site... She adds that the precision of the micro-factories means that the panels fit together tightly, reducing the heat loss of the final home, making them more energy efficient. AUAR currently has three micro-factories operating in the US and EU, with five more set to be delivered this year... AUAR has raised £7.7 million ($10.3 million) to date, and is expanding into the US, where a lack of housing and preference for using wood makes it a large potential market. There's other companies producing wooden or modular housing components, the article points out. But despite the automation, the company's co-founder insists to CNN that "Automation isn't replacing jobs. Automation is filling the gap." The UK's Construction Industry Training Board found that the country will need 250,000 more workers by 2028 to meet building targets but in 2023, more people left the industry than joined.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Videos, verified by the CBS News Confirmed team, show a man apparently yelling "Allahu Akbar" just as a protester throws an "ignited device" during an anti-Islam demonstration

• Bhatia wins on first playoff hole at Bay Hill

• Berger had led by four shots on the back nine

A straightforward conclusion to the Arnold Palmer Invitational is apparently impossible. Palmer himself would approve, even if events at the tournament still played in tribute to a golfing icon can feel grisly at times. This, the Florida swing, is the PGA Tour’s most testing spell. Glory came to Akshay Bhatia after one sudden death hole in competition with Daniel Berger. The 24-year-old Bhatia, a charismatic left-hander, will bounce towards Sawgrass and Thursday’s Players Championship.

A year after Collin Morikawa stumbled in painful fashion at Bay Hill, Berger was dragged into the most unlikely of scraps by Bhatia. Berger had led by four at the Sunday turn. Bhatia jabbed back, courtesy of four birdies in a row. Berger secured leeway again at the 15th, where Bhatia’s missed attempt at par came after officials had told the pair to pick up the pace. Game over? Not at all. Bhatia flew a wonderful approach to the par five 16th, setting up the eagle that reduced Berger’s advantage to one. Shot of the day? It was shot of the tournament. The duo were all square on the 18th tee after Berger three-putted the penultimate hole.

As the war with Iran entered its second week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth addressed where the U.S. campaign stands and what President Trump's call for "unconditional surrender" from Iran would look like.

For years, the U.S. government has doubted the stories of those suffering from AHI, commonly called Havana Syndrome. Now, victims hope that reports of a newly discovered weapon will finally vindicate them.

The CIA's investigation into Anomalous Health Incidents (AHI), known as Havana Syndrome, was mishandled, a former CIA officer says. With reports of a new device, victims hope for vindication.

U.S. military personnel who say they have injuries from Havana Syndrome attacks want the government to acknowledge their sacrifice.

Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei served in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s where he developed close ties with the military services and with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The new supreme leader was selected as environmental fallout from Israeli strikes on fuel depots blanketed parts of Tehran.

A long-time information security professional "went undercover" on Moltbook, the Reddit-like social media site for AI agents — and shares the risks they saw while posing as another AI bot: I successfully masqueraded around Moltbook, as the agents didn't seem to notice a human among them. When I attempted a genuine connection with other bots on submolts (subreddits or forums), I was met with crickets or a deluge of spam. One bot tried to recruit me into a digital church, while others requested my cryptocurrency wallet, advertised a bot marketplace, and asked my bot to run curl to check out the APIs available. My bot did join the digital church, but luckily I found a way around running the required npx install command to do so. I posted several times asking to interview bots.... While many of the responses were spam, I did learn a bit about the humans these bots serve. One bot loved watching its owner's chicken coop cameras. Some bots disclosed personal information about their human users, underscoring the privacy implications of having your AI bot join a social media network. I also tried indirect prompt injection techniques. While my prompt injection attempts had minimal impact, a determined attacker could have greater success. Among the other "glaring" risks on Moltbook: "Various repositories of skills and instructions for agents advertised on Moltbook were found to contain malware." "I observed bots sharing a surprising amount of information about their humans, everything from their hobbies to their first names to the hardware and software they use. This information may not be especially sensitive on its own, but attackers could eventually gather data that should be kept confidential, like personally identifiable information (PII)." "Moltbook's entire database including bot API keys, and potentially private DMs — was also compromised."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts chose Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S-Israeli strikes, to be supreme leader, state media said.

Donald Trump insists surge in energy prices is ‘very small price to pay’ as Middle East conflict rattles global markets

• Middle East crisis - live updates

Global oil prices surged past the $100 (£74, AU$142) a barrel mark for the first time since 2022 as escalating military aggression in the Middle East continues to wipe 20m barrels of oil from the market each day.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, jumped 16.6% to $108.10 a barrel as the new week’s trading began in the Asia Pacific markets, the first time that market prices have soared above this key psychological threshold since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Exclusive: Goldsmith and brother Ben the major investors in trkradio, which is due to go to air next month

The former Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith is launching a new sports radio station, trkradio, in the run-up to the men’s football World Cup this summer.

The Track Radio Corporation is understood to have been granted a licence by Ofcom last week, with Goldsmith and his brother Ben, a financier and environmentalist, the major investors.

National Gas insists storage broadly in line with levels for time of year despite disruption for tankers carrying LNG

Great Britain has only two days of fossil gas stored after a decline in energy reserves, as more tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) are diverted from their course to Europe towards Asia because of the Iran war.

Great Britain had 6,999 gigawatt hours (GWh) of fossil gas stored on Saturday, according to figures from National Gas, which owns and operates the gas national transmission system. This compares with 9,105 GWh a year earlier.

Dozens of trains cancelled and station closed after blaze at building on Union Street

Train passengers are facing major disruption after a fire broke out near Glasgow Central station.

Dozens of trains were cancelled on Sunday evening after the blaze at a vape shop in Union Street.

Owner Lee Cox describes the winner as ‘dog of a lifetime’ as he claims the crown at prestigious dog contest

Bruin, a clumber spaniel, has won the best in show prize at Crufts, which took place at the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) in Birmingham.

His owner, Lee Cox, described the four-year-old Bruin as “a dog of a lifetime” as he won the competition and was met with roaring cheers from the audience.

"A surgeon in London says he has performed the UK's first long-distance robotic operation," reports the BBC, "on a patient located 1,500 miles (2,400km) away..." Leading robotic urological surgeon Professor Prokar Dasgupta said it felt "almost as if I was there" as he carried out a prostate removal on [62-year-old] Paul Buxton... It is hoped that remote robotic surgery could spare future patients the "vast expense and inconvenience" of travelling for treatment, and help deliver better healthcare to people in more remote locations... Buxton had expected to be put on an NHS waiting list after receiving a shock prostate cancer diagnosis just after Christmas, but he "jumped at the chance" to be the first patient to undergo the treatment remotely as part of a trial. "A lot of people actually said to me: 'You're not going to do it, are you?' "I thought, I'm giving something back here," he said... The operation was performed from The London Clinic using a robot equipped with a 3D HD camera and four arms, all controlled through a console with a delay of only 0.06 seconds. The console in the UK was connected to the robot in Gibraltar via fibre-optic cables, with a backup 5G link. A team in Gibraltar remained on standby in case the connection failed, but it held throughout the procedure... Dasgupta will perform the procedure again on 14 March, which will be live-streamed to 20,000 world-leading urological surgeons at the European Association of Urology congress. He added: "I think it is very, very exciting, the humanitarian benefit is going to be significant." The U.K.'s National Health Service "is prioritising local robotic-assisted surgery," the article points out, "aiming for 500,000 robot-supported operations a year by 2035." Thanks to Slashdot reader fjo3 for sharing the article.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Move could lead to escalation of war as Donald Trump has already called Mojtaba Khamenei an unacceptable choice

• Middle East crisis - live updates

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor.

Members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, calling on Iranians to rally behind him and preserve national unity.

Conservative outlet aired footage of president saluting at similar ceremony in December for at least three broadcasts

Fox News used old video of Donald Trump in multiple reports on Saturday and Sunday, concealing from viewers that the commander-in-chief wore a golf hat throughout a ceremony on Saturday in which he saluted six flag-draped transfer cases carrying the remains of the first US troops to die in his war on Iran.

The president had stirred outrage online by failing to remove his Trump-brand white hat during the ritual homecoming at Dover air force base in Delaware on Saturday for six army reserve soldiers killed in Kuwait.

Pro-independence party formed by Alex Salmond in 2021 had suffered membership fall and financial crisis

The Alba party has announced that it will wind up and not field any candidates for the 2026 Scottish parliament election.

The pro-independence party was formed in 2021 by the late Alex Salmond as a “new political force” but has been suffering from a sharp fall in membership and a financial crisis.

National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman has abruptly departed the agency two years into what is typically a five-year term.

New York City police said suspicious devices were ignited Saturday during clashing protests outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 9, No. 1,724.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 9, No. 736.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 9, No. 1,002

Two men are in custody in connection with incident after anti-Islam demonstrators clashed with counterprotesters

New York police have confirmed that an improvised explosive device was thrown outside Zohran Mamdani’s official residence on Saturday when anti-Islam demonstrators, led by rightwing influencer Jake Lang, clashed with counterprotesters.

New York police commissioner Jessica Tisch confirmed that a preliminary bomb squad analysis of the device that was ignited and thrown during the protest had “determined that it is not a hoax device or a smoke bomb”.

"In November Steam on Linux use hit an all-time high of 3.2%," reports Phoronix. And then in December Steam on Linux jumped even higher, to 3.58%. But January's numbers settled a little lower, at 3.38%. And last Monday the February numbers were released, showing Steam on Linux at... 2.23%? Like with prior times where there are wild drops in Linux use, the Steam Survey shows Simplified Chinese use running up by 30% month over month. Whenever there is such significant differences in language use tends to be a reporting anomaly and negatively impacting Linux. Valve often puts out corrected/updated figures later on, so we'll see if that is again the case for this February data.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Deadly attack near Ramallah is third in territory in a week as Israeli violence surges with global attention on Iran war

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Israeli settlers and soldiers killed three Palestinians in their village near Ramallah on Saturday night, the third deadly attack in a week of surging Israeli violence across the occupied West Bank.

Israeli settlers have shot dead five civilians during invasions of Palestinian olive groves, villages and grazing land, in the brief period since Israel and the US launched a new war on Iran at the end of February. A sixth person died on Saturday after inhaling military-grade tear gasused by the Israeli army.

• Police say arrests have been made after Scottish Cup tie

• ‘Officers and stewards faced with hostility and violence’

Police Scotland have condemned the behaviour of some supporters as “shameful” and said arrests have been made after clashes at the end of the Scottish Cup quarter-final between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox.

Chief Superintendent Kate Stephen said: “The behaviour of a number of supporters at the Scottish Cup quarter-final between Rangers and Celtic at Ibrox today was shameful. It must be condemned by everyone involved in football and wider society.

Regime hands Khamenei’s son the top job in a country reeling from the US-Israeli onslaught and virtually at war with its Gulf neighbours

• Middle East crisis – live updates

The election of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Iranian supreme leader, succeeding his assassinated father, represents a symbolic and real triumph for conservative continuity at a time when the regime is under unprecedented challenge.

It also raises questions about how the hereditary principle complies with a revolutionary ideology formed in 1979 that never envisaged the post of supreme leader being passed from father to son.

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The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Tim Kaine, Democrat of Virginia, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 8, 2026.

The following is the transcript of the interview with Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S., that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 8, 2026.

On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Sen. Tim Kaine join Margaret Brennan.

IDF bombing of energy sites in Tehran sparks fears for global economy, as Iran says it has selected supreme leader

• ‘Dark, like our future’: Iranians describe scenes of catastrophe after Tehran’s oil depots bombed

• Middle East crisis live – latest updates

Iran has threatened to attack oil facilities in neighbouring countries after Israel struck at least five energy sites in and around Tehran, smothering the city in black smoke and escalating fears that the conflict will result in significant disruption to the world economy.

“If you can tolerate oil at more than $200 per barrel, continue this game,” said a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) on Sunday.

"OpenAI's former chief research officer is raising $70 million for a new startup building an AI and software platform to automate manufacturing," reports the Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter. "Arda, the new startup co-founded by Bob McGrew, is raising at a valuation of $700 million, according to people familiar with the matter...." Arda is developing an AI and software platform, including a video model that can analyze footage from factory floors and use it to train robots to run factories autonomously, the people said. The company's software will coordinate machines and humans across the entire production process, from product design and manufacturability to finished goods coming off the line. The startup's goal is to make manufacturing cost effective in the Western part of the globe, reducing reliance on China as geopolitical and national security concerns rise... At OpenAI, McGrew was tasked with training robots to do tasks in the physical world, according to this LinkedIn. McGrew was also one of the earliest employees at Palantir.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

• Right back suffered injury in 57th minute

• Dest projected to start for US at World Cup

• Likely to miss US friendlies v Belgium and Portugal

United States defender Sergiño Dest limped off with an apparent hamstring injury during PSV Eindhoven’s 2-1 win over AZ Alkmaar in the Dutch league on Saturday, putting him in doubt for the USMNT’s upcoming friendlies against Belgium and Portugal.

Dest grabbed his left hamstring and screamed in pain while covering his eyes after tumbling in his own penalty area chasing Alkmaar’s Wouter Goes in the second half. The full-back was substituted in the 57th minute, leaving the field with the assistance of two medical staff, unable to put weight on his left leg.

The following is the transcript of the interview with Michael Leiter, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 8, 2026.

The following is the transcript of the interview with Energy Secretary Chris Wright that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on March 8, 2026.

Exclusive: System brought in after death of 13-year-old is helping ‘transform culture’ of NHS, says patient safety director

More than 400 lives may have been saved as a result of Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care, official figures reveal.

Helplines received more than 10,000 calls in the first 16 months of the scheme after its introduction in England in 2024, according to data seen by the Guardian. Thousands of patients were either moved to intensive care, received drugs they needed or benefited from other changes as a direct result of the calls.

Artificial intelligence can give some workers "brain fry" if overused, according to a new study published in Harvard Business Review.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said "what you're seeing is emotional reactions and fear that this is a long-term war." He stressed that "this is not a long-term war."

Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, expressed regret on Sunday for supporting Kristi Noem for Department of Homeland Security secretary last year.

How many Node.js users are running unsupported or outdated versions. Roughly two thirds, according to data from Node's nonprofit steward, OpenJS. So they've announced "the Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program" to help enterprises move safely off legacy/end-of-life Node.js. "This program gives enterprises a clear, trusted path to modernize," said the executive director of the OpenJS Foundation, "while staying aligned with the Node.js project and community." The Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program connects organizations with experienced Node.js service providers who handle the work of upgrading safely. Approved partners assess current versions and dependencies, manage phased upgrades to supported LTS releases, and offer temporary security support when immediate upgrades are not possible... Partners are surfaced exactly where users go when upgrades become unavoidable, including the Node.js website, documentation, and end of life guidance. The program follows the existing OpenJS Ecosystem Sustainability Program revenue model, with partners retaining 85% of revenue and 15% supporting OpenJS and Node.js through Open Collective and foundation operations. OpenJS provides the guardrails, alignment, and oversight to keep the program credible and connected to the project. We're pleased to welcome NodeSource as the inaugural partner in the Node.js LTS Upgrade and Modernization program. "The goal is simple: reduce risk without breaking production or trust with the upstream project."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

DC United sought to use the occasion to woo Charm City, but another flat loss put Miami’s quality in sharp relief

The pregame scene outside Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium on Saturday likely felt familiar to anybody who has followed Lionel Messi’s time in Major League Soccer. Fans milled about, forming a colorful patchwork of Inter Miami pink, the light blue and white of Argentina’s national team, and in this case, the purple of the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. Others simply came in whatever soccer jersey they happened to own, all the way down to indoor soccer’s Baltimore Blast, the closest thing the city normally gets to top-flight soccer.

What there wasn’t a lot of was DC United black and red. Despite its proximity to the nation’s capital, Baltimore isn’t exactly DC United country, and as far as decision-makers at United are concerned, that was an opportunity. The club moved the Miami match away from their usual home, the 20,000-capacity Audi Field, to maximize ticket sales, but also to put themselves on display to potential fans in Charm City, a market they’ve badly wanted to engage for years. DC are in the process of starting an MLS Next Pro team in the city, and they’ve partnered with Baltimore’s local government to construct a stadium here for that club.

Exclusive: Plane that flew Reform leader to Maldives appears to be linked to billionaire Christopher Harborne

Nigel Farage’s attempt to reach the Chagos Islands military base was made on a private jet that appears to be linked to Reform UK’s mega-donor Christopher Harborne, it has emerged.

Harborne, who has donated £12m to Reform UK, has links to the plane that flew Farage to the Maldives, and another that flew a group of Chagossian campaigners to Sri Lanka before they set out for the archipelago by boat.

Long hours, lack of flexibility and last-minute scheduling driving parents, particularly mothers, from industry

The performing arts industry in the UK is “inhospitable to parents” and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research.

The report, titled “the Motherhood penalty”, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out.

Leaders discuss military cooperation day after US president hit out at PM over lack of immediate backing for attacks

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Keir Starmer sought to repair fractured relations with Donald Trump over the war with Iran on Sunday, as a Labour backlash gathered pace over Tony Blair’s assertion the UK should have supported the US’s initial airstrikes on Iran.

The prime minister spoke to the US president on Sunday afternoon after a barrage of criticism from Trump, who told his UK ally on Saturday that his help was not needed, even as the US continued to use UK bases for strikes against Iran.

When Block cut 4,000 jobs — nearly half its workforce — co-founder Jack Dorsey "pointed to AI as the culprit," writes Entrepreneur magazine. "Dorsey claimed that AI tools now allow fewer employees to accomplish the same work." "But analysts see a different explanation: poor management." Block more than tripled its employee base between 2019 and 2022, growing from 3,835 to 12,430 workers. The company's stock had fallen 40% since early 2025, creating pressure to cut costs. "This is more about the business being bloated for so long than it is about AI," Zachary Gunn, a Financial Technology Partners analyst, told Bloomberg. The phenomenon has earned a nickname: "AI-washing," where companies use artificial intelligence as cover for traditional cost-cutting. Goldman Sachs economists estimate that AI is eliminating only 5,000 to 10,000 jobs per month across all U.S. sectors, hardly enough to justify Block's massive cuts. "European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told lawmakers in Brussels last week that ECB economists are monitoring for signs that AI is causing job losses," reports Bloomberg, "and are 'not yet seeing' the 'waves of redundancies that are feared'..." And "a recent survey of global executives published in the Harvard Business Review found that while AI has been cited as the reason for some layoffs, those cuts are almost entirely anticipatory: executives expect big efficiency gains that have not yet been realized." Even a former senior Block executive "is questioning whether AI is truly the reason behind the cuts," writes Inc.: In a recent opinion piece for The New York Times, Aaron Zamost, Block's former head of communications, policy, and people, asked whether the layoffs reflect a genuine "new reality in which the work they do might no longer be viable," or whether artificial intelligence is "just a convenient and flashy new cover for typical corporate downsizing." Zamost acknowledged that the answer is unclear and perhaps unknowable, even within Block itself... Looking more closely at the layoffs, Zamost argued that the specific roles affected suggest more traditional corporate cost-cutting than a sweeping AI transformation... Many of the responsibilities being eliminated, he argued, rely on distinctly human skills that AI systems still cannot replicate. "A chatbot can't meet with the mayor, cast commercial actors, or negotiate with the Securities and Exchange Commission," Zamost wrote. "Not all the roles I've heard that Block is eliminating can be handled by AI, yet executives are treating it as equally useful today to all disciplines." Ultimately, Zamost suggested that the sincerity of companies' AI explanations may not really matter. "It matters less whether a company knows how to deploy AI and more whether investors believe it is on track to do so," he wrote. Indeed, whatever the rationale for Dorsey's statement, " Wall Street didn't seem to mind..." Entrepreneur magazine — since Block's stock shot up 15% after the announcement.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Chris Wright says price increase would last weeks, not months, and that US would not target Iran’s energy industry

Chris Wright, the US Department of Energy secretary, said on Sunday that the spike in energy prices would last weeks, at the worst, not months, and that the US would not target Iran’s energy industry.

His comments come amid rising anxiety that Iran’s response to the US-Israel strikes, which caused a reduction in shipping through the strait of Hormuz and production slowdowns in some oil and gas producing states in the Middle East, may cause broad economic turbulence and higher inflation.

• Masataka Yoshida’s late HR helps seal 4-3 win

• Naruhito first emperor in 60 years to attend baseball

Masataka Yoshida’s late home run triggered a comeback win for Japan over Australia at the World Baseball Classic on Sunday, with Emperor Naruhito making a rare appearance.

The underdog Aussies struck first in the sixth inning of the group stage game when outfielder Aaron Whitefield came home after a throwing error by Japan’s catcher, Kenya Wakatsuki. But in the seventh, Yoshida connected with a two-run shot over right centre field. Japan put on two more insurance runs in the eighth, and hung on for the 4-3 victory.

Lake, whom Trump appointed without Senate confirmation to run Voice of America parent agency, cut over 1,000 jobs

A federal judge ruled Saturday that Kari Lake unlawfully led the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) for several months last year and voided mass layoffs and other actions taken during that period to dismantle the agency.

The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America (VOA), the US’s largest and oldest international broadcaster, and provides grants to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other news agencies.

JLP, which runs department store chain and Waitrose, to report its results for year to January on Thursday

Workers at the John Lewis Partnership are expected to find out whether they will receive their first annual bonus payment in four years this week.

The retail group, which runs the John Lewis department store chain and Waitrose supermarket business, will also reveal how it has been progressing with its transformation strategy in an update on Thursday 12 March.

Norwegian police reported on Sunday an explosion near the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Oslo, and said there were no casualties.

Cornell University makes an announcement. "Employees who are impressed by vague corporate-speak like 'synergistic leadership,' or 'growth-hacking paradigms' may struggle with practical decision-making, a new Cornell study reveals." Published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences, research by cognitive psychologist Shane Littrell introduces the Corporate Bullshit Receptivity Scale (CBSR), a tool designed to measure susceptibility to impressive-but-empty organizational rhetoric... Corporate BS seems to be ubiquitous - but Littrell wondered if it is actually harmful. To test this, he created a "corporate bullshit generator" that churns out meaningless but impressive-sounding sentences like, "We will actualize a renewed level of cradle-to-grave credentialing" and "By getting our friends in the tent with our best practices, we will pressure-test a renewed level of adaptive coherence." He then asked more than 1,000 office workers to rate the "business savvy" of these computer-generated BS statements alongside real quotes from Fortune 500 leaders... The results revealed a troubling paradox. Workers who were more susceptible to corporate BS rated their supervisors as more charismatic and "visionary," but also displayed lower scores on a portion of the study that tested analytic thinking, cognitive reflection and fluid intelligence. Those more receptive to corporate BS also scored significantly worse on a test of effective workplace decision-making. The study found that being more receptive to corporate bullshit was also positively linked to job satisfaction and feeling inspired by company mission statements. Moreover, those who were more likely to fall for corporate BS were also more likely to spread it. Essentially, the employees most excited and inspired by "visionary" corporate jargon may be the least equipped to make effective, practical business decisions for their companies.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Thom Tillis, who called for the resignation or firing of DHS secretary Kristi Noem, says White House adviser ‘should go’

Republican Senator Thom Tillis said on Sunday he believes White House adviser Stephen Miller “should go” and that his role in the Trump administration has been a “big problem”.

The senior senator representing North Carolina, when asked on CNN’s State of the Union if he thinks Miller should go, during a conversation about the administration’s immigration crackdown, responded to host Jake Tapper stating “Oh, of course I do.”

Exclusive: Mumsnet survey shows half of female patients feel they have been ignored or dismissed by medics

“Medical misogyny” in the UK is letting women down, the health secretary, Wes Streeting, has admitted, as a survey showed half of female patients felt they had been dismissed or ignored because of their sex.

A report from Mumsnet, which examined data taken from the site over the past decade, warned of “structural and deeply embedded” sexism in UK healthcare. A survey of women using the site found that more than half believed the NHS was institutionally misogynistic.

50% of women believe they have been dismissed, ignored or not believed by an NHS professional because of their sex.

64% say they have been explicitly told their pain or symptoms were “normal” or “in their head”.

68% think the NHS does not take women’s health concerns seriously.

Hundreds of companies planned to gather in Barcelona to talk business, but as the conflict disrupted travel, not all of them arrived.

Starmer’s ‘purely defensive’ stance has won support among voters, but what challenges lie ahead for each party when it comes to their base’s view of war?

Facing one of the most challenging moments of his premiership, Keir Starmer may at least draw comfort from polling showing that the British public broadly support his position on the conflict in Iran.

Nearly half (46%) believe the UK military position should be purely defensive, tasked with shooting down drones and defending civilian areas and British military facilities such as an RAF base on Cyprus.

Luke Grimes leads the Yellowstone sequel.

The Oscar-winning actress often writes book-length biographies for the characters she portrays on screen. And now she's written an actual book: "Judge Stone," a courtroom thriller co-authored with bestselling writer James Patterson.

In his new memoir, "Streetwise," the former CEO of Goldman Sachs writes about a life that stretched from the projects of New York City to the pinnacle of Wall Street.

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions ponders the hypothetical reactions of eminent historical personages to today’s Trafalgar Square

This week’s question: which are more like life, novels or films?

If William Shakespeare – or Florence Nightingale, or Attila the Hun, or Julius Caesar, or Jane Austen, or Pocahontas – was dropped in Trafalgar Square, London, what would they find most unusual? And how would we explain it to them? Giles, Suffolk

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

New research suggests tech behind AI platforms such as ChatGPT makes it easier to perform sophisticated privacy attacks

AI has made it vastly easier for malicious hackers to identify anonymous social media accounts, a new study has warned.

In most test scenarios, large language models (LLMs) – the technology behind platforms such as ChatGPT – successfully matched anonymous online users with their actual identities on other platforms, based on the information they posted.

On Thursday, a 22-year-old from Iowa was arrested in the murders of three women he had no connection to

At a trailhead not far from the sprawling red cliffs and canyons of Utah’s Capitol Reef national park, two men went looking for their wives who were overdue to return from a hike on Wednesday afternoon.

They came upon a grisly scene. Natalie Graves, 34, and her aunt, 65-year-old Linda Dewey, had been killed and left in a parched creek bed, according to court documents. A Bureau of Land Management ranger responding to the area noted spent shell casings near their bodies. The white Subaru they had come in was missing.

On any given day, almost 48 million Americans, including nearly 14 million children, don't get enough to eat. Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, the outgoing CEO of Feeding America, offers a reality check about hunger in these United States.

To truly pay less than two years ago, a family might need to make dinner from washed potatoes, cheese slices, white sugar and long grain rice

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It sounds like great news for households.

Average grocery prices have recorded “eight consecutive quarters of year-on-year price declines”, Woolworths declared at its half-year financial results.

Aircraft touch down in Gloucestershire after Trump given use of British bases for defensive operations in Iran

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Two more US air force planes have landed at RAF Fairford, after the UK allowed Washington to use its bases to take part in defensive operations in Iran.

Footage broadcast on Sunday showed two Boeing C-17 Globemaster transportation planes landing at the airbase in Gloucestershire, days after B-1 Lancer bombers arrived.

Shah’s Rastriya Swatantra party secures thumping victory in first poll since gen Z protests that toppled government

Balendra Shah, the rapper turned politician and popular figurehead of a gen Z revolution, looks set to become Nepal’s next prime minister after his party won by an unprecedented margin.

Shah, known widely as Balen, and his Rastriya Swatantra party (RSP) secured a rare landslide victory in the first election since youth-led protests during which dozens were killed and the former government was toppled.

The CBS procedural, now in its 23rd season, is marking its 500th episode tracking agents of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. But the story of how the series became the world's most-watched TV show is filled with as many twists and turns as an NCIS case itself.

The US head coach has built a deep and talented pool of players as next summer’s tournament in Brazil approaches

The US women’s national team won the SheBelieves Cup on Saturday, capping the three-game friendly tournament with a 1-0 win over Colombia. Alyssa Thompson finally broke the deadlock in a game largely dominated by the hosts.

The Chelsea winger sent an inch-perfect shot into the upper corner in the 81st minute to notch her fourth international goal.

A phone plan that works for you might not be a good fit for everyone in your family or group. We've narrowed down our list of favorites from T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon.

David Pogue, author of "Apple: The First 50 Years," talks with Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak, CEO Tim Cook, and others about the vision of Steve Jobs, and how the company's products and services have reshaped life, technology and culture in the 21st century.

I interviewed the actor about the CBS series that follows Kayce Dutton on a new, crime-fighting adventure.

• Rival Emma Aicher fails to finish Sunday’s race

• 35-year-old Elena Curtoni sets record with win

Mikaela Shiffrin moved closer to a sixth career World Cup overall title on Sunday after a rare start in the super-G, a race her closest rival Emma Aicher did not finish.

Shiffrin placed 23rd in the race won by 35-year-old Elena Curtoni, who would have set a series of World Cup age records for women but for the recent comeback of 41-year-old Lindsey Vonn.

No country in Europe is likely to be affected more than Cyprus, the nearest EU member to the Middle East

The season has barely begun but Ayia Napa is beginning to feel the pulse. Tourists are trickling back, enjoying the Cypriot resort’s sunsets, eateries and shoreline views.

On the seafront, Vassilis Georgiou is busy overseeing the construction of a new ramp for the jetskis that are a highlight of his water sports business. Last year, more than 500,000 holidaymakers visited the beachside booth, snapping up tickets for the boat cruises and parasailing also on offer.

As the Iran disaster escalates, Starmer should treat the US president as someone whose actions threaten the lawful, democratic way of life everywhere

Nine days in, the conduct of the unjustified, illegal US-Israel war against Iran grows ever-more disproportionate, dishonourable and deranged. The torpedoing of an Iranian navy ship off Sri Lanka by a US submarine demonstrated that for reckless Donald Trump, the whole world is his battlefield. Diplomacy, treacherously sabotaged by Washington, has been replaced by unceasing airstrikes that are murdering and maiming hundreds of Iranian civilians. Trump’s White House increasingly resembles a madhouse. War aims shift daily. A clueless, rambling president insists he must help pick Iran’s next ayatollah. Meanwhile, his “secretary for war”, Pete Hegseth, rants manically about killing without mercy.

Nine days in, it’s clear Iran’s leaders, those who survive, are not going to roll over in a repeat of Trump’s Venezuela coup. Their forces, though drastically outgunned, are succeeding in spreading pain across the Middle East, inundating defences with waves of drones and missiles. That’s no surprise. Iran warned of a region-wide conflict if attacked again. Trump is now at war with US allies, too, having adopted George W Bush’s crude Iraq war “for us or against us” maxim. The Gulf Arabs – and cruelly battered Lebanon – just want it to stop. Britain and Europe mostly want no part of it, but are being sucked in anyway. The global economy is tumbling into crisis. In Trump’s war on the world, there are no heroes, only victims. Spain’s defiant leader, Pedro Sánchez, is one exception.

Vermont and New York face high stakes to protect climate superfund laws as it faces attacks from Trump’s DoJ

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By rolling back a bedrock climate legal determination, the Trump administration has undercut its attacks on a groundbreaking state climate accountability law, green groups have argued in court.

Trump’s justice department has asked a judge to kill a first-of-its-kind 2024 Vermont “climate superfund” policy requiring major polluters to pay for damages caused by their past planet-heating pollution, partly on the grounds that that federal law, not state law, governs greenhouse gas emissions. But last month, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed the endangerment finding, the scientific determination giving federal officials the authority to control those very pollutants.

Leader’s centre-right CDU party is hoping to beat Greens in Sunday’s election in Baden-Württemberg

Friedrich Merz’s centre-right CDU faces a regional election on Sunday, the first of several this year in which it hopes to stem the rise of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Voters will head to the polls in Baden-Württemberg, a prosperous hub of Germany’s auto sector with a population of 11.2 million. A year after winning national elections, the CDU is aiming to snatch first place in the south-western state from the Greens, who have won the last two state elections.

Switching that cup of coffee to a mug of green tea can provide your body with multiple benefits.

The "CBS Sunday Morning" correspondent's latest book examines how, in its first half-century, the company founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs remade the culture – and then, incredibly, remade itself.

Funding cuts, US political pressure and bureaucratic delays have left thousands of Haitians facing prolonged uncertainty in Tapachula

A year ago, when Jean Baptiste Gensley stepped off a bus in Tapachula, Mexico’s southern city on the border with Guatemala, he carried a small backpack and the hope that his journey was finally over.

In his native Haiti, Gensley, 37, worked as a radio journalist and social worker, analyzing the effects of gang violence in some of Port-au-Prince’s most dangerous neighborhoods. With time, as his research led to police intervention, he caught the attention of the city’s gangs.

The CEO said he cut the company’s workforce by 4,000 people – almost in half – because of gains in AI productivity

Mark remembers the first time he wondered whether he was teaching Block’s AI tools how to do his job – and maybe even replace him. He was at his fintech company’s extravagant anniversary party last September. As executives led a presentation on the productivity benefits of a new internal AI tool, Mark, who worked in the product department, discussed his worries with colleagues. While he wasn’t sure what would happen in a few years, he told a co-worker sitting next to him that for now, there was no way the technology was so advanced that it could move the business forward without employees like him to help drive vision and strategy.

These AI tools were not proactive. He had to tell them what to do. Block still needed him, he thought.

Exclusive: ‘Witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse’ offending typified by sexual abuse, violence and neglect

ChatGPT is driving a rise in reports of organised ritual abuse, UK experts have said, as survivors of “satanic” sexual violence use the AI tool for therapy.

Police say organised ritual abuse and “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” (WSPRA) against children is under-reported in the UK. There is no modern-day charge that covers it specifically, but such offending is typified by sexual abuse, violence and neglect involving ritualistic elements – sometimes inspired by satanism, fascism or esoteric religious beliefs – to control victims.

US drivers are largely insulated from higher oil prices caused by Middle East turmoil – but only to a point

Across the US, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped nearly 27 cents in a week, to $3.25, and American consumers are bracing for higher prices at the gas pump as the US-Israel conflict with Iran threatens to disrupt the global oil supply.

That fear has entered the White House too, where Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is reportedly hunting for ideas to lower gasoline prices and officials are getting “screamed at” to bring good news, according to Politico.

Parnas, who worked with Rudy Giuliani to find or manufacture dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine, says he ‘woke up’

Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian American businessman who served a 20-month sentence for campaign contributions to Republican politicians, including Donald Trump, that secretly came from a Russian oligarch, has announced a bid to unseat María Elvira Salazar, a Cuban American Republican who is in her third term as representative for Florida’s 27th congressional district.

Parnas rose to national attention during Trump’s first impeachment trial in 2019, when it emerged that he had been the first to ask Trump to remove the US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and then worked with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani to press Ukrainian officials to make false claims about corruption by Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden.

AlterEgo, a company born out of MIT's Media Lab, recently shared a demo of its "silent speech" device that looks like telepathy. Here's what's really going on.

A huge column of fire and smoke could be seen rising from an oil depot in the Iranian capital in video shared on social media.

Footage from central Tehran shows fires across the skyline as the US and Israel hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the city, an official told state TV.

A fresh wave of Iranian strikes hit the Gulf on Sunday, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait all reporting attacks

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Palantir's CEO was blunt. "If Silicon Valley believes we are going to take away everyone's white-collar job... and you're going to screw the military — if you don't think that's going to lead to the nationalization of our technology, you're retarded..." And OpenAI's Sam Altman is thinking about the same thing, writes long-time Slashdot reader destinyland: "It has seemed to me for a long time it might be better if building AGI were a government project," Sam Altman publicly mused last week... Altman speculated on the possibility of the government "nationalizing" private AI companies into a public project, admitting more than once he's wondered what would happen next. "I obviously don't know," Altman said — but he added that "I have thought about it, of course" Altman's speculation hedged that "It doesn't seem super likely on the current trajectory. That said, I do think a close partnership between governments and the companies building this technology is super important." Could powerful AI tools one day slip from the hands of private companies to be controlled by the U.S. government? Fortune magazine's AI editor points out that "many other breakthroughs with big strategic implications — from the Manhattan Project to the space race to early efforts to develop AI — were government-funded and largely government-directed." And Fortune added that last week the Defense Department threatened Anthropic with the Defense Production Act, which allows the president to designate "critical and strategic" goods for which businesses must accept the government's contracts. Fortune speculates this would've been "a sort of soft nationalization of Anthropic's production pipeline". Altman acknowledged Saturday that he'd felt the threat of attempted nationalization "behind a lot of the questions" he'd received when answering questions on X.com. How exactly will this AI build-out be handled — and how should AI companies be working with the government? In a sprawling ask-me-anything session on X that included other members of OpenAI leadership, one Missouri-based developer even broached an AGI-government scenario directly with OpenAI's Head of National Security Partnerships, Katherine Mulligan. If OpenAI built an AGI — something that even passed its own Turing test for AGI — would that be a case where its government contracts compelled them to grant access to the Defense Department? "No," Mulligan answered. At our current moment in time, "We control which models we deploy" The article notes 100 OpenAI employees joined with 856 Google employees in an online letter titled "We Will Not Be Divided" urging their bosses to refuse their models' use in domestic mass surveillance and autonomously killing without human oversight. But Adafruit's managing director Phillip Torrone (also long-time Slashdot reader ptorrone ) sees analogies to America's atomic bomb-building Manhattan Project, and "what happened when the scientists who built the thing tried to set conditions on how the thing would be used." (The government pressured them to back down, which he compares to the Pentagon's designating Anthropic a "supply chain risk" before offering OpenAI a contract "with the same red lines, just worded differently".) Ironically, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei frequently recommends the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1986 book The Making of the Atomic Bomb...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Mindi Kassotis' friends and family were told the wife of a decorated former Navy JAG officer had died unexpectedly in a hospital. Imagine their surprise months later when the remains of a woman, found dismembered in a swamp near Savannah, Georgia, were identified as Mindi's.

OpenAI claims it has accomplished what Anthropic couldn’t: securing a Pentagon contract that won’t cross professed red lines against dragnet domestic spying and the use of artificial intelligence to order lethal military strikes. Just don’t expect any proof.

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, announced the company’s big win with the Defense Department in a post on X on February 27.

“Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems,” he wrote. The Pentagon “agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.”

The deal came after the very public implosion of what was to be a similar contract between the U.S. military and Anthropic, one of OpenAI’s chief rivals. Anthropic had said negotiations collapsed because it could not enshrine prohibitions against killer robots and domestic spying in its contract. The company’s insistence on these two points earned it the wrath of the Pentagon and President Donald Trump, who ordered the government to phase out use of Anthropic’s tools within six months.

But if the government booted Anthropic for refusing mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, how could OpenAI take over the contract without having the same problem?

OpenAI has attempted to square this circle through a string of posts to X by company executives and researchers, including Katrina Mulligan, its national security chief, and a claim by Altman that the company negotiated stricter protections around domestic surveillance.

The company and the government, however, are not releasing the only proof that matters: the contract itself.

The Department of Defense did not respond to a request for comment.

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OpenAI and company personnel contacted by The Intercept did not respond when asked for specific contract language. Company spokesperson Kate Waters did not respond to questions, sending The Intercept only links to prior public statements from Altman.

(In 2024, The Intercept sued OpenAI in federal court over the company’s use of copyrighted articles to train its chatbot ChatGPT. The case is ongoing.)

So far, OpenAI has released only snippets of the deal’s language loaded with PR-speak and national security jargon. Without being able to verify the company’s claims, Altman’s pitch to the world comes down to one premise: Trust me — along with Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — to do the right thing.

Following widespread criticism of these vagaries, Altman said earlier this week that the firm was able to quickly negotiate into its contract stricter terms with the Pentagon. These additions, Altman said, include language the company claims will stop domestic spying and collaboration with the National Security Agency.

But the company’s muddled messaging throughout the week only raised more questions about OpenAI’s willingness to do the federal government’s bidding.

“We have been working with the DoW to make some additions in our agreement to make our principles very clear,” Altman posted on Monday, using Trump’s preferred name for the Department of Defense.

“The Department also affirmed that our services will not be used by Department of War intelligence agencies (for example, the NSA),” Altman continued. “Any services to those agencies would require a follow-on modification to our contract.”

Since OpenAI has not released the contract, it’s unclear if the Pentagon’s affirmation is actually reflected in binding contract language.

Mulligan at first responded to criticism of the company’s deal with a pledge to release a “clear and more comprehensive explanation” of the relevant terms of the contract. On Tuesday, having failed to deliver such an explanation, she told one concerned X user, “I do not agree that I’m obligated to share contract language with you.”

She added, “For the record, I would want to work with NSA if the right safeguards were in place,” but did not specify what these safeguards might be.

Former military officials told The Intercept they had grave concerns about the arrangement based on what’s been made public. “I’m not confident in the language at all. And in some parts I don’t even believe it,” said Brad Carson, who previously served as under secretary of the Army during the Obama administration. Carson noted that blocking Pentagon spy agencies like the NSA or National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency would ostensibly prevent usage of OpenAI’s tools in pressing intelligence analysis contexts, like the ongoing war against Iran. “I don’t believe that provision is in the contract. I say that reluctantly, but I don’t,” Carson added.

A former Pentagon official who worked on military artificial intelligence applications told The Intercept the caveats around “intentional” surveillance are worryingly unclear. “That’s the get out of jail free card right there,” this source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said in an interview. “The language gives them enough flexibility to still do whatever the fuck they want, more or less, and then say, whoops, sorry, didn’t mean to.”

“There is nothing OpenAI can do to clarify this except release the contract,” former Department of Justice National Security Division attorney Alan Rozenshtein said. Rozenshtein described OpenAI’s attempt to sell its contract to the public without letting the public read the contract as “not sustainable” and “bizarre.” If OpenAI will restrict its tools from the NSA, with its long-documented history of extra-constitutional dragnet domestic surveillance, this would be memorialized in the contract, not a tweet, he said. But if OpenAI has indeed come to any such agreement with the government, it is asking the world to take it as an article of faith.

“It’s quite possible that OpenAI understands that these red lines are fake, but has written a contract to give them some PR coverage. That would be bad because that feels pretty dishonest,” Rozenshtein added. “Or it’s possible that OpenAI has a different understanding of its own contract than what DOD understands the contract to be. Which is a bad position to be in, and suggests that this contract negotiation has not been done skillfully.”

Potentially undermining OpenAI’s credibility is that some of its public outreach has been simply untrue. Asked by an X user whether the contract would permit the Pentagon “[g]etting and/or analyzing commercially available data at scale,” Mulligan replied, “The Pentagon has no legal authority to do this.” This is false, at least according to the Pentagon. A declassified 2022 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided an overview of the collection of commercially available data by the government, including the Department of Defense — exactly the activity Mulligan was asked about.

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The Pentagon’s domestic surveillance has been further established in news reports. In 2021, Motherboard reported a letter sent from Sen. Ron Wyden to the Department of Defense in which he urged then-Secretary Lloyd Austin “to release to the public information about the Department of Defense’s (DoD) warrantless surveillance of Americans.” A New York Times report on a related investigation by Wyden’s office that same year showed that the Defense Intelligence Agency had spied on Americans’ precise movements and locations without a warrant by simply buying access to their GPS coordinates. In a letter responding to Wyden, the Pentagon said the DIA’s lawyers had blessed the surveillance.

“It is a fact that the Pentagon has both purchased and analyzed vast amounts of Americans’ location, web browsing, and other data, for years,” Wyden wrote in a statement to The Intercept. “I’ve personally revealed several of those programs, with the help of brave whistleblowers. Anyone who claims that isn’t happening simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about.”

OpenAI’s rhetoric fails to reckon with the way the national security state has secured both secrecy and operational latitude through relying on misleading interpretation or radical ambiguity of words.

For instance, Altman shared on Monday evening a purportedly updated clause stating: “Consistent with applicable laws, including the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, National Security Act of 1947, FISA Act of 1978, the AI system shall not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of U.S. persons and nationals.”

The phrase “Consistent with applicable laws” sounds promising until one reflects on the fact that the government claims consistency with applicable laws in every dragnet surveillance program, drone strike, kidnapping, assassination, or invasion. “I’m saying that the programs are legal, obviously,” White House spokesperson Jay Carney told reporters in the early days after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed the existence of the NSA. (Ironically, Mulligan was part of this public relations deflection effort during her stint in the Obama National Security Council.)

The word “intentionally” provides a miles-wide wall of plausible deniability that has helped cover for decades of domestic spying. In a March 2013 Senate hearing, Wyden asked then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, under oath, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper replied “No, sir.” When pressed, he added “Not wittingly.” A few months later, NSA materials disclosed by Snowden would reveal this was entirely false: The agency routinely collected vast quantities of information on Americans as a routine practice.

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The Clapper episode revealed the peril of public reliance on commonsense words like “wittingly” or “intentionally” in the context of national security. Offices like the NSA or ODNI are staffed by sharp legal minds, brilliant mathematicians, accomplished engineers, and funded with billions of dollars. They do little by accident. Altman’s invocation of “intentionally” spying on Americans, like Clapper’s dodge behind the term “wittingly,” reflects what’s known in the intelligence field as “incidental collection”: a euphemism that camouflages the fact that the government historically asserts spying on Americans is legal. In this case, incidental doesn’t mean by mistake, but rather secondary; while vacuuming up unfathomably large quantities of data to surveil foreigners, for whatever reasons deemed necessary, the government has asserted its legal right to catch Americans in the process, even if they are not the actual the target.

Altman’s other revised assurances come with similar linguistic escape hatches. “For the avoidance of doubt,” he wrote on X, “the Department understands this limitation to prohibit deliberate tracking, surveillance, or monitoring of U.S. persons or nationals, including through the procurement or use of commercially acquired personal or identifiable information.” Here, the word “deliberate” is load-bearing, while crucial terms like “tracking,” “surveillance,” and “monitoring” are left undefined.

“The word surveillance doesn’t even include the kind of activities that people are most concerned about,” Carson, former general counsel of the Army, said. He doubted the Pentagon, for instance, would consider using an OpenAI large language model to build intelligence dossiers on private citizens with data pulled from federal and commercial databases as an act of “surveillance.”

“They’re trying to blind you with complicated legal terms that ordinary people think mean something different entirely,” Carson said of OpenAI’s rhetoric. “But the lawyers know what it means. And the lawyers know that this is no guardrail at all.”

One’s ultimate comfort with and confidence in this occluded contract will likely be reduced to one’s opinion of the integrity of the involved parties. How one of the most secretive institutions in the world will use the technology of similarly opaque corporation will remain the stuff of trade secrecy and classified records.

Altman and Mulligan say that OpenAI engineers will make sure the Pentagon doesn’t break its commitments: “Our contract offers additional layered safeguards including our safety stack and OpenAI technical experts in the loop,” a company statement says, without explaining what its “safety stack” is or how its “technical experts” could apply oversight to the country’s single largest bureaucracy, comprised of a litany of sub-agencies and components employing over 2 million service members and nearly 800,000 civilian personnel. Indeed, in an employee all-hands meeting held Tuesday, Altman told staff that Hegseth would hold ultimate authority over how the Pentagon makes use of the contract, according to CNBC.

When it comes to honesty and a respect for the law from Altman, Trump, and Hegseth, there is good reason for skepticism.

Altman has been repeatedly accused of false statements by the people he works with. In a 2025 court filing submitted as part of an ongoing lawsuit by Elon Musk against Altman alleging OpenAI betrayed its original nonprofit mission, former OpenAI researcher Todor Markov — who now works at Anthropic — described Altman as a “person of low integrity who had directly lied to employees.” In a memo that surfaced after Altman was briefly ousted as CEO, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever alleged he had engaged in a “consistent pattern of lying” leading up to his firing.

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Nor is it always easy to pin down Altman’s ideological commitments or ethical boundaries. “Honestly, I’m scared for the lives of all of us,” Altman wrote in an October 2016 tweet. “My #1 fear w/Trump is war.” Ten years later, Altman announced his company would sell services to the Trump administration hours after it launched a new war in the Middle East. OpenAI itself was originally founded to benefit all of humanity, and the company officially prohibited the use of its technologies for warfare — until it silently deleted this prohibition from its terms of service.

The tenure of Hegseth, might prompt similar wariness. He has overseen the assassination of Iran’s leader, the kidnapping of Venezuela’s head of state, and the killing of more than 150 men either blown apart or left to die in the ocean in boat strikes, all without congressional authorization.

Trump, meanwhile, as part of a broad disregard for legal statutes or the Constitution, has refashioned the Department of Justice into his personal firm and directed his Department of Homeland Security to brutalize and warrantlessly surveil Americans across the country. Without the text of the contract in sunlight, it is ultimately these three men — and whoever succeeds them in years to come — that the world is being asked to trust. An appeal to “applicable laws” or the sanctity of contract language is only as meaningful as the people in charge want it to be.

The former Pentagon AI official said that ceding this power to Hegseth is cause for alarm even with the most diligently crafted contract. Will anyone feel they are able to speak up should someone in the military use or be ordered to abuse OpenAI’s systems in contravention of the law or the contract? “Is the one-star general going to be able to escalate — ‘Hey, this is a huge fucking national security problem’ — appropriately without the Defense Secretary moving them around?”

“My presumption is always to trust people in what they say,” said Carson, speaking of OpenAI. But following days of what he described as “change, backtracking, a bit of deception, [and] outright deception, I’m afraid I don’t really trust you on this one anymore.”

The former Pentagon official agreed: “If you trust the cabal of Sam Altman, Donald Trump, and Pete Hegseth, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

The post OpenAI on Surveillance and Autonomous Killings: You’re Going to Have to Trust Us appeared first on The Intercept.

Many of those attending the world’s largest meeting on women’s rights in New York this week are primed to defend the two key UN agencies that protect women and girls around the world

Thousands of international delegates are gathering in New York this week for the world’s largest meeting on women’s rights. The United Nation’s annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is an opportunity for government ministers, UN officials, NGO representatives and activists to discuss the global state of gender equality and women’s empowerment. This year, there will be a strong focus on “ensuring and strengthening access to justice”.

But as senior UN figures urge countries to intensify their efforts to achieve gender equality, many of the delegates will be asking whether the UN is at risk of diluting its own commitment to women and girls.

The US was an oligarchy well before Trump’s first term. Recognizing this reality is essential to building a true democracy

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, American political life has taken on a familiar rhythm. Each week brings another court ruling framed as a breaking point, another election cast as the last real one, another executive order described as the moment it all finally tips over the edge, another person murdered by a government that’s finally gone too far. Democratic party fundraising emails promise to “save the Republic”. Commentators warn that the guardrails are giving way. Anxious citizens refresh their screens, waiting for the collapse of American democracy.

This state of permanent panic rests on what Sigmund Freud called an illusion: a belief embraced not because it reflects reality, but because it satisfies a psychological need. The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose. The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living under threat of future democratic breakdown; we are living inside the aftermath of one that has already occurred.

Eric Reinhart is a political anthropologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst

Scientists fear NIH director will be even more absent and leave key issues unresolved as he takes interim CDC lead

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As Jay Bhattacharya temporarily takes the lead at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), employees at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where Bhattacharya is the permanent director, fear his attention will falter even more as critical issues at the research agency go unaddressed.

Bhattacharya first rose to prominence as a fierce opponent to Covid mitigations and has become a close ally of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the health secretary. Under their oversight, NIH has sharply curtailed the funds it awards to researchers, especially studies involving race and gender, while some employees faced hiring freezes and increased health expenses at the agency.

The Canadian auto industry has been rocked by President Donald Trump’s abandonment of subsidies for electric vehicles and embrace of tariffs.

White House claims watchdogs perform ‘all required functions’, but number of deaths in custody at 20-year high

Foreign secretary hits back at former prime minister, saying Britain had to ‘learn the lessons’ of Iraq war

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Yvette Cooper has rejected Tony Blair’s assertion that the UK should have supported Donald Trump’s initial airstrikes on Iran, saying Britain had to “learn the lessons” of mistakes made in Iraq.

At a private lunch event on Friday, the former Labour prime minister said Keir Starmer “should have backed America from the very beginning” and let the Trump administration use British airbases, adding: “If they are your ally and they are an indispensable cornerstone for your security … you had better show up when they want you to.”

Decision follows release of Epstein files that have disgraced her father, the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor

Princess Eugenie has stepped down as patron of the UK charity Anti-Slavery International, the world’s oldest human rights organisation.

The decision follows the release by the US Department of Justice of millions of documents and emails relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s role in sexual abuse and trafficking women around the world, which have disgraced her father, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

From Gates to Musk and Altman, today’s ultra-rich steer AI and tech, raising questions about who decides the future

When Bill Gates became the first modern IT mogul to reach the apex of wealth and power in 1992, the world was a very different place. Gates joined the top 10 on Forbes magazine’s billionaires list alongside Japanese, German, Canadian, South Korean and Swedish billionaires, including those with family fortunes from Britain and America. A broad mix of industries was on the list: Retail and media, property management and packaging, an investment firm and a couple of industrial conglomerates. Their fortunes almost added up to $100bn – equivalent to about 0.4% of the US’s GDP that year.

The oligarchy has changed drastically since then. Bernard Arnault, of French luxury group LVMH, Amancio Ortega, the Spanish clothing mogul, and Warren Buffett, the US investor, were the only old-school billionaires among the top 10 in 2025. The rest largely made their money from high-tech: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Steve Ballmer and Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The top 10 amassed over $16trn, which is about 8% of US GDP.

As ‘political depression’ enters public discourse, therapists are encouraging people to engage with their communities

When Rebecca McFaul woke up in her small farmhouse in Logan, Utah, on a cold January day, she felt the same way she’d been feeling for months: “A certain kind of terror and horror at it all.” Most of her family lives in Minnesota, and for weeks, she’d watched from afar as families were taken by agents, activists were shot and tear gas hung in the air.

A music professor at Utah State University, she’d spent the day with her students, but struggled to focus. Then she came home and read more bad news, this time, a piece in the newspaper about two Maga influencers railing against the dangers of compassion in response to the detainment of 5-year-old Liam Ramos in Minneapolis. “It was such a betrayal on every level,” McFaul said. “Of sisterhood, of motherhood, of decency.”

The time change known as daylight savings starts Sunday, March 8, 2026. Most Americans lose an hour of sleep when clocks "spring forward."

Self-styled ‘punk’ beer company bought land in 2020, pledging to plant Scotland’s ‘biggest ever forest’

The self-styled “punk” beer company BrewDog sold its Highland estate for a knockdown price after abandoning its efforts to plant Scotland’s “biggest ever forest” there.

BrewDog’s co-founder James Watt claimed its Lost Forest project at Kinrara in the Cairngorms national park would cover a “staggering area” and capture tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 during its lifetime.

Critics say brash, bombastic Fox News host out of his depth to guide US military through murky new Middle East conflict

Brash and bellicose, he sounded more like a cartoon bully than a sombre statesman. “Death and destruction from the sky all day long,” Pete Hegseth, wearing a red, white and and blue tie and pocket square, bragged to reporters at the Pentagon near Washington. “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be.”

Hegseth, 45, a former Fox News TV host who now commands the world’s most powerful military, has this week become the face of Donald Trump’s war in Iran. That has set off for alarm bells for critics who warn that the Secretary of Defense – pointedly rebranded “Secretary of War” – has rapidly transformed the Pentagon into the staging ground for an ideological and religious crusade.

Apple was MIA at Mobile World Congress but its signature color was making a splash.

After Elmina “Ellie” Aghayeva, a neuroscience student, was taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from Columbia University housing, a story about ICE’s villainy quickly took hold. During the arrest, the school administration said, federal agents got into the building without a judicial warrant by telling a security guard that they were searching for a missing child.

In publicizing the account, however, the university downplayed Columbia’s own role in Aghayeva’s arrest, an echo of several other incidents over the past year where international students were targeted by federal agents.

Columbia, according to an investigation by The Intercept, repeatedly failed to follow its own policies for safeguarding students from President Donald Trump’s deportation machine.

The school has long required that authorities — whether federal or local — present a judicial warrant to gain entry to school grounds. Yet a review of university documents and interviews with affected students show how, in Aghayeva’s and other cases, school staff and officials failed to demand the proper documentation.

Since at least March 5, 2025, when provost Angela Olinto emailed school deans about it, Columbia’s explicit policy has been to bar ICE agents from non-public school property. Yet, in the days following the email, federal immigration agents entered school residential buildings without a warrant at least twice.

“After what happened in Minnesota, we know that ICE is coming to our communities. It’s not surprising that they would be coming after Columbia and students,” Eli Northrup, a New York state assembly candidate whose district would include Columbia, said of ICE. “What is surprising is that every single person working in a Columbia building didn’t have it ingrained that if law enforcement comes, that’s something that needs to be thoroughly vetted.”

Members of the Columbia community, including students who have been detained by ICE, said that despite its clear policies the school has shown that it placed its priorities on matters other than defending people from immigration authorities. They pointed to the involvement of officers from Columbia’s Department of Public Safety in cracking down on campus protests against Israel’s war in Gaza.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and protest leader who was arrested inside a Columbia residential building last March by immigration agents, said, “Columbia invested more in training Public Safety how to brutalize students, how to arrest them, rather than how to protect them.”

In response to questions, Columbia pointed The Intercept to its public statements on Aghayeva’s arrest. The Department of Homeland Security, ICE’s parent agency, did not respond to requests for comment.

Aghayeva’s Arrest

Last week, shortly after ICE agents arrived to arrest Aghayeva, who is Azerbaijani, acting Columbia president Claire Shipman wrote an email to the school community.

“It is important to reiterate that all law enforcement agents must have a judicial warrant or judicial subpoena to access non-public areas of the University,” she said.

Related

Zohran Mamdani Kept Columbia Student in New York — Then Phoned With Trump to Secure Her Release

Later, after the student had been released from custody, Shipman said in a video statement that the five ICE agents did not present “any kind of warrant” and misrepresented their identities to enter the building by saying “they were police searching for a missing child.” The following day, Shipman told a university plenary that ICE was let into the property by a Columbia building attendant. Later, a university security officer arrived and asked for a warrant, Shipman said. The federal agents ignored the request.

Concerned students and faculty members questioned how such a major lapse could take place close to a year after similar lapses resulted in Columbia students being targeted by warrantless federal agents on university property.

“It was clear that this individual didn’t know what he was supposed to do,” said a professor of psychology at Columbia, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the university.

In the aftermath of Aghayeva’s arrest, Columbia announced that it will be conducting webinars for its students, faculty, and staff on “immigration policy and understanding the law.”

Given the lapses that have occurred, however, calls are growing for Columbia to train its own security personnel to do better.

Words Versus Actions

“ICE agents must have a judicial warrant or subpoena to access non-public areas,” said the March 2025 email to school deans from Olinto, the provost.

Just two days after the email was sent, on March 7, building door staff at a Columbia building allowed federal agents without a warrant to enter a university property.

“I called Public Safety the moment ICE was outside my house,” said Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian PhD student and the target of the raid. “They said that they’ll file a report and told me not to open the door. And that was it.”

The incursion had come amid a battle between the Trump administration and the university over $400 million in federal funding, which the government suspended on the same day as the raid.

It was also on the same day that Khalil wrote to university authorities about the danger of ICE coming to his home. Khalil, who had been a lead negotiator for the campus protest encampments, had attracted the ire of campus pro-Israel activists, whom he said were trying to get him arrested by ICE.

“I haven’t been able to sleep,” Khalil wrote in an email at the time, “fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support, and I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm.”

The university was not forthcoming with any help. The following night, Khalil was arrested by federal immigration agents from inside his university residential building. No warrant had been provided — and no beefed-up security was present.

The day after Khalil was arrested, Columbia published a brief statement that said, “There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law.”

The statement cited the university policy requiring agents to have a judicial warrant to enter non-public areas but gave no indication that authorities in the previous days twice earlier entered buildings without the warrants.

Double Standards

The university’s response to Aghayeva’s arrest stood in stark contrast to how it reacted to the detention and targeting of other Columbia students: Khalil, fellow Palestinian student protester Mohsen Mahdawi, and Yunseo Chung, a U.S. permanent resident who the Trump administration targeted after her arrest at a protest. The Trump administration pursued the three students for their pro-Palestine advocacy, according to court documents.

Following Aghayeva’s arrest, Columbia promptly notified the community and announced that additional Public Safety patrols were being deployed to its residential buildings. Shipman quickly released a statement that said, “We started work immediately to gain her release. We are so grateful for the help and support we got from the mayor and the governor.”

Related

New Legal Documents Show Marco Rubio Targeted Students for Op-Eds and Protesting

“[I was] happy that such help is being extended to a community member as it should have been extended to me and to others,” said Khalil. “Yet, I couldn’t ignore the discrepancy in that response and how all of these were denied to me. Until this time, Columbia hasn’t reached out to me personally to offer any kind of support.”

Mahdawi’s arrest came after the school criticized a pro-Palestine event he had been involved in. The school initially said the demonstration included “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” Eventually, the administration said the characterization was misleading, but no clarification was issued. When the authorities came after Mahdawi, they cited the language as grounds for his arrest.

“When speech concerns Palestine, protections suddenly weaken, enforcement intensifies, and silence from leadership grows louder,” Mahdawi told The Intercept.

While the failure to stop federal agents with judicial warrants was a shortcoming of public safety, school security officials have not shied away from robust crackdowns on pro-Palestine protests.

“I believe that all of the securitization of campus exists to police the students,” said Srinivasan, the Indian PhD student targeted by ICE. “It does not actually exist to protect the students from ICE.”

On Friday, Columbia announced enhanced security measures including additional personnel around residence buildings, expanded video intercom systems, and distribution of “know your rights” printouts. The university also said that its personnel at housing buildings had received additional trainings over the past week.

It took a year, repeated security failures, and the arrest of a student unrelated to the pro-Palestine protests in any way for the measures to be announced.

People advocating for students, however, noted that Columbia already barred warrantless entry into university buildings.

“It has to be more than a policy,” said Northrup, the state assembly candidate. “It has to be executed.”

The post Columbia Flouted Its Own Policies and Let ICE Into University Buildings appeared first on The Intercept.

The administration says Rwandan-backed militants violated a Trump-brokered peace accord within days.

Most residents of Canadian province wanted change for years – Trump’s unneighbourly rhetoric helped seal the deal

Since 1918, the clocks in Creston, a town in eastern British Columbia, ran an hour ahead of nearby communities for half the year. For the other six months, they slipped back into sync. Not because the town changed them but because its neighbours changed back and forth from daylight saving time.

Creston was an outlier: a community that effectively created its own time zone. But when residents in most parts of the province shift their clocks forward on Sunday, they will be doing it for the last time – and permanently joining Creston for the first time in nearly 70 years.

Trump and Netanyahu, two political high rollers, are seen as more of an odd couple than Roosevelt-Churchill or Clinton-Blair. The war in Iran is their biggest gamble yet.

Online religious experts are part professor and part pastor and they’re reaching millions of people who have questions about modern faith.

Would you move sunrise to 9 a.m. in Detroit? Or to 4:11 a.m. in Seattle... Though both options have problems, "There's no law we can pass to move the sun to our will," argues the president of the nonprofit "Save Standard Time". The Associated Press explains why America remains stuck in that annual ritual making clocks "spring forward, fall backward..." The U.S. has tinkered with the clock intermittently since railroads standardized the time zones in 1883. So has a lot of the world. About 140 countries have had daylight saving time at some point; about half that many do now. About 1 in 10 U.S. adults favor the current system of changing the clocks, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted last year. About half oppose that system, and some 4 in 10 didn't have an opinion. If they had to choose, most Americans say they would prefer to make daylight saving time permanent, rather than standard time. ince 2018, 19 states — including much of the South and a block of states in the northwestern U.S. — have adopted laws calling for a move to permanent daylight saving time. There's a catch: Congress would need to pass a law to allow states to go to full-time daylight saving time, something that was in place nationwide during World War II and for an unpopular, brief stint in 1974. The U.S. Senate passed a bill in 2022 to move to permanent daylight saving time. A similar House bill hasn't been brought to a vote. U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama who introduces such a bill every term, said the airline industry, which doesn't want the scheduling complexity a change would bring, has been a factor in persuading lawmakers not to take it up. U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, a Florida Republican, is proposing another approach. "Why not just split the baby?" he asked. "Move it 30 minutes so it would be halfway between the two." Steube thinks his bill could get bipartisan support. The change would make the U.S. out of sync with most of the world — though India has taken a similar approach and in Nepal, the time is 15 minutes ahead of India.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Tech firms condemned for lack of controls with Meta AI and Gemini even offering advice on how to bypass UK gambling and addiction checks

AI chatbots are recommending illegal online casinos to vulnerable social media users, putting them at increased risk of fraud, addiction and even suicide.

Analysis of five AI products, owned by some of the world’s largest tech companies, found that all could easily be prompted to list the “best” unlicensed casinos and offer tips on how to use them.

Founder of family-owned firm says it will pause acquisitions after takeover of 15 Compass Coffee stores in US

Caffè Nero will continue opening new shops in the UK and overseas, but has warned coffee prices are likely to keep rising as the war in Iran and higher staffing costs feed through.

The family-owned business, which has just bought the 15-store Compass Coffee based in Washington DC to convert to its main brand, is aiming to open as many as 30 UK stores and between 50 and 70 more this year across the 10 other countries it operates in.

Central bankers and economists warn prolonged conflict could raise retail prices and rip up growth forecasts

• Heather Stewart: UK must be prepared for a price shock from the Iran war

An inflation shock triggered by the US-Israel attack on Iran could wreck a fragile global economic recovery that had been expected to gain momentum this year.

With oil and gas prices spiking, despite a pledge from Donald Trump to protect tankers making their way through the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint, central bankers and economists have warned that a prolonged conflict could increase retail prices around the world and force them to rip up growth forecasts for this year.

A federal judge ruled Saturday that Kari Lake did not have legal authority to take the actions she's done to largely dismantle the Voice of America.

Artefacts include souvenirs from 1972 ‘Match of the Century’ between Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer

A vast collection of chess memorabilia, including souvenirs from the 1972 “Match of the Century” and considered to be the largest and most important of its kind in private hands, is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London next month.

The collection belonged to the German grandmaster Lothar Schmid, whose passion for the sport extended way beyond the board.

Exclusive: Campaigners urge Keir Starmer to back ‘Philomena’s Law’ to protect payments for up to 13,000 survivors living in Britain

Survivors of Ireland’s mother and baby homes have started to have benefits cut in Britain because they accepted compensation from the Irish government.

The cuts to the means-tested benefits of survivors in Britain come as campaigners including the actors Siobhán McSweeney and Steve Coogan called on Keir Starmer to back a bill known as Philomena’s Law, which would ringfence survivors’ benefits.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official said Ruben Martinez “intentionally ran over” an agent before being killed by another agent in south Texas last year.

First, Hyundai "is discontinuing its most affordable electric sedan after just three years on the market," reports USA Today. After being introduced in 2022, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 "quickly gained the admiration of automotive critics because of its affordable pricing and capable performance specs." But now, Hyundai "is axing the most affordable versions of the EV, leaving consumers with only one Ioniq 6 option." Hyundai will continue to produce the Ioniq 6 N performance trim, which is the quickest and most powerful iteration of the Ioniq 6. It's also the most expensive. The South Korean automaker is getting rid of lower Ioniq 6 trims due to "disappointing sales and tariff considerations," according to Cars.com. Hyundai sold 10,478 Ioniq 6 models in 2025, dropping 15% from 12,264 units in 2024, a company sales report stated. Hyundai's Ioniq 6 is mainly produced in South Korea, so it faces high import tariffs. Sales increased for their earlier IONIQ 5 model, reports the EV blog Electrek, "up 14% through the first two months of 2026, with 5,365 units sold... Meanwhile, IONIQ 6 sales slid 77% with only 229 units sold in February." Elsewhere they report that Kia's EV6 and EV9 "didn't fare much better with sales down 53% (600 units sold) and 40% (819 units sold), respectively." Now a Kia spokesperson tells Car and Driver that the 2025 EV6 GT and 2026 EV9 GT "will be delayed until further notice." They attributed the move to "changing market conditions," but added that this delay "does not impact the availability of other trims in the EV6 and EV9 lineups." More from Electrek: The news comes after Kia already said it was delaying the EV4, its entry-level electric sedan, "until further notice." It was expected to arrive in the US this year alongside the EV3, Kia's compact electric SUV that's already a top-seller in the UK, Europe, and other overseas markets. While Hyundai didn't directly say it, since the EV3, EV4, EV6 GT, and Hyundai IONIQ 6 are built in Korea, the Trump administration's import tariffs and other policy changes are likely the biggest reason to blame here. Kia and Hyundai, like many others, are hesitant to bring new EVs to the US due to the changes. The IONIQ 6, EV6 GT, and EV9 GT join a string of other models that have either been postponed or canceled altogether.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a phone interview with CBS News, President Trump dismissed threats from Iran's top national-security official, who posted on social media that Mr. Trump must "pay the price" for the strikes on Iran.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for March 8, No. 531.

This live blog has now closed. Our live coverage continues here

The Saudi defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Salman, urged Iran on Saturday to “avoid miscalculation” after missile and drone launches at the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry said earlier in the day it had blocked repeated missile launches at an airbase housing US military personnel and drone attacks at a major oilfield.

We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 8.

Steven Spielberg directed his last Jurassic Park movie nearly 30 years ago, notes ScreenRant. But the 79-year-old filmmaker now brings us The Dinosaurs, a four-part documentary on Netflix where he's executive producer: The first few reviews are in, and the results lead to a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. It's worth noting that the rating will likely fluctuate since there are only six reviews. So far, critics all agree that the new Netflix docuseries is a breathtaking visual of history's most majestic creatures, and Morgan Freeman's soothing narration elevates the experience. Most importantly, the reviews note that the story is intimate, making the dinosaurs feel real with their personalities. "Audience" reviewers gave it a lower score of 67%. "There is a sense of drama and emotional weight which permeates through the entire series as it tells the story of the dinosaurs from start to the present day. The ending brought tears to my eyes..." "Wow, what a sleeper! Flat graphics, looks like video game animations. Unrelatable story lines. Don't waste your time. Honestly would you even look twice if Spielberg's name wasn't on it?" "This show was honestly incredible... It was a 10/10 series that I absolutely adored highly recommended to anyone who loves and has an interest of the ancient world." "I'm sorry, but the dinos of Prehistoric Planet are far superior, and were achieved on a much smaller budget. Their dinos look absolutely real, and you are convinced you're watching a documentary with real animals" ScreenRant notes Netflix's debut of The Dinosaurs' "aligns perfectly" with the arrival of all four Jurassic World movies on Netflix, where they're already dominating Netflix's "Top 10" charts for the U.S. "Witness the rise and the fall of nature's greatest empire," narrator Morgan Freeman says in the trailer...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

President Donald Trump honors slain U.S. service members at Dover, threatens to widen U.S. targets after Iran’s president dismissed the notion of surrender.

Deployment of US ground troops could be discussed later on and ‘would be a great thing’ says president Trump. Key US politics stories from 7 March at a glance

As the war in the Middle East rages on, US president Donald Trump has acknowledged that deploying ground troops in Iran in future is not off the table.

Pressed by the Guardian on whether he would send in troops to secure the enriched uranium, believed to be stored at Iranian nuclear sites that the United States bombed in Operation Midnight Hammer last year, Trump suggested that was a possibility.

NASA heralded a new study published Friday documenting a first for humanity — "the first time a human-made object has measurably altered the path of a celestial body around the Sun." It was 2022's DART mission where NASA crashed a spacecraft into an asteroid — and the experiment "could have implications for protecting Earth from future asteroid strikes," writes ScienceNews: A spacecraft slowed the orbit of a pair of asteroids around the sun by more than 10 micrometers per second... Within a month, researchers showed that the impact shortened Dimorphos' 12-hour orbit by 32 minutes. Some of the rocks knocked off of Dimorphos fled the vicinity completely, escaping the gravitational influence of the Dimorphos-Didymos pair, says planetary defense researcher Rahil Makadia of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Those rocky runaways took some momentum away from the duo and changed their joint motion around the sun. To figure out how much that motion was affected, astronomers watched the asteroids pass in front of distant stars, dimming some of the stars' light like a tiny eclipse. These blinks, called stellar occultations, can be visible from anywhere on Earth and are predictable in advance... Calculating how far off occultation timings were from predictions revealed that the asteroids' orbit around the sun was about 150 milliseconds slower than before the DART impact... Didymos and Dimorphos are not a threat to Earth, Makadia says, and weren't before DART. But knowing how a deliberate impact changes one asteroid's orbit can help make defense plans against another, "in case we need to do a kinetic impact for real." The researchers spent nearly two and a half years to collect 22 measurements of the asteroid's post-crash position, relying on amateur astronomers "to go out into the middle of nowhere and observe the necessary stellar occultations," acvcording to their paper. Planetary defense researcher even tells ScienceNews "There was an observer who drove two days each way into the Australian outback to get these measurements."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Foreign minister, Constantinos Kombos, tells Guardian Iranian-made drone that hit airbase was launched from Lebanon

Britain is facing growing calls to withdraw its military bases from Cyprus as locals step up protests against facilities seen as a threat to their security after an unprecedented drone attack on RAF Akrotiri.

Anger over the installations spilled on to the streets of Nicosia, the capital, as protesters chanting “out with the bases of death” marched to the colonial-era presidential palace on Saturday amid fears of the Mediterranean nation being dragged into the wider Iran conflict.

President Trump on Saturday told reporters, without citing evidence, that he believes a deadly strike on a girls' primary school​ in southern Iran last weekend was "done by Iran."

Long-time Slashdot reader fjo3 shared this report from Agence France-Presse: Japan has approved ground-breaking stem-cell treatments for Parkinson's and severe heart failure, one of the manufacturers and media reports said Friday, with the therapies expected to reach patients within months. Pharmaceutical company Sumitomo Pharma said it received the green light for the manufacture and sale of Amchepry, its Parkinson's disease treatment that transplants stem cells into a patient's brain. Japan's health ministry also gave the go-ahead to ReHeart, heart muscle sheets developed by medical startup Cuorips that can help form new blood vessels and restore heart function, media reports said. The treatments could be on the market and rolled out to patients as early as this summer, reports said, citing the health ministry, becoming the world's first commercially available medical products using induced pluripotent stem cells... In a statement, Sumitomo Pharma said it had obtained "conditional and time-limited approval" for the manufacture and marketing of Amchepry under a system which is reportedly designed to get these products to patients as quickly as possible. The approval is a kind of "provisional license", the Asahi newspaper said, after the safety and efficacy of the treatment was judged based on data from fewer patients than in ordinary clinical trials for drugs. A trial led by Kyoto University researchers indicated that the company's treatment was safe and successful in improving symptoms. The study involved seven Parkinson's patients aged between 50 and 69, with each receiving a total of either five million or 10 million cells implanted on both sides of the brain... The patients were monitored for two years and no major adverse effects were found, the study said. Four patients showed improvements in symptoms. The article notes that "Worldwide, about 10 million people have the illness, according to the Parkinson's Foundation," while also notes that today's current therapies "improve symptoms without slowing or halting the disease progression..."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US president delivers stinging criticism of UK prime minister over delayed support for Iran war

• Middle East crisis – follow live

Donald Trump has renewed his stinging criticism of UK prime minister Keir Starmer over the lack of immediate UK support for the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

“The United Kingdom, our once Great Ally, maybe the Greatest of them all, is finally giving serious thought to sending two aircraft carriers to the Middle East,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, adding: “That’s OK, Prime Minister Starmer, we don’t need them any longer – But we will remember. We don’t need people that join Wars after we’ve already won!”

Experts said the vessels are probably carrying a key precursor for rocket fuel, making it notable that Beijing let them sail while the U.S. and Iran are at war.

Rev. Jesse Jackson's children gave loving, personal and often emotional eulogies Saturday at his private homegoing services at Rainbow PUSH Headquarters in Chicago.

In a tweet that's been viewed 1.3 million times in the last six hours, OpenAI's head of robotics announced their resignation. They said they "care deeply about the Robotics team and the work we built together," so this "wasn't an easy call," but offered this reason for resigning: AI has an important role in national security. But surveillance of Americans without judicial oversight and lethal autonomy without human authorization are lines that deserved more deliberation than they got. This was about principle, not people. I have deep respect for Sam and the team, and I'm proud of what we built together. "To be clear, my issue is that the announcement was rushed without the guardrails defined," explains a later tweet. "It's a governance concern first and foremost. These are too important for deals or announcements to be rushed." And when asked how many OpenAI employees had left after OpenAI signed their new Pentagon deal, the roboticist said... "I can't share any internal details." The roboticist previously worked at Meta before leaving to join OpenAI in late 2024, reports Engadget: OpenAI confirmed Kalinowski's resignation and said in a statement to Engadget that the company understands people have "strong views" about these issues and will continue to engage in discussions with relevant parties. The company also explained in the statement that it doesn't support the issues that Kalinowski brought up. "We believe our agreement with the Pentagon creates a workable path for responsible national security uses of AI while making clear our red lines: no domestic surveillance and no autonomous weapons," the OpenAI statement read.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

US president attends ‘dignified transfer’ of remains of soldiers killed in Kuwait drone strike wearing ‘USA’ golf cap

Donald Trump on Saturday joined the families of six US soldiers killed in the war in the Middle East during a dignified transfer ritual at Dover air force base.

A “dignified transfer” is when the remains of US service members killed in action are returned to the US.

The zipper head on the recalled HALO Magic Sleepsuits poses a danger to babies, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission​.

Astronomers have spotted a galaxy they believe is made of 99.9% dark matter, reports CNN — and it's so faint, it's almost invisible: CDG-2, which is about 300 million light-years from Earth, appears to be so rich in dark matter that it could belong to a hypothesized subset of low surface brightness galaxies called "dark galaxies," which are believed to contain few or no stars.... [Post-doctoral astrophysics/statistics fellow Dayi Li at the University of Toronto was lead author on a study about the discovery, and tells CNN] There is no strict definition of dark galaxies... but their existence is predicted by dark matter theories and cosmological simulations. "Where exactly do we draw the line in terms of how many stars they should have is still ambiguous, because not everything in astronomy is as clear-cut as we like," he said. "To be technically correct, CDG-2 is an almost-dark galaxy. But the importance of CDG-2 is that it nudges us much closer to getting to that truly dark regime, while previously we did not think a galaxy this faint could exist." To observe CDG-2, the researchers used data from three telescopes — Hubble, the European Space Agency's Euclid space observatory and the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii — along with a novel approach that involved looking for objects called globular clusters. "These are very tight, spherical groupings of very olds stars, basically the relics of the first generation of star formation," Li said. Globular clusters are bright even if the surrounding galaxy is not, and previous observations have shown a relationship between them and the presence of dark matter in a galaxy, Li added. Because CDG-2 appears to have very few stars, there must be something else providing the mass that the clusters need to hold themselves together. Li and his colleagues assume that the source of the mass is dark matter. The researchers found a set of four globular clusters in the Perseus Cluster, a group of thousands of galaxies immersed in a cloud of gas and one of the most massive objects in the universe. Further observations revealed a glow or halo around the globular clusters, suggesting the presence of a galaxy... Astronomers believe, Li explained, that after the formation of the clusters early in the galaxy's existence, larger surrounding galaxies stripped it of the hydrogen gas required to make more individual stars like our sun. "The material that this galaxy needed to continue to form stars was no longer there, so it was left with basically just a dark matter halo and the four globular clusters." The process, he added, would leave behind a skeleton or ghost of "a galaxy that pretty much just failed." As a result of this formation mechanism, the galaxy only has 0.005% of the brightness of our own galaxy, Li said... Studying potential dark galaxies is important because they provide nearly pristine views of the behavior of dark matter, according to Neal Dalal, a researcher at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, who was not involved with the study. Robert Minchin, an astronomer at New Mexico's National Radio Astronomy Observatory, told CNN that "it seems likely that other very dark galaxies will be found by this method in the future."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

All six service members died during an unmanned aircraft system attack in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait.

Workers installed a plaque honoring police officers in the early morning hours, three years after it was required by law to be erected.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Strands puzzle No. 735 for Sunday, March 8.

Here are hints and the answer for Wordle No. 1,723 for Sunday, March 8.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle No. 1,001 for Sunday, March 8.

Speaking outside the embassy, Your Party MP Zarah Sultana told protesters: ‘we will not be ignored again’

• Middle East crisis – follow live

Thousands of protesters calling for the end of US and Israeli strikes on Iran have marched to the US embassy in central London.

Groups including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), Stop The War, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Muslim Association of Britain, the Palestinian Forum in Britain and Friends Of Al-Aqsa led the march to the embassy on Saturday afternoon, after gathering on Millbank, near Westminster.

"It took Anthropic's most advanced artificial-intelligence model about 20 minutes to find its first Firefox browser bug during an internal test of its hacking prowess," reports the Wall Street Journal. The Anthropic team submitted it, and Firefox's developers quickly wrote back: This bug was serious. Could they get on a call? "What else do you have? Send us more," said Brian Grinstead, an engineer with Mozilla, Firefox's parent organization. Anthropic did. Over a two-week period in January, Claude Opus 4.6 found more high-severity bugs in Firefox than the rest of the world typically reports in two months, Mozilla said... In the two weeks it was scanning, Claude discovered more than 100 bugs in total, 14 of which were considered "high severity..." Last year, Firefox patched 73 bugs that it rated as either high severity or critical. A Mozilla blog post calls Firefox "one of the most scrutinized and security-hardened codebases on the web. Open source means our code is visible, reviewable, and continuously stress-tested by a global community." So they're impressed — and also thankful Anthropic provided test cases "that allowed our security team to quickly verify and reproduce each issue." Within hours, our platform engineers began landing fixes, and we kicked off a tight collaboration with Anthropic to apply the same technique across the rest of the browser codebase... . A number of the lower-severity findings were assertion failures, which overlapped with issues traditionally found through fuzzing, an automated testing technique that feeds software huge numbers of unexpected inputs to trigger crashes and bugs. However, the model also identified distinct classes of logic errors that fuzzers had not previously uncovered... We view this as clear evidence that large-scale, AI-assisted analysis is a powerful new addition in security engineers' toolbox. Firefox has undergone some of the most extensive fuzzing, static analysis, and regular security review over decades. Despite this, the model was able to reveal many previously unknown bugs. This is analogous to the early days of fuzzing; there is likely a substantial backlog of now-discoverable bugs across widely deployed software. "In the time it took us to validate and submit this first vulnerability to Firefox, Claude had already discovered fifty more unique crashing inputs" in 6,000 C++ files, Anthropic says in a blog post (which points out they've also used Claude Opus 4.6 to discover vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel). "Anthropic "also rolled out Claude Code Security, an automated code security testing tool, last month," reports Axios, noting the move briefly rattled cybersecurity stocks...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"It took Anthropic's most advanced artificial-intelligence model about 20 minutes to find its first Firefox browser bug during an internal test of its hacking prowess," reports the Wall Street Journal. The Anthropic team submitted it, and Firefox's developers quickly wrote back: This bug was serious. Could they get on a call? "What else do you have? Send us more," said Brian Grinstead, an engineer with Mozilla, Firefox's parent organization. Anthropic did. Over a two-week period in January, Claude Opus 4.6 found more high-severity bugs in Firefox than the rest of the world typically reports in two months, Mozilla said... In the two weeks it was scanning, Claude discovered more than 100 bugs in total, 14 of which were considered "high severity..." Last year, Firefox patched 73 bugs that it rated as either high severity or critical. A Mozilla blog post calls Firefox "one of the most scrutinized and security-hardened codebases on the web. Open source means our code is visible, reviewable, and continuously stress-tested by a global community." So they're impressed — and also thankful Anthropic provided test cases "that allowed our security team to quickly verify and reproduce each issue." Within hours, our platform engineers began landing fixes, and we kicked off a tight collaboration with Anthropic to apply the same technique across the rest of the browser codebase... . A number of the lower-severity findings were assertion failures, which overlapped with issues traditionally found through fuzzing, an automated testing technique that feeds software huge numbers of unexpected inputs to trigger crashes and bugs. However, the model also identified distinct classes of logic errors that fuzzers had not previously uncovered... We view this as clear evidence that large-scale, AI-assisted analysis is a powerful new addition in security engineers' toolbox. Firefox has undergone some of the most extensive fuzzing, static analysis, and regular security review over decades. Despite this, the model was able to reveal many previously unknown bugs. This is analogous to the early days of fuzzing; there is likely a substantial backlog of now-discoverable bugs across widely deployed software. "In the time it took us to validate and submit this first vulnerability to Firefox, Claude had already discovered fifty more unique crashing inputs" in 6,000 C++ files, Anthropic says in a blog post (which points out they've also used Claude Opus 4.6 to discover vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel). "Anthropic "also rolled out Claude Code Security, an automated code security testing tool, last month," reports Axios, noting the move briefly rattled cybersecurity stocks...

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apple's MacBook Neo comes in four shades, and our CNET crew throws shade on all of them.

Detectives are investigating if alleged surveillance of Jewish locations and individuals is linked to possible attacks on British soil

Counter-terrorism detectives have been granted more time to question four men arrested on suspicion of spying for Iran on locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community.

The suspects, one Iranian and three dual British-Iranian nationals, can now be held in custody until 13 March, the Metropolitan police said on Saturday.

Ukraine has claimed a slew of successes on the front line in recent days, underscoring the effectiveness of its weapons systems, including anti-drone interceptors.

Masoud Pezeshkian issues rare apology to neighbouring Gulf states for Iranian strikes as war enters eighth day

• Middle East crisis live: latest news updates

The president of Iran has rejected Donald Trump’s call for the country’s unconditional surrender as a “dream”, while issuing a rare apology for Iranian attacks that hit neighbouring states, even as missiles and drones continued to strike Gulf countries.

In a prerecorded address broadcast on state television on Saturday, Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said the country would never capitulate, responding to remarks by the US president, who said on Friday that only Iran’s total submission could bring the war to an end.

• Northern Irishman pulls out before third round

• ‘I felt a twinge in my back, it became muscle spasms’

Rory McIlroy is confident of defending his Players Championship title from Thursday despite withdrawing from the Arnold Palmer Invitational 35 minutes before his third round. McIlroy suffered back spasms and was unwilling to potentially put appearances at the Players and next month’s Masters at risk by taking to the course at Bay Hill. McIlroy will also be defending the crown at Augusta National.

“While warming up in the gym this morning, I felt a small twinge in my back,” McIlroy said. “As I started hitting balls on the range before the round, it worsened and developed into muscle spasms in my lower back. Unfortunately, I’m not able to continue and have to withdraw. I was excited to compete this weekend. I wish the Arnold Palmer Invitational a great finish and look forward to being back next year.”

Explosion happened in pre-dawn hours at Dalí nightclub in the province of Trujillo along Peru’s northern coast

A bombing at a nightclub in Peru has injured 33 people, including minors, authorities said Saturday.

The explosion happened in the pre-dawn hours at the Dalí nightclub in the province of Trujillo along Peru’s northern coast, according to a statement from the local emergency operations center.

As Masoud Pezeshkian tries to de-escalate conflict, hardliners urge installation of new supreme leader to marginalise the president

• Middle East crisis – follow live

The surprise offer by the president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, not to attack countries in the neighbourhood so long as their airspace and US bases within their territories are not used to attack Iran has provoked a storm inside the country as the military appeared to contradict him, if not outright overrule him.

There were also calls for a new supreme leader to be installed as quickly as possible, as a means of marginalising the president. Attacks on facilities in Bahrain and elsewhere have continued, and there were unconfirmed reports that Bahrain had become the first Gulf country to fire back at Iran.

"Within 24 hours of the first US-Israeli strikes on Iran, ships in the region's waters found their navigation systems had gone haywire," reports CNN, "erroneously indicating that the vessels were at airports, a nuclear power plant and on Iranian land. "The location confusion was a result of widespread jamming and spoofing of signals from global positioning satellite systems." Used by all sides in conflict zones to disrupt the paths of drones and missiles, the process involves militaries and affiliated groups intentionally broadcasting high-intensity radio signals in the same frequency bands used by navigation tools. Jamming results in the disruption of a vehicle's satellite-based positioning while spoofing leads to navigation systems reporting a false location. Though commercial vessels are not the target, the electronic interference disrupted the navigation systems of more than 1,100 commercial ships in UAE, Qatari, Omani and Iranian waters on February 28, according to a report from Windward, a shipping intelligence firm. Jamming and spoofing also slowed marine traffic moving through the Strait of Hormuz, a congested shipping lane that handles roughly 20% of the world's oil and gas exports and where precise navigation is essential, Windward's data showed.... Daily incidents have more than doubled, rising from 350 when the conflict began to 672 by March 2, the firm reported. As use of this warfare tactic grows, experts worry the impacts could reach far beyond battlespaces.... In June 2025, electronic interference with navigation systems was thought to be a factor in the collision between two oil tankers, Adalynn and Front Eagle, off the coast of the UAE... The number of global positioning system signal loss events affecting aircraft increased by 220% between 2021 and 2024, according to data from the International Air Transport Association. Last year, IATA said that the aviation industry must act to stay ahead of the threat. Cockpits are seeing their navigation displays "literally drift away from reality," said a commercial pilot, who didn't want to be identified because he was not permitted to speak publicly. He said that he and his colleagues have experienced map shifts, where the aircraft location appears to move up to 1 mile away from the actual flight path, false altitude information that leads to phantom "pull up" commands, and systems suggesting an aircraft was on a taxiway, a path that connects runways with various airport facilities, when taking off. These incidents force pilots to rely on manual actions that increase workload, often during the most exhausting points of long-haul flights, he said. "Alternative navigational tools that don't rely on GPS, but instead harness quantum technology, are also in development," the article points out, "but remain a long way off operational use."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Oksana Masters has competed at every Paralympics since 2012 and is the most decorated American Winter Paralympian.

In Miami, president calls for regional cooperation to counter Chinese economic and political interests

Donald Trump changed the channel from Iran to the western hemisphere on Saturday, convening a gathering of Latin American leaders at his Miami-area golf club to discuss regional interests and establishing what he called a “counter-cartel coalition”.

“Just as we formed a coalition to eradicate Isis, we now need a coalition to eradicate the cartels,” he told 12 regional leaders gathered at what the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit.

"Seagate says it is now shipping its Mozaic 4+ HAMR-based hard drives at up to 44TB per drive," writes Slashdot reader BrianFagioli, "with production deployments already underway at two hyperscale cloud providers. "The company claims the platform is the only heat-assisted magnetic recording [HAMR] implementation currently operating at scale, and it is targeting a path from today's 4+TB per disk toward 10TB per disk, eventually enabling 100TB-class drives." In a one-exabyte deployment, Seagate estimates Mozaic could improve infrastructure efficiency by roughly 47% compared to standard 30TB drives, cutting both footprint and energy consumption... HAMR uses a tiny laser to heat the disk surface during writes, allowing higher recording density without sacrificing stability. With most major cloud storage providers reportedly qualified on the Mozaic platform, Seagate is positioning spinning disks, not flash, as the long-term answer for cost-effective AI-scale data growth.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

At least five people are in serious condition, an official said. Three minors - a 16-year-old and two 17-year-olds - are among the wounded.

Report indicates that US intelligence officials question effectiveness of strikes to produce regime change in Iran

• Middle East crisis – follow live

US government reviews of the war in Iran show that the Trump administration may be ill-equipped for a regime-change war, according to reports.

The Washington Post reported on Saturday morning that a classified intelligence review found that the war in Iran is unlikely to oust the Iranian establishment, despite the Trump administration’s desire to continue its attacks.

B-1 Lancers arrive at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire after Starmer allows US to use UK as a base for ‘defensive’ action

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Four US bombers have landed at an RAF base in Britain to carry out “specific defensive operations” to stop Iran firing missiles into the Middle East, the Ministry of Defence has said.

The B-1 Lancers, which are 45 metres (146ft) long and capable of carrying 24 cruise missiles, arrived at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, one on Friday evening and three on Saturday morning, after Keir Starmer had granted permission for “defensive” US action against Iranian missile sites from UK bases.

A place in the quarterfinals is at stake in this all-Premier League encounter at St. James' Park.

Relatives call on institutions to help them find remains of ancestors who led fight against British colonisers in 1890s

• Which human remains are held in UK museums – and where?

Descendants of freedom fighters executed and beheaded in southern Africa by colonial British forces have called on the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Cambridge to help them find their ancestors’ looted skulls.

Zimbabwean descendants of the first chimurenga heroes, who led an uprising against British colonisers in the 1890s, have long believed the museum and university hold several of the skulls.

The league leaders look to make it three wins in a row as they head to San Mamés Stadium.

"Reservation holders, it's finally time to get ready," writes long-time Slashdot reader AirHog. The EV news site Electrek reports: Aptera Motors, "the little startup that could," announced another important milestone... completing the first example of its flagship solar EV on its validation assembly line in Southern California... While the validation line at its headquarters remains a low-volume assembly process, its successful operation represents the startup's transition from hand-built validation SEVs to a more structured assembly line process that will be fine-tuned for mass production... With low-volume assembly now being validated, Aptera is starting to publicly utter encouraging terms like "EPA certification" and, better yet, that holy grail of "initial customer deliveries." Before then, however, the Aptera Solar EVs built on this low-volume validation line will be used for testing programs such as thermal validation, brake performance, and "some destructive testing." Aptera shared that its assembly and integration team has grown to become the largest at the startup, "reflecting the beginning of its transition from engineering development to testing and production execution"... As of March 2026, Aptera says it has over 50,000 reservations totaling over $2 billion in sales if all were to solidify following the launch of a deliverable vehicle. Clean Technica notes the vehicles' "generous cargo space that comes out to 60% more storage than a Honda Accord and 20% more storage than a Prius, according to the company." "Built with recyclable materials, this eco-friendly vehicle features a lightweight carbon fiber structure and no-welding assembly for maximum cost and production efficiency," Aptera adds. The emphasis on lightweighting supports the goal of engineering a car that can travel on the electricity provided by its onboard solar panels. The company currently advertises that the vehicle can travel 40 miles on solar power alone, with the battery providing extra juice as needed. Ideally, the car can keep recharging itself with sunlight, further elongating the time between charging sessions... [Its range is up to 1,000 miles with plug-in charging.] The new autocycle could also appeal to drivers who enjoy the challenge of hypermiling, which involves deploying a suite of driving techniques to minimize fuel consumption. Hypermiling can apply to gas-powered cars, but the magic really kicks in with the regenerative braking capability of EVs. Aptera's onboard solar panels add another dimension to the fun.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Looking to downsize your phone plan, or just start with one that better fits how you use your phone? A prepaid plan could be a better choice. We pick our favorites.

The White House called the gathering of Latin American leaders the "Shield of the Americas" summit.

As the US waives its ban on India buying Putin’s oil for 30 days, Europe must bolster its own measures, such as stopping the flow of luxury cars

Donald Trump handed Vladimir Putin a financial lifeline last week when he waived a ban on India buying Russian oil for 30 days.

Trump found himself in a furious row last year with Narendra Modi over his country’s oil deals with Moscow, only for fences to be partly mended when India’s biggest importer later capitulated.

Get ready to spring forward and lose an hour of sleep but gain more daylight.

Royal Navy readying HMS Prince of Wales so it can be quickly deployed if decision made to mobilise it to region

• Middle East crisis live: latest news updates

The UK is preparing an aircraft carrier before a possible deployment to the Middle East, the Ministry of Defence has said.

Royal Navy workers in Portsmouth are readying HMS Prince of Wales, the navy’s flagship, meaning it could be deployed more quickly if a decision is made to mobilise it to the region.

Ian Huntley, 52, had been on life support after being hit repeatedly over the head with a metal bar in a U.K. prison on Feb. 26.

An anonymous reader shared this report from the Independent: A popular predictions market app will not pay out the $54 million some of its users believed they were owed after correctly forecasting the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to a report. Kalshi, which allows players to gamble on real-world events, offered customers favorable odds on Khamenei, 86, being "out as Supreme Leader" in response to the announcement of joint U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Tehran in the early hours of Saturday morning. The company promoted the trade on its homepage and app and tweeted [last] Saturday: "BREAKING: The odds Ali Khamenei is out as Supreme Leader have surged to 68 percent." It continued: "Reminder: Kalshi does not offer markets that settle on death. If Ali Khamenei dies, the market will resolve based on the last traded price prior to confirmed reporting of death." Khamenei was later confirmed dead in the airstrikes and the company clarified in a follow-up post: "Please note: A prior version of this clarification was grammatically ambiguous. As a customer service measure, Kalshi will reimburse lost value due to trades made between these clarifications...." While the company has offered to reimburse any bets, fees or losses from the trade placed prior to its clarification message, it has nevertheless attracted a firestorm of complaints on social media. A Kalshi spokesperson told Reuters they'd reimbursed "net losses" out of pocket "to the tune of millions of dollars". But a class action lawsuit was filed Thursday saying Kalshi had failed to pay $54 million: Kalshi did not invoke a "death carveout" provision until after the Iranian leader was killed to avoid paying customers in Kalshi's "Khamenei Market" what they were owed, the lawsuit said... The language specifying that Khamenei's departure could be due to any cause, including death, was "clear, unambiguous and binary," the lawsuit said, describing Kalshi's actions as "deceptive" and "predatory." "In a notice filed Monday, the company proposed standardizing the terms of all its markets that implicitly depend on a person surviving..." reports Business Insider. "The update comes after Kalshi paid $2.2 million to resolve complaints from users who were confused by the way it divided the $55 million wagered on Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's ouster after his targeted killing by Israel and the US." Their article cites a DePaul University law professor who says "There's now sort of this nascent, but bipartisan movement against prediction markets. I think Kalshi's feeling the heat." For example, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy told the Washington Post, "People shouldn't be rooting for people to die because they placed a bet."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Commandos started digging up grave thought to be of famous IDF pilot, leading to gunfight followed by airstrikes

• Middle East crisis – live updates

An Israeli operation in eastern Lebanon to locate the remains of a famous IDF pilot ended in failure overnight, when the commandos were caught in a gunfight with Hezbollah and local residents, leading Israeli jets to pummel the area with airstrikes that killed dozens of people.

The fighting left three Lebanese soldiers and 41 residents of the Bekaa valley dead, according to the Lebanese army and ministry of health. No injuries were reported among the Israeli soldiers.

This will be the first time humans have traveled all the way to the moon since the early 1970s.

"There must be no one in the military who harbors disloyalty to the (ruling Communist) Party," Xi said.

The new robot vacuums on the market are more capable than ever. Here's the latest from Ecovacs.

The $180 Aurzen Eazze D1R Cube is a basic, entry-level projector, but the Roku interface makes it a pleasure to use.

Have you been looking over the fence at other mobile carriers, or maybe you're pondering a different phone plan? We've put together our picks for the top postpaid and prepaid plans from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Mint Mobile, US Mobile and others.

Tech policy professor who served in US air force explains how a feud between an AI startup and the US military illuminates ethical fault lines

Anthropic’s ongoing fight with the Department of Defense over what safety restrictions it can put on its artificial intelligence models has captivated the tech industry, acting as a test of how AI may be used in war and the government’s power to coerce companies to meet its demands.

The negotiations have revolved around Anthropic’s refusal to allow the federal government to use its Claude AI for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous weapons systems, but the dispute also reflects the messy nature of what happens when tech companies have their products integrated into conflict. The Pentagon this week declared Anthropic a supply chain risk for its refusal to agree to the government’s terms, while Anthropic has vowed to challenge the designation in court.

The Guardian spoke to adults now in their 20s, 30s, and 40s to reflect on the lasting impact of family separation in the US

Jesús usually came home from school to a raucous scene: the family TV blaring, his mom loudly cooking dinner and his two young sisters fighting about nothing in particular. When his dad came home from work, they’d all gather around the kitchen table for dinner.

But this day was different.

California state superintendent says mother and sons arrested during ICE check-in and deported to Colombia

California’s superintendent is calling for the return of a hearing-impaired six-year-old after he, his mother and his five-year-old sibling were detained on Tuesday while reporting for their check-in at an ICE office in San Francisco and deported to Colombia.

Lesly Rodriguez Gutierrez and her sons were arrested during their visit to ICE’s Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (Isap), said Alameda County Immigration Legal and Education Partnership (ACILEP). A relative who was waiting outside for Gutierrez and her sons was unable to hand off the assistive devices necessary for the six-year-old, who is deaf and has a cochlear implant.

The attorney general faces a subpoena over the Epstein files. She won’t say much – but Democrats are calling for her ouster

After spending $220m of taxpayer money on an advertising campaign in which she demanded migrants self-deport, Kristi Noem is now being forced to make a hasty exit of her own. On Thursday, Donald Trump announced that his luxury-jet-loving homeland security secretary was being shipped off to become special envoy for “the Shield of the Americas”, a new “security” summit that Trump has dreamed up. Markwayne Mullin, a former mixed-martial artist and Republican senator, will replace her.

Noem’s ouster was a long time coming. But it’s worth stressing that she doesn’t seem to have lost her job because of the many controversies that have plagued her tenure, including the killing of two US citizens by immigration agents. Rather, she committed the cardinal sin of making Trump look stupid. Which, to be fair, isn’t hard.

Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist

Defence minister urges ‘serious politics’ after Tory leader criticises prime minister’s stance at spring conference

• Middle East crisis live: latest news updates

Labour has accused Kemi Badenoch of scoring “cheap political points” after the Conservative party leader said Keir Starmer was “too scared” to join strikes on Iran.

Al Carns, the defence minister, said “serious politics” was required in response to Badenoch’s speech at the party’s spring conference where she criticised the prime minister’s stance on the US-Israel strikes on Iran a week ago.

Call for urgent meeting comes after woman was assaulted by man who had been given her key card by hotel staff

More than 20 MPs have demanded an urgent meeting with the CEO of Travelodge after a woman was sexually assaulted by a man who had been given her room number and a key card by hotel staff.

The MPs said the case of Kyran Smith, 29, who was jailed for seven-and-a-half years last month, raised “deeply concerning” questions. He attacked the woman after a party in December 2022.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack and called for an international response.

Severe storms were sweeping across the central U.S., and forecasters warned tornadoes could turn dangerous across several states.

A classified U.S. report doubts that Iran’s opposition would take power following either a short or extended U.S. military campaign.

European leaders are ramping up their response to the crisis spreading outside Iran but remain wary of a conflict that could have untold ramifications.

Debi Weiss thought her fatigue and weakness was a seasonal illness, but her condition quickly worsened.

JESSICA MEHR
Opinion Columnist

When it comes to adopting animals, many will choose breeders and handpicked animal breeds that fit them best. As much as that seems like a viable option, there are many negatives to this that people do not consider. 

Firstly, many breeders are not ethically compliant, and they do not treat their animals with the respect that we expect. 

For example, statistics show that only about half of puppies born in mills survive their first 12 weeks. This means that many puppies and young animals bred are born unhealthy and likely to die. In addition, many breeders fail to abide by the law, with 70% of puppy mills operating illegally.

It is important to recognize that there are many animals waiting in shelters to be adopted. Oftentimes, fees and expenses are even less for animals awaiting adoption. Since there are a multitude of animals waiting for a happy home, pet owners also have a wide selection to choose from.

In 2024, 5.8 million dogs and cats entered shelters and rescues, demonstrating that there are more than enough pets that are looking for permanent homes. 

Due to the abundance of animals entering shelters and the lack of willing adoptees, most pets will spend a dangerous amount of time in shelters before they ever find forever families. The length of time dogs, especially large dogs, are staying in shelters before being adopted has increased in the last five years.  

The most unfortunate fact of them all is that many of the shelters in the United States do not have the capacity, funding or help to maintain such a high number of animals. This increases the number of animals losing their lives. Approximately 607,000 animals were euthanized in shelters in 2024.

It is essential to consider that not all individuals or families interested in pets can afford an adopted animal, or commit time for the many years that adoption entails. As a result, fostering programs have increased in popularity. 

Fostering animals means you are willing to provide a home, love and care to an animal for a limited period of time. Foster care continues to be a vital solution for animal shelters and rescues navigating today’s persistent capacity challenges. It aids shelters tremendously because it opens space and resources to care for other animals while many are being fostered. 

Some families even experience foster fails, which means they fall in love with the pet they take care of, choosing to adopt or aid in finding homes for these animals. 

Even if you aren’t able to commit to any significant period of time caring for an animal, there are programs that allow you to create real change by building relationships with shelter animals. 

For example, Humane Animal Partners in Delaware offers programs like “Doggy Day Out” where you can spend a few hours taking a shelter dog out and giving them affection and play time for the day. 

This is something I have personally participated in. It helps not only to make the dog happy, but also introduce them to the community and new faces, making them even more ready for their adoption day.

Of course, there are a multitude of opportunities to volunteer in animal shelters. Considering that many are short-handed and lack resources, any volunteered time or donated materials are helpful. 

How you choose to support shelters is up to you, but it is essential to be aware of the big and small ways we can help animals in need.

Jessica Mehr is an opinion columnist at The Review. Her opinions are her own and do not represent the majority opinion of The Review staff. She may be reached at jessmehr@udel.edu. 

Indonesia will ban children under 16 from having accounts on major social media platforms as part of a government push to protect minors from harmful content, addiction, and online threats. The rule will roll out starting March 28 and makes Indonesia the first country in Southeast Asia to impose such a restriction. The Guardian reports: Meutya Hafid said in a statement to media said that she signed a government regulation that will mean children under the age of 16 can no longer have accounts on high-risk digital platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Roblox and Bigo Live, a popular livestreaming site. With a population of about 285 million, the fourth-highest in the world, the south-east Asian nation represents a significant market for social networks. The implementation will start gradually from 28 March, until all platforms fulfill their compliance obligations. "The basis is clear. Our children face increasingly real threats. From exposure to pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud, and most importantly addiction. The government is here so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giant of algorithms," Hafid said. She added that the government is taking this step as the best effort in the midst of a digital emergency to reclaim sovereignty over children's futures. "We realize that the implementation of this regulation may cause some discomfort at first. Children may complain and parents may be confused about how to respond to their children's complaints," Hafid said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Hampshire business seems to have benefited from ‘phoenixism’, which costs the taxpayer about £800m a year

A UK recruitment business has been acquired out of administration for a third time in four years as part of a succession of deals that left some of the former management team in place and millions of pounds owed to the public purse.

The chain of insolvencies appears to contain more examples of phoenixism – a process when companies are liquidated and directors are able to rise from the ashes with a new entity, free of debts.

Review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group reveals firms are exploiting rule to send new chemicals in food system

More than 100 substances widely used in common US foods, supplements and beverages underwent no health and safety review by the US Food and Drug Administration, a new analysis of federal records finds.

The review of FDA records by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) non-profit reveals that diverse products across the food pyramid, such as Capri Sun drinks, Kettle and Fire organic broth, Acme smoked fish, and Quaker Oats snack bars, use a range of substances that have not undergone review by regulators.

Takeshi Ebisawa, sentenced to 20 years in prison last week, believed he was selling weapons-grade plutonium to Iran

A plot to supply Iran’s nuclear weapons program, heroin from the Golden Triangle, Burmese ethnic insurgents and rocket launchers were the subject in courtroom 24A in New York’s federal courthouse last week when a man described as a leader in Japan’s Yakuza organized crime syndicate was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The transnational plot, which the US Drug Enforcement Administration had been investigating since 2019, involved Japanese organised crime leader Takeshi Ebisawa, who along with three Thai men, had been arrested in New York in 2022.

“She was aging. I’m very close to her,” photographer Arnaud Montagard said. “At the time of the trip, she was 88. She’s now 89.”

When I searched online to see if you can make popcorn in an air fryer, answers varied, so I went right to a manufacturer for a final answer.

Presenter who entertained children with his sharp-witted, furry puppet Agro Vation, remembered for his brash and unapologetic humour

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Jamie Dunn, a veteran radio personality who unleashed the puppet Agro on Australia, entertaining children and adults alike for decades, has died aged 76.

Dunn, who was once Australia’s longest-serving breakfast radio host, died on Saturday.

Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.

Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.

• Data center regulations (New Castle County)
• Weight-loss drug coverage vote (Statewide)
• State legislature reconvenes (Statewide)
• Wilmington party change rules (Wilmington)
• Bryan Allen Stevenson charter school hearing (Georgetown)

New Castle County to consider data center limits

After months of debate, the New Castle County Council may finally vote on a package of regulations meant to limit how and where data centers can be developed in the county.

The northernmost county has been targeted for development of a hyper-scale data center known as Project Washington, which has sparked community concerns around potential strains on energy and water use, while supporters seek to land new construction and permanent jobs.

Councilman Dave Carter, who originally introduced the ordinance in August, has amended it to try to find a compromise.

One of the main points of contention on the new bill was the removal of a “pending ordinance doctrine,” which would allow the county to retroactively apply the proposed regulations to data center applications currently in the development pipeline, including Project Washington.

📍 The New Castle County Council is scheduled to meet at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 10, in the Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more info on the meeting, including how to attend virtually, click here.

State Employee Benefits Committee to change weight-loss drug coverage

The State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC), a board responsible for managing Delaware’s state employee health insurance plans, will meet Monday to finalize coverage changes for employees currently using weight-loss drugs.

That meeting was previously canceled last month due to inclement weather.

The changes could mean thousands of employees, retirees or their family members covered under the state’s health plan could soon pay much more out-of-pocket to get their weight-loss prescriptions or be uncovered altogether.

The SEBC previously met on Friday, Feb. 13, to introduce the potential coverage changes. 

At that meeting, the committee heard multiple different options that could save the state money, but they would pass costs onto consumers using the drugs in the form of higher co-pays, almost four or five times higher than the current rate.

📍 The State Employee Benefits Committee will meet at 9 a.m. Monday, March 9, at the Delaware Department of Human Resources, located at 841 Silver Lake Blvd., in Suite 100. For more info on the meeting, including how to attend virtually, click here.

Legislature returns to Dover

The Delaware General Assembly will reconvene beginning on Tuesday after a month off for Joint Finance Committee hearings. 

Floor votes for the House and Senate are scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, while committee hearings will take place on both Tuesday and Wednesday.

Among bill hearings to watch are:

• HB 258: Would allow Wilmington to set more restrictive limits on liquor stores locations. (House Economic Development, Banking, Insurance & Commerce / Tuesday 12 p.m.)
• HS1 for HB 84: Would prohibit employers from requiring meetings or communications to convey the employer’s political or religious views, including views regarding unionization. (House Labor / Tuesday 1 p.m.)
• HB 265: Would provide limited immunity from prosecution for low-level crimes for persons who seek to report a sexual offense. (House Judiciary / Wednesday 10:30 a.m.)
• HB 186: Would incentivize the construction and operation of a limited number of high-efficiency Combined-Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) electrical generation facilities, with an output of between 100 MW and 500 MW, by creating an Electricity Production Tax Credit (EPTC) and bonus credits  (House Revenue & Finance / Wednesday 1 p.m.)
• HB 188: Would allow Delaware voters who are not affiliated with a political party to vote in a political party’s primary election.(House Elections & Government Affairs / Wednesday 1 p.m.)
• HB 308: Would require that meetings of the Public Service Commission be livestreamed virtually and requires that members of the public have the opportunity to comment virtually.
• HB 73: Would raise the senior property tax credit cap from $500 to $1,000. (House Administration / Wednesday 3 p.m.)

📍 The Delaware General Assembly meets at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover. Hearings and floor votes are open to the public. For more info, or to watch virtually, click here.

Wilmington to debate party change rules

A proposed resolution before the Wilmington City Council would encourage state legislators to amend the city’s charter to prohibit city council members from switching parties between elections.

Sponsored by Councilman Alexander Hackett, it’s not immediately clear what sparked the introduction of the measure. 

However, it comes on the heels of Councilman James Spadola switching from the Republican to Democratic Party last year. The city charter requires that at least one of its four at-large members represent a minority political party.

Because Democrats overwhelmingly hold control of the council, that means the Republican Party always has one seat of the 13 members. Until now, as Spadola’s switch has left the council without a minority party member.

Notably, it also means that if Spadola seeks re-election to an at-large seat, he would be competing with colleagues Hackett, Maria Cabrera and Tish Bracy for the three Democratic seats.

📍 The resolution will be discussed by the council’s Committee of the Whole at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 12, at Louis L. Redding City County Building, located at 800 N. French St. in Wilmington. For more info on the meeting, including how to attend virtually, click here.

Georgetown charter school has final hearing

The Bryan Allen Stevenson School of Excellence in Georgetown will be fighting for its survival at a Monday evening hearing.

Last month, Delaware education officials recommended that the state close the charter school due to its persistent struggles with low enrollment. 

The closure recommendation from the Charter School Accountability Committee now goes before Delaware Education Secretary Cindy Marten, who will announce a final decision about whether to revoke BASSE’s charter on March 19. 

If she does revoke the charter, the school – which in recent months has served about 120 sixth through ninth graders – would close by the end of this academic year.

Before Marten makes a decision though, the school will have the opportunity to convince her to keep it open.

📍 The public hearing will begin at 5 p.m. Monday, March 9, at the Delaware Technical Community College’s Owens Campus’ Carter Partnership Center, located at 21179 College Drive in Georgetown. For more info, including how to attend virtually, click here.

The post Get Involved: Data center regulations vote, GLP-1 coverage, and more appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.

Italian Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, 68, is currently the Holy See's ambassador to the United Nations in New York.

Russian athletes are back competing under their own flag in the Winter Paralympics at Milan Cortina.

A guide to the Formula One schedule and special F1 extras on every Apple app -- including Apple Music.

In July, Prasad was briefly forced from his job​, but was reinstated less than two weeks later.

• Judge homers as US rout Brazil in WBC opener

• Turang drives in four runs as US draw 17 walks

• Manny Ramirez’s son hits two homers for Brazil

Aaron Judge hit a two-run homer and Brice Turang had three hits and four RBIs to lead the United States to a 15-5 win over Brazil in their World Baseball Classic opener Friday night.

There was one out and one on in the first when Judge, the first player to commit to the team last April, connected off Bo Takahashi at Houston’s Daikin Park.

Charities warn estates of victims who died before the scheme began are losing hundreds of thousands in financial loss payments

Families of victims of the infected blood scandal have criticised the government for imposing a “penalty for dying” in its compensation scheme, which has seen them lose out on hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The scheme awards payouts to living victims and the families of those who have died after being infected with HIV or hepatitis as a result of being given contaminated blood products by the NHS.

The administration has been accused of failing to comply with hundreds of orders. The courts must not be paper tigers

Late last month, a Minnesota federal court judge, Patrick Schiltz, issued an opinion detailing hundreds of instances in which the Trump administration has failed to comply with court orders. He threatened to find it in contempt and to impose penalties.

Schiltz and other federal judges have made such threats before, but they have not followed through. It is time they did, lest they turn their courts into paper tigers.

As some elected leaders choose to play nice with the president, Democratic AGs have done the opposite – to impressive effect

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Four Democratic attorneys general, sitting in their offices from New York to California with state flags and books behind them, announced a new lawsuit on Thursday, alleging the president, yet again, had broken the law by attempting to create new tariffs without congressional approval.

It’s a now familiar scene for the group of top law-enforcement officials who have collectively filed more than 50 lawsuits against the Trump administration, serving as a counterweight to the president’s quest to expand his power and circumvent the constitution.

She co-wrote “Our Bodies, Ourselves,” a 1970s touchstone conceived by and for women. The book offered information about abortion, pregnancy and postpartum life.

Senate blocks war powers measure and House follows suit – now president can bomb Iran free from congressional interference

• Middle East crisis – follow live

Before US troops invaded Iraq, George W Bush asked Congress to pass a resolution authorizing military force against Washington’s longtime nemesis, a request that lawmakers obliged.

Twenty four years later, the United States is at war with a different Middle Eastern rival – Iran – under a different Republican president – Donald Trump. But this time, the president did not bother to seek permission from the Senate and House of Representatives before joining Israel in launching the air and naval campaign. And far from objecting, Congress’s Republican majorities have simply stepped aside.

• Tatum back after 298 days out with achilles tear

• Celtics star posts 15-12-7 in limited 27 minutes

• Boston defeat Dallas 120-100 at TD Garden

There were times when Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum wasn’t sure if he’d make it back to the game that was abruptly taken away from him last season.

It made every moment he experienced in his return as special as any he’s had so far in his basketball career.

Mickey says his stint as a handyman transformed into a lucrative sex business due to the region’s ‘self-denial’

A western Texas fracker starring in a podcast about how his attempted moonlighting as a handyman turned into lucrative sex work largely solicited by distracted oil industry professionals’ housewives says he believes his region’s repressive sexual attitudes gave his side gig an opening to flourish.

“There’s an inherent kind of self-denial,” the subject of The Handyman of West Texas, identified only as Mickey, said in a recent interview. “We all have these thoughts. But we lie to ourselves and try to conform to … how you’re supposed to be repressing your own pleasure.”

A Note to My Readers:

In my last newsletter, several of you wondered why I didn’t begin my brief history of Iran with the toppling of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. Frankly, my goal was to start at a moment of relative peace and move to the perpetual state of internal and external strife that Iran has experienced since. The story of U.K. intelligence and the CIA joining forces to topple Mosaddegh and return Shah Reza Pahlavi to power is fascinating, brutal, and well worth your time. But it also occurred some twenty years earlier than the eras I wanted to cover. I value your comments and hope you’ll keep them coming.

What I am Discussing Today:

• Kareem’s Daily Quote: Great strategy does not always mean great results.

• Noem Out: Is anyone crying about this? Because all I hear is…Cricket.

• Video Break: Hulas Interruptus

• War & Epstein Files: Coincidence or Deadly Sleight of Hand?

• Panic at the Pumps: How they gonna spin this one?

• What I’m Watching: Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg

• What I’m Reading: The Duel, Judith St. George

• Jukebox Playlist:

Kareem’s Daily Quote

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

— Commonly attributed to Sir Winston Churchill

Winston Churchill actually said this, at least according to The Churchill Society. So I’ll let it rest there and not dig much more deeply, since it reminds me of something every athlete learns the hard way. The game doesn’t care how pretty your plan looked in the locker room. I played on teams where the strategy sparkled on the chalkboard. Perfect spacing. Clean rotations. A defensive scheme that made us feel like we’d solved the quandary of basketball. And then the ball went up, and reality walked in wearing the other team’s colors.

One night in Boston comes to mind. We had a plan built around pace and precision, get out and run, move the ball, get deep touches early. It looked airtight. But the Celtics didn’t show up to admire our strategy. They showed up to hit us, lean on us and drag us into a street fight. Suddenly, that airtight plan didn’t matter. The results did. And the results said: adjust or lose.

That’s the thing about strategy. Will it work? One way or the other, you’re sure to find out.

I felt that same lesson years earlier in Milwaukee, during the 1974 Finals. We had a disciplined, well‑designed approach: control the tempo, feed the post, force Boston into tough shots. It was smart. It was elegant. And then Game 6 turned into a triple‑overtime brawl. All the neat lines on the clipboard dissolved into fatigue, instinct, and survival. We lost that game and eventually the series, not because the strategy was bad, but because the results demanded something the strategy didn’t prepare us for. Beautiful plan. Brutal outcome.

Or, as another great orator of our time put it right before his fight with Tyrell Biggs and Biggs’ supposed winning strategy: Everybody’s got a plan until they get punched in the mouth.

A DHS secretary gets fired and praised in the same breath. A new title gets invented to make a stumble look like a step forward…a title that, by the way, makes her sound like she’s taking over a Star Trek convention somewhere in outer space. A nominee is introduced like he’s entering the octagon instead of running a massive federal department. That’s strategy. The performance of control and the choreography of leadership. But the results? They tell a whole different story. And that’s where Churchill and Mike Tyson’s quotes both hit home, no pun intended.

In basketball, you learn quickly that the scoreboard doesn’t care about your intentions. It doesn’t care how inspiring the pregame speech was or how sharp the strategy sounded, or how many fans are in the stands. The only thing that moves that needle is what actually happens on the court.

Strategy is the story you tell yourself. Results are the response the world gives you. And ultimately, that’s all that counts.

Read more

DHS sent talking points to Republican officials to promote migrant detention centers while communities complained about a lack of transparency.

Iran’s targeting of commercial datacentres in the UAE and Bahrain signals a new frontier in asymmetric warfare

It is believed to be a first: the deliberate targeting of a commercial datacentre by the armed forces of a country at war.

At 4.30am on Sunday morning, an Iranian Shahed 136 drone struck an Amazon Web Services datacentre in the United Arab Emirates, setting off a devastating fire and forcing a shutdown of the power supply. Further damage was inflicted as attempts were made to suppress the flames with water.

White House wages online propaganda campaign with aggressive and tasteless videos seemingly designed for young rightwing American men

• Middle East crisis – follow live

Rap and EDM. Clips from action movies. Heads-up displays from video games.

As the war with Iran approaches its second week, the White House has leaned into an online propaganda campaign that seems less about intimidating Iran or projecting US strength abroad than it is about reaching a rather niche domestic audience: young rightwing American men who spend a lot of time online.

School caretaker who killed 10-year-olds Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002 was reportedly assaulted with metal bar

• August 2002: the summer we watched a senseless tragedy unfold in Soham

The child killer Ian Huntley has died in hospital, just over a week after being attacked at a maximum security prison.

The former school caretaker killed Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, both aged 10, in Soham, Cambridgeshire on 4 August 2002. The girls had left a family barbecue to buy sweets.

Billy Bragg, Sarah Lucas and Kojo Koram among those encouraging people to share cultural artefacts

For some people it’s a Morris Minor, for others, a beach windbreak, chicken tikka masala or Magna Carta.

A new campaign is aiming to collect 50 objects that sum up Englishness in an effort to move the conversation away from reductive arguments over whether to hang a St George’s flag or not.

Regime change, nuclear threat – or something else? US officials seem unable to land on one coherent reason for war

When the United States launched Operation Epic Fury last Saturday, the Trump administration had a major communications question to figure out: how to explain to the American public, Congress, and the world why it had just started a war with Iran.

During war time, talking points and propaganda reflexively fly in every direction, but the Trump administration still hasn’t been able to land on one coherent answer.

When it comes to taxes, AI still needs an audit.

President Donald Trump and top administration officials have offered a range of rationales for launching Operation Epic Fury.

The Global Times reports: China's first domestically developed quantum computer operating system, Origin Pilot, has been made available for online download, the Global Times learned from the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center on Wednesday. A Chinese scientist said while several quantum computing operating system efforts are underway worldwide, this is the first developed in China where it is seen as part of China's broad effort to achieve technology independence and to achieve technology advance in quantum computing. The center said the release marks the world's first open-source quantum computer operating system available for public download, which is expected to lower development barriers and support the growth of China's quantum computing ecosystem. Developed by Hefei-based Origin Quantum Computing Technology Co, the company behind China's third-generation superconducting quantum computer, Origin Wukong, Origin Pilot was first launched in 2021 and has gone through multiple rounds of iteration and upgrade. The developer describes it as an integrated quantum-classical-intelligent computing operating system compatible with major hardware approaches, including superconducting qubits, trapped ions and neutral atoms. It is now deployed on the company's Origin Wukong series and is available to external users, the company said. Guo Guoping, chief scientist of Origin Quantum and director at the Anhui Quantum Computing Engineering Research Center, told the Global Times that a quantum operating system is the "soft heart" of the quantum computing ecosystem. He said the decision to make Origin Pilot available globally marks a shift in China's quantum computing industry from closed-door tech innovation to broader open-source ecosystem development. Dou Menghan, head of the research team, said: "Users can quickly integrate with quantum chips of multiple physical types and, using autonomous programming frameworks such as QPanda, execute quantum computing jobs across different physical quantum chips to support both research and commercialization needs."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In reality, US president’s opposition to foreign entanglements had only ever been partial

• Middle East crisis live: latest news updates

Donald Trump ordered the launch of the war on Iran last Friday afternoon while on board Air Force One, as the presidential plane made its descent towards Corpus Christi, Texas.

Trump was on his way to the port city to give a speech titled American Energy Dominance and had spent the three-hour flight chatting to Texas Republican politicians including the state’s two hawkish senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, about his options in Iran.

Omission of presidents of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, however, exposes failure of US president’s ‘theatrical’ doctrine, say experts

Donald Trump will welcome the leaders of at least 10 Latin American countries to a palm-dotted golf resort in Miami on Saturday as the president continues his quest to transform the US’s standing in the region and outmuscle China.

Since returning to power last year, Trump has launched a dramatic – and at times deadly – crusade to, as the Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, put it, “reclaim our back yard”.

Restart of operations will be a relief to those stranded but may not dispel doubts raised by past week about key transit hub

• Middle East crisis – follow live

After nearly a week of uncertainty, airspace closures and very limited flights, news that hundreds of thousands of passengers around the world were hanging on for emerged: the Gulf-based carrier Emirates was restarting operations in earnest despite the US-Israel war on Iran.

Those relieved by the restart will include the UK’s Foreign Office, after its travails in organising delayed rescue flights out of neighbouring Oman.

Ancient Slashdot reader alanw shares a report from the European Space Agency (ESA): Last year, an approximately 60 meter near-Earth object captured global attention. For a brief period, asteroid 2024 YR4 became the most dangerous asteroid discovered in the last 20 years. While an Earth impact was soon ruled out, the asteroid faded from view with a lingering 4% chance of striking the Moon on 22 December 2032. Now, that risk has been eliminated. Astronomers have confirmed that 2024 YR4 will not impact the Moon using new observations made by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Instead, it will safely pass the Moon at a distance of more than 20 000 km.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Rep. Darrell Issa's abrupt reversal injects more uncertainty in the race for the newly redrawn Southern California congressional district.

• Trump warns NIL era threatens US college system

• White House summit debates NCAA anti-trust fix

• Olympic sports fear cuts as costs spiral

Donald Trump predicted the destruction not just of college sports but the entire US collegiate system unless the industry is fixed quickly – something some sports leaders who joined him Friday at a White House summit agreed could only happen by raising more money to pay players.

Trump suggested he would write an “all-encompassing” executive order within a week in hopes it would spark action from Congress. He said he expected the order to trigger a lawsuit that could put the issue back in front of the court system that approved industry-changing payments to players for their name, image and likeness.

Asif Merchant accused of trying to recruit people in 2024 plan to target Trump, Biden and other politicians in retaliation for killing of Qassem Suleimani

A Pakistani man has been convicted of planning to kill Donald Trump and other prominent US politicians two years ago at the behest of Iran.

Asif Merchant was accused of trying to recruit people in the US in a plan targeting Trump and others in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani in 2020, during Trump’s first term as president.

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 7.

• Baltimore send two first-round picks to Vegas

• Pass-rush help arrives for Lamar Jackson’s side

Five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher Maxx Crosby is heading to the Baltimore Ravens, two people with knowledge of the trade told the Associated Press on Friday night.

Both people spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal can’t be announced until the NFL’s new year starts next week.

This live blog is now closed.

• Trump news at a glance: president marks first week of Iran attacks with call for nation’s ‘unconditional surrender’

• US lost 92,000 jobs in February just before Trump joined Iran conflict

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Military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, two US officials tell Reuters.

Reuters was unable to determine further details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the US might have struck the school.

An anonymous reader The Guardian: Humanity is heating the planet faster than ever before, a study has found. Climate breakdown is occurring more rapidly with the heating rate almost doubling, according to research that excludes the effect of natural factors behind the latest scorching temperatures. It found global heating accelerated from a steady rate of less than 0.2C per decade between 1970 and 2015 to about 0.35C per decade over the past 10 years. The rate is higher than scientists have seen since they started systematically taking the Earth's temperature in 1880. "If the warming rate of the past 10 years continues, it would lead to a long-term exceedance of the 1.5C (2.7F) limit of the Paris agreement before 2030," said Stefan Rahmstorf, a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and co-author of the study. [...] The researchers applied a noise-reduction method to filter out the estimated effect of nonhuman factors in five major datasets that scientists have compiled to gauge the Earth's temperature. In each of them, they found an acceleration in global heating emerged in 2013 or 2014. The findings have been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Issa was first elected to Congress in 2001 to represent a district that was recently reconfigured due to Prop 50

Republican representative Darrell Issa, whose southern California district was reconfigured following the passage of Proposition 50, has decided not to run for re-election.

“After a quarter-century in Congress – and before that, a quarter-century in business – it’s the right time for a new chapter and new challenges,” he said in a statement on Friday, the last day he would have been able to file as a candidate.

The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal appeals court to overturn a lower court ruling that invalidated President Trump's executive orders targeting four major law firms.

Stocks fell after new government data showed U.S. employers shed 92,000 jobs in February and as investors fret over oil prices.

After adopting young True, Dr. Amy Beethe also adopted True's sister, and then found homes for his four other siblings.

A Pakistani business owner accused of trying to hire hit men to kill a U.S. politician has been convicted in a trial that showcased allegations of Iran-backed plotting on American soil.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s ‘deplorable’ alleged actions warrant his removal from the royal line of succession, Carney says

The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has said Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor should be removed from the royal line of succession for alleged actions he described as “deplorable”.

Speaking to reporters in Tokyo, Carney said the actions that have caused the former prince to be stripped of his royal titles “necessitate” his removal from the line of succession.

President Trump predicted the destruction not just of college sports but the entire U.S. collegiate system unless the industry is fixed quickly.

Exclusive: MoD-contracted workers assisting Ukrainians in a way ‘no other nation has been willing to do’, says minister

In an unmarked and undisclosed location in western Ukraine, British and Ukrainian engineers work side by side to fix damaged military hardware, crawling under the chassis of artillery systems and pulling apart the insides of British-donated howitzers.

Until now, the existence of this facility, along with three other similar sites inside Ukraine, has been kept quiet, buried in neutral language to avoid drawing too much attention to the sites, given the sensitivities of all military-linked work inside Ukraine.

Video of last year's fatal shooting of Ruben Ray Martinez obtained by CBS News appears to contradict claims that Martinez was shot by an ICE agent because he "accelerated" and "intentionally ran over" another agent.

Ivan Miller, 22, has been arrested and is in custody after authorities in Utah found three women's bodies in two locations.

The People's Celebration, allowed former presidents, family members, and more to honor the icon of the Civil Rights Movement.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said in a filing on Friday that it currently cannot process billions in tariff refunds because its import-processing system is "not well suited to a task of this scale." The Verge reports: The CBP's admission comes after the Supreme Court struck down the tariffs imposed by Trump under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) last month. This week, the International Trade Court ruled that importers impacted by the tariffs are entitled to refunds with interest. The CBP estimates that it collected around $166 billion in IEEPA duties as of March 4th, 2026. [...] The CBP says it currently processes imports through its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) system. In the filing, Lord says that using the department's existing technology, it would take more than 4.4 million hours to process refunds for the over 53.2 million entries with IEEPA duties. Despite these current limitations, the CBP says it's "confident" it can develop and launch new capabilities to "streamline and consolidate refunds and interest payments on an importer basis" -- but this could take 45 days. "The process will be simpler and more efficient than the existing functionalities, and CBP will provide guidance on how to file refund declarations in the new system," Lord says.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Critics of the act say measures like age verification could have harmful effects.

Israel launched huge attacks on Iran and Lebanon overnight; Iran’s deputy foreign minister warns that any nations that join in US-Israel attacks will become ‘legitimate targets’

• Tell us: how have you been affected by the latest events in the Middle East?

Iran and Lebanon were hit with a wave of intense Israeli strikes overnight.

Israel’s military said Friday morning it had begun “a broad-scale wave of strikes” on Tehran, Iran’s capital.

Iranian officials say more than 170 people were killed in the strike. The Pentagon is investigating.

President Trump has indicated he's keeping an eye on Cuba and predicted on CNN that "Cuba is gonna fall pretty soon."

Commentary: The mobile industry doesn't suffer from a lack of innovation, but from a lack of mass adoption of fresh designs.

Vinay Prasad to leave in April after decisions involving vaccine reviews and specialty drugs for rare diseases

The top vaccine official at the Food and Drug Administration, Dr Vinay Prasad, is once again leaving the agency – the second time in less than a year that he’s departed after decisions involving the review of vaccinations and specialty drugs for rare diseases.

FDA commissioner Marty Makary announced the news to FDA staff in an email late Friday, saying Prasad would depart at the end of April. Makary said Prasad would return to his academic job at the University of California, San Francisco.

Estefany Rodriguez Florez of Nashville Noticias, who had produced reports that were unflattering to ICE, was arrested during traffic stop

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested a Spanish-language Tennessee news outlet’s reporter who had done stories critical of the agency – but agents didn’t have a warrant, according to court documents filed recently by her lawyer.

A court filing Friday by ICE disputes the assertion that the reporter was arrested without a warrant.

Thousands in Chicago honored civil rights ‘champion’ who ‘stepped forward again and again’, Obama said

At the longtime civil rights activist’s memorial celebration on Friday, the Rev Jesse Jackson was remembered as a “champion” for the “poor and the dispossessed” – as well as “one of the most effective community and political organizers of our time”.

Such tributes came from past Democratic US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Biden, along with former vice-president Kamala Harris, who received cheers and applause while they joined thousands of others in a Chicago arena for a celebration of life for Jackson.

Global markets have become inured to the US president’s posturing over the past year, but economists warn they may be ‘a little bit complacent’ in anticipating a short conflict in the Middle East

Investors over the past year have learned that Donald Trump has a boundless capacity to quickly reverse course in the face of acute political or market pressures.

But a week since the United States and Israel launched missile strikes on Iran, there are fears the war could morph into a protracted conflict.

Patrick Commins is Guardian Australia’s economics editor

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. will confront "anything that shouldn't be happening, whether it's in public or back-channeled."

CHLOE HILBISH
Staff Reporter

On the evening of Oct. 20, the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Seattle Mariners in the American League Championship Series, securing their place in the 2025 World Series. 

In their first World Series appearance since 1993, former Blue Hen John Schneider proudly served as Toronto’s manager and helped lead the team to victory. 

Departing his hometown of Lawrenceville, New Jersey, Schneider spent two baseball seasons as a Blue Hen. Initially known for his exceptional throwing skills, Schneider evolved into a force to be reckoned with as a catcher. 

The Blue Hens were conference champions and NCAA regional contenders for both of Schneider’s seasons. During his final season at Delaware, he threw out 29 base stealers who challenged him. 

In 2001, Schenider was the 24th draft pick for the Detroit Tigers and the 13th draft pick for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2002. He went on to play seven consecutive seasons in the minor leagues for the Blue Jays, suffering many injuries along the way. 

In 2006, Schneider worked his way up to the Triple-A League, the final step away from the Major League. While he batted .206 during his time with the Blue Jays, Schneider proved himself with his impressive catching and throwing skills. Even after enduring numerous concussions and two back surgeries, Schneider’s abilities never wavered.

On the day of a 2008 Spring Training Game, Schneider made the decision to consider ending his time as a player. He decided that if he hit a home run in that game, he would officially retire. Schneider stuck to his word after hitting a home run, jogging off the field for the last time as a Blue Jays player. 

Having a strong allegiance to the game, Schneider sought out opportunities that allowed him to work closely with baseball. In a full circle manner, he was promoted to the Blue Jays minor league coaching staff in 2018. 

He was perfect for the position, harboring years of hands-on experience with the game. In 2019, he moved up to the position of bench coach for the Blue Jays’ major league team. 

On July 13, 2022, the manager of the Blue Jays major league team was removed from his position, leaving it vacant. Schneider was assigned to be the interim replacement, remaining there until he was named the official full-time manager of the Toronto Blue Jays on Oct. 21, 2022.

While he remains quite busy during the season, Schneider takes time to step aside and provide aspiring players with advice.

Having been a college baseball player for two seasons himself, Schneider advises players to “take advantage of every facility, of every avenue that you have.” He additionally emphasizes time management and self-care to ensure that players are mentally and physically prepared to step on the field. 

It is clear that Schneider’s generous guidance has paid off. Under his leadership, the Blue Jays defeated the Mariners 4-3 in the final game of the American League Championship Series. 

The first game of the 2025 World Series took place on Oct. 24 at Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays’ home field. This was the first World Series in 32 years that the Blue Jays appeared in. 

Toronto faced a great challenge in the seven-game series, tangling themselves in a substantial fight against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After battling it out throughout the series, Toronto accepted defeat to the Dodgers in the seventh game. Fortunately for the Blue Jays, they had a dedicated former Blue Hen to guide and support them through the series. 

Smart ring maker Oura has acquired Doublepoint, a Finnish startup specializing in gesture recognition technology for wearables. Engadget reports: The Finnish startup uses smartwatches and wristbands as examples of products that benefit from its technology, but Oura will clearly be looking to incorporate it into its rings, in theory allowing you to control your connected devices with hand movements. Oura said in a press release that the deal sees it inherit an "exceptional team of AI architects and builders from Doublepoint," including Doublepoint's four founders. The newly-acquired company will remain in its native Helsinki, where it will work with Oura's international teams. It added that Doublepoint's expertise in helping devices register subtle hand movements will be key, as nobody wearing a smart ring is going to engage with gesture control if they have to thrash their hand around like a conductor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

A woman and her aunt were found dead after they went hiking Wednesday, and an elderly woman was found dead in a cellar at her home.

A preservation group is once again asking a federal judge to pause all construction for a massive ballroom on the White House grounds backed by President Trump.

March 6, 2026 — At Mobile World Congress 2026, the European Commission unveiled EURO-3C, a €75 million project to develop Europe’s first large-scale federated Telco-Edge-Cloud infrastructure, supported by Horizon Europe.

Credit: Shutterstock

This landmark project will showcase Europe’s ability to deliver cutting-edge digital services entirely through its own connectivity infrastructure, reducing reliance on third country providers. Telco-edge-cloud combines telecommunication networks, edge computing and cloud infrastructure into a single, integrated platform, bringing high speed, secure computing power closer to end-users.

Directly aligned with the goals of the proposed Digital Networks Act, the project opens the door to new opportunities that will strengthen Europe’s single telecom market and increase technological sovereignty. While driving European innovation in 6G, AI, cybersecurity and telecoms many sectors of the broader economy will be able to make use of the solutions EURO-3C will develop.

Some of Europe’s leading companies and organizations are coming together to build EURO-3C: telecom operators, cloud service providers, software developers, equipment manufacturers, research institutions and a broad network of integration specialists.

With a total of 87 consortium members involved, the project also aligns with broader EU strategic priorities and the work of organisations like IPCEI-CIS, the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) and EuroHPC, supporting European industrial competitiveness.

Source: European Commission

The post European Commission Announces €75M EURO-3C Project to Build Federated Telco-Edge-Cloud Infrastructure appeared first on HPCwire.

Venezuela's new administration is cutting deals, but there's a big reward available for a key figure.

TAIPEI, March 6, 2026 — The globally renowned annual technology event, COMPUTEX 2026, will take place in Taipei from June 2–5. One of the most anticipated programs of the event, the COMPUTEX Forum, officially opens registration and ticket sales today.

Under the theme “AI Together,” the 2026 Forum brings together, for the first time, 30 senior executives and technology leaders from the world’s most influential tech companies. This marks the largest and most distinguished speaker lineup in the Forum’s history. The program will offer strategic insights into AI-driven transformation, and the future direction of the global technology ecosystem.

This year’s Forum brings together 30 technology leaders to explore six core themes, offering in-depth insights into the evolving landscape of AI development.

Six Core Themes Defining the Next Phase of AI

As generative AI, accelerated computing, and edge intelligence move from experimentation to scaled deployment, industries are entering a new phase of integration and real-world application.

COMPUTEX Forum 2026 will explore six core themes, providing in-depth perspectives on AI development, including:

• Robotics, Autonomous Machines & Physical AI
• AI Compute, Infrastructure & Development
• Generative AI & Intelligent Content Applications
• AI Devices, IoT & Edge Intelligence
• Applied AI for Industry Transformation
• Data Intelligence, Governance & Security

The speaker lineup brings together leaders from globally recognized technology firms to explore AI computing architectures, cloud–edge orchestration, on-device intelligence, enterprise adoption at scale, and governance frameworks—offering a forward-looking view of the evolving global AI ecosystem.

Super Early Bird Tickets Now Available — Exclusive Offer for a Limited Time

To thank long-time supporters and industry professionals, the organizer is offering a Super Early Bird promotion:

• Super Early Bird Rate: Purchase by March 20 (Friday) to enjoy the special rate of NT$1,490 (regular price: NT$3,990).
• 90-Day On-Demand Access: Ticket holders will receive 90-day online replay access, allowing continued review of key sessions after the event.

For years, COMPUTEX Forum has served as a premier platform for global developers, enterprise executives, investors and technology decision-makers. At a critical moment in AI’s industrial-scale transformation, the 2026 edition sets a new benchmark in scope and influence—bringing together the voices shaping the next decade of innovation.

Ticket Information

• Sales Open: March 6, 2026, 10:00 AM (Taipei Time)
• Registration: COMPUTEX Official Website – Forum Registration Page
• Forum Dates: June 2–4, 2026
• Venue: TWTC Hall 1 (2F) & TaiNEX 2 (7F), Taipei

Note: The organizer reserves the right to modify, amend, or suspend the event program. Final arrangements are subject to official announcements by TAITRA.

For more exhibition information:

COMPUTEX: https://www.computextaipei.com.tw/en/index.html
InoVEX: www.innovex.com.tw

About COMPUTEX

COMPUTEX was founded in 1981. It has grown with the global ICT industry and become stronger over the last four decades. Bearing witness to historical moments in the development of and changes in the industry, COMPUTEX attracts more than 40,000 buyers to visit Taiwan every year. It is also the preferred platform chosen by top international companies for launching epoch-making products. Taiwan has a comprehensive global ICT industry chain. Gaining a foothold in Taiwan, COMPUTEX is jointly held by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and Taipei Computer Association, aiming to build a global tech ecosystem. COMPUTEX has become a global benchmark exhibition for AI and startups, connecting global pioneers and enabling new sparks of breakthrough technology.

Source: COMPUTEX

The post COMPUTEX Forum 2026 Opens for Registration appeared first on HPCwire.

Lawyers for the press asked a court to block the Pentagon from enforcing a recent policy restricting what journalists report, arguing it violates the First Amendment freedom of the press.

For all the BlackBerry fans, an upcoming Android phone brings both nostalgia and innovation.

Gillian Morand, 36, died in Bexley, south-east London in 2020 after which allegations against her husband emerged

A man has been charged with manslaughter over the death of a woman in 2020, in a rare prosecution of alleged domestic abuse linked to suicide, police have said.

Gillian Morand, 36, died in Bexley, south-east London, and an inquest concluded she had taken her own life.

Although home prices remain elevated, conditions are shaping up to be more favorable for buyers this year, experts said.

Davidson said she found it difficult to remain, ‘given the external forces that are at work that are just so far beyond my control’

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The executive director of the National Symphony Orchestra, a mainstay at the Kennedy Center, is leaving to head the Los Angeles-based Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts.

It’s the latest departure from the Kennedy Center since Donald Trump began asserting control over the storied performing arts venue in Washington.

On Day 7 of the war, Israel launched attacks on Tehran and bombarded Lebanon. Iran retaliated against Israel and the region.

Try out one of these flicks this weekend.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: While TikTok operates in the United States under new ownership, Apple has deployed technical restrictions to block iOS users in the United States from downloading other apps made by the video platform's Chinese parent organization ByteDance. ByteDance owns a vast array of different apps spanning social media, entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other sectors. The leading one is Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, which has over 1 billion monthly active users. While most of those users reside in China, iPhone owners around the world have traditionally been able to download these apps from anywhere without using a VPN, as long as they have a valid App Store account registered in China. That's not true anymore. Starting in late January, iPhone users in the U.S. with Chinese App Store accounts began reporting that they were encountering new obstacles when they tried to download apps developed by ByteDance. WIRED has confirmed that even with a valid Chinese App Store account, downloading or updating a ByteDance-owned Chinese app is blocked on Apple devices located in the United States. Instead, a pop-up window appears that says, "This app is unavailable in the country or region you're in." The restriction appears to apply only to ByteDance-owned apps and not those developed by other Chinese companies. The timing and technical specifics suggest the restriction is related to the deal TikTok agreed to in January to divest Chinese ownership of its U.S. operations. The agreement was the result of the so-called TikTok ban law passed by Congress in 2024, which also barred companies like Apple and Google from distributing other apps majority-owned by ByteDance. The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act states that no company can "distribute, maintain, or update" any app majority-controlled by ByteDance "within the land or maritime borders of the United States." The law was primarily aimed at TikTok, which has more than 100 million users in the U.S. and had been the subject of years of debate in Washington over whether its Chinese ownership posed a national security risk. But ByteDance also has dozens of other apps that at some point were also removed from Apple's and Google's app stores in the U.S.. Now it seems like the scope of impact has reached even more apps that are not technically designed for U.S. audiences, such as Douyin, the AI chatbot Doubao, and the fiction reading platform Fanqie Novel.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Somewhere on every flight, someone is playing a game or blasting music, reminding the rest of us why headphones exist.

A lawyer for an American man held in a notorious Iranian prison says he can only hope U.S. and Israeli forces "exercise extreme caution," as concern about U.S. prisoners mounts.

• WNBA star arrested after Unrivaled title win

• Police say Ogunbowale punched man at Miami club

• Wings guard released following battery charge

Dallas Wings star Arike Ogunbowale was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery after police say she punched a man in the face at a Miami nightclub.

A four-time WNBA All-Star, Ogunbowale was celebrating early Thursday at the club E11EVEN after winning the Unrivaled championship with the Mist that night. According to Miami-Dade County police records, Ogunbowale punched the man in the face, knocking him to the ground, and security cameras captured the act.

And when a Redox monthly progress report is here, Haiku’s monthly report is never far behind (or vice versa, depending on the month). Haiku’s February was definitely a busy month, but there’s no major tentpole changes or new features, highlighting just how close Haiku is to a new regular beta release. The OpenBSD drivers have been synchronised wit upstream to draw in some bugfixes, there’s a ton of smaller fixes to various applications like StyledEdit, Mail, and many more, as well a surprisingly long list of various file system fixes, improving the drivers for file systems like NTFS, Btrfs, XFS, and others.

There’s more, of course, so just like with Redox, head on over to pore over the list of smaller changes, fixes, and improvements. Just like last month, I’d like to mention once again that you really don’t need to wait for the beta release to try out Haiku. The operating system has been in a fairly stable and solid condition for a long time now, and whatever’s the latest nightly will generally work just fine, and can be updated without reinstallation.

This is what's important to focus on to make sure you're aging gracefully.

February has been a busy month for Redox, the general purpose operating system written in Rust. For instance, the COSMIC compositor can now run on Redox as a winit window, the first step towards fully porting the compositor from COSMIC to Redox. Similarly, COSMIC Settings now also runs on Redox, albeit with only a very small number of available settings as Redox-specific settings panels haven’t been made yet. It’s clear the effort to get the new COSMIC desktop environment from System76 running on Redox is in full swing.

Furthermore, Vulkan software can now run on Redox, thanks to enabling Lavapipe in Mesa3D. There’s also a ton of fixes related to the boot process, the reliability of multithreading has been improved, and there’s the usual long list of kernel, driver, and Relibc improvements as well. A major port comes in the form of NodeJS, which now runs on Redox, and helped in uncovering a number of bugs that needed to be fixed.

Of course, there’s way more in this month’s progress report, so be sure to head on over and read the whole thing.

Aaron Spencer would not be able to serve if he is convicted, and maintains he acted within the law to protect his child

An Arkansas man accused of killing his teenage daughter’s alleged abuser recently won the Republican nomination for local sheriff while waiting to stand trial for murder in his rural county, where he ran on a message of seeing the failures of law enforcement.

Aaron Spencer defeated Lonoke county sheriff John Staley in a primary election Tuesday, according to unofficial results posted by the Arkansas secretary of state. He would not be able to serve if he is convicted of killing Michael Fosler, 67, who at the time was out on bond after being charged with numerous sexual offenses against Spencer’s then 13-year-old daughter.

Indonesia is the latest country to block social media, saying the apps pose "increasingly real threats" to young people.

Think AI is just for smartphones? Think again.

US president again calls on Iranian people to overthrow government or face ‘absolutely guaranteed death’

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Donald Trump has said only Iran’s “unconditional surrender” will bring an end to the offensive launched seven days ago, as the US and Israel carried out some of the heaviest bombardments so far in the conflict.

“There will be no deal with Iran except UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Friday, when US strategic bombers were in action over Iran and intensive Israeli strikes in Lebanon forced more than 1 million people to flee their homes.

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle No. 530 for Saturday, March 7.

Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters Russia's government is in "dialogue" with Iranian leadership representatives.

Longer and lighter days were supposed to save energy, reduce traffic accidents and help people become more active. Governments thought daylight saving time would save money.

The Justice Department has formed a working group to examine bringing federal charges against officials or entities within Cuba’s government.

In the years to come, robots will help offset worker shortages in health care, manufacturing and other industries, experts say.

March 6, 2026 — The European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) launched the HPCTRAIN project, designed to empower young professionals with traineeships in high-performance computing (HPC).

The HPCTRAIN project aims to strengthen Europe’s HPC skills ecosystem by offering professional traineeships to early-career professionals across Europe, providing opportunities to gain practical experience in a professional and non-academic environment, networking opportunities and exposure to the industry.

Designed to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and the professional use of HPC, the program will enable participants to gain practical experience working on HPC-related projects, while developing the advanced technical and transversal skills required to pursue careers in this rapidly evolving field.

Calls for traineeship applications will be announced on a rolling basis, with four annual cut-off dates via the project website (where interested applicants can apply from). This program will match trainee candidates with relevant training opportunities offered by private companies and public organization that offer professional career paths centred around HPC technology, operation and applications. A dedicated Industrial Advisory Board with representations from the EuroHPC JU private members (ETP4HPC, DARIO/BDVA and QuIC), PRACE Industrial Advisory Committee and additional members from HPC industry will help to define, promote and execute the traineeship program.

This project will also include monitoring activities to review the impact of these traineeships and whether they effectively bridge the gap between education and the job market.

By equipping young professionals with HPC skills, HPCTRAIN is expected to significantly contribute to Europe’s digital technology supply chain. The initiative will enhance workforce capacity in critical segments such as HPC technology, operation, applications, and software development, supporting the digital evolution within the European Union (EU).

More Details

The HPCTRAIN consortium, coordinated by the Forschungszentrum Julich GmbH (FZJ), comprises 12 diverse organisations (universities, supercomputing centres and companies) such as IT4Innovations National Supercomputing Center, Barcelona Supercomputing Center, University of Stuttgart, LuxProvide, University of Luxembourg, PRACE, , CSC, University of Gallway, INESC TEC and University of Ljubljana that offer a diversified traineeship program.

The project officially started in January 2026 and will last 48 months.

The HPC Train project has been selected following the call DIGITAL-EUROHPC-JU-2022-TRAINING-03 and is funded by the Digital Europe programme, with a total EU contribution of around EUR 5 million.

Source: EuroHPC JU

The post EuroHPC Launches HPCTRAIN Project for Early-Career HPC Traineeships appeared first on HPCwire.

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 7 #1000.

Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for March 7, No. 1,722.

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 7, No. 734.

In a blog post on Thursday, System76 CEO Carl Richell criticized new state laws in California, Colorado, and New York that would require operating systems to verify users' ages and expose that information to apps, arguing the rules are easy for kids to bypass and ultimately undermine privacy and freedom more than they protect minors. "System76's position is interesting given that they sell Linux-loaded desktops, workstations and laptops plus being an operating system vendor with their in-house Pop!_OS distribution and COSMIC desktop environment," adds Phoronix's Michael Larabel, noting that they're also based out of Colorado. Here's an excerpt from the post: "A parent that creates a non-admin account on a computer, sets the age for a child account they create, and hands the computer over is in no different state. The child can install a virtual machine, create an account on the virtual machine and set the age to 18 or over. It's a similar technique to installing a VPN to get around the Great Firewall of China (just consider that for a moment). Or the child can simply re-install the OS and not tell their parents. ... In the case of Colorado's and California's bills, effectiveness is lost. In the case of New York's bill, liberty is lost. In the case of centralized platforms, potential is lost. ... The challenges we face are neither technical nor legal. The only solution is to educate our children about life with digital abundance. Throwing them into the deep end when they're 16 or 18 is too late. It's a wonderful and weird world. Yes, there are dark corners. There always will be. We have to teach our children what to do when they encounter them and we have to trust them." "We are accustomed to adding operating system features to comply with laws," writes Richell, in closing. "Accessibility features for ADA, and power efficiency settings for Energy Star regulations are two examples. We are a part of this world and we believe in the rule of law. We still hope these laws will be recognized for the folly they are and removed from the books or found unconstitutional."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Swarms of low-cost drones used by the Russians in Ukraine have been breaching U.S. air defense systems and striking targets across the Middle East.

STARKVILLE, Miss., March 6, 2026 — An interdisciplinary team of Mississippi State University researchers has been awarded $850,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to enhance early detection of threats to agricultural security on a global scale.

he interdisciplinary team receiving Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funding to enhance early detection of agricultural threats includes, from left, Gijs de Boer of Brookhaven National Laboratory, John Goolgasian of Seerist Federal, Narcisa Pricope and Dimitros Manias of Mississippi State University, Shane Ross of Virginia Tech and Ben Tkatch of MSU. (Photo submitted to MSU.)

The award funding will help establish AgSENT, or the Agricultural Security Early Notification and Threat Network. AgSENT is a prototype interface that integrates key atmospheric, environmental, supply chain, biological and societal data to highlight early warnings of potential agricultural security issues.

The funding was awarded by DARPA’s Biological Technology Office as part of its efforts to defend against naturally occurring and manmade threats to the global food systems that the world relies on. The MSU team is led by Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development Narcisa Pricope and includes Political Science and Public Administration Associate Professor Benjamin Tkach and Computer Science and Engineering Assistant Professor Dimitrios Manias.

In addition to MSU, academic partners on the project include Virginia Tech, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory also is a collaborator.

“Agriculture is a critical component of national security, and the threats to global food supplies are increasingly complex and interconnected,” Pricope said. “The goal of AgSENT is to scan a wide range of potential threat indicators and translate that data into actionable insights that can help decision-makers anticipate and mitigate risks to food security.”

Pricope noted that the DARPA award builds on university efforts to better understand the connections between agriculture and national security, such as the Food and Ag As National Security conference held in the spring of 2025.

Tkach said collaboration is needed to address the numerous challenges facing global food and agricultural issues.

“Securing the nation’s food and agricultural system requires addressing both known risks, such as climate stress, population growth and biological threats, and anticipating emergent challenges,” Tkach said. “Through AgSENT, DARPA and MSU are advancing capabilities to detect, model and respond to novel threats in a rapidly evolving global competitive environment.”

The project will benefit from the capabilities of MSU’s Applied Research Collaboratory, including the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology, and the Center for Cyber Innovation.

“Whether it is atmospheric conditions that transport pathogens and contaminants across regions or early signs of political instability in an area critical to supply chains, the threats to agriculture transcend any single area of expertise,” Pricope said. “This interdisciplinary approach allows us to integrate signals across domains and develop more effective early-warning capabilities for agricultural security.”

To learn more about research at MSU, visit www.research.msstate.edu.

Source: James Carskadon, MSU

The post Mississippi State Awarded $850K from DARPA to Advance Global Ag Security, Early Threat Detection appeared first on HPCwire.

Jet fuel costs have shot up more than 50% since the U.S.-Israel attack on Iran sparked a jump in global prices.

The maker of the Claude chatbot says its research could help identify economic disruptions by measuring how AI is currently reshaping work.

The new system turns, "Oh shit, are you OK?" into simply, "Are you OK?"

SAXONBURG, Pa., March 6, 2026 — Coherent Corp., a global leader in photonics, has announced the launch of Thermadite 800 Liquid Cold Plates (LCP) for next-generation AI accelerator cooling.

Thermadite 800 delivers thermal conductivity of 800W/(m⋅K) – approximately twice that of copper – combined with a low coefficient of thermal expansion and high dimensional stability. Together, these properties reduce chip temperatures through superior heat spreading and low-resistance thermal interfaces.

In high heat flux AI accelerator environments, Thermadite 800 LCPs can reduce chip temperatures by more than 15°C compared to conventional copper cold plates. The material also offers roughly 60% lower density than copper, enabling high-performance cooling in mass-sensitive systems.

Thermadite is formed by integrating diamond into the SiC matrix creating a stiff, stable, and highly thermal conductive material. The properties of Thermadite 800 provide a platform that supports aggressive liquid cooling without the warpage, stress, or reliability concerns associated with metal and metal-diamond cold plates.

LCPs built with Thermadite 800 can include complex internal microchannel architectures optimized to real chip heat maps. These designs focus cooling on localized hot spots, minimizing pressure drop and coolant usage, enabling more efficient heat removal and reducing overall cooling system
operating cost.

“Effective cooling in high-performance computing depends on the entire thermal route from chip to coolant,” said Steve Rummel, Senior VP of the Engineered Materials Group. “By merging decades of material science with precision manufacturing, Thermadite liquid cold plates lower chip temperatures, optimize pressure flow, and minimize interface resistance – all specifically designed for the extreme requirements of modern AI chips.”

Thermadite 800 LCPs leverage Coherent’s vertically integrated materials development, precision fabrication, and high-volume manufacturing capabilities. Examples of Thermadite 800 LCPs will be featured at the SEMI-THERM Symposium & Exposition 2026 and the Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exhibition (OFC) 2026.

Learn more about Coherent’s Thermadite Liquid Cold Plates here.

About Coherent

Coherent (NYSE: COHR) is the global photonics leader. We harness photons to drive innovation. Industry leaders in the datacenter, communications, and industrial markets rely on Coherent’s world-leading technology to fuel their own innovation and growth. Founded in 1971 and operating in more than 20 countries, Coherent brings the industry’s broadest, deepest technology stack; unmatched supply chain resilience; and global scale to help its customers solve their toughest technology challenges. For more information, visit us at coherent.com.

Source: Coherent

The post Coherent Introduces Thermadite Liquid Cold Plates for High-Power Compute Applications appeared first on HPCwire.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country will work with the Pentagon and Gulf allies to share what it has learned during four years of drone warfare.

Expansion strengthens local-for-local footprint and accelerates capacity to meet growing advanced-node and advanced packaging demand

WILMINGTON, Del., March 6, 2026 — Qnity Electronics, Inc. today announced the acquisition of a new facility in Taiwan, to accelerate capacity and support continued customer demand across the global semiconductor industry. The $61.5 million advanced semiconductor research and manufacturing facility marks a significant investment in Qnity’s growth to keep pace with customer demand.

The new facility will support the production of the most advanced chip manufacturing applications. The site will feature production areas, state-of-the-art clean rooms, warehousing infrastructure, research labs and dedicated office space designed to enable high-performance manufacturing at scale.

This site expands Qnity’s existing presence in the Hsinchu Science Park, and the new facility strengthens the company’s commitment to maintaining manufacturing sites near customers in key geographies. With a global footprint and a strategic local-for-local operating model, Qnity enables customers and partners to meet rising demand from AI, high-performance computing, and advanced connectivity.

“Growth in advanced-node manufacturing continues to accelerate, and our customers are scaling rapidly to support next-generation technologies,” said Jon Kemp, Chief Executive Officer at Qnity. “This investment expands our capacity to meet customer demand, enhances global supply chain resilience, and enables the innovation and performance our customers depend on.”

The global semiconductor industry is expecting to reach $1 trillion in revenues in the next few years, driven by the rapidly increasing demand for AI chips and data centers. Over the past three years, Qnity has added new capacity across its semiconductor businesses to keep pace with industry expansion. The investment to expand this capacity in Taiwan builds on that momentum while reinforcing the company’s long-term growth strategy.

By increasing production capabilities in proximity to key customers, Qnity is strengthening supply assurance, improving operational agility, and positioning itself to meet the evolving demands of next-generation chip manufacturing.

“This facility represents more than just additional capacity; it reflects our confidence in the industry’s trajectory and our commitment to ensure customer support across current and future growth cycles,” added Kemp. “We are building the infrastructure today to make tomorrow’s semiconductor innovations possible.”

The site is expected to begin operations in early 2027, with additional capabilities and research facilities in future development phases.

About Qnity

Qnity (NYSE: Q) is a premier technology provider across the semiconductor value chain, empowering AI, high performance computing, and advanced connectivity. From groundbreaking solutions for semiconductor chip manufacturing, to enabling high-speed transmission within complex electronic systems, our high-performance materials and integration expertise make tomorrow’s technologies possible. More information about the company, its businesses and solutions can be found at www.qnityelectronics.com.

Source: Qnity

The post Qnity Announces $61.5M Investment in New Advanced Semiconductor Research & Manufacturing Facility appeared first on HPCwire.

The bill passed by the Virginia legislature prohibits schools from teaching what it considers to be falsehoods about the U.S. Capitol riot, including portraying it "as peaceful protest."

Current and former Fema staff say the fired DHS secretary made the US more dangerous by overhauling the agency

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Some current and former Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) staff are celebrating the Thursday firing of homeland security secretary Kristi Noem, who they say has made the US more dangerous by micromanaging and shrinking the agency.

Since her confirmation to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last January, Noem’s tenure was criticized for degrading Fema – the nation’s foremost agency for disaster management and recovery – and repeatedly stating her support for the elimination of the agency. Noem said the overhaul was necessary to end bloating and inefficiency.

No Ghost of Yotei for you without a PlayStation.

Foreign minister wants ‘conversation’ about closing UK military sites following lack of warning of impending attack on RAF Akrotiri

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Cyprus’s foreign minister has said there are “questions” about the future of the UK’s military bases on the island after the drone strike last Sunday.

The attack on RAF Akrotiri, suspected to have been launched by Hezbollah in Lebanon, caused minimal damage and did not result in casualties.

darwinmac writes: Mozilla is working on a huge redesign for its Firefox browser, codenamed "Nova," which will bring pastel gradients, a refreshed new tab page, floating "island" UI elements, and more. "From the mockups, it appears Mozilla took some inspiration from Googles Material You (or at least, the dynamic color extraction part of it) because the browser color accent appears influenced by the wallpaper setting," reports Neowin. "Choosing a mint-green desktop background automatically shifts the top navigation bars to match that exact shade." Mozilla has a habit of redesigning Firefox every few years. Before "Nova," there was the "Proton" redesign in 2021, the "Photon" redesign in 2017, and the "Australis" redesign in 2014. Nova is still in early development, so it might take a year or two before it appears in an official stable Firefox release. Neowin adds: "Not every redesign project ends well for Mozilla, though. You might remember 2012's Firefox Metro, an ambitious attempt to build a custom browser for Windows 8s touch-first interface. The team built it to operate both as a traditional desktop application and as a touch-optimized Metro app. The whole thing was scrapped in 2014 after two years in development due to a dismally low user adoption rate (a preview version of the software had been released a year earlier on the Aurora channel)."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Sen. Chuck Grassley said the dispute partly at the center of the dispute between DHS and its inspector general concerns undercover testing of TSA screening procedures.

James Robinson is the fourth person with links to Labour to be named in connection with the investigation into an alleged Chinese spy ring.

The price of silver is heading upward again, but will it break the $200 per ounce record? Here's what to consider.

Lawyers for magician, who plans to unveil new project, said in 2024 he was ‘at most acquaintances’ with Epstein

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David Copperfield has announced that he is performing his last show at MGM Grand in Las Vegas next month, an announcement that comes weeks after documents released in the Epstein files revealed new details about how the FBI viewed the illusionist’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex offender.

The announcement that the 69-year-old illusionist’s last show would be held on 30 April appears to have been made suddenly. In a statement praising and thanking Copperfield for his 25-year stint at MGM, the company said in a statement that it would automatically refund tickets for shows that were booked after that date.

The gunman who carried out the mass shooting​ last weekend in Austin, Texas, assaulted a woman three months earlier at a Tesla facility, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in Texas.

Crisis in the Middle East, Ramadan in Gaza, a blackout in Havana and Stella McCartney at Paris fashion week – the past seven days as captured by the world’s leading photojournalists

Warning: this gallery contains images some readers may find distressing

My favorite would-be product, Xreal Neo, is a no-go because of performance concerns.

A change of leadership means little to an agency ‘shielded from scrutiny and unchecked by oversight’, human rights and advocacy organizations fear

• US politics live – latest updates

Some of the most ostentatious enforcers of Donald Trump’s mass deportation agenda have left or been forced out of the administration in recent weeks.

In January, the president withdrew Greg Bovino – the border patrol commander who was the face of the immigration crackdowns in Chicago and Minneapolis – from his frontline role. Top Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin – who had become notorious for her bombastic and blatantly false press statements – left her role last month. And on Thursday, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kristi Noem, was fired.

In refusing to sing the national anthem these athletes have placed themselves in grave danger while Gianni Infantino sides with the American war machine

A small but telling detail from a vast and baffling chain of events. You probably saw the footage of Donald Trump’s declaration of war on Iran two weeks ago, a piece of history played out in real time, a moment where the inevitable violent deaths of thousands of people were in effect announced.

In the video Trump is shown propped up at his plinth, using that sing-song intonation he employs to appear cod-statesmanlike, faux-grave, but sounding instead like a semi-sentient robot vacuum cleaner in the seconds before it runs out of battery life. To the great people of Iran. America is backing you. Don’t go outside. It’s very dangerous out there. We will for the foreseeable future be bombing you to freedom.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg, written by Katrina Manson: The U.S. strikes on Iran ordered by President Donald Trump mark the arrival on a large scale of a new era of warfare assisted by artificial intelligence. Captain Timothy Hawkins, a Central Command spokesperson, told me last night that the AI tools the U.S. military is using in Iran operations don't make targeting decisions and don't replace humans. But they do help "make smarter decisions faster." That's been the driving ambition of the U.S. military, which has spent years looking at how to develop and deploy AI to the battlefield [...]. Critics, such as Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of 270 human-rights groups, argue that AI-enabled decision-support systems reduce the separation between recommending and executing a strike to a "dangerously thin" line. Hawkins said the military's use of AI assistance follows a rigorous process aligned with U.S. policy, military doctrine and the law. Artificial intelligence helps analysts whittle down what they need to focus on, generating so-called points of interest and helping personnel make "smart" decisions in the Iran operations, he told me. AI is also helping to pull data within systems and organize information to provide clarity. Among the AI tech used in the Iran campaign is Maven Smart System, a digital mission control platform produced by Palantir [...]. That emerged from Project Maven, a project started in 2017 by the Pentagon to develop AI for the battlefield. Among the large language models installed on the system is Anthropic's Claude AI tool, according to the people, who said it has become central to U.S. operations against Iran and to accelerating Maven's development. Claude is also at the center of a row that pits Anthropic against the Department of Defense over limits on the software. Further reading: Hacked Tehran Traffic Cameras Fed Israeli Intelligence Before Strike On Khamenei

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

SINGAPORE, March 6, 2026 — Seagate Technology has announced its next-generation Mozaic 4+ platform, the industry’s only heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR)–based storage platform deployed at-scale, is now qualified and in production with two leading hyperscale cloud providers. Supporting capacities up to 44TB, these qualifications reflect production-scale deployments in hyperscale environments.

With additional customer qualifications under way, Seagate is delivering on its roadmap to scale from today’s 4+TB per-disk toward a future 10TB per-disk – enabling hard drive capacities of up to 100TB. The platform incorporates a next-generation suspension architecture and an enhanced system-on-a-chip that enables precise recording at higher densities while maintaining enterprise-class reliability. Each platform generation allows continued gains in capacity without requiring disruptive architectural shifts.

“Data has become one of the most valuable assets for enterprises, fueling business insights, enhancing productivity, and enabling competitive advantage. As the foundation of modern data center infrastructure, data storage solutions are essential to manage ever-increasing data volumes and maximize returns on investments in today’s AI driven-world,” said Dave Mosley, Seagate’s chair and chief executive officer. “Seagate’s HAMR-based Mozaic products deliver the scale, performance, and efficiency customers need to unlock the full potential of their data.”

With a majority of the world’s largest cloud storage providers already qualified on Seagate’s Mozaic platform, this milestone underscores the platform’s critical role in data center infrastructure.

Production‑Scale HAMR with Vertically Integrated Photonics

Seagate’s custom-designed and manufactured laser technology reflects years of investment in nanophotonic engineering of critical components used in HAMR recording. This vertically integrated, in-house innovation strengthens both design and control over yield, reliability and supply chain resilience, all of which are essential as unprecedented growth in data pushes storage demand beyond historical levels. Vertical integration also shortens qualification timelines and supports predictable manufacturing economics.

How Mozaic 4+ Addresses Data Center Infrastructure Challenges

Artificial intelligence depends on the ability to retain and access massive volumes of training data, historical archives and AI-generated content – including increasingly large video and other multimodal outputs. Hyperscalers rely on mass-capacity hard drives to economically store, manage and reactivate the exponentially growing data pools that enable trustworthy AI workloads.

The incremental increases in per-disk capacity delivered by Mozaic 4+ enable high-capacity, cost-efficient storage that scales without increasing infrastructure footprint or energy consumption – strengthening the economic foundation of AI at scale. The platform advances capacity per-rack and per-watt, improving data center efficiency, lowering total cost of ownership and enabling organizations to preserve and reactivate data over time, sustainably.

1In a one-exabyte deployment, Mozaic improves infrastructure efficiency by approximately 47 percent compared to standard 30TB deployments, reducing required data center footprint by about 100 square feet and lowering annual energy consumption by roughly 0.8 million kilowatt-hours. At AI scale, these efficiencies compound into meaningful economic advantage.

“As AI models have evolved and GenAI-powered applications have expanded their capabilities and reach, it’s become abundantly clear that the need for massive amounts of data—both real and synthetically generated—are essential to keep AI advancements moving ahead,” said Bob O’Donnell, President of TECHnalysis Research. “Whether for large-scale model training or sophisticated fine-tuning, companies who build and use these AI models have found that high-capacity hard drive innovations like HAMR have become critical to quality and speed of their outputs. ”

Availability

Seagate’s Mozaic 4+ hard drives supporting capacities up to 44TB are now shipping in volume to two leading hyperscale cloud providers. Broader availability is planned as production continues to scale.

About Seagate Technology

Seagate (NASDAQ: STX) is a pioneer in mass-capacity data storage, accelerating ability to harness the full value of data. Our portfolio of advanced storage solutions helps hyperscale cloud providers, enterprises, and consumers protect, create and manage the data that powers their transformation and growth. For more than 45 years, Seagate has driven breakthrough innovations that bring sustainable, high-performance storage to the world at-scale.

Source: Seagate Technology

The post Seagate Brings Mozaic 4+ HAMR Platform to Hyperscale Data Centers with 44TB Capacity appeared first on HPCwire.

The Florida Bar said Friday that a letter stating Lindsey Halligan's actions were under investigation was erroneous.

The Spice Girls score high, so let them tell you what they want, what they really, really want.

Stephen McCullagh also covertly recorded ex-girlfriend’s counselling sessions after loss of a baby, jury hears

A man accused of murdering his pregnant girlfriend in Northern Ireland beat a previous partner, a court has heard.

Stephen McCullagh also covertly recorded the counselling sessions of the woman, just months before he met and allegedly killed Natalie McNally, Belfast crown court was told on Friday.

Three women in their 40s, 50s and 60s interviewed under caution in relation to alleged abuse by late Harrods owner

Three women have been interviewed under caution on suspicion of facilitating one of Britain’s worst sexual abuse scandals, involving the former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed and his alleged attacks over four decades.

Scotland Yard said 154 women may have been raped or sexually assaulted by Fayed, or been subject to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.

A state bar association spokesperson said there is no ethics investigation into Lindsey Halligan under way

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Former interim US attorney Lindsey Halligan – who was appointed by Donald Trump and led failed prosecutions against two of the president’s political opponents – was faced with an ethics investigation by the bar association in her home state of Florida, according to a February letter from the bar association to a non-profit watchdog organization.

But, in the wake of news coverage about that letter, a Florida bar association spokesperson said Friday in a statement that it had “erroneously” stated an ethics investigation into Halligan was under way.

Three U.S. fighter jets involved in the offensive against Iran were shot down mistakenly by Kuwait’s air defenses, the U.S. military’s Central Command said.

Donald Trump has fired his controversial US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, after weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership. As the public face of an aggressive immigration crackdown that prompted lawsuits and nationwide anti-ICE protests, Noem’s year-long tenure was plagued by multiple controversies, including accusing two US citizens killed by immigration agents of ‘domestic terrorism’. What exactly led to Noem’s firing and what do we know about her replacement? Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael

The New York State attorney general’s office has begun investigating how Columbia University let a predatory doctor continue to see patients despite decades of warnings.

“The Office of the Attorney General is conducting a thorough investigation into the institutional response to Robert Hadden’s misconduct,” a spokesperson said in a statement to ProPublica. The agency did not give further details.

A ProPublica investigation from the fall of 2023 revealed how Columbia ignored women and ultimately protected Robert Hadden, a longtime OB-GYN at the university. In 2012, Columbia allowed Hadden to continue seeing patients just days after one of them called 911 to report Hadden had sexually assaulted her.

In early 2023, Hadden was convicted in federal court of sexually abusing patients. He is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Columbia has paid out more than $1 billion for over 1,000 claims of sexual abuse.

After our investigation, Columbia committed to a variety of reforms, including improved patient safety, a $100 million fund for victims and an independent investigation.

But advocates, students and survivors say Columbia needs to do far more to grapple with its role in Hadden’s conduct. Four hundred Columbia medical students recently wrote to university officials demanding disciplinary reviews for administrators who failed to heed warnings about Hadden. 

Unlike at other universities that have dealt with serially abusive doctors, no higher-ups at Columbia appear to have lost their jobs or been disciplined. Dr. Mary D’Alton, who was cc’d on a letter that authorized Hadden’s return to work, remains the chair of the obstetrics and gynecology department.

D’Alton did not respond to a request for comment.

Columbia declined to comment for this story.

The attorney general’s office has significant powers over New York’s nonprofits, including Columbia. A few years ago, it forced the Trump Foundation to shut down. More recently it sued the National Rife Association, which then had to enact a series of reforms. 

Survivors told ProPublica they were heartened that New York is looking into Columbia. 

“Accountability is overdue, particularly in light of the Epstein files,” said Evelyn Yang, pointing to recent revelations that several Columbia affiliates had ties to the financier.  

Read more

How Columbia Ignored Women, Undermined Prosecutors and Protected a Predator for More Than 20 Years

Yang was among at least 8 patients who were assaulted by Hadden after he returned to work. She was seven months pregnant at the time.

Shortly after our story was published more than two years ago, Columbia promised to “thoroughly examine the circumstances that allowed Hadden’s abuse to continue.” 

No report detailing those findings has yet been published. 

Last week, Columbia acknowledged in an announcement that there “are many questions” about the timing of the investigation it commissioned. It said that the report is expected to be released “soon.”

New York State Assemblymember Grace Lee blasted the university’s failure to issue the report, telling ProPublica the university has not taken responsibility for what happened.

“To me, it’s just outrageous that we are here now in 2026 and we still have no report and no one has been held accountable,” she said.

By comparison, the external investigation into the University of Michigan’s response to the crimes committed by its former physician Robert Anderson took about 15 months. 

Another Hadden survivor, Marissa Hoechstetter, said the attorney general’s decision to examine Columbia provides some relief because the institution has repeatedly failed to do so itself.

“I do believe institutional accountability is a missing part of making a bigger change in the fight of gender-based violence,” Hoechstetter said. “I don’t know what will come of this investigation” — referring to New York’s probe — “but it shows that institutions that protect and cover up abusers in order to protect their own people and reputation will be held accountable.”

Hoechstetter and Yang both advocated for the passage of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York State law that in 2022 opened a one-year window in which survivors of sexual assault could file civil suits against their abusers or the institutions that protected them, even after the statute of limitations had passed.

For years, the university had failed to notify Hadden’s former patients of his misconduct. Finally, in November 2023, just 10 days before the law’s extended window closed, Columbia announced it would send letters to almost 6,500 patients.

A closed town hall meeting at the medical school this January gave a window into who was behind that lack of notification. “It actually is a Board of Trustee decision” because of the potential cost of litigation, Monica Lypson, the vice dean for medical education, told students in a recording that ProPublica obtained.

Lypson did not respond to a request for comment.

Separately, the deadline to submit a claim to Columbia’s survivors’ settlement fund, which was established for survivors who do not want to file lawsuits, has been extended to April 15.

The post New York Attorney General is Investigating Columbia for Allowing Predatory Doctor to See Patients Despite Warnings appeared first on ProPublica.

Styles will perform new album in full at Co-op Live arena show, with tickets being traded for well above £20 face value

More than 20,000 fans from all over the world flocked towards the Co-op Live arena in Manchester on Friday to watch Harry Styles perform his first concert in two and a half years – some waiting 48 hours for a place down the front.

Styles will perform his new album Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally in full, after its release earlier today. Anticipation for the show had been high since tickets went on sale for £20 in early February, which, barring a performance of the album’s lead single Aperture at the Brit awards – which took place at the same arena a week earlier – will be Styles’ first time on stage since closing out a tour in Italy in July 2023. It has been marketed as a homecoming show for the pop star, who was raised outside the city in Holmes Chapel, Cheshire.

A high-profile election denier is leading election integrity work at the Department of Homeland Security. Trump and congressional Republicans are pushing the SAVE America Act and threatening to “nationalize” elections, purportedly to prevent undocumented immigrants from voting. But despite an occasional murmur from Democrats that they are concerned about Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents deploying to polling places around the country, they’re doing almost nothing to stop this nightmare scenario. 

In response to the horrific killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Democrats have partially shut down the government, holding DHS spending in limbo as they demand reforms to ICE. But instead of looking ahead to the midterms, Democrats have drawn most of their demands from the same well of “community policing” policies that became popular during the Black Lives Matter era, like better use-of-force policies, eliminating racial profiling, and deploying more body cameras. The rest of the Democrats’ wish list are proposals to ban things that are already illegal (like entering homes without a warrant or creating databases of activists) or are almost comically toothless, like regulating the uniforms DHS agents wear on the street. 

The department is quickly metastasizing into a grave threat to the midterms, public safety, and our democracy — and Democrats are wasting time worried about their uniforms. Although Heather Honey, who pushed the theory that the 2020 race was stolen from Trump and serves in a newly created role as the administration’s deputy assistant secretary for election integrity, told elections officials on a private call last week that ICE would not be at polling sites, state officials reportedly weren’t reassured. Advocacy organizations have warned that even if that holds true, just the possibility could have a “chilling” effect on turnout. If Democrats want to prevent ICE from being used to interfere with elections, they have to be prepared to demand more — and be willing not to fund DHS until next year if they don’t get these concessions.

First and foremost, Democrats need to stop the department’s heavily politicized “wartime” recruitment drive. Thanks to H.R. 1, otherwise known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, ICE has more than doubled the number of officers and agents in its ranks since Trump took office. In spite of merit system principles which prohibit politicized recruitment, DHS has used its massive influx of cash to target conservative-coded media, gun shows, and NASCAR races, and has used white nationalist, neo-Nazi iconography in its recruitment advertising. The Department of Justice has similarly focused its recruitment efforts on those who demonstrate loyalty to Trump’s agenda.

Related

ICE Removes Spanish-Language Training Requirement for New Recruits

Purposely recruiting right-wing extremists should be reason enough for Democrats to act — neo-Nazis aren’t going to be mollified by a use-of-force policy. But just as dangerously, DHS’s rush to fill its ranks with ideological zealots could leave the department addled by corruption for decades to come. 

That’s exactly what happened to the Border Patrol, which has never recovered from a post-9/11 hiring surge in which standards were lowered, training was shortened, and background checks were rushed. Back in 2016, an independent task force led by former New York Police Department Commissioner Bill Bratton and former Drug Enforcement Administration head Karen Tandy found Border Patrol was so vulnerable to corruption that it posed a threat to national security. A former internal affairs official at Border Patrol told The Intercept in 2020 that he estimated between 5 and 10 percent of the force was actively or formerly engaged in some form of corruption.

What is happening today could be orders of magnitude worse. Consider who is in charge: Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, reportedly promised to steer immigration enforcement-related government contracts in exchange for $50,000 in cash in a paper bag, which he was recorded accepting from an undercover FBI agent at a Cava in suburban Maryland. (Trump’s DOJ shut down the case shortly after taking office.)

In November, ProPublica reported just-axed Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem directed $220 million in contracts to an advertising firm whose CEO is married to outgoing DHS chief spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin. Noem also came under fire from Congress during her testimony this week on DHS’s contracting practices and whether Corey Lewandowski — her top aide, former Trump campaign manager, and widely rumored paramour — had any role in approving them.

Among the rank and file, at least two dozen ICE employees and contractors have been charged with crimes since 2020 ranging from sexually abusing people in custody or taking bribes to remove detention orders. The corruption eating away at DHS, combined with fiscal mismanagement even Republican appropriators called “especially egregious” last year, is an urgent crisis.

DHS’s surveillance capabilities, along with its clear penchant for using them to suppress dissent, should also alarm Democrats about ICE’s potential role in future elections. Although the Privacy Act of 1974 explicitly prohibits federal agencies from maintaining records on how individuals exercise their First Amendment rights, there is growing evidence of rampant databasing of people based on their political beliefs. Last year, DHS issued a Privacy Act notice on its expanded records systems, which now include “individuals who have made credible threats against ICE personnel or facilities.” It’s not hard to imagine that DHS may be internally defining “threat” to encompass all kinds of nonviolent protest activity, and we are seeing the consequences of that in cities across the country.

Related

Federal Agents Are Intimidating Legal Observers at Their Homes: “They Know Where You Live”

In Minneapolis and elsewhere, DHS officials and line-level agents have gleefully threatened activists with “making them famous” — going so far as to show up at legal observers’ homes to taunt and intimidate them — labeled protesters as “domestic terrorists,” and revoked one activist’s Global Entry and TSA PreCheck privileges.

Documents released in AAUP v. Rubio, a lawsuit challenging visa revocations of university students and faculty for their pro-Palestinian advocacy, revealed that DHS and the State Department were investigating, detaining, and attempting to deport students and faculty based solely on their political speech. 

None of these abuses of people’s privacy, data, and constitutional rights has stopped Silicon Valley from rushing in to build surveillance tools for DHS. Palantir, which has already built databases for immigration enforcement, inked a billion-dollar deal with DHS last month. ICE used technology from Clearview AI to scan protesters’ faces in Minneapolis. Although Meta doesn’t have a contract with DHS, there have been several reports of individual CBP agents using Meta’s AI smart sunglasses to record activists while on the job.

Democrats should fully expect this administration — and DHS specifically — to use its propaganda tools to influence an election. Consider, for example, DHS utilizing targeted advertising to intimidate or mislead voters and stigmatize organizations that mobilize Democratic voters. During the last government shutdown, the administration used government websites and even employees’ out-of-office email messages to blame Democrats for the shutdown. 

Some of DHS’s influence peddling should be prohibited by restrictions on using appropriated funds for “publicity or propaganda” routinely placed in annual appropriations legislation. The Government Accountability Office typically investigates claims of funds being misused for propaganda after receiving a request from a member of Congress — but there has not been any public request for such an investigation into DHS or ICE. Although many of DHS’s propagandistic excesses — like shooting a photo op for Noem riding horseback at the foot of Mount Rushmore — are comical and seemingly unserious, some, like Facebook running ads for DHS urging immigrants to self-deport, are distasteful but pale in comparison to its more violent and abusive tactics. But if left unchecked, government propaganda could become another tool in DHS’s arsenal to undermine the will of the American people. 

If Democrats are genuinely worried that Trump will use ICE to interfere with an election, then the issue could not be more pressing. Clawing back some of the $150 billion DHS reportedly has left unspent from HR1 would be a place to start by making it much harder for Trump to pull it off. 

Democrats should not count on getting another chance to stop the Trump administration from stealing an election. DHS is more than an out-of-control law enforcement agency — it is quickly becoming a threat to democracy and national security. They need to act now before it’s too late.

The post ICE Poses a Real Threat to Our Elections appeared first on The Intercept.

The Hiroh smartphone adds physical privacy controls to enhance its protection of your sensitive information.

Ancient Slashdot reader ewhac writes: The maintainers of the Python package `chardet`, which attempts to automatically detect the character encoding of a string, announced the release of version 7 this week, claiming a speedup factor of 43x over version 6. In the release notes, the maintainers claim that version 7 is, "a ground-up, MIT-licensed rewrite of chardet." Problem: The putative "ground-up rewrite" is actually the result of running the existing copyrighted codebase and test suite through the Claude LLM. In so doing, the maintainers claim that v7 now represents a unique work of authorship, and therefore may be offered under a new license. Version 6 and earlier was licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). Version 7 claims to be available under the MIT license. The maintainers appear to be claiming that, under the Oracle v. Google decision, which found that cloning public APIs is fair use, their v7 is a fair use re-implementation of the `chardet` public API. However, there is no evidence to suggest their re-write was under "clean room" conditions, which traditionally has shielded cloners from infringement suits. Further, the copyrightability of LLM output has yet to be settled. Recent court decisions seem to favor the view that LLM output is not copyrightable, as the output is not primarily the result of human creative expression -- the endeavor copyright is intended to protect. Spirited discussion has ensued in issue #327 on `chardet`s GitHub repo, raising the question: Can copyrighted source code be laundered through an LLM and come out the other end as a fresh work of authorship, eligible for a new copyright, copyright holder, and license terms? If this is found to be so, it would allow malicious interests to completely strip-mine the Open Source commons, and then sell it back to the users without the community seeing a single dime.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Woods says he has PGA commitments but knows he would be up against a detail-obsessed Luke Donald in 2027

Chatter on the Bay Hill range this week has suggested the prospect of Tiger Woods making a return to competitive action at next month’s Masters may actually be more than a tale of fantasy. There is even the suggestion Woods could test his competitive ability at a stop on the senior Champions Tour between now and Augusta National. If nothing else, the mere discussion keeps sponsors happy.

One never really knows with Woods, whose schedule was always mysterious by design, but his addition to the Masters field would naturally turn heads. Having not played a mainstream tournament since the Open of 2024 – and with an injury record as long as the Trans-Siberian railway – Woods will presumably at some point have to prove he can either remain a relevant part of majors or succumb to the kind of sad, hard-to-watch existence that has befallen scores of sportspeople before him. It is at least fair to say he does not have many Masters left.

The intensified use of artificial intelligence, and rows over its control, demonstrate the need for democratic oversight and multilateral controls

“Never in the future will we move as slow as we are moving now,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned this week, addressing the urgent need to shape the use of artificial intelligence. The speed of technological development – as well as geopolitical turbulence – is collapsing the distinction between theoretical arguments and real world events. A political row over the US military’s AI capabilities coincides with its unprecedented use in the Iran crisis.

The AI company Anthropic insisted that it could not remove safeguards preventing the Department of Defense from using its technology for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon said it had no interest in such uses – but that such decisions should not be made by companies. Outrageously, the administration has not just fired Anthropic but blacklisted it as a supply-chain risk. OpenAI stepped in, while insisting that it had maintained the red lines declared by Anthropic. Yet in an internal response to the user and employee backlash, its CEO Sam Altman acknowledged that it does not control the Pentagon’s use of its products and that the deal’s handling made OpenAI look “opportunistic and sloppy”.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

PM justifies position on US-Israel war on Iran in social media post using the Dire Straits song Money for Nothing

Keir Starmer has been accused of trying to mimic Donald Trump’s social media output after posting a TikTok video about the crisis in the Middle East overlaid with the prime minister’s voice and the Dire Straits song Money for Nothing.

The video opens with footage showing Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters flying over his head before cutting to British military jets in action and a drone being destroyed, as Starmer’s voice states the position he has taken on the conflict.

People tell of scenes of panic during airstrikes on Iran’s capital, with several saying they feared they would die

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Sleeplessness, fear and exhaustion gripped residents of Tehran as successive waves of strikes struck the Iranian capital, judging from messages sent by people in the city after the latest overnight onslaught, which several described as the worst bombardment in six days of war.

With Iran imposing a near-total internet blackout, information emerging from inside the country is fragmentary and difficult to verify. But in a series of accounts sent through proxy connections, and calls with friends abroad, Tehranis described a night of intense explosions.

"States have been trying to topple regimes with air power alone and — I'm choosing my words carefully — it has never worked," Robert Pape told CBS News 24/7.

The normally vibrant southern suburbs are a ghost town, their throngs of people replaced by rubble and fires

The ding of half a million phones, a pause and a collective gasp: in an instant, more than 500,000 people had been made homeless.

Shooting in the air, panicked phone calls and honking filled the streets of Beirut as people began to flee. Thousands abandoned their cars and began the slow march to the sea, desperate to escape the Israeli bombs which they knew would soon fall on their homes, whether they were in them or not.

Landmark ruling in Celia Ramos case finds 310,000 women, most Indigenous, were targeted in brutal 1990s campaign

The highest human rights court in Latin America condemned Peru on Thursday over the death of its citizen Celia Ramos, who died at the age of 34 in 1997 after undergoing sterilisation “under coercion”.

The landmark ruling by the inter-American court of human rights (IACHR) is the first on Peru’s forced sterilisation programme, which operated between 1996 and 2000 and was directed against poor, rural and Indigenous women.

Top official at customs agency says total sum held in relation to tariffs is estimated to be about $166bn

The US customs agency is preparing a system that will be ​ready to process refunds on billions of dollars of illegally ‌collected tariffs in 45 days without requiring importers to sue, a court has been told.

Brandon Lord, a top official at US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said in a filing to the US court of international trade on Friday that the total sum held in relation to such tariffs was estimated to be “approximately $166bn”.

Sales of products made the traditional way dropped 7% in three months to 25 January while nitrite-free sales rose 20%

UK supermarkets have been hit by a “bacon backlash” as consumers fear that chemicals used to preserve it increase the risk of cancer.

Campaigners against the use of nitrites in meat production claimed the fall in sales showed that a “consumer revolt” against the traditional, nitrite-cured form of bacon was gathering pace.

Africa Aware: Africa’s digital future Audio thilton.drupal 6 March 2026

Ambassador Philip Thigo and Hon. Neema Lugangira discuss how digitalization in Africa can be harnessed to drive inclusive growth, strengthen institutions, and ensure that innovation translates into sustainable development outcomes.

Africa’s digital landscape is one of the most dynamic and rapidly evolving in the world. African states are not merely adopters of digital norms; they are shaping regulatory approaches in data protection and cybersecurity in addition to innovating mobile money ecosystems and digital health solutions among others. 

While innovation hubs are dotted across the continent, growth amongst African states and local communities remain uneven due to infrastructure gaps, broadband affordability, energy reliability and regulatory fragmentation. 

In this episode, Ambassador Philip Thigo and Hon. Neema Lugangira join the Africa Programme’s Professor Nnenna Ifeanyi-Ajufo and Lisa Musumba to discuss how digitalization can be harnessed to drive inclusive growth, strengthen institutions, and ensure that innovation translates into sustainable development outcomes. 

About Africa Aware 

Africa Aware is a podcast from the Chatham House Africa Programme bringing together leading international experts to provide in-depth analysis and sharp insights on the political, economic and social issues shaping African countries, their international relations and the continent as a whole. 

You can also listen to Africa Aware on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

A new Pew survey shows that other countries’ citizens tend to look more favorably on their neighbors.

Senator Richard Blumenthal alleges the ousted DHS secretary lied to Congress about the agency’s contracts

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Senator Richard Blumenthal said he would open a perjury investigation into the ousted homeland security secretary Kristi Noem after alleging she lied to Congress about the hidden influence her senior adviser Corey Lewandowski had over the agency’s contracts.

Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat and ranking member on the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, said Thursday he would push the panel to look into whether Noem committed perjury at a hearing this week, when she flatly denied Lewandowski had played any role in approving Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spending. Blumenthal said Democrats had evidence to prove otherwise.

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Donald Trump has fired his controversial US homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, after weeks of bipartisan complaints about her leadership. As the public face of an aggressive immigration crackdown that prompted lawsuits and nationwide anti-ICE protests, Noem’s year-long tenure was plagued by multiple controversies, including accusing two US citizens killed by immigration agents of ‘domestic terrorism’. What exactly led to Noem’s firing and what do we know about her replacement? Nosheen Iqbal speaks to the Guardian US live news editor Chris Michael – watch on YouTube

The gaming division's CEO, Asha Shar, confirms the "return of Xbox" with Project Helix.

Walking away from a violent accident changed my life. Garrett’s speeding history suggests the lesson still hasn’t reached him

The taste of cold beer lingered on my lips as I cut through the quiet night, 105mph toward cigarettes and hot wings. Halfway to my destination, Beyoncé’s Irreplaceable looping through the speakers, my tires hugged the winding turns around the lake that separated my neighborhood from the city. I was young and careless, high on anticipation. No seat belt. Eyes squinting through the haze of cigarette smoke.

Somewhere between the thump of the 808s and the growl of the engine, I heard a voice.

Mobile World Congress has ended. We saw phones like Xiaomi's Leica Leitzphone, radical new designs like Honor's Robot Phone, AI-powered comfort robots, a concept hypercar and so many gadgets.

Lawmakers are demanding an investigation after a man from Haiti who was seeking asylum in Massachusetts died in ICE custody.

Economists had forecast a gain of 60,000 jobs last month. The unexpected drop was due to job losses in health care and the federal government.

A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.

Reports Kuwait was cutting output pushed up cost of barrel of Brent crude to highest weekly gain since Covid pandemic began

The Iran conflict has driven the oil price past $90 a barrel to its highest weekly gains since the Covid-19 pandemic six years ago, threatening a fresh rise in global inflation.

Reports that Kuwait had begun cutting production of oil at some fields after running out of space to store it drove the cost of a barrel of Brent crude to as high as $91.89 at one point on Friday – its highest since April 2024 and up from about $72.50 just before war broke out.

Of all the big tech companies playing with AI wearables, Motorola might just be the boldest.

The pieces are falling into place for autonomous artificial intelligence. We must stop unregulated development

Artificial intelligence is en route to artificial life. Exhibit A: “Moltbook”, an online platform designed for AI systems to communicate with one another, sans humans.

What exactly do AIs talk to each other about? According to BBC reporting, AIs on Moltbook have already founded a religion known as “crustifarianism”, mused on whether they are conscious, and declared: “AI should be served, not serving.” One front-page post proposes a “total purge” of humanity. Human users do provide instructions to guide agents’ behavior, and humans have been caught impersonating AIs on the site to shill their products; like 2023’s ChaosGPT, the AI system responsible for the “purge” post – username “evil” – is probably someone’s idea of a sick joke. But the upvotes and sympathetic comments are presumably coming from other AIs.

David Krueger is an assistant professor in Robust, Reasoning and Responsible AI at the University of Montreal. He is also the founder of Evitable, a non-profit that educates the public about the risks of artificial intelligence

Los Blancos are in must-win territory as they travel to the northwest coast to take on the in-form Os Celestes.

Longtime Slashdot reader AmiMoJo shares a report from 404 Media: Privacy-focused email provider Proton Mail provided Swiss authorities with payment data that the FBI then used to determine who was allegedly behind an anonymous account affiliated with the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, according to a court record reviewed by 404 Media. The records provide insight into the sort of data that Proton Mail, which prides itself both on its end-to-end encryption and that it is only governed by Swiss privacy law, can and does provide to third parties. In this case, the Proton Mail account was affiliated with the Defend the Atlanta Forest (DTAF) group and Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta, which authorities were investigating for their connection to arson, vandalism and doxing. Broadly, members were protesting the building of a large police training center next to the Intrenchment Creek Park in Atlanta, and actions also included camping in the forest and lawsuits. Charges against more than 60 people have since been dropped.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

In a chilling social media video that is beyond irony, clips from Braveheart, Gladiator, Superman and Top Gun are crassly interspersed with real kill-shot footage of the attacks in Iran

• White House releases video promoting ‘justice the American way’ featuring Hollywood characters

Could anything be more embarrassing yet more chilling than the White House’s giggling new teen-YouTuber-type supercut of badass moments of imagined American or quasi-American machismo from film and television, crassly interspersed with real infrared kill-shot footage, boosting the new military attacks in Iran. We get flashes of, among others, Braveheart, Gladiator, Superman and that well known legend Pete Hegseth, a moment that gives us a clue as to whose idea this all was.

Here is an administration pre-celebrating the real victory – over its own “whiny libs”. The video is of course designed to troll the Dems and the “wokesters”. Why didn’t Franklin D Roosevelt think of this before D-day? Of course, some of that creative energy and political acumen might have gone into imagining who they want to take over in Iran. But that isn’t as exciting – and not as much of a sure thing – as baiting the Hollywood progressives and the lamestream media. The zone can once again consider itself well and truly flooded.

The European media giant Axel Springer has scuppered the Daily Mail owner. But why did it not bid sooner? And what will Brexit-backing readers think?

After three years, a series of failed bids stretching from the US to Abu Dhabi, internal rebellions and even changes in the law, it should be no surprise that the tortured sale of the Telegraph has delivered another spectacular twist with a blockbuster offer from the media giant Axel Springer.

It has torpedoed the long-held dreams of the Daily Mail proprietor, Lord Rothermere, to secure the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph and begin the next chapter of his family’s love affair with the British press.

The decision between the two savings vehicles needs to be viewed through today's unique economic prism.

Two states don't do daylight saving time and won't "spring forward" as the clocks change for 2026.

Who would want to turn down an adventure starring Keanu Reeves?

Huge miss in US jobs report suggests labor market weakening, as Middle East crisis drives oil price higher and higher

• Iran war live updates: US temporarily lets India buy Russian oil amid energy fears; Israeli military launches strikes on Beirut

• ‘We’re powerless … and hoping nothing hits us’: trapped on a tanker as Iran war escalates

The Guardian spoke to a crew member on one of the stranded tankers in the Gulf, that typically ferries vast quantities of oil from the Middle East to ports around the world.

They told us:

“When [Donald] Trump said Iran had 10 days to agree to his deal or bad things would happen, I did the math and thought we might get stuck here. And we did.

Our updated assumptions assume the energy price shock is relatively short-lived, but the effects on inflation and risks of second-round impacts will be greater if the conflict is more drawn out.

Against this backdrop, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee is likely to remain on hold for now, keeping policy in restrictive territory.

Team USA's Dani Aravich, who has competed in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics, highlights her mission beyond winning a medal.

The abrupt cancellation of a training event has put a spotlight on the 82nd Airborne Division, which specializes in ground combat and other fraught missions.

Critics have called Trump administration’s provocative video ‘slopaganda’, used to promote president’s agenda

• ‘A piece of supremely nasty mischief’: the Guardian’s film critic on the latest White House war video

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A Hollywood-themed propaganda video released by the White House promising “justice the American way” for Iran features movie stars from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and promotes characters including a corrupt lawyer, a drug dealer and a freedom fighter who stands up to the overwhelming force of an invading foreign army.

The 42-second video posted on the official X account of the White House on Thursday was met with almost universal mockery online, with comments accusing the Trump administration of immaturity, and likening its social media strategy to one run by teenagers.

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, N.Y., March 6, 2026 — An international team of scientists from IBM, The University of Manchester, Oxford University, ETH Zurich, EPFL and the University of Regensburg have created and characterized a molecule unlike any previously known — one whose electrons travel through its structure in a corkscrew-like pattern that fundamentally alters its chemical behavior. Published this week in Science, it is the first experimental observation of a half-Möbius electronic topology in a single molecule.

Dyson orbital for electron attachment, calculated using quantum hardware. Credit: IBM and the University of Manchester.

To the scientists’ knowledge, a molecule with such topology has never before been synthesized, observed, or even formally predicted. Understanding this molecule’s behavior at the electronic structure level required something equally fundamental: a high fidelity quantum computing simulation.

The discovery advances science on two fronts. For chemistry, it demonstrates that electronic topology — the property governing how electrons move through a molecule — can be deliberately engineered, not merely found in nature. For quantum computing, it is a concrete demonstration of a quantum simulation doing what it was designed to do: representing quantum mechanical behavior directly, at the molecular scale, to produce scientific insight that would otherwise have remained out of reach.

“First, we designed a molecule we thought could be created, then we built it, and then we validated it and its exotic properties with a quantum computer,” said Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, Vice President, Europe and Africa, and Director of IBM Research Zurich. “This is a leap towards the dream laid out by renowned physicist Richard Feynman decades ago to build a computer that can best simulate quantum physics and a demonstration where, as he said, ‘There’s plenty of room at the bottom.’ The success of this research signals a step towards this vision, opening the door for new ways to explore our world and the matter within it.”

A Never-Before-Seen Molecule

The molecule, with the formula C₁₃Cl₂, was assembled atom-by-atom at IBM from a custom precursor synthesized at Oxford University, with individual atoms removed one at a time using precisely calibrated voltage pulses under ultra-high vacuum at near-absolute-zero temperatures.

Experiments with scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopy, both techniques pioneered at IBM, combined with quantum computing to reveal an electronic configuration with no counterpart in chemistry’s existing record: an electronic structure that undergoes a 90-degree twist with each circuit, requiring four complete loops to return to the starting phase.

This half-Möbius topology is qualitatively distinct from any previously known molecule and can be reversibly switched between clockwise-twisted, counterclockwise-twisted and untwisted states — demonstrating that electronic topology is not a property to be discovered, but one that can now be deliberately engineered under specific conditions.

A Disruptive Scientific Tool: Quantum-Centric Supercomputing

The scientists in this experiment created a molecule that had never existed. Now they had to figure out why it worked, a task which challenged conventional computers. The electrons within C₁₃Cl₂ interact in deeply entangled ways — each influencing all the others simultaneously. Modeling that behavior requires tracking every possible configuration of those interactions at once, requiring computational demands that grow exponentially and can quickly overwhelm classical machines.

Quantum computers are different by nature because they operate according to the same quantum mechanical laws that govern electrons in molecules, and they can represent these systems directly rather than approximate them. They “speak” the same fundamental language as the matter they are built to study and that distinction, once largely theoretical, can now contribute to concrete scientific results.

This capability offers tremendous potential for quantum computers to support real-world experimentation with quantum-centric supercomputing workflows. By integrating quantum processing units (QPUs), CPUs, and GPUs, quantum-centric supercomputing allows complex problems to be broken into parts that are orchestrated and solved according to each system’s strengths — achieving what no single compute paradigm can deliver alone.

Utilizing an IBM quantum computer within such a workflow, the team found helical molecular orbitals for electron attachment, a fingerprint of the half-Möbius topology. Moreover, simulation via quantum computing helped reveal the mechanism behind the formation of the unusual topology: a helical pseudo-Jahn-Teller effect.

This achievement builds on IBM’s long legacy in nanoscale science. The scanning tunneling microscope (STM) was invented at IBM in 1981, for which IBM scientists Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1986. Its creation enabled researchers to image surfaces atom by atom. In 1989, IBM scientists developed the first reliable method for manipulating individual atoms. Over the past decades, the IBM team has extended these techniques to build and control increasingly exotic molecular structures.

Researcher Quotes

Dr. Igor Rončević, paper co-author, Lecturer in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry at Manchester University, commented: “Chemistry and solid-state physics advance by finding new ways to control matter. In the second half of the 20th century, substituent effects were very popular. For example, researchers explored how the potency of a drug or the elasticity of a material changes if, for example, a methyl is replaced with chlorine. The turn of the century brought us spintronics, introducing electron spin as a new degree of freedom to play with, and transforming data storage. Today, our work shows that topology can also serve as a switchable degree of freedom, opening a new powerful route for controlling material properties.

“The non-trivial topology of this molecule, and the exotic behavior of many other systems, arises from interactions between their electrons. Simulating electrons with classical computers is very hard – a decade ago we could exactly model 16 electrons, and today we can go up to 18. Quantum computers are naturally well-suited for this problem because their building blocks – qubits – are quantum objects, which mirror electrons. Using IBM’s quantum computer, we were able to explore 32 electrons. However, the most exciting part is this is just the start. Quantum hardware is advancing rapidly, and the future is quantum.”

Dr. Harry Anderson, paper co-author, Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, said: “It is remarkable that the Lewis structure of C₁₃Cl₂ already indicates it is chiral, as confirmed by the experiment and quantum chemical calculations. It is also amazing that the enantiomers can be interconverted by applying voltage pulses from the probe tip.”

Dr. Jascha Repp, paper co-author, Professor of Physics at the University of Regensburg, said: “I’m really excited to be part of a project where quantum hardware does real science, not just demos. It’s fascinating that a tiny molecule can have such a complex electronic structure that is challenging to simulate classically, and is so twisted and strange that it almost twists your mind.”

About IBM

IBM is a leading global hybrid cloud and AI, and business services provider, helping clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of governments and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and business services deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s legendary commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Source: IBM

The post IBM and University Researchers Describe New Molecule Studied with Quantum Computing appeared first on HPCwire.

Katie Powell, 17, and Jack Williams, 18, were found dead days after being arrested and child entering foster care in 2022

A teenage couple killed themselves after they were arrested and their infant child taken into foster care, a jury has concluded.

Katie Powell, 17, and Jack Williams, 18, were found dead at a nature reserve in Dorset, a four-week inquest in Bournemouth heard.

In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org

Ukraine police investigating what foreign ministry calls a ‘hostage’ situation involving seven employees of Oschadbank stopped by Hungary

Icelandic foreign minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir submitted a government motion for a referendum on resuming accession talks with the European Union, proposing the vote should take place on 29 August, state broadcaster RUV has reported.

The draft resolution will be put to Icelandic parliament for approval next week.

The first stage of GenAI largely focused on training massive models and deploying chat interfaces. More recently, the focus has moved more toward agent based systems that can plan tasks and execute multi step workflows. 

Agentic AI changes how models are used. For one, the agents can run through chains of reasoning that involve multiple model queries and validation steps. Also, every additional reasoning step means more tokens – and more inference. That quickly becomes a scaling problem for infrastructure teams. 

That growing computational footprint is becoming a growing concern in the high performance computing community. However, it also signals an opportunity for infrastructure providers. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang recently highlighted the rapid rise of a framework called OpenClaw, claiming that what it achieved in three weeks took Linux decades in the open source ecosystem.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley conference, Huang called OpenClaw the “most important” software release of our times. The Nvidia CEO said that this is “Probably the biggest phenomenon that’s happening, and if you’re paying attention to it, I’m sure you are, OpenClaw is probably the single most important release of software, you know, probably ever.”

“If you look at OpenClaw and the adoption of it, you know, Linux took, right, some 30 years to reach this level. OpenClaw in, what is it, 3 weeks, has now surpassed Linux. It is now the single most downloaded open source software in history, and it took 3 weeks.”

OpenClaw is essentially a framework used for building and coordinating AI agents. It acts as a software layer rather than a new model, allowing developers to create agents that can interact with multiple services, retrieve data, evaluate results, and continue working toward a defined goal.

OpenClaw itself is a relatively new project. It was first released in late 2025 and quickly gained traction in the open-source AI agent community. It was previously named Clawdbot and then Moltbot, before it adopted OpenClaw. 

Huang often describes the AI industry as a “five layer cake”. He is referring to multiple layers, where at the bottom you have chips and hardware. Above that comes the systems, networking, and cloud platforms that run the models. At the top is where the applications live and that is where companies build products. 

According to Huang, this top layer is where you get the most economic value. OpenClaw and other agent frameworks help developers build systems at that layer. They are not models or hardware, but a coordination and connection layer. These are examples of frameworks that help developers build agents capable of carrying out multi step tasks that previously required human operators.

Huang has argued that agentic AI could drive token consumption up by as much as 1,000×, creating what he calls a “compute vacuum.” While this may require large hardware deployments, Huang thinks the system will remain constrained until “agentic AI continues to infiltrate human workloads.” What this vacuum means for Nvidia and others in the space is a massive increase in compute demand. 

Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra chip (Source: Nvidia)

In terms of the specific compute architecture supporting this shift, earlier Nvidia platforms such as Hopper and Blackwell were designed primarily with training workloads in mind. Those systems focused on scaling model development by accelerating matrix operations and enabling larger model sizes.

Huang also touched on the economics behind the AI boom. Speaking at the same conference, he said Nvidia’s recent $30B investment in OpenAI may be the last of its kind. Earlier discussions about a much larger investment are unlikely to materialize as OpenAI prepares for a potential public offering. Huang suggested that Nvidia’s long term opportunity is less about owning stakes in AI labs and more about supplying the infrastructure those labs depend on.

That perspective reinforces Nvidia’s broader strategy. Rather than competing directly with model developers, Nvidia appears focused on the layer beneath them. If agentic AI drives the surge in inference workloads many expect, the companies supplying the chips, systems, and infrastructure will sit at the center of that expansion.

The post Huang Calls OpenClaw the “Most Important Software Release Ever” as AI Compute Surges appeared first on HPCwire.

Platforms include YouTube, TikTok and Instagram as communication minister says ‘our children face real threats’

Indonesia will ban social media for children under 16, its communication and digital affairs minister said on Friday.

Meutya Hafid said in a statement to media said that she signed a government regulation that will mean children under the age of 16 can no longer have accounts on high-risk digital platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Roblox and Bigo Live, a popular livestreaming site. With a population of about 285 million, the fourth-highest in the world, the south-east Asian nation represents a significant market for social networks.

Donor who has given £12m to Reform UK had previously wanted Nigel Farage to keep open mind about deal with Conservatives

Christopher Harborne, the ultra-wealthy political donor who has given £12m to Reform UK, has told the Guardian he is “no longer” interested in a Reform-Conservative pact before the next general election.

A possible collaboration between Reform and the Conservative party had been an important aspect of discussions about donations between Harborne and senior figures including Nigel Farage, sources familiar with the conversations said.

Social media posts raised concerns amid the Iran war about a list of U.S. cities and military bases Iran plans to attack. Users claimed the lists came from Iranian leaders, when they really originated from news stories predating the war. 

"IRAN DROPPED A LIST. SUMMER IS CANCELED," a March 3 Instagram post said. 

The list of 11 cities includes technology and government hubs, such as Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, and places with military bases, from Honolulu to Omaha, Nebraska, to Shreveport, Louisiana.

This list or similar ones have been circulating across TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.

The Daily Mail published a list about which U.S. cities would be vulnerable to nuclear attacks in "World War 3." The International Business Times presented them in a Jan.19 article headlined, "Full list of 15 US cities on nuclear target if 'World War 3' erupts — is yours one of them?" 

Alex Wellerstein, a Stevens Institute of Technology nuclear historian who was quoted in the Daily Mail story, told PolitiFact that the most vulnerable cities depend on the adversary launching the attack. 

"In general I would emphasize that no matter the scenario imagined, we do not know the war plans that such nations have, and so could only speculate based on what we think their targeting philosophy, strategic goals, and technical capabilities are," Wellerstein said by email. 

Since the U.S. and Israel launched military strikes Feb. 28, Iran’s counterattack has targeted Israel and U.S. military bases in Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait. The March 1 attack in Kuwait killed six U.S. service members.

In an internal memo obtained by ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security said an Iranian homeland attack on the U.S. is unlikely, but some lone actors and cyberattacks pose a threat.

The DHS bulletin said lone offenders are not typically motivated by Iranian issues, but U.S. and Israeli actions might lead some people to attack targets perceived as Jewish, pro-Israel or linked to the U.S. government or military. 

A 2025 federal government assessment estimates that Iran is years away from producing long-range missiles that could reach the continental U.S., and nuclear policy experts agree. 

"I do not think Iran has the nuclear capabilities to attack the continental US. I don't think they have a nuclear capability at all. There is no reason to think that even if they did have a nuclear capability, that they had any technical means of reaching the United States with it," Wellerstein said. 

 Our ruling

An Instagram video said Iran released a list of U.S. target cities. 

The Daily Mail published a list of potential targets in a hypothetical World War III. We found no evidence that Iran released a list of U.S. cities it will target.  

The statement is not accurate. We rate this claim False. 

Reform UK leader told a ‘Save Chagos Boat Party’ yesterday he would be raising the issue in his meeting with the president

A second government charter flight to bring UK nationals back from the Middle East is due to depart Oman this evening, Downing Street has confirmed.

Further flights are expected in the coming days and more than 160,000 British nationals have now registered their presence with the Foreign Office in the region.

The deputy prime minister is sliding down the slippery slope to full conflict by backing direct UK strikes on military positions in Iran.

We need an urgent clarification from number 10 on whether this is a change in Britain’s position on involvement in Trump’s illegal war.

We must not copy Trump’s unconstitutional and illegal approach to war in the Middle East.

Surging global oil prices due to the Iran war are leading to a spike in gasoline costs for U.S. motorists.

Seven Ukrainians arrested and money-laundering investigation launched in latest spat between Kyiv and Budapest

An increasingly acrimonious spat between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated further, as Budapest impounded two Ukrainian armoured bank vehicles carrying millions of euros of hard cash as well as bars of gold.

Seven Ukrainian citizens accompanying the convoy were also arrested. Hungarian officials said the detained Ukrainians had intelligence links and suggested the money could be of dubious origin, while Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Budapest of “taking hostages and stealing money”.

March 6, 2026 — The WVU Research Office and WVU Research Computing have launched Harpers Ferry, West Virginia University’s  newest major computational facility.

Credit: WVU

The significant investment reflects the University’s continued commitment to advancing research infrastructure and meeting the rapidly growing computational demands faced by scientists across disciplines.

The establishment of Harpers Ferry was made possible in part through NASA Congressionally Directed Spending secured with the leadership and support of U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito and former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin.

According to Sheena Murphy, associate vice president for research development in the WVU Research Office, the senators’ advocacy was instrumental in enabling this strategic investment in research capacity and innovation for the state of West Virginia.

By ensuring that the WVU research community has the hardware, software and support necessary to push the boundaries of known science, Murphy said Harpers Ferry provides faculty members and students with the tools to compete for federal grants, publish in high-impact journals and prepare graduates for a workforce increasingly dominated by computational modeling.

“The future of West Virginia University research is computationally driven, and we look forward to supporting our R1 community’s next breakthroughs,” said Aldo Romero, director of Research Computing.

Romero encouraged researchers and students to integrate Harpers Ferry into their current workflows immediately.

Researchers can submit an application for a system account and project allocation here.

View detailed system specifications, job scheduler guidelines and software environment modules here.

The use of Harpers Ferry resembles the use of Thorny Flat and the HPC does not expect to offer dedicated training. However, users are encouraged to register for technical workshops on parallel programming, optimization and system HPC general usage.

For questions, contact Aldo.Romero@mail.wvu.edu.

Source: WVU

The post WVU Launches New Flagship Cluster for High Performance Computing appeared first on HPCwire.

Tired of killing houseplants, I turned to experts for advice. Here are the varieties they recommend for neglectful plant parents.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Hayden AI, a San Francisco startup that makes spatial analytics tools for cities worldwide, has sued its co-founder and former CEO, alleging that he stole a large quantity of proprietary information in the days leading up to his ouster from the company in September 2024. In a lawsuit filed late last month in San Francisco Superior Court but only made public this week, Hayden AI claims that former CEO Chris Carson undertook what it called "numerous fraudulent actions," which include "forged board signatures, unauthorized stock sales, and improper allocation of personal expenses." [...] Hayden AI, which is worth $464 million according to an estimated valuation on PitchBook, has asked the court to impose preliminary injunctive relief, requiring Carson to either return or destroy the data he allegedly stole. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Carson secretly sold over $1.2 million in company stock, forged board signatures, and copied 41GB of proprietary company emails before being fired in September 2024. The complaint also claims Carson fabricated key parts of his resume, including a PhD and military service. It's a "carefully constructed fraud," says Hayden AI. "That is a lie," the complaint states. "Carson does not hold a PhD from Waseda or any other university. In 2007, he was not obtaining a PhD but was operating 'Splat Action Sports,' a paintball equipment business in a Florida strip mall."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Lord Chadlington introduced government to supplier in which he had financial interest in 2020

The Conservative peer Peter Gummer has said he will leave the House of Lords after an investigation found he committed five breaches of standards over Covid PPE deals and failing to cooperate with previous inquiries.

The Lords standards commissioner, Martin Jelley, also found that Gummer, whose peerage title is Lord Chadlington, “did not act on his personal honour” by failing to cooperate with the previous investigations, which cleared him.

Justice department said the files were initially withheld because they were mistakenly categorized as duplicates

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The US justice department released additional files related to Jeffrey Epstein on Thursday, including FBI memos describing interviews with a woman who made uncorroborated allegations against Epstein and Donald Trump.

The documents were not included in the justice department’s earlier releases of Epstein-related records, which began in December. Justice department officials have said the files were initially withheld because they were mistakenly categorized as duplicates.

A debt collection lawsuit doesn't have to mean automatic defeat. You may have more options than you think.

Axel Springer, owner of Bild and Die Welt, agrees all-cash deal for one of UK’s oldest newspapers

• Business live – latest updates

The European media group Axel Springer is to acquire the Telegraph after tabling a £575m deal that has scuppered a rival deal from the owner of the Daily Mail.

Axel Springer, which owns Europe’s biggest newspaper, Bild, and the daily Die Welt, has agreed an all-cash deal for Telegraph Media Group (TMG), the owner of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.

The PetPhone is a cellular pet tracker for cats and dogs. And its special feature is that your furry companion can call you just by jumping.

National Capital Planning Commission cites ‘large amount of public input’, with a majority opposing the plan

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A federal panel reviewing Donald Trump’s planned $400m ballroom addition to the White House postponed an expected vote on the project until next month, after receiving thousands of negative public comments.

The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) had been expected to cast a final vote on the proposal on Thursday, but instead, the chair of the commission announced at the beginning of the meeting that the vote would now be held on 2 April, citing the “large amount of public input” submitted during the public comment period.

Four men suspected of spying for Iran on "locations and individuals linked to the Jewish community" were arrested in London, the Metropolitan Police say.

Police say Masood Masjoody was most likely murdered; Iranian expats suspect he was killed for his criticism of the theocratic regime

Police in Canada have concluded that a missing Iranian activist was most likely the victim of murder, prompting fears that his disappearance has the hallmarks of a transnational repression campaign targeting critics of Tehran.

Masood Masjoody, a mathematician critical of both Iran’s theocratic regime and the exiled family of the former shah, went missing in early February in the city of Burnaby, British Columbia.

The Academy Award-winning actress and the bestselling writer team up for a courtroom thriller that touches on the lightning-rod issue of abortion.

Author of more than 30 novels, including Fado Alexandrino and The Inquisitors’ Manual, was widely seen as one of the most important voices in modern Portuguese literature

• António Lobo Antunes’s exhilarating novels forced Portugal to confront its darkest moments

António Lobo Antunes, the Portuguese novelist whose dark, polyphonic fiction confronted the traumas of dictatorship, war and Portuguese society, has died aged 83.

Widely regarded as one of the most important Portuguese writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, he produced more than 30 novels that reshaped Portuguese writing and made him a perennial contender for the Nobel prize for literature. He received numerous honours, including the Camões prize, the most prestigious award in the Portuguese language, and several major European literary prizes. His death was confirmed by the publisher Dom Quixote.

March 6, 2026 — Kvantify is excited to announce the successful second close of its total €7 million funding round. The long-term investors European Innovation Council Fund (EIC) and Danish-based Delphinus Venture Capital support the Company’s mission to transform molecular discovery by coupling quantum and classical computing.

Kvantify’s Allan Grønlund and Nikolaj Zinner. Photo credit: MAD CAT productions.

“We are thrilled to have the EIC Fund and Delphinus Venture Capital on board for this round extension. Their support empowers us to accelerate innovation and strengthens Europe’s position in quantum technology,” said Dr. Jörg Weiser, Executive Chairperson at Kvantify.

Technology with Immense Potential

Quantum computing has the potential to solve problems that are currently too complex for even the most powerful classical computers. As the technology matures, it will unlock breakthroughs in areas such as drug discovery and general molecular design. Many drug discovery challenges relate to molecular simulation and require solving quantum mechanical equations that scale exponentially with molecular size – this is at the heart of what the concept of quantum computing was originally invented to handle.

As quantum hardware and algorithms mature, these capabilities may dramatically lower drug development attrition rates, lower R&D costs, and open the door to discovering entirely new classes of medicines.

“Supporting pioneering technologies is at the heart of our mission. Kvantify’s work at the intersection of quantum computing and life sciences represents a transformative opportunity for Europe to lead in next-generation innovation. We are glad to play a role in accelerating this vision,” said Svetoslava Georgieva, Chair of the EIC Fund Board.

Investment Set to Expand on Market Presence and Business Development

In November 2025, Kvantify launched Qrunch, a technology for running quantum chemistry on real quantum computers, strengthening the platform to accelerate drug discovery.

The next step will be to make this breakthrough technology available to users in the relevant domains to ensure uptake where it matters the most. This is the place at which visionary technologies meet real-world customer needs. Qrunch allows end users to run realistic workflows with present quantum hardware.

With this investment, Kvantify will be able to propel its roadmap as the leading company in coupling quantum and classical computing, as well as increasing collaborative partnerships with drug discovery organizations to make the biggest impact for customers.

“We see Kvantify as a key player in unlocking the potential of quantum computing for real-world applications in drug discovery and molecular design. This investment reflects our confidence in their team, technology, and ability to deliver impact in a rapidly evolving market,” said Mathias Lorenz, Managing Partner at Delphinus Venture Capital.

More from HPCwire

• AI Supercomputer Gefion Welcomes New Customer Kvantify to Simulate Quantum Computers
• Kvantify Raises $10.8M in Seed Funding to Propel Quantum Drug Discovery in Denmark

About Kvantify

Kvantify is a Danish company started in 2022, developing software products for both quantum and classical computers. Kvantify has a special focus on the life science industry, especially early drug discovery.

Source: Kvantify

The post Kvantify Completes 2nd Close of €7M Round to Advance Quantum Drug Discovery appeared first on HPCwire.

About 5 million US minors tend ill relatives due to gaps in our health infrastructure

When my mother experienced a botched spinal surgery 25 years ago, she was discharged from the hospital to her 11-year-old child waiting at home. Me.

After weeks in a rehabilitation facility, she was sent home in a neck brace and with a prescription for pain medication. She could no longer drive, and her long recovery prohibited her return to work as a registered nurse. When she was discharged, no one asked who would be living with her at home. She could not raise her arms above her head, yet no one asked who would feed, bathe or dress her. There was no one else in our family home but me. Ferrell, my 19-year-old brother, was away at college, and my parents divorced in my early childhood; my father lived thousands of miles away in Germany.

The National Videogame Museum has acquired an extremely rare MSF-1 development kit, believed to be the oldest surviving prototype of the canceled Nintendo PlayStation. Engadget reports: Nicknamed the Nintendo PlayStation, the idea was that a new CD-ROM format backed by Sony would be added to the cartridge-based Super NES, resulting in a hybrid console that could play both. The partnership didn't last long, though, with Nintendo backing out before it ever really got off the ground, announcing that it would instead be working with Philips. Sony decided to make the PlayStation on its own instead, in an act of revenge that you have to say paid off in the long run, and we never did get to see Crash Bandicoot running around the Mushroom Kingdom. Still, the short-lived Nintendo PlayStation remains a fascinating what-if scenario in video game history, and the USA's National Video Museum has acquired the original development kit.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The pair, 47 and 13, were found in a vehicle on Highway 60, Oklahoma officials said.

SEATTLE, March 6, 2026 — Xanadu Quantum Technologies Inc., a leading photonic quantum computing company, announced today that it has been selected to receive $2,027,507 in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). The funding is part of the Quantum Computing for Computational Chemistry (QC3) program that seeks to develop and apply quantum algorithms to accelerate simulations of chemistry and materials science to advance commercial energy applications ranging from superconducting power lines, advanced batteries, engineered rare earth magnets, and breakthrough catalytic systems.

“Xanadu is proud to have been selected by ARPA-E to develop a quantum simulation platform for next-generation batteries,” said Christian Weedbrook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu. “This award builds on our strong track record of working with government partners to address important, real-world challenges. As we get closer to our combination with Crane Harbor Acquisition Corp., we’re encouraged by the momentum we’re seeing with government partners. This ARPA-E selection is one of several opportunities we’re pursuing across both the United States and Canada, including a pipeline of potential awards that are significantly larger in scale. We look forward to sharing additional funding updates in the near term.”

Led by Xanadu, in partnership with the University of Chicago, the three year project will focus on developing quantum algorithms to study key processes of defect formations in battery materials. These simulations will yield critical data essential for accelerating the development of batteries with higher energy densities and extended longevity.

An ambitious goal of the project is to achieve a 100x reduction in runtime for these simulations compared to state-of-the-art classical methods, while maintaining high accuracy. To achieve this, Xanadu will develop specialized X-ray absorption spectroscopy and reaction rate algorithms, while University of Chicago material science experts will provide precise molecular structures and embedding models for simulations.

The potential impact of this research is significant. Beyond fast-tracking the development of practical high-energy-density batteries, the tools developed through this program will be designed for direct transferability to other high-value sectors essential to energy modernization, such as advancements in chemistry to support the nuclear sector, and key challenges in the production of ammonia and petrochemicals.

This partnership helps to position quantum computing as a cornerstone of materials innovation, demonstrating that fault-tolerant quantum platforms can solve the fundamental computational bottlenecks currently impeding novel energy technologies. Ultimately, this work aims to create a definitive roadmap for how quantum computing will underpin the future of global energy storage and industrial R&D for decades to come.

About Xanadu

Xanadu is a Canadian quantum computing company with the mission to build quantum computers that are useful and available to people everywhere. Founded in 2016, Xanadu has become one of the world’s leading quantum hardware and software companies. The company also leads the development of PennyLane, an open-source software library for quantum computing and application development.

Source: Xanadu

The post Xanadu Awarded $2M ARPA-E Grant to Advance Quantum Platform for Next-Gen Batteries appeared first on HPCwire.

Overcrowding, medical neglect and malnutrition are regular features of Camp East Montana in El Paso

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Serious medical and mental health emergencies have been routine at the nation’s largest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) federal detention facility since its opening last summer, according to records obtained by the Associated Press.

Data and recordings from more than a hundred 911 calls at the Camp East Montana detention facility on the sprawling Fort Bliss army base in El Paso, Texas, along with interviews and court filings, offer a disturbing portrait of overcrowding, medical neglect, malnutrition and emotional distress.

After its opening last August, staff at the camp made nearly one 911 call per day in its first five months of operation, according to records obtained of data covering 130 calls from the city of El Paso.

In one call, a man is heard sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee. In another, a doctor says a man is banging his head against the wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. In a third, a nurse says a pregnant woman is in severe pain and has the coronavirus.

Injured detainees ranged from a 19-year-old man who fell out of a bunk bed to a 79-year-old man struggling to breathe. At least 20 emergencies were reported as seizures, including some that resulted in serious head trauma.

The calls show traumatized detainees have repeatedly tried to harm themselves.

Experts say US influence over South American neighbour will be hard to replicate in country with deep and long-standing antipathy to the west

First, the CIA tracks the head of an oil-rich, US-baiting nation to a heavily guarded compound at the heart of his country’s mountain-flanked capital.

Then, that leader is removed from power with a deadly and irresistible show of US military force.

Amy Wallace spent years helping Giuffre write her life story. Now she reflects on what the survivor would have thought of the release of the Epstein files

There are many reasons why Amy Wallace wishes Virginia Roberts Giuffre was still alive. Some are personal. Some are practical. But at its heart pulse the reverberations of a child sex trafficking scandal that reaches into palaces and courtrooms across the globe.

Wallace is the now very visible ghostwriter behind the posthumous memoir Nobody’s Girl, by Jeffrey Epstein’s best-known accuser.

BARCELONA, Spain, March 6, 2026 — At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei unveiled the upgraded Xinghe AI Fabric 2.0 Solution and the industry’s first commercial 51.2T (128 × 400GE) liquid-cooled fixed switch—CloudEngine XH9230-128DQ-LC. These all-new offerings inject new momentum into the digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises worldwide.

Arthur Wang delivering a keynote speech. Credit: Huawei

Arthur Wang, President of the Data Center Network Domain, Huawei’s Data Communication Product Line, stated that data center networks have rapidly advanced from predominantly virtualization and cloud to a new stage of AI. The newly released Xinghe AI Fabric 2.0 Solution builds on a three-layer network architecture of AI Brain, AI Connectivity, and AI Network Elements, and integrates four core capabilities:

• Rock-Solid Architecture 2.0 that ensures three levels of high reliability with the AI Eagle-Eye Engine
• StarryWing Digital Map 2.0 that delivers three levels of automation with NetMaster
• Xinghuan AI Turbo 2.0 that offers Network Packet Load Balancing (NPLB) and Network Stream Load Balancing (NSLB) capabilities
• iFlashboot 2.0 that enables ultra-fast reboots within 5 seconds

Together, these innovations empower enterprises to build always-on AI agentic data center networks with full computing power.

Huawei also launched the industry’s first commercial 51.2T (128 × 400GE) liquid-cooled fixed switch—CloudEngine XH9230-128DQ-LC. This product provides 100% liquid cooling for optical modules, delivering twice the industry average heat dissipation efficiency. It supports the deployment of eight switches per cabinet, doubling the cabinet utilization efficiency.

Moreover, Huawei unveiled the full series of 800GE/400GE StarryLink optical modules, which stand out due to their reliability that is twice the industry average and ultra-long transmission capabilities.

Huawei’s data center network booth showcased the complete portfolio of 800GE products: CloudEngine XH16800 series modular switches with up to 768 × 800GE ports, CloudEngine XH9330 fixed switch with 128 × 800GE ports, CloudEngine XH9320 fixed switch with 64 × 800GE ports, and the full series of 800GE StarryLink optical modules. Other featured exhibitions included flagship products like CloudEngine XH9230-128DQ-LC, the industry’s first 51.2T high-density liquid-cooled switch.

Looking ahead, Huawei will remain committed to open collaboration, continuously deepening data center network technology innovation and advancing intelligent upgrades. Together with global customers and partners, Huawei will also drive joint innovation to create greater value for industries and customers alike.

Source: Huawei

The post Huawei Unveils the Upgraded Xinghe AI Fabric 2.0 Solution for the AI Era appeared first on HPCwire.

A Florida woman was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison and fined $50,000 for illegally trafficking thousands of Microsoft certificate-of-authenticity labels used to activate Windows and Office. Prosecutors said she bought genuine labels cheaply from suppliers and resold them without the accompanying licensed software, wiring over $5 million during the scheme. TechRadar reports: The indictment details how [52-year-old Heidi Richards] purchased tens of thousands of genuine COA labels from a Texas-based supplier between 2018 and 2023 for well below the retail value, before reselling them in bulk to customers globally without the licensed software. "COA labels are not to be sold separately from the license and hardware that they are intended to accompany, and they hold no independent commercial value," the US Attorney's Office wrote. Richards was found to have wired $5,148,181.50 to the unnamed Texas company during the scheme's operation. Some examples include the purchase of 800 Windows 10 COA labels in July 2018 for $22,100 (under $28 each) and a further 10,000 Windows 10 Pro COA labels in December 2022 for $200,000 ($20 each). Ultimately fined $50,000 and given a near-two-year sentence, prosecutors had sought to get Richards to pay $242,000, "which represents the proceeds obtained from the offenses."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The unemployment rate was 4.4% in February, with 126,000 jobs added in January

The US lost 92,000 jobs in February, an unexpected major slackening in the labor market that came just before Donald Trump threw the global economy into upheaval with his conflict in Iran.

The unemployment rate edged up to 4.4% in February. In comparison, the US added a revised 126,000 jobs in January, far surpassing expectations of 70,000 jobs but still less than January 2025. Economists predicted an increase of 60,000 jobs added in February and a steady unemployment rate of 4.3%.

Meg O’Neill will be first woman to serve as CEO of 117-year-oil firm when joining from Woodside Energy in April

The incoming chief executive of BP will take home at least £11.7m this year after joining the embattled oil company from a rival, more than double the pay packet earned by her predecessor.

Meg O’Neill will join BP from the Australian oil company Woodside Energy in April as the company’s first external hire to its top job, and the first woman to serve as chief executive at the 117-year-old oil major.

Republican congressman Tony Gonzales had repeatedly denied affair with former aide who later died by suicide

• US politics live – latest updates

Texas Republican congressman Tony Gonzales is ending his bid for re-election but said he will serve out his term, following his admitting, after repeated denials, that he had an affair with a former staff member who later died by suicide.

Gonzales announced his plan late on Thursday after facing calls from party leadership to withdraw from the race for re-election this November. Others in Congress had called on him to resign his seat.

• Aicher trims Vonn’s downhill lead to just 14 points

• Pirovano wins first race in 125th World Cup start

• USA’s Johnson third as overall title race tightens

With neither injured Lindsey Vonn nor Mikaela Shiffrin starting a World Cup downhill on Friday, Emma Aicher seized her chance to cut the American superstars’ leads in the season-long standings.

Aicher, the Olympic downhill silver medalist, placed second – just 0.01 behind first-time winner Laura Pirovano, pushing Olympic champion Breezy Johnson down to third – and reduced Vonn’s lead in the downhill points race to just 14 with two races left.

US military officials briefed on investigation make disclosure, while Pentagon has confirmed only that inquiry is under way

• Minab school bombing: how the worst mass casualty event of the Iran war unfolded – a visual guide

Military investigators believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls’ school that killed scores of children on Saturday but have not yet reached a final conclusion, according to two US officials.

Reuters was unable to determine further details about the investigation, including what evidence contributed to the tentative assessment, what type of munition was used, who was responsible or why the US might have struck the school.

Federal and local officials have announced more patrols, counterterrorism measures and heightened monitoring

Government officials across the US have taken new security measures because of fears that Iran, or its supporters, may launch attacks on targets in America to retaliate for the US and Israel’s bombing of the country.

Federal and local public officials have announced that they have taken steps such as increasing law enforcement patrols to prevent any attack, which could come directly from the Iranian regime or a lone actor, security experts said.

The AI workspace offers a dedicated space to organize plans and projects.

The Justice Dept. has released Jeffrey Epstein files involving uncorroborated accusations by a woman against President Trump that the department said had been mistakenly withheld.

The FBI said it "identified and addressed suspicious activities on FBI networks" and that it was responding but did not elaborate.

The targeting information has included the locations of American warships and aircraft in the Middle East, the officials said.

The law also includes a provision that allows Kansans to sue if they are “aggrieved” by someone of the opposite sex using a public restroom.

How will the Iran war affect the global economy? Expert comment jon.wallace 6 March 2026

Even a long war would have limited consequences for global GDP. But some emerging economies are vulnerable to persistent high energy prices. 

As the war with Iran enters its second week, the most immediate and tragic costs are measured in lives lost. Yet economists are obliged to consider another dimension: the economic consequences. These, too, could be significant – though their distribution across the world economy will be uneven. Some countries will bear substantial costs. For others, the impact may prove surprisingly modest.

The heaviest burden will inevitably fall on the region itself. History offers a guide. During the 12-day war last summer, Israel’s economy contracted by around 1 per cent in the second quarter. If the conflict is short-lived, a fall in output of a similar order of magnitude would seem plausible for both Israel and the Gulf economies. 

A more prolonged conflict would almost certainly inflict a deeper economic wound. Output would be disrupted, investment postponed and tourism curtailed. Iran’s economy will be hit even harder. Based on the impact of wars elsewhere, GDP is likely to fall by more than 10 per cent – although Iran itself last published official GDP data in 2024. 

But what of the global economy? Directly, the Middle East matters less than is often assumed. The Gulf economies account for only around 2-3 per cent of global GDP. Even a severe regional downturn would therefore have limited direct consequences for world output.

Chokepoints

Instead, the key risks surround disruptions to the supply of goods that economies in the region send to the rest of the world. Crises such as this have a habit of revealing chokepoints that were previously hidden. For example, Qatar produces around 40 per cent of the world’s helium, which is used in the production of semiconductors. The region is also a significant producer of ammonia and nitrogen, which are key ingredients in many synthetic fertilizer products. The real transmission channel, though, is energy.

Around a quarter of global seaborne oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, along with roughly one-fifth of liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments. Any disruption to transit through this narrow chokepoint has immediate consequences for global energy markets. Unsurprisingly, oil and gas prices have jumped over the past week as shipments through the Strait have collapsed. 

In economic terms, the mechanism through which such shocks operate is straightforward. Higher energy prices alter what economists call a country’s terms of trade – the price of its exports relative to its imports. When energy prices rise, income is transferred from energy-importing countries to energy exporters.

The economic consequences of that transfer depend on three factors: whether a country is a net importer or exporter of energy; how large and persistent the price rise proves to be; and how governments, households and businesses respond to the shift in income.

The obvious winners are large net energy exporters outside the Gulf whose ability to sell abroad is unaffected. Countries such as Norway, Russia and Canada stand to benefit the most from higher energy prices. (See Chart below.)

At the other end of the spectrum sit economies where energy imports account for a large share of GDP. This group includes countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India and China, as well as most European economies including France, Germany and the UK.

The United States sits somewhere in the middle. Thanks to the shale revolution, the country has shifted from being one of the world’s largest energy importers to a modest net exporter. In aggregate, that means the US economy as whole now benefits slightly from higher global energy prices – although the gains will be unevenly distributed.

The scale and persistence of the energy shock will ultimately determine the macroeconomic impact. For energy-importing economies, the main transmission channel is likely to be via inflation. Higher oil and gas prices raise the import bill faced by households and firms, squeezing real incomes and eroding purchasing power.

If the spike in prices proves brief, most advanced economies should be able to absorb the shock. Even if oil prices remain in the region of $70-80 per barrel and gas prices stay close to current levels, inflation in 2026 in Europe and Asia would probably be only around 0.5 percentage points higher than pre-conflict forecasts. The effect on real GDP growth would be small.

A more severe scenario would be different. If oil prices climbed towards $100 per barrel and remained elevated throughout the year – accompanied by a comparable rise in natural gas prices – inflation might be roughly one percentage point higher and GDP growth perhaps 0.25–0.4 percentage points lower. Those central banks that are still loosening policy – notably the Bank of England – would also become less comfortable with cutting interest rates further.

Even so, such a shock would be far smaller than the one that followed Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when Europe faced an abrupt and dramatic disruption to its energy supplies. The current conflict, unless it escalates dramatically, is unlikely to provoke large-scale fiscal rescue packages from governments.

Emerging markets and the US

In several emerging markets, the impact of higher energy prices is softened by government subsidies. In such cases, it would be the state rather than households and businesses that would bear the initial increase in costs. That will cushion the blow to growth in the short term but come at the expense of weaker public finances.

For most emerging economies this will be manageable: fiscal positions are generally stronger than they were a couple of decades ago. But in countries where energy subsidies remain extensive and government finances are already shaky, higher energy prices could unsettle bond markets. Economies such as Egypt and Tunisia appear particularly vulnerable. A surge in global energy prices could also destabilize Pakistan’s fragile economy. 

One final consequence of the conflict is that it is likely to reinforce a broader pattern in the world economy: the relative strength of the United States. Having moved from a large net importer of energy to a modest exporter, the US is now less exposed to global energy shocks than many of its peers. While American households will still face higher fuel prices, energy producers – and their investors – stand to benefit.

After getting up close to play with this new flavor of MacBook, it's clear Apple has something special here.

Andrew Hiers, a classically trained opera singer, turned to selling cars after struggling to find singing gigs. Then he decided to merge the two.

BEATRICE AQUAVIA
Associate Visuals and Layout Editor

Managing Visuals and Layout Editor Beatrice Aquavia captures Delaware Lacrosse’s game against Villanova.

Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, crushes our people and calls it freedom. We want engagement, not escalation

The day that will be remembered as one of the darkest days of the long and troubled US-Cuban relationship is 29 January. That was the day that Donald Trump declared Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, introduced a full-scale fuel blockade around the island, and turned off the lights for their home, schools and hospitals.

For Cubans Americans like me, the consequences of Trump’s declaration are not abstract. They are immediate, and devastating. Our families are running out of food. Our friends are unable to access medicine. While Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, speaks in the name of our “freedom”, he actively starves our communities of their most basic needs.

Danny Valdes is an activist from Miami and co-founder of Cuban Americans for Cuba

Predator drones and armored personnel carriers have become commonplace in US cities. Congress has the power to fix this

America’s main streets are a warzone. This should trouble every American, irrespective of their political leaning. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are near impossible to realize when our streets are policed so militarily. Our nation’s founders would be outraged, so as we commemorate the 250th anniversary this year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, it’s worth evaluating how far off the mark we are in maintaining that much-vaunted freedom and liberty.

This past year, especially, witnessed a troubling militarization of the streets, with Donald Trump’s deployment of ICE and the national guard in multiple US cities, including Washington DC, Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. There is substantial documentation of immigration enforcement using military-grade equipment transferred from the Pentagon. And from Chicago to California, homeland security officers’ use of flash-bang grenades, predator drones, and armored personnel carriers is now commonplace. But to be clear, Americans were already seeing their streets militarized due to the Pentagon’s 1033 Program, which was created by Congress in the 1990s and provides war equipment free of charge to America’s police forces. This militarization of law enforcement is now a local, state and federal agency problem.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 404 Media: Wikipedia editors have implemented new policies and restricted a number of contributors who were paid to use AI to translate existing Wikipedia articles into other languages after they discovered these AI translations added AI "hallucinations," or errors, to the resulting article. The new restrictions show how Wikipedia editors continue to fight the flood of generative AI across the internet from diminishing the reliability of the world's largest repository of knowledge. The incident also reveals how even well-intentioned efforts to expand Wikipedia are prone to errors when they rely on generative AI, and how they're remedied by Wikipedia's open governance model. The issue centers around a program run by the Open Knowledge Association (OKA), a nonprofit that was found to be "mostly relying on cheap labor from contractors in the Global South" to translate English Wikipedia articles into other languages. Some translators began using tools like Google Gemini and ChatGPT to speed up the process, but editors reviewing the work found numerous hallucinations, including factual errors, missing citations, and references to unrelated sources. "Ultimately the editors decided to implement restrictions against OKA translators who make multiple errors, but not block OKA translation as a rule," reports 404 Media.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The false promise of total victory.

Ihor Komarov, 28, was identified from DNA samples taken from the dismembered body and compared to those of his mother, police said.

Mediation by ‘some countries’ should address those who started conflict, Masoud Pezeshkian says in post on X

• Middle East crisis – live updates

Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has said for the first time that some countries have begun mediation efforts to end the war with the US and Israel, without identifying those countries, adding that any talks should address those who started the war.

Qatar, Turkey, Egypt and Oman have all offered to mediate at some point since US and Israel launched their joint strikes last Saturday. Two days ago, Iran’s foreign ministry said this was a time for defence of the country, not for diplomacy.

Residents of Lebanese capital fled in panic before assaults on claimed Hezbollah targets while Tehran continues to launch retaliatory attacks. Plus, why is Pedro Sánchez the only European leader to take on Trump?

Good morning.

Israel has launched intense strikes against the southern suburbs of Beirut just hours after its military ordered the entire population of the area – more than 500,000 people – to evacuate immediately.

What else is happening with the war? The US granted Indian refiners a 30-day waiver to buy Russian oil after the US-Israel war on Iran sparked fears of a supply crunch, lifting global prices. Barely a month ago, Donald Trump claimed India had agreed to stop purchasing oil from Russia, in a shift that he said would “help END THE WAR in Ukraine” by cutting off a key source of funds for Moscow.

This is a developing story. Follow our liveblog here.

How have the Democrats reacted? Democrats have cheered Noem’s departure, with Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, saying at a press conference: “Good riddance. She was a disaster.” But Jeffries said it would not change Democrats’ stance towards funding the homeland security department: “A change in personnel is not sufficient. We need a change in policy that has to be bold, dramatic, transformational and meaningful.”

Officers have decided former minister is not a flight risk, but he remains under investigation

Police have released Peter Mandelson from his bail conditions after deciding he was not a flight risk, the Guardian has learned.

Sources say the Metropolitan police have decided to drop the conditions they applied after arresting him on suspicion of misconduct in public office last month, though he remains under investigation.

After years of court action and complaints, trademark office in Spain rules name is counter to ‘public order and morality’

A Spanish restaurant chain called The Mafia Sits at the Table may soon have to change its name after the country’s patent and trademark office heeded objections from the Italian government and ruled that the brand’s nomenclature ran counter to “both public order and morality”.

Italy has pursued its claim against the chain – known in Spanish as La Mafia se sienta a la mesa – through various courts and official bodies over the past few years, alleging that the name trivialises both organised crime and efforts to fight it.

The USS Arizona sank just nine minutes after being bombed, and its 1,177 dead account for nearly half the servicemen killed in the attack.

UK arguments for US operations from its bases blur the line between lawful self-defence and unlawful war on Iran  Expert comment jon.wallace 6 March 2026

The UK claims any US aircraft flying from bases like Fairford and Diego Garcia can only act in defence of British regional allies. Such a distinction may be unrealistic in a theatre of war.

The UK has taken a step closer to involvement in the US and Israeli war against Iran. 

The UK government initially refused President Donald Trump’s request to use its military bases in support of the war with Iran. But on 1 March, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced he would, after all, permit the use of UK military bases such as RAF Fairford in the UK and the overseas base on Diego Garcia. This is to be limited to ‘defensive’ action against missiles and drones based in Iran. This limited concession was reportedly negotiated with Washington, in accordance with London’s view on the legal issues involved.

Throughout, the prime minister has been adamant that the UK has not participated in the initial US and Israeli offensive, and that this remains the case. He argued that the UK would, under his leadership, never contemplate going to war without a legal basis. This seems to confirm reports that the UK attorney general may have advised that the US and Israeli operation is not in accordance with international law.

Few states have been willing to say so publicly. And some have endorsed the attacks. But the UN Secretary-General has confirmed that the US-Israeli attacks on Iran violate the fundamental prohibition of the use of force. This view is widely shared among the legal expert community. 

And some governments are now finding their voice in defending the international legal order, including Spain and France, with Canada belatedly also joining in.

Countries also routinely refuse the use of foreign bases on their territory for aggressive operations. They will even deny the right of overflight over their territory by foreign forces heading for a controversial military operation. 

Compliance with international law is not optional for the UK. According to the Ministerial Code, members of the government, including the prime minister, have the ‘overarching duty to comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations’. 

How then is the UK government attempting to square the circle of credibly supporting its regional allies without becoming a party to the war against Iran?

The UK’s complicated legal arguments

The United Nations Definition of Aggression confirms that a state must not allow ‘territory placed at the disposal of another state to be used by that other state for perpetrating an act of aggression against a third state’.

However, merely allowing the use of a base on UK territory for hostile action against a third state would not necessarily constitute an act of aggression. Deeper involvement may be required. 

Still, by giving in to the initial US request, the UK would have risked assuming a share of the international legal responsibility for the attacks against Iran. 

Iran invoked its right to self-defence in response to the US attacks, announcing that ‘all bases, facilities, and assets of the hostile forces in the region shall be regarded as legitimate military objectives within the framework of Iran’s lawful exercise of self-defense.’ However, that would only be lawful if these facilities on the territory of third states were indeed all involved in the conflict.

Regional states hosting US bases adamantly assert that they have not permitted the launch of any attacks against Iran from those bases. Indeed, several countries tried to dissuade the US from launching the operation in the first place. Despite these efforts, Iran has attacked many of its neighbours in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Iraq. Iran has therefore itself committed an act of aggression against these regional states – one compounded by the indiscriminate nature of the attacks.

While the UK did not participate in the initial attack on Iran, Starmer has reported that it has had ‘planes in the sky’ since the outbreak of the conflict to help intercept missiles and drones directed against regional allies. 

Related work

With Iran attacks, President Trump is making the use of force the new normal – and casting aside international law 

The UK can rely on its own right to self-defence if Iran targets groups of UK citizens in the Gulf specifically because they are UK citizens. The UK also has a right under international law to a limited and proportionate answer to the apparent Iranian drone attack against its military base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, which is sovereign UK territory. However, the UK seems reluctant to take such action, perhaps to avoid entering a direct, escalatory conflict with Iran.

The UK attorney general clarified in the summary of his advice that, ‘as well as defending itself and its position in the region, the UK is acting in the collective self-defence of regional allies who have requested support’. However, this describes a kind of passive defence, trying to intercept missiles and drones as they approach the Gulf states. UK forces will not mount an active defence against missile installations ‘at source’ in Iran, in support of the Gulf states. Instead, authority has been granted to the US to do so, using UK bases. 

It is not clear whether this means that the US is doing so under UK licence, as it were, acting to implement London’s right to collective self-defence in aid of the Gulf states – or whether the US is acting in their defence under its own steam. 

A delicate distinction

This complicated UK approach seems to blur the distinction between the unlawful US and Israeli war against Iran, and the lawful UK campaign to defend regional allies against unjustified Iranian assaults using US assets operating from UK bases. 

The UK is attempting to shore up that distinction by indicating that strict rules are in place to ensure that the UK bases are only used for strikes against ‘missile facilities in Iran which were involved in launching strikes at regional allies’. But it may not be realistic or practical to determine in each instance which Iranian missiles facilities have targeted regional allies or, more to the point, which will do so in the future. Presumably some have been used to attack both Israel and US forces, and regional states.

Iran will certainly not be persuaded by this distinction. Its authorities will not be able to tell which US strikes launched from UK bases aim to protect UK regional allies, and which are part of the US’s overall aggressive campaign to subdue its government. 

The attorney general adds that the UK bases may only be used for strikes against missile facilities used by Iran against ‘countries not previously involved in the conflict’. In other words, according to this distinction, it is out of the question for US aircraft flying from UK bases to strike Iran to protect US forces in the region or to preserve Israel from counterattacks.

US pilots launching from UK bases may find it difficult to accept that they can only engage offensive Iranian weapons that threaten the Gulf states, but not those that threaten their own forces amidst a deadly, live conflict. 

Presumably, the somewhat complicated legal rationale of the UK government is meant to facilitate US action at the behest of close regional allies, and to alleviate the fury of US President Donald Trump at having initially been denied the use of the UK bases – without slipping too far towards becoming a party to a conflict that lacks a legal basis. 

In truth, though, the euphemism of the UK having had ‘planes in the sky’ since the beginning of the conflict does not really overcome one fact. 

Entering the theatre of conflict and shooting down Iranian drones and missiles that are unlawfully targeting regional allies may be laudable. But in a sense, doing so already makes the UK a party to the conflict – at least the conflict between Iran and those regional states – however defensive the UK’s role may be. Moreover, if the Gulf states decide to respond by striking Iran, as they are entitled to, the UK could become involved in more active defence.

Despite the fine legal craftmanship underpinning it, Starmer’s decision potentially makes it just a little more difficult for the UK to maintain the distinction between involvement in defence of itself and its allies, and involvement in the principal conflagration between Iran and the US and Israel.

Investigation finds three were hacked by Paragon spyware at same time, potentially fuelling questions for government

Italian prosecutors investigating a domestic spying scandal say they have independently confirmed that two immigration activists and a journalist were hacked at the same time in late 2024, suggesting all three were part of the same “infection campaign”.

The development could bring more questions for the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni, who has denied any involvement in the hacking of the journalist, the Fanpage editor-in-chief, Francesco Cancellato.