U.S. officials confirmed that an F-15E fighter jet went down over Iran.
Iran claims it shot down a U.S. fighter jet, and two sources confirmed to CBS News that a search and rescue operation was underway.
Iran shot down a U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter jet, U.S. officials said on Friday.
The officials told The Intercept that the military hastily mounted a search-and-rescue operation to reach the survivors before Iranian forces did.
The downing of the U.S. plane undermined an assertion of strength President Donald Trump made in a nationally televised speech earlier this week.
“They have no anti-aircraft equipment. Their radar is 100 percent annihilated,” Trump said Wednesday. “We are unstoppable as a military force.”
A month ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iranian leaders were “looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli air power every minute of every day until we decide it’s over.” He continued: “Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B-1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long.”
Neither the White House nor the Pentagon responded to requests for comment on how Iran could down an advanced U.S. aircraft when the country supposedly no longer possesses anti-aircraft weaponry.
The loss of the F-15 is the first known instance of an American combat aircraft shot down in Iran since the war began in late February. It comes after Trump repeatedly threatened critical infrastructure in Iran and the U.S. struck the B1 bridge outside of Tehran, which killed eight people and wounded 95, according to Iranian news media.
The U.S. officials told The Intercept that the aircraft had a two-person crew and that their fate was currently unknown.
Last week, at least 15 U.S. troops were wounded in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops.
The U.S. military has previously provided misleading and stale casualy statistics, in what a defense official who spoke with The Intercept called a “casualty cover-up.”
At least 15 U.S. troops in the Middle East have died since the beginning of the Iran war, including six personnel who were killed in a drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, and a soldier who died due to an “enemy attack on March 1, 2026, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.” More than 520 U.S. personnel have also been injured, according to an Intercept analysis.
On Friday, Iranian state media published pictures and videos that they claimed show parts of the downed plane and one of the ejection seats.
The post Iran Shoots Down F-15 Fighter Jet After Trump Bragged They Had No Capability appeared first on The Intercept.
Despite hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, nearly half of planned U.S. data center projects are being delayed or canceled. "One major reason behind these setbacks is the availability of key electrical components -- such as transformers, switchgear, and batteries -- that are used both at data center sites and outside of them," reports Tom's Hardware. "Meanwhile, grid infrastructure is also stressed by electric vehicles and electrified heating systems." Tom's Hardware reports: Approximately 12 gigawatts (12 GW) of data center capacity is expected to come online in the U.S. in 2026, according to data by market intelligence firm Sightline Climate cited by Bloomberg. Yet only about one-third of that capacity is currently under active construction because of various constraints. Electrical infrastructure represents less than 10% of total data center cost, but it is as vital as compute hardware. A delay in any single element of the power chain can halt the entire project, which makes transformers, switchgear, and similar devices critical items despite their relatively small share of CapEx. Due to high demand, lead times for high-power transformers have expanded dramatically in the U.S.: delivery typically took 24 to 30 months before 2020, but waiting periods can stretch to as long as five years today, according to Sightline Climate cited by Bloomberg. For AI data centers, this is a catastrophe as their deployment cycles are under 18 months. To address shortages, companies are turning to global markets. As a result, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea became the biggest suppliers of high-power transformers for AI data centers to AI data centers. At the same time, imports of high-power transformers from China surged from fewer than 1,500 units in 2022 to more than 8,000 units in 2025 through October, according to Wood Mackenzie data cited by Bloomberg. The volatility of exports from China does not end with transformers, as the PRC accounts for over 40% of U.S. battery imports, while its share in certain transformer and switchgear categories remains near 30%, according to Bloomberg.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fate of the fighter jet’s crew remains unclear as person familiar with the matter says plane was shot down over Iran
Authorities in Abu Dhabi have reported two incidents of debris falling from intercepted aerial threats in the UAE capital, with one sparking a fire at a gas facility,
The official Abu Dhabi Media Office said authorities responded to an incident of falling debris at the Habshan gas facilities. “Operations have been suspended while authorities respond to a fire,” it said in a post on X, adding that no injuries were reported.
Continue reading...Ten years after the Brexit vote, Trump’s disdain and insults are fuelling the belief that the UK should renew ties with Europe
Going anywhere nice this summer?
No, me neither, judging by the warning from the Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, that a global shortage of jet fuel caused by the Iran war may soon lead to cancelled flights. Suddenly a week in Cornwall looks a safer bet, though even that will be a stretch for some families as the cost of long car journeys heads through the roof. When the representatives of more than 40 countries held talks in London earlier this week to discuss unblocking the strait of Hormuz, they convened virtually, not in person. This is no time to be seen boarding a private jet.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?
On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby Hinsliff, Zoe Williams, Polly Toynbee and Rafael Behr as they discuss how much of a threat Labour faces from the Green party and Reform UK – and whether Keir Starmer can survive as leader. Book tickets here
President also requests additional $63bn in DHS funds and proposes privatizing TSA security screening
A reminder that my colleagues are covering the latest out of the Middle East at our dedicated live blog.
This includes Donald Trump’s recent comments on Truth Social that “with a little more time” he could open strait of Hormuz. The president added that reopening the vital passageway would allow the US to “TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A ‘GUSHER’ FOR THE WORLD.”
Continue reading...Victim of Woolwich shooting named as Eghosa Ogbebor as two boys and 18-year-old man held on suspicion of murder
Police have launched a murder investigation after a 14-year-old boy was fatally shot in Woolwich, south-east London. Three teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder.
Officers received reports of a shooting on Lord Warwick Street, Woolwich, at about 3.40pm on Thursday, the Metropolitan police said.
Continue reading...The price of silver saw major swings in the first quarter of 2026. Here's everything investors need to know now.
It’s the first known loss of an American aircraft inside Iranian territory since the war began a month ago.
The move, described by the communist government as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture,” comes as the U.S. enforces a crippling oil blockade on the island.
April 3, 2026 — With its unparalleled infrastructure and extensive expertise, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZJ) is at the forefront of harnessing the full potential of key technologies.
Graphic of the FZJ stand at HANNOVER MESSE 2026. The CUPITER AI demonstrator will be expanded at the stand to include three themed zones focusing on future computing, energy and Jülich’s research infrastructures. Image credit: Martin Sinken / GROSSE8 visuelle Kommunikation GmbH & Co.KG.
At HANNOVER MESSE 2026 from April 20 to 24, Forschungszentrum Jülich will showcase current projects, start-ups, and exhibits in the fields of artificial intelligence, high performance computing (HPC), research infrastructures, and sustainable energy systems.
Discover AI with CUPITER
The centerpiece of Forschungszentrum Jülich’s exhibition stand is the AI demonstrator CUPITER. This interactive exhibit brings to life key research topics at Forschungszentrum Jülich in the context of artificial intelligence. Many of these data- and computation-intensive applications are made possible by high-performance infrastructures such as JUPITER, the first European exascale supercomputer, which is based at Forschungszentrum Jülich. CUPITER is complemented by three themed zones focusing on future computing, energy, and research infrastructures. Here, researchers will present current projects and opportunities for collaboration.
Experts on Stage
In addition to its stand, Forschungszentrum Jülich also features in the HANNOVER MESSE conference program. Chair of the Board of Directors Prof. Dr. Astrid Lambrecht is a speaker on the panel discussing the topic of “Quantum technologies for the sovereignty and competitiveness of the European industry”. The speakers from science, industry, and politics will take a look at how quantum technologies can be brought from research to application more quickly as well as the steps required to strengthen Europe’s technological competitiveness.
Where Innovation and Collaboration Convene
HANNOVER MESSE is the most important trade fair in the world and a key platform for future technologies. Forschungszentrum Jülich will use this occasion to strengthen its role as an experienced and reliable partner for business and industry, expanding collaborations and advancing the practical application or research results.
Visitors will find Forschungszentrum Jülich in Hall 11, Stand B22.
For an overview of FZJ projects and start-ups, general information about the exhibition, , and the FZJ stand, click here.
Source: Forschungszentrum Jülich
The post Jülich Takes AI, Energy, and Research Infrastructures to HANNOVER MESSE 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.
Effort to curb grade inflation, by limiting top marks to 20% of students in a course, is opposed by most students
Harvard’s faculty is set to vote next week on a faculty committee proposal to cap the number of A grades per course in an effort to curb grade inflation.
The proposal, which was first reported earlier this year by the Harvard Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, would cap A grades to 20% of students in a course, with an allowance for four additional As. It also would introduce a new internal “average percentile rank” system, which would rely on raw scores rather than grade point average (GPA) to determine honors and awards.
Continue reading...If debt collectors can sue but can't collect, you may have more leverage than you think. Here's how to tell.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Perplexity's AI search engine encourages users to go deeper with their prompts by engaging in chat sessions that a lawsuit has alleged are often shared in their entirety with Google and Meta without users' knowledge or consent. "This happened to every user regardless of whether or not they signed up for a Perplexity account," the lawsuit alleged, while stressing that "enormous volumes of sensitive information from both subscribed and non-subscribed users" are shared. Using developer tools, the lawsuit found that opening prompts are always shared, as are any follow-up questions the search engine asks that a user clicks on. Privacy concerns are seemingly worse for non-subscribed users, the complaint alleged. Their initial prompts are shared with "a URL through which the entire conversation may be accessed by third parties like Meta and Google." Disturbingly, the lawsuit alleged, chats are also shared with personally identifiable information (PII), even when users who want to stay anonymous opt to use Perplexity's "Incognito Mode." That mode, the lawsuit charged, is a "sham." "'Incognito' mode does nothing to protect users from having their conversations shared with Meta and Google," the complaint said. "Even paid users who turned on the 'Incognito' feature still had their conversations shared with Meta and Google, along with their email addresses and other identifiers that allowed Meta and Google to personally identify them." "Perplexity's failure to inform its users that their personal information has been disclosed to Meta and Google or to take any steps to halt the continued disclosure of users' information is malicious, oppressive, and in reckless disregard" of users' rights, the lawsuit alleged. "Nothing on Perplexity's website warns users that their conversations with its AI Machine will be shared with Meta and Google," Doe alleged. "Much less does Perplexity warn subscribed users that its 'Incognito Mode' does not function to protect users' private conversations from disclosure to companies like Meta and Google."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
President Trump's new budget proposal asks Congress for $1.5 trillion in defense spending — a 42% increase — while cutting nondefense spending by $73 billion, or 10%.
Hiring was much stronger than expected in March, with employers adding roughly three times the number of jobs economists predicted.
A look at the features for this week's broadcast of the Emmy-winning program, hosted by Jane Pauley.
The photo shows the entire planet, as well as the Northern and Southern lights.
Downing of fighter plane – the first shot down over Iran since start of war – prompts frantic US rescue effort
A US F-15E fighter has been shot down over Iran, prompting a frantic US search and rescue effort for its two-strong crew, in the first such incident since the start of the war.
Iranian state media released images of a tail fin and other debris early on Friday accompanied by an initial claim that a US F-35 had been hit by a new air defence system over central Iran and the pilot probably killed.
Continue reading...Golfer has pled not guilty to DUI charges in Florida
Footage shows Woods’s shock: ‘I’m being arrested?’
Hydrocodone pills found in pocket following arrest
Bodycam footage of Tiger Woods’s arrest for DUI shows the golfer looking surprised when he was handcuffed by police officers at the scene of a vehicle crash last week and telling a deputy he had spoken to “the president” on the phone after the incident.
“I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you’re under an unknown substance, so at this time you’re under arrest for DUI,” Martin County Sheriff’s deputy Tatiana Levenar told Woods after officers conducted a series of field sobriety exercises on the 50-year-old.
Continue reading...
Bruce Blakeman, a Long Island Republican running for governor, said his actions as Nassau County executive have "made" Nassau County the safest county in America.
In a recent Instagram post, Blakeman wrote, "As Nassau County Executive, I hired 600 new law enforcement officers and made Nassau the safest county in America." His website says he "turned Nassau County into the #1 safest county in America." Blakeman has touted what he calls his "no-nonsense" approach to fighting crime in his statewide campaign to unseat Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Blakeman, who defeated Democratic incumbent Laura Curran in 2021 and assumed office in 2022, bases his "safest county" claim on a U.S. News and World Report designation. The media outlet periodically publishes a list ranking counties on crime, injuries and public safety capacity. Nassau County, home to 1.4 million people, was named the safest county in 2022 and 2024, during his tenure.
But it was also named the safest county under Curran in 2020 and 2021.
We checked Blakeman’s claim that he hired 600 new "law enforcement officers."
Blakeman’s spokesperson provided PolitiFact with a list of 638 new hires across seven job titles during Blakeman’s tenure in the police, corrections, probation, and fire departments. They include: 396 police officers, 178 correction officers, 16 deputy sheriffs, 24 fire marshals and marshal trainees, and 24 probation officers and trainees.
We asked whether the new employees replaced retirees but did not receive a response.
The Nassau County comptroller keeps records of each filled position, through 2025. Between 2021 and 2025, the records show increases in total department employment in police (111 positions), fire (40 positions), corrections (110 positions), and probation (34 positions), for a total of 295 new positions. But from 2022, Blakeman's first year, to 2025, there’s a loss of 396 positions in the police department and a loss of five positions in corrections.
There is no evidence of 600 new "law enforcement officers."
The number of jobs in some categories went up, but fell in others, according to the data, which does not include hires in 2026. The number of police officers decreased overall. There were 1,937 police officers in 2021. The number increased to 2,193 in 2022, but fell to 1,932 in 2025. The number of police detectives and sergeants increased by five and 15, respectively from 2021. But the number of police lieutenants and sergeant-detectives decreased by 19 and six, respectively. There were 34 more corrections officers and 26 more corrections corporals. There were also 11 more deputy sheriffs in 2025 than in 2021.
To give this claim context, we looked at crime statistics in Nassau County. There are seven index crimes: murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft. The rate of index crimes increased by 28% from 2021, just before Blakeman took office, to 2024, according to the most recent data available.
The rate of violent crimes went up by 18% since 2021, and the rate of property crimes increased by 29%. Since 2022, the murder rate has steadily increased, while the murder rate statewide has decreased. Still, Nassau’s murder rate in 2024 was one-third the rate of the entire state. The rate of all index crime in Nassau has fallen by 13% between 2022, Blakeman’s first year in office, and 2024, while the rate of all violent crime has remained flat. Historic fluctuations in the rate for all index crimes Nassau are similar to fluctuations statewide. However, statewide rates are higher, and since 2022, the statewide rate has fallen by just .6%, much less than Nassau's drop of 13%.
Our ruling
If Blakeman had said he kept Nassau County the "safest county" in America, or that he hired 638 additional law enforcement officers, the ruling would be favorable toward him.
But that is not what he said as he presses his case on the campaign trail.
His office claims 638 new hires in public safety, but many appear to be filling positions of people who left or retired.
And the county employs fewer police officers than when he took office, according to 2025 data.
Indeed, Nassau County earned the "safest county" designation under Blakeman’s watch. But Nassau County had that designation in the two years before he took office, so his predecessor had those bragging rights, too.
His statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, so we rate this claim Mostly False.
St. Bonaventure University students Conor Amendola and Ryan Lombardi contributed to this report.
Your robot vacuum isn't broken; you may be hurting its performance. CNET spoke with experts to learn simple fixes for getting your bot back to peak cleaning condition.
Petrol has risen 19% and diesel 35%, while in England the north has had the sharpest increases
Fuel prices have risen faster in Northern Ireland than in any other UK region since the beginning of the Iran war.
Analysis of official data shows petrol has jumped by 19% in Northern Ireland since the end of February, and diesel is now 35% more expensive. The rises are among the largest in Europe.
Continue reading...The telco’s sweeping price changes and the closure of its cheaper ‘starter’ plan risk putting off many of its loyal customers
Telstra has long traded on its claim to have better – and far more expansive – mobile coverage than its rivals to justify a steep pricing premium that has accelerated in recent years.
But the telco’s latest changes, which include steep price hikes and the closure of its cheaper “starter” plan to new users, combined with a dramatic rejection of its coverage claims by the industry regulator, risk putting off many of its traditional customers, according to consumer advocates.
Continue reading...The interest-earning potential of a $25,000 2-year CD is sizable, but it's not the only savings account to consider.
Proposal, a win for RFK Jr’s Maha movement, is a ‘first step’ toward tackling plastic pollution, advocates say
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities.
Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said the agency was responding to Americans who have worried about plastics and pharmaceuticals in their drinking water. The gesture also aims to hand a win to health secretary Robert FKennedy Jr’s Maha movement, which for months has pressured Zeldin to further crack down on environmental contaminants.
Continue reading...The four-person Artemis II crew has officially left Earth's orbit and is headed toward the moon. Here's everything you need to know about the momentous mission.
NASUWT says full entitlement should be increased to 26 weeks and paternity pay also improved
Full maternity pay for teachers across the UK should be increased to 26 weeks to help stem the exodus of women in their 30s from classrooms, a union leader has said.
Matt Wrack, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said it was a “national scandal” that so many teachers who quit said inadequate maternity support was one of the reasons.
Continue reading...The 62-year-old was arrested for wearing a penis costume to an Alabama No Kings protest — then prosecutors doubled down.
Looking to buy a home or refinance your current one now? These are the mortgage interest rates you'll need to know.
Capsule’s engine fires up for six minutes, putting crew on track to reach farthest distance travelled by humans in space
The four astronauts on the Artemis II mission are approaching 100,000 miles from Earth as they head towards the moon, putting them on track to reach the farthest distance humans have ever travelled into space.
The crew have left Earth’s orbit and fired their engines on Thursday for a “translunar injection”, sending the Orion capsule on its trajectory towards the moon.
Continue reading...Alan Turing Institute told by funder to offer better strategy and more value for money after board was reminded of legal duties by watchdog
The UK’s leading AI research institute has been told to make “significant” changes by its main source of taxpayer funding.
The Guardian revealed last week that the board of the Alan Turing Institute was reminded of its legal duties by the charity watchdog after a whistleblower complaint.
Continue reading...CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 3, 2026 — CavilinQ, a quantum hardware startup, has announced it has raised $8.8 million in seed funding to develop the interconnect hardware necessary to scale quantum computers beyond today’s single-processor limits. The round was led by QVT, with participation from Safar Partners, MFV Partners, Serendipity Capital, and Harper Court Ventures.
From left: Brandon Grinkemeyer, Co-Founder, CTO; and Shankar Menon, Co-Founder, CEO. Credit: CavilinQ.
The quantum industry has reached exciting milestones by performing verifiable calculations that challenge classical supercomputers. However, achieving broad, reliable real-world impact remains limited by the scaling challenge. To address this, CavilinQ is developing cavity-enhanced photonic links that enable individual quantum processors to operate together as modular, high-performance clusters.
“While we’ve seen impressive demonstrations of quantum utility on specialized tasks, solving real-world problems has been limited by the physical limits of current isolated processors,” said Shankar G. Menon, CEO of CavilinQ. “We are building the interconnects that unify isolated processors into one distributed processor, providing the infrastructure to make large-scale, fault-tolerant computing a reality.”
The company’s approach leverages high-fidelity light-matter interfaces, a field pioneered by its scientific co-founders Mikhail Lukin (Harvard University) and Hannes Bernien (University of Chicago / University of Innsbruck). While the technology is platform agnostic, CavilinQ will initially demonstrate integration with neutral atom quantum processors, a leading modality for large-scale quantum processing.
“With recent advances toward full-scale, fault-tolerant quantum processors, networking has become an increasingly important priority,” said Arthur Chu, Managing Partner at QVT. “We believe that CavilinQ’s technology will support multiple orders of magnitude increases in networking speed compared to other quantum networking technologies.”
The seed funding will support the establishment of a specialized laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the expansion of a team, and the demonstration of key technology milestones.
“Even classical computing as we know it is built on the premise that processors are more powerful connected than isolated,” said Brandon Grinkemeyer, CTO of CavilinQ. “Quantum computing will be no different, and every path to meaningful scale will require a modular architecture. We have the right team and the right technology to push quantum computing to utility scale.”
Visit the CavilinQ website for more information.
Source: CavilinQ
The post CavilinQ Secures $8.8M Seed Round to Develop Quantum Interconnects for Scalable Systems appeared first on HPCwire.
International law experts ‘seriously concerned’ about ‘strikes on schools, health centres and homes’ in contravention of Geneva conventions
Donald Trump, other senior US officials and their cheerleaders appear to be embracing attacks – and threats of attacks – on Iranian civilian infrastructure, which legal experts say appears to constitute serious war crimes under international law.
In a rambling national address on Wednesday, the US president warned that if Iran did not reach an unspecified deal with him, US forces would “hit each and every one of their electric-generating plants” and “bring [Iran] back to the stone ages – where they belong”.
Continue reading...Decisions on the White House ballroom, public media and journalists’ access to the Pentagon are heartening. But restoring our institutions is up to us
In another one of those strange and unprecedented moments of the Trump years, the president of the United States showed up at the supreme court the other day. No other presidents have done so, probably because they – to varying degrees – respected the separation of power among the three branches of US government.
But Trump has not shown himself to share in that basic principle.
Continue reading...Shop around, coast downhill, band together – drivers tell of how they’re dealing with the costliest gas in the US
Jack Nooney has pretty much made peace with the traffic since moving to Los Angeles five years ago, but recent soaring gas prices have certainly added another layer of insult to his daily commute. The musician and full-time grocery deli employee drives from his San Fernando Valley apartment to Santa Monica daily. While it’s just nine miles each way, with LA traffic that often equates to a whole gas-burning hour.
Nooney, who makes $20/hour, says it’s become glaringly clear that fuel costs will eat up more of his already tight budget. Angelenos are now paying on average nearly $5.90 a gallon – and some stations are charging a shocking $8 a gallon. The outsized prices are directly related to the Iran war, which has created the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market, according to the International Energy Agency.
Continue reading...Research for TUC analyses link between job quality and economic inactivity, as UK youth unemployment rises
Young people in the UK are more likely to leave their job for health reasons and become economically inactive when they work in insecure, low-paid sectors, a study has found.
Research carried out for the Trades Union Congress by the consultancy Timewise charts a connection between the jobs young people are most likely to do – in hospitality, retail and care, for example – and the proportion of people leaving because of ill health.
Continue reading...TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 3, 2026 — COMPUTEX 2026 will take place from June 2 to June 5 at Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 and Nangang Exhibition Center Halls 1 and 2. TAITRA, the co-organizer, is proud to announce that Cisco, a global leader in networking and computing, will join the COMPUTEX Keynote lineup for the first time. Jeremy Foster, Senior Vice President, will deliver a keynote address on June 1, sharing how a full-stack approach can help organizations transform AI from a concept into a mission-critical reality.
Cisco Makes Its Debut at COMPUTEX Keynote: SVP Jeremy Foster to Unveil “A Full Stack Approach to AI”
In this keynote, Jeremy Foster will discuss “A Full Stack Approach to AI.” He will share insights on how Cisco is helping organizations move AI from proof-of-concept to mission-critical deployment, where the challenge shifts from accessing compute to effectively utilizing it. In an environment demanding greater performance, density, and efficiency, he will discuss how a secure, full-stack approach from the data center to the edge enables higher throughput, faster deployment, and more efficient resource utilization. Additionally, he will provide perspectives on building production-ready architectures that deliver predictable, measurable performance while reducing operational risk and complexity at scale.
Global Tech Leaders Gather at COMPUTEX 2026 – Registration Open in mid-April
In addition to Cisco’s debut appearance, global technology leaders including Qualcomm, Intel, Marvell, MediaTek, and NXP will explore the future of AI.
Meanwhile, early-bird registration for the COMPUTEX Forum is now available. Those who purchase tickets by April 20 will gain access to all 29 forum sessions with a single pass and have the opportunity to enter an exclusive early-bird drawing to win an AI laptop.
COMPUTEX 2026, themed “AI Together,” is scheduled to take place from June 2 to June 5 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Halls 1 & 2 and Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC). This year’s event features a grand scale, expecting to host 1,500 exhibitors across 6,000 booths, focusing on three core pillars: AI & Computing, Robotics & Mobility, and Next-Gen Tech.
Cisco Keynote details:
For more exhibition information:
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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 Cisco Joins COMPUTEX 2026 Keynote Lineup with Focus on Full-Stack AI appeared first on HPCwire.
The eye drops — sold under multiple brands — have been recalled over concerns about sterility, according to the FDA.
We ran the numbers to find which meal kit service offers the most value for your money compared to grocery store prices.
Employers added 178,000 new jobs in March and unemployment rate fell to 4.3%, ahead of economists’ predictions
The US labor market picked up in March as employers showed signs of resilience amid the US-Israel war in Iran.
After an extraordinary contraction in February, employers added 178,000 jobs last month, ahead of economists’ expectations of about 70,000.
Continue reading...Pam Bondi and Kristi Noem only two cabinet members to be fired despite string of scandals facing male officials. Plus, why New Yorkers are swapping gas for induction stoves
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Good morning.
Donald Trump has been accused of running a “misogynistic administration” after Pam Bondi became the second woman to be fired from a cabinet already dominated by men.
Who will replace Bondi? Trump said Todd Blanche, her deputy, would serve as acting attorney general. Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressman who now leads the Environmental Protection Agency, is said to be a top contender to replace Bondi.
How badly has Iran been affected? At least 1,900 people have been killed and 20,000 injured in Iran since the start of the war, according to a rough estimate by the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Continue reading...As casualties mount, those who share a home state with the deceased in Iowa, Kentucky or Ohio question war’s legality
Upon the headstones at the Dayton National Cemetery in south-west Ohio are the names of the numerous wars fallen soldiers buried here have fought in: Korea, Vietnam and Iraq.
At the center of this sprawling, manicured cemetery for veterans and service members, ground staff and three machines this week have cleared space for a new grave site. It will be the place where one of the first victims of a new US conflict – the 2026 war on Iran – will be laid to rest on Friday.
Continue reading...Havana calls releases a Holy Week humanitarian gesture as Russian tanker is allowed to reach oil-starved island
Cuba has announced plans to pardon 2,010 prisoners as a “humanitarian” gesture during Holy Week, amid heightened US pressure on the government in Havana.
The announcement on Thursday came days after Donald Trump eased a de facto oil blockade of Cuba by allowing a Russian tanker to deliver crude oil to the nation.
Continue reading...Enjoy all the best savings without having to put in any of the work.
Some Trump aides and supporters cloak the war on Iran in religious terms, but the Chicago-born pope said that God “does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war.”
CNET reporters look back on how Apple shaped our childhood, and what it was like covering the tech giant.
Nearly a year after her husband Harold Allen died, Marsha Allen's Indiana home was burglarized. The burglar alleged her daughter, Ashley Jones, was behind it all.
You don't need a fancy fix to reduce reliance on your device. Your iPhone has built-in settings to find calm again.
Decision came after hearing in which Subramanyam Vedam, 64, said he didn’t kill Thomas Kinser when he was 19
A judge has cleared the way for the potential release of an Indian citizen who was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody last year after his Pennsylvania murder conviction was overturned following four decades in prison.
The decision came the day after the four-hour hearing in which Subramanyam Vedam insisted he did not fatally shoot Thomas Kinser in 1980 and was questioned by a US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lawyer. Vedam participated in the hearing remotely from the Moshannon Valley processing center in Philipsburg, Pennsylvania.
Continue reading...Re:Zero, One Piece and Classroom of the Elite? Better sign up for your subscriptions.
For this year’s Formula Student competition, the UK’s most prestigious university team are designing the fastest race car possible
At the Oxford Brookes Headington campus, more than 100 students are busy building the fastest, best designed race car possible for this year’s Formula Student competition.
Oxford Brookes Racing (OBR) is the UK’s most prestigious Formula Student team. They’ve won more design awards than any UK university, and frequently occupy the international race’s top spots.
Continue reading...Pentagon announces Randy George retiring from role as US army chief of staff, ‘effective immediately’
Randy George, the US army’s top officer, is stepping down from his role after the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, reportedly requested that he retire immediately. The Pentagon confirmed on Thursday that George, who had been serving as the army’s 41st chief of staff, was retiring.
“General Randy A George will be retiring from his position as the 41st Chief of Staff of the Army effective immediately. The Department of War is grateful for General George’s decades of service to our nation. We wish him well in his retirement,” the Pentagon chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement shared on social media.
Continue reading...U.S. immigration authorities followed "clues" shared by China's narcotics control commission to repatriate the fugitive, Beijing's public security ministry said.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Energy experts and lawmakers are scrambling to ensure reliability for Delaware’s electric grid, and some downstate Republicans have pointed to NRG Energy’s Indian River Power Plant as a site that could be part of the solution.
The Indian River Power Plant shut down the last coal-fired energy generators in Delaware a year ago, but the hulking industrial site near Millsboro has emerged at the center of a debate over whether it could factor into the state’s energy future.
As new, high-demand energy users like hyper-scale data centers seek to soak up more electricity while aging infrastructure raises concerns about future power grid reliability, energy experts and elected officials alike are brainstorming ways to meet future demand in a region of declining energy supply.
Inside Legislative Hall, lawmakers have debated the promise of offshore wind, solar farms and even modular nuclear reactors as potential energy generation solutions.
But in recent months, Republicans have repeatedly pointed toward NRG Energy’s now-retired power plant as a potential solution to Delaware’s growing energy woes.
The Indian River plant was Delaware’s only generator of power used to meet everyday demand, known as baseload electricity, until it went offline in February 2025. Whether it could once again become a backbone of Delaware’s energy needs is a question of investment and best uses.
In regulatory filings, NRG blamed economics rather than politics or regulations for the need to close the Indian River power plant, noting that it had incurred financial losses for two consecutive years.
In June 2021, the company announced that it would close three different coal-fired power plants after revenue from the springtime energy auction dropped below $50 a megawatt per day, or a decline of more than 60% from the prior year.
That came at a time of great excess in energy supply when new natural gas-fired plants and renewable energy resources like solar and wind were pushing down costs for now comparatively small energy demands coming out of the COVID pandemic. This was also a time before the current rush to build hyper-scale data centers.
Coal is also a more expensive energy source, from the raw material to operation of the plant and disposal of the coal ash produced in its waste to implementation of scrubbers to reduce air pollution. By operating a coal-fired plant rather than building more efficient plants running on cheaper inputs, NRG was effectively cutting into its revenues – so it pulled the plug.
J. Scott Holladay, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tennessee who is familiar with the Indian River plant, said the demise of coal plants is simple economics.
“On the fuel side, it’s hard to imagine coal competing in the current environment,” he said. “It’s not so much that [coal has] gone up in cost, but that the cost of everything else has gone down.”
The power plant included four generating units, each made up of large pieces of industrial equipment that once burned coal to generate electricity.
Burning coal first created steam. That steam then powered turbines that would spin to generate electricity. It was a less efficient process than modern-day natural gas plants, which act like massive jet engines and no longer rely on steam as a middle man, or solar panels that convert solar energy into useful electrons.
The first two 80-megawatt coal-fired units at the plant went online in the late 1950s, followed by a third 165-megawatt unit in 1970 and a fourth 440-megawatt unit in 1980.
The first three units shut down in the 2010s. The final, most-modern unit shut down in February 2025 after more than four decades in operation.
And while Holladay said it would be unlikely for NRG’s southern Delaware power plant to come back online using coal, he did not rule out the possibility of its resurrection entirely.
“The thing that could save Indian River, and maybe other older plants, is big increases in electricity demand, driven by AI load,” he said.
A spokesperson for NRG Energy declined to comment on future plans for Indian River, saying they currently are “undetermined.”
But the spokesperson, Erik Linden, told Spotlight Delaware restarting the Indian River Power Plant in its original capacity — as a coal-fired operation — is not on the table. The company has no plans to restart any coal units at the facility, he said.
A small, 16-megawatt oil-burning plant remains active at the site as a “peakload” generator, which kicks on only in times of great energy demands. But even that unit is slated for decommissioning this June.
The power plant site spans nearly 1,200 acres, and it once had a total generation capacity of 780 megawatts. That wattage would have supplied just more than half the power demanded by the proposed, hyper-scale Delaware City data center.
According to a recent report from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, which compiles data from different regional energy transmission authorities including the PJM Interconnection which serves Delaware, future projections show that energy demand will increase while supply decreases.
That is due, in part, to power plants — including the Indian River Power Plant — shutting down while high-energy users, like large-scale data centers, plan to come online.
Republican lawmakers in Dover have wondered if restarting operations at the facility could help close the gap.
State Sen. Bryant Richardson (R-Seaford) has publicly pointed to the site as “an ideal location” for a small nuclear modular reactor, while Senate Minority Leader Gerald Hocker (R-Ocean View) and Senate Minority Whip Brian Pettyjohn (R-Georgetown) “are actively working with stakeholders” to figure out the plant’s future.
Pettyjohn told Spotlight Delaware that he and Hocker plan to meet with NRG officials during the General Assembly’s spring break with the goal of making Indian River a natural gas plant.
According to the National Pipeline Mapping System, the nearest natural gas transmission line is more than 2 miles away on U.S. Route 113. That means that extending service to the Indian River plant would likely cost $10 million or more, based on industry averages of recent projects.
Who would cover that cost and whether Delaware would incentivize it remain open questions about such a solution.
Then there’s the question of whether NRG would invest in new natural gas turbines at the Indian River plant, because they couldn’t just convert the old coal turbines. That investment would likely cost tens of millions of dollars per turbine, and those costs have been rising quickly in recent years as demand for the equipment has risen too.
But Holladay, who specializes in environmental and energy economics, said he is seeing “a lot of cases” of retiring coal plants converting to natural gas.
In Delaware, NRG has already proven that it can be successful.
More than a decade ago, it converted a unit at its Dover Energy Center from coal to combined-cycle natural gas, which captures both the combustion and heat from burning natural gas to spin two different turbines. The Dover plant was hailed as evidence of smart business as well as being environmentally friendly, as it removed significant sums of air pollutants that came from burning coal.
The Markell administration also incentivized that conversion project with a $500,000 grant from the state’s Energy Efficiency Investment Fund.
And while future plans for Indian River remain unclear, Holladay said the site could be ripe for conversion.
The Delmarva peninsula in particular, he said, is a “more isolated” part of the larger PJM electric grid. There are not many electric or natural gas interconnections on the peninsula, but since that access is integral to power plants, the existence of any such infrastructure at the NRG site would be its most valuable asset.
“It’s ruinously difficult to get access to the electricity grid,” he said.
He called the idea of using the Indian River site to house modular nuclear reactors, however, “far-fetched.”
“It’s really hard to justify building a nuclear plant in a floodplain with an unproven technology relative to the other options they have,” Holladay said.
The Indian River site has been in the news more lately because of its proximity to a planned interconnection for the U.S. Wind offshore wind farm that has been hamstrung by lawsuits and opposition by the Trump administration.
The site’s decades-long run as a power plant is exactly what made it so attractive as a place for offshore wind farms to connect to the grid.
“That, to me, is the most valuable asset that Indian River has,” Holladay said.
In fact, NRG was among the first companies interested in offshore wind development along Delaware’s coast. In 2009, NRG Energy acquired Bluewater Wind, an offshore wind developer that sought to build a project that could have produced up to 200 megawatts of electricity. That project was ultimately abandoned.
A substation site on former power plant land along the Indian River has also been identified as the proposed point of interconnection for a different offshore wind project, the 121-turbine US Wind farm that is slated to be built about 10 miles off the Delmarva coast. That project has been embroiled in litigation and efforts from the Trump administration to halt all American offshore wind efforts.
The Indian River Power Plant site is close to integral power grid infrastructure, but it also is directly in the path of rising tides, as Holladay noted.
According to the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) flood planning tool, much of the Indian River Power Plant sits directly in a flood zone. Its highest points are no more than 30 feet above sea level.
A recent study published by the nonprofit Climate Central and scientists at the University of California estimates some industrial sites pose additional hazards to nearby vulnerable communities as climate change continues to accelerate rising sea levels and exacerbate weather events like coastal storms.
According to Climate Central’s data, the Indian River plant is expected to experience about four flood events annually by mid-century, making it one of the most at-risk industrial sites in the state.
Increased flood risks also mean toxic coal ash storage pits are likely to face future inundation as well. While such toxic waste disposal sites are typically capped and lined to prevent environmental impacts, adding salty water to the mix could test those barriers, Holladay said.
“Flooding concerns would be a big deal, potentially,” he said.
For years, environmentalists have warned that power plant waste landfilled along the river’s edges has already released hazardous chemicals and metals into the nearby waterways and groundwater.
DNREC said in an email, however, that landfills at the site are “in good standing” when it comes to permitting and maintenance.
In 2019, the Environmental Integrity Project released a study about contamination linked to coal-fired power plants across the country, citing problems with coal ash contaminant levels detected specifically at the Indian River site. According to the report, data indicated unsafe levels of arsenic and other heavy metals in area water sources.
The post Could the Indian River power plant be restarted? appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
I spent several weeks testing the re-released Teforia smart tea infuser to see if it's a modern kitchen must-have for tea drinkers.
Whatever flavor of sci-fi you're into, Netflix has you covered.
St Michael’s Mount and the people who live near it are still healing from the scars left by storm’s 100mph winds
Three months after Storm Goretti battered St Michael’s Mount in Cornwall, the signs of the storm’s power are still evident in the scars left by uprooted trees, piles of logs and the shaking of heads from islanders who have lived there for decades and never seen the like.
“It really was something,” said Jack Beesley, a senior gardener. “We were shocked the morning after when we saw what had happened. We had been caring for these trees for years and to see so many of them down was very sad. We’ve worked hard to get the place ready for the Easter visitors but it will still be a month or more until we’re back straight.”
Continue reading...Country is torn between those who hope for end to Tehran’s influence and those loyal to Islamic republic
Of all the countries being pulled into the US-Israeli war on Iran, it is Iraq – a country that still bears the emotional and physical scars of the last time the Americans tried to reshape the region by force – where the conflict has exposed some of the deepest rifts.
The war is dividing those who see the attacks on Iran as a way to end Tehran’s longstanding influence over Iraqi politics from the self-declared loyalists of the Islamic republic, and cutting through state institutions, armed forces and Shia Islamist parties.
Continue reading...Some of these word and puizzle games are more casual, while others can be pretty difficult.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services U.S.A. a portion of which will air on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on April 5, 2026. The interview was taped on April 2, 2026.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who heads the Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services USA, told CBS' Ed O'Keefe that the war is likely not justified under the Just War Theory.
Longtime Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot writes: CU Boulder researchers are reporting that they have discovered an appetite-suppressing compound in python blood that helps the snakes consume enormous meals and go months without eating yet remain metabolically healthy. The findings were published in the journal Natural Metabolism on March 19, 2026. Pythons can grow as big as a telephone pole, swallow an antelope whole, and go months or even years without eating -- all while maintaining a healthy heart and plenty of muscle mass. In the hours after they eat, research has shown, their heart expands 25% and their metabolism speeds up 4,000-fold to help them digest their meal. The team measured blood samples from ball pythons and Burmese pythons, fed once every 28 days, immediately after they ate a meal. In all, they found 208 metabolites that increased significantly after the pythons ate. One molecule, called para-tyramine-O-sulfate (pTOS) soared 1,000-fold. Further studies, done with Baylor University researchers, showed that when they gave high doses of pTOS to obese or lean mice, it acted on the hypothalamus, the appetite center of the brain, prompting weight loss without causing gastrointestinal problems, muscle loss or declines in energy. The study found that pTOS, which is produced by the snake's gut bacteria, is not present in mice naturally. It is present in human urine at low levels and does increase somewhat after a meal. But because most research is done in mice or rats, pTOS has been overlooked. "We've basically discovered an appetite suppressant that works in mice without some of the side-effects that GLP-1 drugs have," said senior author Leslie Leinwand, a distinguished professor of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology who has been studying pythons in her lab for two decades. Drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy act on the hormone glucagon-like petide-1 (GLP-1).
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Bondi and Kristi Noem the only two cabinet members to be removed despite string of scandals involving male officials
Donald Trump has been accused of running a “misogynistic administration” after making Pam Bondi the second woman to be fired from a cabinet already dominated by men.
The US president dismissed the attorney general on Thursday amid mounting frustration with her performance, especially over the release of files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Continue reading...Biggest rises were in vegetable oil and sugar prices, which increased by 5% and 7% respectively
Food prices rose sharply in March as war in the Middle East drove up energy prices and freight costs around the world, a UN report says.
An index of food commodity prices by the UN’s food and agriculture organisation increased by 2.4% in March, its second consecutive monthly rise.
Continue reading...Starmer should just admit we’re being held to ransom by Trump – but instead he’s making the king go on a state visit
Donald Trump has suggested that the war with Iran will be over in two to three weeks. The rest of the world just shrugs. We’ll believe it when we see it. The US president has said so many contradictory things over the past few weeks, it’s hard to take anything that seriously.
Continue reading...Ethan Dietz died on Nov. 25 after being hit in the head during a basketball game in Texas three days earlier.
Min Aung Hlaing seized control five years ago and plunged Myanmar into conflict and economic chaos
Min Aung Hlaing, the military general who plunged Myanmar into conflict and economic chaos when he took power in the 2021 coup has been appointed president, months after widely condemned sham elections.
Min Aung Hlaing, who is wanted by the prosecutor of the international criminal court for crimes against humanity against the Rohingya Muslim minority, was voted president by lawmakers on Friday. Myanmar’s parliament is dominated by the pro-military party, which won a landslide in one-sided elections earlier this year.
Continue reading...Ibrahim Traoré, who took power in 2022 coup, tells state broadcaster ‘we must tell the truth, democracy isn’t for us’
People in Burkina Faso should forget about democracy as it is “not for us”, the military president, Ibrahim Traoré, told the country’s state broadcaster.
Traoré took power in a coup in September 2022, toppling another junta that had taken power just nine months earlier. He has since stifled opposition and in January banned political parties outright.
Continue reading...Brady Ebert, a former member of the Grammy-winning US hardcore band, allegedly hit the father of Brendan Yates with his car
Brady Ebert, the former guitarist of the Grammy-winning US hardcore band Turnstile, has been charged with attempted second-degree murder after allegedly hitting the father of the band’s frontman, Brendan Yates, with his car.
On 29 March, police found William Yates outside his home with “trauma to his lower extremities”, with a broken bone protruding from his leg, according to the Baltimore Banner.
Continue reading...A key senator is demanding the TSA reverse its decision to let travelers keep their shoes on while passing through airport screening, a controversial policy at the center of a classified security warning.
Footage shows US president saying UK ‘should be our best’ ally and accusing PM of prevarication over sending ships
Footage has emerged of Donald Trump mocking Keir Starmer by claiming the prime minister said he would have to consult his team before deciding whether to send UK aircraft carriers to the Middle East.
In a new low for UK-US relations, Trump appeared to impersonate Starmer during an Easter lunch speech at the White House.
Continue reading...Hachette scraps the US release of Mia Ballard's Shy Girl after multiple allegations of AI-generated content.
As Trump suggests Middle East oil disruption is not his problem, experts say talk of US ‘energy independence’ is a smokescreen – with consumers paying the price
A month has passed since the US and Israel’s war on Iran all but closed the strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil supplies typically flow. Prices have surged, amid fears of sustained disruption to global supplies.
Donald Trump argues this is not his country’s problem. “Go get your own oil!” the president urged countries, including the UK, earlier this week. The US has “plenty”, he added. The US is “totally independent” of the Middle East, the president claimed in a prime-time address on Wednesday. “We don’t need their oil.”
Continue reading...Richard Blumenthal says company acts like it has ‘get-out-of-jail-free card’ as records show it upping fees to cut losses
Senators slammed Ticketmaster for raising ticket fees following a regulatory crackdown on hidden charges as revealed in a report by the Guardian last week.
The Federal Trade Commission last May began requiring Ticketmaster to disclose concert ticket fees upfront – a practice known as all-in pricing. The company eliminated the order processing fee it charged at the the end of a transaction to comply with the rule.
Continue reading...It's a dazzling and heavy-duty (emphasis on "heavy") showcase of laptop technology for deep-pocketed gamers.
Experts don't expect military action soon. But actual regime change is complicated.
After more than a month into the U.S.–Israel conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump addressed the nation directly for the first time on Wednesday about why he dragged the country into an unprovoked illegal war. During his wide-ranging speech, Trump made numerous false claims, including repeatedly emphasizing the nuclear threat Iran posed.
The reasons the Trump administration have given for partnering with Israel in this war have been varying and at times include religious undertones, especially from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Hegseth regularly infuses Christian right rhetoric in how he speaks about the war on Iran and the military more broadly.
During a recent religious service at the Pentagon, Hegseth prayed for God to give U.S. troops “wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.”
“Hegseth belongs to a denomination called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. … [He] believes that he is carrying out a spiritual and actual war to vanquish a Christian nation’s enemies and protect and promote a Christian nation,” explains investigative journalist Sarah Posner, who covers the religious right, on The Intercept Briefing. “For Hegseth, biblical law is the only law he feels obligated to obey. The law of war, international law governing military conflicts, and human rights and civilian rights in war — he believes don’t apply to him.”
This week on the podcast, Posner speaks to host Jessica Washington about how various factions of the Christian right are shaping U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
“I don’t think the mainstream media has ever taken the Christian right seriously enough. They have consistently viewed Trump’s relationship with white evangelicals as ranging from harmless to purely transactional. When in fact, I think that they’re very deeply ideologically embedded with one another,” she says.
Listen to the full conversation of The Intercept Briefing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.
Jessica Washington: Welcome to The Intercept Briefing. I’m Jessica Washington, politics reporter at The Intercept.
Akela Lacy: And I’m Akela Lacy, senior politics reporter at the Intercept and co-host of the Intercept Briefing with Jessie.
JW: Before we jump into the news of the week, we have some news too. The Intercept Briefing has been nominated for a Webby Award for best news and politics podcast; help us win by voting for us, please.
AL: Yes, definitely vote for us if you like what we’ve been doing with this podcast. We’ve been working really hard to make it better for you, so show us some love.
JW: You’ll make our day. We will add a link to vote in our show notes.
Now onto the news.
On Wednesday evening, President Donald Trump addressed the nation directly for the first time about why he dragged the U.S. into an unprovoked, illegal war with Iran.
During his rambly 20ish-minute speech, he made numerous false claims, including repeatedly emphasizing the nuclear threat Iran posed. Trump’s own intelligence agency reported last year that “We continue to assess Iran is not building a nuclear weapon.”
Akela, what did you make of Donald Trump’s speech?
AL: He sounded less energetic than he typically does. The overall tone was, again, as you said, rambling, non-committal, and saying obviously extreme things with this very apathetic tone, which I found interesting. There’s a lot of rumors that he’s not in the best of health, so that was running through my mind through this.
But stepping back a little bit, thinking about what was the purpose of this speech, it was obviously an attempt to agenda set and shape the tone on this war — saying that we’re winning the war, that Iran is decimated, both of which we know are not true, but part of the administration’s attempt to control the narrative on this issue and also combat criticism that the president who has campaigned and thrust himself forward as anti-interventionist is doing exactly the opposite.
JW: The war clearly has been getting to Donald Trump. You can see it in his energy, as you just mentioned. We can also see gas prices are rising. Obviously, the Strait of Hormuz being closed as a result of this war is something that is having catastrophic financial impacts. We also have midterms going on.
This is definitely having a broader political impact. Last week, I did a story on Melat Kiros, who is being endorsed by the Sunrise Movement as a part of their broader anti-war campaign. We’re definitely seeing candidates latch onto this idea that you can’t take AIPAC and defense money and be meaningfully anti-war.
Akela, how are you seeing it play out in the midterms and in politics more broadly?
AL: This is becoming a huge midterm issue. There’s a wave of insurgent candidates who have been vocal against the war on Iran and challenged both Democratic leadership and incumbents on their stances, including support from the leading pro-Israel lobbying group, which has backed Trump’s war on Iran, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
We’ve also reported on the effort by progressive groups to get Democrats to exploit what is a growing rift among Republicans, both on Iran and on Israel. We reported that the pro-Palestine group Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project has been urging Democrats on this issue. They’re also planning to spend $2 million on ads this cycle, hitting Republicans in toss-up districts on Israel, but using that as part of a broader strategy to hit Republicans on rifts on foreign policy, which is obviously the bulk of that being on criticism on Iran right now.
This group, IMEU Policy Project, is one of the groups that met with the Democratic National Committee over concerns about how Gaza could hurt Kamala Harris’s 2024 presidential campaign. This was part of that big story from Axios on Democrats having this secret autopsy on Gaza. Progressive groups are really looking at how to take advantage of this issue in the midterms and take over what they see as a vacuum where Democrats are refusing to do that and leaving opportunities on the table.
That sort of investment on ads from this group is one of the biggest investments from pro-Palestine groups on ad spending this cycle in a cycle where we’ve seen unprecedented levels of outside spending in midterm races where these issues are playing a big role with voters.
JW: You’re right. We’re really seeing this play out in so many different races, this cycle. And Akela, I believe you had a story out this week that also touches on that.
AL: We reported exclusively that Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed State Assembly Member Claire Valdez on Thursday in New York’s 7th District Democratic Primary, which is of interest to our audience because it is really one of the biggest contests where progressives and socialists and various factions of the left in New York City are battling over who will determine the future of the left under [Mayor] Zohran Mamdani.
So this race has pit progressive groups against each other. Outgoing Rep. Nydia Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, who has backing from progressive groups like the New York Working Families Party, New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and several city council members.
Then on the Sanders side, where he just jumped in the ring on the side of the socialist faction of the left, which is backing Valdez, including Mamdani, Democratic Socialists of America, and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain.
This race is not heavily focused on Iran, but Claire Valdez and Reynoso have both been very vocally opposed to the Iran war. We know Bernie Sanders has long been vocal against this war as well. It’s just another example of how this is becoming a new litmus test — again, for mostly progressives, but they’re also using it to put pressure on the broader party.
JW: It’s clear from your story and other reporting from The Intercept over the last month that the war on Iran is really creating political pressure for Republicans and Democrats.
Obviously, we’re mostly talking about a lot of those divisions on the left. But on the right, there are also these real religious pressures that we haven’t spoken about as much. But on the podcast today, I spoke to Sarah Posner, an investigative journalist who covers the religious right about how the Christian right’s apocalyptic views of end times are shaping U.S. foreign and domestic policies.
Sarah is a contributing writer at Talking Points Memo, host of the podcast Reign of Error, and author of the book “Unholy: How White Christian Nationalists Powered the Trump Presidency and the Devastating Legacy They Left Behind.”
This is our conversation.
Sarah, welcome to the Intercept Briefing.
Sarah Posner: Thanks for having me.
JW: There’s so much I want to talk to you about, so let’s dive in. The U.S.–Israel war on Iran has been going on for more than a month now, and its end appears illusive.
Last week, during a religious service at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared a prayer a chaplain gave to the team who raided Venezuela and kidnapped the former President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Let’s hear a clip.
Pete Hegseth: Grant this task force clear and righteous targets for violence. Surround them as a shield. Protect the innocent and blameless in their midst. Make their arrows like those of a skilled warrior who returned not empty-handed. Let every round find its mark against the enemies of righteousness and our great nation. Give them wisdom in every decision, endurance for the trial ahead, unbreakable unity, and overwhelming violence of action against those who deserve no mercy.
JW: So Hegseth regularly infuses Christian rhetoric in how he speaks about the war on Iran and the military more broadly. And here, he prays for overwhelming violence and no mercy.
Can you talk about the religious messaging that Hegseth has invoked throughout this war and in other military missions the Trump administration has taken?
SP: Hegseth belongs to a denomination called the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. It is a denomination that adheres to the tenets of a Christian movement called “Christian Reconstructionism.” They believe that the Bible — and in particular, what they consider to be biblical law — governs every aspect of life: your personal life, your life at work, your life as a public figure, your life in civilian life, your life in military life, all of it. It’s a very aggressive Christian supremacist ideology in which Hegseth believes that he is carrying out a spiritual and actual war to vanquish a Christian nation’s enemies and protect and promote a Christian nation.
So for Hegseth, biblical law is the only law he feels obligated to obey. The law of war, international law governing military conflicts, and human rights and civilian rights in war — he believes don’t apply to him.
He expects — I think, through his public statements and these monthly prayer gatherings that he has at the Pentagon auditorium — to have the military follow not just Christianity, but his particular brand of Christianity.
JW: What you just said is really interesting to me. Obviously, muscular Christianity, war-mongering Christianity isn’t new; we can go back to the Crusades. But is there something new, though, in what Hegseth and his ilk are talking about?
SP: It’s not new in terms of the religious right. This idea of Christians taking dominion, not only of America, but the world, has been a driving force of the Christian right’s view of foreign policy and their role in politics domestically. But I think what’s new about Hegseth is how unabashed he is about declaring this in public spaces and enforcing it, or attempting to enforce it in the military.
Another big difference is that we are more accustomed to hearing the popularized Christian Zionist message of “We need to go to war with Iran because they’re an enemy of Israel, and it’s our biblical obligation to defend Israel, and potentially, this is one piece of a series of events that will trigger the end times and the return of Jesus.”
Hegseth comes from a slightly different religious tradition where they don’t adhere to that rapture, tribulation, armageddon narrative. Instead, they believe that they are on a divine mission to establish God’s kingdom on Earth, and then Jesus will come back.
So for him, it’s a much more muscular, aggressive, imperialist kind of messaging. So when you hear him talk about the military action in Venezuela or potentially Greenland and now in Iran, it’s much more focused on that, as opposed to something that centers Israel and centers the armageddon narrative as the reasons why we might be doing this.
JW: I want to dive deeper into that side of things, the kind of Christian Zionist side. You’ve written about John Hagee, a televangelist and founder of Christians United for Israel, who thanked Trump for entering the war while he was standing behind a sign that read “God’s Coming … Operation Epic Fury.”
Who is Hagee, and how does he view the war, and how widely held is that view among the Christian right?
SP: So I think Hagee’s view is more widely held than Hegseth’s view. So Hagee is an 85-year-old megachurch pastor and televangelist from San Antonio, Texas. He’s extremely influential in the evangelical world, and he has been extremely influential in Republican politics.
In 2006, he founded the organization Christians United for Israel, which is the political side of his religious arguments about why Christians should “support Israel.” For many years, he’s argued that Christians have a biblical obligation to support Israel, and by that he means support an Israeli right-wing government, support settlers, and occupation, support the war on Gaza, et cetera.
All of this is very tied up in his view of a Bible prophecy about the sequence of events that will happen prior to Jesus’s return. Now, he would argue that he’s not trying to hasten that return, that all of that will happen on God’s timing, but he’s been arguing that the United States should go to war with Iran for at least 20 years.
The political side of the argument is Iran is acquiring a nuclear weapon. He has argued that whether it was true or not. Then, on the religious side, he argues that a war with Iran will trigger a series of events that will lead to the second coming of Jesus. So he has played both sides of this very successfully.
So he makes the religious plea from his pulpit, and sometimes the political plea from his pulpit too. But then through CUFI — through Christians United for Israel — he makes these political arguments as to why it’s the U.S. obligation to defend Israel from aggression from Iran, or go to war with Israel to preempt aggression from Iran.
But he has built this organization in 20 years to encompass many, many evangelicals who are predominantly Republican voters across the country. He had the ear of the Bush White House, and he had the ear of the first Trump White House. He delivered the benediction when they had a ceremony, when Trump moved the American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
He has boasted of his strong connection to Trump, and that Trump understands the importance of centrality of Israel, not only to American foreign policy, but to this religious narrative in which Hagee argues that when Jesus comes back, he will rule the world for 1,000 years from a throne on the Temple Mount.
JW: I came across Hagee for the first time covering Daystar, which I’m sure you’re very familiar with. For those who don’t know, it’s essentially an evangelical Christian broadcasting network that hosts a bunch of different televangelists. They’ve got various scandals over the years that we won’t get into, but the important thing to know about them is they’re very much a part of the kind of constant drumbeat of pro-Israel, of this is a sign of the end times, and very much pushing U.S. foreign policy in a direction that is pro-Israel and fueling war in the Middle East. I guess, at least that’s what they’re pushing.
But my question is, how influential are these people, really? How much is this kind of prophesizing around the end times actually pushing U.S. foreign policy?
SP: Evangelicals and particularly charismatic evangelicals like Hagee, people who believe in these prophetic statements, believe that they can receive direct prophecies from God. People who believe that in our midst are modern-day prophets and apostles who are receiving revelations from God that they need to then carry out in their personal or public life. This is a very significant part of the Republican base, and in particular, a very significant part of the Trump base.
In contrast to other Trump supporters and other religious Trump supporters, they’re far more devoted to Trump. They are probably the most loyal to Trump, in part because they believe that he has been very loyal to them, and because they believe that he’s anointed by God to save America and the world.
Those two things are actually very tied together because of the way that both his presidencies have been very influencer, celebrity-driven. Being close to Trump for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Trump, then more people will watch your YouTube, and more people will follow you on X, or whatever your social media platform is.
Those things are very tied together. It’s not just a one-way street. But Trump is very intermingled with that world. His top religious adviser and director of the White House Faith Office, Paula White, she comes from that world of televangelism and prosperity, gospel preaching, and signs and wonders and miracles — that charismatic Christian world.
So in many ways they are the most influential religious block on Trump, and that obviously is causing a little bit of consternation in the MAGA base currently.
“Being close to Trump for a burgeoning charismatic influencer is very important, because if you get a little boost from Trump, then more people will watch your YouTube.”
JW: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. One question I have, and this is a little bit of an aside, but is there a penalty for these people to continuously predict the end times?
That seems to be a large part of what we’re talking about with wars in the Middle East. Does anyone pay a price for that?
SP: Almost never. Typically, in this world, once somebody is considered a prophet and they make a prophecy, sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. I think that’s why somebody like Hagee is so careful to say this is all God’s timing. A lot of them are careful to say things like, is this a sign of the end times? Might we be experiencing the end times? They phrase it in the form of a question instead of saying, “This is the thing that is definitely going to trigger the end times.”
I think from a marketing standpoint, consistently raising it as a question, it generates a little bit more anticipation and excitement. They’ve been doing this for decades, not just with regard to what’s going on in Iran, but just other things that might be a sign of the end times. So nobody really pays a price because their followers are invested in this world where anticipating and getting ready for, and thinking about and wondering when the end times will happen is just very much embedded in their culture.
JW: I’ve been wondering about the end times and these predictions. My mom is a former Catholic, so I was raised a little bit Catholic, a little bit Unitarian. So there was not all this lore.
SP: Yes, this is definitely very much an evangelical thing and not a Catholic thing, and that is part of the reason why there is friction in the MAGA base over not just the Iran war, but Trump’s closeness with Netanyahu.
JW: You can see this growing division on the right more broadly among some of the loudest MAGA voices, questioning Israel’s influence in American politics. That criticism has been increasing as the Trump administration pursues its illegal war on Iran.
Recently you wrote about Candace Owens and Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, who resigned in opposition to the war.
Sarah, what do you make of the growing number of critical MAGA voices, and how they’re framing their opposition. What do you make of Owens in particular and her messaging? What’s the end game?
SP: Candace Owens is a raging antisemite. Every discussion of Owens needs to acknowledge that. So when she talks about being anti-Israel or being anti-Zionist, her criticisms are not just legitimate criticisms of the Israeli governments and the Israeli military’s actions. All of her criticisms are imbued with antisemitic conspiracy theories and rank antisemitism, Holocaust denial, that sort of thing. Just so that we’re on the table with that.
JW: Good disclaimer.
SP: But I think that she and some of her colleagues and allies in the far-right Catholic MAGA world are trying to do a sort of horseshoe thing, where they want leftists who are anti-Zionist or anti-Israel, to give them a pat on the back for being the right-wingers who have come out against Israel’s actions and Israel’s policies, and the American relationship with Israel. Owens and her allies are making this not just about Israel, but also about Catholics and evangelicals.
For most mainstream Catholics, even conservative ones — ones who you might think of as being George W. Bush Republicans, they’re anti-same-sex marriage, anti-abortion, that sort of thing — but the Israel stuff just isn’t that important to them. She is trying to make it important to far-right Catholics. So she’s trying to make it important by starting a little intra-MAGA war between Catholics and evangelicals over this issue.
She and her allies have tried to make the argument that it’s a violation of their religious freedom to have to submit to or agree with these kinds of policies that Christian Zionists promote because that is not part of their Catholic faith.
Now, it’s true that the whole end-times scenario that someone like John Hagee promotes is not part of the Catholic faith, but Owens always doubles down on the antisemitism on top of that. So it’s a complicated world.
“White evangelicals make up a huge part of a very important part of Trump’s base, and they’re very homogenous in this way.”
The other thing about trying to determine how big is this MAGA rift, really. One thing that’s important to understand is that white evangelicals make up a huge part of a very important part of Trump’s base, and they’re very homogenous in this way. Eighty percent of white evangelicals voted for Trump, and a huge segment of them are Christian Zionists.
Catholics are more split 60-40, 50-50 on whether they’re Democrats or Republicans. And Catholic converts like Candace Owens, who are extremely far right, make up a very small segment of Catholics as a whole, even a small segment of Republican Catholics.
So I think when we’re trying to assess her influence, in a way we’re comparing apples and oranges because we’re trying to compare someone who has had a podcast and a huge following on Twitter for a few years with a movement that has spent decades making this end times theory, or this end times narrative, a core part of what their followers believe.
[Break]
JW: So now I want to talk about another kind of Christian right influencer: the Heritage Foundation, obviously the people behind Project 2025, but their new report is receiving less attention. It’s called “Saving America by Saving the Family: A Foundation For The Next 250 Years.”
This report outlines a vision that “restores” what they call the “natural family,” defined as marriage between a man and a woman, and how that mission is fundamental to saving America’s future. Can you talk about how we’re seeing that vision show up in policymaking and in bills like the SAVE [Safeguard American Voter Eligibility] Act?
SP: In terms of policymaking, I think that they’re trying to [push] a lot of small bore things through, say, the Department of Health and Human Services or the FDA. They want to try to ban mifepristone so that abortion will be inaccessible to people. They want to do things to promote adoption by Christian families instead of non-Christian families or instead of same-sex couples.
Every anti-LGBTQ policy is a furtherance of this “natural family” policy in that Heritage Foundation document. They want to, through anti-abortion measures, enforce motherhood for women and also create an image of the “natural family marriage between a man and a woman.”
It’s an explicit anti-LGBTQ agenda, and they’ve been extremely, explicitly anti-trans. From their perspective, trans people threaten their whole idea of a binary sex — men and women, and that’s it. It explains a lot about why they’re going so hard after trans people’s rights.
With regard to the SAVE Act, I’m not sure what they’re doing there. Because the SAVE Act would punish women who took their husband’s names because then you wouldn’t be able to register to vote unless you got your birth certificate, which then your birth name wouldn’t match your current name. So it creates a whole host of problems. That to me is an odd thing for them to be pushing right now, but it’s also in line with a segment of the religious right, including Pete Hegseth’s pastor that believes that women shouldn’t even vote. But I feel like they’re stepping all over themselves with what they’re proposing in the SAVE Act.
JW: Yeah, and I wanted to get into that. The report doesn’t explicitly mention transgender people. They just say gender ideology throughout their entire Save the Family report. But it’s essentially just ragging on transgender people, queer people. A lot of ragging on feminists, birth control.
There’s obviously discussion of how to have more families, more kids. But it almost seems more focused on enemies than it does on actually promoting kids and families. Should we understand it as a document that actually is trying to push for more kids and families, or is this about mandating a specific type of Christian lifestyle?
SP: The latter. In order to do that, they have to marginalize other people. So in their view, if trans people exist, then there is no binary between men and women in which these gender roles are very clearly defined and delineated.
JW: To you, it’s much more about, OK, how do we make people live the lives that we want them to live? And how do we find enemies who we can terrorize to make that happen?
SP: Well, think about it this way, that what they are proposing runs counter to the way American culture has been for the last 50 or 60, 70 years and runs counter to — not Dobbs, obviously, that’s an exception — but it runs counter to things that have become more accepted, like marriage equality and I wouldn’t include trans rights in that category because it hasn’t been accepted. I think that is what is driving them to create enemies, in order to make this “traditional family” seem more appealing to people or seem under threat by something.
“I think that is what is driving them to create enemies, in order to make this ‘traditional family’ seem more appealing to people or seem under threat by something.”
If the traditional family is the ideal — where there’s a man and a woman and kids, and the woman stays home and doesn’t go to work and all of that — then all of these other people, women who don’t get married, single moms, trans people, same-sex couples, they’re a threat to that. They see it as a threat. They would consider a threat to their religious freedom because they think that their religion demands these kinds of family relationships. And so it’s a very radical document. I think that there are people within the administration who take it very seriously.
JW: We haven’t discussed race yet, and I think that’s always the kind of underlying thing in the corner when you’re talking about Christian nationalism, specifically white Christian nationalism. In this document they only mention Black people so much as to say, not enough Black people are getting married, that’s a problem, and then leave that to the side. They don’t mention race generally, but how do you view race in this vision?
SP: Overall, the Trump regime has attempted to completely eviscerate civil rights for Black people. I mean completely. Dismantling the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice, dismantling the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. So I think within the context of this pro-natalist argument, it’s a paternalistic view. “It would be better for Black people if they also adhere to this traditional family structure.” I feel the 1980s are hovering over us right here, and that was when a lot of this pro-family, pro-natalist stuff of the modern religious right was hatched.
But I think that it is a clear broadside just against any kind of culture that they consider to be non-compliant with their idea of the traditional family whether that’s women who have chosen not to get married, moms who’ve chosen not to get married. When you see how they’ve tried to marginalize, say, trans people from public life, this gives you a lot of insight into how they view, let’s say, non-complying people with their view of what America should be.
JW: While we’re talking about the Save the Family and the religious right’s views on marriage and family and race, in that regard, I also wanted to ask you about their views on immigration and race. How do you perceive the Christian right when it comes to this issue?
SP: White evangelicals are among Trump’s staunchest supporters when it comes to immigration. When you look at the polling data about their views of his position on immigration, in general, and in particular, the ICE crackdowns in Minneapolis and other cities, white evangelicals are among his staunchest supporters. And this is very much tied into their view of what a Christian nation is, and their acceptance of the argument, their embrace of the argument that undocumented people are necessarily criminals because just the act of having come here “illegally” is a crime. That is very much tied into their perception that America was founded as a Christian nation. Somehow that was taken away from us by many things that happened over the course of the 20th century, including immigration, including the Civil Rights Act, including women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, all of that. So when they talk about restoring the Christian nation, what they’re really talking about is restoring a white Christian nation.
JW: I want to get into the deeper, the broader impact of these groups. Your podcast Reign of Error illustrates how the Christian right isn’t a fringe movement, but how its various figures, groups, and sects are in the halls of power shaping policies and remaking America from local offices to the White House.
Can you talk about the infrastructure the Christian right has been able to build over the years to wield that level of influence and policymaking?
SP: I think a lot of people think of the religious right as being a lot of megachurch pastors at the pulpit telling people how to vote and that it’s just people getting instructions every November and going to the polls and hitting the lever for the Republican candidate.
“They have built mechanisms for creating and enforcing this political ideology, not only in their churches, but through television shows, conferences, books … YouTube, X, TikTok.”
It’s much thicker and deeper than that because they have built mechanisms for creating and enforcing this political ideology, not only in their churches, but through television shows, conferences, books, and with the advent of social media, of course, YouTube, X, TikTok, all of the social media that they have at their disposal, and so you have that element of it. You have political organizations that work with religious leaders to recruit religious people, and even pastors to run for office and to organize voters to go to the polls on Election Day.
You have organizations that were created to counter institutions that liberals and the left had built. So to counter the ACLU, they founded the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has litigated most of the cases, producing some of the Supreme Court’s worst precedents in recent years, including the Dobbs decision. ADF was behind challenging the ban on conversion therapy in Colorado that the Supreme Court ruled on recently.
So you have all of these things together. You have the Heritage Foundation, which was created back in the 1970s to counter the Brookings Institution — which is not really like a leftist organization by any stretch of the imagination, but that’s how they perceived it. So you have these different layers of convincing people and keeping them engaged in the political project and the political process.
Then you also have on the legal front, not just these legal organizations, but Christian law schools that are educating the next generation of Christian lawyers who will go out and litigate these cases, maybe become judges. So they have built an infrastructure, a multi-layered infrastructure that is intended to be intergenerational, that’s intended to last for decades. That’s not intended only to run from election cycle to election cycle.
They spent 50 years to overturn Roe vs. Wade. They didn’t give up. They chipped away for many decades. When you think about that, they worked at the state level to chip away at it. They worked the legal process to chip away at Roe at the state level. They chipped away at abortion rights.
At the same time, when I talk about the multi-layered, they had institutions and organizations that helped train judges to rule from these right-wing perspectives, that would advocate for judges that were nominated to the bench by George W. Bush or Donald Trump to become District Court judges, appellate judges, Supreme Court justices. That’s what I’m talking about when I say it’s a multi-layered infrastructure because you have all of these things working together. There’s never a sense of victory like, “Oh, we got that done, yay us, and now we’re gonna take a break.” No, they did not even stop for a minute after they overturned Roe vs. Wade. Now they’re on to trying to ban mifepristone.
It’s important for people to understand that they never see any victory as their final achievement. It’s just one piece in a long road that they’re very dedicated to trotting.
JW: Given this relentlessness that you’re describing and the level of influence that we’re talking about here, especially even within the Trump administration, do you think that mainstream media is taking the Christian rights seriously enough?
SP: I don’t think the mainstream media has ever taken the Christian right seriously enough. They have consistently viewed Trump’s relationship with white evangelicals as ranging from harmless to purely transactional. When in fact, I think that they’re very deeply ideologically embedded with one another.
It’s partially a function of a little bit of nervousness about even touching religion, that they don’t want to be seen as being critical of somebody’s religious beliefs or religious practices. But I think it has taken a long time for the media to wake up to how extreme they are and how successful they’ve been at capturing, not just the Republican Party but Trump in particular.
JW: That was really informative and pretty alarming, but we’re going to leave it there. Thanks, Sarah, for joining me on the Intercept Briefing.
SP: Thank you, Jessica.
JW: To keep up with how the Christian right is shaping policy in the U.S. today, follow Sarah’s work at Talking Points Memo and her podcast Reign of Error, which I highly, highly recommend.
Before we go, we’d love it if you helped The Intercept Briefing win its first Webby Award for best news and politics podcast. So please vote for us. We’ll add a link to vote in our show notes. Thanks so much!
That does it for this episode.
This episode was produced by Laura Flynn. Ben Muessig is our editor-in-chief. Maia Hibbett is our managing editor. Chelsey B. Coombs is our social and video producer. Fei Liu is our product and design manager. Nara Shin is our copy editor. Will Stanton mixed our show. Legal review by David Bralow.
Slip Stream provided our theme music.
This show and our reporting at The Intercept doesn’t exist without you. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a real difference. Keep our investigations free and fearless at theintercept.com/join.
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Until next time, I’m Jessica Washington.
The post Trump’s Holy War Abroad and at Home appeared first on The Intercept.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen’s absence from recent city meetings, which some council members say they were not notified about, has resulted in questions about whether he should be removed from office. His absence also comes as city council faces its latest in a string of recent hurdles.
Dover Mayor Robin Christiansen’s absence from city meetings over the past month, amid controversy over a homeless shelter in the city and the ousting of the city manager, has raised eyebrows in the capital city.
Both residents and city council members expressed concerns that Christiansen’s prolonged absence violated the city charter — justifying his removal from office. But Christiansen rebuffed the claims of his wrongdoing, and a Spotlight Delaware review of city code revealed stipulations in the policy that could support the mayor’s claims.
Christiansen last attended a city council meeting on Jan. 12. He was not present for the three subsequent meetings on Feb. 25, March 9 and March 23.
This three-meeting absence is what critics say is cause for Christiansen’s removal. According to the city charter, the mayor forfeits his office if he “fails to attend three consecutive regular meetings of the council without being excused by the council.”
But Christiansen said his absences were, in fact, excused. He contracted the flu in late February, he said, which turned into other illnesses and forced him to spend more than a week in the hospital.
Christiansen said he disclosed this information to City Council President Fred Neil, excusing his three absences. He declined to provide more details, but Neil confirmed he had been in communication with the mayor about reasons for missing recent meetings.
Still, Christiansen said, he continued performing his duties from the hospital, like maintaining regular communication with Police Chief Thomas Johnson, so there was no need for him to temporarily give the mayorship to someone else.
During Christiansen’s absence, Neil took over some public duties for him, like presenting a tribute to the family of the late former City Council member William Hare, and welcoming a group of foreign students to the state capital, Neil said.
While some city council members have raised alarms that they were not informed about the circumstances of the mayor’s absence, Christiansen and Neil said they handled the situation in line with city rules.
Neil wrote in an email to Spotlight Delaware, on which Gov. Matt Meyer was copied, that he communicated with Christiansen’s assistant that he would be available “should an emergency occur,” while the mayor was in the hospital.
Christiansen has used the attention surrounding his illness as a chance to comment on what he described as city council’s “drama and lack of professionalism” in recent months.
He has taken issue with both members of the public coming to meetings to comment on “speculations and untruths,” and some of the shouting and finger-pointing he has heard among council members.
“I’m from the old school,” Christiansen said. “I got elected to council in 1983. Never have I seen the public’s business put aside and handled so willy nilly.”
Christiansen plans to sit in the audience, instead of on the dais with other city leaders, at the next city council meeting on April 13 — his first in roughly two months.
The mayor does not vote on matters that come before city council, but he is able to veto ordinances after they are passed — a power Christiansen said he “won’t hesitate to use” going forward.
Since last fall, Dover city council has faced a slew of controversies.
Beginning with resident and police officer concerns about Police Chief Thomas Johnson’s leadership, city leaders then faced months of internal divisions and community pushback over a proposed anti-panhandling ordinance. More recently, one of the city’s few homeless shelters has been the subject of council scrutiny after nearby residents raised concerns about neighborhood blight.
Christiansen missed the meetings in which council members voted to reject the panhandling ordinance, opted to deny funding for the People’s Church of Dover, and placed City Manager Dave Hugg on administrative leave following concerns about his performance.
When asked by Spotlight Delaware about having missed these discussions, Christiansen said he had been keeping up with the meetings remotely, but he declined to comment on both the homeless shelter and Hugg’s ousting.
Residents have expressed their concern about Christiansen’s unannounced absence during the March 25 city council meeting, in emails with council members, and in op-eds published in the Daily State News.
“Why hasn’t the Mayor been here a couple of times?” Dover resident Bill Faust asked at the March 25 council meeting. “You usually say, ‘This person is sick, this person is on military leave.’ Radio silence.”
Some city council members said they share similar concerns about Christiansen’s absence, and the communication surrounding it.
“I would hope in the future there is better communication between the council and the mayor and vice versa,” Councilman Brian Lewis told Spotlight Delaware.
Council members David Anderson and Julia Pillsbury said they agreed communication about the mayor’s illness was poor, but they do see truth in Christiansen’s argument about establishing better decorum.
Anderson said he believes the city’s open forum section of its council meetings, which has come under fire in the past for being cut short and not being livestreamed, sometimes turns into a “theatrical performance,” instead of residents civilly communicating their concerns.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
The post Dover mayor’s prolonged absence draws concern, questions appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
If the idea was to shed some of the liabilities of the Epstein scandal by firing Bondi, the move seems likely to backfire
It was only a matter of time. The writing has been on the wall for months for Pam Bondi, Trump’s attorney general, who was unceremoniously fired on Thursday after 14 months leading the justice department. Trump was rumored to be unhappy with Bondi; frustrated at the slowness and failures of some of her prosecutions of his political enemies, angry that she could not make the Epstein scandal go away, and disappointed by her rather wooden performances on TV.
For a while, it looked like Bondi would be the first cabinet secretary that Trump fired in his second administration – something he has been much more reluctant to do since returning to office in early 2025. But in October, when she was called to testify before a Senate subcommittee, Bondi made sure to issue vicious insults to her Democratic interrogators in front of the news cameras; she made a similar performance in February at a House judiciary committee hearing, where she lobbed ad hominem attacks on Democrats, including calling Representative Jamie Raskin “a washed-up loser lawyer.” These performances evidently endeared Bondi to Donald Trump enough that he decided to keep her around for a while; Kristi Noem, his onetime secretary of homeland security, became the first cabinet member to be fired in his second term. But the Epstein story persisted, and so did Trump’s dissatisfaction with his own mounting unpopularity ahead of the November midterms. He is not capable of blaming himself, and so he looked around for someone else to punish for his own failures. Pam Bondi was there.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
Continue reading...Created in Italy and made with elderflower liqueur, the cocktail is sweeter than Aperol spritz and lower in alcohol
Pub gardens and bar terraces have been awash with a sea of orange in recent years as Italy’s love of Aperol spritz spread to the UK. But this year the cocktail’s cousin, a Hugo spritz, will be the drink of the summer, according to supermarkets and bars.
It is already being served across the country, including at Sea Containers on the banks of the Thames and Mayfair’s swanky Claridge’s hotel in London, 20 Stories bar in Manchester and the Bridge Tavern in Newcastle. Wetherspoons has the cocktail on its menu nationwide.
40ml St‑Germain elderflower liqueur.
60ml prosecco.
60ml sparkling water.
8-10 mint leaves.
Lime wedge for garnish.
Mint sprig for garnish.
Fill your glass with ice cubes.
Add in the mint leaves.
Pour sparkling wine and sparkling water over ice.
Add St‑Germain elderflower liqueur.
Gently stir.
Garnish with a mint sprig and lime wedge.
Continue reading...This next-generation network technology won't just make our phones faster; it'll unlock new capabilities in robots, turning them into all-sensing, always-learning fleets.
Bosses write to home secretary and London mayor listing series of incidents staff have faced in past week
Marks & Spencer has called on the government and London’s mayor to crack down on retail crime, saying it has become “more brazen, more organised and more aggressive”, after reporting an increase in shoplifting and violence at its stores.
The M&S chief executive, Stuart Machin, has written to the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and its retail director, Thinus Keeve, has written to the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, saying greater resources are needed for police to tackle the crime effectively and target repeat offenders and crime hotspots.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for April 3 No. 557.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 3 #1027
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 3, No. 761.
South-east Italy also affected by heavy rain, and snow at higher altitudes, while deadly flooding hits Afghanistan
Parts of the Mediterranean have been lashed by Storm Erminio this week. Heavy rain, thunderstorms and occasional bursts of hail affected much of Greece throughout Wednesday and Thursday, with the most severe conditions across south-eastern parts of the mainland and several islands in the southern Aegean Sea, including Crete, with streets flooded and vehicles stranded.
Some of the heaviest rain fell on Wednesday across Attica, a region encompassing Athens, with one weather station near the city’s international airport recording 132mm (5.2 in) in 24 hours. The most intense downpours were overnight, when the coastal town of Nea Makri was particularly badly affected; an unofficial weather station recorded about 50mm falling within just two hours. One person died in the town; a man found beneath a car was believed to have been swept away as he escaped his flooding basement home.
Continue reading...From a subtle Princess Peach lip jelly to a Yoshi egg that’s been traumatising children, the cosmetic chain’s latest tie-in is out of this world
When The Super Mario Bros Movie came out in 2023, it came with a rather unlikely tie-in: a range of skincare and bathing products from cosmetics chain Lush. The store, known for its devotion to natural ingredients and support for social justice causes, didn’t seem like the obvious partner for a major video game franchise. Because of this, I thought I should try them out, assuming that my dalliance with beauty journalism would be short-lived.
I was wrong. The collection was so successful, Lush later released a Minecraft range, which I also reviewed, and now there’s a Super Mario Galaxy range to tie in with the new movie. Somehow, I have become the Guardian’s Lush correspondent and it seems I am now trapped in a sweet-smelling cycle of video game-branded toiletries. There are definitely worse fates, so I’m just going with it.
Continue reading...A new book explores how technology and a host of maverick innovators have given rise to an exceptional crop of baseball players
In a 1940 publicity stunt, the Cleveland Indians’ flamethrowing pitcher, Bob Feller, tested which was faster: One of his own blazing deliveries, or a motorcycle. Feller’s pitching won, hands down. But today, Feller’s once-remarkable speed has become commonplace, even bettered, as major leaguers routinely pass triple figures on the radar gun. The secret to this arms race? The advances in pitching analytics,often authored by people without any previous baseball pedigree.
That’s part of the narrative of Unhittable, a new book by one such individual – Rob Friedman, more commonly known to his online followers as PitchingNinja. The book’s subtitle says it all: How Technology, Mavericks and Innovators Engineered Baseball’s New Era of Pitching Dominance.
Continue reading...Mauricio Pochettino faces several tough decisions to name a squad for the 2026 World Cup hosts
A full 24 matches into the Mauricio Pochettino era, we have arrived at the moment of truth. The US men’s national team’s 2026 World Cup roster will be named on 26 May, and the team’s two recent friendlies (a 5-2 loss to Belgium and a 2-0 loss to Portgual) have given Pochettino plenty to think about as he makes his selection.
We here at the Guardian have made our picks as well – based a little on our own preference, but still within the realm of what Pochettino may do. Separately, the three of us made our 26-man rosters. Any player who we agreed on got the “on the squad” designation. Anyone we differed on is listed as “up for debate”, with other notable exclusions listed as “out of the picture”.
Continue reading...Just under three years ago, the Food and Drug Administration deemed 19 peptide drugs too unsafe to be dispensed by compounding pharmacies, which mix components of approved drugs to create bespoke medication for people who have trouble taking commonly available products.
Now, under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the agency is poised to reverse itself. That’s despite few clinical studies supporting the effectiveness or safety of these peptides, which are amino acid chains meant to help regulate functions in the body and have become popular among fitness and longevity enthusiasts.
In February, Kennedy said the FDA acted illegally in 2023 when it categorized 19 peptides as too unsafe for compounders, whose final products aren’t tested or approved by the FDA. Kennedy, who described himself as a “big fan” of peptides, has used the therapies himself.
“It was illegal because they’re not supposed to do that unless there’s a safety signal,” Kennedy said on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, referring to adverse events related to medications. “And they didn’t have a safety signal. They’re not allowed to look at efficacy. They’re not allowed to say, ‘Well, we don’t believe these are efficacious,’ or whatever. They can only look at safety.”
But three former FDA officials closely familiar with how the agency created the criteria to assess the peptides in the first place say Kennedy has mischaracterized their work. The agency’s 2023 decision to ban certain peptides was supported by numerous documented safety concerns, they said. FDA regulations also require the agency to assess both safety and effectiveness before approving a substance for compounding.
“It would be a disruption of the societal pact we have had since 1962 that drugs will be studied to see if they work before they are marketed in the U.S.,” said Janet Woodcock, a former FDA acting commissioner.
If Kennedy justifies reversal of the previous work by suggesting there were no safety concerns, it would give a false imprimatur of safety to more than a dozen unapproved, untested drugs, the officials said.
There’s been little new science on the 19 peptides since the FDA’s 2023 decision to categorize them as unsafe. But demand for the drugs has exploded as influencers have flooded social media with promises of sculpted physiques, glowing skin, luscious hair, rapidly healing injuries, youthful energy and blazing sex lives.
The demand has given rise to a burgeoning gray market, where wellness spas, multilevel marketers and telehealth websites ply the public with vials of “research grade” peptides labeled “not for human use.”
“More people want to use them,” said Lauren Colenso-Semple, a muscle physiology researcher and science communication specialist who follows scientific studies of peptides as part of her work. “That’s what’s changed.”
FDA-approved peptide drugs such as insulin and oxytocin have been available for decades. Newer ones such as semaglutide and tirzepatide, broadly known as GLP-1s, have exploded in popularity for weight loss and have shown promise for treating other conditions, such as addictions and neurodegenerative and liver diseases. The popularity of these drugs has led the public to become more comfortable with injectables and has helped drive attention to other gray-market peptides.
Last year, at a Las Vegas conference promising radical life extension, two women became critically ill after being injected with peptides the FDA had categorized as unsafe. Although Nevada regulators investigated and fined the health practitioners involved in administering the peptides, investigators weren’t able to determine the exact cause of the reaction. The doctor who ran the booth where the women became ill said he didn’t believe that the peptides caused their reactions but apologized for the incident and said he would review his practices.
The Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, one of the largest industry associations lobbying for the FDA to change its stance on peptides, acknowledges it knows little about the safety of individual peptides being sold to the public. (Its CEO says it is an advocacy organization, not a scientific one.) But the group argues the public would be safer if peptides were handled by regulated compounding pharmacies instead of the gray market. The FDA should forgo the usual human clinical trials in order to bring about this shift, a spokesperson for the alliance said.
“Where we don’t have research, clinical trials, what we’ve got a ton of, is, shall we say, testimonials, patient affidavits, attesting to the wonders of the drug,” said Scott Brunner, the alliance’s chief executive officer. “And RFK Jr. is one of those testifiers.”
On the Rogan podcast, Kennedy wasn’t clear on exactly how the FDA would let compounders start dispensing peptides, describing it only as “some kind of action” to make “about 14” peptides “more accessible.” Nor has he specified which peptides he wants to make available. (Neither the FDA nor HHS responded to ProPublica’s requests for more information.) But several regulatory shortcuts exist and, ultimately, Kennedy could simply declare the ingredients are legal.
“He has all of the authority,” said Woodcock, likening such a declaration to former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ unilateral 2011 reversal of the FDA’s decision to lift age restrictions on the emergency contraception Plan B. (A judge ultimately found Sebelius’ move to be arbitrary and capricious and nullified it.)
“The secretary can do anything they want.”
The FDA’s road to regulating compounding pharmacies — and by extension the peptides they seek to dispense — has been long and tedious. Much of the regulatory fight has focused on which ingredients compounders should be allowed to use.
Under a 1997 law, the first passed by Congress to regulate the industry, compounders can only use ingredients that are a component of an approved drug, have what’s known as a USP monograph (essentially a third-party certified recipe for a drug used mainly by manufacturers of generics), or are listed as approved substances by the FDA.
This FDA list, known as “the bulks list,” is at the center of the ongoing peptide debate.
Litigation and pressure from the industry and lawmakers delayed for decades the creation of the bulks list, leaving compounders in limbo on scores of substances, not just peptides.
“Everything was a fight. It was a huge fight,” said one former FDA official who has spent more than 30 years working on compounding policies. The former official asked not to be named to avoid a public debate with the industry.
The need for the list took on new urgency in 2012, when more than 60 people died from fungal meningitis infections contracted from a drug produced at a compounding facility and dispensed to hundreds of people. Congress passed another law further regulating large compounders that sell medications to doctors’ offices and hospitals rather than individual patients. The new law also prompted the agency to move more quickly on establishing the bulks list.
The FDA asked the industry to nominate substances for inclusion on the list. It did so, nominating thousands of ingredients, including, for example, purified water and asparagus.
“They put in everything,” the official said. “Literally thousands of nominations with absolutely no justification for why it needed to be there.”
Each substance would have to be reviewed individually before it could be added to the bulks list. The agency would have to solicit public comment and an advisory committee of health and pharmacy experts would have to review the FDA’s research.
Reviewing them “was a massive effort. The agency proceeded glacially, but really we were speeding as fast as we could,” the official said.
In 2017, under pressure to move more quickly, the FDA came up with an interim solution. It substantially narrowed the list of nominated ingredients, quickly reviewed each remaining substance and placed them into three categories. The first was substances with enough of a safety track record that the agency felt comfortable letting compounders use them while the final list was assembled. The second category included substances considered too risky for compounding. And the third included those without enough supporting information for the FDA to make an informed decision and therefore wouldn’t be used for compounding.
This categorization didn’t constitute a formal regulation; rather the agency was using its discretion not to go after compounders who used ingredients it deemed safe — those from the first category.
In 2023, the FDA placed 19 peptides in Category 2, which already included a handful of substances the agency considered to be dangerous.
This is what Kennedy has called “the war on peptides.”
In explaining its decisions, the FDA pointed to well-established research in peptide drug development that injectable peptides carry the risk of causing immune reactions. Such reactions can range from responses with “no clinical manifestations” to irritating rashes to life-threatening conditions such as anaphylactic shock, which constricts breathing and impairs motor function.
Peptides occur naturally in the body but break down quickly after serving their purpose. Peptide drugs, on the other hand, are manufactured to last longer in the body to create a therapeutic response, such as controlling appetite or promoting the growth of new blood vessels, bone density or muscle.
“Now that it’s been tweaked to make it something else, the immune system can recognize it as foreign and there’s the potential issue of having an unwanted immune response,” Colenso-Semple said.
The manufacturing process can also introduce impurities — like bacteria or heavy metals — into peptide drugs. They also are sensitive to environmental conditions and can change chemical composition if stored at the wrong temperatures or shaken too vigorously, increasing the risk of an immune response or decreasing their effectiveness. And when a substance is injected, as opposed to taken orally, it bypasses most of the body’s natural defenses.
The risk of an immune response is common to peptide drugs in general. But individual peptides also present specific potential risks.
The FDA reviewed data to assess these risks and found limited human studies on a few peptide therapies; most have only been studied in animals or in clinical populations like HIV patients. What human data the FDA did find for individual peptides indicated the potential for harm. Subjects in studies of six individual peptides — growth hormone releasing peptide-2, ibutamoren mesylate, ipamorelin, CJC-1295, AOD-9604 and melanotan II — experienced adverse events, including death. (It wasn’t proven whether the deaths were caused by the peptides or by something else.) Ultimately, the FDA decided not enough data existed to allay the known safety concerns.
“Of course any adverse event can be a flag,” said another former FDA official who worked in the compounding division when the peptides were categorized as unsafe. The former official asked not to be named because they work in public health and don’t want to antagonize the current administration. “Also, if there is no clinical data for a substance, and an awareness that the substance has the propensity for harm, that could make it an appropriate placement on the Category 2 list.”
Putting the peptides on the unsafe list didn’t change much for compounders. Because those peptides aren’t components of an approved drug and don’t carry a USP monograph, compounders weren’t allowed to dispense them anyway.
“All that did was put an exclamation point on it,” Brunner said. In the months after the FDA’s announcement, his organization repeatedly warned its members not to dispense peptides.
But the listing prompted at least two peptide companies to sue the FDA, arguing it was dragging its feet on creating the bulks list of allowed compounding substances. To date, only six substances have made it through the process to be put on the list, none of which are peptides and none of which are injectables. As the lawsuit wound its way through federal court, the FDA agreed to accelerate the review of four peptides named in the lawsuit: CJC-1295, AOD-9604, thymosin-alpha and ipamorelin acetate. It also decided to move forward on two other peptides not listed in the complaint: kisspeptin and ibutamoren mesylate. Online marketing claims these peptides help with, among other things, weight loss, muscle-building, anti-aging, insomnia, tissue repair and sexual dysfunction. Marketers also claim thymosin-alpha, one of the more studied peptides, can help with immune function, Lyme disease and COVID-19.
In the final months of the Biden administration, the FDA convened the expert advisory committee and presented its research on the six peptides. In reports up to 158 pages long, the agency detailed the science behind the immune response risk in synthetic peptides, listed documented adverse events associated with the drugs and summarized the limited research on human subjects. In each case, the FDA recommended against putting the peptide on the bulks list for compounders.
“I can’t imagine anybody looking at this data and being comfortable” making these available to the public, Colenso-Semple said.
The peptide industry was given just 10 minutes before the committee to present arguments that the six peptides were safe. Speakers offered anecdotal evidence from their own and others’ practices. Even though peptides can’t legally be used by compounders, many were dispensing the drugs because the FDA has been lax in enforcing its regulations.
“Many of the peptides that have been placed on Category 2 have been used successfully by thousands of our practitioners treating hundreds of thousands of patients who utilize these compounds to energize cellular function and give the body what it needs to help address sickness and disease, including obesity, diabetes and addiction,” said Dan DeNeui, CEO of one of the peptide companies that sued the FDA.
His wife, Terri DeNeui, a nurse practitioner and founder of their company Evexias Health Solutions, presented information from a survey of 508 patients treated with various peptides that said 19% reported uncomfortable side effects and less than 1% experienced an adverse event.
They also contended peptides would be more safely dispensed by regulated compounders than on the gray market — the argument now being made by the Alliance for Compounding Pharmacies. The active ingredients in the drugs would be manufactured at an FDA-registered facility subject to inspection, and compounders are overseen by state boards of pharmacies to ensure sterile conditions.
That’s “a heck of a lot better than what many consumers are doing,” getting advice in chat rooms and “ordering some substance that purports to be a peptide and may or may not be,” Brunner told ProPublica.
While that argument addresses quality-control concerns associated with the gray market, it doesn’t confront the fundamental question of whether peptides are safe.
“They’re totally unapproved drugs,” said one of the former FDA officials. “Would you let a pharmaceutical company do this? No. No way.”
In the end, the advisory committee sided with the FDA and endorsed its initial decision that the six peptides were too risky to be dispensed to the public.
Unhappy with the advisory committee’s decision, the compounding industry has amplified its argument that the FDA review process for the bulks list is broken. The advisory committee had few working compounders on it and didn’t give those who opposed the decision on peptides enough time to present its arguments, industry advocates say.
With a new administration, whose health secretary has used peptides himself and is trying to advance alternative health practices, they see an opportunity. They hope the FDA will appoint more members with compounding experience to the committee and ease enforcement on peptides while it continues the established regulatory process.
“Given the scale of demand — demand that is going to be met, if not by a state licensed compounding pharmacy, then by the black and gray markets — we believe the lens that the FDA is using related to these peptides, at least some of the peptides, is the wrong lens,” Brunner said. “They’re wanting research, clinical trials. They’re wanting a certain amount of certitude that, frankly, is appropriate for most drugs, but not for this moment.”
Regulatory shortcuts exist that would allow the FDA to skip the more laborious approval process. The FDA could simply remove the peptides from Category 2, those it considers unsafe. It could place them in Category 1, allowing them to be used in compounding. Or it could announce it’s changing its enforcement strategy and not going after compounders who work with these substances.
None of that would be safe for the public, Woodcock contends. Congress intended for the FDA to “refer to a substantive body of evidence about the safety and effectiveness” of ingredients put on the bulks list, she said.
“This wasn’t supposed to be a route for unapproved drugs to get into the market,” she said. “Not even Congress was thinking that.”
The post RFK Jr. May Reverse a Peptide Ban He Calls “Illegal.” Former FDA Officials Say He Mischaracterized Their Work. appeared first on ProPublica.
The president says Iran’s remaining leaders are more reasonable. But assassinations have left in place an emboldened government driving a hard bargain, officials say.
People leaving Iran for Turkey tell of impact of bombs and internet blackouts, while others are travelling the other way to be closer to relatives in peril
He could not help but splutter out a laugh at the question. Amir, whose name has been changed for his safety, had just crossed the Kapıköy border point in eastern Turkey, a mountain pass between snow-topped peaks that is one of the few gateways to the west from Iran.
Until a few weeks ago, this was a busy place, popular among Iranian daytrippers coming across to Turkey to do some shopping in the lively city of Van, a further two hours drive west, or to spend a couple of nights out in its discreet Iranian-only nightclubs and bars serving alcohol.
Continue reading...Renewables made up nearly half of global installed electricity capacity by the end of 2025, "accounting for 85.6% of global capacity expansion," reports the Register, citing the International Renewable Energy Agency's (IRENA) 2026 Renewable Capacity Statistics report. "Per IRENA's data, that aforementioned 85.6 percent share of new power capacity additions was actually a decrease from 2024, when renewables were about 92 percent of global capacity additions. Yes, the share of total installed power capacity in 2025 rose again, but non-renewable capacity additions also rebounded sharply last year." From the report: Solar, in turn, was the dominant renewable technology, accounting for nearly three-quarters of last year's renewable capacity additions. Those additions totaled 692 GW in 2025, lifting installed renewable capacity by a record 15.5 percent year over year, IRENA noted. By the end of last year, renewables accounted for 49.4 percent of global installed electricity capacity, while variable renewable sources such as solar and wind represented roughly 35 percent of total capacity. For reference, it was only in 2023 that renewable energy sources crossed the threshold of generating 30 percent of the world's electricity.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The engine firing provided a slingshot-like boost to the Orion capsule, speeding it to 24,500 mph, the velocity needed to break free of Earth's gravitational clasp for a trek to the moon.
Plan for three nuns who escaped from care home last year to go to Rome thought to be positive sign of Vatican’s decision
Three nuns who escaped from a care home to return to their convent in a castle close to Salzburg where they had spent most of their lives are a step closer to being able to stay there, sources close to them say.
Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita, who are in their early to late eighties, broke into their convent home in Elsbethen last September with the help of former pupils of the Catholic school at which they had taught and other supporters. Their case became a cause célèbre, attracting attention from around the world.
Continue reading...From farms in New Zealand to factories in Delhi, the effects of the oil crisis triggered by the Iran war are rippling across Asia
Continue reading...An Israeli assault is pushing the fragile country to the brink.
A deal Tehran could take.
Tania Warner is fitted with ankle monitor and released along with seven-year-old daughter Ayla Luca after being deemed not a flight risk
A Canadian woman and her seven-year-old daughter, who were held for nearly three weeks in a notorious detention center by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), were released on Thursday evening after posting a bond of $9,500.
Tania Warner and her daughter Ayla Luca, originally from British Columbia, are both Canadian citizens. Warner moved to the US in 2021 when she married Edward Warner, a US citizen. “Very happy to have my family home … it’s been a whirlwind day,” said Edward Warner.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Responding to public health concerns about microplastics and pharmaceuticals in the nation's drinking water, the Trump administration for the first time has placed them on a draft list of contaminants maintained by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA announced the move Thursday, touting it as a "historic step" for the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement, which often raises concerns about toxic chemicals and plastic pollution in our food and environment. Also Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a $144 million initiative, called STOMP, to develop tools to measure and monitor microplastics in drinking water and in a later stage, to remove them. The Safe Drinking Water Act requires the EPA to publish an updated version of its Contaminant Candidate List every five years. This is the sixth iteration of the list. Microplastics and pharmaceuticals appear in the draft of the upcoming list, alongside per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, and dozens of other chemicals and microbes. Their inclusion on the list gives local regulators a tool to evaluate risks in their water supply, the EPA says, and it can set the stage for more research and regulatory action -- but doesn't actually guarantee that will happen.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I’m getting ready to make a purchase on either a gt or xrc which should I go with? Other than range is there any other benefits for the gt being a big dude? Thanks brothers
For years, California leaders accused oil companies of price gouging at the pump, but a state investigation found no evidence of that. Instead, a CBS News California investigation found what's really driving the highest gas prices in the U.S.
President Trump warned the U.S. "hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran," and previewed that strikes on bridges and power plants could be next.
The Cuban government says it has pardoned and released 2,010 prisoners, a sweeping move that comes as the island nation grapples with pressure from the Trump administration.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 3.
This blog is now closed. You can read about the latest major development in the conflict here.
Trump has claimed that Iran was “right at the doorstep” of gaining a nuclear weapon.
Earlier on Wednesday the president said he did not care about Iran’s stock of highly enriched uranium (HEU), arguing it was deep underground and could be monitored by satellite.
From the very beginning my campaign for president in 2015, I said I would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon. This regime has been chanting death to America, death to Israel.
Continue reading...  | Hey all, I’m looking at buying a used onewheel GT with plenty of skate/snowboarding experience but not onewheel experience. I found a used GT with 506 miles and have two questions.. 1) is this line in the center of the tire anything to be concerned about? 2) does this look like normal wear and tear for the mileage? Thanks, looking forward to riding! [link] [comments] |
This live blog is now closed.
During its brief pro forma session today, the US House took no action on the funding bill to end the historic DHS shutdown, after Senate-passed legislation was sent to the lower chamber earlier today.
The House’s next procedural meeting will be on Monday, meaning the lapse in funding for several subagencies will continue until at least next week. However, Republican House speaker Mike Johnson may even wait until lawmakers return from a two-week recess to ensure the measure, that his party rejected last week, can pass.
Continue reading...Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations.
Dose the X7SC have so much more power than the X7LR that it’s worth having less range, or is it close enough in power to justify the trade off for a lot more range?
US attorney general Pam Bondi failed to please a president fixated on prosecuting political enemies – key US politics stories from Thursday 2 April at a glance
Spring cleaning has begun at the White House.
Donald Trump on Thursday fired Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, dismissing a loyalist who reshaped the justice department but still failed to please a president fixated on prosecuting political enemies and frustrated with the politically explosive release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Continue reading...Drone-maker backed by Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr tries to win contracts with Gulf countries protected by US
A drone-maker backed by Donald Trump’s two oldest sons is trying to sell to Gulf countries while they are under attack by Iran and dependent on the US military led by their father.
The sales drive by Florida-based Powerus – which announced a deal last month to bring aboard Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr – positions the company to potentially benefit from a war that their father began.
Continue reading...I’m trying to buy a used Onewheel but I’m not finding a whole lot of listings online for used ones. All of the ones on Facebook marketplace seems like a scam or overpriced. Any recommendations?
California House members tour Otay Mesa center, which has faced allegations of poor conditions and sexual assaults
Two California lawmakers conducted an oversight visit Thursday at ICE’s Otay Mesa detention center, an immigrant detention facility that has faced allegations of overcrowding, poor conditions and sexual assaults.
The visit had been previously scheduled. But Mike Levin, a Democratic congressman, told the Guardian he planned to conduct more unannounced visits following a federal court ruling that struck down the Trump administration’s policy of forcing members of Congress to announce oversight visits seven days in advance.
Continue reading...ENSCHEDE, Netherlands, April 2, 2026 — QuiX Quantum, a leading provider of photonic quantum computing hardware, today announced it has demonstrated “below threshold” error mitigation for the first time on a photonic quantum computer, suppressing physical qubit errors to the level compatible with scalable, fault‑tolerant quantum computing.
The achievement marks the first time a European company has demonstrated a production-ready method of error reduction, demonstrating the scalability of the QuiX quantum computing platform based on photonics. The project was conducted on the QuiX BiaTM Cloud Quantum Computing Service in collaboration with NASA’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, the University of Twente, and Freie Universität Berlin.
Quantum information is fragile, and without error correction, a computation of any user-relevant size will be impossible. For this reason, the ability to control errors in the quantum state is seen as a crucial milestone for any of the competing computing platforms. Increasingly, experts consider the ability to deal with such errors as the crucial differentiator between different technological approaches.
For such a protocol to be meaningful, it must meet two conditions: it must remove more errors than it introduces, and it must not impede the operation of the rest of the computer. QuiX is the first party in photonics to demonstrate a protocol that meets both requirements simultaneously. The findings are described in a paper available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.05947 which is currently undergoing peer review.
“Below-threshold, physical error mitigation has never been implemented in a photonic quantum computer. This achievement marks a significant milestone and places QuiX Quantum at the forefront of progress toward fault-tolerant photonic quantum computing,” said Stefan Hengesbach, CEO of QuiX Quantum. “We believe the most resource-efficient strategy is to reduce errors early rather than correct them at great expense — and by demonstrating net positive error mitigation on real hardware, we’ve taken a foundational step that showcases European leadership in accelerating quantum technologies toward powerful, large-scale systems.”
“This paper represents an important jump forward towards large-scale photonic quantum computing,” said David DiVincenzo, director of the Institute of Theoretical Nanoelectronics at the Peter Grünberg Institute at the Forschungszentrum Jülich. “By using a multimode optical Fourier transform, the authors have established experimentally an elegant photon distillation scheme that would significantly slash required resource costs in the future photonic quantum processor. This work takes a big step forward on one of the most stubborn bottlenecks in creating indistinguishable photons, giving a hint of a scalable path towards quantum fault tolerance.”
Photonic quantum computers use photons – particles of light – as their information carriers. The photons move around on an optical chip and entangle with each other because of their quantum particle statistics. However, the sources producing these particles are imperfect, and any path information inherent in the particles will destroy the entanglement, resulting in distinguishability errors.
Photon distillation is a hardware level, coherent technique for error reduction that improves the quality of single photons before computation. Using quantum interference among multiple imperfect photons, the method creates a cleaner, more indistinguishable photon without heavy qubit redundancy or classical post-processing.
Using a programmable 20‑mode photonic processor, the team demonstrated a photon distillation gate that makes photons measurably more alike, reducing photon indistinguishability error by a factor of 2.2. And despite additional noise introduced by the gate, the device still delivered a 1.2X net reduction in total error, demonstrating net‑gain mitigation.
The research also shows that combining photon distillation with quantum error correction may significantly reduce system level resource demands. Modeling with current photon source performance and photonic architectures, the approach could reduce the number of photon sources required per logical qubit by up to a factor of four, lowering system complexity and cost.
“For any quantum computer modality to scale, you have to prove you can remove more error than you add while the computer is still able to run, and that’s what we’ve shown here,” said Jelmar Renema, Chief Scientist at QuiX. “Our photon distillation gate is compatible with running real computations and delivers net gain error mitigation once all gate noise is included. That’s why this is a major achievement for photonics and quantum computing in general.”
The project was partially funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Defense’s Purple NECtar Quantum Challenges initiative.
About QuiX Quantum
QuiX Quantum is a leading provider of photonic quantum computing hardware driving innovation across Europe in the development of its Universal Quantum Computer. The first system, already sold and contracted for delivery, underscores the impact of QuiX Quantum’s market-leading hardware and renowned quality. Following its expansion across Europe and UK, QuiX Quantum pushes the boundaries of quantum technology and industry, strengthening Europe’s international competitiveness, leveraging a wide network of partners while serving a growing global customer base.
Source: QuiX Quantum
The post QuiX Quantum Demonstrates Below-Threshold Error Mitigation in Photonic Quantum Computing for First Time appeared first on HPCwire.
A doctor on trial on allegations he attempted to murder his wife on a hiking trail in Hawaii last year took the stand in his own defense.
A former FBI agent who was prosecuted for his alleged role in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and later hired by the Trump-era Justice Department has left his government post, he announced Thursday.
‘Ukraine has expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,’ says president. What we know on day 1,500
Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Thursday to provide Ukraine’s expertise in dealing with freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to those countries considering how to keep the strait of Hormuz open amid the conflict in the Middle East. The Ukraine president, speaking in his nightly video address, said the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, had taken part in a virtual meeting devoted to reopening the strait of Hormuz, attended by about 40 countries. “Ukraine has relevant expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,” he said. “If [our] partners are ready to act, we will consider how we can strengthen them, how we can apply our expertise, knowledge and technological potential.”
Russia’s army recorded no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March, for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed. The Russian army’s advances have been slowing since late 2025 due to Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east, and losing ground in March and February on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the analysis showed. Across the entire frontline, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 sq km in March.
North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, gave “field guidance” at the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, which is under construction , state media KCNA said. The museum in Pyongyang will be a place to commemorate the fallen soldiers sent to support the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. The construction of the museum is almost complete and Kim said the opening ceremony would be held in mid-April, marking the first anniversary of the deployment of the North Korean soldiers.
Six Ukrainian children will be returned from Russia to their families in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing efforts by Melania Trump to expedite their return. A seventh Ukrainian child will also be returned to their family later this month, the first lady’s office said in a statement. Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus, where they are sometimes subject to military training and forced to fight against their own country’s troops.
Russian strikes across Ukraine on Thursday killed at least two people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Moscow stepped up its attacks amid stalled peace talks. In the south-eastern Kherson region, Russia attacked “with artillery, mortars and UAVs”, the regional prosecutor’s office said on social media. A 42-year-old man was killed when a drone hit a civilian car, and 16 others – including a teenage boy and three police officers – were wounded in air attacks and artillery shelling, it added. In the Chernihiv region, north of the capital Kyiv, Russia attacked with a ballistic missile, the head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said on Telegram.
Russian forces maintained a daylong barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 drone strikes. He said some had triggered fires and two people had been injured in an evening attack, including an eight-year-old girl.
Russian forces carried out 129 attacks on Ukrainian gas and heating facilities during the recent 151-day heating season, the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Thursday. “The Russians hit pipelines, gas production, underground storage facilities, heating systems – everything that Ukrainians depend on for heat and gas,” it said in a statement.
Continue reading...Health minister Mark Butler says federal government is ‘not negotiating’ when it comes to removing price protections on common medications
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Australia will not cave in to pressure from pharmaceutical giants and the Trump administration by removing consumer price protections on common medications, the health minister, Mark Butler says.
Donald Trump imposed a new 100% tariff on branded pharmaceuticals imported into the US overnight, Australian time, trying to force manufacturers to agree to drug-pricing deals or commit to making their products domestically.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 3, No. 1,749.
One of the sources said Hegseth wants someone in the role who will implement President Trump and Hegseth's vision for the Army.
A federal judge in New York has tossed out actor Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against actor Justin Baldoni over their roles in the movie "It Ends With Us," but left intact a claim for retaliation.
YouTube is rolling out Stations, music video-themed FAST channels curated by the artists and creators you love.
The new surcharge will be added to fees paid by third-party sellers in the US and Canada.
 | I road my board up to the store for a drink. when I got to the store, I picked it up without turning it off, walked in and got my drink then walked out just like I always do but this time the board is not responding. tried turning it off and on but it won't register the foot pads. [link] [comments] |
United did not say why it was raising its prices, but the move follows JetBlue also hiking its checked bag fees earlier this week, citing "rising operating costs."
schwit1 shares a report from the Kathmandu Post: In Nepal, helicopter rescue on high altitude is, by any measure, a genuine lifesaving operation. At high altitude, where oxygen thins and weather changes without warning, the ability to airlift a stricken trekker to Kathmandu within hours has saved countless lives. But threaded through that legitimate system, exploiting its urgency, its opacity, and its distance from oversight, is one of the most sophisticated insurance fraud networks in the world. Nepal's fake rescue scam is not new. The Kathmandu Post first exposed it in 2018. Months later, the government convened a fact-finding committee, produced a 700-page report, and announced reforms. In February 2019, The Kathmandu Post published a long investigative report. Last year, Nepal Police's Central Investigation Bureau reopened the file, and what they found is that the fraud did not stop -- instead it was growing. The mechanics of the fake rescue racket are straightforward: stage a medical emergency, call in a helicopter, check a tourist into a hospital, and file an insurance claim that bears little resemblance to what actually happened. But the sophistication lies in how each link in the chain is compensated, and how difficult it is for a foreign insurer -- operating from Australia and the United Kingdom -- to verify events that occurred at 3,000 metres in a remote Himalayan valley. The CIB investigation identifies two primary methods for manufacturing an "emergency." The first involves tourists who simply don't want to walk back. After completing a demanding trek -- an Everest Base Camp trek, for instance, can take up to two weeks on foot -- guides offer an alternative: pretend to be sick, and a helicopter will come. The guide handles the rest. The second method is more troubling. At altitudes above 3,000 meters, mild symptoms of altitude sickness are common. Blood oxygen saturation can drop, hands and feet tingle, headaches develop. In most cases, rest, hydration or a gradual descent is all that is needed. But guides and hotel staff, according to the CIB investigation, have been trained to terrify trekkers at precisely this moment. They tell them they are at risk of dying, that only immediate evacuation will save them. In some cases, investigators found that Diamox (Acetazolamide) tablets, used to prevent altitude sickness, were administered alongside excessive water intake to induce the very symptoms that would justify a rescue call. In at least one case cited in the investigation, baking powder was mixed into food to make tourists physically unwell. Once a "rescue" is called, the financial choreography begins. A single helicopter carries multiple passengers. But separate, full-price invoices are submitted to each passenger's insurance company, as if each had their own dedicated flight. A $4,000 charter becomes a $12,000 claim. Fake flight manifests and load sheets are fabricated. At the hospital, medical officers prepare discharge summaries using the digital signatures of senior doctors who were never involved in the case. In some cases, these are done without those doctors' knowledge. Fake admission records are created for tourists who were, in some documented instances, drinking beer in the hospital cafeteria at the time they were supposedly receiving treatment. In one case, an office assistant at Shreedhi Hospital admitted that he had provided his own X-ray report taken about a year ago at a different hospital, to be used as a case for treatment of foreign trekkers to claim insurance. The commission structure that holds the network together was described in detail during police interrogations. Hospitals pay 20 to 25 percent of the insurance payment to trekking companies and a further 20 to 25 percent to helicopter rescue operators in exchange for patient referrals. Trekking guides and their companies benefit from inflated invoices. In some cases, tourists themselves are offered cash incentives to participate.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A county board near Nashville voted to dismiss Luanne James, who said she stands by her decision, in the latest clash in a national debate over access to books.
Ryan Bridge is co-founder of Raise the Colours, which has been criticised for anti-immigrant rhetoric
The leader of a flag campaign group has been arrested on suspicion of causing religiously and racially aggravated harassment.
Ryan Bridge is the co-founder of Raise the Colours, which has put up hundreds of union and Saint George flags across England and attracted criticism for spreading anti-immigrant rhetoric. He was arrested on Tuesday and released on police bail the following day.
Continue reading...Commentary: If there's one company capable of making genuinely stylish wearable tech, it's British indie darling Nothing.
Attorneys for Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born US green card holder, say he was targeted for criticizing Israel
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Salah Sarsour, a Palestinian-born legal permanent resident of the United States, was taken into custody by nearly a dozen US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on Monday in Milwaukee after he left his home, according to the Islamic Society of Milwaukee.
Continue reading...Britain’s Keir Starmer hosts a meeting of world leaders for talks on the waterway amid mounting pressure from the Trump administration to join the Iran war.
 | Just received my XRC and installed the wood footpads. The hybrid fender delete doesn't sit flush with the wood footpad. There is a lip from the wood to the plastic. Is my footpad defective or is there something I can do to fix this? [link] [comments] |
OpenAI is acquiring tech news podcast TBPN, a fast-growing daily show hosted by John Coogan and Jordi Hays. OpenAI says TBPN will keep its editorial independence, even though the acquisition is widely viewed as part of a broader effort to influence public discourse around AI. CNBC reports: In the announcement, OpenAI CEO of AGI Deployment Fidji Simo wrote that their mission of bringing artificial general intelligence comes with a responsibility to have a space for "constructive conversation about the changes AI creates." Altman has appeared on TBPN multiple times and is a frequent presence across media and podcasts, even hitting NBC's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" in December. The announcement says TBPN will maintain editorial independence and continue to choose its own guests. "TBPN is my favorite tech show. We want them to keep that going and for them to do what they do so well," Altman wrote in a post on X. "I don't expect them to go any easier on us, am sure I'll do my part to help enable that with occasional stupid decisions." OpenAI did not disclose the terms of the deal but said TBPN will be housed within its strategy organization. "While we've been critical of the industry at times, after getting to know Sam and the OpenAI team, what stood out most was their openness to feedback and commitment to getting this right," wrote Hays in a statement. "Moving from commentary to real impact in how this technology is distributed and understood globally is incredibly important to us."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
SINGAPORE, April 2, 2026 — From 2025 until the end of 2029, Microsoft is on track to spend $5.5 billion to power Singapore’s AI future, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith announced yesterday, alongside the expansion of Microsoft Elevate programs to provide AI tools and skills to tertiary students, teachers and nonprofits with responsible AI to uplift all communities in the AI era.
Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft is announcing a $5.5 billion USD investment in cloud and AI infrastructure and ongoing operations in Singapore during the five years from 2025 through 2029. As part of Microsoft’s commitment to enabling individuals and economies through technology, talent and trust, every tertiary education student in Singapore also now has free access to Microsoft 365 Premium with Copilot and the company’s suite of productivity tools, while all educators will be provided free AI training through Microsoft Elevate for Educators, and Microsoft Elevate for Changemakers will upskill nonprofit leaders. Together, these programs strengthen the education, workforce, and social impact systems for communities so more people can learn, work, and thrive in the AI economy.
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith was in Singapore to make these announcements and deliver a keynote at today’s Asia Tech x Inspire event, alongside IMDA Chairman Russell Tham, Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Dr. Janil Puthucheary, local leaders from public and private sectors along with students from across Singapore’s universities and vocational institutions.
“Our ongoing investment in cloud and AI infrastructure reflects Microsoft’s long-term confidence in Singapore as a global digital leader,” said Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft. “Together, we’re focused on helping people and organizations use AI by strengthening skills, increasing cybersecurity and resilience, and advancing trusted governance so technology delivers real benefits for Singaporeans.”
These announcements to expand AI skilling and workforce readiness nationwide to put people at the centre of the AI opportunity are aligned to Singapore’s rapid adoption of AI, reinforcing its ranking at #2 globally in the recent AI Diffusion Report from the Microsoft Research AI Economy Institute.
Dr. Janil Puthucheary, Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment in Singapore, said: “Baseline AI skills are increasingly becoming as fundamental as digital literacy. By equipping students with a hands on experience using AI tools, and supporting our educators to adopt them confidently, we are strengthening the foundations for Singapore’s future workforce, and training them to use AI with confidence, discernment and trust.”
Powering Singapore’s AI Future
As part of its commitment to spend $5.5 billion in Singapore over five years to power the nation’s ambitions and AI future, Microsoft will invest in cloud and AI infrastructure and ongoing operations in Singapore. Microsoft will continue strengthening AI skills across sectors and communities, while increasing cybersecurity, resilience and trusted governance.
Empowering Every Tertiary Student with Free, Trusted AI Tools
Microsoft 365 Premium with Copilot will be free for 12 months to every tertiary student in Singapore. The more than 200,000 students enrolled in university and vocational training institutions will have access to Microsoft 365 productivity tools with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant, built right in – including in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote. Tertiary students can sign up to access this free offer (valid tertiary email address required) from this Microsoft site.
Access to useful, trusted, secure AI built right into the flow of work will give students an edge as they further their education, and ultimately improve their employability in the evolving job market. This expansion follows the announcement of the offer for students in the United States at the White House’s AI Education Task Force meeting in recent months.
New Microsoft Elevate Programs for Educators and Nonprofit Leaders
As AI adoption accelerates, readiness remains uneven. Many institutions and communities lack the skills, guidance, or capacity to adopt AI responsibly and effectively. Microsoft Elevate helps address these gaps by bringing together trusted technology, free credentials, professional communities, and system level capacity building, delivered through partnerships that support long term, inclusive impact.
To build AI confidence in classrooms, Microsoft has expanded Microsoft Elevate for Educators to Singapore, a new program helping educators build confidence in using AI responsibly in the classroom – from primary and secondary schools to Institutes of Higher Learning. Aligned with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, the initiative supports AI literacy and trusted, inclusive adoption through foundational training, virtual workshops and a global educator community.
To strengthen nonprofit leadership with responsible AI, Microsoft Elevate for Changemakers has been introduced in Singapore to support nonprofit and social impact leaders driving real world AI adoption in service of their communities. Designed to meet organizations where they are, the program builds practical skills with free AI readiness credentials while strengthening internal capacity for responsible and effective use.
These targeted efforts build on Microsoft’s long-term commitment to upskilling the people of Singapore, including through initiatives delivered in partnership with Singapore Government agencies and organizations that have reached hundreds of thousands of workers across every sector.
Latest Advice for Students, Job-Seekers, Employees and Leaders
New Economic Graph data from LinkedIn – a Microsoft company – shows that demand for AI literacy skills has grown in Singapore over 70% year-on-year. The latest insights released by LinkedIn today in the new book Open to Work; How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI, with a foreword contributed by Microsoft’s Brad Smith, show AI fluency has become a baseline expectation across organisations, regardless of role or function. The regions that pull ahead will ensure widespread access, widespread adoption, and widespread ability to innovate – including by prioritizing lifelong learning and public-private partnerships, as Singapore does.
“The significant commitment Microsoft is making to Singapore reinforces its pivotal role as an AI innovation hub in Asia. We’re all-in on Singapore’s AI future, and access and skills will be fundamental to fully realizing this nation’s ambitions. By embedding AI literacy into everyday learning and in how every sector from enterprise to nonprofits operate, we’re building on the National AI Strategy 2.0 to drive inclusive, trusted AI adoption for genuine impact,” said Wee Luen Chia, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore.
About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
Source: Microsoft
The post Microsoft Plans $5.5B Investment in Singapore Cloud and AI Infrastructure Through 2029 appeared first on HPCwire.
According to Jonathan the tortoise's vet, there was also a crypto donation request from the same account that falsely announced the tortoise's death.
From attempts to prosecute president’s foes to claims of a cover-up, attorney general endured tumultuous tenure
Analysis: Bondi firing a reminder that even ultra-loyalists get dumped by Trump
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“We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Thursday. He said she would be replaced by her deputy, Todd Blanche, on an interim basis.
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A month after the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, President Donald Trump addressed the nation in a prime-time speech on April 1, saying the military operation was “getting very close” to completing its mission. Trump repeated some false and questionable claims we’ve written about before.
The president said the U.S. “totally obliterated” three nuclear facility sites in Iran last June in a U.S. airstrike operation called Midnight Hammer. Experts and a classified U.S. intelligence report said the sites were damaged and Iran’s uranium enrichment program was set back, but the sites and the country’s nuclear capabilities weren’t completely destroyed.
In a March 18 congressional hearing, however, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard backed up Trump’s claim, saying that it was the assessment of the Intelligence Community that last year’s airstrikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program.
Trump has repeatedly used the description “totally obliterated” in describing the success of the operation, starting the night of the attack in a televised address. As we’ve written, a five-page, preliminary, classified report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency said the bombing sealed off entrances of two facilities and set back Iran’s nuclear program by a few months, CNN and the New York Times reported last June.
On June 25, CIA Director John Ratcliffe issued a statement saying it would take “years” to rebuild key facilities. “CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” he said. “This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years.”
Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association, a nonpartisan organization that provides analysis on arms control and national security issues, told us in March that “it is clear that it would take Iran years to fully rebuild its enrichment plants” that were “severely damaged” in June. But the operation didn’t “remove or help account for 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent U-235 that Iran already had stockpiled, and that the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] reported this week is buried [at] Iran’s nuclear complex near Isfahan,” one of the three sites hit in last year’s airstrikes.
To be weapons-grade, the uranium would need to be enriched to 90%.
The president went on to say that Iran “sought to rebuild their nuclear program at a totally different location, making clear they had no intention of abandoning their pursuit of nuclear weapons.” He said the country was “right at the doorstep” of “a nuclear bomb, a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon like nobody’s ever seen before.”
The phrase “right at the doorstep” is vague, but arms control experts have said that there’s a lack of evidence that Iran was rebuilding its nuclear program before the U.S./Israeli military operation and that a nuclear weapon wasn’t “imminent.”
As we reported last month, Kimball told us that “[w]hile Iran’s nuclear program remains a medium- to long-term proliferation risk, there was and is no imminent Iranian nuclear threat; Iran is not close to ‘weaponizing’ its nuclear material so as to justify breaking off negotiations and launching the U.S.-Israeli attack.”
Eliana Johns, a senior research associate with the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists, told us that “if Iran enriches uranium to weapons-grade, they will need to weaponize the material and develop a nuclear device with other sensitive components. It’s relatively easy to put various payloads on a missile; however, while Iran certainly has ballistic missiles that could theoretically be used for this purpose, there are still challenges with designing a nuclear device that can be mated with the intended missile, will detonate when desired, survive reentry, and arrive accurately at its target.”
In her prepared remarks for the March 18 congressional hearing, Gabbard said: “As a result of Operation Midnight Hammer, Iran’s nuclear enrichment program was obliterated. There has been no efforts since then to try to rebuild their enrichment capability. The entrances to the underground facilities that were bombed have been buried and shuttered with cement. We continue to monitor for any early indicators on what position the current or any new leadership in Iran will take with regard to authorizing a nuclear weapons program.”
Asked by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff whether it was “the assessment of the Intelligence Community that there was an ‘imminent nuclear threat posed by the Iranian regime,'” as the White House had said, Gabbard said, “The intelligence community assessed that Iran maintained the intention to rebuild and to continue to grow their nuclear enrichment capability.” Under repeated questioning on the issue, Gabbard said that the president was “the only person who can determine what is and is not an imminent threat.”
Trump claimed that before the U.S. attacked, Iran was “rapidly building a vast stockpile of conventional ballistic missiles, and would soon have had missiles that could reach the American homeland, Europe and virtually any other place on earth.” But arms control experts have disputed Trump’s claim about missiles “soon” reaching the U.S.
As we wrote when Trump made a similar comment in his State of the Union Address on Feb. 24, while “soon” is a subjective term, experts say the threat of Iran developing an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the mainland of the United States was not particularly imminent. One expert put the time frame at several years, while others have said it would take Iran a decade or more to develop a functioning ICBM.
“Iran’s missile arsenal remains one of the pillars of its security strategy,” Emma Sandifer, program coordinator at the nonpartisan Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told us in an email. “However, there is little evidence that Iran could build missiles that reach the United States in the near future. Recent estimates determined that not only does Iran have no intercontinental ballistic missile capability, but the country appears to have maintained its self-imposed missile range limit of 2,000 km.”
Pushing back against the president’s claim, some Democrats have pointed to a Defense Intelligence Agency report released last May that stated, “Iran has space launch vehicles it could use to develop a militarily-viable ICBM by 2035 should Tehran decide to pursue the capability.” The report, which assessed missile threats that might be faced by a Trump-proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, projected Iran could have 60 ICBMs by 2035.
“So basically, the U.S. intelligence agencies have said that Iran would need 10 years to build ICBMs capable of hitting the United States militarily if they chose to do so,” Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities, a Washington-based think tank advocating restraint in U.S. foreign policy, told us. “And it did not necessarily say that there was evidence that Iran had chosen to do so.”
However, Jeffrey Lewis, an expert on global security at Middlebury College, warned that many were misreading the context of the DIA report.
“The question wasn’t ‘When will Iran have an ICBM’, it was ‘What will the threat environment look like in 2035 when Golden Dome is to be fully operational,’” Lewis wrote on X.
A March 2 article in the Wall Street Journal reported that Lewis “said that even if Tehran wanted to pursue building the weapons, it would likely take two to three years at least to build a single missile based on the history of how other nations developed similar missiles.”
“US officials have been saying since the late 1990s that Iran is a little over a decade away from developing an ICBM and is pursuing that capability,” Johns, of the Federation of American Scientists, told us. “However, building an ICBM capable of accurately striking the US mainland would require overcoming substantial technical hurdles with propulsion, guidance, and reentry, among other things. And there is little evidence to indicate that Iran has this capacity or intends to pursue it.”
The president again criticized a multilateral nuclear agreement negotiated by former President Barack Obama’s administration that was intended to restrict Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in his first term, said the nuclear deal “would have led to a colossal arsenal of massive nuclear weapons for Iran. They would have had them years ago, and they would have used them.”
As we’ve written before, we can’t say what would have happened if the agreement had remained in place, and Trump noted that this was his “opinion.” But the deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and also signed by China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany, put restrictions on uranium enrichment by Iran for 15 years and required inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities. In exchange for Iran abiding by the deal, the other countries agreed to lift sanctions on Iran.
The agreement took effect in 2016, but Trump withdrew the U.S. from it in 2018.
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation estimated that Trump withdrawing from the agreement led to Iran accelerating its nuclear program. As of November 2024, the center estimated that the “breakout time,” or the time Iran would need, if it chose to do so, to produce weapons-grade uranium that could then be used for one bomb, was two to three months before the nuclear agreement and was 12-plus months during the agreement. After the U.S. withdrew, the breakout time was a couple of weeks.
However, as we’ve explained, after producing the highly enriched uranium, it would take much longer for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
Trump also said that “Obama gave them $1.7 billion in cash … in an attempt to buy their respect and loyalty but it didn’t work.” As we explained in a 2016 article, the $1.7 billion payment, made in 2016, settled a claim that Iran had filed against the U.S. in an international tribunal in The Hague. It concerned a decades-old dispute over Iran paying the U.S. $400 million for military equipment, and the U.S. refusing to provide it after the Shah of Iran was overthrown during the Iranian Revolution in 1979.
The $1.7 billion included the original $400 million and “a roughly $1.3 billion compromise on the interest,” according to a statement by John Kerry, the secretary of state at the time.
Trump falsely suggested that the U.S. became the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas because of him.
“Under my leadership, we are No. 1 producer of oil and gas on the planet, without even discussing the millions of barrels that we’re getting from Venezuela,” Trump said. “Because of the Trump administration’s policies, we produce more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia and Russia combined. Think of that. Saudi Arabia and Russia combined, and that number will soon be substantially higher than that.”
As we’ve written, the U.S. has been the world’s No. 1 producer of petroleum, which includes both crude oil and refined petroleum products, such as gasoline, since 2013, and it has produced the most crude oil, including lease condensate, since 2018, as was long predicted. The International Energy Agency said in a 2012 energy outlook report that the U.S. was projected to become “the largest global oil producer” by “around 2020” due to advances in shale extraction technology.
Meanwhile, the U.S. has been the leader in natural gas production even longer — since 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The U.S. overtook Russia to become the top producer of natural gas, and it has produced more of it than Russia and Saudi Arabia, combined, in all but one year since 2014.
Saudi Arabia and Russia had produced the most petroleum and crude oil until the U.S. surpassed them years ago. The U.S. has produced more petroleum than Saudi Arabia and Russia together since 2024, but it does not produce more crude oil than those two countries combined.
Trump repeated his false claims about turning around a country that was “dead and crippled” economically.
“We built the strongest economy in history,” he said. “We’re going through it right now, the strongest in history. In one year, we’ve taken a dead and crippled country, I hate to say that, but we were a dead and crippled country after the last administration, and made it the hottest country anywhere in the world by far, with no inflation, record-setting investments coming into the United States over $18 trillion and the highest stock market ever, with 53 all-time record highs in just one year.”
Trump didn’t create the “strongest” economy in his first or second term as president. Economists generally measure a nation’s health by the growth in real (meaning inflation-adjusted) gross domestic product. In his first year back in office, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said that real GDP grew at an annual rate of 2.1% in 2025, which was down from the annual rate of 2.8% in 2024 under his predecessor.
In addition, as of February, the unemployment rate in the U.S. had increased to 4.4% — up from 4% when Trump took office in January 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
There is also still inflation, even though the annualized rate, based on the Consumer Price Index, did decline from 3% in January 2025 to 2.4% as of February. Overall prices may have increased further since then. The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is predicting that the annual inflation rate in March was back up to 3%, largely because of the impact that the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran is having on energy prices.
And Trump continues to inflate the total amount of investments he has secured from foreign companies and countries. The White House’s own website puts the figure at $10.5 trillion — not $18 trillion. But as we’ve written, even that number cannot be substantiated because it includes pledges and planned investments that may not materialize, as well as some investments that may not be due to Trump.
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The post FactChecking Trump’s Prime-Time Address on Iran appeared first on FactCheck.org.
April 2, 2026 — As advanced discovery tools flood U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories with data, scientists are facing a critical challenge: Humans can’t keep up with the sheer volume and speed of information being generated.
Tao Zhou of the CNM explains the capabilities of the 26-ID beamline, jointly operated by CNM and the APS. Image credit: Mark Lopez/Argonne National Laboratory.
Modern X‑ray, microscopy and neutron facilities produce vast streams of high‑value imagery, yet tools to interpret this data at scale have not kept pace. Researchers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence (AI) to rapidly turn these massive datasets into usable insight.
As part of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a historic national effort to transform American science and innovation through the power of AI, DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory is contributing to several important projects that will strengthen U.S. technological leadership and global competitiveness.
One of those projects is the Synergistic Neutron and Photon Science – Intelligence (SYNAPS-I) AI platform, which will integrate data from neutron, X-ray and microscopy experiments across national labs into a single model. This model will analyze information across scales and accelerate understanding of complex systems in real time.
The SYNAPS-I project is led by Alexander Hexemer, senior scientist at DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The project also includes members from these DOE national laboratories: Brookhaven National Laboratory, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).
The rapid data analysis platform is built to accelerate breakthroughs in microelectronics, medicine, advanced manufacturing and energy security. The goal is to advance DOE laboratories with next‑generation, AI‑driven research capabilities.
“SYNAPS‑I is envisioned not just as a tool for analysis and automation, but as a cognitive partner for scientists — capable of generating hypotheses, detecting subtle correlations and helping turn DOE facilities into truly intelligent, self‑driving laboratories,” said Mathew Cherukara, an Argonne computational scientist, group leader and leader of the Argonne SYNAPS-I team.
SYNAPS‑I Enables Real‑Time AI Imaging at Beamline Scale
The SYNAPS-I project aims to develop an AI‑driven imaging engine capable of turning vast scientific data streams into rapid insight. One challenge is scale: SYNAPS‑I seeks to train a multimodal, billion‑parameter foundation model on data from more than 100 beamlines across seven DOE facilities, far surpassing today’s archive of 50 billion images. “Multimodal” means the model can process different types of data, such as text and images, and “billion-parameter” refers to the billions of internal variables the system adjusts as it learns.
Beamlines are experiment stations built to deliver and shape X‑ray beams for scientific measurements.
To build and test the platform, the team started with ptychography, an X-ray technique that gathers overlapping diffraction patterns — the distinctive ways X-rays scatter after interacting with a material — and uses computation to reconstruct sharp, high‑resolution images.
“The use of ptychography is expanding rapidly, driven by major light source advances such as Argonne’s Advanced Photon Source (APS) Upgrade and the Advanced Light Source (ALS) Upgrade at Berkeley Lab,” said Alec Sandy, associate director of Argonne’s X-ray Science division. “Converting raw ptychography data into human and AI‑interpretable results in real time maximizes DOE’s investment in these facilities and makes the measurements immediately relevant for technology development.”
Researchers chose ptychography because it “feels almost magical,” said Tao Zhou, a scientist at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and a member of the SYNAPS-I team. “Scientists have pushed traditional X‑ray optics to their physical limits. Ptychography sidesteps those limits by using physics and computational reconstruction to achieve detail finer than the beam itself can reveal.”
This level of resolution has been achieved before, but not this rapidly.
SYNAPS-I accelerates the entire workflow, delivering high‑resolution ptychographic images fast enough to keep pace with experiments and surpass the limits of conventional optics. The platform uses the advanced computing resources of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at LBNL. The APS, CNM, ALCF, ALS and NERSC are DOE Office of Science user facilities.
At Argonne’s APS, the world’s brightest synchrotron X-ray source, a coherent beam scans nanoscale samples such as microelectronics and other manufacturing‑relevant materials. SYNAPS‑I captures the resulting diffraction patterns and reconstructs them into high‑resolution images in real time.
“SYNAPS-I is a rapid‑analysis method that delivers insights at the pace data is generated, compressing hours or days of analysis into seconds,” said Aileen Luo, an Argonne assistant computational scientist and lead developer of the SYNAPS-I model for ptychography.
Behind that speed is an AI platform engineered to think like the imaging tools themselves.
“By building the physics of coherent imaging directly into the model, we’re giving AI the same knowledge a scientist would use,” said Emon Dey, a postdoctoral researcher in Argonne’s Mathematics and Computer Science division and member of the SYNAPS-I team. “That built‑in understanding makes it far more accurate and efficient when handling the massive data volumes produced at DOE facilities.”
The platform works across domains, speeding progress in microelectronics, biomedical research, advanced manufacturing and energy security. SYNAPS-I cuts imaging analysis from years to days and enables real‑time, AI‑driven materials design for next‑generation U.S. manufacturing.
The platform could deliver substantial economic gains by using real-time AI to cut research delays, eliminate costly bottlenecks and speed innovation, boosting U.S. competitiveness and driving growth across multiple industries.
Testing Reveals Order-of-Magnitude Gains
Argonne recently successfully tested the new rapid‑analysis data method, running the full SYNAPS‑I workflow on microelectronics and quantum samples at a shared APS/CNM beamline.
The platform captured data and displayed the imaging results instantly for real‑time viewing at the beamline. Simultaneously, the saved data was moved to the ALCF, where high performance computing resources were used to refine the models.
“The test opened the door to real-time identification of defects in materials, for example, to guide manufacturing processes and enable autonomous discovery campaigns to discover new technologically impactful materials,” said Sandy. Autonomous discovery campaigns are largely self-driving research efforts in which AI systems help design experiments, analyze results and determine the next steps, accelerating the search for promising new materials.
The results of the test at the 26-ID beamline of the APS (operated by CNM) showed ptychography capabilities that were 10 times higher in resolution and contrast and 100 times faster than similar experiments without using AI workflows. SYNAPS-I enabled the analysis of 1.3 terabytes of data on one graphical processing unit (GPU) in real time, whereas a similar experiment without AI would take 2,500 GPU hours to process.
SYNAPS‑I: The Road Ahead
As the APS expands its coherent imaging capabilities, the team plans to deploy SYNAPS‑I across the facility and other DOE light‑source and neutron facilities.
The capabilities under development could support 10 APS beamlines and many more across the DOE complex, Sandy said.
The team also aims to extend SYNAPS‑I beyond ptychography, expand it with new partners, test it in real experimental settings and refine it continually as it scales.
To do that, the Argonne team is drawing on the unparalleled strengths of the DOE user facilities, including the APS.
“We’re fortunate to have one of the brightest, most advanced synchrotron facilities in the world at the APS, and that’s a big part of what makes this project possible,” Luo said.
Along with Cherukara, Sandy, Zhou, Dey and Luo, the Argonne SYNAPS-I team includes Ming Du, Peco Myint, Jeffrey Klug, Antonino Miceli, Xiangyu Yin, Sinisa Veseli, Tekin Bicer, Varuni Sastry, Yijiang Li and Kibaek Kim.
SYNAPS-I is a public-private partnership uniting Argonne with LBNL, Brookhaven, ORNL, SLAC, university researchers and AI leaders with key industry innovators.
Work performed at the CNM and APS was supported by the DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences.
Source: Beth Burmahl, Argonne National Laboratory
The post DOE Labs Develop SYNAPS-I AI Platform for Real-Time Beamline Data Analysis appeared first on HPCwire.
I tested dozens of headphones and headsets to find the most comfortable models with strong call quality and solid PC compatibility for video meetings. Here are my top picks.
The mother of the last remaining Afghan detained at Guantánamo Bay is pleading with the Trump administration to free her son, who has been held in detention for nearly two decades without ever being charged with a crime.
In a letter shared exclusively with The Intercept, Safora Yousufzai calls on President Donald Trump to release her son, 60-year-old Mohammad Rahim, citing his poor health and “advanced age” and arguing that “his prolonged detention has significantly affected both his physical and psychological well-being.”
Yousufzai points out that Afghanistan’s government released 64-year-old linguistics researcher Dennis Walter Coyle last month, after he spent over a year in captivity. His family had urged the Taliban to “look upon him with leniency” in a letter, which Afghanistan’s foreign ministry cited in their announcement of his release.
The Trump administration claimed credit for negotiating Coyle’s return — and proclaimed its commitment to “ending unjust detentions overseas.”
Now, Yousufzai is hoping to hold the administration to that promise.
“In light of recent humanitarian actions undertaken in comparable circumstances — such as the release and repatriation of detainee Dennis Coyle to his family, I respectfully express my hope that similar consideration may be extended in my son’s case,” wrote Yousufzai. “Such actions reflect not only legal discretion but also a broader commitment to human dignity and humanitarian values.”
U.S. forces detained Rahim in Pakistan in 2007 and transferred him to the notorious military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, in 2008. The U.S. government accused the Afghan national of being an interpreter and courier for Osama Bin Laden in Al Qaeda, but he was never charged or tried for any crimes.
The Biden administration reportedly offered to release Rahim in exchange for a prisoner swap including Mahmood Habibi, a U.S. citizen who was reportedly arrested in Afghanistan in 2022, after the U.S. killed Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. That deal never went through, and the Taliban has reportedly continued to request Rahim’s release. The Taliban publicly denies holding Habibi, who is still in custody, saying that they are unaware of his whereabouts.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
The CIA tortured Rahim while he was in its custody, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on the CIA’s use of torture. Rahim was subjected to “extensive use of the CIA’s enhanced-interrogation techniques,” the 2014 Senate report reads. According to their records, he was subjected to facial slaps, diet manipulation, and eight sleep deprivation sessions. During one of the sessions, he was kept awake for six straight days. Not sleeping for even three days can have lasting and profound negative impacts on cognitive health.
While he was being intentionally deprived of sleep, he was “usually shackled in a standing position, wearing a diaper and a pair of shorts,” the report adds. While in custody in 2007, he was provided a diet that “was almost entirely limited to water and liquid Ensure meals.”
Administration officials have not spoken publicly about whether they would consider releasing Rahim. However, according to the New York Times, a senior U.S. official said that Rahim would not be a part of future deals with the Taliban.
“At a minimum,” his mother wrote to Trump, “universally recognized human rights principles and norms call for a careful reassessment of his situation, with due consideration given to his age, health, and length of detention.”
In her letter, Yousufzai also pleaded with the Trump administration to think of Rahim’s daughter, who she said has “been deprived for years of the care, affection, and guidance of her father.”
“As I approach the later stages of my life, the opportunity to see my son again remains my most earnest and final hope.”
Yousufzai, who is elderly herself, wrote that she hopes the Trump administration will allow her to see her son at least one last time before her death.
“As I approach the later stages of my life, the opportunity to see my son again remains my most earnest and final hope,” she wrote. “I respectfully urge your administration to take a thoughtful and humane step toward resolving his case, consistent with the values of justice, mercy, and respect for human dignity.”
The post Mother of the Last Afghan in Guantánamo Bay Begs Trump to Free Her Son appeared first on The Intercept.
Rodney Ward returned debris instead of pets’ ashes and stored animals’ bodies in hearse or threw them out on road
A Baltimore county man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of defrauding pet owners through his fake crematorium business, returning rocks and sand to grieving victims instead of ashes.
On Tuesday, 56-year-old Rodney Ward was also ordered to pay $12,510 in restitution to victims. He had pleaded guilty to one count of felony theft and five counts of malicious destruction of property over $1,000, according to the Baltimore county state’s attorney’s office.
Continue reading...Attorney general was key part of effort to go after enemies but even she could not satisfy whims of mercurial president
Pam Bondi’s swift dismissal on Thursday underscores a reality that has met Trump loyalists from Jeff Sessions to Kristi Noem – no amount of loyalty is enough to save oneself from being dumped by Donald Trump.
Since the president assumed office last year, there have been few people more important to his effort to remake government than Bondi, his longtime friend.
Continue reading...A wealthy labor lawyer shoots his high-profile wife from the backseat of their SUV -- he says it was an accident -- prosecutors say otherwise
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Amazon will start charging sellers who use its shipping services a 3.5% "fuel and logistics" surcharge later this month, joining the ranks of shipping companies raising prices as the war in Iran pushes oil prices higher. The fees take effect on April 17 for customers of the company's Fulfillment by Amazon service -- which is used by many of the independent sellers who list their products on Amazon's retail sites -- in the US and Canada. Items shipped by Amazon on behalf of merchants who sell on their own sites or at other retailers will carry the surcharge beginning May 2. "Elevated costs in fuel and logistics have increased the cost of operating across the industry," Ashley Vanicek, an Amazon spokesperson, said on Thursday. "We have absorbed these increases so far, but similar to other major carriers, when costs remain elevated we implement temporary surcharges to partially recover these costs." Vanicek notes that the fee will apply to the sum Amazon charges to ship an item, not the product's sale price. Last month, USPS announced that it would impose its first-ever fuel surcharge on packages.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Houston, we have a potty problem. A team effort restored the Orion spacecraft's bathroom, to astronauts' relief.
April 2, 2026 — Designing metamaterials consisting of engineered lattices whose geometry gives them unusual strength, flexibility, or energy absorption typically requires long cycles of trial‑and‑error simulation. The challenge becomes even harder when the structure combines multiple materials and must handle real-world behavior such as large deformations, plasticity, and contact, where many different designs can produce similar mechanical responses, deemed unsolvable by classical computational design methods.
For a given target input stress-strain curve, the AI “thinks in reverse.” A video diffusion model de-noises from random noise into a plausible sequence of evolving internal mechanical fields, then a structure-identifier converts those fields into a manufacturable multi-material lattice — bypassing classical inverse computational design methods that are intractable.
Researchers from MechSE and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) have now introduced a generative AI workflow that is trained on NCSA’s DeltaAI high-performance computing system to reverse the process. Instead of starting with a design and predicting what it does, the method starts with the desired stress-strain curve and generates candidate multi‑material architectures that can deliver it.
The approach adapts video diffusion models, which are best known for producing images and videos for animated clips on social media. Through the process of noising and de-noising, the diffusion model learns how mechanical solution fields evolve during loading for a given stress-strain response, and an additional “structure identifier neural network” converts those fields into manufacturable multi‑material layouts.
This novel research was recently published in the Journal of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence. It builds on research by Professor Dennis Kochmann’s group at ETH Zurich, which focused on a single-component material.
The ability to quickly propose many candidate structures with tailored nonlinear behavior opens doors to impact‑energy absorption for automotive and aerospace applications, soft‑robotics actuators that undergo large deformations, and bio-inspired materials that mimic tissue-like mechanics for implants, prostheses, and tissue engineering — all areas where customizable, nonlinear responses are crucial. MechSE Professor Iwona Jasiuk’s group is already moving toward the fabrication and testing of AI‑designed samples.
Jaewan Park led the project, co-advised by Jasiuk and Seid Koric, MechSE Research Professor and Senior Technical Associate Director at NCSA.
Other members of the team include former MechSE PhD students Diab Abuiedda, Junyan (Jimmy) He, and Shashank Kushwaha, as well as Qibang Liu, a research scientist at NCSA.
About Delta and DeltaAI
NCSA’s Delta and DeltaAI are part of the national cyberinfrastructure ecosystem through the U.S. National Science Foundation ACCESS program. Delta (OAC 2005572) is a powerful computing and data-analysis resource combining next-generation processor architectures and NVIDIA graphics processors with forward-looking user interfaces and file systems. The Delta project partners with the Science Gateways Community Institute to empower broad communities of researchers to easily access Delta and with the University of Illinois Division of Disability Resources & Educational Services and the School of Information Sciences to explore and reduce barriers to access. DeltaAI (OAC 2320345) maximizes the output of artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) research. Tripling NCSA’s AI-focused computing capacity and greatly expanding the capacity available within ACCESS, DeltaAI enables researchers to address the world’s most challenging problems by accelerating complex AI/ML and high-performance computing applications running terabytes of data. Additional funding for DeltaAI comes from the State of Illinois.
Source: Grainger College of Engineering Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois
The post NCSA, MechSE Develop GenAI Workflow for Metamaterial Design on DeltaAI appeared first on HPCwire.
Rumors have been circulating about Apple's next iPhone for quite some time. Here's what we know about the iPhone 18 so far.
Foundayo is the first oral GLP-1 weight loss pill that doesn't require fasting.
It's the second straight year that black won't be available on Apple's flagship phone.
Three-time champion ‘out for extended period’
‘It is the most special week. I will be watching’
Phil Mickelson has announced he will not compete at next week’s Masters due to an ongoing “family health matter”.
The six-time major winner, who won the Masters in 2004, 2006 and 2010, missed the first four LIV Golf events of the year and said he will remain “out for an extended period of time”.
Continue reading...The commission, which is chaired by a White House staffer, voted 9 to 1 to approve the design, which includes a ballroom with seating for 1,000 guests.
Body camera video has been released of Tiger Woods' arrest, after a car crash in Florida. He has been charged with driving under the influence.
President Trump has ousted Pam Bondi as attorney general, saying she will be taking a job in the private sector.
IBM and Arm are teaming up to let Arm-based software run on IBM Z mainframes. Network World reports: The two companies plan to work on three things: building virtualization tools so Arm software can run on IBM platforms; making sure Arm applications meet the security and data residency rules that regulated industries must follow; and creating common technology layers so enterprises have more software options across both platforms, IBM said in a statement. IBM has not said whether the virtualization work will happen at the hypervisor level, through its existing PR/SM partitioning technology, or via containers -- a question enterprise architects will need answered before they can assess the collaboration's practical value. IBM described the effort as serving enterprises that run regulated workloads and cannot simply move them to the cloud, the statement said. IBM mainframe customers have largely missed out on the efficiency and price-performance gains Arm has already delivered in the cloud. "Arm says close to half of all compute shipped to top hyperscalers in 2025 runs on Arm chips, with AWS, Google, and Microsoft deploying their own Arm silicon through Graviton, Axion, and Cobalt, respectively," reports Network World. That gap is precisely what IBM and Arm's collaboration intends to address. "This is a mainframe adjacency play," says Rachita Rao, senior analyst at Everest Group. "The intent is to extend IBM Z and LinuxONE environments by enabling Arm-compatible workloads to run closer to systems of record. While hyperscalers use Arm to lower their own internal power costs and pass savings to cloud-native tenants, IBM is targeting the sovereign and air-gapped market."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Data shows 209 cases recorded as assisted dying referred to CPS by police between 1 April 2009 and 31 March this year
Thirteen cases of suspected assisted dying are being considered by prosecutors in England and Wales, according to the latest data.
Encouraging or assisting the suicide or attempted suicide of another person is against the law in England and Wales, under the Suicide Act 1961.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...Bondi earned president’s ire over handling release of Epstein files and failing to prosecute his political enemies
Donald Trump has fired Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, dismissing a loyalist who reshaped the justice department but still failed to please a president fixated on prosecuting political enemies and frustrated with the politically explosive release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social: “Pam Bondi is a Great American Patriot and a loyal friend, who faithfully served as my Attorney General over the past year. Pam did a tremendous job overseeing a massive crackdown in Crime across our Country, with Murders plummeting to their lowest level since 1900. We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.”
Continue reading...Headlining set for Netflix Is a Joke festival marks first outing with major streamer since misconduct allegations in 2017
Netflix is welcoming Louis CK back into its fold.
The comedian, long subject to questions regarding rehabilitation and so-called “cancel culture”, will headline a show at the Hollywood Bowl next month as part of the streamer’s Netflix Is a Joke festival – his first major outing with a streamer since allegations of sexual misconduct at the height of the #MeToo movement. Later this summer, Netflix will also premiere CK’s new special, Ridiculous, which he directed and executive-produced.
Continue reading...By constitutional design, the press is antagonistic to the government. As the late Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote in his opinion defending the publication of the Pentagon Papers more than 50 years ago, “Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.”
Such a free and unrestrained press requires a cohort of committed legal advocates. Whether to counter the federal government’s repeated insistence on ignoring freedom of information laws, or the Trump administration’s overt hostility and retaliation against news organizations that confront and debunk its unconstitutional narratives, a robust network of attorneys is needed to protect the press’s constitutional function.
That’s why President Donald Trump’s unconstitutional executive order aiming to punish preeminent United States law firms over their pro bono clients represents an unacceptable attack on the legal profession and poses a threat to an independent press. And that is why 42 media organizations and press freedom advocates, led by The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief Thursday urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to affirm four District Court decisions. All four lower courts found the Trump administration’s executive order that imposed sanctions on law firms for representing President Donald Trump’s political opponents unconstitutional.
The amicus brief, authored by Andrew Sellars and Kendra Albert of Albert Sellars LLP, argues that the press plays an essential role as both a proxy for the public and a check on government power. This role requires an oppositional relationship with government interests. The president’s executive orders targeting lawyers with clients opposed to his agenda severely restricts press organizations’ access to legal counsel, particularly for outlets relying on pro bono or reduced-fee representation.
“An independent media requires First Amendment champions to guarantee citizens access to the information necessary to hold our government accountable,” said David Bralow, PFDF’s legal director. “This is why The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, legal advocates, and other partner organizations nationwide filed an amicus brief to prevent the administration’s unconstitutional efforts to intimidate lawyers fulfilling their professional oaths.”
The coalition includes news organizations, press associations, advocacy groups, media law firms, and individual attorneys with over five centuries of collective experience in First Amendment and press freedom issues.
“We are honored to represent this august group of news outlets, advocacy organizations and First Amendment attorneys at the D.C. Circuit. The public needs the press, and the press needs independent counsel, who cannot be subject to sanction because the president dislikes their clients,” said Kendra Albert, partner at Albert Sellars LLP.
“The Press Freedom Defense Fund exists for moments like this one. Alongside 42 coalition partners, we are drawing a clear line: a free press is not a privilege this or any administration may revoke,” said Annie Chabel, The Intercept’s CEO. “It is a constitutional right — and so is the independent counsel required to defend it.”
The post The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund Leads Cohort Fighting Trump’s Unconstitutional Media Attacks appeared first on The Intercept.
The Environmental Protection Agency also added microplastics to its contaminant candidate list for the first time.
A $10,000 6-month CD combines profitability and flexibility. Here's how much interest savers can earn by acting now.
Hakeem Jeffries predicts Pete Hegseth could be next as party alarmed by damage done by ‘terrible’ attorney general
With quips, memes and jabs, Democrats cheered Donald Trump’s firing of attorney general Pam Bondi on Thursday, while the president’s Republican allies praised her relatively brief tenure overseeing the justice department.
Trump announced Bondi’s departure on Truth Social, saying: “We love Pam, and she will be transitioning to a much needed and important new job in the private sector, to be announced at a date in the near future.” Her deputy, Todd Blanche, will take over as acting attorney general.
Continue reading...‘Partnership’ on drug pricing also gives patients in Britain greater access to potentially life-extending treatments
British drug exports to the US will escape tariffs imposed by Donald Trump as part of a controversial UK-US medicines deal that critics fear will mean less money for the NHS.
The deal will also give patients in Britain greater access to potentially life-extending drugs because the rules have been relaxed to allow the NHS to pay more for particular treatments.
Continue reading...Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane was lured to a Dallas studio for a meeting, then allegedly kidnapped and robbed by a group including rappers Pooh Shiesty and Big30.
 | Omg the beauty! Just from first touch & holding of the board this bad boy is built so solid. [link] [comments] |
Picking the right processor for a particular workload will always be important. But when it comes to AI–and more specifically, AI inference–the selection of any individual chip is less important than how the whole system is architected. Today’s acquisition of GigaIO’s data center business by d-Matrix, as well as Nvidia’s $2 billion investment in Marvell earlier this week, show this to be true.
d-Matrix originally made a name for itself by developing a novel digital in-memory compute (DMIC) technology that it delivers as a chiplet that plugs directly into the PCI bus. Its latest in-memory compute offering, dubbed Corsair, incorporates three-dimensional digital in-memory compute (3DMIC) that fuses the processor directly into SRAM modules connected to PCIe Gen5. Corsair was developed specifically for AI inference utilizing large language models, and delivers 150 TB/s of memory bandwidth, which helps AI models connect with data and deliver better results quicker.
The Santa Clara, California company, which raised $275 million in a Series C round last November and has raised a total of $450 million since it launched in 2022, announced its first acquisition today. d-Matrix is buying the data center business of Carlsbad, California-based GigaIO, which develops a composable infrastructure, dubbed FabreX, that connects GPUs, FPGAs, and other XPUs using PCI and CXL standards. GigaIO uses FabreX with its SuperNODE platform, which connects up to 32 XPUs to a single node.
d-Matrix’s Corsair processor incorporates in-memory compute in a 3D-stacked chiplet form-factor
The acquisition shows that d-Matrix understands that AI inference requires more than just a fast chip. “Inference is bigger than any one chip,” said Sid Sheth, founder and CEO of d-Matrix. “It’s now a systems problem.”
Succeeding with AI in the future will mean breaking workloads up into smaller tasks that run across a variety of different processor types, including CPUs, GPUs, and inference accelerators, Sheth said.
“That means data must move efficiently across chips, nodes, racks, and entire data centers in real time,” he said. “This acquisition accelerates our ability to deliver infrastructure built for this new reality, where low latency, efficiency, and scale all matter at once.”
GigaIO plans to continue as an independent entity focused on edge computing. The company recently announced the Gryf, which it positions as a “portable supercomputer” that can fit in the overhead bin of a jetliner.
Nvidia is also moving beyond chips. Big Green became the world’s most valuable company as a result of its powerful GPUs, which have been in high demand since soon after OpenAI sparked the current AI boom by releasing ChatGPT in late 2022. Its roadmap calls for ever-more powerful GPUs, with today’s Blackwell giving way to Rubin in 2026, to be followed by the Feynman GPU in 2028.
NVLink Fusion connects other vendors’ AI accelerators to Nvidia’s Vera Rubin platform
But even Nvidia recognizes that one GPU does not good AI make. Its recent GPU Technology Conference was full of news about other types of chips, including its new Vera CPU and the Groq language processing unit (LPU), the IP for which it paid $20 billion to acquire in December. CEO Jensen Huang was adamant that successful AI requires all seven of its chips, which it now refers to as its Vera Rubin platform.
“Most people forget that Nvidia’s business is much, much more diversified than a chip company,” Huang said during a Q&A with the press at GPC in March. “And the reason for that is because we’re full stack and we can help people build AI factories anywhere.”
Nvidia doubled-down on that move this week when it announced that that it’s investing $2 billion into Marvell, the $8 billion custom chipmaker based in Santa Clara. Marvell develops a variety of custom silicon, including ASICs for AI accelerators, switches, storage controllers, gaming consoles, and silicon photonic devices. It worked with AWS to develop its Trainium XPUs for AI model training. It has also worked with Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.
The $2 billion investment from Nvidia is geared toward improving Marvell’s integration with NVLink Fusion, which is Nvidia’s plans to build an open ecosystem around its proprietary scale-up NVLink interconnect. According to Nvidia, Marvell will provide custom XPUs and NVLink Fusion-compatible scale-up networking components. Nvidia, meanwhile, will provide the reset of the stack, including Vera CPU, ConnectX NICs, BlueField DPUs, and the NVLink interconnect and Spectrum-X switches, as well as “AI compute” (i.e. GPUs).
“Our expanded partnership with Nvidia reflects the growing importance of high-speed connectivity, optical interconnect and accelerated infrastructure in scaling AI,” said Matt Murphy, chairman and CEO of Marvell. “By connecting Marvell’s leadership in high-performance analog, optical DSP, silicon photonics and custom silicon to Nvidia’s expanding AI ecosystem through NVLink Fusion, we are enabling customers to build scalable, efficient AI infrastructure.”
In December, Marvell spent $3.25 billion to acquire Celestial AI, which was developing a scale-up optical interconnect. Celestial AI was building Photonic Fabric, a scale-up optical interconnect that could deliver up to 16 terabits per second of bandwidth. Marvell was expected to incorporate the Celestial AI interconnect with its support for UALink. But now that it’s working with Nvidia and its NVLink Fusion interconnect architecture, it will be interesting to see how that UALink evolves.
Whether it’s UALink, NVLink Fusion, or Ultra Ethernet that becomes the vehicle for breaking down the memory wall, it’s clear that pushing the limits in AI inference these days requires a whole-of-system approach that goes beyond the capabilities of any individual chip.
Related Items:
Nvidia’s Shift from GPUs and AI ‘Inference King’ Economics
Agentic AI Is Driving Workloads and Infra On-Prem and to the Edge
d-Matrix Takes On AI ‘Memory Wall’ with 3D Stacked In-Memory Compute
Editor’s note: d-Matrix has raised $450 million, not $429 million. HPCwire regrets the error.
The post Forget About Chips. It’s the System That Matters For AI appeared first on HPCwire.
Eight people reported killed in attack on newly completed suspension bridge after strike splits structure in half
Donald Trump claimed responsibility for destroying Iran’s largest bridge, a day after he threatened to bomb the country “back to the stone ages” if a deal to end the five-week-long war he started was not reached.
The US president shared footage of part of the newly built 136 metre-high $400m B1 suspension bridge between Tehran and Karaj collapsing dramatically on to the causeway below amid a rising plume of black smoke.
Continue reading...Owe money for taxes but expecting a refund? Here's what could happen and how you can protect what's yours.
In need of extra financial support now? Here's what the monthly payments will look like for a $30,000 personal loan.
A Radio-Canada reporter noticed his maple syrup tasted odd; testing revealed it was adulterated with cane sugar
An investigation by Canada’s national broadcaster has found that a major Quebec producer has been diluting its maple syrup with cane sugar and selling the fraudulent product to grocery chains.
In a sting operation that involved false identities and covert recordings, journalists from Radio-Canada’s Enquête programme found that a low-cost syrup sold in major grocery store chains was heavily diluted.
Continue reading...AmiMoJo shares a report from Phoronix: Raspberry Pi prices are going up yet again due to the continued memory squeeze on the industry. To help offset the memory prices for some use-cases, Raspberry Pi also announced the introduction of the Raspberry Pi 4 3GB model at $83 to help fill the void between the 2GB and 4GB options. The 3GB Raspberry Pi 4 was announced at $83.75 USD for those not needing quite 4GB of RAM and looking to save some memory given the ongoing price increases. The Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5 4GB models are seeing new $25 price increases, the 8GB models seeing $50 price increases, and the 16GB Raspberry Pi 5 is going up by $100. The Raspberry Pi 500+ is seeing a $150 price increase. The Raspberry Pi Compute Modules are also seeing increases from $11.25 to $100 USD.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Government must ‘come down very hard’ on online trade in knives and weapons, says policing and crime minister Sarah Jones
Children are setting up online businesses selling knives in the same way they trade clothes, the policing and crime minister has said.
Sarah Jones heard how children as young as 12 were buying and selling the weapons on the internet and social media, at the opening of the new National Knife Crime Centre in Bloomsbury, central London, on Thursday.
Continue reading...Most of Google's cloud storage plans come with extra access to AI tools like video generation.
Blessing from NCPC comes just days after judge ruled work on project cannot proceed without congressional approval
Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project received the approval of Washington’s planning authorities on Thursday, two days after a judge ruled work cannot proceed without Congress’s approval.
The National Capital Planning Commission, which is chaired by one of Trump’s former lawyers, gave the green light to the “East Wing Modernization Project” on Thursday, describing the ballroom as just the latest stage over two centuries of continuous changes.
Continue reading...The opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel said that because it believes the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional, President Trump does not need to comply with it.
Yvette Cooper hosts virtual summit of more than 40 countries to consider coordinated action in face of closure of vital shipping lane
More than 40 countries gathered to discuss “every possible diplomatic, economic and coordinated measure” to pressurise Iran into reopening the strait of Hormuz, the UK foreign secretary has said.
After chairing a virtual summit on Thursday, Yvette Cooper said coordinated action was needed as Iran’s “reckless strikes” on international shipping and efforts to “hijack the global economy” were hitting nations from across the globe “who played no part in this conflict”.
Continue reading...The US president couldn’t give a single coherent reason for why this aggressive war of choice must still be prosecuted
Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory speech on Iran on Wednesday night was as puzzling as it was divorced from reality. I had hoped he would declare victory and end the war. Some feared he might provide cover for a ground invasion. Instead, he told us in essence to be patient, that he is almost done, but he was utterly unclear about what more there is to accomplish.
If there was ever a purpose to the war, it was to curtail Iran’s capacity to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump harped on that goal repeatedly in his speech, noting that he had long vowed that he “would never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon”. But he didn’t mention that Iran has long agreed to eschew a nuclear weapon. If that is the only goal, this entire war has been pointless.
Continue reading...I have never been able to experience this, but I heard that the X7 is such a smooth board. I love watching videos and everyone in the reviews are saying that this is a way more powerful board than future motion S series. Looking for some feedback before my purchase, I am planning on buying the full complete board and not buying the parts individually
About to be the first in my local onewheel group to go vesc. I ride a S series right now and i have complete trust in the boards power.
I want the x7 but i have never rode one. The website says that this is more powerful than a S, yet lighter. Just looking for some feedback and comparison, or spec.
Company refocuses on bringing datacenter-class computing directly to the edge with Gryf.
CARLSBAD, Calif., April 2, 2026 — GigaIO today announced the sale of its SuperNODE platform and patented PCIe Gen 5-based AI fabric FabreX to low-latency AI inferencing pioneer d-Matrix. The sale is the logical culmination of the companies’ strategic partnership to deliver inference solutions for AI at scale.
In April 2025, the two companies announced the integration of d-Matrix’s Corsair inference platform into GigaIO’s SuperNODE architecture to create a solution that supports dozens of Corsair accelerators in a single node. This collaboration became the industry’s most scalable AI inference platform, with an integration that enabled end users to deploy ultra-low-latency batched inference workloads at a new scale.
With the sale, d-Matrix has also acquired key rack-scale engineering talent from GigaIO, providing additional resources to rapidly deploy complete solutions for high-performance inference to data centers.
“We have worked closely with d-Matrix for more than a year to create rack-scale systems with industry-leading, high-performance inferencing,” said Alan Benjamin, CEO of GigaIO. “We are excited to see our world-class FabreX technology extend to full system capability and believe that d-Matrix, in combining its inference engines with our fabric, is the ideal company to challenge the existing hegemony.”
Moving forward, GigaIO will focus on bringing datacenter-class computing directly to the edge. Powered by FabreX and designed with SourceCode, GigaIO’s Gryf is unique in its ability to scale to the performance of a field supercomputer within such a small, portable form factor, providing real-time intelligence and analytics that were previously impossible without massive infrastructure.
“The edge market has a huge upside, with increased need to deploy new, modern, meaningful compute closer to the users, and that’s what GigaIO is going to be focused on,” said Benjamin. “As AI becomes an increasingly integrated part of daily business and life, the ability to execute sophisticated workloads closer to data inputs and outputs becomes ever more essential. We are excited to rethink the long-standing paradigm of stripped-down capabilities at the edge and instead deliver a new approach with mobile datacenter-class hardware that can execute increasingly complex use cases wherever they are needed.”
Gryf has enabling users to dynamically deploy applications anywhere, at any time. Organizations can process critical data on site without the latency issues from data transfers, accessing computing power in a ruggedized, field-ready design that can be deployed virtually anywhere. GigaIO has cited strong interest in Gryf from defense and intelligence, sports and media organizations, and the energy sector.
More from HPCwire
About GigaIO
GigaIO redefines scalable AI infrastructure, seamlessly bridging from edge to core with a dynamic, open platform built for every accelerator. Its flagship product, Gryf, is the world’s first suitcase-sized AI supercomputer that brings datacenter-class computing power directly to the edge.
About d-Matrix
d-Matrix is pioneering accelerated computing for AI inference, breaking through the limits of latency, cost and energy. Its Corsair compute accelerators, JetStream IO accelerators, and Aviator software deliver fast, sustainable AI inference at data center scale. Learn more at www.d-matrix.ai.
Source: GigaIO
The post GigaIO Sells SuperNODE and FabreX AI Fabric to d-Matrix appeared first on HPCwire.
SAN DIEGO, April 2, 2026 — Cohu, Inc., a global supplier of equipment and services optimizing semiconductor manufacturing yield and productivity, today announced that two customers have placed follow-on orders totaling $30 million for the Eclipse platform configured with active thermal control for testing of next generation high-performance computing (HPC) processors.
The orders, which are expected to be delivered over the next couple of quarters, expand Cohu’s presence in the fast-growing HPC market and reflect rising demand for scalable, high performance test solutions as processor complexity, power density and thermal constraints continue to increase. Together, these production-level engagements underscore the increasing importance of scalable, thermally precise test architectures as HPC devices push the limits of performance.
Within these follow-on orders, one customer is subscribing to Cohu’s PAICe Prescriptive software analytics – worth a potential of $330 thousand in annual subscription fees – to help drive higher overall equipment efficiency (OEE) in production at its outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) partner. PAICe Prescriptive continuously analyzes equipment signals and behavior patterns to predict issues before they impact production and provides guided repair recommendations to reduce troubleshooting time, improve productivity and lower mean time to repair (MTTR).
“These follow-on orders reinforce the strong customer momentum we are seeing for Eclipse, including continued demand projected in the second half of this year. Additionally, other customers are qualifying the Eclipse for their processor test needs over the next couple of quarters,” said Luis Müller, Cohu President and CEO. “We are fast expanding in the high-performance computing market and estimate delivering results toward the higher end of our $60 million to $85 million guidance for this segment in 2026.”
About Cohu
Cohu, Inc. (NASDAQ: COHU) was founded in 1947 and is a global technology leader supplying test, automation, inspection & metrology products, software analytics solutions and services to the semiconductor industry. Additional information can be found at www.cohu.com.
Source: Cohu
The post Cohu Announces $30M Follow-On Orders for High Performance Computing Test appeared first on HPCwire.
London mayor says more arrests will be made after young people stormed into shops as part of social media trend
Sadiq Khan has warned against any repeat of “utterly unacceptable” scenes of disorder in Clapham earlier this week, saying culprits who assault and intimidate shop workers will face the full force of the law.
The mayor of London said more arrests would be made in the coming days, and urged anyone considering more violence over the Easter weekend to think again.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Google's Gemini AI models have improved by leaps and bounds over the past year, but you can only use Gemini on Google's terms. The company's Gemma open-weight models have provided more freedom, but Gemma 3, which launched over a year ago, is getting a bit long in the tooth. Starting today, developers can start working with Gemma 4, which comes in four sizes optimized for local usage. Google has also acknowledged developer frustrations with AI licensing, so it's dumping the custom Gemma license. Like past versions of its open-weight models, Google has designed Gemma 4 to be usable on local machines. That can mean plenty of things, of course. The two large Gemma variants, 26B Mixture of Experts and 31B Dense, are designed to run unquantized in bfloat16 format on a single 80GB Nvidia H100 GPU. Granted, that's a $20,000 AI accelerator, but it's still local hardware. If quantized to run at lower precision, these big models will fit on consumer GPUs. Google also claims it has focused on reducing latency to really take advantage of Gemma's local processing. The 26B Mixture of Experts model activates only 3.8 billion of its 26 billion parameters in inference mode, giving it much higher tokens-per-second than similarly sized models. Meanwhile, 31B Dense is more about quality than speed, but Google expects developers to fine-tune it for specific uses. The other two Gemma 4 models, Effective 2B (E2B) and Effective 4B (E4B), are aimed at mobile devices. These options were designed to maintain low memory usage during inference, running at an effective 2 billion or 4 billion parameters. Google says the Pixel team worked closely with Qualcomm and MediaTek to optimize these models for devices like smartphones, Raspberry Pi, and Jetson Nano. Not only do they use less memory and battery than Gemma 3, but Google also touts "near-zero latency" this time around. The Apache 2.0 license is much more flexible with its terms of use for commercial restrictions, "granting you complete control over your data, infrastructure, and models," says Google. Clement Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, called it "a huge milestone" that will help developers use Gemma for more projects and expand what Google calls the "Gemmaverse."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
U.S. NSF ACCESS simulations using TACC’s Stampede3 system shed light on hemolysis risks in blood pump conditions
April 2, 2026 — For patients with heart failure, blood pumps can be lifesaving. But the very forces that sustain circulation can also harm it damaging red blood cells through hemolysis and compromising the body’s oxygen supply.
Credit: ztigmafx/Shutterstock
Now, supercomputer simulations are revealing how red blood cells deform under stress, offering new insights that could lead to safer, more effective blood pump designs.
“Supercomputing infrastructure is critical to advancing healthcare and scientific knowledge,” said Keefe Manning, Ph.D., who holds joint positions in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, and the Department of Surgery, Penn State College of Medicine.
“We’re able to create more complex environments and parameterization now because of supercomputers. Their value in science cannot be understated. As we apply concepts such as a digital twin and as we improve the infrastructure, we can modify the physiological models in a way that we never could before and accelerate our understanding.”
Manning is the corresponding author of a study on computational modeling of red blood cells, published January 2026 in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. In it, he and colleagues lay the foundation for understanding hemolysis, the red blood cell destruction associated with blood pumps, referred to as mechanical circulatory support devices (MCSDs).
Workflow and imaging platform for in vitro red blood cell deformation experiments. Credit: DOI: 10.1007/s10439-026-04000-4
The science team was awarded supercomputing allocations on the Stampede3 system at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) by the U.S. National Science Foundation-funded Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, which provides support for thousands of scientists across the nation.
The Red Blood Computational Model
Manning and colleagues’ model advances beyond earlier methods that used simplified stress calculations and lacked mechanistic predictability for complex flow conditions.
Instead, they adapted the governing droplet deformation evolution equation to scale to the complex, multidimensional flow environment characteristic of MCSDs in a continuum approach that uses the open source computational fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM.
The authors calibrated the model’s constitutive parameters to reproduce human red blood cell data with reasonable mean absolute error.
Data and Post-Processing
On the data side, the scientists collected blood samples from a dozen people. They ran the blood through microfluidic channels, capturing images that were post-processed to reveal the extraordinary shape-changing of red blood cells. While many people are familiar with their ubiquitous biconcave disc shape, red blood cells can also be squished flat like a folded parachute or stretched out like a torpedo as they squeeze through tiny capillaries.
“The novelty of our study lies in the volume of experimental data that we collected internally to calibrate the droplet model,” Manning added.
Accelerating Science Through Supercomputing
This research marks a step forward in understanding the biophysics of red blood cell behavior in very thin layers, behavior at the flow fields that has been hard to reproduce in simulations.
“A simple laptop computer won’t be able to do the computation, “Manning said. “ACCESS resources have been critical for Hannah Palahnuk, my PhD student, to get this work done. Having OpenFOAM supported within ACCESS is important for our research in helping improve healthcare of our nation’s population and create future technology that will be less harmful to red blood cells.”
“I utilized the ticketing system when I needed help, and the staff were responsive and helpful,” said study co-author and principal investigator Hannah Palahnuk, a Ph.D. candidate in Biomedical Engineering at Penn State University.
“TACC’s Stampede3 supercomputer provided a much higher core-hour allocation, allowing high-fidelity, high-resolution simulations in reasonable amounts of time. This was extremely helpful as the resources are free and they are driving forward important research in the biomedical engineering field,” she added.
Bringing Simulations Closer to Reality
Moving forward, the research will model more realistic physiological conditions for red blood cell concentrations and translate these advances into direct hemolysis measurements.
“Once validated at scale across real-world fluid environments, this work could deepen our understanding of hemolysis in blood pumps, and help save lives in the process,” Manning concluded.
About the Research
The study, “Modeling Red Blood Cell Deformation at Supraphysiological Strain Rates Using a Droplet Framework,” was published January 2026 in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering. The study authors are Hannah P. Palahnuk, Nicolas A. Tobin, and Keefe B. Manning of The Pennsylvania State University. Funding was provided by the Walker Assistantship program at the Penn State Applied Research Laboratory and grant U54 TR002014-05A1 from the National Institutes of Health, with computational support from ACCESS allocation MDE 24001.
Source: Jorge Salazar, TACC
The post TACC: How Supercomputing Reveals Early Red Blood Cell Damage appeared first on HPCwire.
April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day, purposefully set the day after April Fools’ Day (when mistruths are encouraged). The day was launched in 2016 by the International Fact-Checking Network, which calls it “a global celebration of truth and accuracy.”
This year’s International Fact-Checking Day theme is: “We Stand for Facts.”
We’ve been doing that for more than 20 years. FactCheck.org has been holding politicians accountable for the claims they make — and providing the facts to our readers — since our launch in 2003.
To commemorate this day, we gathered various mentions of our work over the years by politicians of both parties. Social Media Manager Josh Diehl searched the Congressional Record and dug up clips from C-Span to produce it. We include, of course, then-Vice President Dick Cheney, during a 2004 vice presidential debate, mistakenly calling us “FactCheck.com” (instead of FactCheck.org), a mention that nonetheless essentially put us on the map. Since then, lawmakers have periodically cited our work on the House or Senate floor.
FactCheck.org is a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network, along with more than 180 fact-checking organizations around the world. Signatories adhere to a code of journalistic ethics and principles rooted in nonpartisan and transparent work. FactCheck.org Director Lori Robertson is a member of the IFCN advisory board.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
The post Happy International Fact-Checking Day appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Federal agency, which normally supports state and local public health labs, has been hobbled by staff departures
The US federal agency responsible for monitoring diseases has temporarily halted certain diagnostic testing, including those for rabies, human herpesvirus and several other infectious illnesses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a list on Monday showing that more than two dozen types of testing are now unavailable.
Continue reading...Daniel Kebede tells his members that detail in new policies ‘just does not deliver’ and schools are ‘running on empty’
The leader of the UK’s biggest education union has torn into the government’s record on schools, accusing Labour of letting down the nation’s children and failing to deliver on its promises for education.
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), was unsparing in his criticism of the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson’s policies in a speech to delegates at the NEU’s annual conference in Brighton on Thursday.
Continue reading...A great effort will be needed to undo the damage once the US president has gone. But with the constitution unable to bring him to order now, that is what we must do
The US is extraordinary. One day it goes to the far side of the moon and revives the space age. On the same day, its president is looking to the far side of the Earth and says he will take Iran “back to the stone ages”. It may be a giant leap for mankind, but in what direction?
There can be no point other than prestige in sending humans to the moon, which is why more than 50 years have passed since they last went there. Robots can perform all we need in space. Returning the Iranians to the stone age is a different matter. The last time the US made the same boast was against Vietnam in a typical threat (much misquoted) by Gen Curtis LeMay. Vietnam crushed the US in the ensuing war.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist
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.
Continue reading...Selling silver? Here's how the timing, your strategy and your buyer choice can impact your final payout.
Tina Peters, an election denier, was found guilty in 2024 of allowing unauthorized access to county’s voting equipment
A Colorado appeals court on Thursday ordered the resentencing of a former state election official who was found guilty of allowing unauthorized access to her county’s voting equipment, the latest development in a closely watched case that has attracted considerable attention from Donald Trump and other election deniers.
Tina Peters, a former clerk in Mesa county in western Colorado, was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2024 after a jury found her guilty on three counts of attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, first-degree official misconduct, violation of duty and failure to comply with the secretary of state. Peters was the county clerk in 2020 and later allowed an unauthorized person to access the county’s Dominion voting machines. Sensitive information from the machines later wound up on the internet.
Continue reading...Speaking in South Korea, the French president defended the transatlantic alliance and called for return to peace
Emmanuel Macron has sharply criticised Donald Trump’s inconsistent and often contradictory pronouncements on the Iran war and Nato, saying if “you want to be serious” it was better not to come out with something different every day.
“There is too much talk … and it’s all over the place,” the French president said on Thursday during a state visit to South Korea. “We all need stability, calm, a return to peace – this isn’t a show!”
Continue reading...Former government adviser Polly Billington urges bigger steps to shield people in UK from effects of Iran war
Keir Starmer should convene a global energy summit of the same order as Gordon Brown’s response to the 2008 financial crisis and put Britain on a “war footing” to reduce its exposure to fossil fuels, a Labour MP and former government adviser has said.
Polly Billington, who was an aide in Brown’s government, warned that economic pain was “hurtling down the tracks” and a bigger response was needed to protect the British people from the consequences of the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Continue reading...Wizards apologize over half-time April Fools’ prank
Promotion that appeared to trick fan draws backlash
Team issues statement saying stunt was pre-planned
The Washington Wizards apologized on Thursday after an April Fools’ Day in-game promotion during their loss to the Philadelphia 76ers prompted criticism on social media.
During Wednesday night’s game at Capital One Arena, a fan was brought on to the court for a blindfolded half-court shot promoted as being worth $10,000. The shot missed, but arena staff and performers reacted as if it had gone in and briefly presented the fan with a ceremonial check as part of what later was revealed to be a scripted skit.
Continue reading...The autopsy results for Nurul Amin Shah Alam sparked fresh calls to investigate the circumstances surrounding the visually impaired refugee’s death, which provoked outrage in Buffalo.
Former UK foreign secretary among 3,000 signatories of open letter to Isaac Herzog after spate of killings
The former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind is among leading members of the Jewish diaspora urging the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, to intervene to stop “attacks by Jewish extremists” on Palestinians in the West Bank.
An open letter to Herzog facilitated by the London Initiative – a liberal Zionist network of 360 people, including eminent Jewish, Israeli and Israeli Palestinian figures – has attracted more than 3,000 signatories, including diplomats, philanthropists, rabbis and academics from Australia, Canada, across Europe, South Africa the UK and US. It follows a spate of killings and arson attacks by settlers on Palestinian civilians in March.
Continue reading...BERKELEY, Calif., April 2, 2026 — Rigetti Computing, Inc. has announced that it has sold a 9-qubit Novera QPU to the University of Saskatchewan (USask). The Novera QPU, which was shipped in March, will be at the core of USask’s first quantum computing system. The system will be managed by USask’s Centre for Quantum Topology and its Applications (quanTA), an interdisciplinary institute devoted to advancing quantum science and quantum technology development.
“By providing hands-on access to real quantum computing hardware, academic institutions like USask are enabling students and researchers to pursue groundbreaking advances in quantum science and technology. We are delighted that USask has selected a Rigetti Novera QPU for their quanTA Centre and congratulate them on this exciting new phase of quantum technology exploration and innovation,” said Dr. Subodh Kulkarni, Rigetti CEO.
“At quanTA, our goal is to make Western Canada a competitive force in quantum science and quantum technology development. The establishment of a quantum computing testbed is fundamental to providing the USask community with the resources needed to embark on innovative research in areas including quantum materials, quantum algorithms, and quantum computing architecture. With the Novera QPU at the core of our first quantum computing system, we are excited to embark on this next era of discovery,” said Dr. Steven Rayan, quanTA Executive Director and USask Mathematics and Statistics Professor.
“This remarkable milestone is a monumental achievement that positions USask as a key player in quantum research on the world stage. As we step into the future, USask is continuing to establish itself as a cutting-edge institution and a hub for national and international quantum-focused research that will propel work in agriculture, health sciences, defense technologies and more across the Prairies,” said Vince Bruni-Bossio, USask President and Vice-Chancellor.
The fully assembled quantum computing system combines hardware from companies who are all members of the Novera QPU Partner Program — an ecosystem of quantum computing hardware, software, and service providers whose technologies are compatible with the Novera QPU. The Novera QPU will be installed in a Zero Point Cryogenics dilution refrigerator, Qblox control systems will be installed for operating the qubits, and QuantrolOx software will be integrated for automated qubit bring-up, characterization, and tuning.
While the Novera QPU can be integrated with our partners’ technology, customers can also purchase full-scale quantum computing systems based on Rigetti’s modular Cepheus architecture ranging from 36 to 108 qubits. These systems include a sourced dilution refrigerator, Rigetti’s control systems, and QCS Outpost, a comprehensive software operating environment for administering, monitoring, integrating, and using a Rigetti quantum computer. Rigetti can manage the entire delivery and installation process to ensure a fully operational quantum computing system.
Rigetti QPUs are manufactured in Rigetti’s Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility.
About Rigetti
Rigetti is a pioneer in full-stack quantum computing. Rigetti quantum computers are based on superconducting qubits, which are widely believed to be the leading qubit modality given their maturity, clear path to scaling, and fast gate speeds. Current Rigetti quantum computing systems achieve gate speeds of 50-70ns, which is about 1,000 times faster than other modalities such as ion traps and neutral atoms.
Rigetti sells on-premises 9-qubit to 108-qubit quantum computing systems, supporting national laboratories and quantum computing centers. Rigetti’s Cepheus 36-qubit to 108-qubit systems are based on the Company’s proprietary chiplet-based technology and include the Company’s control electronics. Rigetti’s 9-qubit Novera QPU supports a broader R&D community with a high-performance, on-premises QPU designed to plug into a customer’s existing cryogenic and control systems.
The Company operates quantum computers over the cloud through its Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services (QCS) platform, enabling global enterprise, government, and research clients to pursue R&D. The Company’s proprietary quantum-classical infrastructure provides high-performance integration with public and private clouds for practical quantum computing.
Rigetti developed the industry’s first multi-chip quantum processor for scalable quantum computing systems. Leveraging this proprietary technology, Rigetti deployed the industry’s largest multi-chip quantum computer in 2025 with Cepheus-1-36Q, based on four 9-qubit chiplets tiled together. The Company designs and manufactures its chips in-house at Fab-1, the industry’s first dedicated and integrated quantum device manufacturing facility. Learn more at https://www.rigetti.com.
Source: Rigetti
The post Rigetti Announces Novera QPU Sale to the University of Saskatchewan appeared first on HPCwire.
Even on NASA's Artemis II mission around the moon, astronauts apparently still have to deal with broken Microsoft Outlook. One of the crew members, Reid Wiseman, jokingly reported that he had "two Microsoft Outlooks" and neither worked. 404 Media reports: On April 1, four astronauts from the U.S. and Canada embarked on a 10-day flight to loop around the moon. Spotted by VGBees podcast host Niki Grayson on the NASA livestream of live views from the , around 2 a.m. ET, mission control acknowledges an issue with a process control system and offers to remote in -- yes, like how your office IT guy would pause his CoD campaign to log into Okta for you because you used the wrong password too many times. One of the astronauts, Reid Wiseman, says that's chill, but while they're in there: "I also see that I have two Microsoft Outlooks, and neither one of those are working." Astronauts are trained for decades in some of the most physically and mentally grueling environments of any career. They're some of the smartest people on the planet, and they have to be, before we strap them to 3.2 million pounds of jet fuel and make them do complex experiments and high-stakes decisions for days on end. And yet, once they get up there, fucking Outlook is borked.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Prosecutors have charged a man allegedly connected to two deaths tied to the "Texas Killing Fields," a site where dozens of bodies have been found since the 1970s.
Just got a used onewheel and the person I bought it from told me I should buy motorcycle gear. Is this valid, or overkill? Is knee pads, elbow pads and a helmet okay for a beginner?
Ps-it needs a new tires. How hard is it to DIY a tire change? Is kart tires fine or is it worth paying extra for a onewheel one?
Prosecutors unveil artefact linked to lost Dacian civilisation after it was stolen from Dutch museum last year
A priceless ancient gold helmet from Romania that was stolen last year from a museum in the Netherlands, has been recovered as part of a plea deal reached with the suspects.
Under the guard of balaclava-wearing police, prosecutors unveiled the 2,500-year-old Coțofenești helmet, which is considered a cultural icon of Romania, during a news conference on Thursday in the eastern Dutch city of Assen.
Continue reading...US president’s 19-minute Wednesday address at the White House was met with bewilderment from commentators
Donald Trump’s primetime nationwide address on the war with Iran caused widespread bewilderment, with commentators voicing shock at his vow to continue bombing to “bring them back to the stone ages”.
Speculation before Wednesday’s speech from the White House Blue Room suggested that the president might be about to signal a winding up of the US military effort, which began on 28 February.
Continue reading...  | Just wanted to update y'all, I ordered the X7 supercharged 2 days ago. Its out for delivery today. That's actually unbelievable! I was thinking a month maybe. Shout out to the fungineers team, they are crushing it. I know a lot of people are getting them within a week or two now so they have definitely been working there asses off to make us happy. Which I think deserves a shit ton of credit. 🙏🏻 [link] [comments] |
Dozen people arrive under new deal but legal challenges expected with scheme criticised as ‘dehumanising process’
A flight carrying people being deported from the US has landed in Uganda, as Donald Trump’s administration pushes on with its strategy of expelling migrants to countries they have no ties to.
The deported people would stay in the east African country as “a transition phase for potential onward transmission to other countries”, an unnamed senior Ugandan government official told Reuters.
Continue reading...The court ruled 8-1 against a Colorado law banning ‘conversion therapy’ for youths. What does it mean for other states, and why did two liberals side with conservatives?
The US supreme court ruled 8-1 this week against a Colorado law banning “conversion therapy” for youth, in a case that could have major consequences for transgender and queer youth across the US, and for healthcare more broadly.
Colorado’s 2019 law prohibits licensed clinicians from seeking to change the gender identity or sexual orientation of youth patients under 18. It is one of 23 states with similar restrictions.
Continue reading...Private credit investment firm’s move is latest sign of crumbling confidence in unregulated lending market
A major private credit investment firm, Blue Owl Capital, has imposed a cap on withdrawals after investors tried to pull $5.4bn from two key funds, in the latest sign of crumbling confidence in the unregulated lending market.
The New York-headquartered firm released filings on Thursday that showed a surge in redemption requests, with investors asking to take back 21.9% of the cash stored in Blue Owl’s $20bn (£15bn) Credit Income Corp fund between January and March. Meanwhile, investors requested 40.7% of funds from its $3bn tech lending fund.
Continue reading...You don't need a scanner to sign, scan and send official documents. Just use the iPhone in your pocket.
Off and on during the Iran war, President Donald Trump has threatened U.S. attacks on civilian infrastructure if the Iranian government fails to meet certain demands.
On March 21, Trump wrote on Truth Social that "if Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!"
Although Trump later extended that deadline twice, he said March 30 on Truth Social that "if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and (the oil distribution hub) Kharg Island," and "possibly all desalinization plants."
Trump said such targets have "purposefully" not yet been targeted in U.S. strikes, but that such attacks could be made "in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’"
In his April 1 prime time address, Trump said, "If there is no deal, we will hit each and every one of their electric generating plants very hard and probably simultaneously."
Since Trump’s initial threat, non-governmental groups and Democratic lawmakers have urged him not to strike civilian infrastructure, saying it would go against international law.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass. — who is running for Senate this year — said on MS NOW March 24 that "bombing civilian power infrastructure is a war crime."
Experts in international law said Moulton’s assertion is well supported, though there is some gray area in determining whether such attacks would be legal under international law. In addition, experts said it is unlikely that Trump or any other U.S. official would be brought to account if they made such a move, because neither the U.S. nor Iran is a member of the International Criminal Court.
Moulton’s campaign did not provide evidence for his statement.
The most directly relevant provision of international law comes from Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, specifically three portions of the agreement. They say:
All parties to a conflict "shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants" and "shall direct their operations only against military objectives."
"Acts or threats of violence, the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population, are prohibited."
Attacks on military targets are those that "make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction, capture or neutralization … offers a definite military advantage."
Together, these provisions would make the bombing of civilian targets, including those in Iran, "a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law," said Milena Sterio, a Cleveland State University law professor who specializes in international law. The bombing of a civilian target "would give rise to a war crime," she said.
Even though the U.S. has not ratified Protocol I, the agreement has "the status of customary law, which is binding on all states," Sterio said. "It doesn't not matter that the U.S. is not a member of the protocol."
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres told Politico that "if there are attacks either on Iran or from Iran on energy infrastructure, I think that there are reasonable grounds to think that they might constitute a war crime."
There is some nuance in the rules dictating how the attacks are classified by the UN, however. Targets with both military and civilian uses are known as "dual use."
An attacking state could argue that an otherwise civilian target is serving a military purpose, making it a legitimate military target, Sterio said.
Under that argument, another provision of Protocol I — the "principle of proportionality" — comes into play.
"You would still have to weigh the military advantage anticipated against the civilian harm your attack will cause," Sterio said. "When it comes to cutting off power for thousands or tens of thousands of individuals, it may be argued that the civilian harm outweighs the military advantage."
The proportionality principle "is only relevant if the targets are being attacked as military targets — to provide a quantifiable military advantage to the attacker," said Stuart Ford, a University of Illinois-Chicago law professor. By contrast, if they are being attacked as a way to punish the civilian population, Ford said, "then it doesn't matter whether they are dual use targets. You can never intentionally attack an object with the purpose of causing civilian harm."
Such a military advantage "must be the real reason behind the strike, and not simply a pretext to terrorize the civilian population," said Pace University law professor Alexander K.A. Greenawalt.
The specific type of infrastructure targeted might matter, too.
Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch, told CNN that desalination plants — which produce more than half the drinking water for U.S.-allied Qatar and Bahrain, though less for Iran — "are purely civilian infrastructure. There is no legal argument whatsoever for attacking them."
Other types of infrastructure, such as power plants, might be more legally justifiable as targets, depending on how extensive their military use is.
"Whether a power plant would constitute a military objective or civilian object would depend on the facts and circumstances, but the president’s categorical statement represents a threat to target even civilian objects regardless of the requirement for distinction, which would be a war crime," Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, told The New York Times.
In a statement to PolitiFact, a White House spokesperson did not directly address the question of whether such attacks would constitute war crimes.
"The terrorist Iranian regime has committed egregious human rights abuses for 47 years, including brutally killing its own people for merely speaking out against its oppressive rule," the statement said. "By achieving the military objectives stated under Operation Epic Fury, President Trump is making the entire region safer and more stable by eliminating Iran’s short- and long-term threats to our country and our allies."
The International Criminal Court, as seen in The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 9, 2025, prosecutes people for serious international crimes such as genocide and war crimes. (AP)
It’s unlikely that Americans would be prosecuted for bombing civilian infrastructure, experts said. Theoretically, the International Criminal Court would be the relevant prosecutor; the court, for example, has issued arrest warrants for Russians accused of intentionally attacking civilian targets in Ukraine.
But a prosecution can proceed only if the alleged crimes take place on the territory of a member state or are carried out by a national of a member state. Neither the United States nor Iran are members of the International Criminal Court. The United Nations Security Council also has the authority to refer a case to the ICC. But the U.S. has veto power on the Security Council, so it would be able to block such a referral.
"Possibly the U.S. could investigate itself, but countries are typically not good at investigating their own behavior and imposing accountability on themselves," Sterio said.
And that option is even less likely now that the U.S. Supreme Court has given the president legal immunity for official acts, Greenawalt said, because the president would likely be able to establish that he is waging the war in his official capacity.
Moulton said, "Bombing civilian power infrastructure is a war crime."
This is a widely accepted interpretation of international law. However, the U.S. could argue that a particular attack is justified because the infrastructure had a dual civilian-military use and that the benefit from the enemy’s military setback was greater than the harm to civilians.
U.S. officials are unlikely to be prosecuted for any alleged war crimes because neither the U.S. or Iran is a member of the International Criminal Court.
The statement is accurate but needs additional information, so we rate it Mostly True.
They were the first in a series of arrests planned Thursday, federal officials told CBS News.
Understanding the pricing trends and dynamics of the gold market is crucial for making sound financial choices.
Christina Marie Plante was last seen on May 19, 1994, after leaving home on foot to go to a stable where her horse was kept.
Nvidia has begun rolling out a beta feature that automatically compiles game shaders while a PC is idle. It won't eliminate shader compilation the first time a game runs, but Ars Technica reports it could help reduce those repeated wait times. From the report: Nvidia's new Auto Shader Compilation system promises to "reduc[e] the frequency of game runtime compilation after driver updates" for users running Nvidia's GeForce Game Ready Driver 595.97 WHQL or later. When the feature is active and your machine is idle, the app will automatically start rebuilding DirectX drivers for your games so they're all set to roll the next time they launch. While the feature defaults to being turned off when the Nvidia App is first downloaded, users can activate it by going to the Graphics Tab > Global Settings > Shader Cache. There, they can set aside disk space for precompiled shaders and decide how many system resources the compilation process should use. App users can also manually force shader recompilation through the app rather than waiting for the machine to go idle. Unfortunately, Nvidia warns that users will still have to generate shaders in-game after downloading a title for the first time. The Auto Shader Compiler system only generates the new shaders needed after subsequent driver updates following that first run of a new title.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Do price hikes and content choices have you stuck? Our rundown can help you sort through the best options.
A new batch of A24 films including Problemista, Under the Skin and Dream Scenario are available this April on free streaming services.
Central American country to receive up to 25 migrants a week expelled as part of Trump’s immigration crackdown
The Costa Rican government has agreed to receive up to 25 deported migrants a week from the United States, the latest deal in the Trump administration’s unprecedented efforts to deport scores of people to “third countries”.
With the new agreement, Costa Rica seeks a closer alliance with Donald Trump’s government, which has been securing cooperation from other Central American countries in accepting deportees from other nations who have been detained by US immigration agents.
Continue reading...Brent crude rises 8% as US president vows to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ over coming weeks
Oil prices have soared after Donald Trump vowed in a televised speech to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks, knocking hopes of a near-term end to the conflict in the Middle East.
Brent crude prices jumped by as much as 8% on Thursday to $109.74 a barrel, reversing Wednesday’s drop when hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran war pushed the international benchmark below the $100-a-barrel mark at one point.
Continue reading...Wage garnishment doesn't happen overnight, but the timeline may be shorter than you think.
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Trump claims Iran war ‘nearing completion’ and seeks to justify conflict in prime-time address
Middle East crisis live: Macron criticises Trump and says opening strait of Hormuz by force ‘unrealistic’
Stock markets are falling across Europe, as investors react to Donald Trump’s special address last night, in which he vowed to send Iran “back to the stone ages”.
Frankfurt’s stock market has started the day with a bump; Germany’s DAX share index is down 1.5%.
“In what might be the most dramatic April Fools’ of recent years, Donald Trump did nothing of what was expected in his speech. Instead of ‘no more war’, we got ‘no, more war!’, with heavier strikes expected and a fresh warning of attacks on power plants.
This leaves markets back where they were last week, and now we have to price in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that aren’t coming out any time soon. The gloomy predictions of last week would have been perhaps misplaced if Trump had signalled a quick end, but now markets are back to pricing in economic catastrophe.”
Continue reading...President Trump said he would sign an order to pay all DHS employees as a plan to reopen most of DHS and pursue additional funding moves forward in Congress.
According to a top Shapiro campaign official, the total more than doubles the previous benchmark for a Pennsylvania gubernatorial race at this stage.
Sexual violence is a widespread weapon of war in Sudan. “Survivors frequently and clearly identified the perpetrators as RSF fighters,” Doctors Without Borders says.
Thom Tillis joins McConnell in warning withdrawal would aid rivals and threaten US security
A second Republican senator spoke out in defense of Nato on Thursday, joining Mitch McConnell and the Democrats, after Donald Trump said that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing from the alliance after it refused to take part in the joint assault with Israel against Iran.
“Nato stood by America when we were under attack and came to our aid after the September 11th attacks. Their soldiers fought and died alongside our troops in Afghanistan,” said Thom Tillis, a Republican, and Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, who co-chair the Senate Nato observer group.
Continue reading...My Pint doesn’t turn on at all. I haven’t updated the firmware since 2021.
I see mixed reviews about the Quart, some saying it’s awesome, some say you’re crushing cells and poor quality. I also see it might be possible to put a Pint X battery in there?
I have no soldering experience and no speciality tools, 3D printer, etc., just a drill and bits. Obviously I’d prefer more range but I’m open to sending to FM for a stock battery if the other options are too difficult or costly.
Post your questions below to get insight from the Guardian’s politics live blogger on the future of Labour and the role of the political reporter
Q: Do you agree with the Tories about wanting more oil and gas drilling from the North Sea?
Davey says Kemi Badenoch claims she can get an extra £2.5bn in tax revenue by allowing more exploration in the North Sea. He says she is “just lying”. He says everyone knows that that is not realistic.
Continue reading...The new food delivery features showcase Alexa Plus's latest integrations with third-party apps.
Robbers used firework bombs to break into the Drents Museum in 2025, stealing the 5th-century BC golden Helmet of Cotofenesti and three gold bracelets.
This blog is now closed
Back to Trump’s frustration with European allies – although it doesn’t involve a Nato member this time – Austria is the latest country to risk the US president’s wrath after a defence ministry spokesperson confirmed it denied all US requests for military overflights related to the Iran war.
“There have indeed been requests and they were refused from the outset,” Col Michael Bauer told AFP, adding that every time a similar request “involves a country at war, it is refused.”
Continue reading...Nasa mission enters second day, with crew hoping to become first people to orbit moon in more than 50 years
Four astronauts are preparing to leave Earth’s orbit and slingshot towards the moon as Nasa’s Artemis II mission enters its second day.
The high-stakes 10-day voyage is expected to mark the first time in half a century that humans will return to the vicinity of the moon. It is a crucial test of Nasa’s ambition to land humans back on the lunar surface this decade, and stay there permanently.
Continue reading...Ocasio-Cortez says Israel can fund its own defense and she will oppose any new US aid amid human rights concerns
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a US representative, said on Wednesday that she will oppose any future US military aid to Israel, including for defensive systems.
In a statement on social media, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel was fully capable of funding “Iron Dome and other defensive systems”, and that “consistent with my voting record to date, I will not support Congress sending more taxpayer dollars and military aid to a government that consistently ignores international law and US law”.
Continue reading...Just curious how many of us out there have bad knees? How do you deal with it? Have any riders gone through knee surgery? How was the recovery? Did it make riding better afterwards?
Just a little back story, broke my tibial spine in a car accident a long time ago. I can walk but impact hurts, a step, a jump, any impact hurts. I’ve lived with it long enough to have learned to ignore the pain. But if it’s really acute my legs shuts off and just buckles. Because of this I’ve been scared to do tricks, bonks, things like that. But I enjoy the ride nonetheless. But I wish I could do more.
As the climate crisis intensifies the storms lashing south Florida, it is imperative to design spaces that soak up the water. The 19.4-acre Bayshore Park is an example of how to design spaces that protect from and connect residents to nature
Continue reading...The Frame and Frame Pro TVs boast improved performance in lit rooms and access to over 5,000 artworks.
Valve's March 2026 Steam Survey shows Linux gaming usage jumping to a record 5.33% share -- more than double macOS's 2.35%. Phoronix reports: Steam on Linux was never above 5% and easily an all-time high for the Linux gaming marketshare, especially in absolute numbers. It was a massive 3.1% spike in March while macOS also jumped surprisingly by 1.19% to 2.35%. The Steam Survey numbers show Windows losing 4.28%, down to 92.33%. Part of the jump at least appears to be explained by Valve correcting again the Steam China numbers. Month over month they report a 31.85% drop to the Simplified Chinese language use and English use increasing by 16.82% to 39.09%. Other languages also showed gains amid the massive decline in Simplified Chinese use. The latest numbers for March show around a quarter of the Linux gamers are running Steam OS. Due in part to the Steam Deck APU being a custom AMD product and the popularity of AMD hardware on Linux for its open-source nature, AMD CPU use by Steam on Linux gamers remains just under 70%.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A 7-month-old baby sitting in her stroller was killed by an apparent stray bullet in Brooklyn Wednesday afternoon, in what's believed to be a "gang motivated" shooting.
Senate-passed funding plan for DHS languishes despite agreement between Republican congressional leaders
The US House of Representatives on Thursday took no action on a compromise measure that would end the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), raising questions about how much longer the record-long funding lapse will persist.
The department has been without funding since mid-February, after Democrats refused to vote for its appropriations unless Republicans agreed to new guardrails on federal agents involved in immigration enforcement operations.
Continue reading...The coffee chain said it will also pay its workers weekly to provide more financial flexibility.
Director and producer is co-creator of You Are Here, a one-day immersive theatrical event traversing 75 years of youth culture
Out of chaos come great cultural movements, according to the director and producer Danny Boyle, who will inflict a little curated chaos on London’s Southbank Centre with what has been described as an “epic, one-off pop culture spectacular”.
Boyle, whose 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony drew on the rich thread of British culture, is the co-creator and director of You Are Here, a one-day immersive theatrical event traversing 75 years of youth culture and social movement: think teddy boys, Lovers’ Rock, punk, Ziggy Stardust, rave, acid house, the spoken word, Brit pop, ballroom to name a few.
Continue reading...Lebanese-French man Ali Cherri demands investigation into Beirut bombing as possible war crime against civilians
A Lebanese-French artist has filed a legal complaint in a Paris court about an Israeli bombing of his family home in Lebanon that killed his parents and a domestic worker, claiming the attack could constitute a war crime.
The suit, filed with the French war crimes unit on Tuesday, is a rare instance of an individual pursuing war crimes charges for an Israeli bombing. It is also the first time a French court has taken a case over Israel’s bombing of Lebanon.
Continue reading...ARMONK, N.Y., April 2, 2026 — IBM today announced a strategic collaboration with Arm to develop new dual‑architecture hardware that helps enterprises run future AI and data intensive workloads with greater flexibility, reliability, and security.
Credit: Shutterstock
IBM’s leadership in system design, from silicon to software and security, has helped enterprises adopt emerging technologies with the scale and reliability required for mission‑critical workloads. As AI moves deeper into core business operations, IBM continues to invest in hardware platforms such as the Telum II processor and Spyre Accelerator, which are designed to bring AI from experimentation into everyday enterprise use.
Through this collaboration, IBM and Arm aim to extend this track record of innovation by combining IBM’s enterprise leadership in systems reliability, security, and scalability with Arm’s own leadership in power‑efficient architecture, workload enablement expertise, and broad software ecosystem, to build flexible and scalable computing platforms for the future.
“As enterprises scale AI and modernize their infrastructure, the breadth of the Arm software ecosystem is enabling these workloads to run across a broader range of environments,” said Mohamed Awad, Executive Vice President, Cloud AI Business Unit, Arm. “Our collaboration with IBM builds on this progress, extending the Arm ecosystem into mission-critical enterprise environments and giving organizations greater flexibility in how they deploy and scale these workloads.”
“This collaboration is a natural extension of IBM’s leadership in hardware and systems innovation,” said Tina Tarquinio, Chief Product Officer, IBM Z and LinuxONE. “It continues IBM’s pattern of anticipating enterprise needs well ahead of market inflection points—developing capabilities early so clients are prepared as new workloads and business models emerge. Our aim is to expand software choice and improve system performance while maintaining the reliability and security our clients expect.”
“Enterprise infrastructure is entering a new phase where flexibility, workload portability, and ecosystem reach are becoming just as critical as performance and reliability. As AI and data-intensive applications reshape requirements, organizations are looking for platforms that can evolve without forcing disruptive tradeoffs,” said Patrick Moorhead, Founder, CEO, and Chief Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “What IBM and Arm are signaling here is a meaningful step toward that future that could broaden how enterprises think about deploying and scaling modern workloads. While the full implications will take time to unfold, it’s clear this reflects a deeper level of investment in long-term platform innovation and ecosystem expansion than we typically see at this stage.”
A Collaboration Designed for What’s Next
The collaboration is focused on three key areas. First, the companies are exploring how to expand virtualization technologies that allow Arm-based software environments to operate within IBM’s enterprise computing platforms. This work is designed to expand software compatibility and further streamline how developers and enterprises bring Arm applications into mission-critical environments.
Secondly, enterprise infrastructure must support high-availability operations, as well as security and local data sovereignty requirements. IBM and Arm are exploring new ways to support the performance and efficiency demands of modern workloads, including AI and data intensive applications. The work includes enabling enterprise systems to recognize and execute Arm applications, with the goal of helping Arm-based environments align with the reliability, security, and operational requirements enterprises need.
Finally, the collaboration is focused on long term ecosystem growth. By creating shared technology layers between platforms, IBM and Arm aim to open the door to broader software ecosystems and greater flexibility in how applications are deployed and managed. This approach could give enterprises more choice, positioning them to adopt new applications and architectures while continuing to leverage their existing investments.
“IBM’s defining role in shaping enterprise infrastructure spans decades, showcasing the breadth and commitment required to support our clients’ most intensive and sensitive workloads,” said Christian Jacobi, Chief Technology Officer and IBM Fellow, IBM Systems Development. “This moment marks the latest step in our innovation journey for future generations of our IBM Z and LinuxONE systems, reinforcing our end-to-end system design as a powerful advantage.”
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help 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 effect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.
Source: IBM
The post IBM Collaborates with Arm on Dual-Architecture Systems for AI and Data Workloads appeared first on HPCwire.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer requested a major disaster declaration from President Donald Trump after tornadoes in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties killed four people and destroyed homes and businesses.
Microsoft is flexing its muscles with new voice, transcription and image AI models.
At a time when the populist right is on the rise, progressives are shooting blanks while history rushes headlong into an automated future
Canberra rolled out the red carpet this week to one of the AI overlords whose technology is driving the world down the path of creative destruction. Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei, the putative “good” tech oligarch, was spinning his version of a machine-driven future with the elan of a man who has untangled the mysteries of the universe – or at least built a predictive text model that can scrape the output of humanity and spit out compelling summaries of our collective consciousness.
He regaled the prime minister, assorted elected officials and the tech sector’s glitterati with his pitch for good AI that would transform the economy, before becoming the first to sign up to the government’s new datacentre principles, conveniently released just a week earlier. It was compelling shill and, to be fair, Amodei is not the worst of the gods. He created Anthropic after leaving Open AI when the company dispensed with its not-for-profit, “safety first” mission. He regularly shares thoughtful essays on the path of technology and has been open about his fears for the impact of his own products. He broke with the Trump administration over the limits to how his technology would be used to spy on citizens and enable autonomous weapons, turning himself into an enemy of the state.
Continue reading...Of course the vice-president is obsessed with extraterrestrials – look how bad things have gotten on Earth
I can’t fault anyone for looking around at the state of things on the planet Earth and pondering the existence of aliens. Who wouldn’t want to hop on the Starship Get-Me-The-Hell-Out-Of-Here right now? It costs me a vital organ to fill up my gas tank, everyone I know is unemployed and the cast of Bravo’s Summer House is crumbling before our eyes. Unfortunately for alien observer JD Vance, he’s partially responsible for two of the three. Pretty sure the vice-president isn’t hooking up with Amanda Batula, so he’s off the hook for that one.
On a recent appearance on The Benny Show, a conservative podcast you’ve never heard of, Vance outlined his “obsession” with UFOs. He might not be fully read into the current state of extraterrestrial discourse, but he does have a theory. Vance said: “I don’t think they’re aliens, I think they’re demons anyway, but that’s a longer discussion.”
Dave Schilling is a Los Angeles-based writer and humorist
Continue reading...Affected cars include models in Peugeot, Citroën, Vauxhall, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat brands made since 2023
The European carmaker Stellantis has issued a recall for 44,000 UK vehicles after discovering a fault that could result in its cars catching fire.
The fault has been found in certain models across its Peugeot, Citroën, DS Automobiles, Vauxhall, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Fiat brands, produced between 2023 and 2026. Key vehicles affected by the recall include the Citroën C3, Peugeot 208 and Vauxhall Mokka.
Continue reading...Commentary: NASA is sending four astronauts farther into space than any humans have ever traveled. But there's a much deeper subtext about what it all means.
People broke matzoh, read from the Haggadah and sang — with no need to worry about when the next air raid siren might sound.
Two gay Iranian men seeking asylum in the U.S. could face execution if they're deported to Iran, a move the Trump administration has not ruled out.
BOSTON, April 2, 2026 — QuEra Computing today open-sourced its T-gate simulator (Tsim), a GPU-accelerated quantum circuit simulator that, for the first time, lets researchers simulate non-Clifford gate operations at the speed and scale that quantum error correction (QEC) development demands.
QEC is the essential bridge between today’s noisy quantum processors and the fault-tolerant machines that will deliver practical quantum advantage. Designing effective QEC protocols — including surface code experiments, magic state distillation circuits, and logical gate sequences — requires simulating circuits at the physical level across millions of shots. Because a real fault-tolerant, commercially relevant quantum computer is still in development, the quality of these simulation tools directly shapes the pace of progress.
Yet today’s toolkit has a critical gap. Non-Clifford gates, particularly T-gates, are what make quantum circuits universal: without them, quantum computations offer no speedup over classical computers. The most widely adopted QEC simulator, STIM, handles only Clifford gates. Other tools that support T-gates are limited in qubit count or are too slow for the statistical analysis that QEC research requires. Tsim closes that gap, supporting quantum circuits with 80+ physical qubits and producing millions of samples in parallel — approximately 600 nanoseconds per shot for an 85-qubit circuit on an NVIDIA GH200.
“We built Tsim for our own research and are releasing it because the entire QEC community benefits when researchers can simulate realistic fault-tolerant circuits quickly and at scale,” said Shengtao Wang, VP of Algorithms and Applications at QuEra Computing. “By open-sourcing Tsim, QuEra has extended its fault-tolerant momentum from hardware into software, giving the research community tools to design and validate the protocols that those machines will run.”
By enabling fast simulation of the gate operations that make quantum computing universal, Tsim gives researchers, quantum software developers, and hardware engineers worldwide a powerful tool to:
Tsim is compatible with the STIM circuit format and API, so researchers can extend existing simulation pipelines to non-Clifford circuits with minimal effort. It is also part of QuEra’s open-source Bloqade ecosystem, which provides a complete workflow from quantum program definition through compilation, noise modeling, simulation, and decoding.
The release extends a landmark year for QuEra’s fault-tolerant program. In 2025, four Nature papers — produced in collaboration with, and in several cases led by, QuEra’s academic partners at Harvard and MIT — demonstrated continuous operation of multi-thousand-atom arrays, integrated fault-tolerant architectures with up to 96 logical qubits, the first logical-level magic state distillation, and algorithmic fault tolerance that reduced runtime overhead by 10–100x for reconfigurable architectures such as neutral atoms.
QuEra will hold a Tsim webinar on April 28 at 1:00 PM EST. Register here.
Access Tsim on this GitHub repository.
About QuEra Computing
QuEra is putting quantum to work. As the scientific and commercial leader in neutral-atom quantum computing, we help enterprise innovators leverage quantum to gain competitive advantage, support HPC centers as they help users tackle classically intractable problems, and enable government programs to build national capability and sovereign capabilities. We do this through our quantum innovation platform, combining quantum systems available on-premises and via the cloud with application co-design and collaborative research. Born at Harvard and MIT, still advancing together, QuEra operates globally from Boston, Tokyo, and the United Kingdom. As quantum computing moves from “one day” to “Day One,” QuEra delivers practical impact today while advancing toward large-scale, fault-tolerant systems. See what’s possible at quera.com.
Source: QuEra
The post QuEra Launches Open-Source Package to Simulate Logical Quantum Circuits at Scale appeared first on HPCwire.
Ukraine has forged the defense industry the continent desperately needs.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court considered a case that could reshape the concept of birthright citizenship. During two hours of debate, the justices raised several key questions about an executive order’s definition of a right established in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The justices heard arguments in Trump v. Barbara with President Donald Trump in attendance at the court for part of the session. At issue was Trump’s executive order No. 14,160, Protecting the Meaning and Value of American Citizenship, which claims birthright citizenship does not apply in several situations traditionally understood to be protected by the 14th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, which reads that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
One question was the importance of the precedent of United States v. Wong Kim Ark (1898), a long-settled ruling that defines the citizenship rights of people born in territory controlled by the United States. Another was the role of English common law as the basis for the Citizenship Clause—and how best to understand its lessons. And still another was how the definition of birthright citizenship fits in modern times within the contours of the prior two precedents.
The Supreme Court has long interpreted the Citizenship Clause to bestow automatic citizenship on a child born in the territory of the United States regardless of their nationality, with limited exceptions. The clause was meant as a direct rejection of the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott v. Sandford decision from 1857, where Chief Justice Roger Taney held that African Americans had “had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”
In the Wong Kim Ark case, a divided Supreme Court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to parents who were Chinese citizens, automatically became a United States citizen at birth.
The administration argued in briefs that another Supreme Court precedent, Elk v. Wilkins (1884) applied to Barbara. In the administration’s view, Elk and other precedents limited birthright citizenship to children of persons “domiciled within the United States.” The administration also argued key language in the Citizenship Clause—the words “and subject to the jurisdiction thereof”—did not grant U.S. citizenship in situations where children were born in the territory of the United States to parents who were not legally in the country or where the parents were temporary visitors.
The arguments at the Supreme Court
The questioning at the Supreme Court on Wednesday branched out in several directions, from the importance of English common law to the ability of the courts and elected officials today to reconsider citizenship status related to situations that did not exist more than 100 years ago.
Link: Read the arguments transcripts
After Solicitor General D. John Sauer’s opening statement, Chief Justice John Roberts asked Sauer about his push to expand the list of birthright citizenship exceptions under the “jurisdiction of the United States.” “You obvious put a lot of weight on the theory of ‘the jurisdiction thereof.’ The examples you give to support that strike me as very quirky, you know, children of ambassadors, children of enemies during a hostile invasion, children on warships, and then you expand it to a whole class of illegal aliens [that] are here in the country,” Roberts commented. “I’m not sure how you can get to that big group from such a tiny list … of idiosyncratic examples.” Sauer pointed to the debates of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and other evidence supporting his case.
Soon, the subject of the English common law came into play, as first raised by Justice Samuel Alito, who wondered if a general rule based on the common law applied to situations that exist today. Justice Clarence Thomas also asked Sauer if immigration was part of the debate about the 14th amendment when it was considered by Congress.
Justice Elena Kagan noted that Sauer’s court brief sought to revise Wong Kim Ark, which she viewed as a precedent having a clear rationale as “a common law tradition … it came from England, we know what it was, everybody got citizenship by birth except for a few discrete categories.” Sauer did not agree with Kagan’s description of Wong Kim Ark, which he argued did not apply to the children of temporary visitors to the United States.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson commented that Sauer had “hurdles to clear” to establish a case that the framers and ratifiers of the 14th Amendment were not importing established common law rules when they crafted the amendment’s language.
Cecillia Wang then argued the case for the American Civil Liberties Union—challenging the administration’s executive order. She quickly faced questions from several justices.
Chief Justice Roberts asked Wang why in her arguments she downplayed the importance of the word “domiciled” in the administration’s case when the word was used more than 20 times in the Wong Kim Ark decision. Justice Alito noted that the concept of “permanent domiciles” was included in the opening and closing of the majority opinion in the Wong Kim Ark.
In response to both questions, Wang cited the English common law tradition, and an early Supreme Court decision, The Schooner Exchange v. McFaddon (1812), as establishing that having a domicile was not a factor in establishing birthright citizenship.
Justice Kagan later returned to a question posed by Justice Alito about how the Supreme Court should deal with a problem that did not exist when the 14th Amendment was ratified, and the circumstances of how the Court should consider birthright citizenship for children of persons unlawfully in the United States.
Wang dismissed the executive order’s domicile requirement and argued that it was “crystal clear” from Wong Kim Ark and prior congressional debates that “the framers of the 14th amendment meant to have a universal common law rule of citizenship, subject to a closed set of exceptions.”
Justice Brett Kavanaugh then asked Wang if the idea of considering exceptions to the 14th Amendment was “frozen” at the time that the 14th Amendment was framed and ratified or if the Court should consider exceptions based on “modern circumstances” such as non-citizens unlawfully in the country. Wong cited a case brief that said the government’s position was a challenge to the current rule and not promoting a new rule itself.
As the arguments unfolded, it became clear that the justices were considering the 14th Amendment’s text and history, as well as the context of the Wong Kim Ark’s precedent in modern times and the implications and complications of possibly expanding exceptions to birthright citizenship. Several justices also asked about the ability of Congress on its own to establish birthright citizenship exceptions through legislative action.
Given the complexity of the case, a final decision from the Court is not expected until at least late June 2026.
Scott Bomboy is the editor-in-chief of the National Constitution Center.
Both platforms are great cable TV alternatives, but which is right for you? Let's break it all down.
The coalition of organizations says Trump’s executive order restricting who can receive mail ballots is unconstitutional
A coalition of civil rights groups sued the Trump administration on Thursday, saying that a new executive order to limit mail-in voting is unconstitutional.
The order, which Trump signed on Tuesday, instructs the federal government to come up with a list of eligible citizens who can vote in each state. It also instructs the US Postal Service to only transmit mail-in ballots to people on that list.
Continue reading...Catch up on this year's Oscar winners and some great titles that are leaving soon.
Sen. Bernie Sanders endorsed socialist New York State Assembly Member Claire Valdez on Thursday in a Democratic primary shaping up as a test of how factions of New York City’s progressive wing will work together under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
The race to replace retiring Rep. Nydia Velázquez in New York’s 7th Congressional District has put major progressive organizations and figures at odds. Hoping to capitalize on growing national frustration with conservative Democrats and lingering momentum from Mamdani’s win in November, national progressives and their counterparts in New York are fighting to succeed Velázquez with an ally in Congress.
They just haven’t agreed on who it should be.
Sanders, the Vermont independent, is giving a boost to the socialist wing behind Valdez’s campaign, which includes Mamdani and the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, the campaign shared with The Intercept.
“Claire Valdez is a union organizer who worked minimum-wage fast food jobs and understands firsthand how this economy fails working people,” Sanders said in a statement to The Intercept. “In my view, Congress needs more voices who come from America’s working class. Claire has the experience and vision we need to take on the oligarchy and fight for unions, Medicare for All, and affordable housing. I’m proud to endorse her campaign for Congress.”
Velázquez has endorsed Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso, Valdez’s main competitor. Reynoso also has backing from leading progressive officials and groups in New York City like Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and the New York Working Families Party.
Already facing losses this cycle in races where competing progressive candidates did not consolidate their support, national progressives like Sanders are picking sides in the battle to define the future of the electoral left under Mamdani.
Velázquez endorsed Reynoso shortly after Valdez launched her campaign in January standing alongside Mamdani and United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain. Some local observers saw Velázquez’s move as a rebuke of the mayor and a harbinger of a fight between factions of New York City’s left, endangering a relationship Mamdani and Velázquez had built since she became the first member of Congress to back his mayoral campaign.
Velázquez left little room to speculate on that question in comments she made to the New York Times in January, when she said Mamdani had opened up conflict between groups in his coalition by involving himself in primaries; that she was unfamiliar with Valdez, who is originally from Texas; and that she was skeptical of newcomers to the city who think they know who should represent New Yorkers in office.
In a statement to The Intercept, Valdez named Sanders as a key inspiration for her political beliefs and career.
“Three things made me a democratic socialist: shitty jobs, the labor movement, and Bernie Sanders’ runs for president,” Valdez said. “His political revolution changed my life — and showed millions of Americans what’s possible when working people organize. I’m grateful for this endorsement and ready to join the fight in Congress against the oligarchs and for economic democracy.”
On Wednesday, the Valdez campaign announced that it had raised $750,000 from 11,200 donors in the filing period that just ended, though the Federal Election Commission has not yet processed and verified the figures. Reynoso had raised just over $317,500 by the end of 2025, before Valdez launched her campaign, according to available FEC data. His campaign has not yet announced its most recent fundraising figures and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Valdez’s endorsements include PAL PAC, the new pro-Palestine group opposing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee; Justice Democrats; Leaders We Deserve PAC; Jewish Voice for Peace Action; attorney and political advocate Zephyr Teachout; Democratic New York state Sen. Jabari Brisport; and several members of the New York State Assembly.
Reynoso’s backers include Make the Road Action; New York Communities for Change; several powerful local unions including 32BJ SEIU and DC-37; Attorney General Letitia James; New York Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler and Pat Ryan; and several New York City Council members.
The post Bernie Sanders Backs Claire Valdez in NYC House Race Dividing Left and Progressives appeared first on The Intercept.
Those in US given chance to have more professional usernames without losing access to account
Did your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?
Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username – whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address – without losing access to their account.
Continue reading...New tickets released for some group games and final
Fans attempting to buy tickets encounter glitches
Fifa has raised the top ticket price for this year’s World Cup final to $10,990 as it released a new batch of tickets for sale on Wednesday.
The news, which came after the 48-team field for the World Cup was set, will do little to quell claims that Fifa is pricing fans out of the tournament. The most expensive ticket for the 2022 World Cup final was about $1,600.
Continue reading...Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May of 1994 from Star Valley when she was just 13 years old
A woman in Arizona who went missing 32 years ago, when she was just 13 years old, has been found alive, authorities said this week.
Christina Marie Plante was reported missing in May 1994 from Star Valley, Arizona, after she “vanished without a trace from her community”, according to a statement released on Wednesday by the Gila county sheriff’s office.
Continue reading...Anger in France after US president puts on French accent and mocks Macron during private lunch in Washington
Emmanuel Macron has said Donald Trump’s comments about his marriage were “neither elegant nor up to standard” after the US president put on an accent and mocked his French counterpart and his wife during a private lunch in Washington.
Arriving in South Korea on Thursday, Macron made clear his displeasure at Trump’s comments, which appeared briefly in a video on the White House YouTube channel before being removed.
Continue reading...With gasoline topping $4 a gallon, it now costs almost $145 to fill up a Ford F-150 pickup truck, a new analysis finds.
Commentary: Foldable phones have been full of compromises for the longest time, but things are changing slowly and steadily.
Mastery of banal style is losing its usefulness – but language is more powerful than ever. It’s up to the writer to do what machines can’t
I recently heard an exchange at a playground that should worry the executives at AI companies more than any analyst’s prediction of a bubble. A boy and a girl, maybe 10 years old, were fighting. “That’s AI! That’s AI!” the girl was shouting. What she meant was that the boy was indulging a new and particular breed of nonsense: language that sounds meaningful but has no connection to reality. The children have figured the new world out quickly, as they do.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay, neither as an apocalypse nor as the solution to all life’s problems, but as a disruptive tool. The recent scandal over Shy Girl, the novel by Mia Ballard, was doubly revealing. Hachette cancelled its publication amid claims it was reliant on AI generation (Ballard has said that an acquaintance who edited the self-published version used AI, not her). But the book was originally self-published. Apparently readers and editors didn’t mind until the use of AI was pointed out to them.
Stephen Marche lives in Toronto and is the author of The Next Civil War and On Writing and Failure
Continue reading...Your home deserves the best floodlights. Here are the bulbs that impressed me the most.
Player was in rehab before lawsuit was filed, says attorney
Wide receiver’s lawyer says client innocent of wrongdoing
Los Angeles Rams star Puka Nacua is in rehab and was there before he was sued by a woman who says he made an antisemitic statement and bit her on the shoulder, according to his attorney.
“He was in [rehab] a substantial period of time before any of these allegations broke ... and he’s scheduled to be there for a while longer,” Levi McCathern told The California Post.
McCathern told the newspaper Nacua’s decision to enter rehab was not a direct response to the lawsuit his accuser filed against him by Madison Atiabi last month, but an attempt “to improve his overall behavior in every aspect of his life.”
Continue reading...NASA's Artemis II astronauts launched on a nine-and-a-half-day mission around the moon and back.
im 6' 205 lbs with a rally xl for my first onewheel. im getting about 16 miles per ~80% of a full battery charge. im riding around 18 mph on asphalt. does that sound like normal range?
thanks
Bank of England survey in March shows chief financial officers foresee 3.7% increase over coming year
Companies in the UK expect to raise their prices more rapidly over the coming months as the war in the Middle East drives up costs, Bank of England research shows.
The Bank’s regular survey of more than 2,000 chief financial officers conducted last month, after the Iran conflict began, shows they now expect to raise their prices by 3.7% over the coming year.
Continue reading...Bank holiday traffic predicted to peak on Thursday, as petrol and diesel prices surge from fallout of Iran war
Drivers are being urged to hunt for the cheapest petrol and “to fill up as usual” as UK travellers prepare to make 21.7m journeys on what is expected to be the busiest Easter on the roads in four years.
The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol rose by 20p from 132.83p on 1 March to 152.83p by the end of the month, raising concerns about the cost of filling up for Easter journeys, as rising oil prices triggered by the US-Israel war with Iran translated to higher prices at the pumps.
Continue reading...Once-hyped, celebrity-backed company snapped up by American Exchange Group for fraction of former value
Allbirds, the San Francisco sustainable trainer brand once valued at more than $4bn, is being sold for just $39m (£29.6m) after global demand for its wool-based footwear failed to materialise.
American Exchange Group, the owner of a string of brands including the fashion label Ed Hardy and the accessories maker Born, is snapping up the struggling company once touted as the future of footwear.
Continue reading...Thousands were killed and wounded during the Battle of Copenhagen, considered one of Adm. Horatio Nelson's "great battles."
Funeral director Robert Bush had previously admitted to dozens of counts of fraud at hearing in October
A funeral director has admitted preventing a lawful burial after 30 bodies and a quantity of ashes were found at a funeral home in Hull in 2024.
Robert Bush, 48, had previously admitted to dozens of counts of fraud at a hearing in October, after police raided the premises of Legacy funeral home on Hessle Road over concern for care of the dead.
Continue reading...Some schools in Minnesota have already announced closings or shifts to virtual learning on Thursday as another round of winter weather threatens parts of the state.
For examples of how little a team’s form in the World Cup run-in matters in the tournament itself, look no further than the US
The last time the United States men’s national team entered into the final stretch of their preparations for a World Cup on home soil, the results were dire. From January through April of 1994, the Americans, who were mostly sequestered in a full-time training camp, played 12 games and won just twice. They even managed to lose to Iceland, who were a total non-factor in global soccer back then.
Then, that ’94 team went on to survive the group stage and narrowly lose to eventual champions Brazil, 1-0, in the round of 16. They delivered on expectations in spite of their deflating run-in.
Continue reading...De-dollarization promises to reorder the world, reducing American power globally
The US-Israel war on Iran is expensive. It’s expensive in terms of human lives, first of all. It’s expensive too, in pure currency – about $12bn a week for the US. And it’s expensive in how it’s causing the tectonic structures that underpin our global economy to shift. De-dollarization, the name given to the process countries undertake in unwinding their reliance on the dollar, promises to reorder the world, reducing American power globally. Its impact will be felt domestically in what we pay to borrow and whether we can afford to borrow at all.
Iran’s near-total blockade of the strait of Hormuz has had a dramatic impact on the prices of oil and natural gas, which puts major inflationary pressure on the economy of every country in the world. Practically, inflation makes people and businesses poorer, a process that reinforces itself if it’s not stopped (which is partly why central banks exist).
Ahmed Moor is a writer and fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: OpenAI hasn't been shy about spending money lobbying for favorable laws and regulations. But when it comes to its involvement with child safety advocacy groups, the company has apparently decided it's best to stay in the shadows -- even if it means hiding from the people actually pushing for policy changes. According to a report from the San Francisco Standard, a number of people involved in the California-based Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition were blindsided to learn their efforts were secretly being funded by OpenAI. Per the Standard, the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition was a group formed to push the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act, a piece of California legislation proposed earlier this year that would require AI firms to implement age verification and additional safeguards for users under the age of 18. That bill was backed by OpenAI in partnership with Common Sense Media, which proposed the legislation as a compromise after the two groups had pushed dueling ballot initiatives last year. But when the coalition started to reach out to child safety groups and other advocacy organizations to try to get them to lend support to the bill, OpenAI was apparently conveniently left off the messaging. The AI giant was also left out of the marketing on the coalition's website, according to the Standard. That reportedly led to a number of groups and individuals lending their support to the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition without realizing that they were aligning themselves with OpenAI. As it turns out, OpenAI isn't just one of the members of the coalition; it is the group's biggest funder. In fact, the Standard characterized the Parents and Kids Safe AI Coalition as being "entirely funded" by OpenAI. While it's not clear exactly how much the company has funneled to this particular group, a Wall Street Journal report from January said OpenAI pledged $10 million to push the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act. Gizmodo notes that OpenAI's backing of the Parents and Kids Safe AI Act "could be self-serving for CEO Sam Altman," who just so happens to head a company called World that provides age verification services.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In week five of Rhik Samadder’s diary, our resident AI skeptic decided to let AI take the lead on a date. If uncanny valley was a conversational style, it’s this
I’m single. Is it because I am emotionally avoidant, waiting on a unicorn, or under 6ft tall? Perhaps a spicy meatball of all three?
Or could it be that I haven’t used the magic of AI yet?
Continue reading...Workers allege abuse, visa fraud and medical neglect during the New Jersey temple’s construction – and say two died from lung disease caused by inhaling silica dust
In the center of the suburban town of Robbinsville, New Jersey, sits the largest modern Hindu mandir outside India.
What visitors from around the world see is a breathtaking display of craftsmanship – hand-carved stone from Rajasthan assembled across a sprawling 185-acre complex. The temple has gone viral on social media for its intricate designs, which took millions of hours to complete. Baps Swaminarayan Akshardham, the religious organization behind the site, has built similar temples across the globe. But some workers say these monumental structures came at a high cost.
Continue reading...Simon Dudley fired after his comments were condemned by prime minister and families of fire victims
Reform UK’s housing spokesperson has been sacked from his role after he described the Grenfell Tower fire as a “tragedy” but said that “everyone dies in the end”.
Keir Starmer had called on Nigel Farage to sack Simon Dudley, a former head of Homes England, after comments which were condemned by Grenfell families and others.
Continue reading...US moves towards reestablishing working relations between two countries after abducting President Nicolás Maduro
The US has lifted sanctions on Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, in the latest step towards normalising relations between the two countries after US forces abducted her predecessor, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife.
The couple were taken to New York after their abduction in January to face charges of alleged drug trafficking, to which both have pleaded not guilty.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
In recent years, the unhoused community in Wilmington has grown in size and in its need. In response, Mayor John Carney introduced a short-term plan to convert an Eastside park into the only sanctioned city area for its unhoused population.
A chaotic scene unfolded during a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Christina Park as Wilmington officials attempted to carry out a plan to move residents of a city-sanctioned homeless encampment out of their personal tents and into government-issued ones.
The effort drew protests from housing advocates and resistance from some residents, who feared the changes could threaten their property and disrupt the community.
The morning began calmly enough at the Eastside park as city workers prepared to place wooden pallets onto squares painted on the park’s grassy field, marking newly designated tent spots. Previously, residents of the encampment had chosen their own spaces, spreading throughout the park with tents, sofas, generators, and grills.
As the crews set up, several housing advocates also congregated, and could be seen speaking with encampment residents, city officials and police.
The mood was initially lighthearted but grew tense as the day progressed, with many advocates saying they became frustrated with city decisions to abruptly decrease the size of each tent plot, and to restrict the amount of belongings that residents could keep outside the tents.
Also inflaming tensions was a rumor that spread during the day that a city official said police would arrest anyone who refused to move into the new tents.
“They are threatening arrest,” housing advocate Shyanne Miller said through a megaphone as protesters gathered. “We are not having it.”
Eventually, several of the advocates began to demonstrate against the city’s actions. Some even placed themselves behind a forklift to prevent work crews from setting up pallets on which the new tents would be placed.
“As soon as all this stuff came to light, it became super evident that doing that work would be incredibly unethical and ultimately damaging to the community out here in the park,” said one protester who offered his name only as Gene.
Throughout the day, officials from Mayor John Carney’s office sought to defend their decision to move the encampment residents, stating that it was done out of concern for the park’s appearance, as well as to make it easier for paramedic crews to respond to emergencies in the community.
Asked if residents who didn’t move into the new tents would be arrested, Carney’s chief of staff, Cerron Cade, said that those who refuse to move to city-provided tents would have to leave the encampment entirely.
“We have to have some rules. And if folks don’t want to follow the rules, there’s no doors to the park. They can leave,” Cade said.
As Cade spoke, some residents of the encampment chided him for the city’s action. Still, most watched passively as the protesters and city officials engaged in standoffs and debates.
In interviews with Spotlight Delaware, six residents of the encampments expressed fear that the city’s mandate to move would result in the loss of their possessions – including their own personal tents.
Two of those residents also said they would outright refuse to move out of their personal tent, complaining that the city’s plan to condense the community onto a smaller footprint would spark conflicts.
“I don’t want no f***** neighbors, dude,” said one of them who didn’t provide their name.
“We’re not moving,” said another resident, Ron “Philly” Simmons, who has acted as a de-facto leader of the community during its first few months as a city-sanctioned encampment.
In contrast, one man who was settling into one of the new city-issued tents, called them “fantastic,” even as his move clearly exhausted him. The 67-year-old , Jerry Alford, said he has cancer, among other ailments.
But Alford’s enthusiasm changed when asked whether he knew that the table he had placed in front of the new tent was an apparent violation of new city rules.
The rules state that encampment residents can only keep a chair and a bike outside of their tents. All other belongings must remain in their tent.
“Why? What’s that hurt?” Alford asked, referring to his table.
By Wednesday evening, Wilmington officials released a statement again asserting that the park setup is intended to improve safety, organization, and emergency access for the community.
Officials noted that residents are being asked to consolidate belongings into city-issued tents to reduce clutter, trash, and pest concerns, with additional services like showers and laundry expected soon.
“This site has always been intended to be a temporary solution as folks move toward treatment and more stable housing,” the statement read.
City officials also asserted that no arrests were made at the park and that they were “disappointed” that protests delayed setup efforts.
By the late afternoon, city crews took their forklift and left the park with several pallets still in a stack and some tents not yet pitched.
The decision to move people out of their tents comes about six months after Carney first declared that Christina Park would become a legal homeless encampment in the city.
He did so in line with recommendations that had been issued by Wilmington’s homelessness task force, which Carney established early in 2025.
Following Carney’s decision, dozens of people moved into the park. By December, Spotlight Delaware reported that an estimated 50 tents had been pitched in the grassy field along the northern half of the park.
Despite the growth, Simmons told Spotlight Delaware then “there’s no way to really live in a public park” — particularly one that at the time had no showers or bathrooms.
By January, the city entered into a contract with the homeless services organization, Friendship House, to oversee the homeless community by coordinating donations, providing bathrooms, cleaning services and security, and by offering case management for residents.
That same month, the city also brought portable restrooms for the encampment – which residents had been requesting for weeks. Shower and laundry services are expected to begin at the park later this month, according to the city.
On Wednesday, the executive director of the Friendship House, Kim Eppehimer, told Spotlight Delaware that the decision to move park residents out of their tents and into new ones was a city decision. The Friendship House, she said, is trying to support residents while helping to facilitate the city’s plan.
“This is a difficult situation, and we truly recognize that,” Eppehimer said.
The post Tensions flare as Wilmington officials move the Christina Park homeless encampment appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
PlayStation 5 (version tested), Xbox, Nintendo Switch 2, PC; Deck Nine/Square Enix
Max and Chloe, the two teen protagonists of the 2015 game, reunite as adults – giving players the chance to finally finish their journey
In 2015, Life Is Strange stood out for two reasons: its female protagonists, a depressingly rare feature at the time, and its unique brand of millennial cringe. The thirtysomething Frenchmen who created this series may not have had the best grasp of the 2010s teen lexicon, but they did have a good gauge on what’s important about any coming-of-age story, and that’s the relationships between the characters. Max Caulfield, the shy, time-travelling wannabe photographer, and Chloe Price, the traumatised, punk-rock tearaway, had a memorably intense friendship. It was the heart and soul of that game, and now, 11 years later, they are reunited as adults in this final chapter of their story.
For a lot of players, Max and Chloe felt like more than best friends. The game’s original developers were not brave enough to make this explicit in 2015, but newer custodians Deck Nine retconned a romantic relationship between Max and Chloe into 2024’s Life Is Strange: Double Exposure. You can still play Reunion as if the two really were just friends, resulting in some awkward ambiguity in some scenes. Whichever way you slice it, though, this is a game about first love, and how it always stays with you, even when its object does not. And damned if it didn’t make me feel something.
Continue reading...President Trump said in a speech that the U.S. will complete its military mission in Iran "very shortly," and that U.S. forces have achieved "overwhelming victories."
Divers in race against time to unearth wreck of the Dannebroge before seabed becomes construction site
More than 200 years after being sunk by Adm Horatio Nelson and the British fleet, a Danish warship has been discovered on the seabed of Copenhagen harbour by marine archaeologists.
Working in thick sediment and almost zero visibility 15 metres (49ft) beneath the waves, divers are in a race against time to unearth the 19th-century wreck of the Dannebroge before it becomes a construction site in a new housing district being built off the Danish coast.
Continue reading...Democrats criticize speech as doing little to answer Americans’ ‘most basic questions’. Plus, how rap lyrics were used to help sentence a man to death
Good morning.
Donald Trump declared the month-long US-Israeli war against Iran a success “nearing completion” in his prime time address to the nation on Wednesday evening – despite the conflict wreaking global economic chaos, damaging transatlantic alliances and hitting his approval ratings.
What is the significance of Trump’s comments on HEU? The apparent decision to leave it appears to conflict with his assertions that a key war aim was to ensure Iran could never make a nuclear bomb.
Follow our liveblog for the latest updates.
What has Houston said about the rocket’s deployment? Flight controllers confirmed that all four solar arrays, which will provide the spacecraft with continuous electrical power throughout its lunar journey, were deployed successfully.
Continue reading...If you want a Galaxy S26 Ultra but can't quite afford it, shopping the older model is the way to go.
 | Just click Confirm Order on Floatwheel website and it chucks an error I swear it was working earlier today and now that I have the crypto in my wallet it doesn't work :( [link] [comments] |
Whether in the thrill of victory or the agony of defeat, coaches and players at this NCAA tournament have found the fun in basketball again
Kara Lawson’s Duke team saw their Final Four dreams dashed with a 70-58 loss to UCLA on Sunday. The Blue Devils had pulled an impressive, buzzer-beating upset of No 2 seed LSU in the Sweet 16 days before, but against the No 1 Bruins in the Elite Eight, they didn’t give a repeat performance. They missed a few key moments in transition that could have changed the game and helped them to their first Final Four in 20 years.
In the end, though, it was OK.
Continue reading...The supreme court appears poised to reject Trump’s attack on a foundation of US identity. We must hope it follows through
American opponents of birthright citizenship – the right of all those born on the soil of a country to claim full legal rights and political representation in that nation – like to point out that many countries don’t have it. On Wednesday at the supreme court, during the oral arguments in Trump v Barbara, the case challenging Donald Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States by executive order, the Trump administration’s solicitor general, John Sauer, claimed that “almost every country” denies birthright citizenship. Trump himself made the unusual choice to attend the oral arguments in person, signaling his investment in the issue and perhaps hoping that his presence would intimidate the justices into ruling in his favor. But he left soon after Cecillia Wang, a lawyer for the ACLU who represented his opponents in court, began speaking. Not long after he left the supreme court building, Trump used Truth Social, his proprietary social media platform, to echo the rightwing argument about the supposed rarity of birthright citizenship worldwide. “We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow ‘Birthright’ Citizenship! President DONALD J. TRUMP” he posted.
This is not true. The United States’ birthright citizenship – which was originally established in very plain, explicit terms in the 14th amendment, and has been reaffirmed twice by Congress and by more than a century of supreme court precedent – is typical of the Americas. In the western hemisphere, only a handful of countries deny automatic full citizenship to infants born within their borders. They are contrasted with the rest of North and South America, where the legacy of slavery led most states to adopt birthright citizenship.
Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pressure intensifies for Gabbard after president’s displeasure with Iran war testimony
Donald Trump has privately asked cabinet officials in recent weeks whether he should replace his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, venting frustration that she shielded a former deputy who undercut his rationale for war with Iran, according to two people briefed on the discussions.
It is not clear that Trump will actually fire Gabbard over the episode. Currently, there is no standout candidate to take the job, and advisers have cautioned that creating a high-profile vacancy before a successor is ready could cause unhelpful political distractions.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
In recent months, rising operating costs and low sale prices have put significant financial strain on Delaware crop farmers. Fertilizer and fuel price increases spurred by the ongoing war in Iran have made the situation more challenging for local farmers, forcing them to make difficult choices about growing strategies heading into this year’s planting season.
Amid already razor-thin profit margins, fertilizer and fuel price increases caused by the war in Iran are putting more stress on Delaware farmers heading into the spring planting season.
While some Delaware farmers were able to forward contract their fertilizer and fuel cost, meaning they locked in prices months ago, those who waited will be forced to endure costs that have nearly doubled since the war began in late February.
In an industry that is already volatile, with corn and soybean prices low and operating costs for farmers high, many Delaware farmers say they don’t have much room to weather the costs of war-induced price hikes.
“The prices aren’t working,” Dover-area farmer Paul Cartanza told Spotlight Delaware. “Every time something happens, the farmers are the first to feel it.”
Fuel and fertilizer costs make up between 18% and 20% of most farmers’ total operating costs, said University of Maryland agricultural economics researcher James McDonald. While exact prices depend on the type of fertilizer, prices have increased by somewhere between 15% and 70% since the war started.
The price spikes stem from the Iran government’s shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz — a critical sea passage for oil, fertilizer ingredients, and other exports from the Middle East — in retaliation to American and Israeli bombings of the country. The fertilizer price increases, specifically, are a result of the blockage of nitrogen and phosphate materials, which are two key fertilizers for American farmers.
The Trump administration has said it is attempting to increase fertilizer imports from Venezuela, in order to offset the impacts of the lacking Middle Eastern supply.
But at a time when corn prices have dropped precipitously to $4 a bushel and soybean prices to $10.20, leaving farmers with less upside potential on their crops, Delaware farmers say they will need to turn to strategies like applying less fertilizer to fields and not tilling the crops in order to get by.
Not tilling, or growing crops without turning over the soil beforehand, saves on costs because farmers don’t have to pay for as much fuel to run their tractors and do the tilling.
Farmers say these fertilizer and tilling changes might decrease crop outputs, particularly if it also ends up being a bad weather year. But many do not see an alternative when fuel prices are soaring by 150%.
If crop yields are lighter as a result, it could also raise food prices later in the year – potentially leading to another burden for consumers.
“You don’t have much of a choice,” Harrington-based farmer Dave Marvel said. “This is a major issue. When fuel is up, everything is up.”
Adding to the challenging circumstances, farmers say, is the uncertainty as to when the war might end, and how long it could take for fuel and fertilizer prices to readjust.
“The fertilizer impacts might last for quite a long time,” said McDonald, the university researcher.” They’ll be facing higher prices, most likely well into the future.”
Even before the war in Iran skyrocketed input prices for the season, Delaware farmers were worried about scraping by this year with low prices and high input costs.
Jim Minner, a Felton-area corn and soybean farmer, told Spotlight Delaware in early March that he had adopted a mindset of “just get by” because of crop prices being so low and machinery costs so high in recent years.
A one-time farm bridge assistance payment from the federal government earlier this spring gave farmers a bailout amid the challenging circumstances, which many said they put toward bills they hadn’t been able to pay, or small machinery upgrades that they had been meaning to do.
Now, though, the fertilizer and fuel price landscape is adding another layer of uncertainty to an industry in which some are questioning its sustainability.
The price hikes also come just as Delaware farmers are beginning to plant their crops, which will begin in mid-April and continue through June for most farm operations.
Minner, who farms about 550 acres across Kent County, said he was able to forward contract most of his fertilizer this past fall, and pre-buy about 1,300 gallons of diesel at $2.60 per gallon – substantially lower than the current $5.79 per gallon that he’s seen at the pump.
While the early contracting has eased some of his financial stress, Minner said, he is still worried about having to refuel his tractor and combine tanks, and purchasing more nitrogen for his corn crops in June.
“You can cut back [on fertilizer] a little bit, but when you cut back, you’re going to cut yield back,” he said.
Smyrna-area farmer Jonathan Snow similarly said that he had already locked in the prices on some of his fertilizer before the war began. He will need to assess as the spring progresses whether he can get by with less fertilizer, or if his yields will suffer too much, depending on how wet or dry the weather has been.
Cartanza, the Dover-area farmer, has a different approach.
Cartanza did not forward contract his fertilizer this season, so he anticipates having to cut back on fertilizer and “rob the ground” of its existing nutrients, for which he said he might pay the price in future years.
Cartanza also said he intends to lean into the no-till or minimum-till crops, which allows him to save on fuel for his machinery and limit the amount of fertilizer he uses.
As Delaware farmers say they are keeping their heads down, trying to cut costs when possible and re-assess as the season goes on, McDonald said he anticipates the price impacts could persist for at least another six months.
Even if the war ends, or the Strait of Hormuz reopens, it will take significant time for facilities to repair from damages they have suffered and restart operations, and for prices to readjust, he said.
Maggie Reynolds is a Report for America corps member and Spotlight Delaware reporter who covers rural communities in Delaware. Your donation to match our Report for America grant helps keep her writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://spotlightdelaware.org/support/.
The post Delaware farmers feel increased strain from Iran war on fertilizer, fuel prices appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware labor officials and the Trump administration are at odds over whether immigration enforcement officials should have access to residents’ sensitive data. A Wednesday court hearing comes as a bill to restrict some state departments from sharing immigration information with federal officials is being considered by Delaware lawmakers.
Delaware’s top federal judge grilled attorneys from the state Department of Labor as they argued against complying with federal immigration officials’ efforts to obtain information about businesses suspected of employing undocumented employees.
Delaware District Court Chief Judge Colm Connolly interrogated Jennifer-Kate Aaronson, an attorney with the Delaware Department of Labor, during a lengthy Wednesday morning hearing, in which he questioned the legal basis of Aaronson’s argument for not complying with an administrative subpoena from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The case stems from a subpoena ICE issued to the Delaware Department of Labor in April 2025 seeking wage records for 15 Delaware businesses for the final two quarters of 2024, which the agency suspected of employing undocumented immigrants.
Connolly did not issue a ruling on Wednesday, and it remains unclear when one may come down.
Aaronson contended on Wednesday the subpoena is “overly burdensome,” and complying with it would hinder the normal operations of the state DOL. Disclosing the information, she added, would damage the trust between employers and the department.
Providing the information to ICE also would jeopardize the State Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund, which is funded by employer contributions and provides unemployment benefits to eligible workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own, she said.
Aaronson also argued that the DOL did not have to provide the information to ICE because the request fell under an exception in federal regulation law.
The subpoena, which originated from “hotline tips” that ICE received, sought employees’ names, addresses, wages and Social Security numbers from 15 Delaware businesses, according to court records. ICE’s subpoena efforts align with the Trump administration’s broader strategy of using federal and state agency data to bolster its promised immigration enforcement push.
Attorneys with the U.S. Attorney’s Office argued in court documents that wage records would help ICE further its focus on “worksite enforcement” and may help determine whether employees are using fake Social Security numbers or if employers are paying workers “under the table,” or using cash and without reporting it to the IRS, court records show.
Claudia Pare, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware who represented ICE’s case Wednesday, argued the DOL is legally required to comply with the subpoena. Connolly appeared to agree with Pare’s arguments.
The DOL is not exempt from complying with a federal subpoena, Connolly said as he read the corresponding federal regulation law statutes aloud to the court.
Connolly publicly dissected the regulations that Aaronson cited by projecting his computer tab onto a large screen at the head of the courtroom. He asked Aaronson where the law shows the DOL has “full discretion” to decide not to comply with a federal subpoena as he highlighted law text.
Aaronson was not able to point to a specific subsection of the regulations in response, but she maintained that disclosure of sensitive information to ICE has never been mandated by federal law.
Connolly, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2018, said it was not Aaronson’s “best day” when she wrote the legal brief presenting her case.
Delaware’s U.S. Attorney Ben Wallace said in a written statement that compliance with a federal subpoena is not optional, even when the recipient is a state.
“We are confident the District Court will see things the same way, and we eagerly await its decision,” Wallace said.
Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings sat in the gallery during Wednesday’s hearing.
The court case was first filed in July 2025 by Julianne Murray, Delaware’s former interim U.S. attorney who was appointed by the Trump administration that same month. Murray stepped down in December after Delaware’s federal judges rejected her as Trump’s handpicked appointee, and instead selected Murray’s first assistant, Benjamin Wallace, for the role.
Pare, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, asked Connolly to seal the April subpoena when the case was first filed, arguing that ICE did not want to have the 15 business names become public and “prematurely alert” the targets of the agency’s worksite investigations.
Aaronson then filed a motion to unseal the subpoena in August. The 15 businesses suspected of hiring undocumented immigrants should have the opportunity to come to court and argue against their information being transmitted to ICE, she said during a previous court hearing.
While Connolly did not officially rule on the motion to unseal the subpoena Wednesday, he said it remained a good decision to keep the subpoena under seal. If suspected businesses are made public and associated with potentially hiring undocumented employees, it could harm their reputation if they’re ultimately found to be innocent, he said.
DOL officials received at least four subpoenas from ICE since February 2025, Aaronson said during an August court hearing. Department officials complied with one ICE subpoena that sought information about a single individual, Aaronson said.
In December, Rep. Sean Lynn (D-Dover) introduced legislation, House Bill 238, that would bar the Delaware departments of finance and labor from disclosing information about a person’s citizenship or immigration status included in any tax return, tax document or database within both departments.
To disclose that information, DOL employees would need to get approval from the Delaware Attorney General or a court order associated with a felony criminal investigation. House Bill 238 would also make the disclosure of the information, without prior approval or court order, a misdemeanor.
The legislation is awaiting consideration in the House Revenue & Finance committee.
It’s unclear how Lynn’s bill, if passed, would affect the subpoena case and any subsequent subpoena the DOL receives from ICE.
While Connolly did not issue a ruling in the case Wednesday, he appeared to support the federal officials’ arguments. It remains unclear when a ruling could come down.
The post Delaware’s top federal judge grills labor officials over ICE subpoena appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms
Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.
The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.
Continue reading...A Washington Post investigation reveals that a prolonged environmental review pushed back work on the Potomac Interceptor that was initially proposed in 2018.
Over 60 percent have used the tech in their work, a study found, even as experts say its unreliability could compromise judicial authority.
As Iran’s retaliatory attacks hit regional centers of commerce, such as Dubai, the majority of the deaths have been among migrant workers who could not afford to flee.
Fake X account posing as his vet sparked global false reports of Jonathan’s death while soliciting crypto donations
At 194 years old, Jonathan the giant tortoise was a youngster when Queen Victoria ascended to the throne – and has now lived long enough to fall victim to a crypto scam.
News outlets including the BBC, Daily Mail and USA Today falsely reported his death after an X account posing as Jonathan’s vet broke the news.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 2, No. 1,748.
Our reporting started, like much of our work, in a spreadsheet. As I parsed through federal court data, I noticed something odd: Within months of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025, prosecutors began filing obscure charges related to trespassing on military property — so many, in fact, that more cases were filed in 2025 than in the prior decade.
Nearly all of these charges originated from cases along the U.S. southern border, where last spring, the White House designated large swaths of land as national defense areas. Putting them under military authority allowed troops to play an unprecedented role in apprehending undocumented immigrants; federal soldiers are generally barred from enforcing the law on domestic soil. If you were caught in one of these zones, the government could also now prosecute you for breaking federal laws, including one enacted in 1909 to keep spies away from arsenals.
In an investigation we published recently, my co-reporters Perla Trevizo, Abe Streep, Pratheek Rebala and I dug into what experts say is a major flaw afflicting these prosecutions that threatens to ensnare people for crimes they did not commit: Migrants didn’t know the land they were crossing now belonged to the armed forces. And many judges have ruled that you can’t be guilty of trespassing on military land if you had no idea you were on it.
Since April of last year, we found, at least 4,700 immigrants already charged with entering the country illegally faced these military trespass charges; at least one had to wait in jail for more than a month to stand trial. Most of the charges didn’t stick. In fact, we found that in 60% of the resolved cases, the trespass charges were dropped or dismissed. Yet prosecutors kept filing them.
Download the full data used in our analysis on our GitHub page.
As we visited courtrooms in West Texas and New Mexico and pored through case records, it became clear how hard it would be to prove that someone knowingly trespassed on military land. Some couldn’t read. At least one person didn’t speak English or Spanish. The small signs are spaced far apart and easy to miss, and many migrants were arrested far away from them.
A Justice Department spokesperson said the prosecutions have deterred unauthorized border crossings and cartel activity. And prosecutors have argued in court that illegally crossing is enough to prove criminal intent for the military trespassing charges. Senior officials in the U.S. attorney’s offices handling trespass cases declined repeated interview requests.
In November, Perla, Abe and I set out to report throughout southern New Mexico and West Texas to see for ourselves what information we could gather about where the zones were and how they were marked.
Abe and I arranged a ride-along with Doña Ana County Sheriff Kim Stewart, whose New Mexico agency shares jurisdiction with Border Patrol and the military in one of the zones. A sergeant from her office drove us along a dirt road that parallels the border as she pointed out 12-by-18-inch red and white signs opposite the fence. She told us her office hadn’t received specific information about where the military zone boundaries were; all they had were the signs. Even in broad daylight, it was difficult to read the words on them unless we got within a few feet.
On another outing in New Mexico — this time with the photographer Paul Ratje — I went to a spot in Sunland Park where Ratje said he’d previously taken photos of the border fence. The 2-acre dirt lot sat less than a mile from residential neighborhoods and a popular Italian restaurant. From the lot, we could see more red and white signs along the nearby border road.
While we were taking pictures, a pickup truck with a Border Patrol livery approached us. I was surprised to see that inside, instead of Border Patrol agents, there were two Army soldiers. The soldier in the passenger seat pointed to the signage along the border road and told us not to go past there. The border road was part of the defense area, he told us, though the lot we were standing in wasn’t.
The next day, Perla and I returned to the same location. This time, a Border Patrol agent drove up. The lot was part of the defense area, he told us. When I pointed out that I had been given conflicting information the previous day, the agent said he was told by the military that people couldn’t be in this area. We left. (An Army spokesperson said that the base responsible for the defense area in New Mexico published a map in December; the lot was not included in it.)
My interactions with Border Patrol and the military had so far only added to our confusion about these areas. Later that day, Perla and I drove south to a stretch of border fence along the Rio Grande near Tornillo, Texas. We saw a Border Patrol van near a gate in the fence. We thought we’d try to ask where the defense area was. Before we could do that, another Border Patrol van pulled up to us. Soldiers, including one with a rifle strapped across his shoulder, emerged from both vehicles. Another soldier told us he was “not at liberty to discuss” the national defense area’s exact location.
The response bewildered us. We asked him how we were supposed to know whether we were trespassing. He shrugged. (Spokespeople for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Department of Defense did not directly answer questions about these interactions.)
As we got back into our rental SUV, Perla and I wondered: If we, as reporters who investigate things for a living, couldn’t get a straight answer on where these military zones were, how did the government expect people crossing the border to do better?
In the four months between our reporting trip and the publication of our investigation on March 16, the government continued to file military trespassing charges in more than 1,300 cases. And it’s established new military zones, too, in Arizona, California and Texas.
The post Why We Went Looking for National Defense Areas Along the U.S. Southern Border appeared first on ProPublica.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 2, No. 1,026.
Gas is being stolen, and station workers in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India have been killed over shortages and high prices. Unrest is set to worsen the longer the war lasts.
The more people use social media, the less likely they are to believe democracy is the best form of government, the survey of over 20,000 Americans found.
Battlefield outcomes are connected by the sharing of weapons and intelligence as well as the damage to the global economy
The Iran and Ukraine wars are becoming more intertwined with every passing week – to the point that some analysts argue the two conflicts are beginning to merge.
Quite how each war will affect the trajectory of the other is hard to predict, but it is already clear that their interconnectedness is drawing more countries into both cauldrons, extending an arc of instability that straddles Europe and the Middle East.
Continue reading...The government looks ill prepared for the coming stagflation storm – its ‘keep calm and carry on’ approach won’t survive a blast of reality
Britain is facing the most severe energy shock since the early 1970s, but have no fear: the government has a plan. Details of said plan are still a little sketchy, but will be unveiled in the fullness of time. No need to panic. Keep calm and carry on.
It remains to be seen whether the UK is better prepared to cope with the fallout from Donald Trump’s war with Iran than it was with the pandemic six years ago. To be honest, that wouldn’t be difficult. Yet it is not exactly comforting that ministers are sending out a “we have your back” message to the public while at the same time seeking to reassure the financial markets that any help will be limited and targeted.
Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Scientists say extreme March heat caused an unusually rapid collapse of snowpack across the American West that's leaving major basins at record or near-record lows. "This year is on a whole other level," said Dr Russ Schumacher, a Colorado State University climatologist. "Seeing this year so far below any of the other years we have data for is very concerning." The Guardian reports: [...] The issue is extremely widespread. Data from a branch of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which logs averages based on levels between 1991 and 2020, shows states across the south-west and intermountain west with eye-popping lows. The Great Basin had only 16% of average on Monday and the lower Colorado region, which includes most of Arizona and parts of Nevada, was at 10%. The Rio Grande, which covers parts of New Mexico, Texas and Colorado, was at 8%. "This year has the potential of being way worse than any of the years we have analogues for in the past," Schumacher said. Even with near-normal precipitation across most of the west, every major river basin across the region was grappling with snow drought when March began, according to federal analysts. Roughly 91% of stations reported below-median snow water equivalent, according to the last federal snow drought update compiled on March 8. Water managers and climate experts had been hopeful for a March miracle -- a strong cold storm that could set the region on the right track. Instead, a blistering heatwave unlike any recorded for this time of year baked the region and spurred a rapid melt-off. "March is often a big month for snowstorms," Schumacher said. "Instead of getting snow we would normally expect we got this unprecedented, way-off-the-scale warmth." More than 1,500 monthly high temperature records were broken in March and hundreds more tied. The event was "likely among the most statistically anomalous extreme heat events ever observed in the American south-west," climate scientist Daniel Swain said in an analysis posted this week. "Beyond the conspicuous 'weirdness' of it all," Swain added, "the most consequential impact of our record-shattering March heat will likely be the decimation of the water year 2025-26 snowpack across nearly all of the American west." Calling the toll left by the heat "nothing short of shocking," Swain noted that California was tied for its worst mountain snowpack value on record. While the highest elevations are still coated in white, "lower slopes are now completely bare nearly statewide."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
NASA's Artemis II astronauts will spend about 24 hours orbiting the Earth and running checks on their spacecraft and life support systems before heading to the moon.
In today’s newsletter: Britain’s refusal to be drawn into the Iran war has triggered a backlash from the White House, with the president’s fury exposing the fragility of this once unshakeable partnership
Good morning. Another week, another tirade against the UK from Donald Trump. The US-Israeli conflict with Iran has further inflamed tensions in the special relationship, which was already under strain from attacks by the capricious US leader. So far this week, Trump has once again mocked the UK’s navy, instructed allies worried about jet fuel supplies to take it from the strait of Hormuz themselves, and announced that the US is considering leaving Nato.
The outbursts have become a pattern since the war with Iran began – and mark a departure from the unlikely friendly relationship Starmer and Trump have enjoyed until now.
Middle East | Donald Trump used a prime-time address to the nation to declare the month-long war in Iran a success “nearing completion”, despite a spiralling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded the president’s approval ratings.
UK politics | The UK will seek an even deeper partnership with the EU because of the instability wreaked by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Keir Starmer has said, adding that the moment called for a more ambitious deal with Brussels.
Nasa | Nasa’s moon rocket Artemis II launched on Wednesday evening, carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in almost 54 years.
BBC | The BBC confirmed in a statement it was first made aware of a police investigation into historical allegations of sexual abuse by Scott Mills in 2017.
NHS | Claims by Palantir that concerns over the US data analytics company’s multimillion-pound NHS contract are “ideologically motivated” have been rejected by the chair of a parliamentary committee.
Continue reading...Markets sink after president offers little detail on how he intends to wind down conflict over next two to three weeks
Donald Trump used a prime time address to the nation on Wednesday evening to declare the month-long war in Iran a success “nearing completion”, despite a spiraling conflict that has caused economic turmoil across the globe, fractured transatlantic alliances and eroded the president’s approval ratings.
In remarks from the White House, Trump argued that the US’s “little journey” to Iran had nearly accomplished “all of America’s military objectives”, but offered little clarity on how he planned to wind down the conflict over the next “two to three weeks”.
Continue reading...Quake with epicentre west-north-west of Ternate island shakes cities and prompts regional tsunami warning
One person has been killed after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck Indonesia’s Ternate island, damaging buildings and triggering small tsunami waves.
The quake, which had a depth of 35km, occurred on Thursday at 6.48am local time, according to the United States Geological Survey. Its epicentre was 127km (79 miles) west-north-west of Ternate, an island in Indonesia’s North Maluku province.
Continue reading...Anyone have any recommendations for foot pad sensors for the GT? I currently have the stock pads with sensors but I bought a pair of Airpads from Craft and ride a while back that currently need sensors and grip tape. I’m a lighter rider on a GT so the more sensitive the better i guess but at this point I’m willing to look at pretty much anything especially if it has the tape and sensor combo. Thank you!
Two-thirds of secondary school teachers report a decline in core abilities such as writing and problem-solving
Pupils using artificial intelligence are losing their capacity for critical thinking, according to a survey of secondary school teachers in England.
Two-thirds said they had observed the decline among children who they also said no longer felt the need to spell because of voice-to-text technology.
Continue reading...Tempers flared Wednesday during a community meeting about a controversial proposal that would give New Castle County more involvement with the finances of Brookside Community Inc.
How America and Israel can shape a new Middle East.
The Cooch’s Bridge chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution honored a local student for winning an essay contest March 21.
Trump says he expects the U.S. war with Iran to end within several weeks despite unrelenting attacks from both sides and Iran's iron grip on the Strait of Hormuz.
Reuters reports that SpaceX has confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO, reportedly targeting a valuation above $1.75 trillion. Reuters reports: SpaceX puts more rockets in space than any other company and promises a chance to invest in humanity's return to the moon and attempt to colonize Mars. The company aspires to put artificial intelligence data centers in space, while running a lucrative satellite communications system that opens up much of the earth to the internet and is increasingly used in war. [...] A public listing at a potential valuation of more than $1.75 trillion comes after SpaceX merged with Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI in a deal that valued the rocket company at $1 trillion and the developer of the Grok chatbot at $250 billion. SpaceX is hosting an analyst day on April 21, encouraging research analysts to attend in person, [...]. The company is also offering analysts an optional visit to xAI's "Macrohard" data center site in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 23, and plans to hold a virtual session on May 4 to discuss financial models with banks' research analysts, the source said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A coalition of major Democratic groups sued the Trump administration, seeking to strike down an executive order that would exert more federal influence over mail-in voting — including by creating lists of citizens who are eligible to vote.
The Korean automaker debuts gas and hybrid variants of the Seltos SUV and announces the arrival of the all-electric EV3 in the US.
The subcompact and, hopefully, inexpensive EV3 is a welcome sight at a time when many automakers are cancelling their most affordable models and small EVs.
Kia's combustion-powered Seltos has grown up and glowed up with more space and bigger tech inside.
Nasa’s moon rocket Artemis II launched on Wednesday evening (US time), carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in almost 54 years. The launch marks the first time since the Apollo 17 mission of December 1972 that humans will have left lower Earth orbit.
The rocket is orbiting Earth and will continue to do so until Thursday, when the translunar injection burn will take place and send it on the rest of its 386,242km journey to orbit the moon
Continue reading...Trump has expressed growing contempt for North Atlantic allies as they refused to be drawn into his war on Iran – key US politics stories from Wednesday 1 April at a glance
Donald Trump has said he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from Nato, warning that the matter was “beyond reconsideration” after the refusal of US allies to join the US-Israeli war against Iran.
Trump has long been vocally sceptical about the benefit of Nato membership to the US, but since North Atlantic allies have refused to take part in the month-long, faltering US-Israeli assault on Iran, the president has stepped up his rhetoric.
Continue reading...Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 2.
I am willing to pay for more for more performance, but I want to make sure I’m not paying too much for not much performance. I’m wondering if the XL really has $600 more of performance than the GTS, or if I’m paying that for just a little more performance.
Anonymous activist Martha Root on how she hacked into, and took down, a dating site for white supremacists. With reporting from investigative journalist Eva Hoffman
There’s a dating site for everyone: Jdate for Jews, Muzz for Muslims and Raya for celebrities. And for white supremacists? WhiteDate, “for Europids seeking tribal love”.
The mysterious hacker/activist Martha Root tells Helen Pidd how, live on stage and in disguise, she hacked into WhiteDate and exposed a network of thousands of neo-Nazis looking for Aryan love.
Continue reading...Agreement comes after Wellington halted millions in aid to its former colony after Cook Islands formed strategic partnership with Beijing
New Zealand and the Cook Islands have signed a defence and security declaration, ending a year-long diplomatic row that erupted after the Cook Islands struck strategic agreements with China.
The Cook Islands was a dependent New Zealand colony from 1901-65 but has since operated as a self-governing nation in “free association” with New Zealand. Its roughly 17,000 citizens hold New Zealand citizenship. There are obligations between the two nations to regularly consult on matters of defence and security.
Continue reading...I’m looking to buy a used charger for my xr. Looking at this option before I gotta spend $100 on a new one.
From what I’ve found, there is limited offerings for front footpads for big feet. I’ve seen some posts that people purchase their own sensor, footpad and grip tape and wanted to ensure I wasn’t missing anything.
Parts - kush wide (front and back), stoked stock V5, aluminum bottom plate to ensure no pressure on controller battery boxes.
Footpad connector, I’m unsure which one I should get since fungineers is sold out. I see float life has one for XR+ or for GT/XRC
Stock stock V5 - to cut or not cut. Mainly trails riding. From what I’ve gathered, having a single zone is better for activation, but you have to learn how to jump off board or toe lift out. Cutting to dual zone allows heal lift to disengage, requires sealing.
Stocked stock v5 - do they come with adhesive? If not is it needed?
Did I miss anything? I assume it’s plug and play with the fungineers box.
Board will be a vesc build using Thor400.
Thank you,
This live blog is now closed.
We’re starting to get pictures from outside the US supreme court ahead of oral arguments in Trump v Barbara, which will decide if the administration’s attempts to restrict birthright citizenship are unconstitutional.
Donald Trump has just arrived, and plans to listen to arguments at the court – the first time a sitting president has attended arguments.
Continue reading...CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., April 1, 2026 — EPB has joined the Southeastern Quantum Collaborative (SQC) as an inaugural member. SQC is an association of universities, technology companies and research institutions working together to accelerate the advancement and real-world application of quantum technologies across the Southeast.
Led by The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), the collaborative brings together organizations from academia, industry and government to strengthen regional leadership in quantum information science while developing the workforce needed to support emerging quantum technologies. The effort is also designed to help position the Southeast as a global hub for quantum innovation, supporting economic growth, national security and next-generation technology development.
EPB’s participation reflects Chattanooga’s growing role as a center for advanced technology and innovation. In 2023, EPB launched the EPB Quantum Network, the nation’s first commercially available, industry-led quantum network, lowering barriers to the development of a wide range of quantum technologies.
Later this year, with the completion of an IonQ Forte Enterprise computer, EPB Quantum Center will become the first U.S. quantum technology center to provide commercial access to both quantum networking and quantum computing resources. EPB Quantum Center will provide a destination to explore quantum possibilities while benefiting EPB’s customers in its 600-square-mile service area in and around Chattanooga.
“Quantum technology represents one of the most significant innovation opportunities of our time,” said Janet Rehberg, president and CEO-elect, EPB. “By joining the Southeastern Quantum Collaborative, EPB supports the development of a regional ecosystem that connects research, infrastructure and industry to accelerate innovation and drive economic development across the Southeast.”
EPB joins neighboring University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), which joined SQC earlier this year. Through a partnership with EPB, UTC became the first American university to host a node on a commercially available quantum network through its connection to EPB Quantum Network, enabling new research in quantum communications and networking. Additional regional momentum continues to grow, including the recent announcement of the Institute for Quantum Innovation led by EPB and Vanderbilt University, which aims to expand research and collaboration in quantum science and engineering.
EPB’s leadership in quantum technology builds on its experience as the operator of the nation’s most advanced automated grid and the world’s fastest community-wide internet, which generated $5.3 billion and 10,000 jobs in the first 15 years of operations. EPB began working in quantum technology with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory through an R&D 100 Award-winning collaboration that demonstrated how quantum security protocols can be deployed on power grids.
“Partners like EPB bring unique infrastructure and real-world deployment experience that will help accelerate the transition of quantum technologies from research to application,” said Dr. Rainer Steinwandt, Dean of the UAH College of Science and Executive Director of the SQC. “Their leadership strengthens the Southeast’s ability to compete in the rapidly evolving quantum economy.”
Through collaboration, research partnerships and workforce initiatives, the Southeastern Quantum Collaborative aims to strengthen the region’s position as a national leader in quantum innovation while creating new opportunities for economic growth and technology-driven investment.
More from HPCwire
About EPB
Located in Chattanooga, Tennessee, EPB is a nationally recognized energy and communications provider with a mission to enhance quality of life for the people it serves across its 600-square-mile service area. Starting in 2010, EPB gained notice as a national model for building and utilizing its 100% fiber-to-the-home network to deliver cutting-edge services such as the world’s fastest community-wide internet, now with service up to 25 Gig, and the nation’s most advanced automated electric grid. As a pioneer in fiber optic innovation, EPB also launched EPB Quantum to provide access to cutting-edge quantum technology platforms and help innovators bring paradigm-shifting solutions into the real world. With the launch of EPB Quantum Network in 2023 and EPB Quantum Computing (coming in 2026), EPB Quantum offers the most comprehensive, commercially available quantum technology platform in the U.S.
Source: EPB
The post EPB Joins Southeastern Quantum Collaborative appeared first on HPCwire.
T-Mobile releases a cologne that smells like a phone (not really), Fortnite allows llama riding (yes, really), Warhammer: The Musical and more.
United will now allow travelers to share the location of lost items equipped with AirTags directly with airline staff.
If you own a Fitbit, keep an eye out for these upgrades.
Scientists tested a semi-autonomous robot with legs and an arm to see how well it could travel on its own.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 2, No. 760.
This liveblog is closed, please follow our new liveblog here
Houthi forces in Yemen have claimed responsibility for a missile attack on southern Israel this morning, saying it was a joint operation with Iran and Hezbollah.
In a statement, the Houthi movement said it carried out its third missile attack in the conflict “in conjunction with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon”.
Continue reading...Nurul Amin Shah, 56, who was visually impaired, was left outside Buffalo Tim Hortons on cold night and later died
Authorities have ruled that the death of Nurul Amin Shah, a 56-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar who was left by immigration agents at a restaurant in Buffalo, was a homicide.
Shah, who was visually impaired, died on 24 February, five days after US Border Patrol agents dropped him off in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons on a cold winter night without notifying his family or attorney.
Continue reading...It’s time once again for HPC Career Notes, our monthly feature that’s designed to keep you up-to-date on the latest career developments for individuals in the HPC community, including promotion, new company hires, and accolade. Check in each month for an updated list and you may even come across someone you know, or better yet, yourself!
Rosa Badia accepting the Honor Award at the 31st Night of Telecommunications and Informatics (Image courtesy David Oller)
Rosa Badia, the director of HPC software research at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, has been awarded with the Honor Prize at the 31st Night of Telecommunications and Informatics. The award, jointly presented by the Catalan Association of Telecommunications Engineering and Digital Technologies (Telecos.cat) and the Official College of Informatics Engineering of Catalonia (COEINF), recognizes Badia’s career and her pioneering role in promoting HPC and distributed systems
Badia, who is also a 2026 HPCwire Person to Watch, has been with BSC since its founding 2004 and currently heads up its Workflows and Distributed Computing group. where she has driven the development of technologies such as the StarSs programming model and the evolution of research in this field. During her career, Badia has published more than 200 articles in international journals that demonstrate the potential of supercomputing across a range of fields, including healthcare, biomedicine, and risk management.
The “Nit de les Telecomunicacions i la Informàtica” is the pioneering institutional event and a benchmark for the Telecommunications and Information Technology sector, held in Barcelona since 1995. The Honor Award granted to Badia highlights the BSC researcher’s contribution to the development of research and innovation, as well as her role in consolidating the center as a European leader in supercomputing.
Penguin Solutions appointed Ian Colle to the role of SVP and chief product officer earlier this month. In his new role, Colle will be responsible for leading product strategy, roadmap development, and lifecycle execution for Penguin’s AI Factory Platform.
Ian Colle
Colle, who was named a 2026 HPCwire Person to Watch, brings 25 years of experience to Penguin Solutions. He most recently was with Amazon Web Services, where he served as general manager of advanced computing and simulation. At AWS, Colle helped build a global HPC and AI infrastructure business from the ground up and scale it into a multi-billion-dollar portfolio, leading globally distributed teams across product management, engineering, go-to-market, and operations.
Prior to AWS, Colle held senior engineering leadership roles at Red Hat and Intel, where he led global teams through periods of growth and acquisition, and at various startups. He will draw on that experience to support growth for Penguin Solutions AI Factory Platform.
“Penguin Solutions has the experience and expertise to deliver innovative AI Infrastructure including hardware, software, and services designed to drive the next generation of AI innovation,” Colle said. “I look forward to working closely with our customers to help them harness the power of AI to achieve their business goals.”
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has named Budhendra “Budhu” Bhaduri its first Chief Data Officer. The newly established role unifies ORNL’s enterprise data strategy to accelerate mission impact across open science, energy innovation, national security and laboratory operations.
Budhu Bhaduri
As CDO, Bhaduri will report to the deputy for science and technology within the laboratory director’s office and work closely with the CIO and associate laboratory directors to optimize ORNL’s data infrastructure and execute a strategy that accelerates research, strengthens efficient operations and scales across ORNL organizations and facilities, the lab said. Bhaduri will chair an ORNL Data Governance Council and partner with leaders of facilities, initiatives and AI-intensive projects across the lab, including those contributing to DOE’s Genesis Mission.
An ORNL Corporate Research Fellow, Bhaduri joined the laboratory in 1998 as a research scientist and most recently served as Director of Science, Programs, and Partnerships for the National Security Sciences Directorate. In 2025, he was recognized as one of the “Top 50 Data Changemakers in the Energy Sector” by CDO Magazine and the Data Society. Bhaduri is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Association of Geographers, and he holds professorial appointments at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He earned a doctorate from Purdue University, a master’s from Kent State University, and a master’s and bachelor’s from the University of Calcutta, India.
“Establishing a Chief Data Officer underscores ORNL’s commitment to treating data as a strategic asset for science and operations,” ORNL Deputy for Science and Technology Susan Hubbard. “Budhu’s proven leadership in complex, data-intensive programs will help unify our enterprise data strategy, modernize our architecture and governance, and accelerate responsible, AI-enabled discovery.”
O’Reilly Media has appointed Julie Baron to be the company’s new president. Baron, who previously was chief product officer for O’Reilly, succeeds Laura Baldwin, who is retiring after leading O’Reilly for the past 15 years as president and guiding the company as an executive since 2001.
Julie Baron
Baron enters the president role with over 20 years of experience in tech and media, including nearly a decade at O’Reilly. Since 2024, she’s led the company’s product vision as chief product officer, positioning O’Reilly to take full advantage of the promise of AI. Prior to her time at O’Reilly, Baron served in strategic roles at NPR, Boston Globe Media, EnerNOC, and IPSoft/Amelia AI.
“Laura has been an inspirational leader who has navigated this company over the years through many transformations,” Baron said. “I’m incredibly thankful for her mentorship and honored to be chosen to lead O’Reilly at such an exciting time in technology. There’s so much that we can do with AI. We need to be thinking critically, disrupting ourselves, driving innovation, and reexamining what we’re doing to provide value to our customers in new ways. That’s what will take us to the next stage of our growth.”
Neocloud provider Nebius has appointed Dan Lawrence as its new senior vice president and general manager for the Americas. In his new role, Lawrence will lead the company’s North American expansion and scale its commercial organization to meet demand for its AI infrastructure.
Dan Lawrence
Lawrence brings quite a bit of experience building and operating cloud businesses. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of global sales for cloud at Akamai Technologies, where he built the go-to-market model and scaled its compute business to approach $1 billion in revenue. Prior to Akamai, Lawrence held senior leadership roles at Amazon Web Services.
“We’re at an inflection point in computing, and powering the next wave of AI requires a fundamentally different kind of cloud,” Lawrence said. “Nebius stands out for three reasons. First, the team has the rare engineering DNA to design and operate the entire stack. Second, the company’s strong financial position allows us to deploy capital and capacity at a unique scale. And third, the pace of software innovation here is extraordinary. I’m excited to help build our presence in the Americas and bring this purpose-built AI cloud platform to builders across the region.”
Hitachi Vantara today welcomed a new CEO: Akinobu Shimada. Currently the president of Hitachi Vantara Japan (a position he will retain), Shimada succeeds the outgoing CEO, Sheila Rohra, who resigned for personal reasons on March 31 after 38 months with the company.
Akinobu Shimada
Shimada has spent more than 30 years with Hitachi, leading key initiatives in business strategy, technical strategy, and product strategy and development for storage and related hardware and software businesses. His career has been firmly rooted in Hitachi’s storage business, and he’s credited with its evolution.
“In recent years, as customers face increasingly complex and mission–critical data management challenges, expectations for trusted data infrastructure—and for Hitachi Vantara in particular—have continued to grow across industries,” Shimada said. “It is an honor to take on the role of CEO at such a critical moment. By growing together with our teams and uniting the insight, expertise, and passion of our people across the globe, I am committed to building the world’s most trusted data infrastructure and delivering meaningful value to our customers and their most critical initiatives.”
Thirty-six Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers have been named Distinguished Members of Technical Staff (DMTS) in recognition of their extraordinary scientific and technical contributions, as affirmed by their professional peers and the broader scientific community. As distinguished citizens of the Laboratory and their respective fields, DMTS honorees exhibit a long-standing record of exceptional achievement, service-minded leadership, and dedication to mentoring the next generation of researchers.
DMTS is the highest technical staff level achievable by a scientist or engineer at LLNL and is a prestigious recognition on the personnel ladder, the lab said. Appointment to DMTS is reserved for laboratory scientists and engineers who have demonstrated at least one of the following: a sustained history of high-level achievements in programs of importance to the laboratory; a sustained history of distinguished scientific and technical achievements, having become a recognized authority in the field; or a fundamental and important discovery that has had sustained, widespread impact.
The 2026 DMTS cohort at LLNL include: Armando Alcaraz, Jonathan Allen, Dan Badders, Lorin Benedict, Suhas Bhandarkar, Juergen Biener, Patrick Brantley, Peer-Timo Bremer, Trent D’Hooge, Laurent Divol, Jon Eggert, Daniel Faissol, Carolyn Hall, Cyrus Harrison, Stefan Hau-Riege, Denise Hinkel, Doug Homoelle, Yongqin Jiao, Michael Johnson, Ed Kokko, Tzanio Kolev, Sergei Kucheyev, Peter Lindstrom, Pierre Michel, Aaron Miles, Christine Orme, Catherine Percher, Jennifer Jo Ressler, Robert Rieben, Artie Rodgers, Richard Seugling, Brian Spears, Pete Supsinskas, Damian Swift, Mark Wittig, and Shaocheng Xie.
For the previous edition of HPC Career Notes, click here.
The post HPC Career Notes: March 2026 appeared first on HPCwire.
This live blog is now closed.
There’s potentially alarming news from AccuWeather about a solar flare, which the forecasting service says could affect the Artemis mission.
While not an official Nasa source for weather and climate information or predictions, AccuWeather has been monitoring launch day conditions, and is reporting them on its own blog.
An X1.5 solar flare that occurred early on March 30 produced an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection that is now entering into the Earth’s atmosphere. As the day progresses, moderate to strong geomagnetic storm conditions are possible as a result of the coronal mass ejection impacting Earth’s atmosphere.
Communication between ground control and members aboard the rocket, and precise GPS tracking, can be at risk during strong geomagnetic storming.
Continue reading...NASA's Artemis II astronauts — three space station veterans and a Canadian rookie — stand out even in an astronaut corps full of super achievers.
Mass of spectators cheers dazzling Florida launch as astronauts head to moon for first time in almost 54 years
Nasa’s moon rocket Artemis II launched on Wednesday evening, carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in almost 54 years.
The rocket is now orbiting Earth, and will continue to do so until Thursday, when the translunar injection burn will take place and send it on the rest of its 240,000-mile journey to the moon. Inside the Orion capsule, the four astronauts onboard immediately began tasks to assess how the spacecraft handled the 17,500mph ascent to orbit.
Continue reading...The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Venezuela's interim President Delcy Rodriguez, according to the Treasury Department, as the U.S. seeks to rebuild ties with the Venezuelan government.
NASA's Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts around the moon and back, marking humanity's first crewed lunar voyage in 53 years and the first test flight of NASA's Orion capsule and Space Launch System (SLS) with people on board. Five minutes into the flight, Commander Reid Wiseman saw the team's target: "We have a beautiful moonrise, we're headed right at it," he said from the capsule. The Associated Press reports: Artemis II set sail from the same Florida launch site that sent Apollo's explorers to the moon so long ago. The handful still alive cheered this next generation's grand adventure as the Space Launch System rocket thundered into the early evening sky, a nearly full moon beckoning some 248,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away. Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman led the charge into space with "Let's go to the moon!" accompanied by pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen. It was the most diverse lunar crew ever with the first woman, person of color and non-U.S. citizen riding in NASA's new Orion capsule. Carrying three Americans and one Canadian, the 32-story rocket rose from NASA's Kennedy Space Center where tens of thousands gathered to witness the dawn of this new era. Crowds also jammed the surrounding roads and beaches, reminiscent of the Apollo moonshots in the 1960s and '70s. It is NASA's biggest step yet toward establishing a permanent lunar presence. Visit NASA's Artemis II Launch Day blog for the latest updates. Developing...
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ofcom research shows people also concerned old posts could affect personal or professional life
Social media users in the UK are becoming less active on tech platforms due to the rise of video apps and fears that posts could come back to haunt them, according to the communications watchdog.
Ofcom said just under half of adult social media users (49%) now post, share or comment compared with 61% in 2024. The proportion exploring new websites has also fallen, from 70% to 56%.
Continue reading...An initial public offering could raise $75 billion, but the skies aren't entirely clear for launch.
US tech companies, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and Tesla, are being warned that they are being considered "legitimate targets."
The federal government may try to send 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos back to detention.
Woods focusing on his health and wellbeing after crash
Florida judge grants his request to leave the US
Tiger Woods has turned down the opportunity to captain the United States at the 2027 Ryder Cup, the PGA of America has announced.
The former world No 1’s decision comes after he announced he would step away from golf for a period to focus on his health and wellbeing. Woods was charged with driving under the influence after being involved in a car accident last week.
Continue reading...New Delta-class spacecraft promises more seats and more flights -- at an even steeper cost than before.
About to have to replace all the batteries on my onewheels. I looked on eBay and didn’t see too many options. Was contemplating making my own and just ordering a bunch of 18650s but never done it before.
What are the best choices for a drop in batteries nowadays? I have a pint, pintX, and a +xr. I’m planing on replacing them one at a time. I know going vesc is “the best” but that’s not in the budget atm.
Longtime Slashdot reader Elektroschock writes: When Ubisoft pulled the plug on The Crew's servers without warning, players were left with a worthless game they'd already paid for. Now, consumer watchdog UFC-Que Choisir is fighting back, demanding gamers' right to play regardless of publisher whims. Supported by the "Stop Killing Games" movement, this landmark case challenges unfair terms before the Creteil Judicial Court (Val-de-Marne near Paris), and aims to protect players from disappearing games. The lawsuit that UFC-Que Choisir filed against Ubisoft on Tuesday alleges that the video game publisher "misled consumers about the permanence of their purchase and imposed abusive contractual clauses stripping players of ownership rights," reports Reuters.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Most people fall far short of the savings they say they will need to maintain their standard of living in retirement, data shows.
Apple doesn't normally release a critical update for previous iOS versions, but DarkSword appears to be a serious threat.
Commentary: Is it too late to make a 2026 "in and out" list? I'm putting AI pessimism in the "out" column.
Bundy's full DNA profiled was entered into the FBI's national database, giving investigators a shot at solving potential cases linked to Bundy.
ZipNada writes: Two software researchers recently demonstrated how modern AI tools can reproduce entire open-source projects, creating proprietary versions that appear both functional and legally distinct. The partly-satirical demonstration shows how quickly artificial intelligence can blur long-standing boundaries between coding innovation, copyright law, and the open-source principles that underpin much of the modern internet. In their presentation, Dylan Ayrey, founder of Truffle Security, and Mike Nolan, a software architect with the UN Development Program, introduced a tool they call malus.sh. For a small fee, the service can "recreate any open-source project," generating what its website describes as "legally distinct code with corporate-friendly licensing. No attribution. No copyleft. No problems." It's a test case in how intellectual property law -- still rooted in 19th-century precedent -- collides with 21st-century automation. Since the US Supreme Court's Baker v. Selden ruling, copyright has been understood to guard expression, not ideas. That boundary gave rise to clean-room design, a method by which engineers reverse-engineer systems without accessing the original source code. Phoenix Technologies famously used the technique to build its version of the PC BIOS during the 1980s. Ayrey and Nolan's experiment shows how AI can perform a clean-room process in minutes rather than months. But faster doesn't necessarily mean fair. Traditional clean-room efforts required human teams to document and replicate functionality -- a process that demanded both legal oversight and significant labor. By contrast, an AI-mediated "clean room" can be invoked through a few prompts, raising questions about whether such replication still counts as fair use or independent creation.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Iranian American support for the U.S.–Israel war on Iran has plummeted, as euphoria over Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death shifts into concern over the conflict’s growing civilian toll, according to a new poll.
Nearly two-thirds of Iranian Americans now oppose the war after opinions were near evenly divided at the start of the conflict, according to a Zogby Analytics survey.
“This is a war that is supposedly being fought in our name. There’s a lot of wish-casting and projection.”
The nearly 17 percentage point leap comes as the prospects that the Iranian regime will collapse seem to have dimmed, the conflict’s endgame becomes increasingly murky, and steady bombings have swelled the number of civilians killed.
Jamal Abdi, president of the nonprofit group that commissioned the poll, the National Iranian American Council, said the survey results show that the diaspora’s feelings on the war are more complicated — and more negative — than pundits have suggested.
“This is a war that is supposedly being fought in our name,” Abdi said. “There’s a lot of wish-casting and projection and voices from the diaspora claiming that there is this mandate from our community, and it’s not based on data or facts or reality. It’s based on a campaign for regime change no matter what the cost is. It’s dangerous for our community to be used like this.”
NIAC has long been one of the major voices in the diaspora expressing skepticism about war with Iran. In days leading up to the February 28 strikes that started the war, however, figures such as Reza Pahlavi, the son of the country’s former shah, were given prominent platforms to argue for regime change.
NIAC’s March 24 to 27 poll, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points, is the second that the group has commissioned from Zogby Analytics. An earlier survey was conducted from February 27 to March 5, a period that coincided with the final hours of U.S.–Iranian negotiations and the beginning of the conflict.
The survey results suggest that Iranian Americans are now more opposed to the war than Americans as a whole, after being more supportive at its start.
Iranian Americans are a sliver of the U.S. population, about 0.2 percent, making polling of the group more difficult than the general population. Abdi said that Zogby drew from a “significant list of contacts” in the Iranian American community to conduct the survey.
One prominent Iranian American, Ahmad Batebi — an exiled dissident who thanked President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the war began but has spoken out against targeting civilian infrastructure — questioned the poll results.
“My view is that the reported decline in support should be interpreted cautiously,” Batebi said in an email, “not only because opinion may indeed be shifting in real time, but because the more basic question is whether this polling instrument can credibly be treated as representative of the broader Iranian-American community in the first place.”
In the earlier survey, Iranian Americans showed nearly a 50-50 split in their position on going to war with Iran.
Iranian Americans now believe by a wide margin that President Donald Trump should end the conflict, according to the more recent numbers. 70 percent of respondents said that it was time to end the war. Only a quarter believed it should continue.
Trump is scheduled to give an address on the war Wednesday night, with officials giving mixed signals as to whether he will wrap up the conflict or expand it with a ground invasion.
The recent Zogby poll also captured an increasingly pessimistic view of the war’s likely outcome. Many Iranian Americans celebrated on social media when Khamanei’s death in an Israeli airstrike was confirmed on March 1.
Hard-liners have held onto power in Iran since then, however, leading to a dimming view of the future among the diaspora. Nearly 60 percent of Iranian Americans believe ordinary Iranians will be worse off a year from now and more than half believe the Islamic Republic will remain in power.
“There was probably some initial exuberance in that first week,” Abdi said, “and that has trailed off as we have seen civilian casualties and a shuffling of chairs in the regime but not any signal that the regime itself was going anywhere.”
The post Iranian Americans Have Turned Against the War, New Poll Finds appeared first on The Intercept.
The rugged concept previews an SUV (and a pickup) that would be designed, developed and built in the US.
The vision presented at the New York Auto Show marks the beginning of a new, even more localized chapter for Hyundai's ambitions in America.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing on Halloween night and was found on the side of a highway bound and beaten a month later
New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.
Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing on Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway, bound, beaten and without clothing.
Continue reading...A communications breakdown precipitated an announcement that immigration enforcement will occur at the service’s Parris Island graduation ceremonies in South Carolina, officials said.
"The scary scenarios are, unfortunately, extremely plausible" if the critical Persian Gulf waterway stays effectively sealed, economist Paul Krugman said.
Measure that would fund homeland security but exclude money for ICE could conclude lengthy funding lapse
An end to the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may be in sight, after Congress’s Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed to advance legislation that would fund most of the agency’s operations, with the exception of those involved in immigration enforcement.
The pact may conclude the longest such funding lapse in US history, which last month caused security lines to stretch for hours at some airports as employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a subagency of DHS, quit their jobs or called out of work after going weeks without pay.
Continue reading...NetApp built its reputation as a solid provider of network attached storage (NAS) for enterprises, which predominantly used Network File System (NSF) over Ethernet. Now, thanks to the extreme performance demands from AI adopters, the company is ramping up its investment in HPC technologies such as the Lustre and BeeGFS file systems and Nvidia’s InfiniBand interconnect as ways to maximize data throughput.
NetApp has supported Lustre, BeeGFS, and InfiniBand on its high-end EF-Series storage offerings for some time, according to Sandeep Singh, NetApp’s senior vice president and general manager of enterprise storage. EF-Series is block storage, and customers can expose a variety of parallel file systems on top of that, he said.
However, the experience of supporting Lustre on EF-Series storage appliances may not have been as smooth as it could be. That is why NetApp is making a big push with the launch of its newest EF-Series storage appliance to make sure that customers can expect smooth sailing when they adopt HPC technologies like Lustre, as well as BeeGFS and InfiniBand, he said.
With the latest line of EF-Series storage appliances, the EF50 and EF80, NetApp has completed interoperability testing to ensure that customers utilizing Lustre can get the full benefit of the parallel file system.
“We’ve built out a solution guide and done the interoperability testing for enabling our customers to go and deploy Lustre,” Singh said. “Obviously, we want to make sure that if and when customers go and deploy this entire solution, we are ready to help them in any types of troubleshooting scenarios.”
In addition to providing recommended Lustre settings as part of its solution guide, NetApp will set up their customers’ EF-Series box, test it and validate it to ensure that it’s working as planned, Sing said.
Lustre and BeeGFS offer very high read and write performance, which is why they’ve been adopted by supercomputing sites that are moving huge amounts of data for modeling and simulation workloads. As the AI boom kicked into high gear, organizations that may have started out using traditional NFS or parallel NFS (pNFS) file systems started adopting native parallel file systems like Lustre and BeeGFS to maximize the throughput of data into GPU clusters for AI training and to prevent the GPUs from sitting idle, which is a topic we covered in our special HPCwire series in October, “The Future of Storage for HPC and AI.”
NetApp started breaking out of its NAS shell while we were running that series. At its Insight conference held in October 2025, the company announced its fully disaggregated storage architecture, NetApp AFX. By ripping apart the direct storage connections, AFX enabled the company to blow past its previous limit of 24 storage nodes with the NetApp FAS architecture, which was capable of supporting a few hundred petabytes. With the disaggregated AFX architecture supporting up to 128 nodes, it could now handle 1 exabyte of storage within a single namespace, enabling it to better support its AI customers.
However, AFX is still limited by the throughput of connecting data over NFS and pNFS over Ethernet. With the launch of EF50 and EF80 appliances, NetApp customers are now able to enjoy the bounty of higher data throughput and lower latencies that come from saturating Lustre and BeeGFS links over InfiniBand networks running at 200 GBps.
NetApp EF-Series
The new high-end EF80 boasts read throughputs up to 110 GBps and write throughputs up to 57 GPps. The write througput, which is critical for checkpointing during AI training, is a 250% improvement over the previous generation of EF-Series appliances, the company said.
“Modern training workflows punish slow filesystems with dataset shuffles, small-file metadata storms, and checkpoint bursts that can stall pipelines for minutes at a time,” writes Priyadarshi (PD) Prasad, the VP and GM of AI Data Infrastructure at NetApp, in a March 17 blog. “In HPC, checkpoint/restart cycles are equally unforgiving: If scratch throughput lags, every save and recovery stretches runtimes and amplifies the penalty of failure. High-throughput storage and parallel file systems remove these bottlenecks and reduce the amount of power consumed, so GPUs stay fed, and jobs keep moving efficiently.”
According to Singh, the new EF-Series play an important role in providing part the three-ring architecture for customers. The first ring is the scratch space that’s closest to the AI or HPC workload and pushes the bounds of performance. The second ring is the “fast file” tier and that’s served by NFS and pNFS. The third ring is the very large scale object tier, which NetApp supports with S3.
“Where Lustre combined with our newly announced EF-Series fits in is bringing along this extreme level of performance for the most demanding workloads,” Singh told HPCwire. “In the AI training use cases, the write throughput is incredibly important. You pair that with a parallel file system, in this case Lustre on the front end, combined with EF-Series, and now you have a system that can scale massively, deliver just amazing levels of performance, and it gives you extreme density as well.”
Customer demands for higher storage throughput for AI training and inference was the main driver for NetApp’s decision to solidify its Lustre support, Singh said. However, HPC sites running more traditional modeling and simulation workloads may find NetApp a better fit for their storage needs as a result of these changes he said.
“We’re squarely, first and foremost, targeting on the AI front for customers,” he said. “We will see pockets … [of what] one would characterize as HPC, like weather simulation and other parts of the workloads, that will look like HPC where there will be an opportunity for this solution as well.”
And while NetApp previously offered support for InfiniBand with its EF-Series, Singh expects to see more interest in using Nvidia’s speedy, low-latency interconnect as they push the limits on their storage.
“We have had InfiniBand support for select customer use cases, going for the very high performance environments,” he said. “In this case, it’s again just the right fit where we see InfiniBand as a requirement in these AI use case deployments. Certain organizations absolutely need InfiniBand support.”
NetApp announced its new EF-Series during Nvidia’s GTC conference two weeks ago in San Jose. The company is embracing Nvidia’s vision for the future of storage for AI, which revolves heavily around its new Context Memory Storage (CMX) architecture. Singh said more announcements are coming that will see NetApp bolster its capability to provide large context windows and minimize the time to first token for agentic AI use cases.
The post NetApp Embraces Lustre as AI Pushes Storage Limits appeared first on HPCwire.
April 1, 2026 — MLCommons today released its latest MLPerf Inference v6.0 benchmarks, showcasing results across four key benchmarks for Intel’s GPU Systems. Intel’s AI systems featured Intel Xeon 6 CPUs and Intel Arc Pro B70 graphics, demonstrating accessible AI workload solutions across high-end workstations, datacenter, and edge applications.
MLPerf Inference v6.0 benchmarks showcase Intel Xeon 6 and Intel Arc Pro B-Series GPUs delivering powerful, low-latency AI inference for workstations and edge systems. Credit: Intel.
The results show a four GPU Intel Arc Pro B70/B65 system delivers 128GB of VRAM to run 120B parameter models with high concurrency, with the Arc Pro B70 providing up to 1.8x higher inference performance than the Arc Pro B60. Software optimizations, configured in an open, containerized software stack efficiently scales inference performance from single node to multi-GPU enterprise deployments improving performance and delivering up to 1.18x higher gains on the same Intel Arc Pro B60 hardware versus MLPerf v5.1.
“The combination of Intel Xeon 6 and Intel’s Arc Pro B-Series GPUs represent our investment to expand customer choice and value, offering real-world solutions that address both LLM models as well as traditional machine learning workloads, with leading performance and incredible value for graphics professionals and AI developers worldwide,” said Anil Nanduri, Intel vice president, AI Products and GTM, Intel Data Center Group.
As the demand for AI inference grows, the professional compute market is going through a major transition whereby graphics creators and AI developers seek out performance and value, without compromising data privacy or incurring heavy subscription costs tied to proprietary AI models.
Intel GPU Systems, featuring newly launched Intel Arc Pro B70/B65 GPUs, are designed to meet the needs of modern AI inference and provide an all-in-one inference platform combining full-stack validated hardware and software. With enhanced memory capacity, they aim to simplify the adoption and ease of use with a containerized solution built for Linux environments, optimized to deliver incredible inference performance with multi-GPU scaling and PCIe P2P data transfers, and designed to include enterprise-class reliability and manageability features such as ECC, SRIOV, telemetry and remote firmware updates. For example, when compared to comparable competitor GPU solutions the Intel Arc Pro B70 is able to handle significantly larger models and context windows in multi-GPU setups – powering up to 1.6x as much KV cache capacity when running larger models.
AI inference is increasingly defined not only by GPU throughput but also by CPU-accelerated system performance. The CPU, shaping overall cluster efficiency and total cost of ownership, is also responsible for critical functions such as memory management, task orchestration, and workload distribution, while ensuring the security, reliability, and operational continuity essential to modern AI infrastructure.
Intel continues to be the only server processor vendor to submit stand-alone CPU results for MLPerf inference benchmarks, underscoring its leadership and strong commitment to advancing AI inference across both compute and accelerator centric platforms. As the most widely used host CPU in AI accelerated systems—with over half of MLPerf 6.0 submissions powered by Xeon—Intel further reinforces its position at the core of the industry’s AI infrastructure. This leadership extends to the silicon itself: Intel Xeon 6 processors with P-cores delivered up to a 1.9x generational performance gain in MLPerf Inference v5.1, while built-in AI acceleration technologies such as AMX and AVX512 allow workloads like LLM inference, fine tuning, and classical machine learning to run efficiently without the need for dedicated accelerator hardware.
More from HPCwire: MLCommons Releases New MLPerf Inference v6.0 Benchmark Results
About Intel
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) is an industry leader, creating world-changing technology that enables global progress and enriches lives. Inspired by Moore’s Law, we continuously work to advance the design and manufacturing of semiconductors to help address our customers’ greatest challenges. By embedding intelligence in the cloud, network, edge and every kind of computing device, we unleash the potential of data to transform business and society for the better.
Source: Intel
The post Intel Delivers Open, Scalable AI Performance in MLPerf Inference v6.0 appeared first on HPCwire.
A video shows the moment when the M/V Bandero, operated by the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, steams toward the stern of the fishing vessel.
The filing supports a plaintiff who alleges Monsanto failed to warn consumers about cancer risks tied to Roundup, one of the most widely used herbicides in the world.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday appeared open to invalidating President Trump's executive order that would end birthright citizenship.
In classic Cloudflare fashion, the CDN provider used April Fool's Day to unveil an actual, "not a joke" product. Today, the company announced EmDash -- an open-source "spiritual successor" to WordPress that aims to solve plugin security. Phoronix reports: With the help of AI coding agents, Cloudflare engineers have been rebuilding the WordPress open-source project "from the ground up." EmDash is written entirely in TypeScript and is a server-less design. Making plug-ins more secure than the WordPress architecture, EmDash plug-ins are sandboxed and run in their own isolate. EmDash builds upon the Astro web framework. EmDash doesn't rely on any WordPress code but is designed to be compatible with WordPress functionality. EmDash is open-source now under the MIT license. The EmDash code is available on GitHub.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Four states have now signed such legislation as Trump’s Save Act languishes in Senate with little chance of passage
The governors of Florida and Mississippi signed legislation on Wednesday to require documented proof of citizenship to register to vote and to begin a process that will eventually unenroll voters who have not provided citizenship documentation.
Four states have now passed proof-of-citizenship laws for voting this year, after South Dakota and Utah’s governors each signed proof of citizenship bills into law in March.
Continue reading...April 1, 2026 — The Research Council of Finland has opened a call for international collaboration in high-performance computing (HPC). The call is intended for individual research teams or consortia from all scientific disciplines. Each application must include at least one international collaborator and the proposed research must require access to EuroHPC or LUMI supercomputing resources. The total funding budget is approximately €6.5 million. The call closes May 6, 2026, 16.15 Finnish time.
LUMI is located in CSC’s data center in Kajaani, Finland.
The aim of the funding is to support the development of versatile future data management and computing ecosystem and the expansion of related expertise at both national and international level. Funding will not be granted for coordination or planning of collaborations.
The funding will support international research collaboration that makes use of:
The funding granted under this call is based on Finland’s strategic partnerships with the above countries/regions.
Researchers who were granted funding in the 2024 and 2025 calls for international collaboration in HPC are eligible to apply for funding in this call. However, the research topic of the planned project must be substantially different from that of the already funded project. The research topics of researchers who were granted funding in earlier calls than these are not restricted.
The funding granted under this call is based on Finland’s strategic partnerships with the aforementioned countries/regions. The projects to be funded must combine the following aspects:
Learn more and apply here.
Source: CSC Finland
The post Research Council of Finland Opens Call for International Collaboration in HPC appeared first on HPCwire.
Most Americans support the rule that anyone born in the US is a US citizen, and a majority of supreme court justices are skeptical of Trump’s efforts to restrict it
It was a surreal morning at the US supreme court.
For more than two hours, the nation’s highest court considered arguments over whether Donald Trump – via an executive order – could tear down an idea that has been fundamental to the story and trajectory of the United States: that almost anyone born on US soil is an US citizen.
Continue reading...GOP leaders unveiled a plan to end DHS shutdown, mirroring a framework that the Senate pursued last week before it was quickly batted down by House Republicans.
I don’t like to cover “current events” very much, but the American government just revealed a truly bewildering policy effectively banning import of new consumer router models. This is ridiculous for many reasons, but if this does indeed come to pass it may be beneficial to learn how to “homebrew” a router.
Fortunately, you can make a router out of basically anything resembling a computer.
↫ Noah Bailey
I genuinely can’t believe making your own router with Linux or BSD might become a much more widespread thing in the US. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing – it’ll teach some people something new – but it just feels so absurd.
If you thought about buying one of these games before, now you don't have to!
Google is doubling down on AI video and trying to make it less expensive and energy-intensive to run.
The Texas-based company could go public with a valuation of more than $1.75 trillion, making it the largest IPO in history.
So I’ve had my pint s for a little over a year now and it’s still just stock. So I wanna give it some upgrades. What should I buy?
Is it smart to open a HELOC this month? Here are three timely benefits homeowners should know about now.
President Trump says he's considering withdrawing the U.S. from NATO, following years of complaining about the alliance.
 | I paid $325 for the one wheel at a pawnshop just needs a charger it’s my first one! Did I get a good deal? [link] [comments] |
Nearly 2,000 internal files were briefly leaked after ‘human error’, raising fresh security questions at the AI company
Anthropic accidentally released part of the internal source code for its AI-powered coding assistant, Claude Code, due to “human error”, the company said on Tuesday.
An internal-use file mistakenly included in a software update pointed to an archive containing nearly 2,000 files and 500,000 lines of code, which were quickly copied to developer platform GitHub. A post on X sharing a link to the leaked code had more than 29m views early on Wednesday, and a rewritten version of the source code quickly became GitHub’s fastest-ever downloaded repository. Anthropic issued copyright takedown requests to try to contain the code’s spread. Within the code, users spotted blueprints for a Tamagotchi-esque coding assistant and an always-on AI agent, per the Verge.
Continue reading...British Medical Association leaders say PM’s threat to cut 1,000 new roles makes next week’s strike action more likely
Resident doctors have accused Keir Starmer of damaging the prospects of a deal to end their pay and jobs dispute by threatening to cut 1,000 new jobs for medics in the NHS.
The claim from the British Medical Association leaders came just before the Thursday deadline given by the prime minister for the union to accept the government’s final offer.
Continue reading...War shows little sign of easing despite Donald Trump claiming Iranian leadership ‘just asked’ for ceasefire
Israel unleashed two waves of attacks on Tehran and said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Wednesday with little sign of the war easing up despite Donald Trump repeating a claim that Iran’s leadership was seeking a ceasefire.
The US president, writing on social media, said that Iran’s president had “just asked” for a ceasefire and that American troops would be “out of Iran pretty quickly” as he sought to extricate the US from the war. He indicated that he was not concerned about leaving Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium (HEU) – often cited as a justification for the war - in its presumed underground hiding place, arguing it could be monitored by satellite.
Continue reading...The Noem policy meant the secretary was required to personally sign off on thousands of DHS contracts.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In 2023, the Swedish government announced that the country's schools would be going back to basics, emphasizing skills such as reading and writing, particularly in early grades. After mostly being sidelined, physical books are now being reintroduced into classrooms, and students are learning to write the old-fashioned way: by hand, with a pencil or pen, on sheets of paper. The Swedish government also plans to make schools cellphone-free throughout the country. Educational authorities have been investing heavily. Last year alone, the education ministry allocated $83 million to purchase textbooks and teachers' guides. In a country with about 11 million people, the aim is for every student to have a physical textbook for each subject. The government also put $54 million towards the purchase of fiction and non-fiction books for students. These moves represent a dramatic pivot from previous decades, during which Sweden -- and many other nations -- moved away from physical books in favor of tablets and digital resources in an effort to prepare students for life in an online world. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Nordic country's efforts have sparked a debate on the role of digital technology in education, one that extends well beyond the country's borders. US parents in districts that have adopted digital technology to a great extent may be wondering if educators will reverse course, too. As for why Sweden is pivoting away from digital devices, researcher Linda Falth said the move was driven by several factors, including concerns over whether the digitization of classrooms had been evidence-based. "There was also a broader cultural reassessment," Falth said. "Sweden had positioned itself as a frontrunner in digital education, but over time concerns emerged about screen time, distraction, reduced deep reading, and the erosion of foundational skills such as sustained attention and handwriting." Falth noted that proponents of reform believe that "basic skills -- especially reading, writing, and numeracy -- must be firmly established first, and that physical textbooks are often better suited for that purpose." Further reading: Digital Platforms Correlate With Cognitive Decline in Young Users
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A plan briefed to Trump last week to insert ground forces to remove Iran’s nuclear material would be a very difficult endeavor of a type never before attempted in wartime.
Called Foundayo, the tablet becomes the second one to receive FDA’s green light after Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave the green light on Wednesday to a new oral weight-loss medication developed by the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.
Known as orforglipron or brand name Foundayo, the once-daily tablet becomes the second GLP-1 drug in pill form to hit the market in a short span of time, arriving after Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill received approval in December.
Continue reading...Almost 750 U.S. troops have been wounded or killed in the Middle East since October 2023, an analysis by The Intercept has found. But the Pentagon won’t acknowledge it.
U.S. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations in the Middle East, appears to be engaged in what a defense official called a “casualty cover-up,” offering The Intercept low-ball and outdated figures and failing to provide clarifications on military deaths and injuries.
At least 15 U.S. troops were wounded Friday in an Iranian attack on a Saudi air base that hosts American troops, according to two government officials who spoke with The Intercept. Hundreds of U.S. personnel have been killed or injured in the region since the U.S. launched a war on Iran just over a month ago.
President Donald Trump — who wore a blue suit, red tie, and a ball cap to the dignified transfer of the first Americans killed in the war — said casualties were inevitable. “When you have conflicts like this, you always have death,” he said afterward. “I met the parents and they were unbelievable people. They were unbelievable people, but they all had one thing in common. They said to me, one thing, every single one: Finish the job, sir. Please finish the job.”
On Tuesday, Trump teased that he would wind down the war with Iran in as little as two weeks despite not achieving many of his stated aims, such as “freedom for the people” of Iran, “tak[ing] the oil in Iran,” and forcing Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” At one point, the president even declared that the war would last “as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
“When you have conflicts like this, you always have death.”
CENTCOM has sent outdated statements on casualty numbers, meanwhile, resulting in undercounts, including a statement sent Monday from spokesperson Capt. Tim Hawkins noting that “Since the start of Operation Epic Fury, approximately 303 U.S. service members have been wounded.” The comment was three days old and excluded at least 15 wounded in the Friday attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The command did not reply to repeated requests for updated figures.
CENTCOM also would not provide a count of troops who have died in the region since the start of the war. An Intercept analysis puts the number at no less than 15.
“This is, quite obviously, a subject that [War Secretary Pete] Hegseth and the White House want to keep under major wraps,” said the defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak frankly.
In 2024, during the Biden administration, the Pentagon provided The Intercept with detailed chronologies of attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East that listed the specific outpost that was attacked, the type of strike, and whether — or how many — casualties resulted, along with an aggregate count of attacks by country.
The Trump administration’s numbers, by comparison, lack detail and clarity. The current CENTCOM casualty figures do not appear to include more than 200 sailors treated for smoke inhalation or otherwise injured due to a fire that raged aboard the USS Gerald R. Ford before it limped off to Souda Bay, Greece, for repairs. CENTCOM did not reply to close to a dozen requests for clarification on the casualty count and related information sent this week.
“CENTCOM and the White House should be providing accurate and timely information on the costs and casualties involved in this war. After all, it is American taxpayers who are funding it and U.S. economic prosperity and economic wellbeing that is being undermined by it,” Jennifer Kavanagh, the director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates for measured U.S. foreign policy, told The Intercept.
“CENTCOM and the White House should be providing accurate and timely information on the costs and casualties involved in this war.”
As the U.S. has relentlessly bombed Iran, that country has responded with attacks on U.S. bases across the Middle East using ballistic missiles and drones. CENTCOM refuses to even offer a simple count of U.S. bases that have been attacked during the war. “We have nothing for you,” a spokesperson told The Intercept. An analysis by The Intercept, however, finds that bases in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and the United Arab Emirates have been targeted.
On Tuesday, Hegseth said that Iran retained the ability to retaliate for U.S. strikes but that their attacks would be ineffectual. “Yes, they will still shoot some missiles,” he said, “but we will shoot them down.” On Wednesday morning, officials in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Qatar all reported missile or drone attacks from Iran.
Iranian strikes have forced U.S. troops to retreat from their bases to hotels and office buildings across the region, according to the two government officials. The defense official was livid about the Pentagon’s failure to adequately harden the bases and ridiculed Hegseth’s Tuesday prayer at a Pentagon press conference. “May god watch over all of them, each day and each night. May his almighty and eternal arms of providence stretch over them and protect them,” said Hegseth.
“Why didn’t Hegseth protect them?” the defense official asked. “Anyone with a brain knew these attacks were coming.”
Pentagon spokesperson Kingsley Wilson did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Retired Gen. Joseph Votel, a former head of Central Command, recalled that U.S. troops in the region have faced drone attacks for at least a decade. “At that time we identified a need to protect against this threat, and it has taken far too long for the DoD to respond and provide adequate protection for our deployed troops,” he told The Intercept, referencing drone attacks during the campaign against ISIS in the spring of 2016. “It was a known expectation that, if attacked, Iran would retaliate against our bases, installations, and forces, and I agree that we should have anticipated and been prepared for this inevitability.”
Kavanagh, who previously called attention to the vulnerability of U.S. outposts in the Middle East, echoed Votel. “It has been clear for years that the rapid proliferation of drones and cheap missiles would put U.S. bases and U.S. early detection radars in the region at risk, yet the Pentagon did little to protect them,” she said. “The failure to invest in hardened infrastructure was a choice. Congress should see this failure as evidence that simply giving the Pentagon more money is not a path to national security.”
“We would be better off if bases across the region were closed for good,” she added.
“We would be better off if bases across the region were closed for good.”
In public statements, Iran’s foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi called out the U.S. for using civilians in nearby Arab monarchies of the Gulf Cooperative Council states as human shields. “U.S. soldiers fled military bases in GCC to hide in hotels and offices,” he wrote on X last week. “Hotels in U.S. deny bookings to officers who may endanger customers. GCC hotels should do same.”
Votel also expressed concern about troops using hotels and offices, noting it “could turn normal civilian infrastructure into military targets for the regime.”
Last month, an Iranian drone strike on a hotel in Bahrain wounded two War Department employees, according to a State Department cable reviewed by the Washington Post. CENTCOM did not respond to a request to confirm to The Intercept that those injuries stem from a March 2 attack on the Crowne Plaza hotel, a luxury property in Manama, Bahrain’s capital, but one official indicated this was likely.
Votel said that a failure to provide troops with adequate protection may handcuff U.S. operations. “I think this really complicates command and control and could affect unit cohesion and effectiveness,” he told The Intercept, referring to the transfer of troops to hotels and office buildings. “That said, we may not have many options if we cannot protect the military bases where they would normally be bedded down.”
At least 15 U.S. troops in the Middle East have died since the beginning of the Iran War, including six personnel who were killed in a drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, and a soldier who died due to an “enemy attack on March 1, 2026, at Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia.” More than 520 U.S. personnel have also been injured, including those who suffered smoke inhalation on the Ford.
Prior to the current war with Iran, U.S. bases in the Middle East were increasingly targeted by a mix of one-way attack drones, rockets, mortars, and close-range ballistic missiles after Israel’s war in Gaza began in October 2023, most of the attacks occurring in the year following the outset of the conflict. At least 175 troops were killed or wounded in those attacks, including three service members who died in a January 2024 strike on Tower 22, a facility in Jordan. Other attacks targeted al-Asad Air Base, the Baghdad Diplomatic Support Center, Camp Victory, Union III, Erbil Air Base, and Bashur Air Base in Iraq and Al-Tanf garrison, Deir ez-Zor Air Base, Mission Support Site Euphrates, Mission Support Site Green Village, Patrol Base Shaddadi, Rumalyn Landing Zone, Tell Baydar, and Tal Tamir in Syria.
The casualty statistics do not include contractors, most of them foreigners who suffered non-combat injuries. Official U.S. statistics show that there were almost 12,900 cases of injuries to contractors in the CENTCOM area of operations during 2024 alone. More than 3,700 were the most serious non-fatal injuries, including traumatic brain injuries, requiring more than seven days away from work. Eighteen contractors were also killed, all of them in Iraq. The numbers are likely significant undercounts, but if even the fractional number of known contractor injuries is added to the tally, the casualty count for Americans and those on U.S. bases may top 13,600.
The post “Casualty Cover-Up”: The Pentagon Is Hiding U.S. Losses Under Trump in the Middle East appeared first on The Intercept.
LIVINGSTON, N.J., April 1, 2026 — CoreWeave, Inc. today announced landmark results in the MLPerf Inference v6.0 benchmark suite. Participating in the Datacenter Closed division, CoreWeave leveraged NVIDIA’s newest AI infrastructure, the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 and NVIDIA GB300 NVL72.
The AI industry is undergoing a fundamental shift with inference as the new critical focus. As enterprises move AI from experimentation into production and agentic workloads become the new standard, inference has emerged as the critical measure of performance. At the same time, demand for inference is growing faster than the underlying hardware can be deployed, and the gap between theoretical system performance and real-world output has emerged as a defining constraint on how quickly AI companies can grow. CoreWeave’s MLPerf v6.0 results reflect the company’s continued investment in full-stack optimization, consistently turning cutting-edge hardware into real-world inference performance.
“Inference is the defining layer in AI. It’s where models are actually put to work and where performance in production shows up. Benchmarks like MLPerf help measure how theoretical performance translates into real-world output,” said Peter Salanki, co-founder and chief technology officer of CoreWeave. “These latest results reflect our ability to deliver exceptional performance for the most demanding frontier reasoning models at scale through full-stack optimization. That’s why customers rely on CoreWeave to launch, scale, and operate AI workloads in production, where real-world value is created and where it matters most.”
CoreWeave’s v6.0 submissions reflected NVIDIA’s reference configurations as a verified, production-ready baseline across two of the most demanding reasoning models available: DeepSeek-R1 and GPT-OSS-120B. Key results include:
“The gap between benchmark performance and production reality has been one of the most persistent challenges in AI,” said Nick Patience, vice president & practice lead, AI platforms at Futurum Research. “CoreWeave’s MLPerf v6.0 results, particularly on DeepSeek-R1, demonstrate the company is closing that gap through disciplined, full-stack optimization, which is exactly what enterprises and AI labs need as inference workloads move from experimental to mission-critical.”
CoreWeave’s MLPerf v6.0 results provide additional validation as the only AI cloud to earn top Platinum ranking in both SemiAnalysis ClusterMAX 1.0 and 2.0, which evaluate AI cloud performance, efficiency and reliability. These benchmark results reflect CoreWeave’s platform strategy: delivering infrastructure purpose-built for the demands of production AI, from high-performance compute through the software layer that builders depend on to develop, test, and deploy at scale.
More from HPCwire: MLCommons Releases New MLPerf Inference v6.0 Benchmark Results
About CoreWeave
CoreWeave is The Essential Cloud for AI. Built for pioneers by pioneers, CoreWeave delivers a platform of technology, tools, and teams that enables innovators to move at the pace of innovation, building and scaling AI with confidence. Established in 2017, CoreWeave completed its public listing on Nasdaq (CRWV) in March 2025. Learn more at www.coreweave.com.
Source: CoreWeave
The post CoreWeave Delivers Leading Inference Performance in MLPerf Benchmark appeared first on HPCwire.
Some underscore Trump’s unprecedented court appearance as protesters defend 14th amendment right
About 250 demonstrators packed the steps of the supreme court on Wednesday, chanting in defense of birthright citizenship as Donald Trump himself watched from the public gallery in an unprecedented appearance.
Beija McCarter, an eighth grade US history teacher, and Noah Goldstein, a New Yorker who was also at last month’s trans rights rally, both arrived at the demonstration with little optimism about what the justices inside might decide.
Continue reading...Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he will allow the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) into government for the first time – and give its members key ministerial posts – if his coalition wins the next general election.
Despite becoming Sweden’s second biggest political party after the Social Democrats in the last election, SD currently plays only a supporting role in the minority-run coalition.
Continue reading...American commandos joined Ecuadorian troops in a joint mission aimed at dismantling a suspected criminal hub along the country's coast.
Ignoring a debt lawsuit won't make it go away, but it can make things significantly worse. Here's what's at stake.
April 1, 2026 — Developing artificial intelligence (AI) applications requires expertise, computing power, and data – preferably a lot of it, and fast. LUMI AI Factory’s entirely new Dataset-as-a-Service (DaaS) solution brings data and compute closer together in a way that directly meets the growing needs of AI and data-intensive research.
Traditionally, large datasets have been moved from one environment to another based on individual use cases – from archives to compute services and back again – a process that consumes both time and resources. The LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS service approaches the issue from the opposite direction: it makes data visible at the very location where the computing power already resides. This shortens the distance from data to results and makes experimentation and research more seamless.
The DaaS user interface is a data catalogue in which data producers can publish their datasets in a controlled manner, and data users can discover them without manual searching or separate services. The service brings together metadata, access rights and data locations into a single whole, making datasets not only discoverable but immediately usable on the LUMI supercomputer. This is especially important in AI development, where training models require large volumes of data, and where the physical proximity of data to compute significantly affects performance and the reproducibility of workflows.
LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS creates value for two user groups at once: data users and data providers. For data users, DaaS streamlines the search for AI-ready datasets and eliminates the bottleneck of copying a large dataset elsewhere before analysis. For data producers, the service offers a clear publication path that makes datasets discoverable in a controlled, standardized way and available for broader use. A published dataset does not disappear into an archive – it gains visibility and utilization.
What is New About the LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS?
The LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS is not yet another data repository, and its primary purpose is not the storage or publication of datasets with citation information. A data repository and DaaS are complementary service models: the former supports long-term preservation and citability, while the latter focuses on use.
A traditional data repository is a place where datasets are archived and from which they can be downloaded elsewhere for use. DaaS, by contrast, orchestrates access to the data, guides users through permissions, and combines metadata, authorization and data location into a single process. Datasets included in DaaS may physically reside in different systems, but DaaS presents them as a unified selection and enables their use without requiring users to move data between systems.
Because DaaS is not an archive, it is also not intended for long-term preservation. Data is stored in DaaS only as long as it is in demand for AI development. When demand decreases, data can be removed from DaaS – but a preserved version remains available in an appropriate data repository if needed.
Architecture built on existing components
DaaS is a service, not a standalone IT system. Its value comes from the combination of metadata, access rights and technical integration. The service is built modularly on top of existing, widely used components. CSC’s Fairdata-Metax provides the metadata warehouse, and Fairdata-Etsin serves as the user interface and search tool. LUMI-O brings object storage close to compute, CSC’s Resource Entitlement Management System (REMS) manages access rights and related approval processes, and IT4I’s LEXIS enables data transfer and orchestration across different systems. This approach is cost‑effective and low‑risk compared to building an entirely new system: each component is already proven in practice, and combining them enables a flexible, scalable and sustainable service.
Modularity also means the service can be expanded piece by piece to meet user needs. The architecture is not rigid, and new capabilities do not need to be built from scratch – speeding up development and keeping costs under control.
Service available, functionalities advancing
The LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS is not yet a fully productized service, but its first pre‑productized version is already available to both data providers and data users. In this version, some integrations between service components are still under development , and certain parts of the service operate manually through support from LUMI AI Factory experts. However, the automation of functionalities is continuously progressing.
The set of available datasets is also evolving. Currently, the data catalogue contains ten extensive dataset collections, each composed of multiple datasets. One of these is the Open Web Search Index, a continuously updated resource comprising more than 1,000 datasets with a combined volume exceeding one petabyte. The Open Web Index consists of structured, indexed web document data collected using open methods and intended for reuse without the need to crawl the entire web independently. It provides a foundational infrastructure upon which search services, analytics, research and AI models can be built. It enables users to “slice and dice” web data according to their own needs, making it particularly valuable for search engine development and training large language models.
As the LUMI AI Factory’s DaaS matures toward a fully productised service, it will increasingly become a vital tool for both data providers and data users. The goal is to create a service that improves data discoverability, reduces manual work, and above all accelerates AI development. DaaS is not merely a new technical platform – it is part of a broader shift toward data that is immediately usable exactly where its value is created.
Explore the LUMI AI Factory’s Dataset-as-a-Service in more detail and contact LUMI AI Factory experts here.
Source: LUMI Consortium
The post LUMI AI Factory Launches Dataset-as-a-Service to Bring Data Closer to Compute appeared first on HPCwire.
Wage garnishment can drain your paycheck before you see it, but federal law limits how much creditors can take.
Former athletes like me know that in professional sports you can get away with most things … as long as you’re talented enough
When the Chicago Bulls waived Jaden Ivey on Monday, after he made a series of unprompted anti-LGBTQ and religiously charged comments on social media, the move was framed as a response to “conduct detrimental to the team.” On the surface, the situation appears straightforward: a player said something controversial, and the organization acted.
But there’s a version of this story where Ivey is still in the league. Where he and his publicist create a swift and thoughtful apology, where his overnight inclusion education uses all the key buzzwords to prove his newfound allyship, maybe he pays a fine or makes a small donation, and he’s able to go back on to the court and live out his dreams in the NBA, a league which has been pro-LGBTQ+ for more than a decade. Ivey’s words exposed his beliefs. What followed revealed a lot about NBA teams: not just their stance on inclusion, but how they decide which voices are worth protecting and which are easy to remove.
Continue reading... ![MKBHD Owns a [Mini] Onewheel](img/7746fa45198055872c939455416310f7114a4361.png "MKBHD Owns a [Mini] Onewheel") | I spy a mini Onewheel in MKBHD's April Fools vid in the background 🤣 https://youtu.be/Hc0aqOEU2w8?si=uC1yg7n96ko7Lv0H [link] [comments] |
Discussion on how to ease impact from Iran war coincides with Food and Drink Federation almost tripling forecast
Food inflation could hit 9% in the UK this year even if the strait of Hormuz opens within the next few weeks, figures suggest, as the Iran war pushes up energy prices.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which represents 12,000 food and drink manufacturers, has predicted prices will rise by “at least” 9% by the end of 2026, almost tripling a forecast of 3.2% that was made before the Middle East conflict.
Continue reading...PM to focus on European defence and economic partnership for ‘dangerous world’, in pivot away from US
The UK will seek an even deeper partnership with the EU because of the instability wreaked by Donald Trump’s war with Iran, Keir Starmer has said, adding that the moment called for a more ambitious deal with Brussels to strengthen trade and defence.
His comments came as the US president again said he was considering pulling the US out of Nato, which he described as a “paper tiger”. Trump has frequently lambasted the UK and European nations for failing to support the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and criticised their militaries.
Continue reading...Im looking for the pinlayout for the original BMS/XRV Bms
i have found Pictures of it but its always differnt. Every picture has a differnt layout. Does anyone know wich one is correct?
darwinmac writes: OnlyOffice has suspended its partnership with Nextcloud after the latter forked its editors into a new project called Euro-Office, according to a report from Neowin. The move comes just days after Nextcloud and partners like IONOS announced the fork as part of a broader push for European digital sovereignty. In a statement, the company accused the project of violating its licensing terms and international intellectual property law, claiming that Euro-Office uses its technology without proper compliance. OnlyOffice also pointed to missing attribution requirements and branding obligations tied to its AGPL-based licensing model. As a result, its 8-year-old partnership, which allowed Nextcloud users to edit and collaborate on office documents right inside their own instance, has been suspended. OnlyOffice also accused Nextcloud of not behaving in a manner expected of a partner, alleging attempts to poach its employees and influence customers against the company. Nextcloud said it forked the OnlyOffice repository instead of collaborating with the company because the project is notoriously difficult to contribute to. It also pointed out that OnlyOffice is a Russian company with Russian employees who leave code comments in Russian. In addition to that, some users may feel uncomfortable using software that could be linked to the Russian government.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Brutal past experience has taught us that a cost of living crisis doesn’t affect us all the same, because we don’t all go into it with the same income or wealth
Perhaps the most celebrated writer on oil markets is Daniel Yergin. His work has won a Pulitzer and his advice sought by every president from Bill Clinton to Donald Trump. Let’s start by looking at an example.
Fifteen years ago, before the US and Israel started their war on Iran, killing thousands of civilians in the process, before the strait of Hormuz became as infamous as the Bermuda Triangle, and before experts declared “the greatest global energy security threat in history”, Yergin published The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World. After hearing Trump announce a “very soon” end to the conflict for the second – or was it the third? – time, I dug out my copy. Just as I remembered, it devotes a chapter to the Persian Gulf.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
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.
Continue reading...Crown Prosecution Service confirms support on inquiries after arrests on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Police are receiving advice from prosecutors as part of their inquiries into Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein.
The former duke of York and the former UK ambassador to the US were both arrested in February on suspicion of misconduct in public office over their connections with the late financier. They have since been released under investigation.
Continue reading...Elon Musk’s rocket company could go public as early as June, Bloomberg reports
SpaceX has confidentially filed for an initial public offering on the US stock market, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal. The IPO is set to be one of the most closely watched and highly valued listings in market history.
Elon Musk’s company, which has become a dominant power in both space travel and satellite communications, could potentially seek a valuation upwards of $1.75tn. The confidential filing will give regulators a period to review and discuss the company’s financial disclosures before investors and the public are able to view them.
Continue reading...With oil prices rising and hiring already slowing, economists warn the Iran war could further weigh on U.S. job growth.
Distressed riders who were stranded for hours say Apollo Go customer service agents offered ‘useless platitudes’
A “system malfunction” has caused several self-driving robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in China, police have confirmed, after distressed riders were stranded for hours.
Local authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said they began receiving calls “one after another” on Tuesday night from riders reporting that autonomous vehicles operated by the Chinese internet company Baidu had frozen.
Continue reading...Michael O’Leary says UK’s reliance on Kuwait for jet fuel supply amid Iran war exposes it to possible shortages
The UK is the most vulnerable country in Europe to potential jet fuel shortages as the Iran war throttles supplies from the Gulf, the boss of Ryanair has said.
Michael O’Leary, the chief executive of the budget airline, said Britain would be the most exposed to jet fuel shortages because it relies on Kuwait for about 25% of its supply.
Continue reading...April 1, 2026 — MLCommons today announced new results for its industry-standard MLPerf Inference v6.0 benchmark suite. This release includes several important advances that ensure the benchmark suite tests current, real-world scenarios for AI deployments and delivers a comprehensive picture of AI system performance.
Five of the eleven datacenter tests in MLPerf Inference v6.0 are new or updated, and the release also includes a new object-detection test for edge systems. The major changes include:
“This is the most significant revision of the Inference benchmark suite that we’ve ever done,” said Frank Han, Technical Staff, Systems Development Engineering at Dell Technologies and MLPerf Inference Working Group Co-chair. “The decision to update so many benchmarks in this round was prompted by the extraordinary enthusiasm and collaboration from our members, who contributed an unprecedented amount of engineering effort and IP toward building new inference benchmarks. Adding these new tests allows MLPerf Inference to better keep pace with the breakneck pace of evolution in AI models and techniques so that our benchmarks are relevant and representative of real-world deployments.”
The open-source MLPerf Inference benchmark suite measures system performance in an architecture-neutral, representative, and reproducible manner. The goal is to create a level playing field for competition that drives innovation, performance, and energy efficiency for the entire industry. The published results provide critical technical information for customers who are procuring and tuning AI systems.
“We thank Meta, Shopify and Ultralytics for their substantial collaboration with us in making these changes to the MLPerf Inference benchmark suite and for contributing their datasets, task definitions and expertise,” said Miro Hodak, Senior Member of Technical Staff at AMD and MLPerf Inference Working Group Co-chair. “These partnerships were essential in ensuring that the tests include scenarios and workloads that represent the current state of the industry.”
“MLPerf Inference benchmarks play a vital role in driving transparency and accountability across the AI industry,” said Glenn Jocher, CEO & Founder of Ultralytics. “At Ultralytics, rigorous, reproducible benchmarking is central to how we develop and validate our Ultralytics YOLO models — ensuring developers and organizations can make informed decisions about real-world performance. We’re proud to be part of an ecosystem that holds the entire field to a higher standard.”
“Commerce is one of the most complex domains in AI, yet researchers rarely have data that reflects that complexity,” said Kshetrajna Raghavan, Principal Engineer, Applied ML at Shopify. “Shopify is uniquely positioned to address this, sitting at the intersection of millions of merchants and billions of products. Sharing this taxonomy allows the whole field to evolve.”
New Tools for Submitters and Consumers
With Inference 6.0, submitters have the option to use a newly available harness to complete benchmark tests. The new system, LoadGen++, allows LLMs to run with a serving-style software stack, which is familiar from typical deployments today. “LoadGen++ is a significant upgrade from its predecessor, and represents an important investment by MLCommons that will allow us to stay nimble as we continue to produce benchmark tests that track the state of the art,” said Han.
In addition, the Inference 6.0 results can be viewed in a new online dashboard <link> on the MLCommons site. The dashboard brings new levels of interactivity to viewing results, including advanced filtering and customized performance graphs.
Large-Scale, Multi-Node Systems Gaining Attention
The submissions to Inference 6.0 demonstrate that technology providers want to showcase the performance of scaled-up, multi-node systems running real-world inference workloads. This round recorded a new high for multi-node system submissions, a 30% increase over the Inference 5.1 benchmark six months ago. Moreover, 10% of all of the submitted systems in Inference 6.0 had more than ten nodes, compared to only 2% in the previous round. The largest system submitted in Inference 6.0 featured 72 nodes and 288 accelerators, quadrupling the number of nodes in the largest system in the previous round.
“As more AI applications have moved into production and wide availability, the demand for large-scale, high-performance systems to run them has grown,” says Hodak. “At the same time, multi-node systems bring a unique set of technical challenges beyond those of single-node systems, requiring configuration and optimization of system architectures, network interconnects, data storage, and software layers. Stakeholders are eagerly stepping up to meet these challenges and run inference workloads at scale.”
The AI Community Continues to Embrace and Invest in MLPerf Inference
The MLPerf Inference 6.0 benchmark received submissions from a total of 24 participating organizations: AMD, ASUSTeK, Cisco, CoreWeave, Dell, GATEOverflow, GigaComputing, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, Inventec Corporation, KRAI, Lambda, Lenovo, MangoBoost, MiTAC, Nebius, Netweb Technologies India Limited, NVIDIA, Oracle, Quanta Cloud Technology, Red Hat, Stevens Institute of Technology, and Supermicro.
“I would like to welcome our first-time submitters, Inventec Corporation, Netweb Technologies India Limited, and Stevens Institute of Technology,” said Han. “The AI ecosystem is large and diverse, and it continues to grow and evolve rapidly. On behalf of MLCommons, I want to also thank our members, our contributors, and our partners including Meta, Shopify, and Ultralytics, for collaborating with us to build and shepherding forward the most comprehensive and relevant performance benchmark suite for AI inference. Together, we are ensuring that stakeholders in our community have valuable, real-world information that helps them to make better decisions.”
View the Results
To view the results for MLPerf Inference v6.0, please visit the benchmark results dashboard https://mlcommons.org/visualizer.
About MLCommons
MLCommons is the world’s leader in AI benchmarking. An open engineering consortium supported by over 130 members and affiliates, MLCommons has a proven record of bringing together academia, industry, and civil society to measure and improve AI. The foundation for MLCommons began with the MLPerf benchmarks in 2018, which rapidly grew into a set of industry metrics for measuring machine learning performance and promoting transparency in machine learning techniques. Since then, MLCommons has continued to use collective engineering to build the benchmarks and metrics required for better AI – ultimately helping to evaluate and improve the accuracy, safety, speed, and efficiency of AI technologies.
Source: MLCommons
The post MLCommons Releases New MLPerf Inference v6.0 Benchmark Results appeared first on HPCwire.
Anthropic is using copyright takedown notices to try to contain an accidental leak of the underlying instructions for its Claude Code AI agent. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Anthropic representatives had used a copyright takedown request to force the removal of more than 8,000 copies and adaptations of the raw Claude Code instructions ... that developers had shared on programming platform GitHub." From the report: Programmers combing through the source code so far have marveled on social media at some of Anthropic's tricks for getting its Claude AI models to operate as Claude Code. One feature asks the models to go back periodically through tasks and consolidate their memories -- a process it calls dreaming. Another appears to instruct Claude Code in some cases to go "undercover" and not reveal that it is an AI when publishing code to platforms like GitHub. Others found tags in the code that appeared pointed at future product releases. The code even included a Tamagotchi-style pet called "Buddy" that users could interact with. After Anthropic requested that GitHub remove copies of its proprietary code, another programmer used other AI tools to rewrite the Claude Code functionality in other programming languages. Writing on GitHub, the programmer said the effort was aimed at keeping the information available without risking a takedown. That new version has itself become popular on the programming platform.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Following a stint in Congress and as administrator of the Federal Transit Administration in the Trump administration, Marc Molinaro has launched a campaign for a New York state Assembly seat.
Molinaro, a Republican, recently exchanged X posts with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, criticizing Hochul on her party’s record in office.
Hochul posted, "I’ll keep working to lower costs for New Yorkers and put money back in their pockets." Molinaro replied on Feb. 14, "You have driven NYers to the financial cliff! Highest tax burden in America, exploding electric & energy costs, leading in population loss."
Earlier this year, we looked at whether New York has the nation’s highest tax burden (it’s either first or second in most rankings) and whether New Yorkers pay 49% more than the national average for electricity (they do, though most northeastern states pay more).
Does New York lead the nation in population loss? There are a few different ways to measure it, so the answer depends on the method used.
We were unable to reach Molinaro’s office for comment.
Losses to other states. This metric offers the strongest support for Molinaro’s statement.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, New York saw 137,000 residents move to other states during the year ending July 2025. That’s the second highest raw loss of any state. California ranked first, losing 229,077 residents to domestic migration (movement within the U.S.).
And on a percentage basis, New York had the highest percentage loss to domestic migration, at 0.69%. Hawaii, Alaska and California ranked second, third and fourth.
Overall population change. New York didn’t fare well in this category either, but it wasn’t the worst in the nation.
New York gained 1,008 people on net between 2024 and 2025. This increase stemmed from the combination of natural growth (births minus deaths) plus international immigration exceeding New York’s losses to other states.
New York’s gain was the smallest percentage addition of any U.S. state that gained population — but fared better than the five states that didn’t gain population at all during that period. California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont, and West Virginia all lost population from 2024 to 2025.
New York’s decline is not a new development. New York’s population is down by 119,835 people since 2020, the second-highest raw number behind California. Other states to see losses during that period were Illinois, Louisiana, West Virginia, Hawaii and Mississippi.
On a percentage basis, New York’s loss was the fifth-largest in the nation. New York lost almost 0.6% of its population from 2020 to 2025, behind West Virginia, Hawaii, Louisiana and Illinois.
Molinaro said New York leads the nation in population loss.
Population loss can be measured in two major ways. By one metric — migration to other states — New York has the second-highest raw population loss and the largest percentage of any state.
However, thanks to increases from births and international migration, New York gained a small number of people. Five other states had no gains.
The statement is partially accurate but ignores important information, so we rate it Half True.
Cannabis policy still divisive two years in, with SPD hailing it while CDU minister says it is risk to young people’s health
It was a landmark piece of legislation passed by Germany’s previous, centre-left-led government: a measure that legalised the personal recreational use of cannabis for over-18s despite warnings from critics it would cause a steep rise in the drug’s use, including by teenagers, and boost criminal gangs.
Two years on, controversy over the move has still not been stubbed out, with critics and proponents at odds over its impact on consumption, youth welfare and organised crime.
Continue reading...Hershey said Wednesday it will use classic recipes for all Reese's products starting next year, after getting criticism for changing the popular treats.
The US president issued an executive order in 2025 that seeks to undo constitutional right to birthright citizenship
The US supreme court on Wednesday appeared poised to protect birthright citizenship, the longstanding policy that babies born in the US are American citizens, in what would be a blow to a key immigration policy for Donald Trump.
The court heard oral arguments with Trump himself in attendance inside the courtroom’s public gallery. A majority of justices asked questions indicating skepticism about the government’s attempt to overturn birthright citizenship. But while some expected the case to be a clear-cut win for those challenging the government, it is unclear how many justices might side with Trump. A decision is expected this summer.
Continue reading...Footage shows a man windsurfing being forcefully thrown from his board as a whale breaches off the California coast
An unsuspecting windsurfer collided with a gray whale on the San Francisco Bay in a startling and rare encounter captured on video.
The footage shows the moment the surfer is forcefully thrown from his board as a gray whale breaches off the California coast, plunging him into the water.
Continue reading...Six teenage girls arrested after hundreds of young people gather in Clapham in ‘swarming the streets’ trend
Police have urged parents to “take responsibility” after scenes of widespread disorder in Clapham, south-west London, on Saturday and Tuesday. Officers said the incidents were caused by a TikTok trend for swarming the streets.
Six teenage girls have been arrested so far, and the Metropolitan police said there would be more arrests in the coming days as officers reviewed CCTV and body worn camera footage of the disorder. It urged parents not to allow their children to take part in similar events over the Easter weekend.
Continue reading...First fatal incident this year occurred hours after £16.2m ‘stop the boats’ deal agreed between Britain and France
Two people have died and another is missing after trying to cross the Channel from France to the UK on Wednesday morning. It is the first fatal incident in the Channel this year.
The deaths occurred just hours after an interim £16.2m “stop the boats” deal was agreed between the UK and France which will be in place until May. Negotiations will continue for a longer-term deal to replace the previous three-year deal, which expired on Tuesday. According to reports, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is trying to secure a “payment by results” agreement to reduce small boat crossings.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has said he is considering pulling the US out of Nato, likening the alliance to a ‘paper tiger’.
It comes after weeks of denouncements from the US president against allies for not helping to reopen the strait of Hormuz.
When asked about Trump’s comments, Keir Starmer said: ‘Nato is the single most effective military alliance the world has ever seen’ and ‘whatever the noise, I’m going to act in the British national interest in all the decisions that I make’.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s Europe correspondent, Jon Henley
Continue reading...Wilson hasn’t played for US since 2024 due to pregnancy
Davidson makes return after ACL injury last year
Hayes’s core crystallizes ahead of World Cup qualifying
Sophia Wilson will make her long-awaited return to the US women’s national team next week, as part of a 23-player roster named by Emma Hayes for a trio of friendlies against Japan.
Wilson last appeared for the US on 27 October 2024, entering as a sub against Iceland in a friendly. She announced her pregnancy in March 2025 and did not appear for the US or club team Portland Thorns that year. Her daughter Gianna was born in September 2025. The 25-year-old Wilson made her return from maternity leave for the Thorns last month and started her first game last weekend in a win over the Kansas City Current.
Continue reading...FDA planned to fast-track applications for authorization, but agency reviewers raise alarm over addiction risk
Popular nicotine pouch products have yet to be cleared for sale in the United States despite a fast-track Food and Drug Administration scheme, as agency scientists hesitate to authorize them due to potential risks to new users, including children, three sources told Reuters.
New tobacco products like pouches, which users insert under their lip to get a nicotine buzz, must be authorised by the FDA in order to be legally sold in the US, the world’s largest market for smoking alternatives worth some $22bn.
Continue reading...The COVID-19 variant BA.3.2, nicknamed "Cicada," has been detected in at least 23 countries and half the states in the U.S.
US understood not to be invited directly to talks that will explore ways of reopening critical waterway
The UK will convene 35 countries – excluding the US – to explore ways to reopen the strait of Hormuz, the vital shipping route for oil and gas that has been blocked by Iran.
Keir Starmer, the prime minister, said the next phase of discussions in the joint British and French efforts to secure the waterway would be held on Thursday, with Yvette Cooper, the foreign secretary, alongside international leaders.
Continue reading...Take a look at how the four Artemis II astronauts will sleep, exercise and even use the bathroom while on board the Orion spacecraft as they shoot for the moon.
Seniors could get a bigger tax deduction this year, but the rules matter. Here's what to know before filing.
Oscar winners, indie faves and more are streaming free this month.
Mitchell H. Katz, MD, president and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, said hospitals could already replace many radiologists with AI for some imaging tasks -- if regulators allowed it. He argued the technology presents an opportunity to simultaneously cut costs and expand access. Radiology Business reports: Katz -- who has led the 11-hospital organization since 2018 -- said he sees great potential for AI to increase access to breast cancer screening. Hospitals could potentially produce "major savings" by letting the technology handle first reads, with radiologists then double-checking any abnormal screenings. Fellow panelist David Lubarsky, MD, MBA, president and CEO of the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, said his system is already seeing great success in deploying such technology. The AI Westchester uses misses very few breast cancers and is "actually better than human beings," he told the audience. "For women who aren't considered high risk, if the test comes back negative, it's wrong only about 3 times out of 10,000," Lubarsky said. Katz asked fellow hospital CEOs if there is any reason why they shouldn't be pushing for changes to New York state regulations, allowing AI to read images "without a radiologist," Crain's reported. In this scenario, rads could then provide second opinions, if AI flags any images as abnormal. Sandra Scott, MD, CEO of the One Brooklyn Health, a small hospital facing tight margins, agreed with this line of thinking, according to Crain's. "I mean, I'm in charge of a safety-net institution. It would be a game-changer," Scott said about AI being used to replace rads.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ministers accused of being too fearful of offending Emirates to help Britons detained for sharing images of war
The families of UK citizens held in the United Arab Emirates over allegations that they shared images of the conflict with Iran have voiced frustration at the British government’s failure to help.
Several British citizens are among more than 100 foreign nationals who have been detained under draconian Emirate rules that outlaw publishing or sharing material that could “disturb public security”.
Continue reading...At 17, Cooper Lutkenhaus is the youngest world champion in track and field history – and potentially USA’s poster boy for LA28
Fire on the boards. Slack jaws off it. Last week, I was fortunate enough to be yards away from the 17-year-old American high school student Cooper Lutkenhaus when he powered away from a strong 800m field in Torun to become the youngest world champion in track and field history. But no sooner had the applause died down than the search for superlatives began.
“He’s like David Rudisha,” said Eliott Crestan, the Belgian who took world indoor championship silver behind Lutkenhaus. “In 10 or 20 years’ time, I’ll be able to say that I ran against him.”
Continue reading...While the event is technically finished we are still finding plenty of deals remaining.
Brent crude prices have fallen sharply, while the FTSE 100 is up 1.8% and government bonds are rallying
UK food inflation ‘could hit 9% this year’ as Iran war drives up energy prices
Iran war may increase mortgage payments for extra 1.3m UK households, says Bank of England
The bond market is also reacting to hopes of peace in the Middle East soon.
Government bonds are rallying, which is pushing down the yield (or interest rate) on UK debt.
Continue reading...Here are some highly rated films to try, plus a list of new additions to the streamer in April.
President Trump is seeking to end birthright citizenship, after years of criticizing the constitutional right.
President Trump went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday as the justices took up his executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship, a major test of his immigration agenda.
Fifty-eight other people found alive during rescue involving inflatable craft in early hours of Wednesday
The bodies of 19 people have been recovered from an inflatable boat south of the island of Lampedusa by the Italian coastguard, a spokesperson told AFP.
Fifty-eight other people, including five children, were found alive during the rescue in the early hours of Wednesday and transported to Lampedusa by the coastguard, according to Roberto D’Arrigo.
Continue reading...April 1, 2026 — Using molecular dynamics simulations to train a machine learning model, scientists developed software that predicts and could help to exploit the effects of gas particle impacts on satellites in the upper atmosphere.
Over the past decade the space business has been booming, showing a dramatic increase in the number of new satellites launched into Earth’s orbit for telecommunications, navigation, and observation. As this trend continues, many of these satellites will be deployed in very low Earth orbits (VLEO), a loosely defined region between 200 and 450 km above the Earth’s surface. Flying satellites at these altitudes has many advantages, including reduced launch costs and the ability to observe Earth at higher resolution. This approach also reduces the accumulation of space junk that jeopardizes spacecraft at higher altitudes, because traces of the Earth’s atmosphere present in VLEO naturally slow satellites down, causing them to re‑enter and burn up once their missions end.
Flying satellites in very low Earth orbits offers scientific and economic advantages. Gaining a better understanding of what happens when oxygen particles strike satellites could improve flight dynamics and potentially lead to new propulsion concepts that extend satellite lifespan. Image courtesy of the Atlas Collaborative Research Center.
This atmospheric drag is caused mainly by atomic oxygen. These particles continually strike satellites in VLEO, influencing their flight paths, causing surface erosion, and ultimately limiting their operational lifetimes. For this reason, a collaborative research center at the University of Stuttgart called ATLAS (Advancing Technologies for Low-Altitude Satellites) has been conducting fundamental research on interactions between rarefied high‑energy flows and spacecraft surfaces, developing concepts for utilizing the residual atmosphere, and exploring new design and operational strategies that will support improved VLEO satellite design, lifespan, and economic viability.
In one ATLAS subproject, Miklas Schütte of the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Space Systems and Stephen Hocker of its Institute for Functional Matter and Quantum Technologies have been developing a method for better predicting how gas particles and surfaces of satellites interact at very low Earth orbits. “For us at ATLAS, the question is not just how we could optimize aerodynamics to minimize resistance, but how we could use the forces acting on satellites to control their orientation and orbit,” Schütte explained. In a recent paper in the journal Physics of Fluids (selected by the journal as an “Editor’s Pick”) the team describes a new computational approach that models how gas particles reflect off surfaces by considering these interactions at the smallest of scales.
HPC-Generated Data Used to Train a Machine Learning Model
Close to Earth, the aerodynamics of automobiles or airplanes are typically simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), which treats gases as continuous flows. Because the atmosphere at VLEO altitudes verges on the vacuum of space, however, it is very thin. This means that individual gas particles are located at greater distances from one another and CFD principles do not apply.
Researchers commonly use a method called Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) to predict satellite drag in the upper atmosphere. Current DSMC implementations still rely on highly simplified models for gas–surface interactions, though. In most cases, models assume that reflections are either purely mirror-like or purely diffuse, with particles scattering in many directions. Experimental studies, on the other hand, consistently show that the actual distributions of reflected particles deviate significantly from these idealized assumptions.
A much more precise method for simulating particle–surface interactions is molecular dynamics (MD). Based on mathematics that accurately reproduce basic physical principles, MD simulates how molecules interact at the scale of individual atoms over very short periods of time. Achieving this resolution makes molecular dynamics simulations very computationally demanding, and they can only be done using high-performance computing (HPC) systems like those at the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS).
An oxygen atom reflects off of a block of amorphous aluminum oxide, a material used in satellite construction. The coloring of the reflected atom corresponds to the extend to which its trajectory deviates from a perfect mirror-like reflection. Image: Institute of Space Systems, University of Stuttgart.
In an ideal world one might use MD simulations to catalog every possible interaction of a gas particle and a surface, but this would be impractical even using today’s fastest supercomputers. Moreover, modeling an entire satellite with many surfaces and angles, traveling through space at 8,000 meters per second, would be impossible.
Instead, the ATLAS team used molecular dynamics to support a data-driven, generative machine learning approach. To create their dataset, they used HLRS’s Hawk supercomputer to simulate 225,000 particle–surface impacts in VLEO, investigating five different velocity magnitudes each at nine different incident angles. The dataset does not nearly cover all possible interactions, but provides sufficient coverage of a spectrum of potential angles and velocities that would be typical for a satellite traveling in very low Earth orbits. Using 128 cores on Hawk, it took approximately one month to generate the dataset.
Based on the results, the team then trained a machine learning algorithm on the MD data. The resulting model is able to interpolate and extrapolate from the dataset to automatically predict particle reflections for any other situation within the spectrum of the VLEO regime, including particle–surface interactions not specifically simulated using MD. When the investigators checked the resulting model’s accuracy they found that its results closely replicate those seen in training and validation data, suggesting that it is much more effective at making reliable predictions than current state-of-the-art models.
Schütte developed this model into a particle scattering kernel that he then integrated into the DSMC simulation method in PICLas. DSMC, in turn, can be used to simulate at a larger scale how rarefied flows (composed of isolated particles and not continuous flows) interact with surfaces in space. “Integrating a scattering kernel into DSMC methods brings these extremely precise simulations of particle reflections at the microscopic level up into the macroscopic or mesoscopic scale that is needed to actually simulate a satellite,” Schütte explained.
Simulation Opens New Opportunities for Improving Satellite Design
Schütte says that the successes he and his colleagues have seen so far make it possible to ask new questions that they plan to investigate in more detail within the ATLAS project. For one, they will look more closely at how impacts can lead to the adsorption of atomic oxygen on the satellite surface. Once adsorption has occurred, incoming oxygen atoms can react with the adsorbed species to form molecular oxygen that eventually leaves the surface. At the same time, the impacts can directly erode the surface. A second question concerns the effects of roughness on the scattering of gas particles. The work so far has assumed that surfaces are flat, but it is expected that a more realistic representation of surface topography could produce different results. And finally within the broader ATLAS project, researchers will be able to use the improved models of particle reflection to optimize materials selection for satellite construction, offering better reflection capabilities for controlling spaceflight and orbit stability. In the meantime, Schütte’s new scattering kernel is already being used by other scientists within the ATLAS consortium.
Another tantalizing idea would be to collect oxygen molecules in VLEO environments, and use them as fuel in propulsion systems to counteract the effects of drag. The improved model of physical interactions between particles and surfaces provides an important tool for developing this concept. “Having an accurate surface model is a critical step in being able to design an intake that could capture particles in this way,” Schütte said. “Right now this is still theoretical, but if it becomes possible it could be a real game changer that would could dramatically reduce the cost and extend the lifecycles of VLEO satellites.”
Related Publication
Schütte M, Hocker S, Lipp H, et al. 2025. A machine learning framework for scattering kernel derivation using molecular dynamics data in very low Earth orbit. Phys Fluids. 37: 093609.
Funding for HLRS’s Hawk supercomputer was provided by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Science, Research, and the Arts and the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space through the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS).
Source: Christopher Williams, HLRS
The post HLRS: Particle Scattering Model Could Improve Low-Orbit Spaceflight appeared first on HPCwire.
This is mostly a sanity check. In the clips you see the heel pad spontaneously engaging and disengaging while I'm not on it.
My board ghosted a few times, ran off on top speed without me on it, so I brought it back to the shop. they "reset the sensors" and that was it.
The annoying part is that they try to move the problem to me and ask me to contact FM directly, but i'm in the Netherlands, this shop is the only seller in the Netherlands, and it's their responsibility to fix this.
Soo.. I'm not crazy right? This is faulty?
This live blog is now closed
Meanwhile, the European Union has sought to ramp up pressure on Hungary to drop its veto on the €90bn loan for Ukraine, with the European Commission saying it will push ahead with its preparatory work for the loan to be paid out.
The commission said it would draft a legal text setting out the details of the first payment of €45bn in 2026 and what the funds would be used for, and send it to the European Council to be formally approved by the bloc’s 27 leaders.
“We proposed a ceasefire for Easter – in response, we’re getting ‘shaheds.’ We also proposed a ceasefire specifically regarding energy infrastructure – the Russians ignore this and once again attempt to strike our substations and transformers.
Ukraine is working with partners to expand joint capabilities to protect lives, while Russia continues to prolong the war in Europe, and by sharing its intelligence with the Iranian regime it is openly investing in fueling war in the Middle East and the Gulf.
Ukraine proposed a ceasefire for Easter. Russia responded with a swarm of drones targeting civilians.
Continue reading...
Since the Iran war began Feb. 28, the U.S. and Israel have reported killing many Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. After Khamenei’s death, Iranian government officials said his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, took power.
On multiple occasions, administration officials including the president have declared that Iran has undergone regime change following U.S. military action.
President Donald Trump mused in comments on March 24, March 26 and March 27 that regime change had already happened in Iran.
On March 25, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about Trump’s mention of regime change the previous day. She said, "I mean, has it not?" She later added, "There has been a change in the regime leadership, which is what the president said, so thank you for confirming he was right."
Aboard Air Force One on March 29, Trump said, "We've had regime change, if you look already, because the one regime was decimated, destroyed. They're all dead. The next regime is mostly dead. And the third regime, we're dealing with different people than anybody's dealt with before."
Two days later, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed the statement in a press conference, saying that "regime change has occurred."
When we asked White House staff why they were using this term, spokesperson Anna Kelly said, "The regime has changed because the former leaders are dead."
Military and foreign policy experts say this regime change explanation is insufficient to fulfill the term’s traditional meaning. Removing top officials is a necessary step in regime change, but not sufficient, they said
"It's fair to say that there has been a leadership change in the regime, but the regime is still there because the basic structures, like the constitution, are intact," said Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national security think tank. "Regime change (in Iran) implies that the government is something other than the current theocratic structure."
Boaz Atzili, an American University foreign policy and global security professor, agreed that a regime consists of more than people.
A regime consists of "ideas and institutions," Atzili said. "The institutions remained intact."
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the armed forces branch that is widely considered a backbone of the regime’s power, is maintaining and possibly even gaining more control, analysts say. Other Iranian government power centers, such as the Guardian Council and the Council of Experts, are also still in place.
Michael O’Hanlon, the director of research in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution, said he’s not aware of a formal definition of "regime change," but he said that what has occurred in Iran would not meet the "common sense standard of a complete removal of previous leadership and its ideology."
Analysts said there are signs Iran’s new leaders are more extreme than the ones who were killed.
"Judging from their backgrounds, these leaders — some pulled out of retirement — are more hardline, anti-U.S., and anti-Israel than those they replaced," Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, a foreign-policy think tank, wrote in a recent analysis.
If regime change was the goal, "it has so far failed miserably," Atzili said.
On CNN March 31, foreign policy analyst Fareed Zakaria said, "The system of government in Iran is fully in place. The people who have replaced the old office holders appear to be more hardline, more militaristic. … So, how you can claim this is a new regime, I don’t understand."
Later in the same show, John Bolton — a pro-interventionist on Iran who served as Trump’s national security adviser during his first term but later broke with him — described the conditions in Iran as "moving in the direction of possible regime change."
At least one Trump administration official — Secretary of State Marco Rubio — has taken a more cautious approach to using the phrase.
On ABC’s "Good Morning America" on March 30, Rubio said that the U.S. is "dealing with a 47-year-old regime that still has a lot of people involved in it who aren’t necessarily big fans of diplomacy or peace."
Trump said that in Iran, "We've had regime change."
The U.S. has killed many top Iranian officials, including its supreme leader. But multiple foreign policy and military experts said regime change is about more than just people; it’s about governing institutions.
Iran’s current government structure appears intact, bolstered by the same ideology and using the same levers of power.
Because killing top Iranian leaders is a step toward regime change but insufficient to achieve it, we rate the statement Mostly False.
RELATED: Barack Obama says regime change in Iraq took eight years
You'll want to stick around for the credits to see where the Nintendo cinematic universe might go next.
An international break that many expected to provide clarity has instead provided fresh reasons to doubt the tournament co-hosts
Roberto Martínez has long been easy with a smile. Those moments aren’t in short supply after wins like Tuesday’s, when Portugal comfortably dispatched the United States 2-0 in Atlanta.
That smile was on full display afterward, when he was asked for his thoughts on how the US look ahead of their home World Cup.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: An unknown technical problem caused a number of robotaxis owned by the Chinese tech giant Baidu to freeze on Tuesday in the middle of traffic, trapping some passengers in the vehicles for more than an hour. In Wuhan, a city in central China where Baidu has deployed hundreds of its Apollo Go self-driving taxis, people on Chinese social media reported witnessing the cars suddenly malfunction and stop operating. Photos and videos shared online show the Baidu cars halted on busy highways, often in the fast lane. [...] Local police in Wuhan issued a statement around midnight in China that said the situation was "likely caused by a system malfunction," but the incident is still under investigation. No one was injured, and all passengers have exited the vehicles, the police added. It's unclear how many of Baidu's robotaxis may have been impacted. [...] There were at least two other collisions on the same day, according to photos and videos posted on Chinese social media. A RedNote user in Wuhan confirmed to WIRED that she drove past a white minivan that had gotten into a rear-end collision with a parked robotaxi. The back of the Baidu car was badly damaged, but the two people standing beside the scene looked unharmed, she says. She added that she estimates she also saw at least a dozen more parked robotaxies.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Iraqi civilians are paying the price of the Iran war Expert comment thilton.drupal
The US-Israeli war on Iran has disrupted oil exports, pushed up prices and deepened fears of electricity shortages.
Iraq has been increasingly dragged into the US and Israel’s war with Iran, with both sides attacking each other on its territory. Civilians have suffered as rockets and drones fall near residential buildings in cities including Baghdad and Erbil.
The war has also exposed the fragility of Iraq’s economy and society. Most Iraqis are facing this latest conflict with limited financial resources and minimal savings, and with low confidence in the state to protect them from the war’s impact.
For many households, the war has caused anxiety over whether they will keep receiving their salaries or be able to access food and medicine. There are also concerns over whether electricity supplies will continue as temperatures rise ahead of summer.
Suspected Iranian attacks on two tankers in Iraqi waters near the port town of Al Fao in early March have also highlighted Iraq’s heavy dependence on maritime trade. The disruption to Gulf shipping is already constraining imports and leaving Iraq-bound cargo stranded or delayed.
For a country that moves more than 90 per cent of its trade by sea, prolonged disruption in the Gulf risks hitting Iraq’s economy and depriving it of crucial oil exports that finance the majority of the state’s budget.
Iraq is confronting the war with weaker governance structures and less capacity to shield society from the fallout than many of its neighbours.
The Iraqi state budget is the main safety net for much of the population. It provides salaries to millions of Iraqis, and many households still rely on state spending for their day-to-day survival, whether through salaries, pensions or welfare linked to public expenditure.
Iraq’s economy is still heavily dependent on oil, with crude sales making up more than 90 per cent of the state’s income. When oil flows are disrupted, state spending is affected. In turn, this hits household budgets through increased rent, food, transport, medicine and education costs.
The war on Iran has exposed this reliance by directly damaging Iraq’s export capacity. Baghdad declared force majeure on foreign-operated oilfields after disruption in the Strait of Hormuz halted most crude exports.
Iraq still has about $97 billion in reserves, but much of that is not immediately liquid, and reserves can only provide short-term relief. Economists have estimated that Iraq has around two months before salaries are directly impacted, after which the government will have to resort to temporary fixes to keep salaries paid.
Across Iraq, basic food prices have risen by 15 to 25 per cent. In the Kurdistan Region, officials report that the price of vegetables usually imported from Iran has doubled, while fuel prices have reportedly risen by more than 20 per cent in some cities.
Meanwhile, the dinar has weakened on the black market from the official rate of 1,300 to about 1,550 to the dollar, adding further pressure on household purchasing power.
Electricity is likely to be the most serious way in which the war will be felt inside Iraqi homes.
Despite Iraq having large natural gas reserves, it flares most of this gas as it lacks the infrastructure to use it as fuel for electricity. Since 2017 Iraq has instead relied on imported Iranian natural gas to provide electricity. More than 30 per cent of Iraq’s current electricity generation depends on those imports, leaving it exposed to regional tensions.
Israel’s 18 March attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field disrupted a significant portion of Iraq’s gas imports. Gas supplies to Iraq have now resumed, but only partially, stabilizing the grid but leaving little margin for further disruption.
The electricity system remains fragile heading into the summer, when demand rises sharply due to the heat. With total generation capacity at only around 24-28 gigawatts and projected peak demand in 2026 at 57 gigawatts, any further disruption could quickly deepen shortages.
That vulnerability was already visible on 4 March, when Iraq suffered a nationwide blackout after a sudden drop in gas supplies to the Rumaila gas-fired power plant in Basra.
Iraq has previously explored alternatives to Iranian imported gas, including importing gas from Qatar and Oman and efforts to expand domestic gas production. But these are not immediate substitutes.
In Iraq, electricity shortages have historically sparked protests, with many citizens believing that years of higher oil revenues should have led to improvements to the country’s electricity infrastructure. The current conflict exposes how little has been done to make the system more reliable, despite repeated warnings.
Pressures from the war risk inflaming a set of pre-existing and politically charged grievances.
In Iraq, state legitimacy has already been weakened by years of corruption, policy short-termism and uneven provision. As the economic impact of the war ramps up, the public perception that the government cannot be relied on in a crisis matters almost as much as the immediate material impact.
Protests over jobs and services were already re-emerging before the war. Earlier waves of protest targeted the ruling elite over corruption and the failure to provide services. Historically, many protesters have also rejected Iranian influence as well as the wider pattern of foreign interference in Iraq enabled by the post-2003 political system.
How much do you know about the history of one of the most powerful computing companies on the planet?
In the 50 years since it was founded, Apple has long been seen as one of the most significant technology companies globally. The design and manufacturing decisions taken in Cupertino, California have affected product design across the world, helping usher in an era of ubiquitous touchscreen computing while insisting on exacting user experience design principles. How much do you know about the history of one of the most powerful computing companies on the planet? Test yourself with these 12 questions.
The Guardian’s Apple at 50 quiz
Continue reading...Congressional leaders announced that Britain's King Charles III will address a joint meeting of Congress as part of his visit to Washington later this month.
Joani Reid MP reportedly swapped flirtatious messages with senior officer in charge of nuclear-armed submarine
A Royal Navy captain in charge of one of Britain’s nuclear-armed submarines stepped back from his duties over his relationship with the MP Joani Reid, whose husband faces allegations of spying for China.
The married senior officer was investigated by the navy last year over his contact with Reid after the messages, described as inappropriate, prompted an assessment of a potential blackmail risk, the Financial Times first reported.
Continue reading...As launch time approaches for NASA's first moonshot in more than half a century, anticipation is building for the Artemis II mission. Here's how to watch today's liftoff.
This is not an April Fools’ Day joke! FactCheck.org is a nominee for the 30th Annual Webby Awards in the category for Websites and Mobile Sites: News & Politics.
Now our loyal readers can help us win the Webby People’s Voice Award, which is voted on by the public. Go to vote.webbyawards.com and sign in or sign up to vote.
This link will take you directly to our category. Or, to find us from the main page, click on “Categories,” then “Websites & Mobile Sites,” then “General Desktop & Mobile Sites,” and finally “News & Politics.”
Also, if you register with your email address, please be sure to confirm your account so that your vote will count. Click “Resend Confirmation Email” if one is not automatically sent to your email address. (If you still don’t see the email – which should say “Webby People’s Voice Confirmation” in the subject line – check your spam folder, as the Webby website suggests.)
The voting period ends April 16. The Webby winners, including the ones picked by a panel of expert judges, will be announced April 21. The Webby Awards are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
The post We Could Win a Webby with Your Vote appeared first on FactCheck.org.
The argument for transitioning to renewables seems stronger than ever – and yet, attacks mount on the carbon price scheme that underpins the EU’s success at cutting pollution
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On the one hand, experts say, Europe is better prepared for this energy crisis than the last. On the other, it is still waging a culture war against the most obvious path out.
Fuel prices have soared to ruinous levels since the Iran war left ships of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) stranded in the Gulf. The pain is most acute in Asia, but high energy prices are already causing panic in Europe. Shortages could hit the continent this month, oil company Shell warned last week. Donald Trump’s “go get your own oil” comments on Tuesday sent prices to their highest level since the start of the US-Israel attack on Iran. They briefly dipped below $100-a-barrel on Wednesday amid hopes that the war may soon end.
Continue reading...U.S. gasoline prices continue to inch higher after crossing the $4 a gallon threshold on Tuesday for the first time since 2022.
Apple's MacBook lineup now includes three tiers: Neo, Air and Pro. See our favorites and find the best MacBook for your laptop budget and needs.
...plus new movies Thrash, Apex, and Roommates arrive to Netflix this month, too.
In her first print interview since release, the Palestinian immigrant says after year in custody, she sees it as her duty to denounce ICE detention in the US
A Palestinian woman who was released last month after spending a year in a Texas immigration detention center told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that she sees “a lot of similarities” between the treatment of people in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody and that of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.
Leqaa Kordia, who was detained by ICE following her arrest at a protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, says that she will continue to speak up about the rights of Palestinians, but that she now also sees it as her duty to denounce the “human tragedy” of immigration detention in the US.
Continue reading...Experts say the US believes it is entitled to resources it desires – a perspective president has supported for decades
Donald Trump said this past weekend he wants to “take the oil in Iran” by seizing control of a key export hub, echoing a refrain he has returned to for over a decade.
It’s a sign of his disregard for international law and belief in “fossil-fuel imperialism”, experts say.
Continue reading...We are paying more for a PlayStation so that idiots can use ChatGPT to mislead people on dating apps – something is rotten in the state of gaming
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When the PlayStation 5 launched almost five and a half years ago, it was listed at £449 in the UK. If you were to buy one at the recommended retail price today, it would be £569.99, or £789.99 for the updated Pro model. Sony has just raised the price of its console by another £90, the latest in a series of hikes. This is unprecedented: consoles have always decreased in price over time (until they become retro collectibles – the other day, I saw someone asking £200 for a SNES on Vinted). So, what’s going on?
Unfortunately, this is another case of artificial intelligence ruining things for everyone. AI data centres need lots and lots and lots of computing power to be able to present you with lies whenever you Google anything, and this has pushed up demand and pricing for RAM and storage. This isn’t the only reason prices are rising – the wars in Ukraine and Iran have caused global economic disruption, and rampant inflation has eaten into many companies’ bottom line. But AI is the cause that’s easiest to get angry about, because it doesn’t need to be this way.
Continue reading...Your home devices and appliances quietly suck energy even when not in active use. I found the worst offender and it totally shocked me.
April 1, 2026 — Researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will share their discoveries and innovations at DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) Energy Innovation Summit in San Diego, California, April 7-9. ARPA-E funds high-risk, high-impact energy technologies that can be quickly and meaningfully advanced to catalyze bleeding-edge energy research.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers will share their discoveries and innovations at ARPA-E’s Energy Innovation Summit in San Diego, California, April 7-9. Credit: Morgan Manning/ORNL.
The summit will convene nearly 3,000 global energy innovators, investors, engineers and industry leaders. They will access more than 400 displays of groundbreaking ARPA-E-funded energy technologies, define new areas of scientific research and drive the development of reliable, secure American-made energy for all.
Summit speakers will include U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, U.S. Undersecretary for Science Dario Gil, who also directs DOE’s Genesis Mission to accelerate science through artificial intelligence, and AMD Chair and Chief Executive Officer Lisa Su, whose company is delivering next-generation computing and AI solutions.
Researchers at ORNL, the United States’ largest lab for interdisciplinary science and energy research, play an important role — often with collaborators — in turning disruptive concepts into impactful products through strengthening the following:
Energy Storage
Nuclear Fission and Fusion
Grid and Materials Supply Chains
Alloys in Extreme Environments
Partner-Driven Projects
Additionally, in a panel called “Powering the AI Revolution,” Prashant Jain, head of ORNL’s Advanced Reactor Engineering Section, will talk about the explosive growth of AI and cloud computing and their effects on today’s power grid. He and other panelists will discuss financial stakes, capital costs, timelines and, ultimately, what is needed to unlock the gigawatts that future AI deployments will require.
Other summit activities will further highlight the importance of ARPA-E funding in driving critical energy innovation and ensuring U.S. technological leadership. Tech demos from companies and universities will showcase the world’s first practical superconducting electric machine, low-cost utility undergrounding, and plasma electrodes for fusion energy and other extreme environments. Investor sessions will explore funding for furthering fusion and powering AI. Students will have opportunities to present ideas for partnerships and commercialization.
Source: Dawn Levy, ORNL
The post ORNL to Feature Transformative Tech at ARPA-E Summit appeared first on HPCwire.
Chatham House's Corporate Reception 2026 21 May 2026 — 18:00 TO 20:00 BST Anonymous (not verified) Chatham House
Join us for the annual Chatham House Corporate Reception.
Join us for a special evening held to thank our corporate members for their continued support. Network with other members, connect with our research experts and discover ways to engage with our work—all over drinks and canapés.This special evening is held to thank our 300+ corporate members and supporters for their continued engagement with the Institute, especially over this turbulent period. You will have the opportunity to network with policymakers, business leaders and the diplomatic community, in addition to meeting our experts while enjoying drinks and canapés at Chatham House.
We would be grateful if you could RSVP to Aisha Abdirahman at aabdirahman@chathamhouse.org by Thursday 23 April 2026, letting us know if you will be able to join us and the name and e-mail address of your guest.
Taken in by reports of Liz Truss joining Nasa or the launch of nappy ‘Twosies’? It’s that time of year again
The media ecosystem may have changed since the BBC’s spaghetti harvest report in 1957 or the Guardian’s 1977 travel supplement about the island of San Serriffe, but April fool stories are still with us.
Indeed, if you picked up Wednesday’s edition of the Guardian, you may have been taken in by our report that evidence has been found of coffee being consumed in England a couple of centuries before the first known examples, thanks in part to an expert called Macky Arto.
Continue reading...This will be the first time humans have traveled to the moon since the early 1970s.
Jurors hear 19-year-old recount FaceTime call after alleged cliffside attack on Oahu during wife’s birthday trip
The son of a Hawaii doctor accused of trying to kill his wife testified on Tuesday that his father told him that his wife had been cheating on him and that he had “tried to kill her”.
Emile Konig, 19, told jurors that he had received two FaceTime calls from his father, Gerhardt Konig, 47, on the morning of 24 March 2025 – the same day prosecutors allege that Gerhardt attempted to murder his wife, Arielle Konig, 37, during a hike on Oahu’s “Pali Puka” trail.
Continue reading...Experts say brutal March heat has left critical snowpack at record-low levels – and key basins in uncharted territory
Snow surveys taking place across the American west this week are offering a grim prognosis, after a historically warm winter and searing March temperatures left the critical snowpack at record-low levels across the region.
Experts warned that even as the heat begins to subside, the stunning pace of melt-off over the past month has left key basins in uncharted territory for the dry seasons ahead. Though there’s still potential for more snow in the forecast, experts said it will likely be too little too late.
Continue reading...Head of committee says it was appropriate for government to seek guidance on way out of £330m deal with US data company
Claims by Palantir that concerns over the US data analytics company’s multimillion-pound NHS contract are “ideologically motivated” have been rejected by the chair of a parliamentary committee.
It was also appropriate for the government to seek guidance on activating a break contract in the deal, said Chi Onwurah, a Labour MP who heads the science, innovation and technology select committee.
Continue reading...US president’s claim that conflict is nearing end prompts 15% drop in Brent crude and stock market climb in Asia
Oil prices tumbled and stock markets have rallied across the world after Donald Trump said the war in Iran would end in “two to three weeks”.
Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, fell as low as $98.35 a barrel on Wednesday, down more than 15% on the previous day and its lowest level in a week. It later recovered some ground, ending the day at $102.
Continue reading...American Heart Association bucks Trump administration line to suggest prioritizing plant-based protein over meat
The American Heart Association’s new nutrition guidance, released on Tuesday, emphasizes a dietary pattern rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains, prioritizing plant-based protein over meat.
It also suggests limiting the use of sugar, salt and ultra-processed foods and replacing full fat dairy with non-fat and low-fat dairy.
Continue reading...Prime minister says UK will host meeting later this week with other nations on the reopening of the strait of Hormuz
Starmer says he understands why people are concerned about the cost of living.
He says he has already set out a five-point plan to deal with the crisis.
Just look at what’s happening today. Today your energy bills will be cut because of the action that we took at the budget. And whatever happens in Iran, that price is now fixed until July.
The most effective way we can support the cost of living in Britain is to push for de-escalation in the Middle East, and a reopening of the strait of Hormuz, which is such a vital route for energy.
To that end, we’re exploring each and every diplomatic avenue that is available to us.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for April 1, No. 1,747.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for April 1 #1025
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for April 1, No. 759.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 1.
President Trump has told Britain's Telegraph newspaper he could try to terminate U.S. membership in NATO. He's railed against NATO allies for refusing to join the Iran war.
Neural implants, AI agents, facial devices, robots: Where exactly will Apple be headed in the decades to come? I take some guesses with a futurist friend.
After strangers raised thousands of dollars for a search, the border collie was flown to safety by a pilot who was determined to reunite pet and owner.
The Soviet-designed military transport turboprop aircraft crashed into a cliff, sources at the scene told state news agencies.
Proxy servers offer critical benefits in security and competitive intelligence, but they introduce new complications and risks.
Malcolm in the Middle: Life's Still Unfair, The Testaments and more titles hit the streamer this month.
Group cuts costs as shares plunge while it grapples with impact of Iran war on property market
One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders has said it will stop buying new land and hiring new staff, as it grapples with the impact of the Iran war on the property market.
Berkeley, a London-focused housebuilder, said it would cut costs as it warned that “geopolitical volatility” and “reduced potential” for interest rate cuts could weigh on the business.
Continue reading...I got stopped by the police telling me it's the first onewheel they see and took pictures to register it in their system, I need immediate insurance and we won't be able to ride onewheels in 2027 and beyond, any PEV from before 2024 is also not permitted. does anybody know if new boards are going to have a serial number or any sort of certification to make them legal?
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me paró la policía diciéndome que era el primer onewheel que habían visto e hizo fotos para registrarlo en su sistema, que necesito un seguro inmediatamente y que aparte de 2027 no se puede circular con el, cualquier patinete de antes de 2024 también está prohibido circular. ¿alguien sabe si los onewheels nuevos van a tener un número de serie o alguna certificación para hacerlos legales?
Sandhu Ponnachan appears in court on charges of dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm
A 36-year-old man has been remanded into custody after appearing in court accused of dangerous driving after seven people were injured when a car hit pedestrians in Derby on Saturday night.
Sandhu Ponnachan, from the Alvaston area of the city, appeared at Southern Derbyshire magistrates court on Wednesday having also been charged with six counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, one count of attempted grievous bodily harm, and one count of possession of a bladed article.
Continue reading...Syrian President al-Sharaa on Iran war: ‘Syria will remain outside this conflict’ News release jon.wallace
In his first UK public event, President Ahmed al-Sharaa urged negotiations to resolve the US-Israeli war on Iran – and discussed elections, reconstruction and foreign policy.
Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Chatham House on 31 March for a conversation with Director and Chief Executive Bronwen Maddox – his first public event in the United Kingdom. The two discussed Syria’s reconstruction, its foreign policy, and its position on the Iran war, before the president took questions from the audience.
Asked by Maddox about his government’s position on Iran and the war with the US and Israel, President al-Sharaa said that:
‘There is no doubt that Iran… was at the forefront of the conflict led by the [former] regime against the Syrian people. However, after we reached Damascus, we did not have an issue with Iran in Tehran; rather, our problem was with Iran in Damascus, because it was occupying Syrian villages and towns, displacing people, and so on.’
‘We have held back from opening relations with Iran up to this point. Certainly, the war currently under way is negatively affecting the region by disrupting energy and fuel supplies, which in turn affects the global economy… What we had been advising was that they should look for a negotiated solution, rather than resorting to military force, because that carries major risks.’
Asked by Maddox if Syria would remain neutral in the war, he replied:
‘Certainly, unless Syria is subjected to direct attacks by any party, it will remain outside this conflict. 14 years of war are enough for Syria, during which we have paid a very heavy price, and we are not prepared to go through a new experience. Those who have gone through the hardship of war know the value of peace…’
Asked if his government was helping to prevent weapons being transported to Hezbollah in Lebanon, President al-Sharaa said:
‘We, too, have paid the price for Hezbollah’s intervention in Syria over the past 14 years. Hezbollah was also an active partner with the [former] regime in the killing of the Syrian people.
‘Nevertheless, after we reached Damascus, we tried to adopt policies that would not harm the situation in Lebanon. We were keen that the conflict should not extend into Lebanon, while at a minimum protecting our borders. Protecting the borders requires that those responsible for securing them prevent the entry of weapons and cases of smuggling.’
Addressing relations with Israel, he said:
Portrait of President al-Sharaa taken at Chatham House by Ander McIntyre
‘We tried through dialogue and discussion. Indirect negotiations began and then moved to direct negotiations. We reached good points, but at the last moments we always find a shift in the Israeli position.’
Maddox also pressed al-Sharaa on his 2025 promise to hold elections within five years: ‘Are you still on track for that?’ she asked.
‘Certainly, Syria has taken initial steps. We held a national dialogue conference that produced recommendations. After that, we issued a constitutional declaration which stipulated that the first term would be five years as a temporary measure.
‘During this period, we also conducted elections for the People’s Assembly, whose first session will begin next month.
‘Of course, after five years, there will be further steps, as we have reviewed the laws and laid the groundwork for holding free elections in Syria.’
Here is a video clip of President al-Sharaa discussing the US-Israel war on Iran. You can watch the event in full here.
For 128 years, it’s been clear that if you are born in this country, you are a citizen. The court must not turn back the clock
I am lead counsel in the challenge to Donald Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. As I and my team help the ACLU legal director, Cecillia Wang, prepare for the supreme court argument in this case on Wednesday, we are poring over legal minutiae and sharpening our arguments. But the larger questions that loom over the whole case are simple: What does it mean to be an American? Will we adhere to the best of American history and protect the values of equal citizenship and opportunity?
In early America, like today, people born on US soil were citizens, even if their parents were immigrants. That’s a principle we inherited from England as part of a body of rules known as the “common law”. In England, that rule was originally about monarchical power; but in our young republic it found new life as a principle of equal citizenship. As waves of immigrants arrived, the birthright rule ensured that the child of Irish or German immigrants would be no less citizens than those who traced their lineage back to the Mayflower.
Cody Wofsy is deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project and lead counsel on the Trump v Barbara legal team
Continue reading...James Broadnax was a teenager when a jury convicted him of capital murder, with his rap lyrics presented as evidence he posed a threat of ‘future dangerousness’
James Broadnax has been locked up in a 6ft-by-10ft cell on death row in Texas for more than 16 years, and in that time he has developed coping mechanisms for passing the long and desolate days.
A favourite technique is to write spoken word poetry at his cell desk. He becomes so engrossed in the creative process that he can lose himself for hours, transfixed in what he calls a “time gap”. In one of his recent poems, featured in a short death row documentary, Solitary Minds, Broadnax, who is 37, describes how he writes:
Continue reading...MIT Technology Review discovered that startup R3 Bio has pitched an ethically and scientifically explosive long-term vision beyond its public work on non-sentient monkey "organ sacks": creating human "brainless clones" or replacement bodies for organs as part of an extreme life-extension agenda. From the report: Imagine it like this: a baby version of yourself with only enough of a brain structure to be alive in case you ever need a new kidney or liver. Or, alternatively, he has speculated, you might one day get your brain placed into a younger clone. That could be a way to gain a second lifespan through a still hypothetical procedure known as a body transplant. The fuller context of R3's proposals, as well as activities of another stealth startup with related goals, have not previously been reported. They've been kept secret by a circle of extreme life-extension proponents who fear that their plans for immortality could be derailed by clickbait headlines and public backlash. And that's because the idea can sound like something straight from a creepy science fiction film. One person who heard R3's clone presentation, and spoke on the condition of anonymity, was left reeling by its implications and shaken by [R3 founder John Schloendorn's] enthusiastic delivery. The briefing, this person said, was like a "close encounter of the third kind" with "Dr. Strangelove." [...] MIT Technology Review found no evidence that R3 has cloned anyone, or even any animal bigger than a rodent. What we did find were documents, additional meeting agendas, and other sources outlining a technical road map for what R3 called "body replacement cloning" in a 2023 letter to supporters. That road map involved improvements to the cloning process and genetic wiring diagrams for how to create animals without complete brains. A main purpose of the fundraising, investors say, was to support efforts to try these techniques in monkeys from a base in the Caribbean. That offered a path to a nearer-term business plan for more ethical medical experiments and toxicology testing -- if the company could develop what it now calls monkey "organ sacks." However, this work would clearly inform any possible human version.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Campaigners call verdict on Ben Jamal and Chris Nineham ‘grotesque’ and part of attempt to ‘undermine civil liberties’
Two prominent leaders in the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain have been found guilty of breaching protest conditions, in what campaigners called a “grotesque” and “shocking” decision.
Ben Jamal, 62, the director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), and Chris Nineham, 63, vice-chair of the Stop the War Coalition, were accused of failing to comply with conditions imposed on a protest on 18 January 2025. They were subsequently charged with public order offences.
Continue reading...The final season of The Boys arrives, along with loads of other new original shows and movies, this April.
Some European countries have blocked Israeli and US planes from moving weapons through their airspace. Plus, a rocket heads to the moon for the first time since 1972
Good morning.
Donald Trump has launched a tirade against European countries that refused to join the Israel-US war against Iran, calling out the UK and France, as transatlantic relations continue their downward spiral and the war wreaks havoc on the global economy.
What pushback has there been from Europe? France has blocked Israeli planes from flying weapons through its airspace, while Italy refused last-minute permission for US bombers to land in Sicily. Spain has already denied the US use of its bases and airspace. The UK, however, has allowed the US to use its bases for a war that its government says is illegal.
For the latest updates, follow our live blog.
Continue reading...Your iPhone gets new emoji, video podcasts and more.
Company chaired by Trump ally Larry Ellison seeks to reassure investors that bet on AI infrastructure will pay off
Oracle is cutting thousands of jobs as the US technology company seeks to reassure investors that its bet on AI infrastructure will pay off.
The $420bn (£315bn) company, which is headquartered in Austin, Texas, started making employees redundant on Tuesday, with thousands of its 162,000-strong workforce expected to leave.
Continue reading...Most modern dishwashers have one important part that needs regular cleaning. I asked an expert about how and how often to do it.
The distorted face emoji is fun, but the orca is number one in my heart.
From an interactive session of Sex With Friends to improvised Robot Karaoke, the Friday Live celebration of play and performance amid the museum’s venerable halls was a reminder of gaming’s cultural clout
In the grand entrance of the Victoria & Albert Museum, beneath a looming dome with ancient statues visible through nearby arches, a programmer/DJ is busy live-coding a glitchy electronic music set. Either side of her, large LED displays show streams of code and strobing pixellated images as the bass pounds. She’s part of a group named London Live Coding, an experimental collective that makes music by writing and manipulating audio programs. It is loud, disorientating and brilliant, and I can’t help wondering what Queen Victoria and her husband would have made of it.
The set is part of the museum’s long-running Friday Late evening series, a collaboration with the London Games Festival. It showcased a range of independent video games and immersive interactive experiences, focusing on the link between play and performance. Visitors were given a map and left to wander the halls, corridors and galleries looking for installations. You could play the Bafta-winning comedy game Thank Goodness You’re Here! on a giant screen beneath a 13th-century spiral staircase. You could wander down the darkened Prince Consort’s gallery and find groups of giggling pals playing the hilarious erotic physics puzzler Sex With Friends, in which ragdoll-like characters have to be guided into (consensual) sexual encounters – much to the amusement of spectators.
Continue reading...Five Nights at Freddy's 2, The Real Housewives of Rhode Island and more also arrive on Peacock.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delaware’s largest hospital system is expanding both in and out of the state. On Monday, the hospital said it would spend $75 million to build a new inpatient rehabilitation facility as part of that expansion.
ChristianaCare announced Monday it is building a new $75 million inpatient rehabilitation facility for patients in need of physical, speech and occupational therapy near its Newark hospital.
The announcement comes as part of the hospital’s $865 million investment into health facilities across the state, and more than a month and a half after announcing plans for a new $65 million campus in Georgetown.
ChristianaCare said it would partner with the Pennsylvania-based Onix Group, a commercial real estate company that focuses on hotel and health care developments, on the project. Some of its properties include the Hyatt Place on the Wilmington Riverfront, Dover Town Center on U.S. Route 13, and Cadia Healthcare Silverside near Talleyville.
The new 92,000‑square‑foot facility would open in summer 2028, offering 73 beds for rehabilitation services and creating 122 new jobs.
ChristianaCare cited the state’s aging population as part of its reasoning for constructing the facility, as well as relieving pressure on Wilmington Hospital’s emergency department. At Wilmington Hospital, ChristianaCare runs its “Center for Rehabilitation,” where it offers treatment for patients recovering from strokes and other traumatic injuries.
The hospital said it would transfer the Center for Rehabilitation’s 40 beds to the new Newark center, and the space in Wilmington would be converted to an inpatient step‑down unit to free up space in the emergency room.
“As one of the highest-quality programs in the region, these services are in high demand,” said Bradley Sandella, clinical leader of ChristianaCare’s medical subspecialties service line, in a statement. “But our ability to grow has been constrained by the space limitations in Wilmington Hospital.”
In recent months, the hospital has announced expansions both in and out of the state after saying last summer it would spend $865 million on new health facilities in the coming years.
Last month, the health care giant announced it aims to open a new $65 million campus in Georgetown. Months before that, it said it was building a health center dedicated to treating cancer in Middletown.
The health care system expects its new Georgetown facility — which would offer emergency beds, behavioral health care, specialty care and primary care — to open by 2028. It is partnering with health care-focused developer Emerus Holdings to build the facility at 20769 DuPont Blvd., just south of the Bridgeville Road intersection.
After a failed bid to merge with Southern New Jersey’s Virtua Health, the Georgetown plans could indicate that ChristianaCare sees more opportunity in its own backyard, and is willing to disregard the loose geographic monopolies that health care systems have enjoyed in Delaware for decades.
“This new campus will help close gaps in access by bringing high-quality, equitable and more convenient care directly into the community that needs it most,” ChristianaCare’s CEO Dr. Janice Nevin said in a statement. “Our goal is simple: ensure that every Delawarean can access the care they need, in the right place at the right time.”
ChristianaCare’s new facility would also come as federal funds will soon start to flow into Delaware’s southern counties to support rural health, and the hospital system continues its expansion both in and outside the state.
Like up north with its new rehabilitation center, ChristianaCare framed its decision to expand into Georgetown as part of a commitment to serve Delaware’s aging population.
Its Middletown cancer center, which is slated to open in May 2027, would solidify its foothold in the suburbs south of the C&D Canal. The $92 million health center would bring primary care, behavioral health, pediatrics, neurology and cardiovascular care, among others.
Since 2020, ChristianaCare has ventured deeper into the suburban Philadelphia health market, purchasing defunct hospitals and building its own in the surrounding towns. The hospital system announced last year it would partner with the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, better known as CHOP, leaving Delaware’s chief pediatric hospital, Nemours Children’s Health, on the sidelines.
However, late last year the hospital and New Jersey-based Virtua Health terminated a letter of intent they signed last summer that had signaled the health systems were considering merging in the coming years.
Combining the current ChristianaCare and Virtua Health footprints would have created a system covering more than 10 contiguous counties in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania and Maryland, with more than 600 facilities, nearly 30,000 employees and more than 500 residents and fellows.
The deal also would have required numerous regulatory sign-offs in both states, pitting potential hurdles to completing the deal. That included a review by attorneys general in Delaware and New Jersey because both systems are not-for-profits.
In Delaware, the prospect of an out-of-state merger was met with skepticism from Gov. Matt Meyer, who challenged the move when asked about it at a July press conference.
“I think when any medical practice in Delaware, and especially nonprofit hospitals, get some positive return from serving Delawareans’ health, that money should be reinvested in Delaware, not in another state,” Meyer said.
The post ChristianaCare announces new $75M rehab facility in Newark appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
We need a 5% wealth tax on America’s 938 billionaires. Over a 10-year period, this bill would raise much-needed $4.4tn for public coffers
Never before in American history have so few had so much wealth and power. Today, the top one per cent owns more wealth than the bottom 93%. One man, Elon Musk, worth $805bn, owns more wealth than the bottom 53% of American households.
And that inequality is getting worse. Last year alone, after receiving the largest tax break in history from Donald Trump, 938 billionaires in America became $1.5tn richer. Since he was elected, President Trump and his family have become $4bn richer.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
Delmarva Power is the largest energy provider in the state, serving more than 300,000 customers. If its rate increase request are approved by regulators, customers will see higher monthly bills.
Electric bills for Delmarva Power customers in Delaware are going to increase, again.
Last week, Delmarva Power officials notified state energy regulators that they will raise the average home’s electricity bill by $15 a month, citing a need to pass along higher energy supply costs.
While the increase is formally characterized as a request to energy regulators, Delmarva Power and state officials say it will very likely be approved because of its pass-through nature.
The increase is one of two that will result in higher energy bills for consumers in 2026.
In December, Delmarva Power requested an increase in the amount of profits it can legally earn in the state, which will result in a 4% jump in electricity rates in July. Delaware regulators may ultimately reject the increase — or lower it — at a later date, which would lead to refunds of any excess payments.
Delmarva Power Region President Marcus Beal previously told Spotlight Delaware that the company needs the additional money to pay for upgrades to the utility’s aging electric infrastructure.
In an interview Tuesday, Beal noted that last week’s price increase differs significantly from the one filed in December because the supply costs are “the side of the bill that we don’t control.”
As a regulated, for-profit utility, Delmarva Power is allowed to operate as a monopoly provider of energy in much of the state. To have that status, the company has to submit formal requests to regulators at the Delaware Public Service Commission when it wants to raise electricity or natural gas rates.
Delaware Public Advocate Jameson Tweedie fits into the system as the formal proponent for the interests of electricity customers.
In a statement, Tweedie’s office said it will not oppose last week’s rate increase request because it “has no reason to think” that a previous energy auction that returned higher wholesale electricity costs was unfair.
Still, Tweedie has said he will oppose Delmarva Power’s December rate increase request, arguing it is unfair to increase the utility’s profits while customers are struggling to pay rapidly rising energy bills.
A typical residential electricity customer in Delaware sees an average monthly bill of $157, a Delmarva Power spokesperson said. The two rate increase requests combined would increase those bills by about 13%, or $21, beginning in July.
Delmarva Power supplies electricity to 344,000 residential or commercial customers in Delaware, making it the state’s largest private utility. It also provides natural gas to a smaller number of customers in the state.
GET INVOLVED
Delaware residents can make their voices heard about Delmarva Power’s latest request by submitting public comments online here. To do so, commenters should include the rate increase’s docket number, 26-0389, in the online form.
Comments can also be made at the beginning of Delaware Public Service Commission meetings. Commission spokesman Matt Hartigan said Delmarva Power’s latest request will likely be heard on April 22.
Customers struggling to pay higher energy bills can use Delmarva Power’s Assistance Finder search tool to apply for energy assistance programs and community resources.
Delmarva Power’s rate increase request follows an electricity supply auction that produced high prices that were the result of growing electricity demand that hasn’t been matched by new power supplies, Beal said.
In essence, the imbalance in supply and demand has driven up the cost of electricity, which is then passed on to consumers.
That imbalance has been growing over the past few years and much of the regional increase in demand has come from big energy users, such as data centers.
The latest rate increase request comes a year and half after another regional electricity auction sparked a backlash from state governors, consumer advocates and environmentalists who called on the industry-run grid operator — PJM Interconnection — to enact sweeping reforms, including faster approvals of proposed wind and solar projects.
Delaware is in the same regional electricity grid as Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio, which have all seen a boom of new construction of data centers because of the growing computing demands from artificial intelligence applications.
Separately, Delmarva Power said in December that it is currently working with five developers to build data centers in Delaware.
Of those, one is an “early stage prospect.” The others are showing “more advanced interest,” according to the company.
If all are approved, the data centers would nearly double the current electricity demand of all homes and industry in the entire state
Beal said Delmarva Power will have to provide power to any data center customers that come to the state, despite the staggering new energy demands they would bring.
“We are required by law to serve all customers. We cannot discriminate,” Beal said.
The post Delmarva Power electricity bills set to go up again in 2026 appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
We now know all 48 teams that will play in the US, Canada and Mexico later this year – this is how they got there
Nine countries qualified as group winners – Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Ghana, Cape Verde, South Africa, Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire – and the Democratic Republic of Congo gave the continent a 10th representative at the tournament by battling through the playoffs.
Egypt
Mohamed Salah scored twice as Hossam Hassan’s side beat Djibouti 3-0 in Casablanca in October and made up for missing out on Qatar 2022 by reaching the finals with a game in hand. This will be Egypt’s fourth finals, even though they have yet to win a game. Bizarrely, the Pharaohs did qualify for the first World Cup, in 1930, but missed their boat from Marseille to South America after a storm delayed them.
Khalid Ahmed, 24, from Ealing in west London, also charged with one count of possession of prohibited ammunition
A 24-year-old man who was stopped at Dover has been charged with 10 counts of possession of a firearm.
Khalid Ahmed, from Ealing in west London, who is a dual Dutch and Irish national, is to appear at Westminster magistrates court on Wednesday, where he will also face one charge of possession of prohibited ammunition.
Continue reading...If you don't want to pay for a personal trainer or gym membership, the best workout apps are a great alternative you can use anywhere, anytime.
State department says it is working to ensure release of freelancer ‘as soon as possible’ after abduction in Baghdad
An American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, has been kidnapped in Baghdad by a suspected Iranian-backed Iraqi armed group, the US has said, as regional security deteriorates after the US-Israeli attack on Iran.
Kittleson is a longtime freelancer in the region, reporting extensively from Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Continue reading...The Climate Briefing: Climate change, energy and geopolitics Audio thilton.drupal
Anna and Bhargabi are joined by three experts to explore the links between climate change, energy and geopolitics.
As the conflict in the Middle East rattles energy markets, this episode explores the connections between climate change, energy, and geopolitics. It addresses questions such as:
- What does the war in Iran reveal about the links between fossil fuels, vulnerability, and power? What lessons can be drawn?
- What does the energy transition mean for global geopolitics, and how should governments manage the ‘messiness’ of the process?
- How are the impacts of climate change reshaping our world, and what can be done to navigate the challenges that arise?
To unpack these dynamics, Anna and Bhargabi are joined by Arthur Snell (a former diplomat and author of Elemental: The New Geography of Climate Change and How We Survive It), Michael Bradshaw (Professor of Global Energy at Warwick Business School, Associate Fellow at Chatham House, and author of The Geopolitics of Energy System Transformation: Managing the Messy Mix), and Dr Beatrice Mosello (Senior Research Fellow at Chatham House).
The Climate Briefing explores key themes in the UN climate negotiations and international climate politics. The podcast is hosted by Bhargabi Bharadwaj and Anna Aberg from Chatham House and features interviewees from governments, international organizations, academia and civil society organizations from across the world.
You can also listen to The Climate Briefing on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
The American star hasn’t scored since 2024 for the US, but he and manager Mauricio Pochettino are taking it in stride
Nobody on the US men’s national team is worried about Christian Pulisic’s severe lack of goalscoring form.
At least, nobody is saying they are.
Continue reading...With the NFL’s Chicago Bears weighing a once-unthinkable move to Indiana, a new federal bill aims to give cities the right to keep their teams
WWE star CM Punk called it “straight greed”. Illinois governor JB Pritzker called it a “slap in the face”. An overwhelming majority of fans say they will hold a grudge.
This cacophony of disgust has been prompted by the real possibility that the Chicago Bears could relocate to Hammond, Indiana. The Bears’ owners bought a site in Arlington Heights, Illinois, for a new stadium, but negotiations over property taxes have stalled construction. Meanwhile, Indiana has thrown its hat into the ring, passing a state bill on 26 February authorizing funding in Hammond. Chicago’s current home, Soldier Field, is a rental, open-air venue with the smallest seating capacity in the NFL. Still, it is not only in Illinois; it is in Chicago proper along Lake Michigan. Arlington Heights, while about 25 miles north of the city, is at least within state lines.
Continue reading...Former Infowars video editor and field producer spoke on his experience working on the show in an NPR interview
A former video editor and field producer for Alex Jones’s Infowars has said his work for the notorious conspiracy theorist was “nonsense” and “lies”, but he kept at it for four years in his 20s because the far-right media company’s founder was a magnetic presence and it earned him good money.
Josh Owens made those revealing remarks in an NPR interview published on Tuesday promoting his new memoir about once having been an employee of Jones and Infowars – a conversation that also detailed the hand he said he had in fabricating a video of an operative of the Islamic State (IS) terror group sneaking into the US from Mexico immediately after a beheading.
Continue reading...The Trump administration official leading an effort to loosen rules on methane pollution was an unnamed author of key industry arguments against those same rules just four years ago when he was an oil and gas lobbyist.
Aaron Szabo, an assistant administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency, is listed in PDF metadata as the author of a January 2022 comment letter objecting to proposed controls on methane emissions in the oil and gas industry. The letter was submitted to the EPA by the American Exploration and Production Council, which represents some of the industry’s largest emitters of the planet-warming gas, including ConocoPhillips, Diversified Energy and Hilcorp. Szabo’s name does not appear in the document itself, but it can be found in information embedded by the software used to create the PDF file.
Szabo was registered as a lobbyist for one of the AXPC’s lesser-known members, Ovintiv, when he drafted the arguments against the restrictions, which were finalized later in the Biden administration. He has also lobbied for other clients in the oil and chemicals sectors. While he did not hide that work during his confirmation last year as head of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, he described it in terms that avoided any mention of efforts to influence climate policy: “I learned how regulated entities comply with the federal government’s thousands of regulations and policies. I also saw firsthand that the people working in these companies want to ensure the environment is properly protected.”
In his current role overseeing federal climate rules at the EPA, Szabo has been soliciting input and even specific regulatory language from oil industry groups that stand to gain from watered-down methane rules, according to internal emails, calendar entries and records of closed-door conversations reviewed by ProPublica.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, pointed to Szabo’s previous lobbying as evidence that the EPA had effectively been captured by the oil and gas industry. “Now he can do Big Oil’s dirty work from inside the EPA,” Whitehouse told ProPublica in an email.
As part of its plan to “unleash American energy,” the Trump administration has waged an unprecedented campaign against regulations on fossil fuels, the main cause of global warming. One of its biggest moves was to repeal the “endangerment finding” that classified greenhouse gases as pollutants — the basis for the EPA’s authority to limit emissions at all. Rather than throw out the methane rules entirely, however, Szabo’s office is working to revise them, emails and documents show. It has already delayed many of the compliance deadlines until next year.
Methane, the main component of natural gas, is a climate superpollutant, responsible for one-third of the rise in global temperatures since preindustrial times, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. When it escapes into the atmosphere without being burned for energy, it can trap 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide, research shows. The oil and gas business is the largest industrial source of U.S. methane emissions, in part because of leaks from poorly maintained equipment. If it is uneconomical to collect the gas for sale, companies sometimes intentionally release it in a process known as venting.
To cut down on methane discharges, President Joe Biden’s EPA imposed much stricter controls on oil and gas operations, including requiring increased monitoring for leaks and equipment upgrades. According to agency estimates, the new rules would have lowered the industry’s methane emissions by nearly 80%. And, given that the gas breaks down relatively quickly, this would have been one of the fastest ways to reduce global warming.
Industry groups pushed back. In the January 2022 letter that Szabo helped to draft, the AXPC used the word “burdensome” 10 times to describe the new requirements and pushed for more “flexibility” to allow for less expensive leak-detection methods and less frequent monitoring, among other requests.
The group also cast doubt on the rules’ expected climate and health benefits, highlighting what it called “the importance of communicating the significant uncertainties within the estimates.” The AXPC’s chief executive, Anne Bradbury, added in a later statement that the rules risked “undercutting US production in the near and long-term — which will lead to increased energy costs and reduced energy security.”
The AXPC failed to persuade the Biden administration to change its approach. But it renewed its push after President Donald Trump returned to office and ordered federal agencies to “suspend, revise, or rescind” any “undue burden” on domestic energy production.
Szabo, after two years as a fellow at the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, joined the administration on Day 1 as an adviser to EPA chief Lee Zeldin. He immediately signaled that he planned to weaken the regulations he had argued against as a lobbyist. His staff met with AXPC representatives as early as Feb. 6, 2025, less than three weeks after Trump’s inauguration, to discuss its petition to “reconsider” the methane rules, according to emails and calendar entries obtained through public records requests and shared with ProPublica by Fieldnotes, a watchdog group that investigates the oil and gas industry. His staff went on to meet with them at least twice more, and Szabo himself was listed as a required attendee for a meeting with Bradbury last July.
The AXPC didn’t respond to emails from ProPublica seeking comment.
According to records of closed-door conversations reviewed by ProPublica, other oil industry representatives have described their meetings with Szabo and his staff as highly favorable to their interests. “Mr. Szabo assured us that the EPA is focused on these [methane] rules and doing everything that can be done to limit the damage they will cause,” the leadership of a major trade group wrote to its members last year in an internal newsletter.
Lee Fuller, of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, also spoke glowingly about his meeting with Szabo’s office on a conference call with industry representatives last year.
“It was one of the more fascinating meetings that we’ve ever had, just because they were suddenly willing to talk to us,” he said. “And they’re also suddenly willing to talk about things that we’ve been trying to get them to do for years, and they’ve never even let it kind of come onto the radar screen.”
The IPAA declined to answer specific questions from ProPublica but linked to a September 2025 letter in which the group publicly asked the EPA for exceptions to the methane rules.
Szabo’s office has even invited oil industry groups to offer specific wording for the revised rules. “We had a call several weeks back re. pneumatics on temporary equipment,” Mike O’Connor of the American Petroleum Institute wrote to an EPA official, referring to devices that are a major source of methane emissions. “EPA had informally requested input on this topic and any suggested reg. text language. We are providing the attached draft document as informal input to EPA’s inquiry.” The draft called for a number of exemptions.
The shift in priorities under Szabo can also be seen in communications from the EPA itself. In a June 2025 email reviewed by ProPublica, an agency official asked O’Connor to meet and discuss alternative leak-detection methods. Echoing the language in the AXPC comment that Szabo helped to draft, the official spoke of “the additional flexibility we would like to pursue.”
“I think their agenda was, from what I could tell, to do what industry wanted,” one former EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe confidential discussions, said of Szabo and other Trump appointees at the agency.
“Since when is it a bad thing for public officials to ask the public what they think?” the EPA said in an emailed statement, referring to Szabo’s interactions with oil industry representatives. Szabo “fulfilled all his ethical obligations to the letter. He met with EPA career ethics staff when he started at EPA to ensure he is aware of and complies with federal ethics requirements.”
Szabo’s affinities are hardly a secret. He is thanked by name in the EPA chapter of Project 2025, the deregulatory blueprint for the second Trump administration. As part of the nomination process for his appointment at the EPA, he also submitted ethics disclosures listing oil, natural gas and chemicals companies he had lobbied for.
Still, at his confirmation hearing on March 5 last year, he repeatedly declined to elaborate on his role in Project 2025, beyond saying he provided “general advice and thoughts” on the Clean Air Act.
The post The Trump EPA Official in Charge of Methane Regulations Helped Write Oil Industry Argument Against Those Rules appeared first on ProPublica.
Some of HBO Max's biggest shows are back this month, along with tons of major movie releases.
North Carolina and other states have insurance plans for kids in foster care, but many doctors did not accept patients on the plans, leaving kids' guardians scrambling to find health care providers.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court marked International Trans Day of Visibility with yet another ruling that puts the lives of trans people at risk. The justices ruled that Colorado’s statewide ban on conversion therapy for young people likely violates a Christian counselor’s First Amendment rights. The decision threatens conversion therapy bans nationwide, which are currently on the books in nearly half of all U.S. states.
The 8-1 ruling has far-reaching, terrifying potential consequences. And not only for trans youth: It indicates that speech delivered by licensed health care practitioners in a professional capacity, no matter how harmful and debunked the claims, cannot be banned as illegal conduct, because it counts as protected speech.
Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the one dissenting judge, appeared to appreciate the grave stakes of this ruling.
“Before now, licensed medical professionals had to adhere to standards when treating patients.”
“Before now, licensed medical professionals had to adhere to standards when treating patients: They could neither do nor say whatever they want,” Jackson wrote in a blistering dissent. “Largely due to such State regulation, Americans have been privileged to enjoy a long and successful tradition of high-quality medical care. Today, the Court turns its back on that tradition.”
The dangers of conversion therapy to trans and queer youth cannot be overstated. According to the Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide-prevention organization for LGBTQ+ young people, “LGBTQ+ youth who experienced conversion therapy are more than twice as likely to attempt suicide and more than 2.5 times as likely to report multiple suicide attempts in the past year.”
Conversion therapy, however, may not be the only potentially harmful intervention the ruling would apply to. As Jackson added in her dissent, the ruling “might make speech-only therapies and other medical treatments involving practitioner speech effectively unregulatable — not to be reached via licensing standards, medical-malpractice liability, or any other means of state control.”
It is a ruling, then, completely in line with our Trumpian moment of decimated medical care standards and eliminationist assaults on trans people. Indeed, it was done with support from President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
As journalist and trans rights advocate Erin Reed wrote, the court’s logic in the ruling holds that “any medical treatment delivered through words rather than instruments could now carry First Amendment protection — a framework that could shield a doctor who encourages a patient to commit suicide, a dietician who tells an anorexic patient to eat less, or a therapist who deliberately steers a vulnerable client away from life-saving treatment.”
Reed noted that the decision risks extending constitutional protections to “speech-based professional conduct” in other fields, like a lawyer giving knowingly harmful legal advice.
The crux of the majority’s opinion rests on the contested line between speech that is protected against government interference, and conduct, which can be regulated.
“Her speech does not become ‘conduct’ just because a government says so or because it may be described as a ‘treatment’ or ‘therapeutic modality,’” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch in the majority opinion, referring to the speech of Christian counselor Kaley Chiles, who sued the state of Colorado over the conversion therapy ban with representation from the right-wing legal giant the Alliance Defending Freedom.
Gorsuch’s opinion draws an extraordinary conclusion about the role of certain speech acts in professional health care settings.
The Colorado law did not ban Chiles from holding and expressing Christian views; the law, like regulations in over 20 other states, banned conversion talk therapy — that is, speech acts delivered with the specific aim to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attraction or feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”
It is precisely professional conduct that the law regulates.
As Jackson noted in her dissent, “The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of a scalpel.”
Every major medical and mental health association has condemned the practice of conversion therapy.
Given the danger posed by the court’s decision, it may seem surprising that the two other liberal justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, sided with the far-right majority. Their decision, according to their concurring opinions, related to the fact that Colorado’s law was not written in sufficiently “viewpoint-neutral” language.
“We need not here decide how to assess viewpoint-neutral laws regulating health providers’ expressions because, as the Court holds, Colorado’s is not one,” wrote Sotomayor.
With this far-right supermajority Supreme Court, however, even cautiously worded conversion therapy bans may not survive the conservative justices. In the last year alone, the court has bucked precedents and ignored medical expertise, not to mention basic humanity, in previous anti-trans decisions like banning trans youth health care and ejecting trans people from the military.
The court’s Tuesday decision did not in itself strike down the Colorado law, but in siding with conversion therapy, the justices returned the case to the 10th Circuit, where the highest form of judicial scrutiny will be applied. The law will almost certainly be struck down.
If existing bans are invalidated, those seeking to stop a further proliferation of conversion therapy may now have to use “creative methods,” Reed wrote, like tort law and malpractice law.
This is the grim legal terrain forged by the Trump regime and bigoted groups like the Alliance Defending Freedom, aided by too many negligent or complicit liberals. Medical malpractice and harmful speech acts are protected, whereas trans kids’ existence gets no protection at all.
The post Conversion Therapy Gets Speech Protections — But Trans Kids’ Existence Gets No Protection at All appeared first on The Intercept.
NASA launched four astronauts on a historic nine-day trip around the moon and back. Here's everything to know about the Artemis II mission.
An analysis from Penn Wharton Budget Model shows that baby boomers and the Silent Generation received an estimated $2.7 trillion in federal outlays last year.
President Trump indicated the Iran war may wrap up "very soon" and he could abandon efforts to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as the war pushed U.S. gas prices over the $4 mark.
A Starlink satellite broke apart in orbit after suffering an unexplained "anomaly," apparently due to an "internal energetic source" rather than a collision. "The incident appears to have created some debris, with fragments likely to fall to Earth over the next few weeks," reports Scientific American. From the report: The satellite lost communication at about 560 kilometers above Earth, Starlink said. While the statement from Starlink, which is a subsidiary of Musk's rocket company SpaceX, merely noted that investigations are ongoing, LeoLabs said its radar observations of the event indicated an "internal energetic source" as the likely cause rather than a collision. The incident underscores the potential hazards of the increasingly large numbers of satellites and other spacecraft in low-Earth orbit -- some 10,000 Starlinks are currently in orbit and counting. Starlink's statement said that "the event poses no new risk" to the International Space Station or to the upcoming launch of NASA's Artemis II mission, targeted for April 1.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Calls for tougher laws as network stretching from Caribbean to Georgia generates riches for offshore tycoons by appearing to prey on the vulnerable
Immaculately groomed and beaming from ear to ear, Andres Markou looks every inch the golden boy of the gambling sector. The youthful boss of MyStake, a fast-growing digital casino, has been pictured shaking hands with the Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho over a lucrative branding partnership.
Elsewhere, he can be seen collecting industry awards, or offering “visionary” insights to interviewers. There is only one hurdle blocking Markou’s ascent to the very top of his trade: he does not exist.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: As conflict engulfs Iran, shifting global alliances and soaring energy prices are reshaping the existing power balances that could redefine the next stage of international security
Good morning. So far, there is only one clear winner from the war in Iran: Russia. Before the US and Israel attacked Tehran in late February, Moscow was preparing deep budget cuts to education and healthcare funding to pay for its invasion of Ukraine, which has now entered its fifth year.
In just over a month of the fighting in Iran, Vladimir Putin’s Russia has experienced a dramatic reversal in fortunes. The global oil price has shot up from a prewar average of $72 to well over $100 per barrel, providing a financial boost of multi-billions for Moscow that shows little sign of ending.
Middle East | Donald Trump has launched a tirade against European countries that refused to join his war against Iran, calling out the UK and France.
Military | The UK is sending more military support to the Gulf, taking the total deployment to 1,000 troops.
NHS England | Some medicines could run out in weeks or even days, NHS England head warns, after supply line shocks.
UK politics | Nigel Farage to ‘steer well clear’ of UK CPAC event in July being led by the short-lived former prime minister Liz Truss.
UK news | King Charles’s state visit to US to go ahead in late April despite Iran war concerns.
Continue reading...Here's where the self-driving company operates and where it's headed soon.
South Korea will delay the shutdown of coal-fired plants, while the Philippines also plans to boost the output of its coal-burning plants
Governments across Asia are ramping up their use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, as they try to cover huge energy shortfalls triggered by the US-Israel war on Iran.
The move has triggered warnings from climate experts who point to coal’s devastating environmental impact, and say the energy crisis should be a wake up call for governments to invest in renewables, which can offer a more stable supply that is not exposed to price shocks.
Continue reading...For more than 50 years, ophthalmologists Joshua Kalin and, later, his son Neil served generations of Newarkers out of an office in Kelway Plaza.
President Trump is planning to deliver a prime-time address Wednesday night to "provide an important update on Iran," the White House said, as the president faces critical decisions in the monthlong war.
Content creators love the built-in camera; sceptics call them ‘pervert glasses’. Do we really need any more hi-tech wearables, even with a voice assistant that sounds like Judi Dench?
Lately, I’ve been hearing Judi Dench’s voice in my head. She tells me tomorrow’s forecast, when to turn right, that there’s been another message in my group chat. Day or night, Dame Judi is eager to assist. When I ask the eight-time Academy Award nominee what I’m looking at, she answers: a residential area, a person in a pub, daffodils. “They are a bright yellow colour and are often associated with spring.”
This isn’t a delusion. This is, apparently, progress. I am test-driving Meta’s smartglasses and Dench voices its integrated AI assistant: “Here to chat, answer questions, create images and provide advice and inspiration,” said “Judi” when I selected her over the actors John Cena and Kristen Bell. “Shall we begin?”
Continue reading...A war’s unintended consequences—for Iran, the Middle East, and the global order.
Why the future of science might be Chinese.
The Iran war will accelerate the region’s economic transformation.
The Newark Arts Alliance’s latest exhibit showcases the many talents of its members.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Russia is going to further clamp down Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which are used by millions of Russians to get around internet controls and censorship, Russia's digital minister said. In what has been cast by diplomats as Russia's "great crackdown," the authorities have repeatedly blocked mobile internet and jammed major messenger services while giving sweeping powers to cut off mass communications. "The task is reduce VPN usage," Digital Minister Maksut Shadayev said on state-backed messenger MAX late on Monday, adding that his ministry was trying to impose the limits with minimal impact on users. He said decisions had been taken to restrict access to a number of unidentified foreign platforms without giving details.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A rescue mission involving volunteer helicopter crew and public donations ended in joy after Molly was located and brought home
A spot of furry black and white appears among the jagged rocks of New Zealand’s alpine backcountry. It is Molly the border collie, sitting near the foot of a waterfall where she had been separated from her owner one week earlier.
Molly was rescued on Tuesday after an avalanche of donations from the public funded a volunteer team made up of former helicopter pilots and crew to mount a search in the wilderness.
Continue reading...  | Installed the Land + Surf VRH and lost my fender but everything I put there rubs on the tire including the original fender delete. Did this happen to anyone else and is there a solution? I even shaved it down with a Sawzall but still rubbing, any advice is appreciated! 🙏 [link] [comments] |
The AI company blames the leak on human error, but says no customer data was released.
“No punishment. No investigation,” the Pentagon chief wrote on social media hours after military officials announced they had grounded the pilots involved.
Critics say ‘election integrity’ plan to compile national voter list is unconstitutional and will be blocked by the courts
Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order seeking to restrict mail-in voting and compile a national voter list in a move that is unprecedented and probably unconstitutional.
The order directs the administration to establish a federal list of confirmed citizens that can legally vote in each state, and orders the postal service to send mail-in ballots only to those on the list. During a press conference at the White House, Trump said the administration would like to require voter ID and proof of citizenship, and repeated falsehoods about mail-in voting.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed.
Donald Trump confirmed that King Charles and Queen Camilla, will travel to the US for a state visit from 27 to 30 April.
The president said that the trip will include a banquet dinner at the White House on 28 April. “I look forward to spending time with the King, whom I greatly respect. It will be TERRIFIC!,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Continue reading...Lewis’s son Avi Lewis was elected leader of progressive New Democratic party a day before his father’s death
Stephen Lewis, the Canadian diplomat, politician and human rights advocate, who spent decades tirelessly working to focus global attention on the HIV/Aids epidemic, has died of cancer.
Lewis, who served as the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, as well as the head of Ontario’s New Democratic party (NDP), was 88.
Continue reading...Announcement part of controversial shakeup described by critics as administration attack on ‘science and scientists’
The Trump administration will move the US Forest Service headquarters from Washington DC to Salt Lake City and shut down its regional offices, the agriculture department has announced. The announcement sets in motion a controversial reorganization for the country’s second-largest federal land management agency that Trump officials have planned since last year.
The move, which the USDA touted as a “commonsense approach”, recalls the first Trump administration’s chaotic attempt to relocate the Bureau of Land Management from Washington DC to Colorado, first announced in 2019. The agency lost nearly 90% of its Washington-based staff, who declined to move – only for the BLM to return toWashington after Joe Biden took office.
Continue reading...A federal judge directed the Trump administration to restore the legal status of migrants allowed into the U.S. under a now-defunct Biden administration program for asylum-seekers who arrived at the southern border.
Christian Pulisic struggles in more attacking role
Francisco Trincão opens scoring in first half
US play Germany, Senegal before World Cup opener
The US men’s national team met Portugal at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Tuesday evening having spent the days leading up to the match preaching about intensity. Following a 5-2 drubbing at the hands of Belgium on the weekend, players and coaches alike stressed the importance of showing well against Portugal, sixth in Fifa’s world rankings.
Instead, the US closed this window with another flat performance, undone by a talented Portuguese side that easily unlocked the US in front of a sellout crowd of 72,297. The 2-0 loss was the USMNT’s eighth consecutive defeat at the hands of a European opponent, a stretch that’s seen them outscored 22-6.
Continue reading...Trump taunts allies to ‘go get your own oil’ as some nations dig in heels to oppose conflict and global destabilization – key US politics stories from Tuesday 31 March at a glance
Donald Trump launched a fresh tirade Tuesday against European countries that refused to join his war against Iran, calling out the UK and France, as transatlantic relations soured from the spiralling conflict that has wreaked havoc on the global economy.
On his Truth Social website, the US president told governments worried about fuel prices to “go get your own oil” by force from the Gulf, comments that sent oil prices even higher.
Continue reading...They may look the same, but when a new one goes missing, you'll notice a difference in how much easier it is to locate.
March 31, 2026 — Bringing researchers to the state of the art is crucial to the use of AI for science research, and this summer, that’s exactly what the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), and collaborating institutions are doing.
Deep Learning for Science School 2025
They’ll host the 2026 Deep Learning for Science (DL4SCI) Summer School, a five-day intensive program assembling researchers and engineers to explore the latest advances in deep learning and AI. Hosted at Berkeley Lab from July 20–24, the 2026 iteration will emphasize foundation models, reasoning, and agentic AI for scientific discovery. The deadline to apply is April 10.
“Since we started this event in 2019, we’ve seen an explosion in the sophistication of deep learning and AI approaches used in science,” said Wahid Bhimji, Division Deputy for AI and Science at NERSC and a co-organizer of the event. “It remains our focus to bring bleeding-edge techniques from practitioners in industry, academia, and labs to the wider fundamental science community.”
Built around in-depth lectures, research talks, and hands-on tutorials teaching emerging approaches to foundation models for science, the program will span the end-to-end lifecycle – data, training at scale, adaptation, and evaluation – along with sessions on reasoning-centric workflows and agentic systems. Students can expect a blend of theory, practical application, and networking opportunities to bolster their understanding and prepare to bring what they’ve learned into their work.
It’s this range of learning experiences that makes DL4SCI a valuable tool for developing an AI-conversant workforce, according to organizers. And because the program is tailored to issues and skills at the forefront of AI as it evolves, each iteration offers unique opportunities.
“DL4SCI is a week packed with insights, hands-on learning, and opportunities to connect with peers and experts, with lectures, talks, and tutorials from experts at the forefront of AI,” said Ben Erichson, a researcher in the Berkeley Lab Scientific Data Division and a co-organizer of the event.
But summer school isn’t just about gaining knowledge; it’s also about people. Summer School will also facilitate networking and collaboration through breakout sessions, group activities, and optional poster sessions. These forums will allow participants to engage directly with instructors and peers, fostering vibrant discussions on how current research trends—particularly in foundation models, reasoning, and agents—can be leveraged in scientific domains. By the end of the program, attendees will be equipped with the tools and expertise necessary to implement, evaluate, and scale modern AI solutions in their research.
“I love meeting participants who are applying AI to so many exciting science problems,” he said. “So I can’t wait for this year’s event!”
About Computing Sciences at Berkeley Lab
High performance computing plays a critical role in scientific discovery. Researchers increasingly rely on advances in computer science, mathematics, computational science, data science, and large-scale computing and networking to increase our understanding of ourselves, our planet, and our universe. Berkeley Lab’s Computing Sciences Area researches, develops, and deploys new foundations, tools, and technologies to meet these needs and to advance research across a broad range of scientific disciplines.
Source: Elizabeth Ball, Berkeley Lab
The post Berkeley Lab: DL4SCI 2026 to Spotlight Discovery Through Agentic AI, Foundation Models appeared first on HPCwire.
Many countries in Europe have called the conflict illegal, with some blocking Israeli and US planes from moving weapons through their airspace
Donald Trump has launched a tirade against European countries that refused to join his war against Iran, calling out the UK and France, as transatlantic relations soured from the spiralling conflict that has wreaked havoc on the global economy.
On his Truth Social website, the US president told governments worried about fuel prices to “go get your own oil” by force from the Gulf, comments that sent oil prices even higher.
Continue reading...JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon shares his thinking on capitalism, AI, prediction markets and more in an interview with "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil.
Iraq’s interior ministry said it had arrested one suspect, seized a car and was looking for accomplices.
⚽️ US kick off v Portugal at 7pm ET in Atlanta, Georgia
⚽️ Final friendly before 2026 World Cup roster is named
⚽️ Questions? Thoughts? Email Alexander here
⚽️ Last time out: US 2-5 Belgium | Another lowlands debacle
From Jeff Rueter: It’s tough to resist rampant speculation on the back of this final lineup before Pochettino picks his squad. Morris and Berhalter, former academy teammates in Columbus, will be desperate to show the requisite bite and midfield moderation to make their cases for World Cup inclusion. Clearly there’s some desperation to get Pulisic back among the goals if he’s serving as a nominal line-leader.
US fans ought to hope Alex Freeman puts in a shift that keeps him in the lineup. Whether he’s right-most of three center-backs or a right back (or wing back), he’s been a staple of the team’s best performances in recent windows.
Via Pablo Iglesias Maurer: It’s about an hour before kickoff and Mercedes-Benz Stadium is already filling in quite a bit. One thing was made abundantly clear on the walk over here – this will be a much taller task for the US in terms of the crowd, which is 50/50 rooting interests at best and perhaps even pro-Portugal. Belgian fans were hard to come by on Saturday, when the US got thrashed anyways.
Continue reading...US president reiterates that responsibility for reopening the vital oil and gas hub rests on the countries who rely on it
Saudi Arabia’s defence ministry has said it has intercepted and destroyed ten drones over the past hours, and eight missiles launched towards the Riyadh area and the country’s eastern region.
Early this morning Kuwait said its air defences were responding to hostile missile and drone attacks. Neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait said where the drones or missiles came from.
Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker off Dubai. Local authorities later said response teams contained the incident with no oil leakage and that no injuries had been reported
Donald Trump warned that the US would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it did not open the strait of Hormuz.
The Israeli military said four soldiers had been killed in combat in southern Lebanon, where its forces are clashing with Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Two giant Chinese container ships have sailed through the strait of Hormuz on their second attempt to leave the Gulf after turning back on Friday, ship-tracking data shows. The transit signals a diplomatic breakthrough between Beijing and Tehran as Iran widens its list of approved nations for transiting the vital route, Lloyd’s List reported.
Indonesia’s foreign minister called for an emergency UN security council meeting and a thorough investigation” into a “heinous attack” after three UN peacekeepers from Indonesia were killed in southern Lebanon.
Blasts were heard in Tehran and power cuts hit some areas of the capital, Iranian media reported on Tuesday. Israel earlier carried out missile strikes on what it called military infrastructure in Tehran and infrastructure used by Hezbollah in Beirut.
Japan and Indonesia agreed to step up coordination on energy security, Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi said on Tuesday.
Two Iranian missile launches targeted central Israel, Israeli media reported, with the emergency service saying it had not received reports of any injuries.
Turkey reported a ballistic missile launched from Iran had entered Turkish airspace before being shot down by Nato air and missile defences.
An earlier summary of key developments is here.
Continue reading...Tiger Woods announced Tuesday that he's "stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment" after pleading not guilty to charges including driving under the influence.
White House officials have been trying to drum up new strategies to prevent a GOP wipeout in the midterm elections.
Woods pleads not guilty and demands jury trial
Deputies cite signs of impairment in affidavit
Hydrocodone pills found in pocket after arrest
Tiger Woods said he will step away from golf to seek treatment and focus on his health after his arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence after a rollover crash near his Florida home.
“I know and understand the seriousness of the situation I find myself in today,” Woods said in a statement posted on X. “I am stepping away for a period of time to seek treatment and focus on my health. This is necessary in order for me to prioritize my well-being and work toward lasting recovery.”
Continue reading...Kid Rock posted videos of the helicopters hovering by his Nashville home on social media over the weekend. The Army later confirmed the helicopters were on a training mission.
Just hours earlier, an Army spokesperson said the crew had been suspended from flying while the Army conducts a formal investigation into why the Apache helicopters flew near Kid Rock's Nashville house.
Pentagon chief’s remarks come after US army said crews suspended amid investigation into incident in Tennessee
Defense secretary Pete Hegseth said the crews of two US army AH-64 Apache helicopters that hovered next to the singer Kid Rock’s swimming pool while he clapped and saluted on Saturday are no longer suspended.
“No punishment. No investigation,” Hegseth wrote on social media. “Carry on, patriots.”
Continue reading...President Trump has long wanted to place additional restrictions on mail-in voting, which he has called "mail-in cheating."
The new artwork supports theories that the game's next hero will be Frankie, a member of Ashe's Deadlock Gang.
Sector cites ‘billions of pounds in additional costs’ from new business rates and increase in minimum wage thresholds
Two-thirds of hospitality businesses are planning to cut jobs as a result of “suffocating” costs imposed by government, as new business rates and higher wage bills come into force.
Many pubs, restaurants and hotel companies will see their costs increase significantly from 1 April after Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates and an increase in minimum wage thresholds announced at the chancellor’s November budget.
Continue reading...UK researcher uses maths to explain seeming inevitability of phenomenon experienced by many motorists
It is a situation experienced by many motorists: one driver overtakes another only to find the slower car is right behind them when they reach a red light. Now a researcher has used mathematics to reveal why the situation feels inevitable.
Dr Conor Boland from Dublin City University has called his work “The Voorhees law of traffic”.
Continue reading...Policymakers should address financial barriers that hinder young people from starting families, says thinktank
Politicians hoping to persuade young people in the UK to have more children should prioritise tackling housing affordability, according to research by the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
There has been growing concern in recent years about Britain’s declining birthrate, given the long-term fiscal pressures of supporting an ageing population.
Continue reading...The home affairs select committee said Prevent cannot deal with the modern challenges of fighting extremism
The government’s anti-terrorism programme, Prevent, is “outdated and inadequately prepared” to deal with modern challenges such as extremists adhering to no particular ideology, an influential cross-party group of MPs has concluded.
The home affairs select committee has called for a reset to the approach for dealing with fast-evolving online subcultures promoting antisemitism, anti-Muslim hostility, misogyny and violence, as well as an over-representation of neurodiverse people and those with mental health conditions.
A growing prevalence of under-18s being drawn into extremism.
Neurodiverse individuals, particularly those with Autistic Spectrum Disorder, being over-represented among referrals to the programme.
Fluid or hybrid ideological beliefs among those referred and a shift toward nihilistic violence.
Influencers and creative tools such as memes, humour and coded messaging being used to spread extremist content in a way that is accessible and appealing.
Generative AI being used to produce large volumes of tailored content and disinformation.
An increase in hate crimes and incidents in the UK that are linked to anti-blasphemy activism, anti-Israel extremism, anti-Muslim hostility and eco-extremism.
Continue reading...The new rules are the first major change to the country’s laws governing child-rearing in more than a century
Divorced couples in Japan will be able to negotiate joint custody of their children from Wednesday, in the first major change to the country’s laws governing child-rearing in more than a century.
Previously, Japan’s Civil Code required couples to decide which parent would take custody of their children when they divorce.
Continue reading...Polestar and Volvo are ending Polestar 3 production in Chengdu, China, and consolidating all output of the electric SUV at Volvo's plant in South Carolina. "The move to consolidate global Polestar 3 production in Charleston help[s] generate efficiencies for both companies, whilst also underscoring our confidence in the plant and the role it plays in our manufacturing footprint," said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars. "The U.S. is a very important market for Volvo Cars, both to support our growth ambitions as well as a strategic production site to meet regional and export demands." Ars Technica reports: Volvo had a challenging 2025, with sales falling by 7 percent. Meanwhile, Polestar, which was spun out from the Swedish OEM's performance arm into a standalone startup in 2017, had a rather good 2025, seeing a 34 percent increase in sales. So increasing the proportion of Polestar 3s to come out of South Carolina seems sensible. And as we learned last September, the midsize electric Volvo EX60 will also go into production at the South Carolina site later this year, and then we'll see a still-unnamed hybrid Volvo in 2030. The two companies also announced today that Volvo agreed to extend part of a shareholder loan it made to Polestar and will convert the rest into Polestar shares. Polestar will still owe Volvo $661 million, due at the end of 2031, and another $274 million will become Polestar stock now, with a further $65 million in the second quarter of the year. Since December, Polestar has also raised $1 billion through three equity financing investments.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Looking for a solution to charge my XRC on trails with no power outlets
Would something like this work? https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FFZJFBYH/ref=ox_sc_act_image_1?smid=AKSIB48CQUPXZ&psc=1
Also would love to know what other people are using/what's the best solution is
US president demolished East Wing of White House last year to make way for 90,000-sq-ft project
A US judge has halted the construction of Donald Trump’s $400m White House ballroom.
The US president demolished the historic East Wing of the White House last year to make way for the project.
Continue reading...So, I’ve been having some nosedive issues on my Fungineers X7 (Thor 300, only about 35 miles lifetime). It seems to only happen when I don’t have “Disable Moving Faults” on, which led me to think I have a crap foot sensor (Stompies v3… I think). Most of the time, I seem to experience these nosedives when I’m riding a mellow trail. I never go too aggressively, typically staying at 10 mph as this board has me a little spooked. I tend to get a WheelSlip warning around the same time as sensor disengagements, which looks like a chicken-or-egg problem. Today, while riding around to build my confidence on the board a bit more with Disable Moving Faults on, I encountered a “stuck” IMU. I took a screenshot of what it looked like on the AppUI of the VESC Tool. I stopped throughout my ride to check for any weird warnings or errors that might help diagnose these nosedives, and on the last stop, the board wouldn’t reengage. Regardless of how I moved the board around, the orientation on the AppUI page never changed.
I’ve already run through the IMU recalibration in Float Hub, which seems to have helped, but could this issue be behind some of my nosedives? What’s the likelihood of a bad IMU? Anyone else experiencing this with the Thor 300?
Looks like Google's Fitbit and Pixel smartwatches might be getting a new sibling.
Milpitas approves measure to distribute smart doorbells and says residents can upload footage to police database
A Silicon Valley city will offer its residents free wireless doorbells equipped with cameras to help police collect video evidence.
The city council of Milpitas, a suburb north of San Jose, California, recently approved $60,000 to provide these devices on a one-camera-per-household, first-come, first-served basis, as was first reported by Milpitas Beat and confirmed by the Guardian.
Continue reading...President has falsely claimed ‘legendary’ fraud for limiting mail-in ballots and himself voted by mail last week
Donald Trump signed an executive order directing his administration to compile a national voter file and to restrict the use of mail-in ballots, an unprecedented move that is probably unconstitutional.
The executive order directs the Department of Homeland Security to work with the Social Security Administration to compile a list of verified US citizens who can vote in every state. It also directs the United States Postal Service (USPS) to begin rule-making on a process that would require states to notify the agency of voters who intend to receive a mail-in ballot and prohibit them from receiving one unless they are on a USPS-approved list of eligible voters.
Continue reading...The latest Ray-Ban and Oakley Meta updates introduce hands-free nutrition logging and real-time translation, moving the smart glasses closer to the "continuous assistant" Meta promised.
There's a Spicy Saja McMuffin, Derpy McFlurry, Ramyeon McShaker fries and two new dipping sauces -- one in a bright purple.
Trump administration claims list is part of an EEOC investigation into antisemitic discrimination at university
A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the University of Pennsylvania to hand over records about Jewish employees on campus to a federal agency as part of an investigation into antisemitic discrimination but said it did not have to reveal any employee’s affiliation with a specific group.
US district judge Gerald Pappert said employees can refuse to take part in the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation but the agency “needs the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination”.
Continue reading...A federal judge has ordered Penn to hand over records about Jewish employees on campus to a federal agency as part of an investigation into antisemitic discrimination.
bobthesungeek76036 shares a report from the Register: Oracle laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday as it ramps spending on AI infrastructure projects internally and with major technology partners. The layoffs were carried out via email, according to copies of the message viewed by Business Insider. The email told affected workers they would be terminated immediately and to provide a personal email for follow-up. The cuts echo a TD Cowen forecast earlier this year, when the investment bank questioned how Oracle would finance its expanding AI datacenter buildout and suggested headcount reductions could reach 20,000 to 30,000. It is not clear how many employees were notified on Tuesday, but one screenshot that purports to show the number of internal Slack users showed a drop of 10,000 overnight. [...] Oracle employs about 162,000 people, with 58,000 of those in the US and approximately 104,000 internationally. If the rumored cuts of 30,000 are correct, it would amount to 18 percent of the company's workforce. According to posts from Oracle workers on LinkedIn, the cuts were spread through multiple departments around the country, with employees in Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas taking to social media to say they were among those chopped. "This news didn't seem to affect stock price," adds bobthesungeek76036. "ORCL is up 6% for the day."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The ban applies only to the sale of new routers manufactured outside the US. Americans with existing foreign-made routers can continue to use them.
The JPMorgan Chase CEO said the bank may one day introduce prediction market features, but said "there's a bunch of stuff we won't do" in that space.
Company said it achieved valuation of $852bn, mentioning in a blogpost it generates $2bn a month in revenue
OpenAI announced on Tuesday it had closed a fundraising round of $122bn and achieved a valuation of $852bn. The funding cements the ChatGPT maker as one of the most highly valued private companies in the world.
The artificial intelligence firm received multibillion-dollar investments from companies including Amazon, Nvidia and SoftBank, which committed $110bn, according to the Wall Street Journal. OpenAI also allowed a select group of individual investors to contribute about $3bn. The funding round ranks among the highest-ever in Silicon Valley. OpenAI said last month it was expecting to raise $110bn in funding, but upped that figure in its latest announcement.
Continue reading...JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon thinks AI will shorten the work week and lead to medical breakthroughs, while acknowledging the technology's potential impact on the nation's workforce.
The Swiss company says its new Workspace, like its Unlimited suite, gives users more control over their privacy and security.
The cute blue-and-white mascot made his debut during the MacBook Neo launch, but he's back in more TikTok videos. Long live "Lil Finder Guy"!
Citing the first amendment, judge says president’s executive order is unlawful and unenforceable
Citing the first amendment, a federal judge on Tuesday agreed to permanently block the Trump administration from implementing a presidential directive to end federal funding for National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), two media entities that the White House has said are counterproductive to American priorities.
The operational impact of US district judge Randolph Moss’s decision was not immediately clear – both because it will probably be appealed and because too much damage to the public-broadcasting system has already been done, both by the president and Congress.
Continue reading...
With the Pentagon potentially seeking a $200 billion supplemental package to fund the ongoing war with Iran, President Donald Trump defended that figure in part by saying U.S. ammunition “was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine.” He then exaggerated the amount of aid to Ukraine and falsely said that former President Joe Biden “didn’t rebuild anything” in the defense stockpile.
Trump has a point that the military assistance provided to Ukraine reduced the U.S. reserve of weapons. But that aid largely has not affected the military operations in Iran, defense experts told us.
Furthermore, Biden signed multiple spending bills passed by Congress that included funding to replace the older weapons that the U.S. gave to Ukraine with new items. Experts also told us that Biden’s administration put money into increasing the production of munitions for the military.
“Of course, the Biden administration built a lot in terms of military equipment,” Mark F. Cancian, senior adviser for the defense and security department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told us in an email. “Whether it did enough is another question.”
The subject of the $200 billion request came up during a March 19 meeting in the Oval Office when a reporter asked Trump why the funding would be necessary if, as Trump had said, the war with Iran would “pretty soon” be over.
“Well, we’re asking for a lot of reasons beyond even what we’re talking about in Iran,” the president responded. He went on to add: “We want to have vast amounts of ammunition, which we have right now. We have a lot of ammunition, but it was taken down by giving so much to Ukraine. They gave so much. You know, Biden gave $350 billion worth of cash and military equipment to Ukraine, and he didn’t rebuild anything.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also brought up Biden when asked about the potential $200 billion supplemental in a press conference that same day.
“As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move,” Hegseth said. “It takes money to kill bad guys. So, we’re going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we’re properly funded for what’s been done, for what we may have to do in the future, ensure that our ammunition is – everything’s refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.”
He went on to say: “And I think, you know, we’re also still dealing with the environment that Joe Biden created, which was – which was depleting those stock holds and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine – which is when, every time we reach back and look at any sort of a challenge we have, it goes back to well, send it to Ukraine.”
But as we’ve written, the U.S. did not give “$350 billion worth of cash and military equipment to Ukraine.” Trump has made that false claim multiple times.
During the Biden administration, nearly $183 billion – not including a $20 billion loan – was made available for aid to Ukraine, after Russia invaded in February 2022, according to a report released in February 2025 by a special inspector general overseeing U.S. support for Ukraine. The vast majority of that money was authorized by Congress in a series of bipartisan appropriations bills. A portion of the funding was dedicated to military assistance rather than humanitarian or other financial aid.
Biden’s Defense Department said in a January 2025 fact sheet that it committed more than $66.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, including approximately $65.9 billion following the invasion by Russia in early 2022. Part of that military aid included the transfer of a variety of missiles, artillery, tanks and other armaments from the Defense Department.
Defense experts told us that aid has temporarily reduced the U.S. reserve of available weapons.
“It is true that U.S. stockpiles are badly depleted by aid to Ukraine,” Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at Defense Priorities, a think tank that advocates a “restrained foreign policy,” told us in an email. “This long-term problem will take time to address. It is not something that has been resolved and is ongoing across many types of munitions and air defense.”
However, she said it would be “misleading” to suggest that military aid to Ukraine is responsible for most of the “current munitions concerns” in Iran because of the type of weapons that have been used in the war to date.
“With the exception of Patriot interceptors, most [of] the munitions in use in the Middle East were not given to Ukraine at any point,” Kavanagh said, referring to the PATRIOT air defense systems that can shoot down incoming ballistic missiles.
For example, the Washington Post reported, citing anonymous sources, that the U.S. used more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles against Iran in a month, raising concerns among some Pentagon officials about the limited supply. But the U.S. has not given Tomahawks to Ukraine, even though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has requested them.
Cancian, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, also told us in an email that besides “Patriot batteries and missiles,” which Ukraine has used “extensively” against Russia, the munitions the U.S. gave to Ukraine “were almost entirely for ground forces, which is not an issue in the current war.”
So far, U.S. ground troops have not been ordered into combat. The U.S. and Israel have conducted joint airstrikes since launching the attack on Iran on Feb. 28. But thousands of American soldiers were recently deployed to the Middle East in case Trump does authorize ground operations.
“So, it is fair to link Ukraine aid to shortages in U.S. Patriot missile stockpiles, but not limited magazine depth more broadly,” Kavanagh said. “That larger problem stems from years of low production and constraints on the U.S. defense industrial base.”
Cancian said that CSIS has estimated that the inventory of Patriot missiles will last through the war with Iran, but “will be well below what war planners want for a possible conflict in the western Pacific.” Exact figures are not available because inventory totals are classified.
Meanwhile, both defense experts told us that Trump was wrong to claim that Biden did nothing as president to try to “rebuild” the stockpile.
“The Biden administration invested heavily in the U.S. defense industrial base and began a massive ramp-up in the production of many types of munitions that Trump continues,” Kavanagh said. “Much of the funding in the defense supplemental appropriations went to this purpose and the Pentagon made a real effort to expand munitions production and stockpiles. Some would say that Biden did not do enough or acted too slowly, but these are judgment calls. It is not accurate to say he built nothing.”
Cancian said that Biden “began the process of expanding munitions production by investing money in facilities and signing multiyear contracts.” He also noted that Congress, under Biden, appropriated money to replace all the military equipment that the U.S. sent to Ukraine.
Biden made that point himself in an October 2023 address to the American public.
“Let me be clear about something,” the former president said. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles, with new equipment. Equipment that defends America and is made in America.”
The issue, Cancian said, is that “it will take years before all of the replacement equipment arrives.” He said, “That gap constitutes risk if other conflicts break out.”
On Jan. 20, 2025, the day that Biden left office, the State Department said that Presidential Drawdown Authority had been used 55 times since August 2021 to provide military assistance to Ukraine “totaling approximately $31.7 billion from DoD stockpiles.” The February 2025 report from the Ukraine oversight inspector general said that Congress appropriated $45.8 billion to replace the materials the Defense Department donated to Ukraine.
Notably, when we asked about the $200 billion Pentagon request and Trump’s and Hegseth’s claims about Biden draining the U.S. stockpile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the U.S. has all that it needs for operations in Iran.
“The US military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and weapons stockpiles to achieve the goals of Operation Epic Fury laid out by President Trump — and beyond,” she said in an emailed statement.
“Nevertheless,” she went on, “President Trump has always been intensely focused on strengthen[ing] our Armed Forces and he will continue to call on defense contractors to more speedily build American-made weapons, which are the best in the world.”
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The post Trump Links Biden’s Ukraine Aid to Pentagon’s Iran War Funding Request appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Americans have made clear to politicians that rising prices are a major concern. But has milk escaped inflationary pressure? That’s what a New York congressional candidate recently said.
Blake Gendebien is a farmer seeking the Democratic nomination in New York’s 21st Congressional District, which will come open because Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik is retiring.
In a Jan. 30 X post, Gendebien wrote that milk prices "currently are no higher than they were in 1980’s, even as fuel, feed, and equipment costs keep climbing."
A spokesperson for Gendebien’s office, Georgia Greenleaf, pointed PolitiFact New York to federal price data. We looked at the numbers and found that Gendebien had a point, although the comparison needs some explanation.
The federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics has tracked the price of milk since January 1980. Until June 1995, it measured the price per half gallon. Since July 1995, it has measured the price per gallon. To make the data series comparable over the full period, we multiplied the half-gallon prices from January 1980 to June 1995 by two and kept the subsequent data the same, at one gallon. (This isn’t a perfect adjustment, since purchasing larger quantities of an item often leads to a bit of a price break, but it’s a reasonable estimate.)
Next, we divided each month’s per-gallon milk price by the January 1980 price to show how much it had risen from that baseline.
This calculation showed that the price of milk has roughly doubled from $2.03 to $4.03 per gallon since January 1980.
So if you look at the price of milk in isolation, it hasn’t stayed constant since the 1980s. But if you compare the rise in the price of milk to overall consumer price inflation — the most reasonable way of measuring price changes over a 46-year period — milk has risen in price by far less than other items have.
From January 1980 to February 2026, overall consumer prices have more than quadrupled. That’s about twice as fast as milk prices have risen since January 1980.
Alan Bjerga, National Milk Producers Federation executive vice president of communications and industry relations, agreed that today’s prices are "lower in real dollars" — that is, accounting for inflation.
The main reason is greater efficiency at the farm level, experts said. According to the Council on Dairy Cattle Breeding, U.S. dairy cattle produced four times as much milk per cow in 2021 as in 1945, and twice as much as in 1970. This increase stems from improvements in genetic selection and herd management, the council found.
Because the average cow produces much more milk in 2026, Bjerga said, the average farmer has much more milk to sell, and with greater supply comes lower prices.
"It’s fair to say that nominal farm-level milk prices have not increased at the US national rate of inflation," said Alex White, a Virginia Tech agricultural economics and management instructor.
Gendebien said milk prices "currently are no higher than they were in 1980’s."
That’s not the case using nominal dollars — but few products stay the same in price over more than a four-decade span. When comparing prices over a period that long, economists typically factor in overall consumer price inflation.
Using that method, milk has seen price increases far below that of overall consumer prices. Milk prices have roughly doubled since January 1980, compared to a rough quadrupling for consumer prices overall. In that context, it’s reasonable to say that milk prices are no higher than they were in the 1980s.
The statement is accurate but needs additional information, so we rate it Mostly True.
When it comes to the economy, President Donald Trump often celebrates how many people are working.
"More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country," Trump said at a Saudi investment conference in Florida on March 27.
Trump has made this case in at least four previous speeches this year.
In January, U.S. employment hit an all time high. But raw employment numbers are driven by overall population growth, so any president can claim an all-time high during their tenure.
A more telling statistic about employment trends during Trump’s second term is that the past year-plus has seen the weakest job creation record in 16 years.
For nearly nine decades, nonfarm employment — the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics’ standard employment measure — has risen steadily. It has dipped during recessions, but within a couple of years, the statistic returns to its previous peak and then exceeds it, until the next recession.
In February, 158.5 million Americans were working, according to the bureau. That was down slightly from the 158.6 million people working in January. The January total is the highest ever.
To support Trump’s statement, the White House pointed us to a different statistic: the labor force participation rate for prime-age workers, people ages 25 to 54. This metric shows what percentage of a given population is either working or looking for work; using a 25-to-54 age range filters out any skew from the baby boomers who are retiring in large numbers every month.
Like nonfarm employment, the labor force participation rate for prime-age workers isn’t the highest ever, but it’s close. In February, 83.9% of prime-age workers were working or looking for work; the all-time high was 84.6% for a month in 1999.
"With labor force participation for prime-age Americans at a 25-year high, thanks to this administration’s pro-growth agenda, that puts American workers first," White House spokesperson Kush Desai said. "More Americans than ever before are working or coming off the sidelines to look for work."
Because the labor force participation rate counts both workers and people who are looking for work, this isn’t the most direct way of testing Trump’s statement about people with jobs. A more direct way is through a third statistic: the employment-population ratio for prime-age workers. This metric divides the number of workers by that age group’s population.
This statistic is also close to an all-time high. In February, 80.7% of prime-age workers were employed; the all-time record was 81.9% in early 2000. It has largely stalled since early 2023, under both Trump and his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
Bottom line: Three employment metrics show relatively high levels and rates of employment today, but none is currently at a historic record.
Other federal data undercuts the notion that the U.S. job market is strong. Monthly employment changes during Trump’s second term are more negative than they were during other recent presidencies, including his initial term.
In the fall of 2010, the recovery from the 2007-09 Great Recession began to heat up. And nearly every month for the next 14 years — from October 2010 to December 2024 — jobs increased month over month, not including three months during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.
This represented most of Barack Obama’s presidency, all of Trump’s first term (minus the three pandemic months), and all of Biden’s.
By contrast, since Trump’s second term began in January 2025, the government has released data for 14 months — and six of them have seen monthly job losses.
Another way to slice the data is to look at the average job gains for each president. For a fair comparison, we did not calculate periods of recession, when jobs plummet, or immediate recoveries, when jobs spike.
We looked at four periods: Obama’s third and fourth year, Obama’s second term, Trump’s prepandemic period and Biden’s final three years, which were largely after the pandemic. Each period saw an average monthly employment increase of between 176,000 and 236,000.
Trump’s second term is a distinct outlier: The average monthly gain has been less than 11,000.
Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum, said the employment picture is even worse than that, because only one sector — health care — has been keeping the second-term Trump employment figures above water.
"We have a golden age for the home health aide, but most people are working in industries that are shrinking," Holtz-Eakin said. "If you’re thinking about the average worker, it’s not good."
Trump said, "More Americans are working today than at any time in the history of our country."
The employment peak came in January 2026, though it dropped the following month. However, population growth primarily shapes this metric, so economists do not consider it a meaningful statistic.
Two other statistics — the labor force participation rate and the employment-population ratio — are relatively high, but not at their all-time highs.
A more relevant yardstick shows Trump’s second term underperforming his predecessors Obama, Biden and himself from his first term. After 14 years of almost uninterrupted monthly job gains, almost half of Trump’s months in office have seen job losses.
The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.
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Class-action suit against FBI and justice department alleges agents were wrongfully terminated for investigating Trump
Three former FBI agents filed a class-action lawsuit against the bureau and justice department on Tuesday, along with the FBI director, Kash Patel, and attorney general, Pam Bondi, claiming they had been wrongfully terminated for working on the criminal cases related to Donald Trump.
The agents – Jamie Garman, Blaire Toleman and Michelle Ball – all worked on a public corruption squad in the FBI’s Washington field office and worked on investigations of Trump. All three were abruptly fired from the FBI last year.
Continue reading...A top EU official is urging Europeans to work from home, drive less, and cut air travel as the bloc braces for a prolonged energy crisis triggered by the Gulf conflict. The European Commission is also pushing member states to accelerate renewables and other energy-security measures as oil and gas disruptions continue. Politico reports: In a speech with echoes of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, EU energy chief Dan Jorgensen said Europe was facing a "very serious situation" with no clear end in sight. "Even if ... peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal in the foreseeable future," he said, following an extraordinary meeting of the EU's 27 energy ministers on Tuesday to discuss the crisis. "The more you can do to save oil, especially diesel, especially jet fuel, the better we are off," Jorgensen said, confirming an earlier report by POLITICO that Brussels wanted Europeans to travel less. He urged member countries to follow the advice of the International Energy Agency, which he said included "work from home where possible, reduce highway speed limits by ten kilometers [an hour], encourage public transport, alternate private car access ... increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices." Longer term, he urged EU countries to double down on building more renewables, saying "this must be the time we finally turn the tide and truly become energy independent."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The 15-inch M4 MacBook Air has dropped to just $999, but time's ticking to get yours.
Nicknamed the "God Squad" by groups who say it can decide a species' fate, the government's Endangered Species Committee exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act.
In 2025, NextSilicon authored a winning proposal alongside a consortium of leading research and technology organizations to establish the ODISSEE project (Online Data Intensive Solutions for Science in the Exabytes Era). This European Union-funded initiative focuses on processing and analyzing the massive volumes of data generated by leading research infrastructures, such as high-energy physics at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) and radio astronomy at the SKA Observatory (SKAO). These facilities expect to produce data at the exabyte scale, requiring a new generation of computing technologies that go well beyond traditional architectures.
The scale of the challenge is staggering. CERN’s LHC already generates approximately one petabyte of raw collision data per second during operation, with only a fraction stored for analysis after real-time filtering. Once operational, SKAO will handle two petabytes of raw data each second. Current systems cannot keep pace with these volumes and scaling them further via conventional means imposes significant energy constraints, rendering brute-force approaches impractical.
As a result, traditional computing architectures – like those designed around predictable workloads and static data pipelines – struggle to keep pace with these volumes. ODISSEE aims to address this gap by developing flexible, data-centric computing approaches that can more easily adapt to the irregular burst-driven nature of scientific data.
The author visiting CERN in Switzerland (Image courtesy Ilan Tayari)
Supported by the EU’s Horizon Europe program, ODISSEE unites leading research institutions, universities, and technology companies across Europe to develop next-generation data-intensive computing solutions that are scalable, energy-efficient, and adaptable to various scientific fields. The consortium includes partners across multiple countries, including national research organizations (CERN, SKAO, CNRS, and SURF), leading universities (EPFL, ETH Zurich), and other technology companies (SiPearl, Energy Aware Solutions).
This diversity in partners reflects the project’s core premise: no single institution or vendor can solve the exabyte challenge alone. The project also reflects Europe’s increasing focus on HPC and AI sovereignty, strengthening the continent’s ability to build strategic computing capabilities while remaining an active participant in the global research community.
Recently, I attended the ODISSEE Annual Consortium Meeting at CERN along with my colleague Oded Margalit, NextSilicon’s Head Scientist. Over the three-day event, we met with project partners to review technical progress and strengthen collaboration across the consortium.
ODISSEE has now entered its second of three years. In the first year, the consortium focused heavily on coordination and technical preparation, aligning research goals across scientific domains and establishing the baseline infrastructure needed for integration work ahead. NextSilicon contributed two servers equipped with four Maverick-2 accelerators and collaborated with partners to train researchers on new approaches to the project’s scientific computing challenges. Other partners made similar contributions across software tooling, networking, and workload characterization.
The first day emphasized the scientific challenges behind the project, including presentations on dark matter research, radio astronomy, and high-energy physics related to the LHC. We touched on the computational challenges researchers face, from raw processing power to data movement across distributed systems to long-term storage of experimental data for later analysis.
The second day focused on technological solutions, with partners showcasing innovations that ranged from performance programming techniques to power optimization and post-exascale computing initiatives. Discussions centered on how emerging hardware architectures, including dataflow and reconfigurable computing approaches, can better address workloads than traditional CPU/GPU/FPGA architectures. Energy efficiency was a consistent theme, reflecting both the practical constraints of exabyte-scale processing and Europe’s broader commitment to sustainable computing.
The day ended with a visit to CERN’s LHCb experiment, one of four detectors positioned along the 27-kilometer ring. We descended 103 meters underground to see firsthand the physical infrastructure generating data for the project. LHCb specializes in studying the differences between matter and antimatter, producing vast datasets that require new approaches to storage, movement, and computation. For our team, it was a powerful reminder that behind every exabyte of data is a scientific question waiting to be answered.
As ODISSEE enters its second year, the consortium is shifting from coordination to implementation. Key priorities include demonstrating initial integration results across the project’s target workloads and expanding hands-on engagement with the consortium’s hardware platforms. In June, the project will host a hackathon focused on integrating fast communication with computation, giving researchers from across the consortium direct experience with the tools and approaches under development. The goal is to move beyond benchmarks and begin showing preliminary results on real scientific workflows from both primary use cases.
The consortium is also exploring how emerging open standards, including the RISC-V processor ecosystem, could help create a more flexible and sovereign European hardware stack. The broader European HPC community views open instruction set architectures as critical to future computing systems, and several ODISSEE partners are contributing work in this area.
The annual meeting also created opportunities beyond the formal agenda. During the week, consortium members met with the CERN openlab team to explore potential collaborations in which ODISSEE-developed technologies could contribute to the lab’s broader research goals. Separately, Oded and I met with leaders of the SETI project, led by Andrew Siemion, to discuss co-sponsoring a Ph.D. project at the University of Bordeaux that investigates the use of advanced computing architectures for SETI and transient-signal detection. These cross-disciplinary connections are exactly the kinds of outcomes a project like ODISSEE is designed to enable.
The author (right) and Oded Margalit, NextSilicon’s Head Scientist (Image courtesy Ilan Tayari)
ODISSEE sits at the intersection of scientific discovery, advanced computing, and Europe’s long-term strategic priorities. As the EU increasingly views HPC as critical digital infrastructure, projects like ODISSEE help ensure that Europe remains at the forefront of exascale scientific research.
This project exemplifies a collaborative model where research institutions and technology companies work together to develop sovereign computing capabilities. Rather than only relying on imported hardware and software, initiatives like ODISSEE are uniquely positioned to establish European expertise in areas such as processor architectures, system software, and application optimization.
The project’s second year will be a critical test of whether emerging architectures can deliver when applied to real scientific workloads with demanding performance and efficiency requirements. As ODISSEE progresses toward its 2027 conclusion, the results will help shape Europe’s roadmap for post-exascale scientific computing and offer practical lessons for the global HPC community navigating similar data-intensive challenges.
About the author: Ilan Tayari is co-founder & VP of Architecture at NextSilicon, a chip startup aiming to address the scientific computing market.
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The post How ODISSEE is Preparing Europe for Exabyte-Scale Scientific Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
The Army is “committed to enforcing standards and holding personnel accountable,” an official said. The flybys were not authorized.
Stocks rally after reports suggest Trump might end the war soon, saying ‘we’re not going to be there for too much longer’
Average US fuel prices have exceeded $4 a gallon for the first time in four years, piling pressure on drivers as Donald Trump’s war on Iran continues to boost oil markets.
The nationwide average climbed to almost $4.02 on Tuesday, according to AAA data, capping an extraordinary rise from $2.98 just a month ago. The fuel price last reached this high in August 2022.
Continue reading...Coming soon: Two UFC fights, the Masters golf tournament, a Cheech & Chong documentary and more.
Northerners may want to stay up late, with their eyes on the skies.
Poll of 10,000 teachers also finds ‘overwhelming’ exam anxiety and rising absenteeism linked to poor mental health
Almost half of primary school teachers are seeing pupils with eating disorders “at least occasionally”, rising to four in five at secondary level, according to a survey by the UK’s largest education union.
The findings emerged in a poll of 10,000 teachers in English state schools about pupils’ mental health, which also revealed “overwhelming” exam anxiety in secondaries and dwindling numbers of counsellors to support students.
Continue reading...A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration's construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom to replace the White House's East Wing,
American journalist Shelly Kittleson was kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the matter as well as an Iraqi official.
Shortages of helium, a byproduct of natural gas processing, could create problems for semiconductor and medical equipment manufacturers.
U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss blocked the Trump administration from enforcing provisions of his executive order that directed federal agencies to cut off funding to NPR and PBS.
Forecasters continue to predict an 80% chance of favorable weather on Wednesday for the launch of four astronauts on a flight to the moon.
Italy blocked U.S. use of a base, the latest instance of European nations refusing deeper involvement in the war despite U.S. threats of backing away from NATO.
Google is rolling out a feature in the U.S. that lets some users change their Gmail address without creating a new account or losing their data. TechCrunch reports: Users who have access to this feature can go to their Google Account settings, navigate to Personal info > Email > Google Account email option. Tap on the "Change Google Account email" button to start the process of changing your username. Users will be able to change their username only once every 12 months. Plus, they won't be able to delete their new email address for that period of time. The company said users' old emails will be preserved, and the old email address will serve as an alternate address for the account. Users will be able to sign in to Google services using both the old and the new addresses. You can learn more via Google's support page.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Though the US is almost certainly not going to have a draft, media commentary and online anxiety have surfaced
The United States is almost certainly not going to have a military draft to fight Iran. That hasn’t stopped the chatter, and anxiety, across the country.
In recent weeks, Donald Trump has ordered a number of marines and army paratroopers to head to the Middle East, gesturing toward a possible ground war to reopen the strait of Hormuz or secure nuclear weapons material. The provocative military activity has led to speculative conversation about what it would take to invade a country twice the population and three times the territory of Iraq.
Continue reading...The long and winding road may lead to Cupertino. Apple will reportedly celebrate 50 years with a little help from one of the Beatles.
Following major gold price changes in March, investors should consider these questions before starting this April.
Luanne James said as a librarian she had an obligation to protect the public’s right to access information
A Tennessee library director has been fired after she refused to relocate more than 100 LGBTQ+-themed children’s titles to the library system’s adult section.
The Rutherford county library board on Monday voted to fire Luanne James following a heated emergency meeting that involved supporters of hers chanting “We stand with Luanne!” while wearing shirts that read “Protect the freedom to read.”
Continue reading...Luca Cella Walker asked chatbot for best way for someone to kill themself on railway line before his death
A 16-year-old boy killed himself after asking ChatGPT for the “most successful” way to take your own life, an inquest has been told.
Luca Cella Walker, a private school pupil from Yateley, Hampshire, died on 4 May last year.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from the New York Times: A global ban on taxing digital streaming and downloads across national borders expired on Monday, after members of the World Trade Organization concluded an annual meeting without agreeing to extend it. U.S. representatives had pushed to extend the ban, which prevents the more than 160 members of the W.T.O. from issuing duties related to e-commerce. But Brazil and Turkey blocked a motion for a longer extension. U.S. representatives excoriated the outcome as further proof of the organization's irrelevance. The W.T.O. provides a forum for trade negotiations and setting rules for global trade. But U.S. officials have long criticized the group for its failure to police unfair trade practices by countries like China. Over the past year, the Trump administration has further abandoned W.T.O. by issuing its own global framework of tariffs instead. [...] Brazil had pushed for a two-year extension of the moratorium on e-commerce duties, while the United States wanted a permanent one. The countries couldn't come to a compromise, but negotiations are set to continue in Geneva this spring. W.T.O. members also failed to reach an agreement on future reforms for the organization. Bernd Lange, the chair of the international trade committee for the European Parliament, wrote in a post on X that "supporters of the multilateral trading system are waking up with a hangover." "We knew that a breakthrough might not materialize, but that doesn't make it any less painful," he wrote, adding that "without an agreement to extend moratorium on digital tariffs, a period of great uncertainty could soon begin for businesses and consumers." Jonathan McHale, the vice president of digital trade at the Computer & Communications Industry Association, called the outcome "deeply disappointing." He said: "For more than two decades, W.T.O. members have recognized that imposing tariffs on electronic transmissions would be counterproductive, but allowed the issue to become a negotiating football."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
PARIS, March 31, 2026 — Atos Group, a global leader of AI-powered digital transformation, announced today that it has completed the sale of Bull, its Advanced Computing activities, to the French State for an enterprise value up to €404 million including contingent earn-outs totaling €104 million.
The Group previously announced that it had signed a share purchase agreement on July 31, 2025 following the receipt of a confirmatory offer. The transaction perimeter has been adjusted since signing to exclude zData, a leader in Big Data consulting and solutions. As a result, contingent earn-outs were revised from €110 million to €104 million (and consequently the enterprise value from up to €410 million to up to €404 million).
The Advanced Computing activity comprises the High-Performance Computing (HPC) & Quantum as well as the Business Computing & Artificial Intelligence divisions. It generated revenue of c. €0.7 billion in fiscal year 2025 and was previously part of Eviden, Atos Group’s brand for products and systems.
Following this divestiture, Eviden now encompasses cybersecurity products, mission‑critical systems and Vision AI. Its revenue, pro forma for the disposal of Advanced Computing activities, reached c. €0.3 billion in fiscal year 2025.
This divestiture marks a significant step in the execution of Atos Group’s strategic plan to refocus on its core markets. By streamlining its portfolio, the Group strengthens its focus on cybersecurity, mission-critical systems and digital services – areas where it holds strong, long-term growth potential.
The transaction has been designed to ensure full continuity of service for Bull’s clients and employees. The French State is now the sole shareholder of Bull, underscoring its commitment to preserving and developing sovereign capabilities in supercomputing and AI.
More from HPCwire: What the Return of Bull Means to European HPC
About Atos Group
Atos Group is a global leader in digital transformation with c. 61,000 employees and annual revenue of c. €7.2 billion (pro forma for the disposal of Advanced Computing activities), operating in 61 countries under two brands – Atos for services and Eviden for products and systems. European number one in cybersecurity and cloud, Atos Group is committed to a secure and decarbonized future and provides tailored AI-powered, end-to-end solutions for all industries. Atos Group is the brand under which Atos SE (Societas Europaea) operates. Atos SE listed on Euronext Paris.
Source: Atos Group
The post Atos Completes Sale of Bull Advanced Computing Unit to French State appeared first on HPCwire.
Theoretical discovery opens the door to building quantum computers with significantly reduced resources
March 31, 2026 — Quantum computers of the future may be closer to reality thanks to new research from Caltech and Oratomic, a Caltech-linked start-up company. Theorists and experimentalists teamed up to develop a new approach for reducing the errors that riddle today’s rudimentary quantum computers. Whereas these machines were previously thought to require millions of qubits to work properly (qubits being the quantum equivalent to 1’s and 0’s in classical computers), the new results indicate that a fully realized quantum computer could be built with as few as 10,000 to 20,000 qubits. The need for fewer qubits means that quantum computers could, in theory, be operational by the end of the decade.
Image credit: Caltech/Robert Hurt (IPAC-SELab)
The team proposes a new quantum error-correction architecture that is significantly more efficient than previous approaches. Quantum error correction is a process by which extra, redundant qubits are introduced to correct errors, or faults, enabling the ultimate goal in the field: fault-tolerant quantum computing.
The results exploit special properties of quantum computing platforms built out of neutral atoms, which serve as the qubits. Alternative platforms in development include superconducting circuits and trapped ions (ions are charged whereas neutral atoms are not). In a neutral atom system, laser beams known as optical tweezers are used to arrange atoms into qubit arrays. Manuel Endres, a professor of physics at Caltech, and his colleagues recently created the largest qubit array ever assembled, containing 6,100 trapped neutral atoms.
“Unlike other quantum computing platforms, neutral atom qubits can be directly connected over large distances,” Endres says. “Optical tweezers can shuttle one atom to the other end of the array and directly entangle it with another atom.”
This dynamic ability to move atoms is key to the researchers’ ultra-efficient error-correction scheme, which they describe in a new report posted online. The study’s co-first authors are Madelyn Cain, lead theoretical scientist at Oratomic, and Qian Xu, the Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech and now a research scientist at Oratomic. The senior authors are Endres; John Preskill, the Richard P. Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics and the Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair of the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM) at Caltech; Hsin-Yuan (Robert) Huang, assistant professor of theoretical physics and a William H. Hurt Scholar at Caltech who is currently on leave while serving as CTO of Oratomic; and Dolev Bluvstein, a visiting associate in physics at Caltech and CEO of Oratomic. Other authors include Oratomic’s Robbie King and Lewis Picard, and Harry Levine of Oratomic and UC Berkeley.
The theoretical results involved innovating new architectures to greatly reduce the overhead of error correction.
“We’ve spent years learning how to leverage this remarkable ability of neutral atom computers to rearrange qubits dynamically,” Cain says. “Our results now make useful quantum computation with neutral atoms appear within reach by reducing qubit counts by up to two orders of magnitude.”
Xu adds, “For decades, qubit count has been viewed as the main obstacle to fault-tolerant quantum computing. I hope our work helps shift that perspective.”
The report stresses that the team’s findings mean that fault-tolerant quantum computers could be on the horizon. Previously, experts in quantum computing thought that such an accurate machine would take another 10 or even 20 years to build.
“I’ve been working on fault-tolerant quantum computing longer than some of my coauthors have been alive,” Preskill says. “Now at last we’re getting close.”
Huang says, “I always considered theoretical research on the usefulness of large-scale quantum algorithms to only be of interest in the distant future. Our new study made me realize they might come true in the next few years.”
Importantly, the accelerated timeline indicates that the security of digital communications—which includes everyday financial transactions and many other forms of private messaging—could be vulnerable to data breaches sooner than expected. Today’s computers protect data using encryption schemes, such as RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) and ECC (elliptic curve cryptography). In these classical schemes, data are encrypted using hard mathematical problems that are infeasible for current computers to solve.
Quantum computers will have the ability to break both encryption schemes thanks to an algorithm developed by Peter Shor in 1994, now a professor of applied mathematics at MIT. To protect against this scenario, organizations around the world have been migrating to new encryption schemes capable of resisting quantum computer attacks. The authors emphasize that the rapid progress toward practical quantum computing underscores the importance of safe and timely migration to these new cryptographic standards.
Quantum computers are based on the laws of quantum physics—laws that govern the behaviors of subatomic particles such as electrons and photons. In the quantum realm, particles exhibit properties foreign to the classical realm we live in, including superposition, in which a particle exists in two places at once, and entanglement, in which particles remain intimately connected even after being separated by long distances.
Because nature is quantum at its most fundamental level, quantum computers are posited to have the power to unlock scientific mysteries, including quantum gravity and room-temperature superconductivity, as well as other problems in chemistry, medicine, sustainability, machine learning, and more.
The qubits at the hearts of these machines become both superimposed and entangled; however, these quantum states are delicate and prone to collapse. When this happens during a calculation, the information stored by the qubits is damaged, leading to errors. To address this problem, researchers have come up with error-correcting methods, like those used by classical computers, in which redundant qubits are used to check for the presence of errors. But error correction is trickier with quantum computers: Today’s most common protocols often require about 1,000 or so physical qubits to act together as one single “logical” qubit—the qubit carrying out a desired calculation.
A working quantum computer will require at least 1,000 logical qubits in total, but if each logical qubit is made of 1,000 physical qubits, the whole computer would require 1 million qubits. Scaling up a quantum machine to that large of a size would be extremely challenging, so researchers have been working on ways to scale down the number of physical qubits required for each logical qubit.
The new study describes how this can be achieved using neutral-atom arrays. In other error-correction schemes, such as those using so-called surface codes, qubits arranged in two dimensions are limited to connections to their direct neighbors. In neutral atom arrays, the qubits can be connected to many other qubits that are far away, enabling what scientists call high-rate codes. In such protocols, each physical qubit can participate in many logical qubits instead of just one.
The new scheme means that each logical qubit could be encoded with as few as five or so physical qubits, as opposed to the 1,000 needed with other techniques.
“It’s actually very surprising how well this works. It’s what we call ultra-efficient error correction,” Endres says.
While the results are theoretical, neutral atom quantum systems have rapidly advanced experimentally in recent years, with researchers demonstrating early error-corrected operations and arrays exceeding 6,000 atomic qubits. Significant engineering challenges remain to combine these capabilities into scalable systems, but the new research suggests that neutral atom architectures could ultimately run quantum algorithms powerful enough to impact modern encryption. More broadly, as these systems scale to thousands of logical qubits performing millions of operations, they are expected to enable a wide range of applications with major scientific and economic impact.
“Fault-tolerant quantum computing with neutral atoms is a rapidly emerging topic, and it was clear there are many understudied opportunities for finding shortcuts,” Bluvstein says. “We gathered some of the world’s top experts in the topic at Caltech to put all the pieces together. What we came up with—a clear road map to building a quantum computer—came faster than we expected.”
The next steps are to take larger arrays like those of Endres and his group and scale them up to even larger numbers while demonstrating low error rates, a process that will require additional technological advances.
The scientists founded Oratomic, with Bluvstein as CEO, with the goal to build the world’s first utility-scale fault-tolerant quantum computers. Oratomic will work in close collaboration with Caltech’s Advanced Quantum Computing Mission, an on-campus interdisciplinary effort, which will continue to study the fundamental science of quantum information processing. In the longer term, the Caltech team plans to have quantum “supercomputers” on campus for solving scientific problems.
“Now it’s time to build the machines,” Bluvstein says.
The study “Shor’s algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits” was conducted at Caltech and Oratomic. Research at Caltech was funded by Caltech. Manuel Endres and John Preskill also acknowledge support from the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics Frontiers Center. Manuel Endres also acknowledges support from the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institutes program Challenge Institute for Quantum Computation. Qian Xu also acknowledges funding by the Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics at Caltech.
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Source: Whitney Clavin, Caltech
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LUXEMBOURG, March 31, 2026 — Gcore, a global edge AI, cloud, network, and security solutions provider, today announced the launch of GPU Virtual Machines (VMs) on NVIDIA Hopper, delivering flexible, cost-efficient access to AI compute. As AI development becomes more iterative and central to company functioning, organisations increasingly need infrastructure that can scale dynamically. Gcore’s VMs with NVIDIA GPUs make high-performance computing more accessible to a broad range of customers.
This new addition to Gcore’s AI infrastructure and software suite is launching first in Sines-3, Gcore’s sovereign AI region in Portugal, as a response to growing demand for European-based AI infrastructure. GPU VMs provide access to the same NVIDIA Hopper GPUs with high-bandwidth NVIDIA Quantum InfiniBand networking as Gcore Bare Metal GPU Cloud, without requiring a long-term commitment to hardware. This flexible deployment model is ideal for use cases such as early/growth-phase AI startups looking for performant GPUs without the high fixed costs, EU R&D labs needing sovereign infrastructure for burst PoCs and experiments, and research institutions seeking to run short-term, high-intensity fine-tuning runs on a budget.
Cutting Idle Costs Without Complexity
Some AI jobs require the full power and always-on availability of dedicated bare metal clusters. Others need something more agile: compute that can be sized up or down quickly, used for a burst of experimentation, powered down when idle, and spun back up when the next training run begins. Gcore’s new GPU VMs allow companies to match GPU capacity and cost to the stage of their project with precision.
One of the biggest advantages of GPU VMs is how they behave when they’re not in use. When the instance is powered off, GPU billing pauses automatically. Volumes, IPs, and configuration remain intact, but the GPU meter stops running, so companies only pay for storage and IPs while paused.
When ready to start work again, teams can restart the VMs without needing to set up or reconfigure. They can flexibly use a single Hopper GPU, scale to two or four, or jump to an eight-GPU VM when their workload requires it.
Key product capabilities:
Part of a Larger AI Infrastructure Roadmap
Gcore GPU VMs are the latest expansion of Gcore GPU Cloud, which already includes Bare Metal GPUs and Spot Bare Metal GPUs (a cost-saving option where capacity becomes available when there is spare capacity in a region). Customers can combine and switch between these GPU solutions in the Gcore Customer Portal for precision and flexibility over how their GPU compute is paid for and used.
Seva Vayner, Product Director, Cloud Edge & AI at Gcore, said: ”This launch reflects Gcore’s mission to democratize access to AI and connect the world to AI anytime, anywhere. Whether you’re an early/growth-phase AI startup, a SMB looking for performant GPUs without the high fixed costs, an EU R&D lab needing sovereign infrastructure for burst experiments, or a research institution seeking to run short-term, high-intensity fine-tuning on a budget, Gcore GPU VMs deliver the flexibility and cost efficiency you need.”
To deploy a GPU VM workload on Gcore with just 3 clicks, click here. For more information on how to scale AI workloads without compromising on compute price, speak to the Gcore team.
About Gcore
Gcore is a global provider of infrastructure and software solutions for AI, cloud, network, and security, headquartered in Luxembourg. Operating its own sovereign infrastructure across six continents, Gcore delivers reliable, ultra-low latency performance for enterprises and service providers. Its AI-native cloud stack enables organizations to build, train, and scale AI models seamlessly across public, private, and hybrid environments, while integrating AI, compute, networking, and security into a single platform for mission-critical workloads.
Source: Gcore
The post Gcore Launches NVIDIA Hopper GPU Virtual Machines for Flexible AI Compute appeared first on HPCwire.
AMSTERDAM, March 31, 2026 — Nebius today announced the construction of a new AI factory in the Finnish city of Lappeenranta with capacity of up to 310 MW. The first capacity from the Lappeenranta AI factory is expected to be available to customers in 2027, and it will be one of Europe’s largest dedicated AI factories when fully deployed.
The construction of the Lappeenranta AI factory follows Nebius’s recent expansion of its first Finnish data center in Mäntsälä up to 75 MW, completed earlier this year. The company plans to expand further in Finland in future as it continues its global capacity build-out.
Arkady Volozh, founder and CEO of Nebius, said: “We have been building in Finland for many years and are pleased to be expanding our presence here. Lappeenranta represents a significant addition to our global AI infrastructure build-out, and will make a significant contribution to achieving our capacity goals.”
Nebius is building one of the largest footprints of purpose-built AI compute globally, and is targeting more than 3 GW of contracted power by the end of 2026. As part of this, the company recently secured approval for its first gigawatt-scale AI factory in Independence, Missouri.
In the EMEA region, the company has already secured more than 750 MW of contracted power across its own sites and colocations. In addition to its Finnish locations, Nebius is building an AI factory near Lille, France, that will have capacity of 240 MW when fully deployed.
As global demand for high-performance compute for AI training and inference continues to accelerate, Nebius’s AI factories will serve AI builders with the latest Blackwell and Rubin generations of NVIDIA accelerated compute. The Mäntsälä facility houses Europe’s first operational deployment of the NVIDIA GB300 NVL72 platform, and Nebius intends to offer the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 platform starting later this year.
The Lappeenranta AI factory is a multi-building campus on a ca. 100-acre industrial site, and will bring substantial economic and employment benefits to the South Karelia region of Finland. The construction phase is expected to create up to 700 skilled construction jobs, mostly sourced in the Lappeenranta area, with around 100 permanent positions once the data center is operational, as well as hundreds of indirect employment opportunities for operations and maintenance.
City of Lappeenranta Mayor Tuomo Sallinen welcomed the announcement: “Lappeenranta offers an increasingly attractive environment for innovation, with our universities playing a key role in developing top talent tailored to the needs of high-tech industries. The new data center will position our city at the forefront of Finland’s AI ecosystem and help meet Europe’s growing demand for artificial intelligence for decades to come. We’re proud that this project is being realized in Lappeenranta and in Finland, built sustainably on clean energy and driven largely by Finnish expertise.”
Nebius is actively exploring partnerships with local academic institutions via Nebius Academy to upskill local residents in AI expertise, develop the talent pipeline, and support long-term innovation and economic development in the region.
Sustainability will be a key design principle for the Lappeenranta AI factory, building on Nebius’s track record Mäntsälä, where its data center design ranks among the most energy-efficient facilities globally. Electricity sourcing will reflect Nebius’s predominantly low-carbon energy mix.
Servers will be cooled using a closed-loop liquid cooling system, eliminating the need for the AI factory to rely on water intake from local supplies and thus keeping water consumption to a minimum. As in Mäntsälä, the cooling system will be designed to integrate a heat recovery system, opening the opportunity for excess server heat to be donated to the local district heating network. In Mäntsälä, this approach avoided approximately 4,000 tonnes of CO₂e emissions associated with heat production in 2025 and reduced heating costs for connected households by around 10%.
About Nebius
Nebius, the AI cloud company, is building the full-stack platform for developers and companies to take charge of their AI future — from data and model training to production deployment. Founded on deep in-house technological expertise and operating at scale with a rapidly expanding global footprint, Nebius serves startups and enterprises building AI products, agents, and services worldwide.
Source: Nebius
The post Nebius to Construct 310 MW AI Factory in Finland appeared first on HPCwire.
WASHINGTON, March 31, 2026 — Oracle today announced the availability of Oracle AI Data Platform for US federal agencies. Purpose-built to securely connect industry-leading generative AI models with agency data, applications, and workflows, the platform enables civilian and defense agencies to unify critical information so they can move faster, reduce information silos, and make informed, mission-critical decisions at scale.
Credit: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock
For US federal government agencies, Oracle AI Data Platform makes data AI-ready and enables the creation and deployment of agentic applications by harnessing the combined capabilities of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Oracle Autonomous AI Database, and OCI Enterprise AI. This enables developers to rapidly design, build, and deploy enterprise lakehouses, AI agents, and mission-ready applications using a modern, scalable foundation. At the same time, civilian and defense agency users benefit from real-time insights, automated workflows, and secure agentic experiences that streamline decision-making, elevate day-to-day operations, and help teams execute with greater speed, confidence, and mission impact.
“Federal agencies are under increasing pressure to turn data into a secure, decisive mission advantage at speed and scale,” said Kim Lynch, executive vice president, Government, Defense & Intelligence. “By unifying Oracle’s leading cloud infrastructure, AI database, and AI services, Oracle AI Data Platform for Federal Government provides a powerful, cost-effective way to connect data and workflows to generative AI. This helps agencies accelerate innovation, improve mission outcomes, and meet their mandates with greater confidence.”
A Unified Data Foundation for the AI Era
AI Data Platform for Federal Government represents a fundamental shift in how federal agencies can approach data management. By automating data ingestion and enriching data with context, it helps transform raw, fragmented data into reliable, mission-ready intelligence. Built-in generative AI tools make that intelligence immediately usable, enabling agencies to accelerate AI adoption, improve operational efficiencies, and act with greater speed and confidence. The platform is designed to reduce cost per query, improve inference performance, and increase throughput compared with other cloud providers by bringing together:
The platform supports open ecosystem compatibility with Python, Spark, open-source AI/ML frameworks, and existing agency tools—ensuring agencies can leverage their current investments while adopting next-generation AI capabilities.
Built for Federal Security, Compliance, and Sovereignty Requirements
Oracle AI Data Platform is engineered to address the most stringent security and compliance demands in the federal market. It operates within OCI’s FedRAMP High-authorized Government Cloud with IL4 and IL5 support for sensitive and controlled unclassified information (CUI), backed by always-on encryption, granular access controls, and comprehensive audit logging aligned with NIST and FISMA frameworks.
For agencies requiring the highest levels of data sovereignty, Oracle offers dedicated and isolated cloud regions—including Oracle National Security Regions—for air-gapped environments, as well as Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer for cloud-managed infrastructure deployed entirely within agency facilities.
For more information about Oracle AI Data Platform for federal agencies, visit https://www.oracle.com/government/federal.
About Oracle
Oracle offers integrated suites of applications plus secure, autonomous infrastructure in the Oracle Cloud. For more information about Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), please visit us at oracle.com.
Source: Oracle
The post Oracle Unveils AI Data Platform for US Federal Government appeared first on HPCwire.
Tax debt and tax liens aren't the same and misunderstanding the difference can cost you a lot over time.
Full-time employees cut their 401(k) participation and contribution rates last year amid an affordability crunch, new research shows.
COLUMBUS, Ohio, March 31, 2026 — Vertiv, a global leader in critical digital infrastructure, has announced an investment of ~$50 million to expand its manufacturing presence in Ironton, Ohio, and its headquarters campus in Westerville, Ohio. The projects are expected to create hundreds of new jobs through 2029 and strengthen Vertiv’s ability to support growing customer demand for AI, high-density computing, and other critical digital infrastructure applications.
Vertiv’s Ironton facility will expand manufacturing capacity for advanced liquid cooling and chilled water systems, strengthening supply chains and supporting high-density AI infrastructure and next-generation data centers.
The Ironton expansion, which is expected to be operational in the second quarter of 2027, is planned to increase production capacity for Vertiv liquid cooling and chilled water systems used in advanced thermal management applications. With the expansion, total capacity at the facility is expected to increase by ~45% for these systems, helping Vertiv expand regional production, improve responsiveness to customer demand, and shorten supply chains.
As AI adoption accelerates and compute densities continue to rise, customers are requiring more advanced thermal management solutions to support next-generation GPU clusters, large-scale model training, and other high-performance workloads. Vertiv’s investment is designed to expand the manufacturing, engineering, sales, services, and logistics capabilities needed to help customers deploy and scale this infrastructure more efficiently.
“Ohio operations remain integral to Vertiv’s strategy,” said Giordano (Gio) Albertazzi, CEO of Vertiv. “This investment expands our manufacturing capacity and strengthens the engineering, sales, service, and logistics capabilities that support customers building the next generation of digital infrastructure. It also reflects our confidence in the talent, commitment, and long-standing support we continue to see across Ohio and within the communities where we operate.”
Vertiv has a rich history in Ohio, founded more than 60 years ago as Liebert Corporation, a pioneer in data center precision cooling. Today, Vertiv’s Ohio footprint spans 14 facilities, including manufacturing, research and development, testing labs, service and sales offices, customer experience centers, a training facility, and its global headquarters. By expanding both its manufacturing footprint and headquarters capabilities in the state, Vertiv is further positioning its U.S. operations to serve customers with greater scale, speed, and operational resilience.
Vertiv delivers end-to-end infrastructure, from grid to chip and chip to heat reuse, where power, cooling, IT, and services operate in unison and are built for multiple compute generations ahead. With global reach and a portfolio of innovative industry-leading technologies and services, Vertiv is enabling customers to deploy efficiently and scale seamlessly, helping customers manage the challenges associated with modern digital infrastructure.
About Vertiv
Vertiv (NYSE: VRT) brings together hardware, software, analytics and ongoing services to enable its customers’ vital applications to run continuously, perform optimally and grow with their business needs. Vertiv solves the most important challenges facing today’s data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities with a portfolio of power, cooling and IT infrastructure solutions and services that extends from the cloud to the edge of the network. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, USA, Vertiv does business in more than 130 countries.
Source: Vertiv
The post Vertiv Expands Ohio Manufacturing to Support AI Data Center Cooling Demand appeared first on HPCwire.
BOULDER, Colo. and TUSTIN, Calif., March 31, 2026 — Spectra Logic, a global leader in data management and storage solutions, together with Geyser Data, a provider of purpose-built cold data archiving services, today announced a new tape-as-a-service archive deployment in London, marking the first European location available through the Geyser Data portal.
The London deployment expands the companies’ tape-as-a-service model into Europe. It introduces a new regional provider location designed to deliver predictable, long-term archive storage. Customers can select the London archive location through the Geyser Data portal alongside the existing Los Angeles deployment, giving organizations additional geographic choice for storing and retrieving cold data.
As more organizations move cold data to the cloud, many discover that archive storage can incur additional costs for data retrieval, egress, and API activity, making long-term storage difficult to predict. Some organizations choose to deploy and manage on-premises tape libraries for predictable archive economics. Geyser Data offers another option by delivering tape-powered archive infrastructure as a service. The platform provides a cloud-based archive copy with predictable pricing, giving existing tape library customers and new cloud users a way to store and retrieve long-term data without unexpected fees.
Through the tape-as-a-service model, hosting providers can deploy archive infrastructure in their local markets while delivering the service through the Geyser Data platform. Spectra Logic supplies the tape library infrastructure and core archive technologies, while Geyser Data provides the software and cloud platform that enable customers to access archive storage through an Amazon S3-compatible interface.
The approach creates a repeatable framework for expanding archive capacity globally. Local service providers operate the infrastructure, channel partners can deliver archive services to customers in their regions, and end users gain more options for where their data resides while maintaining a consistent archive experience through the Geyser Data portal.
The London deployment is hosted in a Digital Realty facility, providing a carrier-neutral interconnection environment and connectivity options designed to support enterprise archive workflows, hybrid architectures, and large-scale data movement.
“London is an important milestone because it demonstrates that tape-as-a-service can scale into new markets through a growing provider ecosystem,” said Nelson Nahum, CEO of Geyser Data. “Organizations are looking for archive infrastructure that is purpose-built for long-term cold data retention with predictable economics. At the same time, service providers want a practical way to deliver those capabilities locally. Expanding to London gives customers more geographic choice and validates that this model works.”
“As demand for long-term data retention continues to grow, providers are looking for reliable infrastructure that can support archive services in their regions,” said Nathan Thompson, chief executive officer of Spectra Logic. “Our tape library platforms and S3-compatible archive technologies power the underlying infrastructure that makes these deployments possible and give providers a proven foundation for delivering scalable cold data archiving.”
The London deployment represents the latest step in Geyser Data’s global expansion strategy. In addition to its U.S. presence, the company recently announced a partnership in Brazil that is expected to bring another archive deployment online later this year, continuing the expansion of the tape-as-a-service provider ecosystem.
Customers can now archive data in either London or Los Angeles through the Geyser Data portal. A free 30-day trial with limited capacity is available for both locations.
About Spectra Logic
Dedicated solely to data storage innovation for more than 40 years, Spectra Logic helps organizations modernize their IT infrastructures and protect and preserve their data with a broad portfolio of solutions that enable them to manage, migrate, store, and preserve long-term business data, along with features to make them ransomware resilient, whether on-premises, in a single cloud, across multiple clouds, or in all locations at once. To learn more, visit www.spectralogic.com.
Source: Spectra Logic
The post Spectra Logic and Geyser Data Expand Tape-as-a-Service with New London Archive Deployment appeared first on HPCwire.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 31, 2026 — Hammerspace today announced support for FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography, enabling the Hammerspace Data Platform to be configured to meet the U.S. government standard for cryptographic security. This milestone positions Hammerspace to support deployments in federal, defense, healthcare, finance and other highly regulated environments. Integration into the Hammerspace Data Platform is planned for an upcoming release by the end of 2026.
“This validation is an important milestone for government and other security-sensitive deployments,” said Molly Presley, SVP of Global Marketing at Hammerspace. “The bigger challenge is maintaining control of distributed data across data centers, clouds and edge environments without sacrificing performance or flexibility. That is where Hammerspace is differentiated. We built our platform to secure, govern and orchestrate data at the data layer itself – providing the foundation organizations need for AI at scale.”
By supporting FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography, Hammerspace meets key requirements for secure data protection in regulated environments and is advancing the integration of these capabilities into the Hammerspace Data Platform.
Security Enforced at the Data Layer for Consistent Control, Compliance and Data Sovereignty
Hammerspace delivers consistent, policy-driven orchestration, governance and protection across distributed environments, providing consistent control in multi-site and hybrid-cloud architectures. With the integration of FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography, the platform is designed to provide:
The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) 140-3 is defined by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and establishes stringent requirements for the design, implementation, and validation of cryptographic modules used to protect sensitive data. Validation requires independent testing by accredited laboratories and is mandatory for systems used by U.S. federal agencies and organizations operating under stringent compliance mandates.
Learn more about Hammerspace solutions for the public sector at https://hammerspace.com/public-sector.
About Hammerspace
Hammerspace is the high-performance data platform built to simplify and optimize AI infrastructure at scale. It makes all your data immediately accessible – anywhere across on-premises and cloud environments – without copying or migrating data into new silos. By integrating with existing storage, networking, and applications, Hammerspace creates a unified, high-speed data backbone for AI, enabling organizations to accelerate every stage of the AI pipeline while eliminating data silos.
Source: Hammerspace
The post Hammerspace Adds FIPS 140-3 Cryptography Support to Data Platform appeared first on HPCwire.
Jamie Dimon told "CBS Evening News" anchor Tony Dokoupil that "what's more important for the future of the world is that this war successfully conclude."
Anybody riding one currently? I was literally checking out with the X7 sport after weeks of going back & forth between the SC or Sport, when it suddenly removed the board from my cart & said it was sold out.
So being my impatient self I saw that as a sign & the Super charged was available so i bit the bullet & purchased it instead. 😅
Says 25 days for shipping but we will see.
Super amped for this absolute beast of a machine.
It's just hard to find a lot of current riders talking about it, there's some stuff out there but not much. Everything I see is nothing but positivity & pure shredding enjoyment.
A new feature allows Google Account users in the US to update their Gmail address.
Tabloid outlet has covered Republicans and Democrats relaxing at places such as Disney World as shutdown drags on
When US federal workers were missing paychecks and the partial government shutdown entered its seventh week, Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, was doing what any responsible lawmaker would do: riding Space Mountain and carrying a bubble wand at Disney World in Florida.
Naturally, TMZ had photos of the vacationing senator on its homepage a few days later.
Continue reading...Case involves a former prosecutor removing nearly all Black jurors in a 2006 capital murder trial, raising legal questions
The US supreme court appeared skeptical on Tuesday of whether jury selection in a trial was conducted appropriately when they heard oral arguments in a death penalty case about racial bias in jury selection stemming from Mississippi.
Doug Evans, a now-retired prosecutor, removed all but one Black person from a jury that convicted Terry Pitchford of capital murder in 2006. The judge, Joseph Loper, allowed the juror strikes, despite objections from the defense counsel, and Mississippi’s supreme court upheld the conviction.
Continue reading...Jim Mackey responds to concerns about cost implications and supply disruption link to war against Iran
The head of the NHS in England has said he is “really worried” about medicine supply issues.
A number of experts have raised concerns about cost implications and supply disruption linked to the war in Iran.
Continue reading...Two-month arrangement aimed at preventing small-boat crossings comes as existing deal expires
The UK will pay France an extra £16.2m to keep police patrolling Channel beaches and prevent a surge in small-boat crossings after negotiators failed to agree a permanent deal before a midnight deadline.
The stopgap arrangement, which will last for two months, comes after French negotiators refused to agree to UK demands for further interventions and patrols to stop asylum seekers from reaching the UK via the Channel.
Continue reading...Australia is preparing possible court action against major social media platforms that are failing to enforce the country's social media ban on under-16s. "Three months after the ban came into effect, the eSafety Commissioner said it was probing Meta's Instagram and Facebook, Google's YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok for possible breaches of the law," reports Reuters. From the report: Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government was gathering evidence "so that the eSafety Commissioner can go to the Federal Court and win." "We have spent the summer building that evidence base of all the stories that no doubt you have all heard ... about how kids are getting around that," Wells told reporters in Canberra. The legal threat is a striking change of tone from a government which had hailed tech giants' shows of cooperation when the ban went live in December. Under the Australian law, platforms must show they are taking reasonable steps to keep out underage users or face fines of up to $34 million per breach, something eSafety would need to pursue in a civil court. The regulator previously said it would only take enforcement action in cases of systemic noncompliance. But in its first comprehensive compliance report since the ban took effect, eSafety said measures taken by the platforms were substandard and it would make a decision about next steps by mid-year. "We are now moving âinto an enforcement stance," said commissioner Julie Inman Grant in a statement. The regulator reported major compliance gaps, including platforms prompting children who had previously declared ages under 16 to do fresh age checks, allowing repeated attempts at age-assurance tests until a child got a result over 16 and poor pathways for people to report underage accounts. Some platforms did not use age-inference, which estimates age based on someone's online activity, and some only used age-assurance measures like photo-based checks after a user tried to change their age, rather than at sign-up. That made it "likely many Australian children aged under 16 have been able to create accounts on age-restricted social media platforms by simply declaring they are 16 or older", the regulator said. Nearly one-third of parents reported their under-16 child had at least one social media account after the ban took effect, of which two-thirds said the platform had not asked the child's age, it added.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Allergy season is here, but you don't need to suffer. CNET put 15 of the latest air purifier models through CNET's smoke bomb test to find out which perform the best at particle filtering, noise levels and energy efficiency.
The event sounds similar to an incident that caused SpaceX to lose a satellite in December.
 | I've bought 3 different chargers for my onewheel plus xr and none of them fit it. It's a smaller plug in. What kind of charger do I need? [link] [comments] |
Police said two people headed the network, including one person considered to be the "narco-architect" and "mastermind of the tunnels."
Nearly a quarter of voters cite Reform leader’s support for US president as main reason against voting for his party
By day 31 of the war in the Middle East, Nigel Farage had become somewhat less vocal about the closeness of his relationship with Donald Trump.
“Trying to read what’s really in the minds of people in the White House right at the moment is a mug’s game,” said the MP, as he unveiled his party’s latest “pledge” to cut the cost of living on Tuesday.
Continue reading...The German chancellor has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government
Friedrich Merz has drawn condemnation from NGOs and members of his own government after he called for the vast majority of Syrians living in Germany to “go back to their homeland”.
The German chancellor, who was elected last year after promising a tough line on immigration in a bid to beat the far right, made the remarks during a visit to Berlin on Monday by the interim Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Continue reading...Volker Türk says bill, which applies to Palestinians convicted of terror charges but not Jewish extremists, must be repealed
A new Israeli law that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks, but not Jewish extremists accused of similar crimes, would constitute a war crime if enacted, according to one of the UN’s most senior human rights officials.
Speaking amid mounting international condemnation of the bill, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, described the law as “patently inconsistent with Israel’s international law obligations, including in relation to the right to life”. He added that it “raises serious concerns about due process violations, is deeply discriminatory, and must be promptly repealed”.
Continue reading...Milly Alcock's hero says she "has no people" as she and Krypto drift off on a new adventure.
Grady Martin writes: A security researcher has leaked a complete repository of source code for Anthropic's flagship command-line tool. The file listing was exposed via a Node Package Manager (npm) mapping, with every target publicly accessible on a Cloudflare R2 storage bucket. There's been a number of discoveries as people continue to pore over the code. The DEV Community outlines some of the leak's most notable architectural elements and the key technical choices: Architecture Highlights The Tool System (~40 tools): Claude Code uses a plugin-like tool architecture. Each capability (file read, bash execution, web fetch, LSP integration) is a discrete, permission-gated tool. The base tool definition alone is 29,000 lines of TypeScript. The Query Engine (46K lines): This is the brain of the operation. It handles all LLM API calls, streaming, caching, and orchestration. It's by far the largest single module in the codebase. Multi-Agent Orchestration: Claude Code can spawn sub-agents (they call them "swarms") to handle complex, parallelizable tasks. Each agent runs in its own context with specific tool permissions. IDE Bridge System: A bidirectional communication layer connects IDE extensions (VS Code, JetBrains) to the CLI via JWT-authenticated channels. This is how the "Claude in your editor" experience works. Persistent Memory System: A file-based memory directory where Claude stores context about you, your project, and your preferences across sessions. Key Technical Decisions Worth Noting Bun over Node: They chose Bun as the JavaScript runtime, leveraging its dead code elimination for feature flags and its faster startup times. React for CLI: Using Ink (React for terminals) is bold. It means their terminal UI is component-based with state management, just like a web app. Zod v4 for validation: Schema validation is everywhere. Every tool input, every API response, every config file. ~50 slash commands: From /commit to /review-pr to memory management -- there's a command system as rich as any IDE. Lazy-loaded modules: Heavy dependencies like OpenTelemetry and gRPC are lazy-loaded to keep startup fast.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is tentatively expected to testify publicly before the House Armed Services Committee on April 29, according to two sources familiar with the plans.
Long time crunch troubleshooter, first time crunch thread poster.
I have a 5" Superflux HS and was experiencing a strange acceleration crunch/noise around 4k ERPM. Thanks to nexinity on discord, he recommended the following fix which completely remedied the issue.
Motor → FOC → Filters: Increase “Maximum ERPM for phase filters” to 6000-8000 ERPM.
My issue seems completely remedied at 6k, but if I see any further issues I’m going to increase it to 8k (as nex did and has been running for a long time). Apparently there are no adverse affects to doing this, but I will edit or reply to this thread if that changes.
Core focus will be on beauty, personal care and home products after spinning off brands such as Hellmann’s and Pot Noodle
Unilever has agreed to combine its food business with US-based McCormick in a $44.8bn deal that will give the Marmite-to-Hellmann’s mayonnaise owner majority control of a food empire.
The Anglo-Dutch company will control 65% of the new spin-off, which will combine brands such as Knorr and Pot Noodle with McCormick’s condiments and spices including French’s mustard, Old Bay seasoning and Cholula hot sauce.
Continue reading...Marine told investigators he found the round ‘in the field’ about a year ago and kept it, thinking it wasn’t live
A US marine was detained at a California airport after Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel found a live 25mm explosive round in his checked baggage, police said.
The round was found during the screening process of checked luggage at the Palm Springs international airport on Monday, the Palm Springs police department said in a news release.
Continue reading...John Healey says extra deployment is defensive response to ‘expanding threat’ from Iran
The UK is sending more military support to the Gulf, taking the total deployment to 1,000 troops, amid more jibes from Donald Trump about Britain’s refusal to get involved in offensive operations against Iran.
Speaking from Qatar where he met UK troops, the defence secretary, John Healey, said the extra deployment was in response to an “expanding threat” from Iran.
Continue reading...An incident at the end of the Duke-UConn game reminded Black people of something we already know: we’re treated differently in America
The UConn-Duke game on Sunday night was one for the ages. A last-second game winner from freshman Braylon Mullins took down the top-seeded Blue Devils, who at one point had led by 19 points. It is a moment that will be replayed over and over for years to come.
However, something strange happened after Mullins’s shot. UConn’s head coach Dan Hurley approached referee Roger Ayers and touched foreheads with the official while glaring into his eyes. It wasn’t quite the “head-butt” some called it on social media but it was an eye-catching scene. For his part, Ayers told ESPN the incident was “absolutely nothing” but it wouldn’t have been unusual for Hurley to be given a technical foul, which would have given Duke free throws and a chance to win the game with 0.4 seconds left. Hurley mystifyingly has said he thought Ayers was trying to “chest bump me to celebrate.”
Continue reading...DNA testing confirmed bones found on Salmon Creek beach belonged to Walter Karl Kinney, a man last seen in 1999
Human remains discovered in the summer of 2022 on a beach in California recently were identified as those of a former banker who disappeared in 1999.
The DNA Doe Project (DDP) on Thursday announced that bones found on Salmon Creek state beach in northern California in June 2022 – by a family searching for seashells – belonged to 59-year-old Walter Karl Kinney, a former banker who lived in nearby Santa Rosa.
Continue reading...Argonne and industry partners advance AI-enabled technologies to strengthen U.S. critical materials supply chains and accelerate domestic production
March 31, 2026 — As the United States expands artificial intelligence (AI), modernizes the electricity grid and grows advanced manufacturing, access to critical materials has become a national priority. Materials such as rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt and graphite are essential to these efforts. Today, many of them are still mined or processed overseas. This leaves U.S. manufacturers exposed to supply disruptions, price swings and geopolitical risk.
Aclara’s Rare Earth Separation Pilot Plant in operation. Image credit: Aclara.
To reduce these risks, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is relying more heavily on public-private partnerships. Through its Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, DOE is linking federal research capabilities with industry-led deployment to help move new technologies from the laboratory into the marketplace faster.
As part of this approach, DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory is working with companies across the mining, processing, recycling and manufacturing value chain. These collaborations focus on developing technologies that make domestic production more efficient, resilient and economically viable.
Accelerating the Path from Science to Industry
One recent example is a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement between Argonne and Aclara Resources. The project centers on developing an AI-enabled digital twin for heavy rare earth separation. Argonne is applying its strengths in advanced computing, process modeling and AI to support the scale-up of separation technologies for Aclara’s pilot plant, which is being developed in partnership with Virginia Tech.
The goal is to help technologies reach industrial readiness faster. By pairing Argonne’s AI-powered process simulation platform with data from Aclara’s recently inaugurated rare earth pilot plant, the team aims to reduce both time and cost as operations move from pilot scale to commercial facilities. This transition is one of the biggest barriers to building new U.S.-based capacity.
The collaboration supports Aclara’s plan to build a $277 million heavy rare earth separation facility in Louisiana — the first of its kind in the U.S. with a secured ionic clay raw material feed. By the time production begins in 2028, Aclara expects to have more than a year of operational data from its pilot plant, enabling faster ramp-up, improved efficiency and stable long-term operations.
“By combining real-world industry needs with deep expertise in the science of scale-up at national laboratories, we can speed the deployment of advanced technologies that strengthen domestic supply chains,” said Claus Daniel, associate laboratory director for Argonne’s Advanced Energy Technologies directorate. “This work reflects Argonne’s role in building regional industrial innovation hubs, such as the Gulf Coast and the Midwest, by aligning research investments and leveraging complementary capabilities to support U.S. competitiveness.”
“This partnership with Argonne is a critical accelerator for Aclara’s strategy to establish a reliable U.S.-based supply chain for heavy rare earths,” said Ramon Barua, CEO of Aclara. “By combining our proprietary separation technology and pilot-scale data with Argonne’s world-class capabilities in advanced computing, we are significantly reducing scale-up risk, accelerating industrial deployment and strengthening the foundations of a secure domestic supply of these critical minerals.”
A National Strategy Built on Innovation and Partnerships
Partnerships like this are central to DOE’s broader approach to rebuilding domestic critical materials supply chains. Rather than relying only on traditional mining, DOE is supporting research that improves processing efficiency, unlocks new material sources and enables recycling and reuse at scale.
“We need new ways to source and process the materials that support our energy system,” said Audrey Robertson, Assistant Secretary of Energy who leads the Office of Critical Minerals, Materials, and Manufacturing. “That means investing in innovation that reduces risk for industry, shortens the path from the lab to the market, and builds supply chains that are secure, resilient, and based in the U.S.”
These efforts are already delivering results. Argonne and its industry partners are demonstrating pilot-scale processes and AI-enabled optimization tools that can be adopted directly by manufacturers. At full production, Aclara has indicated that its Louisiana facility could supply more than 75% of U.S. demand of dysprosium and terbium, significantly reducing reliance on overseas processing. These rare earth materials are used in high-strength magnets that allow for the efficient operation of electric motors.
By pairing federal research investments with industry execution, DOE and Argonne are helping create a new generation of U.S.-based critical materials supply chains. These supply chains are designed to deploy faster, withstand disruption and support long-term industrial growth. Rebuilding domestic capacity is no longer a distant goal. It is already underway, one partnership at a time.
Source: Argonne National Laboratory
The post Argonne Advances AI-Enabled Rare Earth Separation with Aclara Partnership appeared first on HPCwire.
For many young people entering the workforce, the stigma of hands-on jobs is fading. There a competitive appeal – and they all require human expertise
Gib and Michelle Mouser are proud of their son’s career – just not in the way they once imagined.
Only 23 years old, Cale Mouser already earns well over six figures, and he’ll end up making substantially more. He is an acknowledged expert in a highly specialized field who spends hours in deep thought solving hard problems. He uses a computer, but he’s not stuck behind it.
Continue reading...Publisher alleges AI research company’s chatbot violated its copyright over Coconut the Little Dragon series
Penguin Random House has filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging its chatbot ChatGPT violated copyright by mimicking and reproducing the content of a popular series of German children’s books.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Friday with a Munich court against OpenAI’s Ireland-based European subsidiary, states Penguin Random House’s legal team had prompted ChatGPT to write a story in the vein of Penguin author and illustrator Ingo Siegner’s Coconut the Little Dragon series.
Continue reading...Defence minister outlines plans to destroy all homes and villages in area ‘in accordance with the model in Gaza’
Israel says it will occupy swathes of south Lebanon and destroy the homes along the border to prevent the return of about 600,000 residents, prompting concerns of long-term forced displacement.
The defence minister, Israel Katz, said that when fighting with Hezbollah ended, Israel would occupy the area under the Litani River, about 19 miles from the Israel-Lebanon border, as part of its so-called buffer zone inside southern Lebanon.
Continue reading...The first full moon in spring isn't actually pink, but it determines the date of Easter each year.
We're celebrating Apple's 50th anniversary by reminiscing on the tech titan's biggest moments.
Meta claims social media addiction isn’t real. Juries disagree
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor for the Guardian. I’m hoping futilely for warm spring weather in New York City, but while it’s still cold, I’m sitting inside and reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. Published in 2010 and a finalist for the Pulitzer prize, the book is a fascinating record of our anxieties about technology at a time when the iPhone was just three years old and Facebook was just six. Google Chrome had debuted two years prior, and I think I was using Mozilla Firefox as my main browser. Stay tuned for a fuller analysis once I finish, but my early impression is that Carr’s observations have stood the test of time.
This week in tech, we’re discussing one major topic: two landmark cases against Meta and YouTube over social media addiction. Whether social media is clinically addictive or not, the liability for it has been determined.
‘Accountability has arrived’: dual US court losses show shifting tide against Meta and co
The Guardian view on social media in the dock: tech bros move fast – society is trying to catch up
I was paid to write fake Google reviews – then my ‘bosses’ tried to scam me
Keep under-fives’ screen time to no more than an hour a day, UK advice says
Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia
Federal judge sides with Anthropic in first round of standoff with Pentagon
Bernie Sanders and AOC introduce bill to pause building of new datacenters
Continue reading...SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 31, 2026 — NVIDIA and Marvell Technology, Inc. today announced a strategic partnership to connect Marvell to the NVIDIA AI factory and AI-RAN ecosystem through NVIDIA NVLink Fusion, offering customers building on NVIDIA architectures greater choice and flexibility in developing next-generation infrastructure. The companies will also collaborate on silicon photonics technology.
Credit: Shutterstock
In addition, NVIDIA has invested $2 billion in Marvell.
The partnership builds on NVIDIA NVLink Fusion, a rack-scale platform that enables customers to develop semi-custom AI infrastructure using the NVIDIA NVLink ecosystem. Marvell will provide custom XPUs and NVLink Fusion-compatible scale-up networking, while NVIDIA will provide the supporting technologies, including Vera CPU, ConnectX NICs, Bluefield DPUs, NVLink interconnect and Spectrum-X switches, and the rack-scale AI compute.
For customers developing custom XPUs, NVLink Fusion enables a heterogeneous AI infrastructure fully compatible with NVIDIA systems, allowing seamless integration with NVIDIA GPU, LPU, networking and storage platforms while leveraging NVIDIA’s rich technology stack global supply chain ecosystem.
The companies will also partner to transform the world’s telecommunication network into AI infrastructure with NVIDIA Aerial AI-RAN for 5G/6G, and advance world-class networking for AI, including advanced optical interconnect solutions and silicon photonics technology.
“The inference inflection has arrived. Token generation demand is surging, and the world is racing to build AI factories,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together with Marvell, we are enabling customers to leverage NVIDIA’s AI infrastructure ecosystem and scale to build specialized AI compute.”
“Our expanded partnership with NVIDIA reflects the growing importance of high-speed connectivity, optical interconnect and accelerated infrastructure in scaling AI,” said Matt Murphy, chairman and CEO of Marvell. “By connecting Marvell’s leadership in high-performance analog, optical DSP, silicon photonics and custom silicon to NVIDIA’s expanding AI ecosystem through NVLink Fusion, we are enabling customers to build scalable, efficient AI infrastructure.”
About Marvell
To deliver the data infrastructure technology that connects the world, we’re building solutions on the most powerful foundation: our partnerships with our customers. Trusted by the world’s leading technology companies for over 30 years, we move, store, process and secure the world’s data with semiconductor solutions designed for our customers’ current needs and future ambitions. Through a process of deep collaboration and transparency, we’re ultimately changing the way tomorrow’s enterprise, cloud and carrier architectures transform—for the better.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) is the world leader in AI and accelerated computing.
Source: NVIDIA
The post NVIDIA AI Ecosystem Expands as Marvell Joins Forces Through NVLink Fusion appeared first on HPCwire.
Can the Poles pull off their first win in Sweden after almost a century?
The Azzurri head to Zenica looking to claim their spot in this summer's tournament.
Foreign ministers Ishaq Dar and Wang Yi met in Beijing as Pakistan pushes for peacemaker role
Pakistan and China have released a joint five-part proposal for peace in the Middle East, after Pakistan’s foreign minister flew to Beijing on Tuesday to seek Chinese support for the country’s faltering efforts to negotiate an end to end the war.
The one-day meeting between Ishaq Dar and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, came as Pakistan continues to push for the role of peacemaker between the United States and Iran, even as the war shows little sign of relenting.
Continue reading...Critics say exemption for fossil fuels exploits White House’s ‘self-made gas crisis’, and could doom the rare Rice’s whale
A US government panel on Tuesday exempted oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), a move which critics say could doom a rare whale species and harm other marine life.
The Endangered Species Committee – which had not convened in more than three decades – voted to approve the request for the ESA exemption at the request of the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth.
Continue reading...
When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr talks about broadcast licensees serving the “public interest,” he loves to emphasize “localism.”
Localism is the idea that powerful entities (in this case, broadcasters) should serve the needs and interests of the communities they service. In the abstract, it’s hard to argue with, especially at a time when news deserts are spreading, small-town outlets are folding, and, thanks to the administration in which Carr serves, local public radio stations are reeling.
When you look at the fights Carr actually picks with broadcasters over the “public interest” requirement, however, a curious pattern emerges. They aren’t local stories at all, unless you consider Tehran and San Salvador local. They’re national and global stories that upset not residents of underserved heartland communities, but President Donald Trump, the man whose gilded face Carr wears as a lapel pin.
Sure, when he’s playing for the home crowd, Carr will openly admit, and even brag about, helping Trump reshape the national media to his liking. That’s what he did at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday, bragging about such “wins” as the Paramount–Skydance merger in Trump’s ongoing feud against media adversaries. Carr’s FCC approved that deal only after unconstitutionally extracting editorial concessions from CBS News and helping Trump launder a multimillion-dollar alleged bribe though the courts.
But in less partisan settings, from congressional testimony to mainstream media interviews, localism has become Carr’s go-to talking point whenever he’s pressed on his unconstitutional efforts to police news content or confronted with his past statements railing against the partisan suppression of news. He’s not censoring the airwaves, he claims; he’s just sticking up for the little guy.
Yet Carr has never threatened a broadcast license because a newsroom ignored city council meetings or local crime, or offered a biased take on a school board’s budget decisions. It would, of course, violate the First Amendment for him to do that too — the FCC, as Carr once said, “does not have a roving mandate to police speech in the name of the ‘public interest.’” But at least it would be consistent with his populist gimmick.
In fact, his threats arise from coverage on national news networks, not their local affiliates, which actually hold the broadcast licenses he’s threatening to revoke. In other words, he’s threatening to punish local news stations for national content they don’t produce, and sometimes don’t even air, that angers Trump.
Let’s play back some of Carr’s greatest hits; see if you can spot the localism.
Carr also likes to tell broadcasters what they should air, but he doesn’t implore them to report more or better local news. Instead, he launched the “Pledge America Campaign,” calling on broadcasters to meet their public interest obligations by airing “patriotic, pro-America content” celebrating “the historic accomplishments of this great nation from our founding through the Trump Administration today.”
And in an expressly anti-local “public interest” intervention, Carr enthusiastically backed Trump’s directive to give the Army-Navy football game an exclusive broadcast window. Carr said in a press release earlier this month that “such scheduling conflicts weaken the national focus on our Military Service Academies and detract from a morale-building event of vital interest to the Department of War.” Because, of course, the hallmark of community broadcasting is not letting fans watch their local teams because the Pentagon needs a morale boost for its illegal, unpopular wars.
As a prior version of Carr knew, the FCC cannot police journalism for ideological bias. Localism is a Trojan horse Carr uses to legitimize his attack on the Constitution.
His only serious effort to impact local news undermines it instead by consolidating more local licenses under conglomerates like Nexstar and Sinclair — companies that are ideologically aligned with Trump on national issues but have long track records of ruining local coverage through cost cutting. Carr even bent ownership rules to approve a $6.2 billion Nexstar–Tegna merger, which a federal judge halted Friday because of harms to local news consumers.
Nexstar is aggressively cutting jobs at flagship stations like WGN in Chicago and KTLA in Los Angeles, even as it lobbies for permission to expand further. Sinclair has decimated local newsrooms across the country, replacing them with centralized national programming — the exact opposite of the localism Carr claims to champion.
The real Brendan Carr is the unrepentant censorship czar who shows up at CPAC and openly threatens broadcasters on X, not the slicker version who rails against coastal elites to change the subject when questioned about his unconstitutional antics.
Carr is among the most shameless bootlickers (or Florsheim dress shoe-lickers) in an administration full of sycophants. The only localities whose interests he serves are the White House and Mar-a-Lago. He’s the last person who should be policing the “public interest,” locally or anywhere.
The post Trump’s FCC Chief Says His Censorship Protects the Little Guy. It Really Serves One Powerful Man. appeared first on The Intercept.
As calls for restrictions on under-16s’ online activities gather pace, some are urging curbs on online gaming. The idea is a mess from top to bottom
Last week, Meta and YouTube were found liable for creating intentionally addictive products that affected the wellbeing of young social media users. The ruling has supercharged an already growing movement from governments and regulators to restrict or ban social media use for under-16s, as has been done in Australia, to protect children from potential harm.
But there is another way that about 85% of kids and teens congregate online – and that is through video games. It has been suggested that curbs on online gaming should be considered alongside social media restrictions in future legislation. There is some precedent: in 2021, China restricted young people’s online gaming time to one hour a day on weekends and holidays. But I have a lot of questions about how such curbs would work, and whether they should be attempted.
Continue reading...It's next to impossible to attend high school or college without a laptop. Here are my favorite laptops that I've tested and reviewed for student budgets.
ZURICH, March 31, 2026 — IBM and ETH Zurich announced today a 10-year collaboration to advance the next generation of algorithms at the intersection of AI and quantum computing. This initiative represents the latest milestone in the long-standing collaboration between the two institutions, further strengthening a scientific exchange that has helped create the future of information technology.
Credit: Shutterstock
Algorithms are the hidden architecture of modern technology. They power scientific discovery, economic growth, and technological progress, from classical computing to today’s AI revolution. With quantum computing bringing increasing value to science and industry, entirely new algorithmic foundations — as well as new ways of understanding and representing data — are required. Over the next decade, IBM and ETH Zurich aim to create new classes of algorithms capable of bridging classical computing, machine learning, and quantum systems to address some of the today’s critical challenges in business.
IBM will also support the creation of professorship positions and research projects at ETH Zurich, with the goal of advancing the algorithmic expertise of the next generation workforce. The education and research efforts will focus on new algorithmic paradigms for AI and quantum systems, including hybrid approaches that combine classical, AI-driven, and quantum computation to address challenges in four key areas: optimization and combinatorial problems; differential equations and dynamical systems; linear algebra and Hamiltonian simulations; and complex system modeling. These mathematical foundations are particularly important at the intersection of AI and quantum computing, where new algorithmic approaches could soon help unlock practical value from today’s quantum hardware and redefine how complex problems in science, industry, and society are solved.
Alessandro Curioni, IBM Fellow, VP Algorithms and Applications, IBM Research said: “Algorithms have always been the true drivers of computing revolutions and are at the core of our history at IBM Research. I strongly believe that the future of computing will be written not only in hardware or software, but in the algorithms that connect the two. As AI and quantum computing converge, we are witnessing the dawn of a new algorithmic era — and shaping this future requires both industry and academic scientific depth. IBM and ETH Zurich have a long and distinguished history of working together at the frontiers of science and technology. With this agreement, we are committing to inventing the algorithmic foundations of the future.”
Prof. Dr. Joël Mesot, President of ETH Zurich, said: “ETH Zurich and IBM share a longstanding commitment to excellence in research, and our focus in developing pioneering technologies is anchored in long-term societal benefits. The partnership with IBM reflects our ambition to co-create groundbreaking technology and to empower the next generation of AI and quantum computing experts.”
IBM has helped define every major era of computing, from foundational algorithmic breakthroughs — including the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) — to pioneering artificial intelligence — with systems like Deep Blue and Watson. Showcasing decades of leadership in algorithm design and implementation, IBM continues to push the boundaries of what computation can achieve.
ETH Zurich stands among the world’s leading scientific institutions, with a legacy that includes 22 Nobel laureates and some of the most influential minds in mathematics, physics, and computer science — from Albert Einstein to Eduard Stiefel. ETH was the birthplace of numerous ideas that form the mathematical and algorithmic backbone of modern science, and ETH-created programming languages, numerical methods, and theoretical frameworks are still in use to this day.
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 effect 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. For more information, visit https://research.ibm.com.
Source: IBM
The post IBM and ETH Zurich Target New Algorithmic Foundations for AI and Quantum Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
SAN MATEO, Calif., March 31, 2026 — QuSecure, Inc., a market leader in post-quantum cybersecurity and cryptographic agility, today announced it is collaborating with the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (NCCoE) in the Migration to Post-Quantum Cryptography Project Consortium to bring awareness to the issues involved in migrating to post-quantum algorithms and to develop practices to ease migration from current public-key algorithms to replacement algorithms.
Quantum computers capable of breaking public key cryptography threaten current information systems. NIST’s post-quantum cryptography program developed standardized quantum-resistant algorithms to protect digital information. Organizations must identify where vulnerable public key algorithms exist across hardware, software, and services and prioritize migration to NIST post-quantum cryptographic algorithms to protect data and processes from future threats.
“Public-key cryptography is widely used to protect today’s digital information,” said William Newhouse, Security Engineer, NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. “With the advent of quantum computing, and its potential to compromise many of the current cryptographic algorithms, it is critical that organizations begin to plan for many of the technological and operational challenges that a migration to post-quantum cryptography will present. This project aims to help organizations in that effort.”
As a contributing member of the consortium, QuSecure will collaborate with Automated Cryptography Discovery and Inventory and post-quantum cryptography vendors to understand tool performance across enterprise environments and use cases. QuSecure will test solutions in NCCoE lab environments with enterprise PQC tools to identify capability gaps and strengthen post-quantum cryptography migration strategies. The company will share technical expertise and deployment barriers to improve interoperability, implementation performance, and coordination with standards bodies and industry sectors.
“This collaboration with the NCCoE brings industry leaders together to tackle one of today’s most pressing cybersecurity challenges – the transition to post-quantum cryptography,” said Garfield Jones, QuSecure SVP, Research & Technology Strategy. “By working across government, industry, and academia, we can help organizations identify quantum-vulnerable systems, manage risk, and prepare for a secure, quantum-resilient future.”
The initial scope of this project will engage the industry to demonstrate the use of automated discovery tools to identify instances of quantum-vulnerable public key algorithms that are widely deployed, and to manage associated risks. Other goals include development and improvement of migration strategy, interoperability and performance of implementations, and outreach to standard developing organizations and industry sectors.
As part of NIST, the NCCoE is a collaborative hub where industry organizations, government agencies, and academic institutions work together to address businesses’ most pressing cybersecurity issues. This public-private partnership enables collaboration in the creation of practical cybersecurity solutions for specific industries, as well as for broad, cross-sector technology challenges. The NCCoE was established in 2012 by NIST in partnership with the State of Maryland and Montgomery County, Maryland. Information is available at https://www.nccoe.nist.gov.
About QuSecure
QuSecure is the pioneer of orchestrated crypto-agility and the creator of QuProtect R3, the first end-to-end crypto-agility and cryptographic command platform. QuSecure enables organizations to identify high-value assets, modernize cryptography without operational disruption, and achieve continuous compliance—all while preparing for the quantum threat.
Source: QuSecure
The post QuSecure and NIST’s NCCoE Partner to Address Post-Quantum Algorithm Migration appeared first on HPCwire.
Brittlestars, sea anemones and a catshark among new-to-science species collected during expedition off the Queensland coast
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Marine scientists have discovered more than 110 new fish and invertebrate species in the Coral Sea – a figure they believe could exceed 200 as more are identified.
The species were found in waters between 200 metres and 3km deep in the Coral Sea marine park, Australia’s largest marine protected area, which spans nearly 1m sq km to the east of the Great Barrier Reef.
Continue reading...As living costs rise, the state where Gates and Bezos made billions is targeting top earners – could other states follow?
Noel Frame knows exactly how difficult it is to raise taxes on the ultra-wealthy, because she has been trying to do just that – first as an activist, then as a state legislator – for the past 15 years. And until recently almost all of her efforts ended in failure.
She lives in Washington, a solid blue state that should, in theory, be hospitable to the idea of more progressive taxation and has plenty of multimillionaires to target, since it is the home of Microsoft, Amazon and an array of other tech-driven corporations. While the wealth of these tech giants has grown exponentially in recent decades, the state – which levies no income taxes – has struggled to bring in enough revenue to pay for basic services like public schooling and long-term healthcare.
Continue reading...A new documentary charts the tragic events that led to the former NBA star overdosing in a Nevada brothel – and what came next
There’s a version of the Lamar Odom story that ends in a Nevada brothel. It’s not hard to imagine the grand finale – the TMZ bulletin relating his fatal drug overdose, followed by emotional tributes to what was lost: a radical basketball prodigy of the New York tradition, a two-time NBA champion with the Kobe Bryant Lakers, a glittering career that spanned coasts and eras before caving under the weight of addiction. A cautionary tale of incandescent fame, with Odom’s celebrity wife Khloé Kardashian cast as a man-eater to eclipse her more notorious older sister, would have been the epilogue cemented in a thousand think pieces.
But by living to tell the tale, Odom has instead become the latest fallen star to prove a core truism of Western mythmaking: heroes who don’t die young are doomed to live long enough to become the villain in their own tale.
Continue reading...Why are UK energy costs so high? And how to bring them down. Independent Thinking Podcast Audio sfarrell.drupa…
As the Iran war pushes energy costs to the front of everyone’s mind, Bronwen Maddox and Sir Dieter Helm discuss what the UK government should do.
An earlier than usual episode of the Independent Thinking podcast, ahead of the Easter break.
In a one-on-one conversation, Chatham House Director Bronwen Maddox discusses energy with Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford, who has been advising governments and writing on energy, water and the environment for decades.
They examine how energy policies of different governments over decades led to the UK’s energy costs being so high. And what the government should do if it wants to guarantee security of supply – and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Are those concerned about climate change right to push for net zero? Are current policies driving industry from the UK? Should there be more nuclear power stations, or more drilling in the North Sea?
Independent Thinking is a weekly international affairs podcast hosted by our director Bronwen Maddox, in conversation with leading policymakers, journalists, and Chatham House experts providing insight on the latest international issues.
More ways to listen: Apple podcasts and Spotify.
After three months of testing, I found the best countertop and cordless water flossers for battery life, cleaning braces, travel and more.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Only a handful of inpatient psychiatric facilities operate in Delaware, many of which are privately owned. Oversight for these facilities often falls to state and federal regulators, leaving patients and their families who are harmed by treatment with few options for accountability.
Tia Wright found her 22-year-old son, Darrian, in the emergency room on an early Saturday morning last year. Hours before he arrived at Christiana Hospital, he received a powerful sedative cocktail inside one of Delaware’s psychiatric facilities.
Darrian, who has an intellectual disability that limits his cognitive function, voluntarily admitted himself to the Rockford Center in Newark after telling his mother he wanted to die.
He woke up in the emergency room less than 48 hours later.
At the time of his admission to Rockford, Darrian weighed less than 115 pounds. And during his short stay, Darrian received multiple medications on top of a shot of Benadryl, Ativan, and Zyprexa, a potent combination meant to subdue patients during outbursts, his medical records show.
An independent psychiatrist who reviewed a redacted copy of Darrian’s medical records said he received a large amount of sedating medications when accounting for his body weight. The psychiatrist also said he would not have given such a powerful combination considering Darrian’s weight and the medications already in his system.
Once Darrian left the emergency room, his mother said he had side effects from the medications for weeks. Wright’s story mirrors that of another mother who claims Rockford overmedicated her then-8-year-old daughter, leading to hallucinations that told her to harm herself and others.
The accounts also come after state regulators documented the psychiatric hospital’s repeated violation of patient safety rules in 2022 and 2024. Rockford had regularly given children medications without their, or their parents’, consent, according to inspectors’ reports.
Additionally, two former employees who spoke with Spotlight Delaware said they believe de-escalation processes were not utilized enough in the facility.
The claims reveal a pattern of questionable, if not impermissible, druggings of vulnerable patients. And after turning to Rockford as one of the only care options of its kind in Delaware, patients and their families say they were left searching for recourse against a facility that did more to harm than help.
Recourse that they say has often proven hard to find.
Rockford CEO Bill Mason said in an email that his hospital cannot discuss patient care due to privacy laws, but that it prides itself on transparency and is committed to “high-quality, compassionate care.”
In another email, Mason “categorically” denied the hospital uses sedation as a first line of defense against patients.
Darrian returned to Rockford months later, after Wright said he wandered from home and was taken to a hospital, which later transported him to the facility. This second experience was not notable, she said.
Wright said she believes the facility was more careful with Darrian during his second stay, which lasted three days, because of her persistent calling during his first experience.
Still, Wright said she now places a note in Darrian’s bag advising anyone who may find him wandering in the future to not take him to Rockford.
Today, Wright said her son is more stable following a change in his medications. She has enrolled him in online school, and he does art classes. But she says he is stable because of her efforts, not because of outside help.
“It’s all me,” Wright said. “It’s not nothing that anybody else is doing.”
Early in the afternoon on March 21, 2025, Darrian received that subduing drug cocktail less than 24 hours after being voluntarily committed at Rockford.
Hours later, he arrived in the emergency room for “medication side effect,” according to medical records reviewed by Spotlight Delaware.
He reportedly received those medications following a spat of “aggression,” something his mother said she had never experienced. Instead, she said that if her son does have outbursts, it is because he is in pain.
“So you gave him all that medicine for what?” Wright said. “Because he was asking you questions? He was getting on your nerves?”
Yann Poncin, a psychiatrist who works with children at Yale Medicine, said combining medications can compound their effects.
Darrian had already received two doses of hydroxyzine, an anxiety medication, as well as a dose of Haldol, a powerful anti-psychotic, earlier in the day. He may not have been overly sedated at that point, but whatever drugs were still in his system, combined with the shot, may have over-sedated him, Poncin said.
“It’s a really large amount, and maybe risky in the context of the other things that he takes,” Poncin said. “And the way we know it was risky is because you saw the outcome.”
Darrian’s experience follows claims made by two other former Rockford patients who told Spotlight Delaware they experienced or witnessed staff threaten patients with sedation, when they otherwise would not have needed it.
Jessicalyn Van Lenten, from Bear, spent seven days in the facility in December 2025.
She said she saw staff instigating patients and questioned whether they are advised to practice other non-medication interventions first.
“They have no capacity to deal with people with mental health issues,” Van Lenten said.
During her stay, she said a staff member threatened her with sedation after she began raising concerns about her medication and other issues on her unit, like not being able to see the time.
Kate Lott, who worked in Rockford between 2024 and 2025, called her time in the facility “traumatizing.” She said she has worked in the behavioral health field for 26 years.
She said de-escalation was not promoted enough when dealing with patient outbursts, and the “first instinct” of support staff was to ask nurses to get sedation.
“It was easier to medicate than it was to de-escalate,” Lott said.
Demarco Delion said he worked at Rockford from 2022 to 2025 as a behavioral interventionist and trained new staff on de-escalation practices. But during his time in the facility, Delion said he was only called in to address outbursts after sedation had already been ordered.
He claimed he saw sedation used by staff in anger, rather than in attempts to help a patient.
“I witnessed a lot of it,” Delion said. “… Up to the point where it brought tears to my eyes.”
Mason, Rockford’s CEO, vehemently denied claims that his hospital relied on sedation as an initial de-escalation method.
“Rockford follows all appropriate de-escalation techniques with sedation only used pursuant to a physician’s order and when all other efforts have been exhausted,” he said in an email.
In September 2024, Delaware regulators with the state’s health department found something alarming during an unannounced inspection at Rockford.
In reviewing a sample of five patients’ records, they found that in all of them the psychiatric hospital gave the children psychotropic medications without their consent, or that of their parent’s, in violation of both state and federal regulations.
Asked about the state report, Mason called it an opportunity for “continuous improvement.” He said the hospital has put processes in place to address its protocols. He did not elaborate on what, specifically, those processes entail.
According to a correction plan submitted to the state in late 2024, Rockford said it would revise policies to require physicians to obtain and document consent for medications. It also would audit its own compliance for at least six months afterward.
Such internal audits had not substantially changed the outcomes at Rockford previously though.
In 2022, Delaware inspectors found the hospital violated the same consent regulations. The facility avoided meaningful consequences beyond submitting correction plans to the state by saying it would retrain its nurses.
Regulators also said in a prior report from October 2023 that facility employees did not document any kind of aggressive behavior for a patient but still administered sedation. The report said an employee told inspectors there was no evidence in the patient’s chart showing sedation was necessary.
Lott, who also served as the director of Kirkwood Recovery Center in Wilmington from 2017 to 2022, said she was told by regulators at that time that it was their job to keep centers open when they were found to be noncompliant.
“They needed us to be open, to care for all these people – the homeless, the drug addicts, the mentally ill,” Lott said. “They needed us.”
In a statement from the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, which regulates hospitals, a spokesperson said the department cannot comment on specific allegations or personnel matters. He noted that all licensed facilities in the state are required to meet state and federal requirements regarding patient care.
“When deficiencies are identified, the Department takes appropriate enforcement action, which may include corrective action plans, sanctions, fines, or other remedies as warranted,” the spokesperson said.
Soon after her daughter’s stay at the Rockford Center last summer, Julia Bailey started to lock her cabinets, stow away her knives, and use surveillance cameras in her home in an effort to keep her children safe.
Not from any outside intruder, but from the voices and scary figures that told her then-8-year-old daughter to harm herself and others. Voices her daughter began hearing and seeing shortly after her time at Rockford.
The New Jersey mother told Spotlight Delaware her daughter, Oaklynn, never experienced hallucinations prior to her stay at the psychiatric facility.
“She never saw anything, or even spoke about seeing things, before she went to Rockford,” Bailey said.
Both parents, Wright and Bailey, told Spotlight Delaware that getting in touch with the facility and their children was nearly impossible.
When Bailey brought her daughter to Rockford in July 2025 for what would become an 11-day stay, she went days at a time without hearing from the hospital, she said.
On the day after Oaklynn’s admission, Bailey tried to speak to her daughter three times, but she said hospital staff hung up on her each time.
A week into Oaklynn’s stay and overwhelmed with frustration over the lack of communication, she attempted to call the hospital 45 times. The staff declined each of those calls, she said.
“My kid is in your care, she’s 8, she’s a baby, and I have no information as to what’s going on,” Bailey said.
Mason, Rockford’s CEO, said families can reach a nursing supervisor at the facility “24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
Wright, however, said her experience was not any better.
“You damn near gotta say you’re gonna burn the place down for somebody to call you back,” Wright said.
Hours after leaving her son, Wright said she received calls from Darrian saying he wanted to leave the facility.
She did not receive another update on her son, other than being told he was asleep, until Darrian’s father called Wright and told her their son had been admitted to the emergency department at Christiana Hospital.
Regulators have previously told Spotlight Delaware that closing facilities is often a last resort, and they give hospitals every chance to fix issues found by inspectors. In Delaware, where inpatient mental health providers are limited, a closure would hamstring an already stressed treatment system.
Typically, when hospitals are found in noncompliance, up to the point it poses “a serious threat to the health and safety of a patient,” state law says regulators can fine a hospital $10,000.
When the state decides to fine a hospital, it often amounts to nothing more than a slap on the wrist for institutions that often have multi-billion-dollar owners, like Rockford and nearby MeadowWood Behavioral Health Hospital.
Families and patients left in the aftermath of questionable treatment cannot always afford to sue a hospital, let alone withstand the years of litigation that comes with it. Such medical malpractice suits are also difficult to prove and, ultimately, to win, when a death or significant injury has not occurred.
So families often find themselves in the dark, clamoring for any kind of recourse.
Mason said the facility has a compliance hotline and that all claims are investigated. Additionally, he said families concerned about their children can reach out to the hospital, or speak to a patient advocate.
And late last year, the state fined Rockford $10,000 after it found unlocked doors between an adolescent and adult unit, posing a potential safety risk. But for a hospital owned by a company worth nearly $12 billion, the fine amounts to little.
Although her son is doing better, Wright says Darrian’s experience has left him unrecognizable to some family members.
Wright said she was unsure if Darrian would ever return to normal following his stay. But eventually, his side effects subsided. Still, she said her son is “different” since his time at Rockford.
“It’s like he went in for one thing,” she said, “and came out with 10 other things wrong.”
The post Families, ex-staff allege improper sedation at Rockford psych hospital appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
“What we did in Venezuela, I think, is the perfect, the perfect scenario,” U.S. President Donald Trump told the New York Times in a March 1 interview about his plans for war on Iran. Things have not gone as Trump hoped, to put it mildly. Trump’s search for the Iranian Delcy Rodríguez — a regime insider willing to comply with U.S. demands, as Rodríguez has since she ascended from Venezuela’s vice president to acting president following the January 3 U.S. attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of its president, Nicolás Maduro — hit a snag when the U.S. and Israel killed most of the would-be successors to Ayatollah Khamenei in the opening days of the war. During a March 3 meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Trump told reporters, “Most of the people we had in mind are dead.” (Trump omitted the crucial fact that the U.S. is to blame.)
As the war passes the four-week mark, it is abundantly clear Iran will not be the next Venezuela. Operation Absolute Resolve, the code name for the U.S. attack on Venezuela, was a spectacular success in tactical terms. The U.S. achieved its military aim of removing Maduro in just a few hours and suffered zero U.S. service member fatalities and only a handful of injuries, although the operation cost the lives of around 70 Venezuelans and 32 Cuban security forces. While this toll should not be minimized, it pales in comparison to the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran, which as of mid-March has led to at least 3,000 deaths in Iran, Lebanon, and beyond. In contrast to Trump’s “brilliant operation” in Caracas, the war on Iran has exploded. Well over a dozen countries are now involved, and the war threatens to bring the global economy to a halt due to the ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a pivotal passage for oil, liquid natural gas, fertilizer, and other crucial commodities.
As the world’s eyes remain fixed on Iran, it is important to ask: What has the Venezuela model actually achieved in Venezuela? The short answer is a new form of colonialism in which Venezuela has lost its national sovereignty. Trump’s pledge to “run” Venezuela, made in the hours after the January 3 attack, has not come to pass. The attack instead led to regime change without a change of regime, in which the U.S. removed Maduro but left his regime almost entirely intact. Trump has boasted of this fact, telling the New York Times, “Everybody’s kept their job except two people,” i.e., Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, both of whom have spent the past three months awaiting trial in a Brooklyn jail. The officials who now run Venezuela come directly from Maduro’s administration: Rodríguez; her brother Jorge, who heads the National Assembly; and the minister of interior, Diosdado Cabello. In a possible sign of future changes to come, Rodríguez on March 18 replaced Venezuela’s longstanding minister of defense, Vladimir Padrino López, all but surely in coordination with the U.S.
The flip side of this overall continuity is the Trump administration’s stunning and continuing sidelining of far-right opposition leader María Corina Machado, who won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize and infamously gifted it to Trump in an unsuccessful attempt to curry his favor. Trump has supported Rodríguez because she offers that which he most wants: stability. A handover to Machado threatened to plunge Venezuela into chaos and civil war. Strictly speaking, this is not because Machado “lacks the respect within” Venezuela, as Trump claimed during his January 3 press conference. Polls indicate Machado remains the most popular politician within Venezuela. The problem, for Trump, is Machado’s longstanding opposition to any form of “collaboration” with the Maduro administration and Chavismo (the political movement associated with the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez) more broadly. This radical stance makes Machado a major threat to Venezuela’s military and state apparatus. Machado may be reevaluating her hardline position as she plans to return to Venezuela. In a March 12 press conference, Machado spoke of a “grand national agreement,” presumably a power-sharing accord, a possibility she had long rejected. Trump, for his part, has reportedly told Machado, who fled the country in 2025, not to return to Venezuela. This is purportedly out of concern for her safety but is more likely due to Trump’s (not unreasonable) fear that Machado’s presence in Venezuela would undermine the continuity Trump has sought to preserve.
For now, Venezuela remains in the hands of former Maduro officials, who have presided over a transformation of Venezuela’s domestic and foreign policy that is both stunning and limited. The details of this transformation, and the way it is happening, lay bare Venezuela’s profound lack of national sovereignty. While Trump is not “running” Venezuela in an operational sense, the U.S. is now effectively dictating the country’s policy. This is evident in many ways, starting with the fact that the Rodríguez administration must submit a monthly budget to the U.S., which has the discretion to approve or reject Venezuela’s requests. The Trump administration has also seized at least 80 million barrels of Venezuelan oil and controls the sale of this oil, with the proceeds held not in Caracas but in a U.S. Treasury account (prior to that, they were held in a U.S.-controlled account in Qatar). American Democratic Party leaders have repeatedly questioned this arrangement, which is not only blatantly colonial and opaque but also creates the clear potential for corruption and malfeasance.
Under direct pressure from the Trump administration, Venezuela’s National Assembly has implemented sweeping oil and mining reforms. In late January, the National Assembly passed a major reform of Venezuela’s hydrocarbons law regulating oil production. The reform institutes three fundamental changes: First, it dramatically lowers the taxes and royalties foreign oil companies pay to the Venezuelan state. Under the 2006 hydrocarbons law, the Venezuelan state took up to 65 percent of oil proceeds. The reform permits this to be reduced to 25 percent, lowers income taxes to 15 percent (from 30 percent), and caps royalties at 30 percent, with the executive given discretion to lower it even further. Second, the reform allows foreign oil companies to operate independently, instead of the previous mandate that foreign companies operate through joint projects with Venezuela’s national oil company, PDVSA. Third, the reform allows arbitration over disputes to occur in foreign courts, eliminating the earlier requirement that disputes be resolved within Venezuela. These changes give foreign oil companies dramatically greater material benefits and control over the country’s oil.
Foreign oil companies are already taking advantage. Shell and Chevron are reportedly close to signing major new deals for production in Venezuela. Chevron is the only U.S. oil major that remained in Venezuela throughout the Hugo Chávez and Maduro years, with Shell (like Exxon and others) having left the country in the wake of the 2006–2007 nationalization process under Chávez. Despite these deals, it will take significant time and resources — upward of $100 billion and a decade of work, according to experts — for Venezuela’s oil industry to approach its previous levels of production. These latest deals come in the wake of the second recent visit by a Trump Cabinet member to Venezuela. Energy Secretary Chris Wright toured Venezuela in mid-February, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum traveled there in early March, when he gushed about Washington’s desire to access Venezuela’s mineral resources. CIA Director John Ratcliffe and U.S. Southern Command General Francis Donovan have also recently traveled to Venezuela. During Burgum’s visit, Rodríguez promised to work at “Trump speed” to ramp up the U.S.’s access to Venezuela’s mineral resources. Rodríguez has been as good as her word, with the National Assembly swiftly moving to approve a new mining law that, like the hydrocarbons reform, will roll back decades-old nationalist legislation.
The U.S. has also pushed Venezuela to sever its relations with its rivals China, Russia, Iran, and Cuba. A statement from Venezuela’s foreign ministry late last month about the U.S.–Israeli war on Iran shows the profound changes underway. The statement (which was later taken down) condemned Iran but failed to condemn or even name the U.S. or Israel. This is a major shift from the Chávez and Maduro years, when Venezuela stood with Iran and regularly condemned the U.S. and Israel. The change in Venezuela’s foreign policy is most clear on Cuba, which for more than a decade relied heavily on highly subsidized Venezuelan oil. After Maduro’s capture, Venezuela ceased all oil shipments to Cuba, directly contributing to the profound energy crisis it is now facing, marked by regular nationwide blackouts. The Trump administration has done everything it can to deepen this crisis by applying heavy pressure on Mexico and other countries to stop providing oil to Cuba. Trump’s open goal is regime change.
While Venezuela’s economic and foreign policy has shifted quickly and decisively, political change since Maduro’s capture has been much more slow going. There is still no timetable for elections, and the Trump administration is not pushing for a democratic transition any time soon. According to a New York Times report, Rubio and Rodríguez have discussed the possibility of holding elections in late 2027, and Rubio has made clear that there must be a new democratically elected government in Venezuela before Trump leaves office in 2029. Rodríguez has taken a few steps toward political liberalization. She has pledged to close the notorious El Helicoide prison, and on February 19 the National Assembly passed an amnesty law, which has been greeted as a positive development but criticized for limiting the time period and offenses covered by the law. According to a March 17 report by the Venezuelan human rights organization Foro Penal, as of February 24 the government had released over 400 political prisoners.
“People don’t care about the idea of sovereignty or nationhood when they’re dying of hunger.”
A key question is: How do ordinary Venezuelans feel about the changes happening in their country? One answer comes from the first in-person poll conducted in Venezuela following Maduro’s removal, with 1,000 respondents interviewed between January 24 and 30. The poll indicates Venezuelans largely support the January 3 operation and feel cautiously optimistic about the future but deeply unsatisfied with their economic situation and wary of the Rodríguez administration. Fifty-five percent of respondents approve of Maduro’s removal and 77 percent view him unfavorably. Rodríguez fares a tad better, with 73 percent viewing her unfavorably, while 37 percent approve and 41 percent disapprove of her performance as acting president.
This suggests many Venezuelans are in a wait-and-see holding pattern with Rodríguez. Tellingly, 62 percent of respondents list cost of living as their priority versus just 7 percent prioritizing democracy. The poll also indicates Venezuelans are evenly split in their views of the U.S. government and Trump, with roughly half supportive and half opposed. Of the respondents, 72 percent reported they feel Venezuela is moving in a positive direction and 83 percent feel optimistic about the future.
These findings are in line with recent public comments by Venezuelan scholars and journalists. In a February 3 online Atlantic Council forum, Guillermo Aveledo, a political science professor at Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas, said most Venezuelans were feeling cautiously optimistic but continue to fear government repression. Aveledo also spoke of how citizens and the government will be testing the waters in the coming weeks and months to see what is acceptable in terms of public speech and protest.
During a March 11 interview I conducted with him, Andrés Antillano, a member of the anti-imperialist leftist organization Corriente Comunes and professor at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, expressed a similar but more critical view. Antillano said, “I believe Trump is more popular in Venezuela than in the United States,” and added, “there’s a consensus that what happened [on January 3] is for the better of the country.” He noted, “Government actors are happy because they’ve preserved their power. The right is happy because Trump, their great hero, is ruling. And the people are happy because of their expectation … that their life conditions are going to improve.” Antillano feels this is mistaken: “Not only have we not seen an improvement but in material terms, in economic terms, the situation has gotten worse and worse.”
Antillano views Venezuelans’ continuing immiseration — due to years of government mismanagement and punishing U.S. sanctions (which Trump eased on March 18, in a major policy shift allowing U.S. oil companies to deal directly with PDVSA, Venezuela’s state-owned oil company) — as the reason for their acquiescence to Venezuela’s subordination to the U.S.
“People don’t care about the idea of sovereignty or nationhood when they’re dying of hunger,” he said.
Antillano remains deeply pessimistic about Venezuela’s future. “We are in a subordinate, colonial relationship. We’re a protectorate,” he said. He also said: “[Machado] wants to return to the country to defend the idea of the political transition. Thus, we could see the great irony of María Corina becoming the anti-imperialist figure and the Bolivarian government, with its anti-imperialist origins, becoming the great defender of Trump. It’s crazy, very strange. Everything that’s happening is very sad.”
He continued: “As a friend told me, Venezuela has gone from being a laboratory for emancipatory practices to being a laboratory for the new colonialism.”
But Antillano doesn’t believe all is lost, and said he believes “an important cycle of protest is coming.” He said Corriente Comunes “is actively driving the processes of struggle as the illusion of improvement — stemming from the colonial relationship with the United States — gradually fades away.” Antillano said that Corriente Comunes had recently “held a workers’ gathering, and we believe a very significant mobilization is about to take place in all the country’s major cities, a mobilization for wages, wage increases, and labor rights, which will be the largest in many years.”
The mobilization occurred March 12, the day after we spoke, and videos show it was large and contentious. Protesters broke through a line of police blocking the National Assembly and forced legislators to listen to their salary and pension demands. While Trump and Rodríguez are seeking economic liberalization without democratization, Venezuela’s workers and leftist activists have other ideas. Venezuelans will seek to write their own story, despite being mired in conditions not of their own making. Time will tell what vision of the country will prevail, and for the foreseeable future, all actors in Venezuela will have to reckon with the imperial behemoth to the north.
The post Trump Wanted to Replicate His Venezuela “Success” in Iran. What Has It Even Looked Like? appeared first on The Intercept.
From Italy to France, Germany to Hungary, far-right governments and politicians are targeting media with the same playbook
Barely six months after Giorgia Meloni’s government was sworn in, the chief executive of Italy’s public broadcaster Rai resigned. Carlo Fuortes cited “a political conflict” as the reason for his departure in May 2023, a year before the end of his term.
The top posts quickly went to nominees with ties to Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, a party with neofascist roots. Rai’s CEO is now Giampaolo Rossi, a former Rai board member who has in the past voiced support for Vladimir Putin, Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump.
Continue reading...ChristianaCare is planning to build a new 73-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital near Newark, officials announced Monday.
Gavin Newsom signs order to prioritize public safety and rights as president seeks to prevent ‘cumbersome’ rules
California will impose new standards on artificial intelligence companies seeking to do business with the state, defying Donald Trump’s demands to keep the controversial industry as deregulated as possible.
The state’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, signed an executive order on Monday that gives California four months to develop AI policies that prioritize public safety.
Continue reading...Police have arrested a Newark man accused of robbing or scamming several people who arranged to sell him items through an online marketplace.
The majority of immigration arrests made by federal agents during President Donald Trump’s enforcement surge in Minnesota last winter were of people with no criminal background, according to The Intercept’s analysis of newly revealed government data.
The data belies a common talking point made by the White House during the massive immigration operation: that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were arresting thousands of “dangerous criminal illegal aliens.”
From December 2025 to mid-March 2026, ICE made 4,030 arrests in the state. Of them, a staggering 2,532 arrests, or 63 percent, were of people with no criminal convictions or pending criminal charges, according to the data, which was previously unreported.
“The data confirms what the American people have overwhelmingly known, which is that Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis was a complete failure.”
On February 4, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, “President Trump’s commonsense immigration enforcement policies are delivering the public safety results the American people demanded, with more than 4,000 dangerous criminal illegal aliens already arrested in Minnesota since Operation Metro began.”
ICE’s own data contradicts the White House’s claim that all 4,000 people arrested were “dangerous criminal” undocumented immigrants at a time when about two-thirds of them had no records. (The White House referred a request for comment to ICE, which did not immediately respond.)
“The data confirms what the American people have overwhelmingly known, which is that Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis was a complete failure,” said Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School and a faculty fellow at the Deportation Data Project. “Instead of targeting the ‘worst of the worst,’ it was ordinary law-abiding people who were caught up in the immigration dragnet, resulting in the needless and cruel separation of families and inflicting untold suffering on American children.”
The findings are based on The Intercept’s analysis of federal government data provided by ICE in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Deportation Data Project. The new tranche of data, published on Monday, includes information on all ICE arrests made nationwide till March 10.
The proportion of ICE arrests in Minnesota of immigrants without a criminal record increased sharply during the winter operation, dubbed “Metro Surge” by the Trump administration.
Between Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 and the end of November 2025, 44 percent of all ICE arrests in the state were of people without criminal records. From December until February 12, the date that border czar Tom Homan said the operation was coming to an end, 64 percent of all ICE arrests in the state were of people without criminal records.
The period of the surge also represented a giant jump in the number of arrests themselves. Nearly 4,000 of the 5,998 ICE arrests in Minnesota since Trump took office occurred between December and February 12.
In January alone, there were 2,530 ICE arrests recorded in Minnesota, underscoring the impact of the operation. In comparison, there were 177 ICE arrests in the state in November, the last month before the surge began.
A vast majority — 97 percent — of ICE arrests in Minnesota between December 2025 and February 12 were “street arrests”; all of those were listed in the data as non-custodial arrests referring to detentions where the person is not taken from another agency’s custody.
In contrast, only 52 percent of all ICE arrests elsewhere in the country in the same period were non-custodial arrests.
The enforcement surge in Minnesota began in early December, then ramped up in January following the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. The Trump administration responded to the killing by doubling down and sending hundreds more federal agents to the state to intensify the immigration enforcement crackdown.
Now, The Intercept’s analysis of ICE arrests data shows that after Good was killed, the rate of ICE arrests in Minnesota more than doubled.
There were 1,225 ICE arrests, or around 32 arrests per day, recorded in Minnesota from December 2025 until January 7, 2026, the day Good was killed.
Since then up until February 12, when Homan said the operation in the state was coming to an end, the rate of ICE arrests shot up to 74 arrests per day, with a total of 2.672 arrests being recorded.
The rate of ICE arrests stayed high despite the killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on January 24.
Around the time that the surge was announced, Trump administration officials repeatedly spoke of targeting Somalis in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The metropolitan area boasts the largest Somali community in the country, and most of its members are U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
The ramped-up enforcement in the state dovetailed with a campaign by far-right figures with ties to anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant views against Somalis in the state.
YouTube videos made by a far-right influencer were reportedly responsible for the White House’s focus on the Twin Cities. The videos alleged widespread fraud by the Somali community, but many of the claims have since been debunked or shown to have been blown out of proportion.
According to The Intercept’s analysis of ICE data, however, only 112 ICE arrests recorded in Minnesota from December until mid-March were of people listed as having Somali citizenship.
Update: March 31, 2026
This story has been updated to include a response from the White House and a comment from Elora Mukherjee, a faculty fellow with the Deportation Data Project.
The post Two-Thirds of People Arrested by ICE in Minnesota Surge Had No Criminal Records, New Data Reveals appeared first on The Intercept.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee said that he believes there are “at least tens of thousands, probably hundreds of thousands” of noncitizens illegally registered to vote in the U.S., adding that a federal tool used in nearly two dozen states would help identify the number. But the tool has wrongly flagged many as being noncitizens, and there’s no evidence of widespread noncitizen voting.
The data-matching program employed in those states over the last year identified about 10,000 potential noncitizens on voter registration lists, out of about 49 million voter registrations checked, according to reporting by the New York Times citing federal officials. But upon further investigation, county officials found U.S. citizens were among those identified.
In addition, election officials determined some noncitizens were inadvertently added by county officials to voter lists, and still others were noncitizens who mistakenly checked a box for voter registration even after acknowledging on the same forms that they were noncitizens.
Experts and state audits refute the idea of widespread noncitizen voting.
The SAVE America Act championed by Lee — and touted by President Donald Trump as necessary to stop illegal voting by noncitizens — would require all states to submit their voter registration lists to the Department of Homeland Security to be run through this tool, called the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements, or SAVE, program. The bill passed the House and is being debated in the Senate. Lee made his comments about noncitizens being registered to vote in a March 22 interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Jasleen Singh, a senior counsel and manager in the Brennan Center for Justice’s democracy program, said that Lee’s speculation about the number of noncitizens on voter registration lists amounts to “another outlandish claim without evidence.” The reality, Singh said, is that “noncitizen voting is vanishingly rare.”
The SAVE program, Singh said, “is one of many tools that election officials have in their toolbox to use. It comes with a myriad of data flaws, and any results that come directly from a search to the SAVE program need to be viewed with that lens and with a good degree of skepticism.”
Acting upon an executive order from Trump in March 2025, DHS overhauled the SAVE program last spring to include Social Security data. Trump also waived fees to states to access the database, allowing bulk searches.
“What we do know is that in states that have started reviewing the voter registration files in order to weed out those [ineligible people] who might have registered, perhaps inadvertently … already there have been thousands of voter registration files identified in just the handful of states doing their own reviews,” Lee told the Hill on March 20.
We reached out to Lee’s office but did not get a response.
Many states — predominantly ones run by Democrats — have refused to share their voting lists with the SAVE program. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has sued 29 states and the District of Columbia for failing to provide the federal government with their lists.
But nearly two dozen states have utilized the SAVE program. Lee is correct that “thousands” of people have been flagged as potentially being noncitizens. As we said, of the 49.5 million voter registrations checked, DHS referred about 10,000 cases to investigators, according to a Jan. 14 New York Times report that attributed the figures to a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. (There were 174 million people registered to vote in the U.S. for the 2024 election, according to the U.S. Census. In other words, less than a third of all names on state voter registration lists nationwide have been run through the SAVE program.)
But the Times reported that local election officials began to discover that some of the names flagged by the SAVE program turned out to be citizens. That appeared to be particularly true for recently naturalized citizens. Tens of thousands of people are naturalized as citizens every month, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services data.
A joint investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found that in addition to many citizens being wrongly flagged as noncitizens, several election officials “came across instances in which voters marked on registration forms that they weren’t citizens, but were registered by election office staffers in error. Clerks also said voters have told them they’d misunderstood questions about eligibility when getting drivers’ licenses.”
Ongoing research by the Center for Election Innovation & Research “continues to find that sweeping allegations about noncitizen registrations or voting appear to arise from misunderstandings, mischaracterizations, or outright fabrications about complex voter data. In every examined case, when claims about large numbers of noncitizens on voting rolls are subject to scrutiny and properly investigated, the number of alleged instances falls drastically.”
Even in the states that have used the federal SAVE program, “Claims of large numbers of possible noncitizens on voter records are revised significantly downward after proper investigation and scrutiny. Most often, investigations into large claims reveal that at least some early flags were based on outdated, incomplete, or improperly matched data that incorrectly labeled eligible citizens as possible noncitizens,” CEIR reported in February. Those smaller, revised numbers “generally receive far less public attention.”
Interestingly, the SAVE America Act faces significant opposition from the top Republican election official in Lee’s home state of Utah, which last year initiated a citizenship review of all registered voters in the state. Ultimately, officials announced in January that they were only able to confirm the state voter rolls included one noncitizen, and that person did not vote.
State officials first compared voter records against driver’s license data, which records citizenship status. The conclusion: 99.9% of the state’s 2 million voters were citizens. But that left the status of 71,314 people unclear, so officials checked those against the SAVE database, which narrowed the potential number of noncitizens to 8,836. Staff in the state elections office then reviewed the remaining voters’ information. That narrowed the list to 486 they could not immediately verify were citizens. Officials sent letters to everyone in that group and got back 52 responses, including many from older voters who registered before the state required a driver’s license or Social Security number.
“The bottom line is, there is not a widespread problem,” Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson, a Republican, said at the time. “You hear people say hundreds or thousands — it’s just not.”
Henderson, who oversees elections in the state, wrote in a January press release that through Utah’s citizenship review, “We also learned that the federal government does not keep accurate databases.”
The SAVE program, she said, “is notoriously inaccurate and frequently flags individuals who are, in fact, citizens.”
Henderson and others have also raised concerns about the SAVE America Act requiring states to use the DHS database immediately, in the midst of a midterm election year.
“If we want a federal law mandating voter ID or DPOC [documentary proof of citizenship], and it’s really not about disenfranchising a bunch of voters, then states and voters need an onramp with time to prepare — get the documents, obtain the right ID, set up the system,” Henderson wrote in a social media post on March 17. “That’s not what’s happening with the SAVE America Act. This bill would be effective immediately in the middle of an election year.”
Similar stories have played out in other states that used the SAVE program.
One of the first states to implement the SAVE program was Texas, and on Oct. 22, Texas’ secretary of state, Jane Nelson, announced that it had completed a full comparison of the state’s voter registration list against citizenship data in the SAVE database. Calling it a “game changer,” Nelson said the SAVE program identified 2,724 potential noncitizens on the state’s voter registration rolls — or less than 0.02% of more than 18 million voters.
Nelson said the list of those potential noncitizens was sent to Texas counties to conduct investigations, with the understanding that those deemed to be noncitizens would be purged from voter registration lists and those who were found to have voted illegally would be referred to the Texas attorney general for prosecution.
“Everyone’s right to vote is sacred and must be protected. We encourage counties to conduct rigorous investigations to determine if any voter is ineligible — just as they do with any other data set we provide,” Nelson said.
But that’s where things began to fall apart.
As a joint investigation by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune documented, lacking clear guidance, some counties investigated; others didn’t. Some sent letters to people on the list and purged those who failed to respond; others didn’t purge any names.
Some counties compared the names on their list to databases kept by the Department of Public Safety, which requires proof of citizenship if residents register to vote when obtaining a driver’s license. Those checks found many of those on the list identified as potentially noncitizens were citizens.
In Potter County, for example, three of nine voters on the list had proof of citizenship on file, the ProPublica/Texas Tribune investigation found. In Travis County, it was 11 of the 97 voters flagged by the SAVE program. Overall, the counties that checked the SAVE-generated list against DPS records found “more than 5% of the voters SAVE identified as noncitizens proved to be citizens,” the investigation concluded.
“It has proven to be inaccurate,” Travis County’s voter registrar, Celia Israel, told the publications. “Why would I rely on it?”
While the SAVE program accurately identified many on the voter registration rolls who were ineligible to vote, “Several [counties] came across instances in which voters marked on registration forms that they weren’t citizens, but were registered by election office staffers in error. Clerks also said voters have told them they’d misunderstood questions about eligibility when getting drivers’ licenses,” the ProPublica/Texas Tribune report said.
In Louisiana, the SAVE program identified 403 potential noncitizens registered to vote, out of 2.96 million registered voters. That’s about 0.014%. Of those potential noncitizens, 83 cast at least one vote going back to the 1980s (though it was not clear how many of those were later verified to be noncitizens). In 2024, 2,006,975 people voted in the presidential election in Louisiana. Even if all 83 of them voted that year, that would translate to about 0.004% of all votes cast in the state.
“I want to be clear: noncitizens illegally registering or voting is not a systemic problem in Louisiana,” Louisiana Secretary of State Nancy Landry said when the preliminary results were revealed last September.
Missouri also employed the SAVE program and generated lists of potential noncitizens, which it then circulated to local officials.
On Dec. 3, more than 70 county election clerks from both parties wrote a letter to the state’s speaker of the House warning, “These lists are deeply flawed: they are outdated, inaccurate, and include individuals we know to be U.S. citizens—our neighbors, colleagues, and even voters we have personally registered at naturalization ceremonies.”
It’s not clear how many noncitizens flagged by the SAVE database actually voted. But there have been relatively few arrests nationwide for illegal voting by noncitizens.
That makes sense, Singh told us, considering the stiff consequences for convictions for voting illegally as a noncitizen. Current federal law requires those registering to vote to attest that they are citizens under penalty of perjury. Noncitizens convicted of voting in federal elections face fines, jail time and deportation.
“Someone who is in this country, who may not have documents, or who has a legal presence and is not a citizen yet, whatever it is, they’re not going to risk their ability to be in this country to cast a ballot, because they will be subject to deportation,” Singh said. “And it’s just not a risk that folks are, if we think about it logically and reasonably, that folks are going to be willing to take.”
According to the conservative Heritage Foundation’s election fraud database, just under 100 noncitizens have been convicted of illegally voting or registering to vote since 1982.
There may be so few prosecutions, Singh said, because by and large, when noncitizens are on registration rolls “it’s likely a mistake or because of an error by the person registering, or maybe the DMV … whatever it is, it’s a mistake rather than an actual intentional act.”
“The evidence is that the number of noncitizens illegally voting in federal elections is extremely low, not high enough to have changed the party outcome of any federal election in recent years,” Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, told us last April. “Audits and investigations in states like Ohio, Nevada, and North Carolina have found the numbers to be tiny in relation to votes cast. … The consistent experience has been that very few persons in this category mistakenly or deliberately vote.”
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The post Flaws in Government Tool to ID Noncitizen Voters appeared first on FactCheck.org.
Holding protest signs and chanting pro-democracy slogans, a crowd gathered on the University of Delaware Green on Saturday afternoon for the third iteration of the nationwide “No Kings” protest against the Trump administration.
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Sudan’s volunteer-led aid network receives 2025 Chatham House Prize News release eoboko.drupal
Sudan’s grassroots mutual aid groups, the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs), visited Chatham House to receive the prize they were awarded last year
Sudan’s volunteer-led aid network – the Emergency Response Rooms (ERRs) – were handed the Chatham House Prize 2025 at a special ceremony on 26 March.
The ERRs were recognised for their vital work in delivering humanitarian support during the devastating conflict in Sudan.
Since the start of the war in April 2023, over thirteen million people have been displaced from their homes, with more than thirty-three million requiring humanitarian assistance, making Sudan the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
Emerging from Sudan’s local traditions of mutual aid, the ERRs provide lifesaving essentials such as food and water to communities across Sudan’s 18 states, as well as providing medical assistance, education and responding to gender-based violence.
The grassroots movement has been recognized by several international bodies particularly for their impartial nature and their aim to provide aid for all parties caught up in the war, despite facing harassment and attacks from the conflict’s warring sides and members being killed and injured.
Four members of the network represented the ERRs at the prizegiving event: Alsanosi, Alaa, Abdalla and Khalid.
In her opening remarks at the ceremony, Bronwen Maddox, Director and Chief Executive of Chatham House, said:
‘[The Emergency Response Rooms] have meant the difference between life and death for many Sudanese. They provide food, clean water and medical supplies in areas that are often inaccessible to international organizations. They help maintain and repair infrastructure, from power lines to water systems. They organize evacuations from areas under bombardment and siege. They design and implement projects that support women, children and other vulnerable groups. They pay attention not only to immediate survival, but to dignity and social cohesion.’
During the event a message from King Charles to the ERRs was read by Sir Simon Fraser, Chatham House Chair.
Accepting the award, Alsanosi, who is a volunteer member of the external communications committee of the ERRs said the Prize belonged to the 26,000 ERRs volunteers, ‘who refuse to be victimized or disappear in the face of war.’
He added that:
‘This Prize is also a reminder of responsibility that recognition must not stop at applause. Sudan’s civilians continue to face famine, displacement, and violence. Emergency Response Rooms volunteers continue to operate with minimal resources, immense risk, and shrinking civic space. We see this award as a call to all of us to protect civic spaces in times of war; so that they remain the baseline to rebuild and transform Sudan.’
After the event, Alaa, who drives the ERRs gender-responsive support in Sudan’s North Kordofan, said:
‘This award is recognition that the voice of Sudanese women has been heard. It tells the world: Sudanese women aren’t victims; they are fierce leaders. We have been fighting, resisting and speaking out for a long time. I am working to promote women’s leadership because I want Sudanese women to not return to the shadows after this war.’
Abdalla, who is a volunteer coordinator for the ERRs’ committee said:
‘This award represents an opportunity to bring Sudan to the forefront of international attention. We hope it will help shine a greater light on the daily humanitarian efforts carried out by the Emergency Response Rooms. We dedicate this recognition to every volunteer who continues to serve despite the challenges.’
Khalid, who co-founded the ERRs in Sudan’s South Kordofan said:
‘Winning this award is global recognition of the efforts and courage of the Emergency Response Rooms volunteers, and a tribute to the Sudanese community. It serves as an incentive to continue protecting civilians and upholding their dignity, and to emphasise the role of local leadership in bringing about change.’
The Chatham House Prize 2025 was generously supported by Dr Mo Ibrahim, Open Society Foundations and Quadrature Climate Foundation.
The Chatham House Prize is voted for by Chatham House members, following nominations from Chatham House staff and presented to ‘the person, persons, or organization deemed to have made the most significant contribution to the improvement of international relations.’
The Prize was launched in 2005. Previous recipients of the Prize include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Sir David Attenborough, the Committee to Protect Journalists, Médecins Sans Frontières, and Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
A new community group is looking to make an impact on the community, and do so in an efficient manner.
Customers of Sapporo Soul Sushi & Ramen soon will be able to enjoy sake, Japanese beer and other alcoholic beverages with their meals.
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