Getty Images photographer Elsa Garrison shares how she managed to capture a "pretty iconic" image of Team USA's Jack Hughes.
President Trump will award Royce Williams a Medal of Honor for his actions in a secret mission during the Korean War, sources with knowledge of the matter told CBS News.
Drowning in debt? Both Chapter 7 and Chapter 13 bankruptcy could offer relief, but they work very differently.
France’s president says ‘there is no willingness on the Russian side to have peace’
Zelenskyy says “we must be just as determined and strong as we were when the invasion began,” as “the threat hasn’t become smaller.”
He says Europe can only respond to this war working together with the US, even as he remarks it “is not an easy task to maintain transatlantic unity and cooperation in the current conditions.”
“So there must be no place in the free world for Russian oil, for Russian tankers, Russian banks, Russian sanctions …, schemes, or for any Russian war criminals. The time has come to fully ban all participants in Russia’s aggression from entire Europe.”
Continue reading...Mexico’s president says there is ‘no risk’ for those visiting for Fifa games after military killed drug lord ‘El Mencho’
Mexico’s president Claudia Sheinbaum has said that there is “no risk” for visitors coming to Fifa World Cup games scheduled to be held in the country, after the death of a top cartel boss triggered a wave of retaliatory violence from gunmen who blocked roads and attacked security forces across the country.
The Mexican military attempted to detain “El Mencho”, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, in a dawn raid on Sunday, leading to a firefight in which he was fatally wounded, before dying while being airlifted to hospital.
Continue reading...American snowboarder Chloe Kim told "CBS Mornings" she had to relearn some of her tricks for the Winter Olympics due to a shoulder injury.
CNN poll reveals Trump’s approval among independents at 26%; White House press secretary says speech to focus on US’s 250th anniversary and affordability concerns
About 30 members of Congress are planning to attend a Democratic counter-program event tonight instead of the State of the Union, according to the organizers of the “People’s State of the Union,” led by liberal group MoveOn and progressive media outlet MeidasTouch.
Here are the lawmakers who are expected to attend the separate event and skip the Trump speech:
Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ)
Senator Ed Markey (D-MA)
Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR)
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT)
Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD)
Representative Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03)
Representative Becca Balint (D-VT)
Representative Greg Casar (TX-35)
Representative Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7)
Representative Maxwell Frost (FL-10)
Representative Robert Garcia (CA-42)
Representative Adelita Grijalva (AZ-07)
Representative Jim Himes (CT-04)
Representative Sara Jacobs (CA-51)
Representative Pramila Jayapal (WA-07)
Representative John B. Larson (CT-01)
Representative Summer Lee (PA-12)
Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez (NM-03)
Representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37)
Representative April McClain Delaney (MD-6)
Representative Christian Menefee (TX-18)
Representative Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
Representative Ayanna Pressley (MA-7)
Representative Emily Randall (WA-6)
Representative Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-05)
Representative Melanie Stansbury (NM-01)
Representative Delia Ramirez (IL-03)
Representative Bonnie Watson Coleman (NJ-12)
Continue reading...Thinking about putting $100,000 of your investment funds in gold? Here's what that looks like in this market.
Government ignores pleas for a grace period before new rules come into force on Wednesday
British citizens with a second nationality risk being blocked from entering the UK from Wednesday, the Home Office has confirmed.
The government has decided to ignore pleas from families, the Liberal Democrats and the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davies for a grace period to allow British dual nationals to adapt to the new rules they face.
Continue reading...A grand jury refused to return an indictment against the six Democratic lawmakers earlier this month.
Richard Blumenthal seeks records from FCC and Paramount Global amid claims of political censorship
US Senate Democrats are launching an investigation into whether the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the CBS parent company, Paramount, prevented Stephen Colbert, the network’s talkshow host, from broadcasting an interview with the Texas Democratic candidate, James Talarico.
Richard Blumenthal, the ranking Democrat on the Senate’s permanent subcommittee on investigations, has written to the FCC’s enforcement bureau and to the CEO of Paramount Skydance, David Ellison. The Democratic senator demands information and documents relating to the Colbert controversy, including any communications with Donald Trump’s White House.
Continue reading...Credit card debt forgiveness may be worth exploring this March, but borrowers should first consider certain items.
According to sources close to the investigation, there are concerns that DNA recovered from Nancy Guthrie's home may not yield a usable profile for comparison.
MPs pass motion as trade minister Chris Bryant says Andrew ‘could not distinguish between public and private interest’
Keir Starmer is taking part in a coalition of the willing video call to discuss Ukraine. There is a live feed of his public contribution here.
Kemi Badenoch is holding a press conference now. She is appearing with the relatives of children who she says have died as a result of social media – either because they took their own lives, or because it led to them being attacked. She says she wants to give them a platform to tell their stories.
Continue reading...We're expecting the Galaxy S26, S26 Plus and S26 Ultra to debut at Wednesday's Samsung Unpacked event in San Francisco.
Christopher Trybus charged with manslaughter of Tarryn Baird, rape and coercive and controlling behaviour
A woman who took her own life after being subjected to a campaign of “physical and sexual violence” by her husband told her family “I am so sorry but I just couldn’t take it any more”, a court has heard.
Tarryn Baird, 34, was found dead at her home in Swindon, Wiltshire, on 28 November 2017.
Continue reading...SANTA CLARA, Calif. and MENLO PARK, Calif., Feb. 24, 2026 — AMD and Meta today announced a 6-gigawatt agreement to power Meta’s next generation of AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs. This agreement expands on the companies’ existing strategic partnership and aligns roadmaps across silicon, systems and software to deliver AI platforms purpose-built for Meta’s workloads.
Credit: Shutterstock
The first deployment will use a custom AMD Instinct GPU based on the MI450 architecture to deliver AI platforms that are optimized for Meta’s workloads at gigawatt-scale. Shipments supporting the first gigawatt deployment are scheduled to begin in the second half of 2026 powered by the custom AMD Instinct MI450-based GPU and 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Venice,” running ROCm software and built on the AMD Helios rack-scale architecture. AMD Helios was developed jointly by AMD and Meta through the Open Compute Project to enable scalable, rack-level AI infrastructure.
“We are proud to expand our strategic partnership with Meta as they push the boundaries of AI at unprecedented scale,” said Dr. Lisa Su, chair and CEO, AMD. “This multi-year, multi-generation collaboration across Instinct GPUs, EPYC CPUs and rack-scale AI systems aligns our roadmaps to deliver high-performance, energy-efficient infrastructure optimized for Meta’s workloads, accelerating one of the industry’s largest AI deployments and placing AMD at the center of the global AI buildout.”
“We’re excited to form a long-term partnership with AMD to deploy efficient inference compute and deliver personal superintelligence,” said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Meta. “This is an important step for Meta as we diversify our compute. I expect AMD to be an important partner for many years to come.”
In addition to the collaboration on GPUs, AMD and Meta are expanding their AMD EPYC processor partnership. Meta has been a close partner over multiple generations, deploying millions of AMD EPYC CPUs and significant deployments of AMD Instinct MI300 and MI350 series GPUs across their global infrastructure. As AI infrastructure grows in scale and complexity, CPUs are a strategic pillar of the AI compute stack, enabling efficiency, scalability and orchestration alongside GPUs. Building on deep roadmap alignment, Meta will be a lead customer for 6th Gen AMD EPYC CPUs, codenamed “Venice,” and “Verano,” a next-generation EPYC processor designed with workload-specific optimizations to deliver leadership performance-per-dollar-per-watt.
As part of the agreement, to further align strategic interests, AMD has issued Meta a performance-based warrant for up to 160 million shares of AMD common stock, structured to vest as specific milestones associated with Instinct GPU shipments are achieved. The first tranche vests with the initial 1-gigawatt of shipments, with additional tranches vesting as Meta’s purchases scale to 6 gigawatts. Vesting is further tied to AMD achieving certain stock price thresholds and exercise is tied to Meta achieving key technical and commercial milestones.
“We expect this partnership to drive substantial multi-year revenue growth and be accretive to our non-GAAP earnings per share, marking another significant step forward in delivering on our ambitious long-term financial model,” said Jean Hu, EVP, CFO and treasurer, AMD. “The performance-based structure also tightly aligns AMD and Meta around execution and long-term value creation.”
Together, AMD and Meta are collaborating across silicon, systems and software to enable AI infrastructure at a global scale that accelerates AI innovation and brings AI-powered services and experiences to billions of users.
About AMD
AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) drives innovation in high-performance and AI computing to solve the world’s most important challenges. Today, AMD technology powers billions of experiences across cloud and AI infrastructure, embedded systems, AI PCs and gaming. With a broad portfolio of AI-optimized CPUs, GPUs, networking and software, AMD delivers full-stack AI solutions that provide the performance and scalability needed for a new era of intelligent computing. Learn more at www.amd.com.
Source: AMD
The post AMD and Meta Announce Expanded Strategic Partnership to Deploy 6 Gigawatts of AMD GPUs appeared first on HPCwire.
Campus clashes provide uneasy backdrop to third round of talks on nuclear programme in Geneva
Plainclothes police and security forces, many of them armed, have tried to flood Iran’s remaining open universities in an attempt to crush a fourth day of student protests against the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Running battles were reported on some campuses, with videos showing fistfights between the Basji state-backed militia and students at the University of Science and Technology in Tehran. Pick-up trucks with machine-guns were photographed parked outside the University of Tehran, with demonstrations also in Mashhad.
Continue reading...ATLANTA, Feb. 24, 2026 — Morehouse College has received a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to participate in a $457 million project to build one of the most powerful academic supercomputers in the southeast. This historic investment in higher education cyberinfrastructure will elevate Morehouse’s ability to provide access to world-class computational resources for its students, faculty, and HBCUs nationwide.
Morehouse College students, faculty, and HBCUs nationwide will benefit from access to the supercomputer.
The Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing has received an initial $5 million portion of the NSF grant to start construction on a site that will house the cutting-edge supercomputer, Horizon, part of the NSF’s Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF). More funds will be disbursed to support ongoing operations. The supercomputer will push the boundaries of artificial intelligence, providing greater access to areas such as climate modeling, machine learning, and biomedical research.
The computing project is being led by the Texas Advanced Computing Center at the University of Texas at Austin. As a primary partner in the LCCF project, Morehouse will play a pivotal role in the deployment of Horizon. In addition to housing the system, Morehouse will serve as a national epicenter for programmatic support, leading free initiatives such as a summer enrichment program for middle and high school boys, a postbaccalaureate program in artificial intelligence, and three weeklong faculty accelerators in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, focused on research, teaching, and grant proposal writing.
“Morehouse College is honored to partner with the NSF and the University of Texas at Austin on this transformative project,” said Dr. F. DuBois Bowman, 13th President of Morehouse College. “By hosting one of the Southeast’s most powerful academic supercomputers, we are providing HBCUs with unprecedented computational power to explore bold ideas, accelerate discovery, and unleash new frontiers of creativity and innovation. This investment positions our students and faculty to help shape the future of science, technology, and global problem-solving.”
“This contribution cements Morehouse’s place as the undisputed HBCU leader in artificial intelligence,” says Dr. Kinnis Gosha, Principal Investigator of the grant and Hortinius I. Chenault Endowed Professor and Chair of Computer Science. “As a national resource provider, we will empower other HBCUs and non-research-intensive institutions to contribute to growing their research capacity and enhancing student learning.”
The NSF partnership underscores Morehouse College’s commitment to academic rigor and its growing influence as a leader in global STEM research. It reinforces the College’s position as a champion for equity in the technological landscape, a field with a workforce that is still lacking diversity. According to national labor statistics, some 62 percent of tech jobs are held by White Americans.
Morehouse will share its research and project progress at the Integrating Supercomputing-Powered Instruction, Research, and Entrepreneurship (InSPIRE) Workshop, which is held annually in Austin, Texas. The conference offers support to faculty and students using AI research in teaching and entrepreneurial endeavors.
For more information on Morehouse’s role in the NSF Leadership-Class Computing Facility or other AI initiatives offered by the Morehouse Center for Broadening Participation in Computing, please visit https://morehouse.edu/academics/centers-and-institutes/cbpc.
About Morehouse College
Founded in 1867, Morehouse College is the nation’s only college founded to educate men of color. Ranked as Georgia’s top liberal arts college for men, Morehouse produces more Black men who go on to receive doctorates than any other college in the country and is a top feeder school for Black men entering prestigious graduate schools and MBA programs. Also named Georgia’s #1 small college, Morehouse educates a selective group of some 2,800 students each year, 60 percent of whom come from families with household incomes of $40,000 or less, yet many of whom are highly recruited by Fortune 500 companies. The College has created more Rhodes Scholars than any other HBCU and has the #1 core curriculum among HBCUs nationally. It is the nation’s top producer of Black male graduates in the social sciences, and the top HBCU producer of Black male graduates in business administration, management, operations, English, foreign languages, mathematics, statistics, philosophy, religious studies, and physical sciences. As the national epicenter for thought leadership on human rights and equity, Morehouse is committed to helping the nation address the challenges caused by institutional racism, income and health care disparities, lack of access to capital, detrimental public policy, and the need for high-quality education.
Source: Morehouse College Office of Institutional Advancement
The post Morehouse College Selected as Host Site for NSF Supercomputing Project appeared first on HPCwire.
Microsoft has spent more than $76 billion acquiring game studios and publishers over the past few years in an attempt to turn Xbox into a Netflix-like subscription platform, and the result is that nobody -- possibly not even Microsoft -- can clearly articulate what Xbox actually is anymore, The Verge writes. The brand started as a powerful video game console, but Game Pass and cloud gaming pushed it toward a hazier identity: the "This is an Xbox" ad campaign tried to redefine it as any device that could play Xbox games, whether a PC, a smart TV, a phone, or a Windows handheld. Microsoft then went further and started publishing its biggest franchises on PlayStation, making it one of the largest third-party publishers on a rival's platform. Phil Spencer, who led the division for over a decade and drove the subscription pivot, announced his retirement last week, and incoming CEO Asha Sharma has pledged "the return of Xbox" -- though her memo also talks about expanding across PC, mobile, and cloud, which sounds a lot like the status quo.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Savannah Guthrie said in a new video that the family is offering an additional reward of up to $1 million for information about their mother Nancy Guthrie's whereabouts.
Information Commissioner’s Office imposes largest fine yet for a breach of children’s privacy
The UK information regulator has fined the social news service Reddit £14.5m for using the data of children under the age of 13 unlawfully and potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content.
The hefty punishment from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the largest fine yet for a breach of children’s privacy and comes after the US-based company introduced age checks in July, including age verification to access mature content. Prior to this, the ICO said, there were “a large number of children under 13 on the platform and Reddit did not have a lawful basis for processing their personal information”.
Continue reading...Partnership with Idaho National Laboratory boosts computing power for Idaho universities, accelerating discovery, funding competitiveness and workforce development
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho, Feb. 24, 2026 — A powerful supercomputer is expanding high-performance computing for researchers across Idaho, enabled by a partnership between Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the state’s public research universities.
High-performance computing systems like this enable researchers to run complex simulations and analyze large datasets in a fraction of the time required by standard computers.
The system, known as Lemhi, serves researchers at University of Idaho, Boise State University and Idaho State University and replaces the Falcon supercomputer, delivering substantially faster performance and improved efficiency. The upgrade strengthens Idaho’s capacity for research, education and innovation and provides computing capabilities comparable to those at major national research institutions.
“Access to this level of computing allows Idaho to punch well above its weight,” said Luke Sheneman, director of research computing and data services at U of I. “It helps us attract top faculty and graduate students, compete for federal research funding and tackle problems we could not address without this kind of infrastructure.”
High-performance computing, often called supercomputing, allows researchers to solve problems that require enormous computational power, not because of the amount of data involved, but because of the complexity and scale of the problem itself. These systems process information faster than standard computers, accelerating discovery across disciplines such as artificial intelligence, energy systems, engineering, health sciences and natural resources.
“My research uses large-scale molecular simulations to better understand how chemicals interact with liquids, which is important for applications ranging from drug development to energy storage,” said Bourgeois Gadjagboui, a doctoral student at Boise State. “Lemhi enables this work to scale by providing the computing power and data infrastructure needed to analyze thousands of molecules efficiently and support>
Researchers throughout the state can access Lemhi remotely using their university credentials, allowing them to complete computing tasks in just hours or days that might otherwise take weeks or months on a regular computer. This level of access supports advanced research, workforce development and collaboration among institutions.
Keith Weber, director of the GIS Training and Research Center at Idaho State University, said a task that previously took 12.8 hours on a Windows workstation was completed in six minutes on the supercomputer. The faster processing enabled researchers to create digital terrain and ladder fuel models used in pre-wildfire mitigation efforts and post-fire management studies funded by FEMA and NASA.
Lemhi is hosted at INL’s Collaborative Computing Center in Idaho Falls, where INL provides the secure facility, power and core infrastructure required to operate and sustain a supercomputer. U of I currently oversees day-to-day operations, with leadership set to rotate among the three universities in the future. Boise State is expected to assume the lead role in late 2026.
Both Falcon and Lemhi are the result of a long-standing collaboration between INL and Idaho’s research universities. As INL modernizes its computing systems, select resources are made available for academic use, extending the value of major research investments before systems are eventually retired through federal surplus processes.
INL researchers used Lemhi for approximately six years before making it available for academic research, reflecting INL’s ongoing commitment to supporting university partnerships. This approach helps maximize the value of advanced computing investments while expanding access to cutting-edge tools for education and research.
“Scientific computing and artificial intelligence are critical enablers of Idaho’s leadership in research and engineering,” said Eric Whiting, senior advisor of scientific computing and AI at INL. “University access to capable computer systems such as Lemhi will continue to elevate Idaho’s scientific reputation and create positive impacts for both the state and INL.”
By supporting research across a wide range of disciplines, Lemhi helps Idaho institutions compete for federal funding, attract top researchers and train the next generation of scientists and engineers, reinforcing the statewide impact of INL’s long-term investment in research excellence.
More from HPCwire: Idaho National Laboratory Deploys Teton Supercomputer to Expand Multiphysics Simulations
Source: University of Idaho
The post Lemhi Supercomputer Expands Idaho Research Capacity appeared first on HPCwire.
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
While many exporters around the world cheered when the supreme court ruled against Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs last week, the unintended consequence could be that the trade war escalates further, says Neil Wilson at the broker Saxo Markets.
Trump warned countries not to ‘play games’ and threatened ‘a much higher tariff’ than they had agreed to...the unintended consequence of the Supreme Court ruling could be an escalatory trade war that markets hadn’t anticipated. Or as Trump put it the Supreme Court had ‘unwittingly’ handed him ‘far more powers and strength’ to levy fresh tariffs than before the ruling.
… The White House insists it’s working on a 15% levy at a later date, which gives the president a degree of optionality, but this is evolving into a far messier situation than we had a week ago.
We can all agree that the US is not facing a balance of payments crisis, which is when countries experience an exorbitant increase in international borrowing costs and lose access to financial markets.
Continue reading...US president had said he would raise levy to 15% after last week’s supreme court ruling
Donald Trump’s new global tariffs have taken effect at 10%, even though he had threatened a higher rate of 15% last weekend, providing “some relief” for British businesses, according to a lobby group.
After the US president suffered a defeat at the hands of the supreme court on Friday, which struck down his sweeping “liberation day” tariffs imposed last year, he angrily reacted by announcing a 10% global tariff, which he raised to 15% on Saturday in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Continue reading...The US men’s and women’s teams claimed titles at the Winter Games this past week. The warm fuzzy feelings didn’t last long
Keeping politics at arm’s length for the US men’s hockey team’s gold-medal matchup with Canada was always going to be difficult.
The game fell on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, when an underdog group of US college players upset the mighty Soviet Union team against the backdrop of the cold war. But the US team who took the ice on Sunday were no plucky band of amateurs making a stand for democracy against authoritarianism – a point underscored when the US and Canada met last year in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Canadian fans booed the Star-Spangled Banner and the US players, either unaware of, or unsympathetic to, Canadian desires to be neither the 51st US state nor the USA’s opponent in a scorched-earth trade war, dropped the gloves to fight their opponents as soon as the game commenced.
Continue reading...Nancy Guthrie has been missing for three weeks and officials believe she was kidnapped from her Arizona home
Savannah Guthrie’s family has offered up to $1m for information leading to the return of her 84-year-old mother, Nancy, who has been missing since 1 February.
The NBC Today show host posted the offer in a video on Instagram Tuesday, more than three weeks after Nancy’s disappearance. “Someone out there knows something that can bring her home,” Guthrie says in the clip. “We are begging you to please come forward now.
Continue reading...Natalie Fleet MP says politicians should not expect ‘death threats as standard’, as Lancashire councillor apologises
A Labour MP has said politicians should not expect to face “death threats as standard” after a Reform UK councillor shared a Facebook post which said she “should be shot”.
The picture of Natalie Fleet, who has spoken previously about being groomed and raped as a teenager, was accompanied by a fake quote misattributed to her, which read: “I voted against the grooming gang enquiry.”
Continue reading...Looking for recommended chargers for an ADV PRO on Amazon, must be prime so I can have it shipped to a locker location.
Thanks!
Shares in Uber, Mastercard and American Express fall on back of apocalypse scenario posted on Substack
US stock markets have been hit by a further wave of AI jitters, this time from yet another viral – and completely speculative – warning about the impact of the technology on the world’s largest economy.
The latest foreboding is from Citrini Research, a little-known US firm that provides insights on “transformative ‘megatrends’”. Its post on Substack, which it called a “scenario, not a prediction”, rattled investors by portraying a near future in which autonomous AI systems – or agents – upend the entire US economy, from jobs to markets and mortgages.
Continue reading...Little sign Moscow’s ability to continue waging war for a fifth year is diminished, analysis suggests
Russia will be able to sustain its invasion of Ukraine throughout 2026 even allowing for emerging economic and manpower pressures, while its missile and drone threat to Europe is growing, according to a leading military thinktank.
Bastian Giegerich, the director general of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said there was “little indication” that “Russia’s ability to continue its war against Ukraine for a fifth year is diminished”.
Continue reading...Starting in 2027, the Danish pharma firm will sell its weight-loss and diabetes drugs for $675 per month.
Stepbrother, 16, was charged in the death of Anna Kepner, a high schooler found dead on a Carnival cruise in November
A 16-year-old from Florida has reportedly been charged with homicide as a minor in the death of his stepsister, Anna Kepner, in November on a Carnival cruise ship.
News of the charges against the teen boy surfaced in court documents first reported on Monday by the Florida news outlet Wesh 2 News. CBS News also reported having seen the documents.
Continue reading...Read on for how to tune into the hit show starring Kaitlin Olson on ABC and Hulu.
New constructions delayed or cancelled, raising questions about US’s ability to expand infrastructure to support boom
Cancellations and delays of new US datacenters have increased as the artificial intelligence boom runs up against a slate of issues, including supply chain snags, energy shortages and tariff-induced restraints.
Grassroots opposition from local communities has also derailed some plans, and some investors have grown wary of datacenters amid fears of an AI bubble.
Continue reading...Toaster ovens are one countertop appliance you don't want to skip. Here's everything to know about choosing the right one.
A Pew Research Center survey found that just 4 in 10 parents talk to their teens about AI usage.
Discord is attempting to distance itself from the age verification provider Persona following a steady stream of user backlash. From a report: In an emailed statement to The Verge, Discord's head of product policy, Savannah Badalich, confirms the company "ran a limited test of Persona in the UK where age assurance had previously launched and that test has since concluded." After Discord announced plans to implement age verification globally starting next month, users across social media accused Discord of "lying" about how it plans on handling face scans and ID uploads. Much of the criticism was directed toward Discord's partnership with Persona, an age verification provider also used by Reddit and Roblox.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
In a tearful video, “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie, the missing 84-year-old’s daughter, pleaded with the public for help.
One deputy is killed in a traffic stop and a second dies when deputies track suspect to woods, sheriff says
Two Missouri sheriff’s deputies were fatally shot, one during a traffic stop and the other hours later during an exchange of gunfire with the suspect, who was also killed, authorities said.
Brad Cole, the Christian county sheriff, said the initial shooting happened during a traffic stop south of Highlandville on Monday in south-west Missouri, news outlets reported.
Continue reading...CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 24, 2026 — 4colors Research today announced that a consortium led by the company and comprising Airbus, DNV, NQCC, and ORCA Computing has been awarded an NQCC SparQ Grant under the 2025 STFC Cross Cluster Proof of Concept: SparQ Quantum Computing Call. The program is funded by the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) in the UK. The award will support a collaborative project titled “Quantum-Accelerated Mixed-Integer Optimisation for Aircraft Loading” whose goal is to develop a quantum computing use case in aerospace logistics.
“Through the SparQ program, NQCC is supporting important, industry-led projects that explore how quantum computing can deliver real-world impact,” said Dr. Rob Whiteman, Quantum Readiness Delivery Lead, NQCC. “This consortium exemplifies the collaborative innovation needed to advance practical quantum optimization.”
Advancing Aircraft Loading with Hybrid Quantum Computing
The project aims to demonstrate how hybrid classical–quantum computing can help solve the complex and high-impact problem of aircraft cargo loading. Optimizing both what to load and where to stow it, while satisfying trim, centre-of-gravity, structural, and operational constraints, can yield substantial benefits for airlines and cargo operators. Even small improvements in this process can lead to lower fuel burn and CO₂ emissions, faster turnaround times, and better utilization of existing fleet capacity.
Aircraft loading is a challenge faced by manufacturers as well as airlines and operators. Like other combinatorial optimization problems, it is computationally demanding yet critically important to operations. Enhancing efficiency improves payload utilization and overall performance, making the search for better algorithms essential. This project focuses on harnessing the power of quantum computing to deliver practical and sustainable benefits for industry.
“The NQCC SparQ grant brings together partners with complementary expertise, spanning aerospace, logistics, quantum hardware, and advanced algorithms,” said Dr Marcin Kaminski, Founder and CEO of 4colors Research. “We are excited to collaborate on this use case and, more broadly, to push forward quantum solutions for combinatorial optimization.”
“Hybrid quantum–classical optimization has real potential to unlock efficiencies in complex industrial workflows,” said James Fletcher, Head of Solutions Architecture at ORCA Computing. “We’re pleased to contribute our photonic quantum systems to this consortium and help advance a commercially relevant use case for aerospace.”
About 4colors Research
4colors Research is an algorithm technology company that develops and commercializes innovative classical and quantum algorithms for complex optimization problems. Based in Cambridge, UK, the company partners with industry leaders worldwide to deliver solutions that combine emerging computational technologies with rigorous scientific and optimization expertise. 4colors was the winner of the 2024 Airbus × BMW Quantum Computing Challenge and a semi-finalist in the 2025 XPRIZE Quantum Applications Competition.
About DNV
DNV is a global leader and independent expert in risk management and assurance, operating in more than 100 countries, helping customers safeguard life, property, and the environment through evidence‑based decisions. DNV brings a powerful combination of domain science and digital trust capabilities, covering digital assurance, data quality and governance, interoperability and conformance testing, and applied AI/ML analytics to ensure that data, models, and software‑enabled processes are transparent, secure, and reliable across the value chain.
About The National Quantum Computing Centre
The National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC), based at the Harwell Campus in Oxfordshire, UK, is a national facility dedicated to accelerating the development and adoption of quantum computing. Established as part of the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme, the NQCC works with industry, academia and government to bridge the gap between quantum research and real-world applications, providing access to quantum computing hardware, expertise and collaborative programmes.
About ORCA Computing
ORCA Computing, headquartered in London, UK, with offices in the United States, is a leading developer and provider of full-stack photonic quantum computing systems. The company delivers an innovative approach to quantum computing, providing robust, high-performance, and data center-standard systems for machine learning, generative AI and optimization workloads. ORCA Computing has successfully delivered ten on-premises quantum computers to leading global customers, including the UK National Quantum Computing Centre, Montana State University, and the Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center.
Source: 4colors Research
The post 4colors Research Leads NQCC SparQ Project on Quantum Optimization for Aircraft Loading appeared first on HPCwire.
The Senate is set to take procedural vote on funding for the Department of Homeland Security as a partial government shutdown stretches into an 11th day.
Hey everyone, thought I would hop on here and gauge interest in my board.
Selling my Onewheel GT with ~1,700 miles. Board is in great mechanical condition and rides smooth.
Upgrades & Included Extras:
• New fm treaded performance tire (only ~100 miles on it)
• NSK bearings installed with the tire
• Float Life rim savers
• Includes pink bumpers (no stock bumpers)
$1100 OBO
I also have a pair of used lowboy footpads I would throw in for $100 extra
I am located in the SLC area for all of those interested
Dm me for photos
Should a person be deported because once, a decade and a half ago, they left their toddlers home alone for a half hour to buy them pajamas at Walmart? That’s what the Trump administration is arguing in a little-noticed federal appeals court case being decided in California, with sweeping implications for both the immigration and child welfare systems. A ruling is expected in the coming months.
In 2010, Sotero Mendoza-Rivera, an undocumented farmworker who’d immigrated from Mexico 10 years earlier, made a fateful decision. He drove with his girlfriend, Angelica Ortega-Vasquez, to their local Walmart in McMinnville, Oregon, according to a police report. The store was seven minutes from their apartment. In addition to the pajamas, they purchased motor oil and brake fluid for their car.
When they got back to the apartment, their 2-year-old son, who’d been in bed asleep when they’d left, had woken up and somehow gotten out the door. A bystander found him by the street outside the complex, baby bottle in hand, and called the police.
The responding officer issued Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez a misdemeanor citation, which they resolved with a guilty plea, a fine and probation. The officer stated in his report that the little boy and his 3-year-old sister were healthy and clean, that the apartment was well-kept and stocked with food, and that a neighbor said that the mother was usually home with the kids.
The Obama administration then opened deportation proceedings against Mendoza-Rivera, but did not keep him in detention. He appealed, and the case wound its way slowly through the legal system before hitting a backlog at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where some immigration matters from nearly a decade ago are still being decided.
But in August, amid the Trump administration’s campaign of mass deportations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Mendoza-Rivera and locked him up in another state. And the Department of Justice is now arguing that what he did in 2010 (the current case is against him only) is a crime deserving of immediate removal from the country. A DOJ lawyer argued before a panel of the 9th Circuit in Pasadena, California, last month that it doesn’t matter if no harm to children occurred, saying an immigrant parent should still get deported if their parenting decision involved a “substantial” deviation from a “normal” standard of care for kids.
Child welfare officials and experts told ProPublica they are deeply concerned by the case, as well as several others like it that have been making their way through the courts and are now reaching a decisive point. “Imagine what a weapon it would be in ICE’s hands if child welfare is added to all the other areas where a conviction for the most minor offense means deportation,” said Richard Wexler, executive director of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform, an advocacy group.
Indeed, if Attorney General Pam Bondi’s team wins this case, thousands of immigrant moms and dads could be exposed to deportation for minor involvement in the juvenile court system, a new realm for President Donald Trump’s deportation regime. There aren’t exact numbers as to how many immigrants are accused of low-level parental negligence in juvenile courts. But as ProPublica has previously reported, millions of parents are accused of child neglect every year in this country, in many instances for reasons stemming from poverty like a lack of child care or food in the fridge, rather than physical or sexual abuse.
Immigrant parents are no more likely than U.S.-born parents to abuse children. But undocumented parents may be more likely to be accused of certain low-level forms of neglect, according to legal aid attorneys. For one thing, due to their lack of legal status, they sometimes avoid interactions with officials at schools and hospitals, leading to potential allegations against them for neglecting their kids’ health or education. They also disproportionately work long and unpredictable hours, sometimes having their older children look after their younger ones, which in the U.S. can be deemed inadequate supervision. Differing cultural norms regarding how much hands-on supervision is necessary also play a role.
There is no evidence yet that ICE has been actively looking for cases like these to identify parents to deport, according to interviews with over a dozen federal and state child welfare officials. But data on specific child welfare cases is reported from states to the federal government annually, via the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. (The data contain identifiers for children but not their names, though state agencies have those.)
“The million or so reports in NCANDS would be a gold mine for Noem and Miller,” said Andy Barclay, a longtime child welfare statistician, referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and top Trump adviser Stephen Miller.
The first Trump administration did not seek to use such data for deportations, according to Jerry Milner, who was appointed to oversee the U.S. child welfare system as head of the federal Children’s Bureau from 2017 to 2021. “I never had any of those discussions around the data,” Milner told ProPublica. “I can’t guarantee that others did not, but they never made it to me.” But, he said, “things are different now.”
“I would have strong concerns if any of the data are used for purposes other than what they were intended for,” Milner said.
Medicaid data, for instance, is now reportedly being shared with the Department of Homeland Security, and those files can have more identifying information than NCANDS does on families with child welfare cases. DHS has also accessed Office of Refugee Resettlement data on migrant children, which can be used to identify young people’s locations and the (sometimes undocumented) adults taking care of them. Indeed, DHS and FBI agents have visited migrant kids at the homes of their caretakers, ostensibly to perform “welfare checks.”
The White House declined to answer questions for this article. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment. A Justice Department spokesperson in an email accused the Biden administration of letting Mendoza-Rivera’s case languish and said that “as part of this Administration’s commitment to making America safe again, the Attorney General will continue to defend efforts to remove criminal illegal aliens, especially those convicted of offenses which place children in situations likely to endanger their health or welfare.”
The Trump administration’s view, according to the Justice Department’s filings in Mendoza-Rivera’s case, is that undocumented parents convicted of even the most minor forms of parental negligence should be ineligible for a type of legal relief called “cancellation of removal.” (Mendoza-Rivera sought this relief during his initial deportation proceedings, which is part of what spurred the current appeals case.) It’s an off-ramp from deportation that until now has been available to such moms and dads if they’ve been in the U.S. for 10 or more years, they have “good moral character,” and their deportation would cause extreme hardship to their U.S. citizen children. This would apply to Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez’s kids, who are American citizens.
One of the main federal laws that the Trump administration has been relying on in its effort to deport millions of people comes from the Bill Clinton era. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act overhauled immigration enforcement in part by stating that noncitizens, even lawful permanent residents, must be expeditiously deported if they’ve been convicted of certain offenses, including aggravated felonies, crimes of “moral turpitude,” drug crimes or domestic violence, or a “crime of child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment.”
The motivation for including this sort of language, at the time, was clear. Amid the violent crime wave of the ’90s, the law’s co-author, Bob Dole, said on the Senate floor that the crimes he wanted to make deportable included “vicious acts of stalking, child abuse and sexual abuse.”
Yet over the three decades since, societal norms around what constitutes bad — and even criminal — parenting have come to include all sorts of nonviolent and even harmless behavior. A range of parenting practices that were considered normal for most of the 20th century are now investigated and prosecuted as child maltreatment in many states; letting your kids play at the park and walk home alone could be “neglect,” especially if you’re poor and a person of color. So could leaving them in their car seats briefly with the windows cracked and the car alarm on while you run into a store to buy diapers, or failing to properly secure their bedroom windows at night.
Some rulings by other courts have blocked deportations for people with these sorts of alleged parenting lapses, while the federal Board of Immigration Appeals has offered changing guidance on the issue. Immigration advocates fear that the current appeals court proceeding, which groups together several similar cases including Mendoza-Rivera’s, could become hugely influential across the legal system — and with much higher stakes now given the present administration’s enforcement focus.
Although the Obama and Biden administrations took similar positions to the Trump administration on this point, in general they didn’t pursue deportations as aggressively. “There was some discretion being exercised,” said David Zimmer, Mendoza-Rivera’s appellate attorney. “So it was at least possible, in a given case, that they might have decided not to pursue removal if the parent hadn’t done anything meaningfully wrong.” That’s no longer the case in a regime that is seeking any reason to expel an immigrant, Zimmer said.
This case could be heard by the full 9th Circuit next and then head to the U.S. Supreme Court, if the justices choose to take it up. Much of the debate rests on the question of whether it matters if immigrant parents meant to harm their children, given that intention is part of the definition of most crimes. If the parent both didn’t harm and wasn’t aware they might harm their child, advocates argue, it shouldn’t qualify as a “crime” worthy of deportation.
The Oregon misdemeanor negligence statute under which Mendoza-Rivera was convicted doesn’t require proving any intent to harm a child, any actual harm to a child or even exposure of a child to any harm, acknowledged Justice Department lawyer Imran Zaidi at a 9th Circuit hearing in January. But negligence is still a “culpable mental state” deserving of deportation, he said, because it is “incompatible with a proper regard for consequences.”
Jed Rakoff, a New York federal district judge serving as a visiting member of the 9th Circuit panel, responded that he’s been hearing this argument since “my first year of torts class.” Negligence, he said, is by definition unconscious; otherwise it would be “recklessness,” which is a different, more serious act involving consciously disregarding potential harm. In the context of these family court cases, it is often just conduct that’s a small deviation from some middle-class “reasonable person’s” — a neighbor’s, a caseworker’s — subjective opinion of what “good” parenting looks like.
“I’m talking about the term ‘crime’: What did Congress mean by that single word?” Rakoff said, referring to the 1996 law’s description of a “crime” of “child abuse, child neglect, or child abandonment.” Lawmakers clearly meant something more serious than briefly leaving kids unattended, Rakoff continued. After all, the consequence they were prescribing — deportation — was so much more severe than any other possible consequence for any similar misdemeanor.
Zaidi, the Justice Department lawyer, responded that if many state laws say that something is a crime of child neglect, then it is a crime of child neglect, and Congress said that a crime of child neglect is deportable. The two judges other than Rakoff seemed more open to this argument.
The fundamental question that the appeals court is considering, then, is whether these essentially harmless parental “crimes” alleged by increasingly hands-on local child welfare authorities are the same category of crime that the U.S. Congress was talking about when it passed a law on immigrants committing violent crime, domestic violence and terrorism.
Josh Gupta-Kagan, founder and director of the Columbia Law School Family Defense Clinic, said that it appears Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez “were not a safety threat to their children, let alone to anyone else,” even if they showed bad judgment by leaving toddlers alone for a half hour. So it is “fair to question,” he said, how pursuing either of their deportations serves the Trump administration’s “stated interest in public safety.”
McMinnville, Oregon, where Mendoza-Rivera and Ortega-Vasquez bought those pajamas at Walmart, is where they’ve lived for nearly a quarter century and where they had their two children, who are now teenagers. It’s also where Mendoza-Rivera spent all those years picking and packaging produce.
But he has now been locked up for months in a detention center in Tacoma, Washington, and his family has in turn lost much of its income. His kids are without him. And if the Trump administration gets to use a law against him that was intended to protect children, they will lose their dad to a foreign country for good.
The post Trump’s Latest Deportation Tactic: Targeting Immigrants With Minor Family Court Cases appeared first on ProPublica.
Russia is intensifying efforts to push users away from foreign messaging apps and toward a domestic platform that has been criticized as a surveillance tool.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 24, 2026 — Scality and WEKA today announced a new jointly validated solution that combines WEKA’s NeuralMesh high-performance storage with Scality RING’s cost-efficient object tier. The solution offers enterprises the best of both worlds: flash-speed performance for active AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data, combined with scalable, durable capacity for large datasets, while reducing cost and complexity without compromising speed.
WEKA Delivers Ultra-High-Performance, Scality Extends the Capacity and Economic Benefits, Providing Faster Data Pipelines with Lower Cost for AI and HPC Workloads.
At the heart of the new solution is Scality’s proven object connector for NeuralMesh, a lightweight, REST-based integration validated by WEKA at scale. Compared to conventional S3 interfaces, Scality RING achieved up to 10x faster performance on similar hardware in Scality testing, with up to 20% lower infrastructure costs. This enables organizations to extend their NeuralMesh-powered AI and HPC data pipelines more economically while avoiding the management overhead associated with traditional object stores.
“WEKA’s NeuralMesh storage system delivers the high-performance software foundation modern AI pipelines require to run optimally. Enterprises that leverage the Scality RING lightweight connector together with NeuralMesh can achieve additional economic benefits, leveraging a cost-efficient object tier,” said Nilesh Patel, chief strategy officer at WEKA. “This enables our mutual customers to achieve their AI project outcomes faster and more efficiently.”
The joint solution architecture keeps new and active data on WEKA’s NeuralMesh flash tier, while seamlessly tiering data to Scality’s exabyte-scale, resilient object storage. This ensures optimal performance and long-term cost control — without forcing customers into expensive, all-flash deployments.
Customer Benefits Include:
“Our partnership with WEKA provides enterprises a smarter way to extend the economics of their AI pipelines,” said Erwan Girard, Chief Product Officer at Scality. “WEKA drives the performance; Scality provides the scale. Together, we help customers reduce infrastructure costs and management complexity while keeping their AI and HPC environments running at peak efficiency.”
Availability: The integrated Scality RING with NeuralMesh by WEKA solution is available now, detailed information is available at https://www.scality.com/partner/weka.
About Scality
Scality solves organizations’ biggest data storage challenges — growth, security, performance, and cost. Designed for end-to-end cyber resilience, only Scality S3 object storage with CORE5 safeguards data at every level of the system, from API to architecture. Its patented MultiScale Architecture enables limitless, independent scalability in all critical dimensions to meet the unpredictable demands of modern workloads. The world’s most discerning companies depend on Scality to accelerate high-performance AI initiatives, optimize cloud deployments, and defend their data with confidence. Recognized as a leader by Gartner, Scality software is reliable, secure, and sustainable.
About WEKA
WEKA is transforming how organizations build, run, and scale AI workflows through NeuralMesh, its intelligent, adaptive mesh storage system. Unlike traditional data infrastructure, which becomes more fragile as AI environments expand, NeuralMesh becomes faster, stronger, and more efficient as it scales, growing with your AI environment to provide a flexible foundation for enterprise and agentic AI innovation. Trusted by 30% of the Fortune 50 and the world’s leading neoclouds and AI innovators, NeuralMesh maximizes GPU utilization, accelerates time to first token, and lowers the cost of AI innovation.
Source: WEKA
The post Scality and WEKA Partner to Deliver High-Performance AI Storage with Efficient Object Tiering appeared first on HPCwire.
Hungary’s veto over European funding could constrain Ukraine’s ability to fund its army and weaken its hand in U.S. talks with Russia over the war.
Leader says Vladimir Putin has not achieved his goals and visit by Trump might make clear ‘who the aggressor is’
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed to Donald Trump to visit Kyiv, in a video address on the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion, and said Ukraine would not betray its people in any negotiations with Russia.
Zelenskyy said Putin had not achieved his original war goals or “broken the Ukrainian people”. “He has not won this war,” he said. “We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to achieve peace. And to ensure justice.”
Continue reading...Almost a year after Kilmar Abrego Garcia was first targeted by the U.S. government as part of its violent mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration is still not done punishing him.
The 30-year-old father of three became an emblem of Trump’s cruelty and lawlessness after being abducted and sent to CECOT, the notorious Salvadoran torture prison where hundreds of people were incarcerated last year at the behest of the White House. After conceding that Abrego had been expelled in “error” — violating a court order barring Abrego’s deportation to his country of origin — the Trump administration nonetheless refused to bring Abrego back to the U.S., smearing him as a terrorist and leaving him to endure months of violence, deprivation, and psychological torture.
Abrego was finally returned last June. But his arrival only marked a surreal new chapter in his ordeal. Rather than bring him back to Maryland, where he lived with his wife and young children, he was jailed in Tennessee, as federal prosecutors devised a dubious new case against him. Before he’d even landed on U.S. soil, Abrego was indicted on sweeping criminal charges for allegedly smuggling gang members across state lines over the course of a decade.
Abrego, who has pleaded not guilty, was supposed to go to trial in January at the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. But late last year, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw canceled the trial date, instead scheduling an evidentiary hearing on a pending question before the court: whether Abrego is the target of a “selective and vindictive prosecution” by the Trump administration.
The hearing, set for Thursday morning at the federal courthouse in Nashville, will ultimately determine whether the criminal case against Abrego moves forward. If Crenshaw concludes that Abrego was indeed the target of a revenge campaign, he could dismiss the case altogether.
As a legal and historical matter, this would be a big deal — and a major defeat for federal prosecutors. But it would also fall far short of accountability for those who have dedicated themselves to ruining Abrego’s life. Nor does it stand to impact the countless others whose lives have been destroyed by Trump’s lawless mass deportations. Abrego’s case, which so shocked the American public in the early days of the president’s term, was a harbinger of things to come. “We really thought this was going to be one of a kind,” one of his immigration lawyers recently told NPR. “If anything, it was just the tip of the spear.”
Abrego was released from jail last year and spent the holidays with his family. While not currently incarcerated, he remains under federal supervision and still faces deportation. He entered the country illegally as a teenager to escape gang violence in El Salvador, was given “withholding from removal” status by an immigration judge in 2019, which allowed him to live and work in the U.S. while checking in once a year with ICE. But the Trump administration dismantled such protections, arresting Abrego in March 2025. While his criminal case has placed his removal on hold, the federal government has gone to extreme lengths to make his eventual deportation a punishment unto itself, scheming to send him to a third country in Africa rather than Latin America.
Abrego’s prosecution is also a potent example of Trump’s eagerness to weaponize the Justice Department against those who cross him. In the year since Abrego was sent to CECOT, the DOJ — whose headquarters now feature a large banner of Trump’s face — has dropped any pretense of independence. One associate deputy attorney general who was apparently instrumental to Abrego’s prosecution reportedly told U.S. attorneys last month that Trump is their “chief client.”
This makes Abrego’s upcoming hearing a new test of the courts. Crenshaw, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2015, has already put himself in the crosshairs by considering Abrego’s rare vindictive prosecution challenge. The hearing comes at a moment when federal judges are increasingly vocal about the threat posed by the Trump regime, while the president and his backers increasingly villainize the judges who stand in their way.
On the surface, the question of whether Abrego is the target of a “vindictive prosecution” is no mystery. The government’s brazen retribution campaign has been publicized at every turn.
To recap: After Trump invoked the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act to declare an “invasion” of gang members in mid-March 2025, exiling hundreds of mostly Venezuelan men to CECOT, Abrego appeared in a photo taken at the prison, released by the Salvadoran government. The overhead image showed two rows of men kneeling on the ground with their hands behind their shaved heads. His wife recognized Abrego from his tattoos.
On March 24, 2025, Abrego sued for his release. Less than two weeks later, a federal judge in Maryland ordered the government to “facilitate” Abrego’s return — and the Supreme Court upheld her order. Rather than complying, Trump held a backslapping Oval Office meeting with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, where U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that it was up to Bukele, not Trump, to bring Abrego back to the U.S.
For the next several weeks, the Trump administration demonized Abrego, repeatedly labeling him a gang member and releasing records showing that his wife took out an order of protection against him years earlier. The Department of Homeland Security posted on X that Abrego was “not the upstanding ‘Maryland Man’ the media has portrayed him as” — a line loudly amplified by Trump’s supporters.
Abrego was finally flown back to the U.S. in June 2025 — but only after the DOJ laid the groundwork for a new criminal case against him, which allowed Trump to put a new spin on the government’s narrative. At a press conference on June 6, Bondi announced that Abrego had been indicted for playing a “significant role in an alien smuggling ring” — crimes she described as his “full-time job — and that he had been returned to the U.S. to face justice.
The same line was parroted by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, on Fox News. As Abrego’s lawyers lay out in their vindictive prosecution motion, Blanche — who was previously Trump’s defense attorney — declared that the DOJ began investigating Abrego only after “a judge in Maryland” interfered with Trump’s decision to deport him.
Abrego’s motion also points to comments made by Trump aboard Air Force One, in which he said the DOJ made its decision in response to “these judges [who] want to try and run the country.” Asked by a reporter how the criminal case came to pass, Trump said, “I could see a decision being made — bring him back, show everybody how horrible this guy is. And frankly we have to do something because the judges are trying to take the place of a president that won in a landslide.”
Finally, Abrego’s lawyers highlight the resignation of Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Schrader, who quit his position as chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee the same day Abrego was indicted, “reportedly over concerns that the case was being pursued for ‘political reasons.’” (In an email to The Intercept, Schrader, who is now in private practice, declined to comment on the case.)
These arguments have already proven persuasive to Crenshaw. The federal district judge concluded last year that there was at least some evidence to show that Abrego’s prosecution was retaliatory in nature. “The totality of events” point to a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness,” he wrote last fall. He was struck by the timing of the government’s investigation of Abrego, which came “a mere seven days after he prevailed” at the Supreme Court, as well as by Blanche’s “remarkable statements,” which appeared to confirm that the prosecution was born of revenge for Abrego’s successful lawsuit “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct.”
Another STRONG SIGN that Abrego is the target of a vindictive prosecution is the weakness of the government’s criminal case itself. While the DOJ has insisted that it has damning evidence to show that Abrego is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, the allegations look increasingly like a house of cards.
In September, prosecutors submitted a sworn affidavit laying out how the case against Abrego unfolded. The document, which was signed by Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire, traces the case back to November 30, 2022, when Abrego was pulled over on the highway in Putnam County, Tennessee, while driving a Chevy Suburban carrying eight passengers, all of whom were Latino. State troopers questioned Abrego but ultimately sent him on his way without a ticket.
The affidavit acknowledges that the traffic stop did not lead to a prosecution until 2025. As McGuire tells it, he got a call the night of April 27, 2025, from the local Special Agent in Charge for Homeland Security Investigations about “potential human smuggling committed by Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia,” who by then was already famous for being sent to CECOT. According to the affidavit, McGuire, who had experience with smuggling cases, “decided to handle the matter himself.” After examining body camera footage from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, he “immediately noted the similarities” between the footage and cases he had handled.
“Over the next several weeks, law enforcement conducted multiple interviews of individuals with information about Abrego Garcia’s activities in Tennessee and elsewhere,” the affidavit goes on. McGuire ultimately concluded that Abrego “had been involved in a human smuggling conspiracy for years.” The evidence was in fact “overwhelming.”
But at a lengthy detention hearing last year, the government’s case against Abrego looked flimsy at best, cobbled together from dubious statements made by highly incentivized federal informants, none of whom actually took the stand. Prosecutors’ sole witness was an HSI special agent whose testimony was based on interviews he neither conducted nor attended — evidence the presiding judge skeptically described as “multiple levels of hearsay.”
McGuire, who represented the government at the hearing, also sought to link Abrego to “a mass casualty event” involving some of the “same actors” involved in his alleged smuggling scheme. But when the judge asked whether any testimony would show that Abrego himself was involved in this mass casualty event, McGuire said no.
“The cooperators the government is relying on here have very serious credibility issues.”
Lawyers with the Federal Public Defender for the Middle District of Tennessee, which represented Abrego at the time, pointed out myriad holes in the government’s case. “The cooperators the government is relying on here have very serious credibility issues,” one attorney argued. The informants provided their statements as part of deals that would allow them to avoid deportation, giving them an obvious incentive to lie. What’s more, “their stories are facially implausible.” The informants claimed that Abrego often brought his own children with him as he zig-zagged across the U.S. for his smuggling operation. “The idea that he is taking them on these cross-country trips multiple times per week is just ridiculous on its face.”
A few weeks later, the judge ruled in Abrego’s favor, finding that there was no evidence that justified keeping him in jail while awaiting trial. But she noted that he would almost certainly be kept behind bars either way, given the “anticipated removal proceedings that are outside the jurisdiction of this Court.” While this might make her decision appear to be “little more than an academic exercise,” she wrote, “the foundation of the administration of our criminal law depends on the bedrock of due process. … The Court will give Abrego the due process that he is guaranteed.”
In their motion alleging that Abrego is the target of a selective and vindictive prosecution, his lawyers acknowledge that the legal threshold is high. To win, they must prove that Abrego was specifically targeted for exercising his constitutional rights in court. Such claims “are infrequently made and rarely succeed,” they write. “But if there has ever been a case for dismissal on those grounds, this is that case.”
Indeed, as the lawyers lay out, Abrego was sent to CECOT, successfully sued for his release, and was then slapped with a dubious and apparently politically motivated criminal case. “This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”
In the six months since they first asked Crenshaw to throw out the case on these grounds, the evidence supporting their argument has only gotten stronger. Crenshaw has repeatedly ordered the DOJ to turn over materials that might further illuminate the DOJ’s decision to prosecute Abrego, often to no avail. When prosecutors have turned over evidence, the disclosures have undermined their own case.
“This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”
On December 30, Crenshaw unsealed an order that appeared especially damning. The judge had examined thousands of pages of government documents submitted for his review, ultimately determining that a portion should be turned over to Abrego’s legal team. “Some of the documents suggest not only that McGuire was not a solitary decision-maker,” Crenshaw wrote, “but he, in fact, reported to others in DOJ with others who may or may not have acted with improper motivation.”
The “others” in question include Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, who works under Blanche, and who appeared to have “a leading role” in the decision to prosecute Abrego. A recent Bloomberg Law profile of Singh described the former gang prosecutor as “the Trump Justice Department’s brashest enforcer when it comes to clamping down on US attorneys’ autonomy,” noting that Singh pushed prosecutors to go after people like Abrego, former FBI Director James Comey, and former CNN host Don Lemon.
Crenshaw’s order supports this characterization, highlighting emails and conversations between Singh and McGuire last year. On April 27, 2025 — the same day McGuire reportedly heard about HSI’s investigation into a potential smuggling case against Abrego, according to the previously submitted affidavit — Crenshaw noted that Singh contacted McGuire “to discuss Abrego’s case.” This detail was not included in the government’s original narrative.
Also absent from McGuire’s affidavit was the fact that Singh told McGuire that Abrego’s prosecution was a “top priority” for Blanche — and that McGuire, who explicitly said that he’d decided to handle the Abrego case “himself,” later wrote to his staff in mid-May that Blanche wanted Abrego charged “sooner rather than later.”
To Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who famously traveled to El Salvador to see Abrego and remains an outspoken advocate in his case, the disclosures were a “smoking gun.” As he told CNN, the unsealed document shows that the DOJ “decided to bring these charges against [Abrego] because he asserted his due process rights when they illegally shipped him off to CECOT.”
With the evidentiary hearing approaching, the Trump administration has kept stalling, rather than turn over additional evidence. Last month, prosecutors filed a new motion explaining why it should not have to provide material it had previously agreed to disclose. Whereas the DOJ once agreed it was obligated to turn over the prior statements of the witnesses they planned to call to the stand — tentatively two HSI investigators, as well as McGuire himself — prosecutors now argued that, in fact, they do not have to turn those statements after all. Their previous position was rooted in “an honest misunderstanding” of the applicable law, they wrote, a mistake “largely based on the fact that these kinds of hearings are exceedingly rare.”
Whether or not DOJ prosecutors ever turn over the materials in question, the government’s witnesses could face a hard time if called to testify on Thursday. Crenshaw already appears to have caught the Trump administration in a series of lies, which could ultimately prompt him to simply call the government’s bluff and just end the farcical prosecution altogether.
“If there were any communications or documents that helped the government prove its narrative that this case was not motivated by vindictiveness, the government would no doubt have produced them,” Abrego’s lawyers wrote last month. “The Court should draw the obvious inference that flows from the government’s stonewalling: the presumption of vindictiveness is warranted and unrebutted, and this case must be dismissed.”
The post Trump Won’t Stop Trying to Punish Kilmar Abrego Garcia appeared first on The Intercept.
Paramount Skydance is continuing its efforts to buy Warner Bros. Discovery by upping the ante on Netflix.
Ashley Fairbanks launched Stand with Minnesota as ICE raids rocked her home town – now donations are pouring in, and families’ rent is being paid
From thousands of miles away in San Antonio, Ashley Fairbanks watched the news pour out of her home town of Minneapolis– federal immigration authorities flooding the streets and regular people stepping up to defend and care for their communities. She knew she had to do something. So the 39-year-old writer, artist and digital strategist started a Google Doc.
Soon, the list of resources for residents grew so long it became unwieldy, and Fairbanks, who builds websites for a living, launched Stand With Minnesota.
Continue reading...COLLEGE PARK, Md., Feb. 24, 2026 — IonQ is pleased to announce it was awarded a contract under the Missile Defense Agency Scalable Homeland Innovative Enterprise Layered Defense (SHIELD) indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a ceiling of $151 billion. This contract encompasses a broad range of work areas that allows for the rapid delivery of innovative capabilities to the warfighter with increased speed and agility.
IonQ is among more than 2,400 companies eligible to compete for future task orders issued under the SHIELD IDIQ contract framework.
IonQ delivers a full portfolio of quantum technologies spanning quantum computing, quantum networking, quantum sensing, and quantum security. The company also includes subsidiaries with established capabilities across space-based intelligence, secure communications, and precision timing technologies.
IonQ’s subsidiary companies include Capella Space, which provides on-demand, all-weather synthetic aperture radar imagery from space to support data-driven decision-making for operational and security missions; Skyloom, which delivers high-capacity optical communications technologies designed to enable secure, high-speed data transfer between space and ground systems; and Vector Atomic, which develops precision timing and navigation technologies designed to support system performance in GPS-degraded or denied environments.
“IonQ brings together a broad set of quantum technologies and supporting capabilities that reflect years of investment across computing, networking, sensing, and security,” said Niccolo de Masi, Chairman and CEO of IonQ. “We look forward to continuing our work with U.S. government partners across a range of research, development, and innovation programs.”
Participation in the SHIELD IDIQ contract provides a contractual framework through which IonQ may compete for future task orders, subject to agency requirements, and competitive selection processes.
IonQ has a history of supporting U.S. government research and development initiatives, including work with agencies such as DARPA, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and organizations across the national security community.
About IonQ
IonQ, Inc. (NYSE: IONQ) is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier – delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. IonQ’s newest generation of quantum computers, the forthcoming IonQ Tempo, will be the latest in a line of cutting-edge systems that have been helping customers and partners including Amazon Web Services, AstraZeneca, and NVIDIA achieve 20x performance results and accelerate innovation in drug discovery, materials science, financial modeling, logistics, cybersecurity, and defense. In 2025, the company achieved 99.99% two-qubit gate fidelity, setting a world record in quantum computing performance.
Source: IonQ
The post IonQ Selected to Support Missile Defense Agency SHIELD IDIQ Contract appeared first on HPCwire.
MEGAN MCGRATH
Staff Reporter
A proposal for an artificial intelligence (AI) center in Newark was announced in late 2025 — one of multiple that have been proposed throughout the First State.
Although still in the initial stages of the approval process, this site, White Clay Center Industrial Park, is set to have minor land development on 100 White Clay Center Dr, accessed from Ogletown Rd.
Verdantas, the proposed developers behind the data center, plans to demolish seven of the existing structures in the area and redevelop the site to have three new buildings with a total area of more than 848,000 square ft.
Originally, it was unclear if the site would host an AI data center. Local zoning laws do not yet offer guidance for where data centers can be developed, but rather include them in the broader industrial zone category.
However, the minimal parking spaces included in the proposals linked the plans to being a center over any other industrial build because they employ very few permanent workers.
“The one in Newark is absolutely a data center,” David Carter, New Castle County councilman, said.
Despite pushback against the proposal from local government officials, the plans have remained intact because the proposal site lies outside Delaware’s Coastal Zone Act. In response, the New Castle County Council introduced regulations that seek to ensure that Newark residents receive the same protections as those living in the coastal zone.
Carter proposed the New Castle County Data Center Ordinance to restrict data centers to zones labeled as industrial, heavy industrial and extractive use permits. This would restrain data centers from encroaching upon residential areas. Without this ordinance, data centers are allowed in any non-residential zoning category.
The ordinance would also implement environmental controls, which would require Verdantas, the proposed developers, to pursue water conservation, setbacks from residential areas in order to reduce noise and visual impacts and air pollution from diesel motors.
If passed, the ordinance could be retroactively applied to Verdantas’ proposal if it is approved. Currently, the New Castle County Council has not come to an agreement.
“The three council members from Newark are three of the strongest opponents to passing it,” Carter said.
Two of those council members, Tim Sheldon and Janet Kilpatrick, have expressed support for the data center and the economic benefits that would come with it — both in terms of taxes for the city and jobs for local residents.
Valerie George, the third council member, likes the ordinance but does not believe it should be applied to the Verdantas site retroactively. Sheldon, Kilpatrick and George did not respond to requests for comment.
“The only way to really protect the residents of Newark from the proposed data center is if we pass this ordinance, with some of these protections,” Carter said. “And if it’s done using pending ordinance, that will only occur if Mr. Sheldon, Ms. Kilpatrick and Ms. George, the three council members that represent people in Newark, agree to put it in.”
Critics of the protections argue they may steer data center companies away from building in the county, potentially jeopardizing economic benefits.
However, according to Carter, these economic benefits may not be as they seem. His team looked into the numbers from one of the other proposed data centers in Delaware.
“Starwood Digital Venture is claiming $75 million in tax benefits,” Carter said. “We calculated the numbers, and it’s about $2.6 million for the school district, and about a little bit less than $800,000 for county taxes.”
In addition, proponents of the zoning ordinance argue that the majority of jobs that would come from this data center would be short-term during the building process, rather than steady positions.
“They won’t be transparent about where they’re coming up with these numbers,” Carter said. “And frankly, I don’t think they’re being truthful with us.”
As the data center progresses further into the implementation process, how it will be regulated will become clearer. In the meantime, the Newark community and those in the surrounding area remain concerned about what implications come with the center.
“It’s always talked about how data centers pollute the area,” Addison Mood, a sophomore public policy major and Newark resident, said. “Them doing that here is scary to think about.”
Data centers in other locations in the United States have been reported to have negative impacts on residents. Kara Ellerby, an associate professor at the university, looked to data centers in Boxton, Tennessee, where there are increased cases of people with asthma and lung issues.
“Communities are looking and saying, ‘Well, this is what happens when data centers build,’” Ellerby said. “‘They take, take, take. They do not give.’”
While complications persist at the county level, leaving residents confused, there is opportunity for the state to step in and regulate.
“If the county isn’t able to get the regulations and ordinances done, I believe the state will step in,” Delaware State Rep. Cyndie Romer said.
This month, Delaware State Rep. Frank Burns sponsored House Bill 233, which places the high costs of energy use from the centers onto the data companies, rather than the residents.
Many concerns surrounding the data center are still unsettled as the state and county governments continue to work with Verdantas to come to a working agreement that will be shared with the public.
“We have to be understanding of the fact that AI needs to run on these data centers, but we get to set the guardrails,” Romer said. “We get to set the standards for what we want in our state.”
Russia has opened an investigation into Telegram founder Pavel Durov for "abetting terrorist activities," [non-paywalled source] in the latest sign that his uneasy relationship with the Kremlin has broken down. From a report: Two Russian newspapers, including the state-run Rossiiskaya Gazeta and Kremlin-friendly tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda, alleged on Tuesday that the messaging app had become a tool of western and Ukrainian intelligence services. The articles, credited to materials from Russia's FSB security service, accused Telegram of enabling attacks in Russia and said that Durov's "actions ... are under criminal investigation." Russia has restricted Telegram's functions, accusing it of flouting the law and is seeking to divert users towards Max, a state-run rival messenger. The steps escalate pressure on a platform that remains deeply embedded in Russian public life.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Two sheriff's deputies were killed and two more were wounded in southwestern Missouri, after a suspect opened fire during a traffic stop and fled.
‘Extraordinary’ golden lamb’s head pillaged in 1874 from what is now Ghana remains hidden in officers’ mess
The Royal Artillery is facing criticism after it emerged they are refusing public access to an “extraordinary object” looted by the British army in the 19th century from the Asante people in modern-day Ghana.
The glistening golden ram’s head would seemingly be worthy of any museum, but it remains hidden within the regiment’s mess at Larkhill in Wiltshire.
Continue reading...From AI hardware to wearable phones, these products promised a lot. So what happened to them?
Facebook owner’s investment described by semiconductor company as ‘big bet’ on artificial intelligence
The owner of Facebook has agreed to buy $60bn (£44.5bn) of artificial intelligence chips from the US semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices despite fears over the vast sums being spent on the AI industry.
Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, has clinched the five-year deal in which it will also buy 10% of the chip company.
Continue reading...Joshua Orta was passenger when Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot in his car by immigration agent in March 2025
The passenger in the car when Texas driver Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot in March 2025 by a federal immigration agent gave a lengthy statement to lawyers for the slain man’s family disputing the government’s version of events.
That witness died on Saturday in a fiery car crash in San Antonio, a lawyer for Martinez’s family said.
Continue reading...The Hedgehog Go is the world’s first dual-purpose dryer for both hair and winter gear, but does it actually work? I tested it on my own hair and winter accessories.
Charles Kushner, father of president’s son-in-law Jared, had been summoned to explain US comments relating to death of far-right activist
Donald Trump’s envoy to Paris will not be permitted to carry out his diplomatic duties until he has explained his refusal to comply with a foreign ministry summons over US comments about the killing of a far-right activist, France’s top diplomat has said.
Charles Kushner “needs to be able to have this discussion with us, with [the foreign ministry], so that he can resume the normal exercise of his duties as ambassador in France”, the French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Claim of ‘abetting terrorist activities’ comes as Kremlin attempts to steer users on to state-controlled app
Russia has launched a criminal investigation into the Telegram founder, Pavel Durov, on suspicion of “abetting terrorist activities”, further escalating the Kremlin’s standoff with the widely used messaging app.
The state newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported on Tuesday that a case had been opened “based on materials from Russia’s federal security service”, which accused the app of being compromised by western and Ukrainian intelligence.
Continue reading...New York City, New Jersey, southern New England and coastal communities along the East Coast faced blizzard warnings and some of the biggest snowfall totals in years.
Ford is recalling almost 413,000 Explorers from model years 2017 through 2019 due to a defect that could cause drivers to lose steering control, the U.S. auto safety regulator said
Firefox 148 introduces granular AI controls and a global "AI kill switch" that allows users to disable or selectively manage the browser's AI features. Phoronix reports: Among the AI features that can be toggled individually are around translations, image alt text in the Firefox PDF viewer, tab group suggestions, key points in link previews, and AI chatbot providers in the sidebar. Firefox 148 also brings Firefox for Android, support for the Trusted Types API, CSS shape() function support, Sanitizer API support, WebGPU enhancements, and a variety of other changes. Developer chances can be found at developer.mozilla.org. Binaries are available from ftp.mozilla.org.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The president and his aides vilify the judiciary with brutal rhetoric, hoping to delegitimize a co-equal branch of government
When Donald Trump attacked several supreme court justices as “fools”, “lapdogs”, “disloyal to our constitution” and a “disgrace to our nation” after they ruled against his tariffs on Friday, it was probably the most vicious public tirade that a US president ever leveled against the country’s highest court. But as extraordinary – and extraordinarily ugly – as Trump’s rant was, everyone should realize that it was part of a systematic campaign in which Trump and his top aides have vehemently denounced and smeared judges as part of Trump’s quest for ever more power.
Whether it’s Trump, Stephen Miller, Pam Bondi or others, Trump and his lieutenants often pummel judges with brutal rhetoric. To many judges, these attacks no doubt spur fears that some Trump loyalists will threaten them or worse.
Continue reading...Choice of Virginia governor to give Trump rebuttal suggests DNC believes moderate approach could bring midterm wins
On Tuesday night, Abigail Spanberger will walk out on to the historic grounds of Colonial Williamsburg and deliver the Democratic response to Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. With midterm elections approaching and Democrats desperately searching for a roadmap back to relevance, the party has turned to a moderate who once flipped a Republican-held congressional seat in the suburbs of Richmond and then parlayed that into the governorship by 15 points.
Since taking the office from Republican Glenn Youngkin in January, Spanberger has moved with lightning speed that has caught conservatives flat-footed, much to the delight of those who still identify as liberal.
Continue reading...Mixtape is an upcoming game about being a teenager when "everything meant the end of the world or the start of the world."
Once a left-leaning political campaigner, Brand has rebranded himself as a conservative guru to millions of social media followers
David Lammy backs jury trial measures as Ministry of Justice figures published
The backlog in criminal courts in England and Wales will continue to rise for nearly a decade before it falls despite radical reforms including curtailing jury trials, according to figures from the Ministry of Justice.
The justice secretary, David Lammy, said the government was determined to press ahead with the jury trial reforms despite a potential rebellion from Labour MPs, warning that no other measures would stop the backlog from rising exponentially.
Continue reading...This iPhone feature has helped me get better sleep over the past five years, even when I travel.
Without federal climate regulation, fossil fuel industry may be more vulnerable to local lawsuits
The Trump administration’s repeal of a foundational climate determination could clear a path for new litigation and policies targeting big oil, legal experts say.
Earlier this month, Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule revoking the “endangerment finding”, a 2009 determination that established that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare. The move eliminated federal limits on climate-warming emissions from motor vehicles, and is expected to extend to all other pollution sources.
Continue reading...Europe is helping Ukraine resist a US push for peace at any price Expert comment LToremark
European governments are realizing how Ukraine is helping fill the void left by a diminished US presence.
The latest round of US-brokered talks between Russia and Ukraine concluded without a significant breakthrough. While the parties reached near-consensus over a ceasefire monitoring mechanism, they remain deadlocked over the key issue of territory. Kyiv maintains that a comprehensive ceasefire must precede any peace agreement or elections. Meanwhile, Moscow insists that Ukraine must cede the entire Donbas region – including territories Russia has failed to secure militarily – before fighting can stop.
Moscow has managed to convince US President Trump’s team that it is engaging in peace talks ‘in good faith’ and that ceding Ukrainian-held territory is the only path to a lasting peace. This has added pressure on Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy to finalize a peace settlement and establish a timeline for national elections by the summer. Increasingly aware of Ukraine’s importance to European security, Europe has stepped up to help Kyiv withstand US pressure for a quick deal – which would only embolden the Kremlin.
Notwithstanding US diplomatic pressure, Zelenskyy’s main constraint is the risk of a domestic backlash against terms perceived as a betrayal of the nation’s wartime sacrifices. Zelenskyy has warned that he cannot accept territorial concessions because the Ukrainian people would ‘never forgive this’. According to a January 2026 survey, 54 per cent of Ukrainians categorically reject the idea of Ukraine withdrawing its troops from parts of Donbas it still controls and transferring these to Russia in exchange for Western security guarantees. Cementing Russian control over Donbas would leave Ukrainians vulnerable to further Russian attacks. Any changes to Ukrainian territory would also require a nationwide referendum, which must be approved by parliament. Not only would a referendum face severe security and legal challenges but any conditions that would undermine Ukrainian sovereignty would likely be rejected.
In terms of pressure to hold elections, Ukraine is currently under martial law and thus constitutionally barred from holding elections. There are other concerns too. Without a ceasefire, polling stations would become targets for Russian missile strikes. A quarter of the country’s population are internally displaced or have fled the country, meaning voter registration data is largely outdated. Millions are still serving in the military or living under occupation and would be unable to cast ballots or run for office. There would also be the threat of destabilizing Russian influence campaigns during the election. A December 2025 survey showed that 59 per cent of Ukrainians oppose holding elections before fighting ends and a peace deal is reached.
As the US scales back its military support for Ukraine and pushes for a quick deal, European governments have stepped up to ensure Ukraine is able to defend itself and negotiate from a position of strength. Europe has effectively replaced the US as Ukraine’s main donor. EU military aid rose by 67 per cent in 2025 and the EU has approved a €90 billion loan to Ukraine for budgetary and military support in 2026–27.
Increased European burden-sharing has provided Kyiv with a defensive buffer. The responsibility for funding new advanced equipment (like Patriot air defence systems) has shifted from the US to European NATO allies through the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List (PURL). Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has indicated that the alliance could secure an additional $15 billion in 2026 (on top of the $5 billion allocated in 2025) to sustain Ukraine’s military needs. With the US stepping back from the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (the ‘Ramstein format’), the UK and Germany assumed co-leadership to ensure the continued coordination of weapons deliveries.
European leaders are also working to ensure Kyiv is not coerced into a bad deal. The ‘coalition of the willing’ – led by France, the UK and Poland – has proposed security guarantees that include potential European troop deployments to enforce any future ceasefire. Critics fear that post-ceasefire deployments create an incentive for Russia to prolong the conflict. But this commitment sends an important signal that Ukraine is now an inextricable part of Europe’s future security architecture – and boosts Zelenskyy’s leverage.
An even stronger signal is Ukraine’s integration into Europe’s defence industrial base. The EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defence fund offers member states up to €150 billion in loans for long-term rearmament and allows Ukraine to participate in joint procurement. This mechanism will reduce Europe’s reliance on US supply chains, scale up domestic arms production, and enhance interoperability. There are other innovative schemes too. Countries like Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway are funding weapons production inside Ukraine through the so-called ‘Danish model’. Meanwhile, major European firms like Rheinmetall (Germany) and BAE Systems (UK) have established production hubs inside Ukraine under the ‘Build in Ukraine’ initiative.
There is also increasing cooperation on drone production as Europe aims to bolster its defences against Russia’s sub-threshold operations. European defence giants have high-quality tech but suffer from slow production cycles and high costs. Ukraine, meanwhile, is a world leader in producing cheap and effective drones capable of destroying multimillion-dollar assets. Ukraine’s defence sector has developed a direct feedback loop between frontline units and producers, adapting technology to battlefield realities in real time. The UK–Ukraine Project Octopus leverages Ukrainian battlefield innovation and British industrial capacity to mass-produce autonomous interceptors that cost less than 10 per cent to produce than the Russian strike drones they are designed to destroy. There is also a new joint venture to mass-produce Ukrainian-designed drones in Germany.
Europe is wielding its financial, diplomatic and industrial leverage to support Ukraine, but significant challenges remain.
One is continued European hesitation to repurpose frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine. Europe’s seizure of these funds would send the message that Moscow will be held liable for war damages without burdening European taxpayers. Even if the rift in the transatlantic alliance deepens, this move would secure funding for Ukraine’s long-term defence and recovery.
Film-maker Jonte Richardson cites ‘harm inflicted on both the black and disabled communities’, while New Black Film Collective and MP Dawn Butler criticise BBC’s failure to edit
A black British film-maker has said he will step down as a Bafta judge over the organisation’s handling of the incident during Sunday’s ceremony during which a Tourette syndrome campaigner shouted a racial slur while two black actors were on stage.
Sinners stars Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting the award for special visual effects when John Davidson, whose life story was adapted into the acclaimed film I Swear, shouted the N-word from the stalls. The actors continued with their presenting duties but appeared shocked.
Continue reading...A 10% levy has been put in place, but the US leader has other economic ‘bazookas’ he can fire in his trade battle
Donald Trump did not carry through his threat to introduce 15% tariffs overnight.
However, he did impose 10% tariffs on imports into the US on Tuesday, and the threatened 15% may be the least of his trade partners’ worries.
Pharma and active ingredients.
Processed critical minerals.
Commercial aircraft and jet engines.
Polysilicone used in solar panels and semiconductors.
Drones.
Wind turbines.
Robots.
PPE and medical devices.
Continue reading...Robert Carradine, a member of a famed acting family, has died aged 71. He made his film debut alongside John Wayne in The Cowboys in 1972 and later became best known for his roles in Revenge of the Nerds and Lizzie McGuire
Continue reading...The traffic stops on a rural California base appeared routine – until immigration agents showed up. Experts and lawmakers say the incidents could violate US law
Francisco Galicia paced his cell at Fort Hunter Liggett, a vast army base 160 miles south of San Francisco, on a Friday evening in January. His mind raced with thoughts of his five daughters waiting for him at home.
Over several hours, immigration agents brought six more men into the frigid, cement-walled cell. As the men shared eerily similar stories of their arrests, Galicia realized they had all driven straight into a trap.
Continue reading...From brushes for those on a budget to the best high-end model, these are our favorite picks.
Commentary: Here's what Samsung needs to do to make its next Galaxy Ultra phone even better. We'll soon find out whether the company delivers at its next Galaxy Unpacked event.
The highest-ranking officials in Washington will be present for President Trump's State of the Union address Tuesday night — here's what to know about where they're sitting.
A trusted associate of one of the cartel leader's romantic partners escorted the woman to Tapalpa, Jalisco, for a meeting with the drug lord, officials said.
Before she took her own life at 14, Molly Russell accessed thousands of harmful posts on Instagram and Pinterest. A new documentary recreates the inquest where her father was told the images were safe
Molly Russell was 14 when she took her own life in 2017 after months of viewing content relating to self-harm and suicide on social media. Nearly a decade later, her best friends from school, interviewed for this documentary, have grown into articulate, impressive women in their early 20s. Watching them, you can’t help but be struck all over again by the terrible tragedy of Molly’s death and the loss to her family, who will never see the young woman Molly would be now. Her father, Ian Russell, says life before Molly’s death was absolutely normal; in the years since, he has become a leading campaigner for better online protection for children.
On the night Molly died, Russell says, they sat down together as a family, in front of the TV. Molly’s last message to her friend Nieve was two laughing emojis. She had been feeling depressed, but no one suspected how bad it was. Nor were they aware of the content being fed to Molly by Instagram and Pinterest’s algorithms. In the months before her death she accessed thousands of harmful social media posts. One reads: “Dear me, I hate you. You’re weak. You deserve the pain. You’ll never be good enough. I hope you die.” At the inquest into Molly’s death, Meta’s head of health and wellbeing policy, Elizabeth Lagone, told the court the majority of posts Molly saw were “safe” for children. Nothing to see here.
Continue reading...The US president will deliver his State of the Union address this evening – here’s what you need to know
Donald Trump will deliver the State of the Union in Washington on Tuesday, his second major address to Congress this term and the last before the 2026 midterms. It’s also the first time Trump will be confronted with the supreme court justices since they ruled his tariffs illegal.
Historically, the State of the Union is an opportunity for the president to lay out their agenda and talk about key policy objectives. While it’s not officially a campaign event, it’s likely Trump will use the speech as an opportunity to tout his accomplishments.
Continue reading...U.S. envoy Charles Kushner will be denied access to French government ministers due to his lack of attendance after comments about the death of a far-right activist
More than 385,000 Ukrainian teenagers are enrolled in a defense course, expecting war, or threats, to go on for years. In Russia, children are learning the same skills.
Want to make your own app or create a dream project? It's all about the prompt.
Comedian denies one count of rape and one count of sexual assault related to two women
Russell Brand has pleaded not guilty to two further sexual offences, including rape.
The 50-year-old comedian was charged in December with one count of rape and one count of sexual assault in relation to two women. The two alleged offences took place in 2009.
Continue reading...President has not yet made a final decision on any strikes as the US prepares for ‘last-ditch’ negotiations on Thursday. Plus, most US adults feel the country is moving in the wrong direction
Good morning.
Donald Trump’s decision on whether to order airstrikes against Iran will depend partly on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its nuclear capacity, according to people familiar with the matter.
What will happen if there’s no deal? Trump has told advisers he is considering limited strikes to put pressure on Iran and, failing that, a far larger attack to force regime change.
What has Iran said about how it might respond? Iran has vowed to retaliate as hard as possible against any US attack, and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that he had the ability to sink a US warship.
What about the 15% tariff? The uplift to 15% announced by Trump on social media on Saturday has not yet been implemented – but could come at any time.
Want the latest business news? Follow along on our live blog.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
New Castle County residents have pushed back against large-scale development projects in recent years, with many complaining that the county’s land-use process is not transparent. Now, some council members want to give the neighbors earlier notice of development proposals.
It’s no secret that many New Castle County residents do not pay close attention to the goings on of their local government. Some may not even hear about a county land-use approval for a large development near their house until shovels are in the ground.
Now, three New Castle County Council members want to change how residents learn about land-use plans — just as increasingly controversial proposals for big commercial developments creep closer to isolated neighborhoods.
During a meeting on Tuesday, Councilmembers Brandon Toole, Dave Tackett and Dee Durham will introduce an ordinance that proposes to widen the circle of who gets advance notice when a developer first proposes a building project.
This move comes after the County Council faced citizen backlash in recent years to several large-scale building projects, such as the proposed data center near Delaware City and a massive warehousing complex near Middletown.
Under current rules, county officials must mail land-use meeting notices to all owners of property that sit within 300 feet of a new building project. In an email, Durham said she thinks that radius – which is about the length of a football field – is too small.
“That is simply not sufficient public notice about major projects being proposed,” she said.
The new ordinance would increase the radius to 1,000 feet. It would also require developers to update yellow notice signs posted at properties with the dates of upcoming hearings if the plan for the development changes.
Tackett said he hopes the ordinance will encourage more people to get involved with the public hearing process.
“The changes are really about transparency and accountability,” he said.
Though the ordinance will be introduced on Tuesday, the County Council won’t discuss it until the following week, or perhaps later, Durham said.
Three years ago, then-New Castle County Council President Karen Hartley-Nagle proposed a similar public notice ordinance amid the controversy surrounding a comprehensive rezoning of more than 80 different properties across New Castle County.
The rezoning plan at that time faced fierce pushback, largely from suburban residents who feared it would accommodate plans for distribution warehouses and other large developments.
Among those criticising the comprehensive rezoning plan then was Dale Swain, a local land-use activist. On Monday, he said the idea for the increased radius came as part of a larger conversation in the past surrounding how to better notify the public about developments.
“Not that you’re going to stop the development, but it would at least be nice to know about it,” Swain said.
Hartley-Nagle said the council did not pass her ordinance three years ago, partially because New Castle County staff said it would cost too much to send notices to more people. Her original proposal would have required residents to sign the mail to show they received it.
But, she said, it would be a worthy use of public funds because it would directly help people.
“We spend a lot of money for things [constituents] never see,” Hartley-Nagle said.
Tackett said New Castle County staff wrote the ordinance at his direction and did not raise any concerns about cost.
Swain said he and others residents have also discussed cheaper ways to notify residents of developments proposed nearby, such as emails or clearer posts on the county website.
The post Who should be alerted to new developments? NCCo to consider widening the circle of neighbors appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Sometimes, even when it’s wrong it’s right.
Drug Lord Killed: Or, one El Mencho down, who knows how many to go.
Video Break: Jack Hughes, because he can.
Iran and the Cosy Crypto Cache: What’s it like to have friends in high places.
It’s the Zombies: No, not the ‘60s band or the movie villains…
What I’m Watching: The latest by Paul Thomas Anderson.
Jukebox Playlist: The Harder They Come
“It’s easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled.” —usually attributed to Mark Twain
This is not an actual quote from Mark Twain. It’s attributed to him only because it fits snugly into something he might’ve said. When I looked to see who actually said it, the answers were less than satisfying, so we’ll have to say “anonymous” for now. But there’s a reason the line, whoever’s it is, hits so hard. It’s not just about a person being tricked. Being tricked is the easy part. It’s about that uncomfortable sensation of realizing the ground you were standing on isn’t nearly as solid as you thought.
I’ve seen this play out in sports, in politics, in business, in everyday life. When I was younger, I thought being wrong meant something was wrong with me. That’s a heavy weight to carry. Most people feel the same way, even if they don’t say it out loud. And that’s scary and embarrassing as hell. So, instead of admitting we were misled, we double down. We defend the thing that fooled us because it feels safer than facing the shame of being wrong. Because being wrong begs the question: “What else have I been wrong about?” And that’s where the proverbial ground starts to shake.
But here’s the truth I learned over the years, especially during my time in the NBA and then later as a writer: being wrong is not a character flaw. Ignorance doesn’t equal stupidity. But staying wrong because you’re afraid to face the truth, is where the real damage happens. (And, frankly, it’s also where ignorance ends and stupidity begins.)
You see this everywhere today. Leaders promise simple fixes to complicated problems. Companies talk about “transparency” while hiding what really matters. Institutions tell us they’re protecting us, even when the results say otherwise. And when the truth finally comes out, people cling to the original story because it’s familiar and comfortable. It’s what they voted for, what they pledged allegiance to, what they were certain they learned, what they based their future on. It’s become a part of them, and suddenly the truth is suspect, even dangerous.
Admitting you were fooled means admitting you trusted the wrong person, or believed the wrong headline, or followed the wrong crowd. I try to remind myself that changing my mind is a sign of strength, not weakness. The world is full of people who will lie to protect their power, money and image. But the only person who can keep me stuck in a lie is me.
The real courage is in saying, “I didn’t know then what I know now.”
The real maturity is in choosing truth over pride.
The real freedom is in letting go of the story that fooled you and writing a better one.
Whoever came up with the supposed Mark Twain quote wasn’t warning us about con artists. It was, and is, a warning about ourselves, about how easy it is to hold onto the wrong thing just because it feels familiar. But every time we learn to face the truth, even when it stings, we become that much harder to fool the next time.
So, even if Mark Twain didn’t say it, or especially because he didn’t, let’s keep it in mind. And if we’ve been fooled, let’s admit it and move on.
The LG Evo AI G5 OLED has set a new standard for gaming and movie watching among premium TVs.
In Milan, athletes showed that patriotism can be generous. In Los Angeles, that definition will be tested on the biggest, loudest stage sport can offer
The Milano Cortina Winter Games ended on Sunday night as the Olympics always do: in light, spectacle and speeches about unity. In Verona, the Olympic flag passed to the French Alps and the twin flames were extinguished. But unofficially, at least, a flame also flickered 6,000 miles west.
If these Games felt political, just wait until Los Angeles a little more than two years from now.
Continue reading...Trump doesn’t deserve our attention. And we already know the state of the union – it sucks
I’m not going to watch the State of the Union address on Tuesday night. I urge you not to, either.
I hope Neilsen (or whoever makes such estimates these days) will find that far fewer Americans watched Donald Trump’s State of the Union than have watched any other State of the Union in recent memory. It will drive Trump crazy.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is a professor of public policy emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a Guardian US columnist and his newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com. His new book, Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America, is out now
Continue reading...President says ‘we have so much to talk about’ as polls show decline in Americans’ support for handling of key issues
Donald Trump will deliver the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday evening, where he is set to proclaim the success of his first year in office before an American public that polls show has soured on his handling of the issues they care about most.
The speech to a joint session of Congress will be a key moment ahead of the November midterm elections, in which Trump’s Republican allies are defending their slim control of the Senate and House of Representatives. It will take place amid a decline in Trump’s approval ratings fueled by discontent with his handling of the economy and immigration, both issues at the center of his successful re-election campaign in 2024.
Continue reading...These are the best TVs I’ve reviewed for every budget, including top brands, including LG, Samsung and TCL.
These are the kitchen scales that met our testing criteria.
Here's why we believe our rigorous, objective TV reviews are the best in the industry.
Some House Republicans have rebuked Mr. Trump on tariffs, war powers and the Epstein files, and defections could grow as the midterms approach.
Exiled Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had fled to Italy translated Hebrew bible into their common language
In 1553, a community of exiled Spanish and Portuguese Jews who had found refuge and patronage in the northern Italian city of Ferrara did something that would have been unthinkable, and very possibly fatal, in their former homelands.
They printed their own Hebrew bible in Spanish.
Continue reading...Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy marked the start of the fifth year of the Ukraine war by saying Russia has failed to achieve its goals — and the Kremlin agreed.
Add percussive therapy to your post-workout routine with our expert picks, including mini and deep-tissue models. Plus, a brand new frontrunner now in top spot
• The best running shoes, tested
Massage guns are often pitched at the highly active. They can help you warm up for workouts, accelerate recovery and generally keep things loose and injury-free. However, you don’t have to be training for an Ironman triathlon to benefit from a percussive pummelling. A good session can also alleviate the general soreness, stiffness and pain that comes from desk-bound days and the daily grind – all without having to cough up for a spell on a masseuse’s table or be handled by a stranger.
These personal-care power tools use rapid, repetitive pressure and vibrations to penetrate tired muscles, with a selection of heads, variable speeds and even automated routines to tailor treatments towards tight trouble spots. Dozens of massage guns are available from various brands, and you can spend anything from £50 to £500. But not all muscle massage guns are made equal.
Best massage gun overall:
Therabody Theragun Sense 2
Best budget massage gun:
Renpho Active Thermacool 2
Not enough support for freed victims, say aid agencies, with growing numbers sleeping on the streets, unable to travel home without passports or money
Charities and aid workers have called for urgent international government support for victims of south-east Asia’s deadly scam compounds, following a damning report by Amnesty International.
The numbers of survivors of cyberscam “farms” left destitute and abandoned on the city streets of Cambodia and Myanmar is an “international crisis”, according to the research published in January.
Continue reading...The so-called ‘pocket book’ sold in supermarkets is being phased out across the US, the latest sign of an ongoing shift in how people are choosing to read
Shelly Romero has early memories of going to her local supermarket and picking pulp fiction off the shelves. “We were very working class; my mom was working two jobs sometimes,” she recalls. “The appeal of books being cheaper and smaller and able to be carried around was definitely a thing.”
For generations of readers, the gateway to literature was not a hushed library or a polished hardback but a wire spinner rack in a supermarket, pharmacy or railway station. There, amid chewing gum and cigarettes, sat the mass-market paperback: squat, roughly 4in by 7in and cheap enough to be bought on a whim.
Continue reading...We explore the strange food-obsessed world of a new game whose tech was once called ‘an insult to life itself’ by Hayao Miyazaki, the film-maker behind Spirited Away
A strange piece of software has recently landed on the PC gaming store Steam. And “software” feels like the cleanest way to describe it. Existing somewhere between a full-blown life sim, a science project and a kind of haunted fish tank, Anlife: Motion-learning Life Evolution probably would have disappeared without making much impact if it wasn’t for one unusual factor. Several years ago some of its creators were absolutely roasted on camera by one of the genuine legends of Japanese animation.
Back in 2016, Hayao Miyazaki, the director of movies such as Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, was shown new technology that used AI in order to animate models. Faced with a zombie that utilised its head to move by knocking its skull against the ground and wriggling its body like a fish, Miyazaki declared what he had seen was “an insult to life itself”. It’s hard not to watch the clip without feeling slightly seared – but now, a decade later, the ashen-faced developers from that room have sufficiently recovered to make their work widely available.
Continue reading...The Texan made the mistake of his life when he ordered gummies to soothe symptoms of Crohn’s disease. Now his health is suffering in a foreign jail
Jarred Shaw is locked up in an Indonesian prison – but at least he isn’t facing execution, something that appeared a possibility less than a year ago.
The 35-year-old American was a key member of the Prawira Bandung team who won the Indonesian Basketball League (IBL) in 2023, the latest highlight in a fascinating professional career that had taken him to countries as varied as Tunisia, Lebanon, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and Japan.
Continue reading...Daughter was ‘heartbroken’ after Michelle Hundley Smith requested her location not be disclosed to family she had walked away from
A North Carolina woman says she was simultaneously “ecstatic … pissed … [and] heartbroken” to learn authorities recently found her mother living safely and well – while also wanting her location kept secret – more than 24 years after she suddenly vanished from her family.
“I am all over the map!” Amanda Smith, the daughter of Michelle Hundley Smith, wrote in a lengthy statement on a social media page dedicated to searching for her mother. “Will I have a relationship once more with my mom? Honestly, I can’t answer that [because] I don’t even know.
Continue reading...Elected officials visited Trump properties 145 times since his inauguration, records show
Elected leaders from Israel to Iowa have visited Donald Trump’s various properties 145 times since his inauguration last year, according to a new report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a political watchdog group.
Trump’s luxury resorts have offered the chief executive an unusual political arena – and a source of profit. A Guardian analysis of campaign finance records found that US political campaigns and committees spent at least $1.3m at Trump properties since January 2025.
Continue reading...Documents might help scientists shed light on unexplained phenomena and government secrets, experts said.
alternative_right shares a report from Phys.org: A team of researchers working at Quantinuum in the United Kingdom and QuSoft in the Netherlands has now developed a quantum algorithm that solves a specific sampling task -- known as complement sampling -- dramatically more efficiently than any classical algorithm. Their paper, published in Physical Review Letters, establishes a provable and verifiable quantum advantage in sample complexity: the number of samples required to solve a problem. "We stumbled upon the core result of this work by chance while working on a different project," Harry Buhrman, co-author of the paper, told Phys.org. "We had a set of items and two quantum states: one formed from half of the items, the other formed from the remaining half. Even though the two states are fundamentally distinct, we showed that a quantum computer may find it hard to tell which one it is given. Surprisingly, however, we then realized that transforming one state into the other is always easy, because a simple operation can swap between them."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Speech comes as midterms loom and opinion polls show more voters disapprove than approve of his performance
The last time Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union address, it produced the memorable optics of Nancy Pelosi ripping up his speech after he finished talking.
Pelosi’s theatrical gesture at the end of the February 2020 address (his 2025 speech was technically a joint session of Congress, not a State of the Union) eloquently expressed the Democrats’ contempt for Trump’s rosy description of the union he presided over, when he boasted of a booming economy and restoring US strength in characteristic Maga (make America great again) rhetoric.
Continue reading...
Why Should Delaware Care?
Measles is a highly contagious virus able to spread quickly among people. Though it has been considered “eliminated” in the U.S. since 2000, cases have been rising in recent years in states like South Carolina and Utah. A reported exposure at a Wilmington area children’s hospital could bring the virus to the First State.
Delaware’s principal pediatric facility, Nemours Children’s Health, reported a measles exposure in its emergency room last week, which could lead to the first case of the virus in the state in more than a decade. The state says it is still in the process of contact tracing and will notify those who may have been exposed.
There have not been any confirmed measles cases in Delaware since the exposure, a spokesperson for the state’s health department said, and the incident involved someone from out of state who sought care at the Wilmington-area hospital.
In a statement from Nemours, a spokesperson said that the hospital is following “all public health guidelines” surrounding the exposure at the hospital.
“We will continue to work with the Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania Departments of Health and Nemours Children’s Employee Health for appropriate follow-up for individuals in line with all public health guidelines,” the spokesperson said.
For those exposed, early symptoms of measles could include a fever, runny nose, cough and pink eye. After three to five days, a rash around the face could appear and spread down the body. In severe cases, measles could lead to brain inflammation, pneumonia or death.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), most measles deaths in 2024 were unvaccinated children younger than 5 years old. The WHO also said vaccination is the best way to prevent getting measles.
In 2000, the U.S. declared measles was eliminated. But last year, cases hit their highest level since that elimination declaration amid a wave of vaccine skepticism, according to the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In South Carolina, where a measles outbreak has reached nearly 1,000 cases, officials have recommended that residents seek vaccination.
Last March, as the number of measles cases continued to rise across the country, state officials released information on how to protect children from contracting measles and information about vaccines. According to that release, Delaware had not experienced a case of measles in more than a decade.
A report from the News Journal in 1926 said the state had experienced 410 cases of measles since the start of that calendar year. That same report also said state officials weighed closing public schools as the cases started to rise.
Measles is highly contagious, and one person can infect multiple other people if those people aren’t vaccinated. Symptoms can take days, or even weeks, to show themselves, the state said.
If someone is exposed or begins showing symptoms, the state health department said they should call its Office of Infectious Disease Epidemiology. The state offers two phone numbers, one for business hours, as well as a 24-hour hotline:
The state recommends that people exposed to measles find a dose of the Measles, Mumps, Rubella (MMR) vaccine within three days. According to a press release, these vaccines can be found at primary care clinics and pharmacies, and residents should notify their preferred providers to find out more.
Two of the nation’s top pharmacy chains, CVS and Walgreens, both offer the MMR vaccine. Patients can schedule appointments online:
Children ages 1 through 12 are eligible for the vaccine and usually receive two doses. The first dose is usually administered after a child’s first birthday and then again after a few years.
According to the state, those who receive the vaccine are protected for life if they receive both doses, though like all vaccines, the state says there is still a nominal chance someone could contract the virus if they are vaccinated.
The post Delaware reports measles exposure in Wilmington appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
The buildup comes after a round of nuclear talks between the two nations concluded last week without a deal.
Traders appear to be hedging against worst-case scenario of a conflict between the two nations, analyst says
Oil prices have reached seven-month highs, as traders reacted to heightened tensions between the US and Iran ahead of nuclear talks this week.
US crude futures rose to $67.28 a barrel on Monday, while Brent crude touched its highest level since 31 July at $72.50 a barrel. Prices fell back late in the session, but were up again on Tuesday morning, approaching Monday’s highs.
Continue reading...Booking system freezes and screens crash amid rush of fans trying to secure tickets to 21 March free concert
Tickets for BTS’s comeback concert in central Seoul were snapped up almost immediately on Monday night, with authorities expecting an estimated 260,000 fans to descend for the K-pop group’s first full performance in nearly four years.
At one point, more than 100,000 people flooded the booking website when sales opened at 8pm for the free concert at Gwanghwamun square on 21 March, causing screens to crash and booking systems to freeze.
Continue reading...Grace Bell says she is ‘the happiest I’ve ever been in my life’ after giving birth to baby Hugo in UK first
A baby boy named Hugo is the first child to be born in the UK to a mother with a womb transplant from a dead donor.
Hugo Powell was delivered at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea hospital in London weighing 3.09kg (6lb 13oz), after his mother, Grace Bell, received a transplanted womb from someone who had died.
Continue reading...A record-setting snowstorm has prompted managers of The Boston Globe to postpone the printing of their daily newspaper for the first time in its 153 year history.
Detectives say tools supplied by Palantir were integral to convictions of a criminal gang that stole £800,000
It was fraud on a grand scale. The “Fuck the Police” criminal gang based in Luton and Romania stole £800,000 in more than 3,000 withdrawals from cash machines in dozens of locations throughout 2024.
The police investigation matched the crime in its complexity. When detectives in Bedfordshire seized the suspects’ two dozen smartphones, they were faced with a mountain of potential digital evidence – 1.4 terabytes of information, according to the authorities, connecting co-conspirators across eastern England and the Bacau region of Romania.
Continue reading...Exclusive: NCA’s Alex Murray says he hopes new £115m police AI centre can limit unfairness found in tools
A police chief has admitted artificial intelligence used to boost crime fighting will contain bias but pledged to combat the risks.
Labour wants a dramatic expansion of police use of AI within England and Wales, with police chiefs also believing it could help keep law enforcement up to date with new criminal threats.
Continue reading...U.S. battery storage installations hit a record 57.6 GWh in 2025, and Texas is now poised to surpass California as the nationâ(TM)s largest storage market in 2026. Electrek reports: According to the US Energy Storage Market Outlook Q1 2026 from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, installations are now four times higher than totals from just three years ago. The US had a total of 137 GWh of utility-scale storage installed as of 2025, plus 19 GWh of commercial and industrial systems and 9 GWh of residential storage. Analysts expect the growth streak to continue. More than 600 GWh of energy storage is projected to be deployed nationwide by 2030, even as the Trump administration targets clean energy industries. Two-thirds of utility-scale storage installed in 2025 was built in red states, including nine of the top 15 states for new installations. Texas is projected to surpass California as the countryâ(TM)s largest battery storage market in 2026. Standalone battery projects accounted for nearly 30 GWh of new capacity in 2025, while solar-plus-storage installations made up about 20 GWh. Residential storage deployments reached 3.1 GWh last year, a 51% increase year-over-year. Analysts say virtual power plant programs in states such as Massachusetts, Texas, Arizona, and Illinois are helping drive adoption by reducing costs and easing strain during peak demand periods. The supply chain is shifting to support the boom. In 2025, some battery cell manufacturers pivoted production from EV batteries to dedicated stationary storage cells, converting existing lines and adjusting future plans. Lithium-ion cell manufacturing for stationary storage reached more than 21 GWh in 2025, enough to power Houston overnight, according to SEIAâ(TM)s Solar and Storage Supply Chain Dashboard. Meanwhile, US factories now have the capacity to manufacture 69.4 GWh of battery energy storage systems annually.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
How Tokyo is adjusting to a more dangerous world.
U.S. military strikes and the risk of a quagmire.
 | Opened my brand new onewheel pint, and it started making this weird sound. If this is a completely normal sound and I’m just freaking out over nothing please don’t make fun of me. I’m new to Onewheel. And I also rode about 8 miles on it. [link] [comments] |
The Supreme Court agreed to take up an effort by energy companies to end a lawsuit filed in state court that seeks billions of dollars in damages.
An image the FBI released of the suspect at Nancy Guthrie's front door, without a backpack, was captured by her Nest doorbell camera prior to the night of her abduction.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 24.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Guardian: When two men knocked on Ida Huddleston's door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries. According to Huddleston, the men's client, an unnamed "Fortune 100 company," sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement. More than a dozen of her neighbors received the same knock. Searching public records for answers, they discovered that a new customer (PDF) had applied for a 2.2 gigawatt project from the local power plant, nearly double its annual generation capacity. The unknown company was building a datacenter. "You don't have enough to buy me out. I'm not for sale. Leave me alone, I'm satisfied," Huddleston, 82, later told the men. As tech companies race to build the massive datacenters needed to power artificial intelligence across the US and the world, bids like the one for Huddleston's land are appearing on rural doorsteps nationwide. Globally, 40,000 acres of powered land – real estate prepped for datacenter development -- are projected to be needed for new projects over the next five years, double the amount currently in use. Yet despite sums that often dwarf the land's recent value, farmers are increasingly shutting the door. At least five of Huddleston's neighbors gave similar categorical rejections, including one who was told he could name any price. In Pennsylvania, a farmer rejected $15m in January for land he'd worked for 50 years. A Wisconsin farmer turned down $80m the same month. Other landowners have declined offers exceeding $120,000 per acre -- prices unimaginable just a few years ago. The rebuffs are a jarring reminder of AI's physical bounds, and limits of the dollars behind the technology. [...] As AI promises to transcend corporeal fallibility, these standoffs reveal its very physical constraints -- and Wall Street's miscalculation of what some people value most. In the rolling hills of Mason county and farmland across America, that gap is measured not in dollars but in something harder to price: identity.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | I ride my XR Classic like I stole it and never hold back! It's competed in battle for the rail, raced in Seek and Shred, and was the mileage leader for over 1000 miles, and is still #14 on the mileage leaderboard. After all that, how do you think it aged? [link] [comments] |
In her first major interview as Microsoft's new gaming chief, Asha Sharma said that "great games" must deliver emotional resonance and a distinct creative voice, while making clear that she has "no tolerance for bad AI." Stepping in after Phil Spencer's retirement, she's pledging consistency, community trust, and a human-first approach to storytelling as Xbox enters a new era. Variety reports: Sharma was quick in laying out her top priorities for Microsoft Gaming in an internal memo announcing her promotion, noting "great games," "the return of Xbox" and the "future of play" as her three main commitments to the gaming community. So first, what makes a great game for Sharma, whose roles prior to CoreAI include top positions at Instacart and Meta? The new Microsoft Gaming CEO tells Variety it's all about games with "deep emotional resonance" and "a distinct point of view." She wants to develop stories that make players "feel something," like the kind of feelings Campo Santo's 2016 first-person mystery "Firewatch" elicited in her. Sharma takes on the mantle as head of the leading competitor to Sony's PlayStation and Nintendo knowing full well she's entering the role as an outsider to the larger gaming community and has "a lot to learn" still. But Sharma says she's got a commitment to "being grounded in what the community is telling us." "I'm coming into gaming as a platform builder," Sharma said, adding that her goal is to "earn the right to be trusted by players and developers" and show the fanbase that "consistency" over time. In her interview with Variety, Sharma acknowledged the tumultuous state of the gaming industry, referencing Matthew Ball's recent State of Video Gaming in 2026 report as evidence that the larger "transformation" of the sector is "protecting what we believe in while remaining open-minded about the future." Due to her strong background in AI, initial reactions to Sharma's appointment have raised concerns about what her specific views are on the use of generative AI in game development. Sharma says her stance is simple: she has "no tolerance for bad AI." "AI has long been part of gaming and will continue to be," Sharma said, noting that gaming needs new "growth engines," but that "great stories are created by humans."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Anna Kepner, 18, was on a Caribbean cruise with her father, stepmother and three stepsiblings when she was discovered dead on the Carnival Horizon in November.
Firm does not specify amount but seeks reimbursement after supreme court ruled against president last week
FedEx sued the US government on Monday, seeking a refund for the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump that were deemed illegal by the US supreme court last week.
The lawsuit marks the first attempt by a major company to receive reimbursement of their share of an estimated $175bn in levies after the highest court found Trump had overstepped his authority in issuing the tariffs. Other companies are expected to follow.
Continue reading...A newly revealed text exchange appears to show Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales encouraging an aide who later died by setting herself on fire to send him an explicit photo.
joshuark quotes a report from BleepingComputer: Microsoft is investigating a known issue that causes the mouse pointer to disappear in the classic Outlook desktop email client for some users. This bug has been acknowledged almost two months after the first reports started surfacing online, with users saying that Outlook became unusable after the mouse pointer vanished while using the app. [...] Microsoft explained in a recent support document that the mouse pointer (and in some cases the cursor) will suddenly vanish as users move it across Outlook's interface. "When using classic Outlook, you may find that the mouse pointer or mouse cursor disappears as you move the pointer over the Outlook interface," it said. "Although the mouse pointer is not there, the email in the message list will change color as you hover over it. This issue has also been reported with OneNote and other Microsoft 365 apps to a lesser degree." Microsoft added that the Outlook team is investigating the issues and will provide updates as more information becomes available. While a timeline for a permanent fix is not yet available, Microsoft has offered three temporary workarounds that require affected users to click an email in the message list when the cursor disappears, which may cause it to reappear. Alternatively, switching to PowerPoint, clicking into an editable area, and then returning to Outlook may also restore the mouse pointer.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Newsom's remarks about his 960 SAT score went viral as he told Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and a packed auditorium: "I'm not trying to impress you, I'm just trying to impress upon you I'm like you, I'm not better than you."
Part 6 of the Delaware Civics 101 Series:
Understanding How Delaware Organizes, Spends, and Balances Its Money
When economic headwinds begin to blow, small states feel them quickly.
Delaware enters the 2026 budget cycle in a position that is both stable and delicate. The state maintains a AAA bond rating, fully funded reserve accounts, and a globally respected corporate legal system that drives significant revenue to the state’s budget. Yet beneath that stability lie slower economic growth, rising fixed costs, and intensifying pressure to fund competing priorities.
At the center of nearly every budget conversation is a structural reality: Delaware’s corporate franchise system generates roughly $1.8 billion to $2 billion annually, accounting for about 25% to 30% of the General Fund. Next to personal income taxes, it is the largest single funding pillar supporting education, healthcare, public safety and infrastructure.
Understanding the coming fiscal debate means understanding seven distinct headwinds — and how they interact.
Delaware’s operating budget has grown from about $2.1 billion in 2000 to roughly $6.5 billion in
FY2026 — an increase of nearly 210%.
In FY2026 alone, the operating budget rose about 7.3% year over year, exceeding the roughly 4% annual growth rate often considered sustainable over the long term.
Gov. Matt Meyer’s FY2027 proposal aims to slow that pace to around 5%, signaling a shift toward restraint. But maintaining discipline over multiple years will require careful prioritization.
When spending grows faster than recurring revenue, lawmakers face three options: slow growth, raise revenue, or risk structural imbalance. None are politically simple.
Delaware’s five-year GDP growth rate — approximately 1.9% — ranks near the bottom nationally. National forecasts suggest U.S. GDP growth could slow into the high-1% range in 2026.
Slow growth affects corporate profits, wage growth, consumer spending and investment — all of which influence state tax collections.
In a slower-growth environment, revenue gains flatten even as spending demands rise. For a state heavily dependent on corporate-related revenue, economic momentum matters greatly.
Like most states, Delaware faces steadily increasing obligations in healthcare programs, public education salaries, pensions and retiree benefits, and state employee compensation.
These fixed costs are difficult to reduce quickly and consume a growing share of available revenue.
If franchise-tax collections were to weaken during a period of slow economic growth, fiscal pressures would intensify rapidly.
If nearly a third of Delaware’s budget rests on franchise-related revenue, a natural question follows: Should the state broaden its base?
Recent efforts to restructure income-tax brackets — projected to raise about $15 million annually — stalled amid concerns about economic impact. The governor has proposed higher tobacco taxes, but even a significant increase would generate only a fraction of what franchise taxes provide.
The larger conversation is less about replacing the franchise system and more about reducing concentration risk.
Possible long-term strategies include modernizing the franchise framework for digital-era and emerging entities, strengthening Delaware’s role as a fintech and financial-services hub, expanding high-wage sectors such as biotech and advanced manufacturing, updating land-use and housing policies to attract employers and expand the personal income-tax base, and reviewing certain fees or consumption-based taxes that distribute revenue impact more broadly.
None of these represent quick fixes. They are structural growth strategies.
As DEFAC Chair Alan Levin has observed, “Almost a third of the budget comes from the corporate franchise, so if it changes markedly we’d have to go find that revenue somewhere else.”
That is not alarmism. It is arithmetic.
Diversification is not ideological. It is insurance.
Lawmakers face ongoing pressure to invest more in affordable housing, early childhood education, energy affordability, public education and infrastructure improvements.
At the same time, others call for fiscal caution.
One stabilizing factor is Delaware’s reserve structure. The Rainy Day Fund holds roughly $360 million, and the Budget Stabilization Fund adds nearly $470 million — together providing a cushion of roughly 12% of the operating budget, stronger than many neighboring states.
That cushion provides protection — but not permanent immunity from structural imbalance.
In recent years, Delaware has used surplus revenue and pay-as-you-go funding to reduce reliance on borrowing for infrastructure. That strategy has helped limit long-term debt.
But if recurring programs depend on temporary surpluses, structural gaps can appear when economic conditions tighten.
Understanding the difference between one-time money and recurring commitments remains critical to long-term fiscal stability.
Delaware’s corporate franchise system is not an accident. It is the product of more than 125 years of legal development and policy refinement.
The Delaware General Corporation Law, established in 1899, is widely viewed as the model corporate statute in the United States. More than a century of case law — developed primarily through the Court of Chancery — has created predictability valued by corporations nationwide.
Delaware’s Court of Chancery is staffed by non-elected judges with deep expertise in corporate and business law. Their specialization and consistency have made Delaware the most recognized business-law jurisdiction in the country.
That legal framework is reinforced by responsive state agencies, including the Secretary of State’s Office and the Division of Corporations, which are capable of processing filings within hours rather than days. The state also benefits from a deep bench of nationally recognized attorneys whose practices span corporate governance, alternative entities, bankruptcy, intellectual property, and complex commercial litigation.
The Corporate Law Council of the Delaware State Bar Association — made up of 30 practitioners — meets regularly to consider updates to the General Corporation Law. They present their proposals to the DSBA who then present them to the Delaware General Assembly. Any changes must ultimately pass the General Assembly by a two-thirds vote, preserving stability while allowing modernization.
Recent high-profile criticism prompted legislative adjustments designed to maintain confidence in the system. So far, incorporation activity remains steady, and revenue from alternative entities such as LLCs and LPs continues to broaden the base.
The franchise ecosystem also supports high-wage jobs — attorneys, finance professionals, technologists, paralegals, hospitality workers and many others.
But reliance carries responsibility.
If franchise revenue were to shift significantly, Delaware would need to replace it. That would be neither simple nor painless.
Delaware is not in crisis.
The state retains strong reserves, stable employment and a diversified professional economy. Revenue growth has moderated from the rapid pace of the early 2020s, but Delaware remains fiscally sound.
Stability, however, requires awareness.
Throughout this Civics 101 series, we’ve explored:
When citizens understand those mechanics, budget debates become grounded in shared facts.
If spending has grown faster than sustainable benchmarks, pacing matters.
If nearly a third of the General Fund comes from franchise-related revenue, protecting and diversifying that base matters.
If fixed costs are rising, prioritization matters.
None of those realities require fear.
They require prudence.
With a shared foundation of understanding, Delawareans are more likely to develop common-sense solutions, debate options constructively and resolve fiscal challenges responsibly.
The purpose of this Civics 101 series is not to predict crisis.
It is to encourage informed citizenship.
Because when Delawareans understand how the budget works — where our money comes from, how it is spent and how it is structured — we are better prepared to shape it.
And better prepared to plan wisely for Delaware’s future.
About the Civics 101 Series: Civics 101 is a continuing explanatory series by Delaware LIVE and the Spotlight Delaware content marketing team designed to help readers understand how state government works and how budget decisions affect everyday life in Delaware. To read other stories in the series, visit the Civics 101 home page.
The post Civics 101: To understand Delaware’s budget, you must also appreciate its challenges appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Internal investigators said at least two accounts allegedly saw $1.7bn move to Iranian-backed groups
Shortly after Donald Trump pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder, last fall, company employees revealed the cryptocurrency exchange may have funded Iranian entities with billions of dollars, according to a report by the New York Times.
The discovery was made by a group of internal Binance investigators, who reportedly found that people in Iran had accessed more than 1,500 accounts on the crypto platform. Two of those accounts allegedly saw $1.7bn move to Iranian-backed groups that included Yemen’s Houthi militants throughout 2024 and 2025, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Continue reading...So I was riding my one wheel with my dog and we had to go up on the sidewalk well, she just wanted to sniff some shrubs. Anyways, in low confidence I go up the curb and surprisingly it was easy and I stayed on but, my low confidence led me to sort of jump off because I had assumed I was about to fall. Anyways, I rolled my ankle pretty bad and just stood there for a minute and then ride home just a few houses away. It doesn’t hurt it just feel like it’ss throbbing but I know I’ll probably feel it for the next few days. As if last week I no longer have health insurance I guess I aged out if my parent’s plan so I can’t get it checked out. I mean I’ve gotten injured far worse than this and all I had to do was keep a splint on it and stay off it as much as I can so that’s what I’ll do. Think it’ll be good?
China has opposed the ‘smearing of its nuclear policy’ while insisting Beijing would not ‘engage in any nuclear arms race’
The US has accused China of dramatically expanding its nuclear arsenal, while doubling down on claims that Beijing had conducted secret nuclear tests.
Washington said the lapsing of New Start – the last treaty between top nuclear powers the US and Russia – earlier this month presented the possibility of striking a “better agreement” that included Beijing.
Continue reading...Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for Feb. 24, No. 1,711.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 24 #989.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Feb. 24, No. 723.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 24, No. 519.
 | Hello everybody! [link] [comments] |
On Sunday, in the wake of a military operation to kill one of the country’s most infamous drug traffickers, clashes broke out across the Mexico, leaving dozens dead and producing shocking images of roadblocks, armed men in the streets, and panicked civilians ducking for cover.
Within hours of the operation in which troops killed cartel boss Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” in a rural hideout outside Guadalajara, gunmen loyal to his Jalisco New Generation Cartel group poured into the streets of several cities, burning buses and firing automatic weapons.
“The city was completely emptied,” said David Mora, an International Crisis Group analyst who happened to be in Guadalajara on Sunday, of the aftermath of the violence. “I mean it was a ghost town — there was no one on the streets yesterday.”
The fighting left at least 70 people dead, including 25 members of Mexico’s National Guard, which carried out the mission guided by intelligence from counterparts in U.S. military and law enforcement, according to President Claudia Sheinbaum.
“The country is at peace,” Sheinbaum said at her daily press conference Monday. “It’s calm.”
The spasm of violence came amid a heavy-handed pressure campaign by the Trump administration, which for the past year has explicitly blamed Sheinbaum’s government for allowing traffickers to flood the U.S. with fentanyl and other drugs. President Donald Trump has previously insinuated that the government of Mexico is captured by trafficking networks, and threatened unilateral military action to stop the flow of drugs.
“Going after a big fish like this was kind of an indication of the new framing of this government’s security strategy,” said Mora. “But it also has to do with the elephant in the room, which is the pressure that Donald Trump is putting on Mexico to deliver this.”
Despite an almost unprecedented willingness on the part of Sheinbaum to hand over high-profile narcos to stand trial in the U.S. — and Trump’s willingness to pardon convicted drug traffickers — Trump has given little indication of relenting. Even as top U.S. officials took a victory lap and the deadly cost of the operation was just beginning to become clear, Trump hardly seemed satisfied.
“Mexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs!” he wrote Monday on his social media platform.
“Now the question now is: What are you going to do to reduce demand and consumption?”
In Mexico, however, the death toll, which is likely higher than what has so far been reported, and the chaos that was unleashed were a stark reminder of the heavy cost paid by Mexicans in a war on organized crime that is dictated in large part by pressure from Washington — even as the paramilitary groups in question are armed with guns and ammunition from the U.S. and fueled with money from drugs consumed by people north of the border.
“This is a breakthrough,” said Jesús Esquivel, a journalist with La Jornada and a longtime chronicler of the war on drugs. “But now the question now is: What are you going to do to reduce demand and consumption? What are you going to do to stop arms trafficking?”
In many ways, the violence that played out on Sunday was a familiar scene. On multiple occasions over the past decade, confrontations with high-profile drug traffickers have sparked bloody battles with heavily armed paramilitary groups, leaving numerous people dead and cities paralyzed.
Perhaps the most controversial incident of this scale came in 2019, when Mexican troops seized Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, only to release him following a siege of the city of Culiacán by gunmen loyal to Ovidio and his brothers.
In previous operations, Mexican troops and Marines have frequently operated in conjunction with “advisors” from the Drug Enforcement Administration and occasionally with the help of special operations forces and the CIA. Details are still emerging about how exactly the operation played out on Sunday, but it appears to have been carried out entirely by Mexican security forces.
“For the first time, I feel proud of the Mexican Army,” said Esquivel. “It’s a message to the U.S. government, and especially to Trump, that we may need your information, but we don’t need you to intervene unilaterally in our territory. We can take care of these guys.”
For others, the scenes that unfolded on Sunday had a grim sense of repetition. It has been almost 20 years since President Felipe Calderón declared war on the cartels, a heavily militarized, U.S.-backed mission that has — despite endless arrests of high-level narcos — has done virtually nothing to stem the flow of drugs into the U.S. Instead, Mexico has faced decades of horrific violence, a widespread paramilitarization of drug gangs, and a fractured criminal landscape that has turned many areas of the country into low-intensity war zones fueled by weapons from the United States.
As the smoke clears in Jalisco, there are fears that a familiar pattern will repeat itself. In other areas in which a top trafficker was arrested or killed, it has become common for criminal groups to atomize into warring factions, according to Ieva Jusionyte, an anthropologist who studies organized crime in Mexico.
“This is a continuation of this militarized approach to organized crime,” said Jusionyte. “With the fracturing of these organized crime groups, there is more violence, but the structure remains intact — the drug demand in the U.S. and the gun supply from the U.S. remains, and in Mexico the impunity and the weakness of the justice system remain.”
The post Trump Demanded El Mencho’s Head. Mexicans Are Paying the Price. appeared first on The Intercept.
A 7,000-word "doomsday" thought experiment from Citrini Research helped trigger an 800-point drop in the Dow, "painting a dark portrait of a future in which technological change inspires a race to the bottom in white-collar knowledge work," reports the Wall Street Journal. From the report: Concerns of hyperscalers overspending are out. Worries of software-industry disruption don't go far enough. The "global intelligence crisis" is about to hit. The new, broader question: What if AI is so bullish for the economy that it is actually bearish? "For the entirety of modern economic history, human intelligence has been the scarce input," Citrini wrote in a post it described as a scenario dated June 2028, not a prediction. "We are now experiencing the unwind of that premium." Many of Monday's moves roughly aligned with the situation outlined by Citrini, in which fast-advancing AI tools allow spending cuts across industries, sparking mass white-collar unemployment and in turn leading to financial contagion. Software firms DataDog, CrowdStrike and Zscaler each plunged more than 9%. International Business Machines' 13% decline was its worst one-day performance since 2000. American Express, KKR and Blackstone -- all name-checked by Citrini -- tumbled. That anxiety, coupled with renewed uncertainty about trade policy from Washington, weighed down major indexes Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average led declines, falling 1.7%, or 822 points. The S&P 500 shed 1%, while the Nasdaq composite retreated 1.1%. [...] Monday's market swings extended a run of AI-linked volatility. A small research outfit that has garnered a huge Substack following for macro and thematic stock research, Citrini said in its new post that software firms, payment processors and other companies formed "one long daisy chain of correlated bets on white-collar productivity growth" that AI is poised to disrupt. [...] Shares in DoorDash also veered 6.6% lower Monday after Citrini's Substack note called the delivery app a "poster child" for how new tools would upend companies that monetize interpersonal friction. In the research firm's scenario, AI agents would help both drivers and customers navigate food deliveries at much lower costs.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
FedEx sued the Trump administration over its tariffs on Monday, asking for a "full refund" of all payments it made to the government under a set of tariff policies that were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court.
WBD board says it is assessing revised offer as Paramount seeks to trump agreed offer by Netflix
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has said it is reviewing a sweetened takeover bid from Paramount Skydance but did not reveal details of what its board had asked to be Paramount’s “best and final offer” to attempt to derail Netflix.
Last week, WBD, which has so far stuck to its binding agreement with Netflix, had given Paramount seven days to table its final offer to best the $82.7bn deal with the streaming company.
Continue reading...First amendment group criticizes Aileen Cannon’s order to permanently block release of Jack Smith report after dismissing case against Trump in 2024
Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.
In some cases, professors have been placed under review, research centers closed or conferences canceled. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.
The supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.
For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely “terrible” things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee - BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used.
Continue reading...Military planners are advising President Trump that any strike on Tehran's assets would almost certainly not be a singular, decisive blow.
Aileen Cannon denounces ‘brazen’ special counsel for compiling report after she had dismissed case in 2024
A federal judge appointed by Donald Trump permanently barred the justice department on Monday from releasing the former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on the president’s mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club after his first term.
The ruling by US district judge Aileen Cannon marked the latest effort to stop the report from being sent to Congress or otherwise becoming publicly available.
Continue reading...The killing of El Mencho triggered violence across Mexico. In cities including Puerto Vallarta and Cancún, the U.S. warned citizens to shelter in place.
Dominic Ethan Stewart was among 19 killed when vehicle veered off road and plunged down mountainside
Tributes have been paid to a young British hiker who was among 19 people killed when a packed passenger bus veered off a treacherous stretch of road and plunged 200 metres down a steep mountainside in Nepal.
Twenty-five others were injured in the pre-dawn crash in the Himalayan foothills on Monday. The bus was carrying 44 people, including a number of tourists.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Financial Times: Officials working with Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" are exploring setting up a stablecoin for Gaza as part of efforts to reshape the devastated Palestinian enclave's economy, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The talks around introducing a stablecoin -- a type of cryptocurrency whose value is pegged to a mainstream currency, such as the US dollar -- are at a preliminary stage, and many details of how one could be introduced in Gaza remain to be determined. But officials have discussed the idea as part of their plan for the future of the enclave, where economic activity collapsed during Israel's two-year war with Hamas and the traditional banking and payments system has been severely impaired. A person familiar with the project said the stablecoin was expected to be tied to the US dollar, with the hope that Gulf Arab and Palestinian companies with expertise in the field of digital currencies will help spearhead the effort. "This will not be a 'Gaza Coin' or a new Palestinian currency, but a means to allow Gazans to transact digitally," the person said. Work on the idea is being led by Liran Tancman, an Israeli tech entrepreneur and former reservist who is now working as an unpaid adviser to Trump's "Board of Peace," the US-led body tasked with rebuilding Gaza, according to two people familiar with the matter. [...] According to the person familiar with the project, the "Board of Peace" and NCAG will decide on the stablecoin's regulatory framework and access, although "nothing definitive" has yet been finalized. Speaking at a meeting of the "Board of Peace" in Washington last week, Tancman said the NCAG was working on building "a secure digital backbone, an open platform enabling e-payments, financial services, e-learning, and healthcare with user control over data", but did not elaborate.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Criminal barristers welcome justice secretary’s move to remove limit on hearing days at crown courts in England and Wales
A cap on court sitting days is to be lifted as the government seeks to ease the cases backlog, David Lammy has announced.
The justice secretary and deputy prime minister said every crown court in England and Wales would be funded to hear more cases in the next financial year.
Continue reading...Prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand say they would not object to his removal from royal succession line
A parliamentary inquiry into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Jeffrey Epstein is a matter for MPs, Downing Street has said, as ministers faced a new push to uncover details about the former prince’s role as a trade envoy.
It comes as the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, wrote to Keir Starmer to say his country would have no objection to Mountbatten-Windsor being removed from the royal line of succession. Later, a spokesperson for New Zealand’s prime minister, Christopher Luxon, said his country would also support the proposals.
Continue reading...Dr. Peter Attia has stepped down from his CBS News contributor role weeks after crude emails he exchanged with Jeffrey Epstein were made public.
As Iran's new academic year began over the weekend, large-scale protests erupted across several universities.
While Libadwaita applications running in a GNOME desktop environment look great and nicely consistent, they look utterly out of place and jarring when run in Xfce, Pantheon, KDE, and others. The biggest reason for this is GNOME’s insistence on using client-side decorations, which feel at home inside a GNOME environment, but out of place in environments that otherwise do not use them. On top of that, Libadwaita’s/GNOME’s CSDs can interfere with non-GNOME window managers and their functionality, causing a whole host of problems.
But what if you could turn CSDs off?
GTK-NoCSD is an LD_PRELOAD library to disable CSD in GTK3/4, LibHandy, and LibAdwaita apps.
CSD is client side decoration, there is also server side decoration, SSD, both serving as the titlebar of windows. GTK3 adopted CSD, where this thick headerbar is used with application controls embedded.
This continued into the platform library, LibHandy, then into GTK4 and the platform library of that, LibAdwaita. This looks good on Gnome and makes these applications alike, but looks off everywhere else and can potentially break window managers and remove window manager provided functionality.This library restores the server side decoration, getting back the window manager titlebar, and moves the controls from the CSD to under it, into the window content.
↫ GTK-NoCSD’s Codeberg page
This isn’t the first attempt at such a solution, and certainly won’t be the last, and I’m glad they exist. Do note that if you decide to use this library, any problems or bugs you run into in an application ‘modified’ by it should never be reported to the application’s developer, but to the developer of this library. If you encounter a bug in an application modified by this library, test the application in its unmodified state to ensure it’s actually a bug in the application before reporting it to the application’s developer. Developers who choose to use client-side decorations are not responsible for bugs and issues arising from you removing the CSD.
Keep that in mind.
That being said, whatever pixels appear on your screen is entirely up to you as a user, and you have the right to theme, alter, butcher, or mangle whatever application is running on your computer. If you dislike the way CSDs look and feel on your computer, you can opt to resort to a solution like this one, and that’s entirely fair game. There’s packages for Arch, Fedora, and Gentoo, and of course, you can build it yourself.
As for my personal opinion – well, let’s just say I prefer KDE for many, many reasons, and my disdain for CSDs is certainly one of them. Call me old-fashioned and out-of-touch, but I like the classic distinction between titlebar, menubar, and toolbar.
OpenAI has formed a multi-year "Frontier Alliance" with four consulting heavyweights to accelerate enterprise adoption of its no-code AI agent platform, OpenAI Frontier. TechCrunch reports: The alliance includes multi-year partnerships between OpenAI and four major consulting firms, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), McKinsey, Accenture and Capgemini, to sell its enterprise products. OpenAI's Forward Deployed Engineering team will work with the consulting giants to help them implement OpenAI's enterprise-focused technologies like OpenAI Frontier into customers' tech stacks. The company launched OpenAI Frontier in early February. The no-code open software allows users to build, deploy, and manage AI agents both built on OpenAI's AI models and beyond. OpenAI argues in its latest announcement that consultants are the right avenue to get enterprises on board. "AI alone does not drive transformation. It must be linked to strategy, built into redesigned processes, and adopted at scale with aligned incentives and culture to deliver sustained outcomes," BCG CEO Christoph Schweizer said in OpenAI's blog post. "Our expanded partnership combines OpenAI's Frontier platform with BCG's deep industry, functional, and tech expertise and BCG X's build-and-scale capabilities to drive measurable impact with safeguards from day one."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A memo shows Jeffrey Epstein was the subject of a previously undisclosed U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency investigation targeting him and 14 others for suspicious money transfers possibly linked to illegal narcotics.
When the most profound human emotion becomes an automated transaction in an online shop, the techlords have won
The Guardian reported on the arrival of “Fate” and, friends, I laughed. Or maybe I cried.
It’s apparently the first “agentic AI dating app”. An AI personality named “Fate” interviews users, runs data matches on their hopes and dreams, then suggests five potential matches based on the hard data of observable complementary language patterning, “No swiping involved!”.
Continue reading...Anthropic says three Chinese firms used ‘distillation’ technique to extract information from its Claude chatbot
US artificial intelligence company Anthropic said on Monday it had uncovered campaigns by three Chinese AI firms to illicitly extract capabilities from its Claude chatbot, in what it described as industrial-scale intellectual property theft. OpenAI leveled similar charges last month.
Anthropic said DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax used a technique known as “distillation” – using outputs from a more powerful AI system to rapidly boost the performance of a less capable one.
Continue reading...Company had suspended account of Tumbler Ridge shooter in June 2025 over ‘furtherance of violent activities’
Canada’s artificial intelligence minister says he has summoned representatives from the technology company OpenAI after the company declined to alert police after suspending the account of a user who became the perpetrator of one of the country’s worst-ever school shootings.
Evan Solomon says he is “deeply disturbed” by reports that the company, which operates the popular ChatGPT chatbot, suspended the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar over the “furtherance of violent activities” in June 2025 but did not reach out to Canadian law enforcement.
Continue reading...Feb. 23, 2026 — Begun as an exploratory software project at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory focusing on parallel numerical algorithms for partial differential equations, PETSc has evolved into one of the world’s most widely used software libraries for high-performance computing, with a core development team and numerous contributors. But with such a long history, a challenge has emerged: important knowledge is getting lost or buried.
“We’ll have developers thinking, ‘I’m sure we solved this problem back in 2015 — but where’s the solution?’” said Barry Smith, one of the original PETSc developers. “And sometimes developers get nuanced questions from users that the developers recall were discussed at length and could not be answered simply; but those discussions are buried in thousands of emails or GitLab issues or the like.”
PETSc has two types of knowledge. “Dry” knowledge is written down and can be read by computers; it includes official material that has undergone review and unofficial knowledge, such as emails, that has not been reviewed. In contrast, “wet” knowledge is unwritten and is not machine accessible. Both “wet” and “dry” knowledge bases are hard to search through — especially the “wet” kind — and even the written material is often unorganized or hard to find.
Now, new tools based on artificial intelligence (AI) could help change that.
Can AI Help PETSc?
One promising AI tool is the large language model, or LLM — like ChatGPT. LLMs are designed to understand and generate human language based on patterns learned from large amounts of text. That sounds perfect for making sense of PETSc’s vast information — from documentation to emails to user questions.
Types of knowledge in PETSc. Credit: Argonne.
But LLMs have a big drawback: they sometimes make things up — a problem known as “hallucination.” In science and high-performance computing, where accuracy is everything, that’s a serious issue.
Still, the PETSc team saw potential. So they decided to create a custom AI system — not just using LLMs off the shelf, but designing tools specifically built for PETSc.
“Our vision is to create PETSc AI assistants — kind of like virtual team members — that can help users ask questions, support developers and organize information more effectively,” said Lois McInnes, a senior scientist at Argonne and long-time PETSc developer.
Their first steps are outlined in a paper titled “AI Assistants to Enhance and Exploit the PETSc Knowledge Base.” In it, they describe six key areas where AI could help — from answering user questions to customizing user guides, checking code, exploring new research ideas and even helping manage team tasks.
Why Not Just Use ChatGPT?
The team considered using already available tools like ChatGPT, but such general LLMs aren’t trained specifically on PETSc. That means they often give incomplete or wrong answers about it.
“Mainstream AI tools just don’t have enough knowledge about PETSc,” said Junchao Zhang, another PETSc developer at Argonne. “So we built a special AI system that brings PETSc-specific information into the mix — which helps avoid those made-up answers.”
The PETSc team also designed a workflow that brings developers into the question-answer loop. Developers review the answer generated by the LLM and decide whether to approve, revise or discard it.
Finding and Reordering Relevant Information
Another method the team used is called retrieval-augmented generation, or RAG. When a user asks a question, the system first searches PETSc’s knowledge base for relevant information. That information is then added to the original question before being sent to the LLM, leading to a more accurate answer.
They also used a method called reranking, which improves how search results are ordered. Instead of just grabbing the fastest results, the system looks for the most relevant ones and puts those at the top.
“Using RAG and reranking together means our AI assistant can find better, more accurate answers,” Smith said.
In the future, the PETSc team hopes their AI assistants will work alongside real developers — helping speed up work, support users, and even spark new scientific discoveries.
For further information, see the full paper “AI Assistants to Enhance and Exploit the PETSc Knowledge Base,” by Barry Smith, Junchao Zhang, Hong Zhang, Lois Curfman McInnes, Murat Keceli, Archit Vasan, Satish Balay, Toby Isaac, Le Chen, and Venkatram Vishwanath; available here.
Source: Gail Pieper, Argonne National Laboratory
The post Argonne: Using AI to Unlock 30 Years of PETSc Knowledge appeared first on HPCwire.
Einstein is a new AI tool that can watch lecture videos, read essays, write papers, complete quizzes and basically take your class for you.
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 23, 2026 — The Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the applied research pillar of Abu Dhabi’s Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), today announced the launch of a cloud service providing access to Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) developed by TII’s Quantum Computing Hardware Lab. Initially available to TII partners, the service enables users to run quantum workloads directly on TII’s physical quantum hardware in the cloud.
Established four years ago, the Quantum Research Center’s Quantum Computing Hardware Lab has advanced from foundational capability-building to delivering cloud-accessible quantum systems based on superconducting devices. The lab currently operates multiple QPU systems ranging from 5 to 25 qubits, including in-house fabricated chips that demonstrate quantum coherence times up to ten times longer than TII’s first-generation prototypes. These advances reflect growing in-house expertise across quantum design, fabrication, and system-level integration.
The launch is the result of a coordinated effort between the Quantum Computing Hardware Lab and TII’s Quantum Middleware team, with Qibo serving as the software layer for job submission and execution workflows. Qibo is TII’s open-source quantum software framework that enables users to build quantum circuits and hybrid quantum-classical workflows, and to execute them seamlessly across simulators and QPU backends through a unified interface.
Dr. Leandro Aolita, Chief Researcher of TII’s Quantum Research Centre, said: “Launching a cloud-accessible QPU service only four years after establishing the lab demonstrates both the pace and ambition of our quantum program. Until now, this infrastructure has been used internally by TII’s Quantum Algorithms team to develop, validate, and benchmark quantum workflows. With today’s launch, we are extending that same cloud-based access model to our partners, providing a practical platform to accelerate experimentation and hybrid quantum-classical development on locally developed infrastructure.”
The service will continue to expand over time, with additional capabilities, system upgrades, and partner access pathways introduced as the quantum ecosystem matures.
By enabling cloud-based access to its physical quantum hardware, TII is advancing applied quantum research and hybrid quantum–classical experimentation on locally developed systems. To learn more, visit: https://q-cloud.tii.ae.
Source: TII
The post TII Launches Cloud Service Providing Access to In-House Quantum Processing Units appeared first on HPCwire.
US president suggests trade war could escalate as administration says it will stop collecting levies ruled illegal by supreme court
Donald Trump has declared that he can use tariffs in a “much more powerful and obnoxious way”, as the UK and the EU said they were seeking urgent clarity on the US trade deals they struck last summer.
Trump threatened to escalate his global tariff war on Monday, after a supreme court ruling last week that he had overstepped his legal authority to impose his “liberation day” measures last year.
Continue reading...Panasonic is handing over the manufacturing, marketing, and sales of its TVs to Shenzhen-based Skyworth, effectively exiting in-house TV production. Ars Technica reports: Skyworth is a Shenzhen-headquartered TV brand. The company claims to be "a top three global provider of the Android TV platform." In July, research firm Omdia reported that Skyworth was one of the top-five TV brands by sales revenue in Q1 2025; however, Skyworth hasn't been able to maintain that position regularly. Panasonic made its announcement at a "launch event," FlatpanelsHD reported today. During the event, a Panasonic representative reportedly said: "Under the agreement the new partner will lead sales, marketing, and logistics across the region, while Panasonic provide expertise and quality assurance to uphold its renowned audiovisual standards with full joint development on top-end OLED models." Panasonic also said that it will provide support "for all Panasonic TVs sold up to March 2026 and all those available from April." Skyworth-made Panasonic TVs will be sold in the US and Europe. In the latter geography, the companies are aiming for double-digit market share. [...] The news means there's virtually no TV production happening in Japan anymore, as other Japanese companies, like Sharp, Toshiba, Hitachi, and Pioneer, have already exited TV production. Earlier this year, Sony announced that it was ceding control of its TV hardware business to TCL.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Blizzard warnings issued as some areas receive two feet of snow, creating whiteout conditions
Millions of people in the north-eastern US were stuck at home on Monday as heavy snow and strong winds created whiteout conditions, grounding flights in the area and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.
Snowfall totals in 21 cities and towns across New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts had reached at least 2ft, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). In some areas, that snow has been accompanied by strong wind gusts of over 30mph (48km/h) and low visibility.
Continue reading...The British company gives a sneak preview of its new phone ahead of its March 5 launch.
The researchers say the data could be retrieved from the glass in 10,000 years.
The U.S. women's ice hockey team said Monday they will not be attending President Trump's State of the Union address, citing scheduling conflicts.
Designer Daniel Lee’s trenchcoats and bomber jackets fizz with urban energy in collection that embraces bad weather
In a winter of record-breaking rain, Burberry – purveyor of the stalwart British coat – is back in the zeitgeist. A season of downpours has provided an apt backdrop for a return to form, as the brand re-entered the FTSE 100 last autumn after an ignominious year out of the charts.
The classic check scarf was ranked the fourth hottest fashion item in the last quarter of 2025 on the search, sales and social media metrics of the Lyst index, with overall demand for the brand up 239% year on year.
Continue reading...Stocks slumped amid investor fear of AI disruption and uncertainty surrounding President Trump's new tariffs.
We’ve seen a significant metamorphosis occur in AI in the past year, thanks to the emergence of large, capable Mixture of Experts (MoE) models, such as DeepSeek-R1 (which is also a reasoning model). With momentum behind MoEs and reasoning models building, Nvidia is looking to boost their performance on scale-up systems connected with NVLink.
The core architectural concept behind MoE is not new. Indeed, Geoffrey Hinton was describing MoEs four decades ago. But it wasn’t until DeepSeek-R1 landed on the scene in early 2025 that the world was exposed to an MoE model that really worked. The timing couldn’t have been better, as large language models (LLMs) were pressing up against scaling laws that blocked progress.
The problem is, as AI models got bigger and smarter, they also got slower. Instead of trying to cram more parameters into a neural network, AI researchers decided to mimic the human brain (again) and create partitions of the neural network that were dedicated to certain topics.
“They realized, just like a human brain, we probably don’t need all of these neurons to ask every question,” Ian Buck, VP and general manager of hyperscale and HPC at Nvidia, said in a recent podcast. “Simple questions, probably just a few neurons [are needed]. Different parts of the brain may encode different information. Let’s just activate those.”
This partitioning functions as a compression mechanism for AI models. While an entire model may be composed of 100 billion parameters, with any given question posed to an MoE model, only about 10 billion parameters will be used, which translates to a 10 to one compression. That means fewer tokens and lower cost to the user, Buck said.
“That’s a way of making AI cheaper but still being able to encode all the possible information and answer all the questions,” Buck said. “So [MoE] are allowing models to get bigger, smarter, it’s going to get cheaper and as a result advancing AI.”
According to Buck, the approach that DeepSeek took with R1 couldn’t have been done without a breakthrough at the network level via NVLink, Nvidia’s proprietary scale-up interconnect, which allows up to 72 Nvidia GPUs to function as a single GPU.
“The [DeepSeek] model was so large it couldn’t really fit on a single GPU. It had to use multi-GPUs,” Buck said in the podcast. “Before we had NVlink, you would have to send things over a PCIe bus and only one could talk at a time. And it was much slower. Because we have NVLink, all those GPUs can talk to every other GPU at full speed. It’s a totally unblocked, literally at gigabytes and terabytes per second of bandwidth without any concern for collision.”
DeepSeek was trained on Hopper GPUs, and cost about $1 for a million tokens, Buck said. Now the cost is down to about $.10 for a million tokens. The cost per token continues to go down as Nvidia innovates at the processor and network level, and AI software developers take advantage of the new hardware capabilities.
Ian Buck, VP and general manager of hyperscale and HPC at Nvidia
“Being able to further parallelize and run all those experts across, it could actually increase the performance so much that we actually got a 15x improvement on running DeepSeek-R1 versus only adding about 50% more total cost of on a per GPU basis,” Buck said. “That actually generated a 10x reduction in the cost per token.”
Buck recalled when Nvidia was building “little basic graphics cards” that plugged into the PCIe bus and delivered a boost in floating point calculation. Over time, Nvidia built bigger GPUs, added high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and then created NVLink when it exceeded the capabilities of PCIe. With today’s advances in AI, researchers needed not just incremental improvements, but 10x improvements. Nvidia is giving AI reseaerchers what they need with massive NVL72 systems, fast NVLink interconnects, heaps of on-chip HBM, and Blackwell and (soon) Rubin GPUs that deliver exaflops of AI performance.
“People look at this and say it’s expensive, right?” Buck said. “But the way you do that is actually you put all that investment in NVLink, in all the connectivity and all the next generation software…to make it all work really well. And generation over generation, you get that multiple that 10x multiple production cost.”
MoE models today dominate the AI landscape. The majority of the top models today are MoE models, and that trend doesn’t appear to be likely to change any time soon. The U.S. DOE Genesis Mission is looking to MoE powered by HPC to help drive innovation in science and engineering, and other governments are doing the same. As the hardware limits are reached and progress slows, human innovation helps to find ways over, under, or around it to keep the innovation moving.
Nvidia certainly is a sync for much of this innovation. “We’re looking to figure out what technologies can we incorporate, expand, double down on, invest in, pull from the community or pull from our partners in order to deliver X factors of performance improvement,” Buck said.
Nvidia formally announced NVLInk 6 and Rubin GPUs earlier this year. Next month at the GTC 2026 conference, we’re likely to hear more how Nvidia intends to lean on “extreme co-design” to keep innovation moving forward for MoE, reasoning models, and the future of AI for science.
“There’s a wonderful symbiotic relationship that happens in the market between the AI hardware and the models that are being created to serve AI,” Buck said. “We’re starting to see some models come out that are trained on Blackwell and you’re going to see that now raise the bar and go even further. So this is the virtuous cycle that we’ve been working so fervently to help make happen.”
You can watch all of Nvidia’s podcasts here.
The post Why NVLink Is Nvidia’s Secret Sauce Driving a 10x Performance Boost in MoEs appeared first on HPCwire.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Researchers at ASML Holding say they have found a way to boost the power of the light source in a key chip making machine to turn out up to 50% more chips by decade's end, to help retain the Dutch company's edge over emerging U.S. and Chinese rivals. ASML is the world's only maker of commercial extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, a critical tool for chipmakers such as TSMC, Intel and others in producing advanced computing chips. "It's not a parlor trick or something like this, where we demonstrate for a very short time that it can work," Michael Purvis, ASML's lead technologist for its EUV source light, said in an interview. "It's a system that can produce 1,000 watts under all the same requirements that you could see at a customer," he added, speaking at the company's California facilities near San Diego. [...] With the technological advance revealed on Monday, which is being reported here for the first time, ASML aims to outdistance any would-be rivals by improving the most technologically challenging aspect of the machines. This is the quest to generate EUV light with the right power and properties to turn out chips at high volume. The company's researchers have found a way to boost the power of the EUV light source to 1,000 watts from 600 watts now. The chief advantage is that greater power translates into the ability to make more chips every hour, helping to lower the cost of each. Chips are printed similar to a photograph, where the EUV light is shone on a silicon wafer coated with special chemicals called a photoresist. With a more powerful EUV light source, chip factories need shorter exposure times. "We'd like to make sure that our customers can keep on using EUV at a much lower cost," Teun van Gogh, executive vice president for the NXE line of EUV machines at ASML, told Reuters. Van Gogh said customers should be able to process about 330 silicon wafers an hour on each machine by the end of the decade, up from 220 now. Depending on the size of a chip, each wafer can hold anywhere from scores to thousands of the devices. ASML got the power boost by doubling down on an approach that already places its machines among the most complex inventions of humans. To produce light with a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers, ASML's machine shoots a stream of molten droplets of tin through a chamber, where a massive carbon dioxide laser heats them into plasma. This is a superheated state of matter in which the tin droplets become hotter than the sun and emit EUV light, to be collected by precision optic equipment supplied by Germany's Carl Zeiss AG and fed into the machine to print chips. The key advancements in Monday's disclosure involved doubling the number of tin drops to about 100,000 every second, and shaping them into plasma using two smaller laser bursts, as opposed to today's machines that use a single shaping burst. [...] ASML believes the techniques it used to hit 1,000 watts will unlock continued advances in the future, Purvis said, adding, "We see a reasonably clear path toward 1,500 watts, and no fundamental reason why we couldn't get to 2,000 watts."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The incident follows a controversy last year when officials temporarily downgraded the hate symbol to “potentially divisive” in the service’s workplace harassment manual.
Every OpenBSD admin has booted
bsd.rdat least once — to install, upgrade, or rescue a broken system. But few people stop to look at what’s actually inside that file. It turns outbsd.rdis a set of nested layers, and you can take it apart on a running system without rebooting anything.That’s what we’ll do here. We’ll go from the raw gzip file all the way down to the miniroot filesystem, exploring each layer with standard tools. Everything is documented in the man pages — we’re just following the trail.
↫ Wesley Mouedine Assaby
What am I supposed to add here?
Court turns aside GOP request to block new map, second setback in recent days for state’s Republicans
New Utah voting districts that give Democrats an improved shot at winning a US House seat can be used in this year’s election, a federal court ruled Monday while turning aside a Republican request to block the new map.
The ruling marked the second setback in recent days for Republicans, who also lost an appeal at Utah’s state supreme court.
Continue reading...40-something fighters will meet in Las Vegas
Mayweather won previous encounter in 2015
Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will face each other on 19 September in Las Vegas in a rematch of one of the biggest fights in boxing history.
Their first fight, in 2015, was generally seen as a tame affair with both fighters past their peaks. September’s bout, which will be streamed live on Netflix, is likely to be of an even lower quality. Mayweather and Pacquiao will be 49 and 47 respectively when they fight. Mayweather’s last professional fight, which preserved his unbeaten record, came in 2017, although that was a glorified exhibition against UFC star Conor McGregor. Pacquiao fought for the WBC welterweight championship last year, but is far from the force he was in his prime.
Continue reading...Two skiers died Friday in separate incidents at Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Mountain Resort, marking the latest in a series of ski-related deaths in the region this month.
President Donald Trump has cited dramatic results from U.S. strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, saying they’ve nearly stopped the flow of drugs trafficked to the U.S. by water.
Since September 2025, the U.S. has struck at least 40 alleged drug vessels, killing 149 people.
"With our action in the Gulf of America, that sounds so nice when I hear the Gulf of America, drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%," Trump said at a Jan. 29 White House event. "So when you see the boats being hit, those boats kill on average 25,000 people a boat." We’ve rated the statement about 25,000 deaths Pants on Fire.
Even though Trump mentioned the Gulf of America, his comments appeared to reference the Caribbean and Pacific strikes.
When asked for evidence about the 97% claim, the White House pointed us to Customs and Border Protection statistics from July 2025 to November 2025. Those numbers show a 98% drop in the pounds of drugs seized by CBP air and marine operations.
But drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S. There isn’t data to show how many drugs are being sent to the U.S. or how many are making it in. Drug experts also say changes in drug seizure data aren’t sufficient to make definitive statements about policy outcomes.
"No one knows how much doesn't get caught, so no one can cite a precise percentage change," Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University drug policy researcher, said. "Trump is making a claim about something that is unknowable."
The White House didn’t explain why it chose those months. There has been a drop in CBP drug seizures since September 2025 when the vessel strikes began, but the percentage drop fluctuates depending on the months compared.
Additionally, the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters, an agency spokesperson told PolitiFact. Its data shows a spike in annual cocaine seizures — 200% in fiscal year 2025 compared with its yearly average. (The Coast Guard generally focuses on cocaine seizures, while CBP’s 98% decline is mainly related to marijuana.)
While the White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success, the Coast Guard cites an increase in seizures as a sign of strong enforcement.
This image from video provided by U.S. South Command, shows a vessel accused of trafficking drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean shortly before it was destroyed by the U.S. military, killing two and injuring one, Jan. 23, 2026. (U.S. Southern Command via AP)
The White House’s calculation starts in July 2025, which was an outlier with an uncharacteristically high number of marijuana seizures. In July, CBP seized 224,000 pounds of drugs, including 203,000 pounds of marijuana. CBP seizes about 20,000 pounds of all types of drugs in a month.
From August 2025, the last month before the vessel strikes began, to January, the latest available data, CBP drug seizures dropped 79%.
For the Coast Guard, drug seizures are up.
In the 2025 fiscal year which ended in September, the Coast Guard seized 510,000 pounds of cocaine, a 200% increase from a typical fiscal year when the Coast Guard seizes about 167,000 pounds of cocaine.
In August 2025, the Coast Guard launched an operation to target cartels and criminal organizations. From August 2025 to February 2026, the Coast Guard seized 200,000 pounds of cocaine more than it seizes in a typical year, according to agency press releases.
The Coast Guard has hailed the increase in seizures as a success in "preventing the flow of dangerous drugs into American communities."
Regardless of the data point, it’s unknown how many drugs enter the U.S. each year. Drug seizures show only how many pounds of a drug were stopped from getting into the U.S.
"It's a black market. And so by definition, we do not have good market data," Elizabeth Dickinson, deputy program director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit that researches global crises.
The decrease in CBP seizures could point to less enforcement or fewer drugs moving on a specific route, Dickinson said. "There's really not a good way to understand that data," she said.
Dickinson said the Trump administration’s drug enforcement efforts, such as the vessel strikes, have "scared some traffickers away from using specific routes."
Rather than stop trafficking, they might have rerouted.
"Drug trafficking is a very old and mature business, in many ways, these organizations have been in a cat and mouse game with law enforcement, not just for years, but really for decades," Dickinson said. They "are expert at reconfiguring routes, finding new ways to ship things, and innovating in a way to avoid enforcement."
Trump said, after U.S. vessel strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, "drugs entering our country by sea are down 97%."
The administration hasn’t provided any evidence that the vessels it has struck were carrying drugs.
There has been a drop in CBP drug seizures since the strikes began. But the Coast Guard — not CBP — oversees most drug seizures on water, especially in international waters. And that agency has seen a steep increase in drug seizures.
The White House cites a drop in CBP drug seizures as a success at the same time the Coast Guard cites an increase in drug interdictions as a success, too.
However, neither an increase nor a decrease in drug seizures shows how many drugs are entering the U.S. That number is unknowable, according to drug experts. Drug seizures tell us only how many drugs are stopped from entering the U.S.
Trump’s statement is unsubstantiated. We rate it False.
Controversial doctor steps down as contributor after Epstein files reveal communication between the two men
Controversial longevity expert Dr Peter Attia has resigned from his post as a CBS News contributor after correspondence between Attia and convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was made public.
The Hollywood Reporter first broke the news of Attia’s departure.
Continue reading...IBM shares plunged nearly 13% on Monday after Anthropic published a blog post arguing that its Claude Code tool could automate much of the complex analysis work involved in modernizing COBOL, the decades-old programming language that still underpins an estimated 95% of ATM transactions in the United States and runs on the kind of mainframe systems IBM has sold for generations. Anthropic said the shrinking pool of developers who understand COBOL had long made modernization cost-prohibitive, and that AI could now flip that equation by mapping dependencies and documenting workflows across thousands of lines of legacy code. The sell-off deepened a rough 2026 for IBM, whose shares are now down more than 22% year to date.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Exclusive: Trump’s decision will be driven by envoys’ judgment on whether Iran is stalling on a nuclear deal
Donald Trump’s decision to order airstrikes against Iran will hinge in part on the judgment of Trump’s special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, about whether Tehran is stalling over a deal to relinquish its capacity to produce nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with the matter.
The president has not made a final determination on any strikes, as the administration prepares for Iran to send its latest proposal this week, ahead of what officials have described as a last-ditch round of negotiations scheduled for Thursday in Geneva.
Continue reading...Killing of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader sparks wave of violence across western Mexico
Mexican authorities tracked down and killed “El Mencho”, one of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, by following a romantic partner to his safe house near a picturesque mountain town, the country’s defence secretary has revealed.
In a press conference, officials provided the first details about the operation that led to the death of the leader of Mexico’s most powerful organised crime group, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
Continue reading...Nick Reiner, 32, was charged with two counts of murder in the killing of his parents, Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
More than 40 million people were under blizzard warnings along 700 miles of the East Coast from Maryland to Maine.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman has said that a lack of munitions and allied support could mean greater danger for U.S. troops, people familiar with the talks say.
British police arrested Peter Mandelson on suspicion of misconduct in office, just days after the detention of former prince Andrew.
As the drama shows, private firms no longer able to pollute the coast of England of Wales just switched to rivers instead
There is a moment in Channel 4’s drama Dirty Business when Julie Maughan holds the body of her dead child and lets out an anguished cry. It is as brutal as it is compelling.
Her eight-year-old daughter Heather had just died in hospital, two weeks after playing in the sea on the beach at Dawlish Warren in Devon, where she contracted E coli O157, a bug which comes from raw sewage. She became ill with diarrhoea and blood loss. Transferred to Bristol children’s hospital, her parents agreed to switch off her life-support machine after she suffered kidney failure and brain damage.
Continue reading...See if you qualify for one of these student-focused discounts.
The Mexican military killed Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, Mexico’s most wanted cartel boss, during an operation aided by U.S. intelligence information in Tapalpa, a town within the Mexican state of Jalisco.
Violence spread after Oseguera Cervantes’ Feb. 22 killing, with suspected gang members torching buses and businesses while clashing with the authorities in multiple Mexican cities, including Puerto Vallarta in Jalisco.
Images of Puerto Vallarta in flames have been widely reported, but one photo shared online is not real.
A Feb. 22 TikTok post said it shows an image of Puerto Vallarta with scattered buildings on fire.
"This is not a scene from a movie, this is the city of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco in Mexico. Look at all these fires going around the city," says the man in the TikTok video. "Well, what’s happening is they’re saying that they took down the leader of El Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, AKA El Mencho… and all his people are going around all the city and just burning cars, shooting random people, fighting against the police."
Instagram and X users also shared the same image with English and Spanish captions claiming to show the unrest in Puerto Vallarta.
(Screenshot of the Instagram post.)
But that was generated with artificial intelligence.
The image shows the logo of Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot, at the bottom right corner.
PolitiFact uploaded the image to Gemini and it confirmed the image was generated using its generative AI program.
Visual inconsistencies signal the image is fake. Some of the cars on the streets are indistinguishable, while others look on top of each other. Some of the buildings look distorted and the smoke and the fire have unusual patterns. For example, the fire is bright orange and it sits on top of the buildings without consuming the structure, and the smoke seems to be going up in the same direction without being disrupted by the wind.
(Screenshot of AI-generated image highlighting with red circles visual inconsistencies. At the bottom right is the Google Gemini logo.)
This image doesn’t show Puerto Vallarta after the killing of Oseguera Cervantes. We rate this claim False.
The Trump administration is unlikely to back down from pursuing additional tariffs following the Supreme Court decision, according to trade experts.
Epstein links have taken political operator from a vaunted position in British diplomacy to arrest in under six months
Just six months ago Peter Mandelson seemed unassailable as the UK’s ambassador to the US, one of the most vaunted positions in British diplomacy. As our man in Washington, Mandelson appeared to have used his skill for schmoozing, learned over years as a cabinet minister and a European commissioner, to secure a good relationship with the tricky Trump administration. He was considered instrumental in securing a relatively favourable US trade deal for the UK.
He was also an influential voice in Labour politics with the ear of the prime minister and his inner circle, notably his friend and protege Morgan McSweeney, Starmer’s then chief of staff.
Continue reading...Round 1 stage 2 of the Critical Technologies Challenge Program will fund cutting-edge projects including mine site sensors, data center cooling and optical imaging projects.
Feb. 23, 2026 — The Australian Government has announced it will fund 8 projects through round 1 stage 2 of the Critical Technologies Challenge Program (CTCP).
Credit: Shutterstock
CTCP provides up to $36 million in grant funding to test and demonstrate solutions to market-led challenges of national significance using quantum technologies.
It works in 2 stages:
Eight of the round 1 stage 1 projects are progressing for stage 2 funding. They include:
The CTCP aligns with Australia’s National Quantum Strategy. The strategy aims to foster a vibrant and resilient innovation ecosystem that can harness emerging technologies for the benefit of all Australians.
The CTCP also aligns with the Future Made in Australia plan by backing Australian-led projects that deliver innovations in science and digital capability. By nurturing quantum capabilities, the program strengthens Australia’s high‑tech manufacturing base.
Read more details about the CTCP round 1 projects here. View the full funding details on business.gov.au.
Source: Australian Government, Department of Industry, Science and Resources
The post Australian Government to Support Quantum Tech Projects with $12.7M appeared first on HPCwire.
ExpressVPN is also expanding its reach to virtual reality through support for the Meta Quest platform.
 | Badgering(waterproofing) my board does not work great for me as I like to swap parts between all my boards and occasionally take them apart for cleaning. I also do not want to worry about my board breaking on me just because I rode through some wet conditions or puddles. Ive had my fair share of water related issues on my boards. So I wanted a middle ground of water proofing my boards enough to still take them apart with ease and waterproof them again. For my connectors this self bonding waterproof tape does the trick. Easy to wrap around your connectors when assembling, soft enough to cut off when disassembling, and keeps my connectors dry! Just stretch and wrap around 2/3 times and you’re set. If you guys have any other easy preventative maintenance tips please share! [link] [comments] |
Sinners film-maker’s much-anticipated relaunch of the paranormal hit show finally receives official green light
Ryan Coogler’s reboot of The X-Files has received the official green light with Danielle Deadwyler set as the first co-lead.
The film-maker behind Black Panther and Sinners has long talked about his love for the hit paranormal drama series and how he wants to make some new episodes that are “really fucking scary”.
Continue reading...Study released a day before State of the Union address shows president has lost support among Republicans
Most US adults think Donald Trump is moving the country in the wrong direction during his second presidency, according to a new NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released the day before his State of the Union speech.
Fifty-five percent of adults feel that Trump is changing the country for the worse, a 13-point increase from around the same time of his first presidency, the survey conducted from 27 to 30 January found.
Continue reading...Other nations are catching up with the US in its traditional strengths such as snowboarding. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing for Americans
In 2002, on home ice and snow in Utah, the USA obliterated its records for most gold medals (10, beating the previous high of six) and most overall medals (34, more than two times the previous high of 13) by the country in a single Winter Olympics.
In 2026, the USA broke that national record for gold medals with 12, and broke the 30-medal mark for the first time outside North America (Norway broke the overall record with 18 golds).
Continue reading...Documents given to Congress appear to show courses involving use-of-force were eliminated from ICE officer training.
The Democratic Women's Caucus wore pink to President Trump's address to Congress last year. This year, they're returning to white.
It is the third such attack in a week, and is part of increased US forces in the Caribbean
The US military launched a strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean, which killed three men – its third such attack over the course of a week.
“Intelligence confirmed the vessel was transiting along known narco-trafficking routes in the Caribbean and was engaged in narco-trafficking operations,” US Southern Command, which oversees operations in Latin America and the Caribbean, said on X.
Continue reading...NotebookLM can transform information in surprising ways, and that's why we love it.
Trump tells Mexico to ‘step up’ effort to combat cartels even after military operation kills drug lord known as ‘El Mencho’
With schools still closed, flights cancelled and the charred carcasses of buses smouldering on streets across the country, Mexico was still reeling from the cartel backlash prompted by the killing of cartel kingpin Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho”.
Defense minister, Ricardo Trevilla Trejo, was moved almost to tears on Monday as he offered his condolences to the families of soldiers felled in the operation to kill the country’s most-wanted drug lord. Mexican military personnel, he said, “fulfilled their mission”.
Continue reading...These are the best soundbars to upgrade your TV audio for better intelligibility.
 | I’ve put 2,966 miles on my XR Classic over the past few years — street riding, trails, drops, curb nudges, pretty much everything — and I finally made a long-term review about what actually happens after that much mileage. Not a hype video. Just real ownership experience. Some honest takeaways: I know a lot of people are still picking these up used, so I figured real high-mileage feedback might help someone. Curious — anyone else here over 2k miles on an XRC? What started wearing out first for you? [link] [comments] |
I’ve been interested in a one wheel for a long time and lately have seen many crash results on this sub full of comments about spin injuries, broken bones, and other rough injuries.
I began wondering, are there riders that don’t crash?
Can you just float and keep the wheel in its happy place? Are there rules to follow like:
Never ride below 30%
Never go above 60% of max capable speed
No riding past X mileage
Anything someone does to avoid the cut outs, crashes, broken bones, injuries, while still riding often and for a long time, like years with success in staying on the wheel?
Feb. 23, 2026 — This month, 13 early-career researchers from Berkeley Lab Computing Sciences Area (CSA) presented their work at the 2026 Postdoc Symposium, an event focused on articulating the real-world impact of their discoveries.
Credit: Berkeley Lab
More than just a showcase, the annual symposium is a launchpad for the next generation of scientific leaders. Through weeks of intensive coaching from CSA staff, participants hone their presentation skills and leave equipped with a professional recording of their talk to share with future employers. Since its inception in 2020, the program has helped shape 134 presentations, solidifying its role as a vital training ground for early-career researchers.
“Our postdoctoral researchers represent the future of scientific innovation, and the CSA Postdoc Symposium is one of our most direct and impactful investments in their success. This program provides a unique platform not only to share their work but also to receive expert coaching and feedback that cultivates the essential communication skills they need to become leaders in their fields. These are the skills that will help them secure funding, build collaborations, and translate discovery into real-world solutions,” said Stefan Wild, Director of Berkeley Lab’s Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division and a key champion of the program.
Many of this year’s participants echoed the value of the program:
Alec Decktor
“Having participated before, I knew the Postdoc Symposium was a fantastic event and the perfect venue to communicate my research progress to a broad Berkeley Lab audience. It’s excellent practice for giving a non-technical talk—an invaluable skill for any scientist—and a great networking event. The connections I’ve made have led to exciting new research opportunities.
“What makes the symposium unique is the opportunity to receive extremely valuable feedback on your presentation from senior scientists across different fields. This has directly helped me develop my ability to prepare talks for other conferences. To anyone who might be hesitant, I’d say the environment is incredibly supportive. The work you put in pays off directly; I’ve reused slides I created for the symposium in several other presentations. It’s well worth the time and a great opportunity to develop yourself as an early-career scientist,” said Alec Dektor, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Scalable Solvers Group.
Durga Mandarapu
“The symposium process fundamentally changed how I approach presentations. The feedback from Lab leadership and communication experts was invaluable, and it helped me rethink how to design slides—for instance, learning to use the title to state the key takeaway instead of just a topic. That kind of clarity has a direct impact. When I later reached out to a Division Deputy who had provided feedback, he already had a clear understanding of my skills and research from the symposium. That familiarity made it much easier to identify opportunities for collaboration. It showed me that our work has more impact when people truly understand it, and this is the perfect place to learn that skill,” said Durga Mandarapu, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR.
Navjot Singh
“What sets this symposium apart is that you’re presenting to experts from a wide range of scientific disciplines, not just specialists in your own field. The feedback I received on how people outside my immediate area perceive certain concepts was invaluable—that’s a perspective you don’t easily get within your own research group. Learning to adjust my slides and delivery for that audience is a critical skill. It’s an investment in one of the most important qualities of a successful scientist: the ability to communicate your work effectively across disciplinary boundaries,” said Navjot Sing, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s AMCR.
Alex Morehead
“After seeing recordings of past events, I was convinced of the value of sharing my research at the Postdoc Symposium. The process of revising and presenting my research presentation has given me more confidence and knowledge for future presentations. The tight-knit community here at Berkeley Lab makes it an incredible place to connect with researchers interested in similar topics and gather relevant, valuable feedback. I’d encourage everyone to seriously consider it—practicing your presentation skills is a great long-term investment for any career,” said Alex Morehead, 2025 Hopper Postdoctoral Fellow at NERSC.
Shubhabrata Mukherjee
“What makes the Postdoc Symposium so unique is how supportive and well-structured the entire experience is. The focus isn’t just on presenting results; it’s on helping you translate technically deep work for a broad audience in a collaborative environment. Condensing my research in AI and scientific data analysis clarified my thinking and built new collaborations across the Lab. It’s a fantastic opportunity to gain confidence and practice a skill essential for any interdisciplinary career,” said Shubhabrata Mukherjee, a Machine Learning Postdoctoral Fellow in AMCR.
Nabin Giri
“The symposium is an excellent experiential learning opportunity. The feedback from organizers and peers was incredibly helpful, teaching me to communicate my work with clarity and impact. It’s the perfect preparation for job interviews and conferences because it gives you a safe space to practice the kind of communication that is essential for your career. The networking was terrific, and I made great connections and friends across the Lab,” said Nabin Giri, a postdoctoral researcher in Berkeley Lab’s Scientific Data Division (SciData), who is working on applying AI to structural biology.
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: Linda Vu, Berkeley Lab
The post Berkeley Lab: 2026 CSA Symposium Helps Researchers Amplify Their Scientific Impact appeared first on HPCwire.
Singer criticizes Trump administration’s ‘violent theater’ as she supports people caught up in Minneapolis crackdown
Brandi Carlile’s weekend concert in Minneapolis, Minnesota, raised more than half a million dollars for families affected by the disruptive presence of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and border patrol agents in the city.
Carlile, a Grammy-winning Americana artist from Washington state, livestreamed her show Be Human: A Concert for Minneapolis from the Target Center on 21 February. The show, played for over 12,000 people, raised more than $600,000 for the Minnesota-based Advocates for Human Rights organization, “so that they can help and represent thousands of families who desperately need it”, the singer announced on Instagram.
Continue reading...Education secretary and her team have won over some critics but obstacles remain in their attempt to overhaul system
In her first week as a cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson held a meeting for new Labour MPs with one subject – special educational needs. Almost 100 MPs came to that first meeting.
There were new MPs for whom the issue was personal to their own families – Jen Craft, Daniel Francis, Steve Race, as well as the then business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds. Dozens more knew the system was at breaking point because of their previous work in the charity sector, for unions and in the disability sector.
Continue reading...Britain's film academy and the BBC apologized after a broadcast of the BAFTA awards ceremony that included an offensive outburst by an audience member with Tourette's syndrome.
Since the administration began targeting those it calls "narcoterrorists" in small vessels last year, at least 148 people have been killed in the strikes.
Linus Torvalds has pondered his professional mortality in a self-deprecating post to mark the release of the first release candidate for version 7.0 of the Linux kernel. From a report: "You all know the drill by now: two weeks have passed, and the kernel merge window is closed," he wrote in the post announcing Linux 7.0 rc1. "We have a new major number purely because I'm easily confused and not good with big numbers." Torvalds pointed out that the numbers he applies to new kernel releases are essentially meaningless. "We haven't done releases based on features (or on "stable vs unstable") for a long, long time now. So that new major number does *not* mean that we have some big new exciting feature, or that we're somehow leaving old interfaces behind. It's the usual "solid progress" marker, nothing more.â He then reiterated his plan to end each series of kernels to end at x.19, before the next release becomes y.0 -- a process that takes about 3.5 years -- and then pondered what happens when the next version of Linux reaches a number he finds uncomfortable. "I don't have a solid plan for when the major number itself gets big," he admitted, "by that time, I expect that we'll have somebody more competent in charge who isn't afraid of numbers past the teens. So I'm not going to worry about it."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The arrest followed search warrants at two addresses in the Wiltshire and Camden areas, police said
Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, has been speaking about the Send reforms at an event in Peterborough.
This is what she said about the need for inclusion.
Inclusion is a choice. It is an educational choice, and it is also a political choice because we could duck this challenge, ignore the injustice of a postcode lottery in life chances putting off fixing the Send system yet again.
The system works well for some at least.
We welcome the scale of vision contained in the white paper which has the potential to create an education system that fully values children and young people with additional needs and their families.
We also welcome the commitment to retain statutory education, health and care plans (EHCPs) for children and young people whose needs cannot be met through this new model. We know that many parents will welcome the legal requirement for schools to create individual support plans (ISPs) for all children with Send.
Continue reading...SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 23, 2026 — Pure Storage today announced its new name: Everpure. This change reflects the company’s greater impact from reshaping storage to defining the future of data management. The company also announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 1touch, an innovator in data intelligence and orchestration that provides a comprehensive, unified view of an enterprise’s information. With 1touch, Everpure furthers its commitment to data management innovation, making data secure, accessible, intelligent, and ready to perform.
“Everpure reflects the company we have become as we help enterprises unleash the full power of their data. It captures the power of our Enterprise Data Cloud architecture and adaptability of Evergreen, reinforcing what has always set us apart as we redefine important markets,” said Charles Giancarlo, CEO of Everpure. “With 1touch, we are taking the next step in helping organizations not only gain control of their most valuable asset—data—but also understand, enhance, and contextualize that data for actionable intelligence.”
Accelerating Data Management Innovation in the AI Era
As AI becomes central to business operations, the modern enterprise has reached an inflection point. AI has exposed the weaknesses of current infrastructure, where siloed data, manual processes, and inflexible architectures cannot support the scale, speed, and intelligence demands of enterprise AI.
Data is an organization’s most valuable asset, but it is trapped by these inefficiencies. Its full value can only be derived if it is effortless to manage, continuously protected, instantly available, and infused with context. Everpure is breaking these barriers with its Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC) architecture. Powered by the Everpure Platform (formerly the Pure Storage Platform), Everpure’s EDC architecture transforms storage into a unified, virtualized cloud of data, governed by an intelligent control plane. It manages datasets globally, through policy, eliminating the friction of manual configurations, which brings unprecedented simplicity, agility, and efficiency to data management.
Extending Everpure’s Data Management Roadmap with 1touch
The acquisition of 1touch will extend Everpure’s data management capabilities by adding data discovery and semantic context to the Everpure Platform. By integrating storage with 1touch’s ability to discover, classify, contextualize, and enrich data across all datasets and any environment—from SaaS to the edge—Everpure will ensure enterprise data is inherently AI-ready at the source. This will allow organizations to transform raw data into actionable insights faster than ever.
“Data is the lifeblood of the AI era, but without the proper controls and semantic context, it remains an untapped resource,” said Ashish Gupta, CEO and president, 1touch. “By joining forces with Everpure, we can eliminate the barriers that have kept enterprises from realizing the true ROI of their data. Together, we will further expand the Everpure platform to provide a level of contextual intelligence that is unmatched in the industry—giving customers the foundation they need to move AI projects from pilot to production at record speed and trust.”
Pure Storage will begin trading as Everpure on the New York Stock Exchange as of March 5, 2026. The ticker symbol (NYSE: PSTG) will remain unchanged.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in Q2 FY27. The terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.
About Everpure
Everpure (NYSE: PSTG) allows organizations to take control of their data with an industry-leading, ever-evolving storage and data management platform. We help companies unleash the power of their data by ensuring it is secure, accessible, intelligent, and ready to perform in the AI era. We make data management effortless while simultaneously scaling performance and significantly reducing energy consumption. With one of the highest Net Promoter Scores for over a decade, Everpure is the choice of the world’s most innovative organizations. For more information, visit Everpuredata.com.
Source: Everpure
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LOS ANGELES, Feb. 23, 2026 — Skorppio, a new self-serve platform for on-premise high-performance computer rentals, has launched with a fleet of workload-qualified, enterprise-grade systems available for delivery nationwide. The platform serves AI startups, ML developers, VFX studios, simulation teams, and research organizations that need bare-metal compute on-premise, without ownership costs, cloud lock-in, or long-term contracts.
Temporary access to high-performance, on-premise hardware has traditionally offered limited options: purchasing infrastructure requires extended lead times and significant capital investment, while public cloud solutions often reduce margins, predictability, and control. Skorppio addresses this gap with an on-demand, flexible rental model for enterprise-grade compute, broadening how organizations secure critical infrastructure.
Skorppio’s rental fleet spans performance laptops, multi-GPU professional workstations, NVIDIA DGX-class enterprise AI systems, and GPU servers. A PNY Pro partnership enables Skorppio to provide NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs (including the RTX 6000 PRO) and AMD processors (EPYC, Threadripper PRO, and Ryzen). Unique to Skorppio, its flagship workstation delivers up to 786 GB of VRAM and is engineered to run on standard electrical circuits, with no specialized power infrastructure required, bringing enterprise-grade AI compute into conventional office environments. Both current- and previous-generation systems are available to match a range of performance requirements and budgets.
Founder and CEO Jonathan Goldstein began his career as a Network Systems Administrator at a global bank before founding a creative technology agency that built large-scale installations for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies including General Motors, YouTube, and Amazon Studios, as well as global music artists including Jay-Z, Rihanna, and Alicia Keys.
“Access to performance compute has gotten expensive enough that teams end up buying what they can afford or what’s available quickly, instead of what the work demands,” said Founder and CEO Jonathan Goldstein. “Skorppio delivers dedicated, workflow-built systems with bare-metal performance, on ultra-flexible terms, without the cost of ownership.”
Through a digital-first experience on web and mobile, users can access real-time pricing and curated KIT Collections. Pre-built assemblies, such as AI Startup Dev Kits, Simulation Packs, and VFX Render Farm configurations, are validated against real-world workloads by domain experts, including PhD-level AI researchers and VFX technical directors. KITs ship with the necessary infrastructure components, such as high-speed interconnects, fiber optics, and network switches, to speed deployment.
The launch follows a successful pre-seed investment. Later this year, Skorppio plans to introduce a program that provides compute resources to early-stage AI startups in exchange for equity, bringing an incubator model to high-performance infrastructure.
For more information and to reserve early access, visit skorppio.com.
About Skorppio
Founded in 2024 in Los Angeles, Skorppio is a self-serve rental platform for on-premise high-performance computing with nationwide delivery. The company delivers servers, enterprise AI systems, GPU workstations, and performance laptops to AI startups, ML developers, VFX studios, and innovators across industries. Every configuration is curated and validated with leading domain experts. Skorppio provides an alternative to cloud computing with transparent pricing, no lock-in, and compute that scales on customers’ terms.
Source: Skorppio
The post Skorppio Launches On-Premise HPC Rental Platform for AI and HPC Workloads appeared first on HPCwire.
SAN MATEO, Calif., Feb. 23, 2026 — Backblaze, Inc. today announced B2 Neo, a purpose-built offering for neocloud platforms. B2 Neo provides these platforms with enterprise-grade cloud object storage their customers require for data-heavy AI and machine learning workloads, allowing platforms to offer a full-stack experience without the massive capital costs or time and resource investment required to build a storage backend from scratch.
B2 Neo launches based on nearly 20 years of cloud storage expertise and over five exabytes of storage under management, with the ability to provide throughput speeds up to 1 terabit per second (1Tbps). Built in collaboration with leading neocloud platforms already running production workloads with Backblaze, B2 Neo gives neoclouds a storage layer they can integrate into their existing platforms and seamlessly offer to customers. These partnerships include the company’s largest total contract value (TCV) and commitment to date and conversations with multiple emerging neoclouds—underscoring the strategic value neoclouds place on having a reliable, high-performance storage partner.
With B2 Neo, neocloud customers experience storage as a native service via branded endpoints and partner-controlled pricing. The offering allows neoclouds to provision accounts, manage permissions, and handle billing through existing platform tools without a separate console or manual setup.
The neocloud market is projected to grow from $35.22 billion in 2026 to $236.53 billion by 2031 at a 46.37% CAGR. As these platforms scale to meet explosive demand for AI compute, storage has become a critical bottleneck—one that diverts capital and engineering resources away from the GPU infrastructure that defines their competitive advantage.
Neocloud customers running AI training, inference pipelines, and media workflows need somewhere to store datasets, model checkpoints, and output artifacts. Without integrated object storage, they’re forced to move massive datasets in and out of the cloud, creating latency and delays that stall GPU utilization and drive up costs.
“Neoclouds are under pressure to scale GPU capacity as fast as possible. Building and operating high-performance scalable object storage competes directly with that mission,” said Gleb Budman, Co-Founder and CEO of Backblaze. “B2 Neo lets them launch a storage offering in weeks, not years, so they can stay focused on what makes them different.”
One global edge services platform selected Backblaze after a rigorous technical and business evaluation, and now leverages B2 Neo as a core component of its AI, high performance compute (HPC), and media storage strategies.
“As our AI business scales, our customers increasingly demand cost-effective storage. Backblaze gave us the ability to deliver object storage as a first-class tier of our own platform, without taking focus away from our GPU roadmap,” said the company’s Director of Product Management.
By powering their back-end object storage with B2 Neo, cloud providers can accelerate time-to-market, control infrastructure costs, and meet rising customer demand for efficient, high-performance data pipelines.
“With B2 Neo as a first-party service offering to neoclouds, I see the advantage for those organizations of being able to turn on cloud storage without the toil and expense of building it themselves. It is a near-instant value-add offering, helping their customers control costs and achieve the ROI of AI faster,” said Rob Strechay, Principal Analyst, Smuget & theCUBE research.
About Backblaze
Backblaze (NASDAQ: BLZE) gives businesses the freedom to innovate without limits by removing the barriers of lock-in, complexity, and cost. Our high-performance cloud object storage accelerates AI workflows, powers data-heavy applications, streamlines media management, and protects critical data. As an award-winning independent cloud, we provide unparalleled levels of interoperability that enable over 500,000 of our customers to reach and serve hundreds of millions of end users in 175 countries around the world. For more information, please go to www.backblaze.com.
Source: Backblaze
The post Backblaze Launches B2 Neo to Power Surging Neocloud Market appeared first on HPCwire.
The son of Rob and Michele Reiner has struggled with mental health and drug issues, but there was no indication in court whether those would factor into his defense.
Officials at California Democratic convention celebrated the former House speaker’s advocacy as she prepares to retire
It was a “Nancy Pelosi-palooza” in San Francisco over the weekend, as thousands of California Democrats gathered in her beloved city by the bay, a place the former speaker of the House has represented in Congress for nearly four decades. They were there to attend the state party’s annual convention – but with Pelosi retiring at the end of her term, it was also a days-long celebration of a woman many Democrats regard as a living legend.
A video salute during the general session charted her rise from a stay-at-home mom to the US House of Representatives, where she shattered the marble ceiling and became the first – and to this day only – woman to wield the speaker’s gavel. Tote bags were emblazoned with her silhouette in every color of the rainbow – a nod to her trailblazing advocacy for the LGBTQ+ community. It also included one of her favorite aphorisms: “We don’t agonize, we organize.”
Continue reading...Feb. 23, 2026 — From space exploration to artificial intelligence, modern scientific breakthroughs depend on moving large amounts of data quickly. At Kennesaw State University, Associate Professor of Information Technology Xuechen Zhang is developing new methods to help supercomputers process information faster.
Zhang’s work aims to deliver scientific insights in a fraction of the time. Instead of constantly moving data to a processor for computation, his project moves the computation closer to where the data already lives. This approach, known as computational storage, allows portions of data processing to happen directly on storage devices before information ever reaches the main processor.
“When we train scientific machine-learning models, we need a lot of data,” Zhang said. “Moving that data from storage to processors takes time, and preprocessing can become a major hurdle.”
By shifting where work is completed, researchers can reduce delays that often slow artificial intelligence training and large-scale scientific simulations, especially when datasets grow into the terabyte and petabyte range. The long-term impact of Zhang’s project extends beyond computer science. Faster data processing can shorten the time it takes scientists to reach conclusions in fields ranging from climate modeling to medical research. A simulation that once required hours or even days could potentially be completed in significantly less time, allowing researchers to test more scenarios and refine their findings more quickly.
“In the future, supercomputers will be more heterogeneous and specialized,” Zhang said. “Different components will handle different tasks, and that flexibility will open the door to faster and more scalable scientific applications.”
Zhang’s project received a $479,358 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support the research over the next three years. The funding supports doctoral students at KSU, provides access to high-performance computing resources, and enables the team to present findings at national conferences while strengthening curriculum offerings for students.
The investment also helps create opportunities for undergraduate researchers to gain early exposure to advanced computing systems and real-world problem-solving, Zhang said.
“This funding allows us to build a pipeline for our students and give them hands-on experience with state-of-the-art systems,” Zhang said. “It is not only about research results, but also about preparing students for careers in high-performance computing and artificial intelligence.”
The research is a collaboration with Xiaokun Yang of the University of Houston–Clear Lake. The partnership blends hardware and software expertise, which Zhang said is essential for building efficient systems.
Leaders in the College of Computing and Software Engineering say Zhang’s work highlights the growing impact of faculty research on both student learning and technological innovation.
“Dr. Zhang’s work reflects the type of forward-thinking research we strive to cultivate in the College of Computing and Software Engineering,” CCSE Interim Dean Yiming Ji said. “His efforts advance scientific discovery while creating meaningful learning opportunities for our students.”
After joining KSU, Zhang began building the AI Systems and Storage Lab on the Marietta Campus, where he is assembling servers and recruiting doctoral students. Early testing has reinforced the team’s belief that data preprocessing can become a barrier in large-scale computing workflows. He expects the lab to expand in the coming semesters as additional graduate researchers join the project.
Source: Raynard Churchwell, KSU
The post Kennesaw State Research Explores Computational Storage to Speed Scientific Computing appeared first on HPCwire.
There's no official word on a sale yet, but another one this spring is likely to happen soon.
Former U.K. ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson has been arrested weeks after a series of emails between him and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein were released.
Exclusive: Former health secretary throws weight behind campaign to boost diagnosis of placenta accreta spectrum
Jeremy Hunt has urged leading doctors to do more to help maternity specialists detect a rare complication of childbirth that can lead to a women bleeding to death within minutes.
The former health secretary has thrown his weight behind a new campaign, aimed at improving the NHS’s identification of placenta accreta spectrum. The Action for Accreta campaign was set up by Amisha Adhia and her husband, Nik, after five hospitals failed to spot that she had PAS.
Continue reading...Money market account interest rates are still competitive. Here's how much savers can earn with an account by 2027.
Kouri Richins slipped five times the lethal dose of fentanyl into a cocktail that her husband drank, prosecutors say.
The Wall Street Journal reports the graphics and AI chip giant will soon take on Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Apple for consumer laptop chip supremacy.
Deadliest start to a year in more than a decade, according to the International Organization for Migration
A least 606 people trying to reach Europe in search of refugee have been reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean since the beginning of 2026, marking the “deadliest start to a year” in more than a decade, the UN’s migration agency said on Monday.
The figure includes at least 30 people who are feared dead or missing after their boat capsized in severe weather off the coast of Greece on Saturday. Authorities rescued 20 people, including four minors, and recovered the bodies of three men and one woman, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said.
Continue reading...Grey’s Anatomy and Euphoria actor died on Thursday less than a year after he publicly revealed ALS diagnosis
A GoFundMe campaign meant to provide financial support for the widow and daughters of Eric Dane after the actor’s recent death had raised more than $415,000 as of Monday.
The fundraising platform over the weekend had temporarily paused the “In Honor of Eric Dane” campaign while it underwent a standard review. But by Monday, GoFundMe said it had verified the effort and listed the Grey’s Anatomy star’s family as the beneficiary.
Continue reading...Despite AI's progress in building complex software, the ubiquitous PDF remains something of a grand challenge -- a format Adobe developed in the early 1990s to preserve the precise visual appearance of documents. PDFs consist of character codes, coordinates, and rendering instructions rather than logically ordered text, and even state-of-the-art models asked to extract information from them will summarize instead, confuse footnotes with body text, or outright hallucinate contents, The Verge writes. Companies like Reducto are now tackling the problem by segmenting pages into components -- headers, tables, charts -- before routing each to specialized parsing models, an approach borrowed from computer vision techniques used in self-driving vehicles. Researchers at Hugging Face recently found roughly 1.3 billion PDFs sitting in Common Crawl alone, and the Allen Institute for AI has noted that PDFs could provide trillions of novel, high-quality training tokens from government reports, textbooks, and academic papers -- the kind of data AI developers are increasingly desperate for.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Kouri Richins, the Utah mother accused of killing her husband and then publishing a children's book about grief, is now on trial for his murder.
Apple's March 4 event might be presented in an entirely new format. Here are the new products we expect to see during the lead-up to the big day.
Despite relentless attrition at appalling human cost, the Kremlin has not achieved its goals. Maximum economic pressure can undermine its war aims
Four years after Vladimir Putin launched the biggest conflict on European soil since the second world war, the human cost of his revanchist ambition mounts ever higher. Across a 750-mile frontline in the east of Ukraine, Russian forces make minimal progress despite relentless attrition, advancing more slowly than troops during the battle of the Somme. In 2025, the estimated number of Russian casualties in “the meat grinder” was 415,000.
For Ukraine, the suffering will scar generations to come. Battlefield casualties are estimated to be about 600,000. Since the invasion, as many as 6 million people have been displaced inside the country and 4 million, mainly women and children, have left. Civilian deaths soared last year as Russia stepped up its bombing campaign of cities and infrastructure in an effort to break Ukrainians’ will.
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...  | Headed to Smashville for 24hours. Who’s up for a cold ride ? [link] [comments] |
Law enforcement is monitoring potential increases in violence, coercion or debt-collection activity in domestic trafficking corridors after cartel head "El Mencho" was killed Sunday.
Ofgem says about 140 proposed projects, driven by AI use, could require more power than current peak demand
The amount of power being sought by new datacentre projects in Great Britain would exceed the national current peak electricity consumption, according to an industry watchdog.
Ofgem said about 140 proposed datacentre schemes, driven by use of artificial intelligence, could require 50 gigawatts of electricity – 5GW more than the country’s current peak demand.
Continue reading...U.S. artificial-intelligence startup Anthropic said three Chinese AI companies set up more than 24,000 fraudulent accounts with its Claude AI model to help their own systems catch up. From a report: The three companies -- DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax -- prompted Claude more than 16 million times, siphoning information from Anthropic's system to train and improve their own products, Anthropic said in a blog post Monday. Earlier this month, an Anthropic rival, OpenAI, sent a memo to House lawmakers accusing DeepSeek of using the same tactic, called distillation, to mimic OpenAI's products. Anthropic said distillation had legitimate uses -- companies use it to build smaller versions of their own products, for example -- but it could also be used to build competitive products "in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost." The scale of the different companies' distillation activity varied. DeepSeek engaged in 150,000 interactions with Claude, whereas Moonshot and MiniMax had more than 3.4 million and 13 million, respectively, Anthropic said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ralph Abraham, who started CDC role in January, is second top official to step down from agency this month
Ralph Abraham, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, has stepped down, the agency said on Monday, announcing the exit of a top official for the second time in February.
The agency known as the CDC – which is temporarily being run by Dr Jay Bhattacharya – said the departure was effective immediately and attributed it to unforeseen family obligations. It did not comment on who would replace Abraham.
Continue reading...Workers who claim the new deduction will see an average tax cut of around $1,400, although some could realize larger savings.
Stock your pantry like a pro with these eight undercelebrated ingredients.
US president’s international trade war spooks investors, with drops in US share prices after European losses
Stock markets stumbled on Monday as Donald Trump pushed ahead with fresh tariffs on the US’s trading partners despite a supreme court strike-down and growing opposition from domestic voters.
Uncertainty over the status of global trade deals spooked investors, triggering a drop in US shares prices including on the Dow Jones industrial average, which tumbled 1.6% by Monday’s closing. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4% and 1.1%, after losses for European stock markets.
Continue reading...The first fiber-optic cable ever laid across an ocean -- TAT-8, a nearly 6,000-kilometer line between the United States, United Kingdom, and France that carried its first traffic on December 14, 1988 -- is now being pulled off the Atlantic seabed after more than two decades of sitting dormant, bound for recycling in South Africa. Subsea Environmental Services, one of only three companies in the world whose entire business is cable recovery and recycling, began the operation last year using its new diesel-electric vessel, the MV Maasvliet, and had already brought 1,012 kilometers of the cable to the Portuguese port of Leixoes by August. TAT-8, short for Trans-Atlantic Telephone 8, was built by AT&T, British Telecom, and France Telecom, and hit full capacity within just 18 months of going live. A fault too expensive to repair took it out of service in 2002. The recovered cable is being shipped to Mertech Marine in South Africa, where it will be broken down into steel, copper, and two types of polyethylene -- all commercially valuable, especially the high-quality copper at a time when the International Energy Agency projects global shortages within a decade.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Ron Wyden, Ed Markey and Jeanne Shaheen unveiling bill requiring CBP to issue refunds and pay interest
A trio of Senate Democrats is calling for the government to start refunding roughly $175bn in tariff revenues that the supreme court ruled were collected because of an illegal set of orders by Donald Trump.
Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon, Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire are unveiling a bill on Monday that would require US Customs and Border Protection to issue refunds over the course of 180 days and pay interest on the refunded amount.
Continue reading...Hungary’s veto prevents EU countries from adopting latest round of sanctions
One other thing we will be keeping an eye on today is the latest on the EU-US trade relationship after last Friday’s US supreme court ruling on Trump’s tariffs.
The European Parliament is expected to discuss what to do with the EU-US trade deal later today.
Continue reading...A federal judge on Monday permanently blocked the Justice Department from releasing former special counsel Jack Smith's report on the classified documents investigation.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes — known as "El Mencho" — was the boss of one of the fastest-growing criminal networks in Mexico.
The State Department has ordered some staff in the U.S. Embassy in Beirut to begin to leave Lebanon, multiple sources familiar with the matter said.
Some Chicago-area residents currently in Puerto Vallarta recounted hearing explosions and saw thick black smoke billowing from cars and businesses throughout the city.
Repeat of BBC series gave clue to Paul Gostelow about 19th-century altar cards taken from crypt in Hampshire
Two priceless artefacts stolen more than a decade ago from the crypt of Napoleon III in England have been recovered after an antiques dealer realised he had them while watching a repeat of the comedy drama Lovejoy.
The wooden 19th-century altar cards were taken in a burglary at St Michael’s Abbey in Farnborough, Hampshire in February 2014 and were feared lost for ever.
Continue reading...A Bloomberg report suggests a potential one-two-three punch of product launches over consecutive days from Apple, including three new MacBooks and an iPad with an M4 chip.
Meet the Celerity oven -- a high-speed oven with "golden heater" technology that can cook a chicken three times faster than a standard oven.
SOLLEFTEÅ, Sweden, Feb. 23, 2026 — atNorth today confirmed plans to develop a 300MW data center in Sollefteå Municipality, Sweden. Located at Hamre Industrial Park in Långsele, the new site will be developed on a 50-hectare plot (Hamre 1) and is expected to be operational in H1 2028.
The Hamre Industrial Park supports an accelerated construction timeline, as the site is fully zoned and prepared for development. This speed to market is essential, as demand for AI-driven, high-performance computing infrastructure continues to surge, requiring scalable capacity delivered quickly.
“We are very pleased that atNorth has chosen Hamre Industrial Park for this significant investment,” says Emelie Wrede, Mayor and Chair, Sollefteå Municipality. “This establishment confirms that Sollefteå offers the right conditions for large-scale, future-oriented industry. The development will strengthen the local economy, create skilled employment opportunities, and further position our municipality as an attractive destination for sustainable digital infrastructure.”
Hamre Industrial Park was selected for its strategic location, strong grid capacity, and access to renewable energy resources. The campus will be designed in line with atNorth’s modular architecture to cater for data intensive workloads and colocation needs, whether that be for built-to-suit projects or tailor-made data center space at large scale.
As with all new atNorth developments, the company will actively pursue heat reuse partnerships to ensure excess heat generated by the facility can be captured and redirected for local benefit.
“We face a critical point in time right now, where we must balance unprecedented growth in high density workloads with an increasingly urgent need for sustainable, scalable digital infrastructure,” said Eyjólfur Magnús Kristinsson, CEO at atNorth. “Our Sollefteå campus represents a significant milestone for the company and demonstrates our commitment to building data center ecosystems that deliver both technical excellence and long-term value for local communities.”
The news follows atNorth’s recent announcements with the expansion of two new data center sites in Iceland and its plans for an additional data center in Stockholm. atNorth has also recently formed new colocation partnerships with Nokia, Crusoe and 6G AI Sweden AB as well as signed a heat reuse agreement with Vesforbrænding, Denmark’s largest waste-to-energy company, to repurpose excess heat from its DEN01 data center campus.
About atNorth
atNorth is a leading Nordic data center company that offers cost-effective, scalable high-density colocation and built-to-suit services trusted by industry-leading organizations. With sustainability at its core, atNorth’s data centers run on renewable energy resources and support circular economy principles. All atNorth sites leverage innovative design, power efficiency, and intelligent operations to provide long-term infrastructure and flexible colocation deployments. atNorth is headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland and operates eight data centers in strategic locations across the Nordics, as well as a ninth under construction in Kouvola, Finland, a tenth site in Ølgod, Denmark and an eleventh campus in Stockholm, Sweden. The business has also secured land for a future mega site in the Sollefteå Municipality in Sweden.
Source: atNorth
The post atNorth Plans 300MW High-Density Data Center in Northern Sweden appeared first on HPCwire.
Last Week Tonight host delved into the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in relation to the Epstein files and Musk’s poisonous ownership of X
On his new episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver wasted no time digging into the files related to late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, which have once again ensnared former prince Andrew.
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known after being stripped of his royal titles for his connection to Epstein, was arrested last week – the first arrest of a senior member of the royal family in modern history – on allegations that that he had shared confidential material with Epstein while serving as a UK trade envoy.
Continue reading...As another major storm brings to the area up to 2ft of snow, people brave the weather to commute and shovel
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson announces plans to make special educational needs system less reliant on cash-strapped councils
Bridget Phillipson has presented sweeping plans to overhaul special educational needs provision in England, with a package of measures designed to make the system less reliant on cash-strapped councils and give schools greater responsibility.
The education secretary on Monday announced her long-awaited Send proposals, which will result in hundreds of thousands fewer students getting education, health and care plans (EHCPs) than would otherwise have been the case.
Continue reading...An anonymous reader shares a report: PayPal, the digital payments pioneer, is attracting takeover interest from potential buyers after a stock slide wiped out almost half of its value, according to people familiar with the matter. The San Jose, California-based company has fielded meetings with banks amid unsolicited interest from suitors, the people said. At least one large rival is looking at the whole company, while some other suitors are only interested in certain PayPal assets, the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is private. Buyer interest in PayPal is still at a preliminary stage and may not lead to a transaction, the people cautioned. Founded in the late 1990s, PayPal was an early mover in the world of digital payments. But the company now finds itself in a rut with its customers increasingly turning to alternative ways to pay for things. PayPal's shares have fallen around 46% in New York trading over the last 12 months, giving the company a market value of about $38.4 billion.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Reform UK has promised to create an ICE-style agency dedicated to mass deportations if the party came to power. Nigel Farage and his party’s home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, have pledged to start a ‘UK Deportation Command’ to remove thousands of people, under plans that Labour has condemned as ‘divisive’. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot – watch on YouTube
Continue reading...As multiple investigations unfold back at home footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with team in locker room
The FBI director, Kash Patel, has a lot on his plate just now. There’s the shooting death of the armed man who entered Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home; the weeks-old search for missing Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie; not to mention the ongoing furor around the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.
So eyebrows were raised on Sunday when phone footage emerged of Patel whooping it up with the men’s USA hockey team in Milan after their gold medal victory against Canada at the Winter Olympics.
Continue reading...Seventeen nonprofit organizations, led by The Intercept’s Press Freedom Defense Fund, filed an amicus brief today urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to prevent the Federal Trade Commission from conducting a retaliatory investigation into Media Matters for America, brought after Media Matters published critical reporting about allies of the Trump administration.
The brief, authored by Albert Sellars LLP, notes that this sort of coercive tactic — where a federal agency will launch a pretextual investigation, keep it open as a way to coerce compliance, and resist any effort to have a court review the lawfulness of the agency’s actions — has become a troublingly common form of government intimidation under the current administration. From the Justice Department to the Federal Communications Commission, court intervention has been one of the few tools that organizations have to prevent federal overreach. The amicus brief asks the appellate court to uphold a preliminary injunction. Without judicial remedy, such investigations are an acute danger to the nonprofit organizations that Americans rely on for information on matters of public concern. The brief argues that courts must intervene to prevent such investigations from chilling coverage of issues that might be adverse to those currently in power.
“Nonprofit organizations must be aggressively vigilant to protect First Amendment rights in the face of a federal government’s onslaught,” said David Bralow, legal director of the Press Freedom Defense Fund. “The chilling investigation into Media Matters is one of many affronts to free speech. These unabridged regulatory invasions, combined with such other attacks like the arrest of journalists in Minnesota and the invasive seizure of confidential communications in Washington, D.C., demonstrate the perilous state of our democracy.”
The coalition includes a mix of nonprofit research, advocacy, and media organizations, including CalMatters, the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Coalition for Independent Technology Research, the Dangerous Speech Project, Defending Rights & Dissent, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the First Amendment Coalition, Free Press, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Lion Publishers, MuckRock Foundation, the National Coalition Against Censorship, Open Vallejo, the Project on Government Oversight, Public Knowledge, and Reporters Without Borders USA.
“The Press Freedom Defense Fund exists to confront exactly this kind of abuse. When the government uses open-ended investigations to drain resources, intimidate funders, and silence critics, the damage goes far beyond one organization — it sends a warning to every journalist and researcher in the country. We’re standing with Media Matters because the First Amendment is not negotiable,” said Annie Chabel, CEO of The Intercept.
For more information, please contact The Intercept’s Miroslav Macala at miroslav.macala@theintercept.com.
The post Nonprofit Coalition Asks Courts to Prevent Coercive Federal Investigation Tactics appeared first on The Intercept.
I have an OG XR, not the new Classic.
I'm pretty sure my BMS failed on my XR (The controller still sends info to the app) since I am getting a constant incompatibility error.
I am looking for a replacement BMS, but FM doesn't sell them, and I have been finding conflicting information in regard to "pairing" the BMS and Controller. My XR has the latest software/firmware update. Some of the information I find indicates the BMS and Controller are paired and I can not relace only one or the other.
If I get a BMS used for VESC builds will it work with the stock controller, or do I need to "pair" them somehow? Or do I need to get a new controller too?
Any information here would be appreciated.
Is it a known defect that older model pints can take off out from under you while you are hovering? I’m really comfortable on my OW, grew up on skateboarding circuit, so I’ve got my legs, but the other day I got up on the board and it shot out from under me and put me on my ass in a bad way. I was lucky, but It could’ve been real bad. It had been a while since I’d been on it - maybe 3-6 months so I’m wondering if it was me just leaning too hard forward too quick from being out of practice, or if this is a known defect issue.
Ex-president, accused of crimes against humanity, selected targets and promised immunity for death squad members, prosecutor says
Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, was “at the very heart” of brutal anti-drugs campaigns that led to the killing of thousands of people, prosecutors at the international criminal court (ICC) have argued, as they called for charges against him to proceed to trial.
Duterte, 80, who was arrested in Manila last year and flown to The Hague, is facing three counts of crimes against humanity over campaigns against drug users and dealers during his presidency, and his earlier tenure as mayor of the city of Davao.
Continue reading...American skier Lindsey Vonn, who crashed seconds into her downhill race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, said she is finally out of the hospital as she recovers.
CALGARY, Alberta, Feb. 23, 2026 — SuperQ Quantum Computing Inc. today announced a strategic partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM (Fraunhofer ITWM), a member of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The collaboration is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) focused on joint technical evaluation and research-oriented cooperation in the area of quantum and hybrid optimization.
This partnership marks SuperQ’s official entry into the European quantum ecosystem. By aligning with Fraunhofer, the MoU represents a de-risking of SuperQ’s commercial roadmap and opens new market opportunities with Europe’s industrial “Mittelstand” and Fortune 500 giants. SuperQ transitions from a North American innovator to a global peer.
Under the MoU, the collaboration will focus on technical exchange and exploratory activities, including:
“This is not just a geographic expansion; it is a validation of our ‘One-Click’ philosophy by the most respected names in industrial mathematics,” said Dr. Muhammad Khan, CEO and Board Chair of SuperQ. “Investors should recognize that we are moving beyond the ‘quantum lab’ phase. Working with Fraunhofer ITWM allows us to engage with one of Europe’s leading applied mathematics institutes in a rigorous and practice-oriented setting turning complex math into executive-ready ROI.”
Within this collaboration, Fraunhofer ITWM will evaluate the Super platform in terms of performance, scalability, and potential integration into its HPC infrastructure for industry-scale simulation and algorithm acceleration. This ensures that as quantum hardware matures, SuperQ’s software remains the indispensable “operating system” for industrial-scale simulation. Together, they aim to develop and evaluate hybrid quantum-classical computing workflows that combine gate-based quantum computing, quantum annealing, and classical high-performance computing to enhance modelling, simulation, and optimization, while jointly identifying application areas – such as logistics, energy, manufacturing, finance, defense-related optimization, or resource exploration.
“Fraunhofer ITWM is dedicated to bringing cutting-edge innovation into industrial practice,” said Dr. Pascal Halffmann, Research Coordinator Quantum Computing at Fraunhofer ITWM. “By coupling our expertise in quantum algorithms and HPC with SuperQ’s orchestration technologies, we aim to advance next-generation computing for industrial use cases.”
More from HPCwire: SuperQ Expands into Quantum Hardware
About the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in Kaiserslautern is one of the largest research institutes for industrial mathematics worldwide. Fraunhofer ITWM sees its task in further developing mathematics as a key technology and providing innovative impetus. Its focus is on the implementation of mathematical methods and technology in application projects and their further development in research projects. Fraunhofer ITWM’s integral components are consulting, implementation and support in the application of high-performance computer technology and the provision of tailor-made software solutions. Its various competencies address a wide range of customers: automotive industry, mechanical engineering, chemical industry, energy and finance. This also benefits from Fraunhofer ITWM’s network such as the Fraunhofer Competence Network Quantum Computing and the “Simulation- and software-based innovation” high-performance center.
About SuperQ Quantum Computing Inc.
SuperQ Quantum Computing Inc. (CSE: QBTQ) (FSE: 25X) (OTCQB: QBTQF) is reducing the technical and financial barriers to quantum and supercomputing commercialization. It is defining the next era of enterprise transformation, emerging as a partner for global organizations seeking direct quantum and supercomputing ROI. SuperQ’s flagship Super platform strives to make the most advanced computational power intuitive and accessible. This will empower executives, leading research institutions, and critical government agencies to unlock immediate business impact across finance, healthcare, logistics, defense, and beyond, leveraging SuperQ’s proprietary AI Autopilots to turn complex challenges into executive-ready results with one-click productization and deployment. SuperQ Quantum is headquartered in Canada with a growing international presence, particularly in the US, Middle East and Asia.
Source: SuperQ
The post SuperQ Enters European Quantum Ecosystem Through Fraunhofer ITWM Collaboration appeared first on HPCwire.
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
The London stock market has dipped slightly in early trading.
The FTSE 100 index is down 19 points, or 0.18%, at 10,668 points.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Figures led by New York Sun owner may seek judicial review after restrictions lifted on DMGT offer
Figures involved in a rival bid for the Telegraph are drawing up legal action against the government, after ministers gave the owner of the Daily Mail permission to take a significant step towards clinching its £500m takeover.
The Telegraph titles, which include the daily and Sunday editions, have been in limbo for three years after previous owners, the Barclay family, lost control of them over huge unpaid debts.
Continue reading...Bankruptcy can offer a fresh financial start, but there are complex rules on how often you can file for relief.
JOHN BECKER
Staff Reporter
For Blue Hen fans, the view of Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium from the Blue Ridge Mountains was not pretty on Nov. 21. Delaware fans had to watch as they took the biggest loss of the season against their one and only Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) opponent of the year, the 7-3 Wake Forest University Demon Deacons.
Delaware began the game struggling on offense as the Blue Hens were unable to score on their first two drives. The offense was so stagnant that they were unable to cross the 50-yard line during the first quarter.
The story of the defense was very similar. Delaware allowed Wake Forest to march 130 yards down the field over two drives, resulting in two rushing touchdowns for the Demon Deacons.
The final minutes of the first quarter contained the beginning of Delaware’s only scoring offensive drive of the first half. Delaware would drive down the field with a healthy mix of passing and running the ball, getting them to the Wake Forest 43-yard line and setting up the biggest play of the game for the Blue Hens.
Delaware quarterback Nick Minicucci tossed a pass to running back Viron Ellison Jr. at the line of scrimmage, who ran 15 yards before encountering Wake Forest defensive back Nick Andersen.
In an instant, Ellison Jr. performed an electrifying juke move that evaded the tackler and gave him a wide-open lane to take it to the house for a 43-yard touchdown run, making the score 14-7 in favor of the Demon Deacons.
Unfortunately for the Blue Hens, this era of good feelings was short-lived. Delaware’s offense would not score for the rest of the first half, and only stopped the Wake Forest offense from scoring once in the first half.
The aforementioned defensive stop from Delaware was the beginning of a five-play sequence that both energized and then demoralized the Delaware faithful in a matter of minutes. Delaware defensive back KT Seay intercepted a pass from Wake Forest quarterback Robby Ashford on the first play of the Demon Deacon offensive drive.
The Blue Hens followed up, showing signs of hope after Minicucci completed three straight passes totaling 26 yards. Unfortunately, on the fourth play of the drive, Wake Forest defensive back Karon Prunty forced a fumble on wide receiver Sean Wilson, which was recovered by the Demon Deacons.
With only 29 seconds left in the first half, the Delaware defense hoped this would be an inconsequential offensive possession. On the first play of the offensive drive, wide receiver Carlos Hernandez was able to create separation deep downfield and Ashford found his man, connecting for a 79-yard touchdown pass and making the score a daunting 35-7 that would only get worse for the Blue Hens as the game went on.
The third and fourth quarter would not get better for Delaware, as the Blue Hens allowed three straight Wake Forest scores totaling 17 points. The Delaware offense scored only one touchdown late in garbage time after backup quarterback Braden Streeter came in and tossed a 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Max Patterson creating the final score of 52-14, outlining a dominant Wake Forest performance.
By the end of the game, the Delaware defense had allowed 314 yards through the air and 263 on the ground. Hernandez had a career-high 197 yards on five receptions and another career-high two touchdowns to go with it.
However, for Delaware, Minicucci continued to add to his historic season totals as he sat in third place after the game for most passing yards in a single season with 3,380, trailing only Joe Flacco (4,285) and Andy Hall (3,474).
Delaware fell to 5-6 overall on the season after the game, but held their heads up high as they finished their season at home against the 2-9 University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners. With a win against UTEP, Delaware eventually qualified for and won a bowl game despite being ineligible as a first-year member of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS).
Judgment in city of Boulder’s lawsuit against Suncor Energy USA and ExxonMobil could affect wave of climate litigation
The US supreme court has decided to hear arguments in a climate accountability lawsuit, marking the first time the high court has weighed in on such a case. The decision could potentially hinder the wave of climate litigation the US has seen in recent years.
“It’s not a good sign,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at Vermont Law and Graduate School.
Continue reading...Company admits three pollution events that killed fish and insects in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield
A water company has been fined more than £700,000 for repeatedly releasing sewage into a stream.
Yorkshire Water was issued with the penalty after pleading guilty to three offences of sewage pollution in Pools Brook country park near Chesterfield.
Continue reading...Climate scientists trying to predict how much hotter the planet will get have long grappled with a surprisingly stubborn problem -- clouds, which both reflect sunlight and trap heat, account for more than half the variation between climate predictions and are the main reason warming projections for the next 50 years range from 2 to 6 degrees Celsius. Two research groups are now racing to close that gap using AI, though they disagree sharply on method. Tapio Schneider at Caltech built CLIMA, a model that uses machine learning to optimize cloud parameters within traditional physics equations; it will be unveiled at a conference in Japan in March. Chris Bretherton at the Allen Institute for AI took a different path -- his ACE2 neural network, released in 2024, learns from 50 years of atmospheric data and largely bypasses physics equations altogether.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Solidarity campaign mobilizes as thousands of children like Liam Ramos taken amid Trump’s immigration crackdown
On 28 January, hundreds of protesters gathered near the Dilley immigration processing center in south Texas, where hundreds of children are being held. Days earlier, immigration lawyer Eric Lee filmed a video of detainees screaming and chanting “libertad,” or “freedom.”
Soon after, solidarity events arose in the state. “Community members saw the children and families crying out [and] having their own protests from within and said to everybody: we need to show up there too,” said Rev Erin Walter, executive director of the Texas Unitarian Universalist Justice Ministry.
Continue reading...Home equity loans this spring may be smart in some scenarios, but ill-advised in others. Here's what to consider.
41-year-old developed compartment syndrome
Skier credits Team USA surgeon with saving leg
Lindsey Vonn says she came close to having her leg amputated in the aftermath of her crash during the Olympic downhill earlier this month.
The 41-year-old sustained a complex tibia fracture to her left leg in the crash and underwent multiple surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the US for further treatment last week. But in an Instagram post on Monday, the American said the crash also led to compartment syndrome in her leg. The condition occurs after traumatic injuries such as falls from heights and car crashes. According to the Cleveland Clinic, “compartment syndrome happens when there’s too much pressure around your muscles. The pressure restricts the flow of blood, fresh oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and nerves. Compartment syndrome is extremely painful.” The lack of blood flow can lead to permanent damage to patients.
Continue reading...now that craft and ride is dead, is there any other aftermarket handles out there? I liked what they had
A study published last week in PNAS found that people who regularly cause problems or make life difficult -- whom the researchers call "hasslers" -- are associated with measurably faster biological aging in those around them, at a rate of roughly 1.5% per additional hassler and about nine months of additional biological age relative to same-age peers. The research drew on DNA methylation-based epigenetic clocks and ego-centric network data from a state-representative probability sample of 2,345 adults in Indiana, aged 18 to 103. Nearly 29% of respondents reported at least one hassler in their close network. The biological toll varied by relationship type: hasslers who were family members showed the strongest and most consistent associations with accelerated aging, while spouse hasslers showed no significant effect on either epigenetic measure. The damage also went beyond aging clocks -- each additional hassler was associated with greater depression and anxiety severity, higher BMI, increased inflammation, and higher multimorbidity. When benchmarked against smoking, a major behavioral risk factor for aging, the hassler effect corresponded to roughly 13 to 17% of smoking's estimated impact on the same aging clocks.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Authorities mounted rescue operation after group of five lost control of ice sheet in Stockholm archipelago
Five people have been rescued from an ice floe carrying a sauna tent, a motorised saw and an onboard motor after they lost control of their DIY vessel in the Stockholm archipelago.
Swedish authorities believe the passengers, who were German tourists, had been attempting to create their own motor-powered floating sauna when the swell from a passing passenger ferry broke the piece of ice and stranded them near Värmdö, an island near Stockholm.
Continue reading...Reiner, 32, charged with two counts of first-degree murder after parents were stabbed to death in December
Nick Reiner was expected to return to court on Monday for arraignment on two counts of first-degree murder in the killing of his parents Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner.
A judge postponed the legal proceedings last month after his attorney withdrew from the case, and was replaced by a public defender. Reiner’s former attorney, Alan Jackson, said at the time that he could not share why he was stepping down, but that his client was not guilty.
Continue reading...SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 23, 2026 — Cadence today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Hexagon AB’s Design and Engineering (“D&E”) business, significantly expanding its System Design and Analysis (SDA) portfolio and strategically positioning the company to capitalize on the Physical AI opportunity.
The acquisition accelerates Cadence’s Intelligent System Design strategy by combining its compelling multiphysics portfolio with Hexagon D&E’s leadership in structural analysis, acoustics and multibody dynamics. The integration of Hexagon D&E’s flagship MSC Software solutions—including MSC Nastran and Adams—with Cadence’s leading multiphysics portfolio spanning electronics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and BETA CAE’s structural pre and post processing technologies, will enable Cadence to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end multiphysics simulation platform —elevating the industry standard for integrated design and analysis solutions and enabling more seamless system level innovation.
“This acquisition marks a major milestone in advancing our vision for intelligent system design,” said Anirudh Devgan, president and CEO of Cadence. “By combining our industry-leading computational software and AI-driven design expertise with MSC Software’s world-class structural and physics-based analysis technologies, we’re empowering customers to push the boundaries of what’s possible—from autonomous systems and advanced robotics to the future of transportation.”
The combined portfolio further positions Cadence at the forefront of the emerging Physical AI era by tightly coupling high-fidelity, physics-based simulation with AI-driven design exploration. This will enable customers to create virtual representations of real-world systems that accurately predict system behavior under complex operating conditions. With advanced capabilities spanning motion, vibration, structural response and fluid-structure interactions, engineers can generate richer, physically grounded data to train and validate AI models, improving the performance and reliability of intelligent vehicles and industrial systems.
The purchase price of approximately €2.7 billion, which includes an estimated €150 million of transaction-related taxes owed by the acquired entities, is structured as 70% in cash and 30% in Cadence common stock.
Under its financial model, Cadence expects the incoming business to add an incremental $160 million to its 2026 revenue. On a non-GAAP basis, Cadence expects the transaction to be approximately 28 cents dilutive to its 2026 earnings per share, becoming accretive in 2027.
About Cadence
Cadence is a market leader in AI and digital twins, pioneering the application of computational software to accelerate innovation in the engineering design of silicon to systems. Our design solutions, based on Cadence’s Intelligent System Design strategy, are essential for the world’s leading semiconductor and systems companies to build their next-generation products from chips to full electromechanical systems that serve a wide range of markets, including hyperscale computing, mobile communications, automotive, aerospace, industrial, life sciences and robotics. In 2024, Cadence was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of the world’s top 100 best-managed companies. Cadence solutions offer limitless opportunities—learn more at www.cadence.com.
Source: Cadence
The post Cadence Completes Acquisition of Hexagon’s Design and Engineering Business appeared first on HPCwire.
Pay attention to the snow on your roof. If you don't clear it off in a timely manner, you're asking for trouble.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is pushing back on growing concerns about AI's environmental footprint, dismissing claims about ChatGPT's water consumption as "totally fake" and arguing that the fairer way to measure AI's energy use is to compare it against humans. In an interview with Indian Express, Altman acknowledged that evaporative cooling in data centers once made water usage a real concern but said that is no longer the case, calling internet claims of 17 gallons of water per query "completely untrue, totally insane, no connection to reality." On energy, he conceded it is "fair" to worry about total consumption given how heavily the world now relies on AI, and called for a rapid shift toward nuclear, wind and solar power. He took particular issue with comparisons that pit the cost of training a model against a single human inference, noting it "takes like 20 years of life and all of the food you eat" before a person gets smart -- and that on a per-query basis, AI has "probably already caught up on an energy efficiency basis."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
PRINCETON, N.J. and ESPOO, Finland, Feb. 23, 2026 — IQM Finland Oy, a global leader in full-stack superconducting quantum computers, and Real Asset Acquisition Corp. (RAAQ), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced they have entered into a definitive business combination agreement, which will result in IQM becoming a public company and listing American Depositary Shares on one of the two leading U.S. stock exchanges. The transaction provides funding with the aim to accelerate IQM’s technology and commercial development towards fault-tolerance quantum computing, further advancing its position as a leading provider of quantum computers.
Headquartered in Finland, IQM is also considering a dual listing that would see the trading of IQM’s ordinary shares on the Helsinki stock exchange, which would be expected to take place following the completion of this transaction.
IQM is a quantum computing company that builds full stack, open-architecture systems that can be deployed on-premise or accessed via the cloud. IQM operates a vertically integrated business model, boasting a unique combination of proprietary infrastructure from their own chip design tool and software developer platform, to a quantum chip fab, assembly line and data centre, allowing the company to accelerate its innovation cycles, deliver best-in-class quantum computing to its customers and enabling the quantum ecosystem to grow.
Transaction Highlights
Following completion of the transaction, IQM’s cash on its balance sheet is expected to be in excess of USD 450 million cash at closing4 (including IQM’s existing cash), providing runway for continued broad commercial advantage:
Jan Goetz, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IQM, said: “We built IQM from the beginning for one purpose — to put working quantum computers in the hands of the people who will use them to solve real problems. Not someday. Now. Quantum computing is a science project no more. It is an industry where customers own, operate, and build on advanced quantum computers. That’s what IQM makes possible.”
Peter Ort, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman, Real Asset Acquisition Corp, said: “IQM has built and delivered more on-premises quantum systems than any other competitor5 — to some of the most demanding research institutions on earth. This transaction will accelerate the growth of a company that has already earned its position in the field, with real customers, running real quantum systems, today.”
Sierk Poetting, Chairman of IQM’s Board of Directors, said: “Going public is not a change of direction but is rather an acceleration. The board stands fully behind IQM’s mission and goals to make quantum infrastructure as foundational and accessible as classical computing.”
The existing IQM shareholders will not sell any shares or receive any cash consideration as part of the transaction and all material IQM shareholders have committed to a customary lock-up agreement at close of this transaction.
The board of directors of both IQM and RAAQ have each unanimously approved the proposed business combination. The closing of the proposed business combination is subject to, among other things, the approval by shareholders of RAAQ and IQM of the business combination agreement and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
About IQM Quantum Computers
IQM Finland Oy is a global leader in superconducting quantum computers. IQM provides both on-premises full-stack quantum computers and a cloud platform to access its systems. IQM customers include leading high-performance computing centres, research laboratories, universities, and enterprises that require full access to quantum hardware and software. IQM has over 300 employees, with headquarters in Finland and a global presence including France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, UK and the United States.
Source: IQM Quantum Computers
The post IQM Announces Business Combination to Take Quantum Computing Company Public appeared first on HPCwire.
 | Hey everyone! Hope you folks are doing well, had a quick question. I feel like I've been searching for days without finding what I'm looking for, hopefully one of you can help! Trying to find a front bumper 3d print file for my Pint, and for the life of me I cannot find one, and I can't justify buying a 3D scanner just to scan a front bumper that I'm going to print once or twice for myself. I'm not good enough at 3d modeling to modify someone's rear bumper file to fit the front unfortunately... I've found multiple rear bumper prints, nothing for the front bumper though, can anyone help me out? I'm guessing a pint x front bumper would work too, but I can't seem to find a file for those either lol. Send me a dm if you don't feel comfortable posting the link in here. Thanks for listening! [link] [comments] |
Novo Nordisk’s shares fall sharply after testing of CagriSema falls short of investors’ expectations
The owner of Wegovy and Ozempic has suffered a significant setback, as its highly anticipated new weight-loss treatment was labelled “obsolete” after disappointing clinical trials.
Novo Nordisk’s shares fell sharply on Monday after the results from testing the Danish company’s CagriSema drug fell short of investors’ expectations.
Continue reading...Austin Tucker Martin, 21, was killed by Secret Service after entering Trump’s Florida resort with a shotgun on Sunday
The 21-year-old man who was shot and killed after having entered Donald Trump’s Florida resort on Sunday – while carrying a shotgun – came from a North Carolina family of the president’s supporters and had reportedly become increasingly fixated on the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files.
The focus of the FBI’s investigation into the intrusion attributed to Austin Tucker Martin is tightening on his movements and motives. Martin was confronted by Secret Service agents and a local sheriff’s deputy inside the secure perimeter of Mar-a-Lago and killed after he had raised a shotgun into the shooting position at about 1.30am on Sunday, law enforcement said.
Continue reading...Growing frustrations with AI on social media have us clamoring for better solutions.
The Social Security Administration wouldn't stop issuing benefits once its trust funds are exhausted, but it could be forced to cut benefits.
These frozen fries may be better than most restaurants' offerings.
The narrative that AI spending has been singlehandedly propping up the U.S. economy -- a claim that captivated Silicon Valley, Wall Street and Washington over the past year -- is facing serious pushback from economists [non-paywalled source] at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase, all of whom now calculate that the AI buildup's direct contribution to growth was dramatically overstated and possibly close to zero. The debate hinges on how GDP accounts for imported components: roughly three-quarters of AI data center costs go toward computer chips and gear largely manufactured in Asia, and that spending gets subtracted from domestic output because it boosts foreign economies. Joseph Politano of the Apricitas Economics newsletter pegs AI's actual contribution at about 0.2 percentage points of the 2.2 percent U.S. growth in 2025, and even Hannah Rubinton at the St. Louis Fed -- whose own analysis attributed 39 percent of growth to AI-related business spending through the first nine months of the year -- acknowledges that figure is probably the ceiling. "It's not like AI is propping up the economy," Rubinton said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Health secretary probably referred to Harvard psychiatrist who says he’s ‘never used the word “cure” in my work’
Psychiatric researchers are pushing back against the claims by the health and human services secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, that a doctor at Harvard “cured schizophrenia using keto diets”, while also acknowledging that a carefully supervised ketogenic diet shows promise for a variety of mental health conditions.
Kennedy Jr’s statement probably referred to the Harvard psychiatrist Dr Christopher Palmer, who said he has “never once used the word ‘cure’ in my work. I have never claimed to have cured any mental illness, including schizophrenia,” but added: “I have talked about ketogenic diet being a very powerful treatment, even to the point of inducing remission of symptoms of schizophrenia.”
Continue reading...Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, known for lavish lifestyle, also accused of theft and being illegal immigrant after man allegedly shot in back
A son of the late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe has been charged with attempted murder after a 23-year-old man was allegedly shot in the back on 19 February in an upmarket area of Johannesburg.
Bellarmine Chatunga Mugabe, 28, appeared in court on Monday for a brief hearing alongside co-accused Tobias Mugabe Matonhodze. Mugabe’s lawyer Sinenhlanhla Mnguni declined to comment when asked by reporters whether the two men were related. Mnguni said he would request bail for his clients at the next hearing on 3 March.
Continue reading...Feb. 23, 2026 — The performance of rechargeable batteries is governed by processes deep within their components. A fundamental understanding of electrochemistry, structure–property–performance relationships and the effects of processing and operating conditions is essential for accelerating the development of next-generation battery technologies capable of powering electric vehicles, portable electronic devices and grid-scale energy storage.
Overview of the key processes that are fundamental for understanding single-crystal battery materials. Image credit: Yuan et al.
However, laboratory exploration, design and optimization remain extremely time-consuming and expensive. In contrast, advanced modeling and simulation provide powerful tools to elucidate the complex, tightly coupled processes that govern battery performance. These approaches can accelerate rational development of advanced energy storage systems with properties tailored to specific needs.
In a recent paper, published in Chemical Reviews, researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) outlined how state-of-the-art computational modeling can help to unravel the fundamental relationships among battery processing, structure, properties and performance across multiple scales, ultimately paving the way for the implementation of new materials, microstructures and innovative architectural designs in next-generation electrochemical devices.
At the micron scale, battery electrodes are often composed of tiny crystalline particles that can exist in two primary forms: polycrystalline, consisting of multiple grains joined together, and single crystals, which exhibit a continuous and uninterrupted lattice structure. Polycrystalline materials resemble a snowball with many small ice crystals lumped together, while single crystals look more like a uniform ice cube with consistent properties throughout.
The team focused specifically on single-crystal battery materials. Although these materials have not yet been fully commercialized, they offer the potential for improved performance, enhanced tunability and reduced degradation over extended cycles.
“Once a fundamental understanding is obtained, single-crystal materials can be leveraged to inform design strategies for improved battery performance, such as better capacity retention, enhanced safety and longer cycling life,” said author and LLNL scientist Sabrina Wan.
Many open questions remain regarding this essential underlying knowledge, but simulations provide a critical first step toward addressing them. Modeling approaches spanning length scales from the atomistic level to the full battery cell can be used to investigate the key factors governing the electrochemical behavior of single-crystal battery materials.
“It is our intention to provide a comprehensive review of state-of-the-art physics-based modeling approaches for studying properties and phenomena relevant to single-crystal applications in batteries,” said Wan. “We aim to equip the community with the knowledge needed to effectively use these tools.”
Coupled with experiments, computational models enable iterative refinement of material designs, yielding new insights and guiding optimization. By cycling between simulation predictions and laboratory validation, scientists can rapidly optimize battery materials without costly trial-and-error testing.
Looking ahead, the authors emphasized the importance of fully integrated, experimentally validated multiscale modeling frameworks, further enhanced by state-of-the-art machine learning and data science approaches, to enable reliable and predictive design of next-generation battery systems.
Source: LLNL
The post LLNL: Advanced Simulation and Modeling Pave a Path Forward for Single-Crystal Battery Materials appeared first on HPCwire.
The Santa Cruz Fire Department said the surfers helped save the passengers from a “potentially tragic incident.”
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," was the leader of the notorious Jalisco New Generation Cartel prior to his death on Sunday.
Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, also known as "El Mencho," had a $15 million U.S. bounty on his head.
Night owls will be able to check out the lunar eclipse when it appears this March.
Dragon-types are extremely powerful in this Pokemon game. Here’s how to catch them early and strengthen your team.
Trump invites Olympic champions to State of the Union
FBI director Kash Patel joins locker-room revelry in Milan
USA women turn down invite over previous commitments
Donald Trump made a congratulatory phone call to the United States men’s hockey team after their dramatic win over Canada in the Olympic gold medal game on Sunday afternoon, praising what he called an “unbelievable” performance and inviting the players to Washington DC this week.
The US president addressed the team by speakerphone shortly after their 2-1 overtime victory, telling them they had delivered a moment the country would remember for decades.
Continue reading...Everyone Hates Elon campaigners fix photo of ex-prince slouched in backseat of car after arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office
Activists have hung a photo in the Louvre museum in Paris of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor being driven from a police station after his arrest.
The British political campaign group Everyone Hates Elon fixed the photo, which shows the former prince slouched in the backseat of a Range Rover, on a wall of the Paris gallery on Sunday.
Continue reading...As details of the death toll for January’s protests continue to emerge, three students explain why they are resisting a return to normality
More than 45 days after a brutal January crackdown that left thousands of Iranian protesters dead, students across several universities are protesting again. As Iran’s new academic term began on Saturday, students in Tehran gathered on campus, chanting anti-government slogans, despite a heavy security presence and plainclothes officers stationed outside university gates.
The Guardian spoke to protesting students about why they were rallying despite the fact that thousands had been killed and tens of thousands arrested in the January demonstrations.
Continue reading..."In August 2025, TypeScript surpassed both Python and JavaScript to become the most-used language on GitHub for the first time ever..." writes GitHub's senior developer advocate. They point to this as proof that "AI isn't just speeding up coding. It's reshaping which languages, frameworks, and tools developers choose in the first place." Eighty percent of new developers on GitHub use Copilot within their first week. Those early exposures reset the baseline for what "easy" means. When AI handles boilerplate and error-prone syntax, the penalty for choosing powerful but complex languages disappears. Developers stop avoiding tools with high overhead and start picking based on utility instead. The language adoption data shows this behavioral shift: — TypeScript grew 66% year-over-year — JavaScript grew 24% — Shell scripting usage in AI-generated projects jumped 206% That last one matters. We didn't suddenly love Bash. AI absorbed the friction that made shell scripting painful. So now we use the right tool for the job without the usual cost. "When a task or process goes smoothly, your brain remembers," they point out. "Convenience captures attention. Reduced friction becomes a preference — and preferences at scale can shift ecosystems." "AI performs better with strongly typed languages. Strongly typed languages give AI much clearer constraints..." "Standardize before you scale. Document patterns. Publish template repositories. Make your architectural decisions explicit. AI tools will mirror whatever structures they see." "Test AI-generated code harder, not less."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The Chinese tech company is branching out from phones to robots, via its robot phone -- and it'll show them all off next week at MWC in Barcelona.
Dollar slumps and gold rises as authorities say they will halt levies linked to emergency powers but give no word on refunds. Plus, meet some of the people suing the president over civil liberties
Good morning.
Donald Trump’s administration has said it will stop collecting tariffs the supreme court ruled were illegal as they were imposed using emergency powers, as investors attempted to digest the US president’s latest volley of replacement levies.
What’s happening with the stock markets after the news? Gold jumped 0.6% to $5,135 an ounce, its highest level since the end of January, as investors flocked to the safe haven asset, while bitcoin dropped as much as 4.8% to $64,300 before recovering some ground, at $65,734. Futures tracking the US S&P 500 stock market slipped 0.5% on Monday morning.
This a developing story. Follow the live blog here.
Who was the intruder? Bradshaw did not immediately identify the intruder. However, the Associated Press reported that the man killed had been identified by investigators as 21-year-old Austin Tucker Martin, citing a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss details of the investigation.
Continue reading...Commentary: Apple's $599 iPhone 16E has good value, but the iPhone 17E is expected to launch soon, possibly at a March 4 Apple media event.
Ties to the disgraced financier run deep through the academic world, documents released by the DoJ show
Major institutions of higher education in the US are reckoning with the latest release of the Epstein files after discovering the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s relationships with board members, professors and administrators on campuses across the country.
In some cases, professors have been placed under review, research centers closed or conferences canceled. Students and staff have responded in different ways, including petitions, open letters and campus forums.
Continue reading...The latest Apple phone brings notable improvements to the camera, display and battery. But is it worth the upgrade?
Report into ‘unprecedented’ violence between members of two communities in 2022 calls for action on communalism
Violence between Hindus and Muslims in Leicester in 2022 was fuelled by online disinformation and met with a failure of leadership from the city’s mayor, council and police, an independent inquiry has said.
Researchers from the School of Oriental and African Studies and the London School of Economics carried out the study after the unrest between predominantly young Hindu and Muslim men in Leicester between May and September 2022.
No single group was solely responsible, with members of Hindu and Muslim communities described as “both victims and perpetrators”.
Online disinformation was a “central accelerant of the crisis”, fuelling distrust.
Community coexistence in Leicester is “increasingly fragmenting” amid new migration patterns, economic decline and the importation of political ideologies such as communalism, Hindutva and political Islamism.
Communalism within south Asian communities in the UK “needs to be urgently recognised and addressed”.
The response from local authorities, including the city council, mayor and police was “lacking or inconsistent” with “major gaps” in intelligence and communication.
Continue reading...Comments by Ted Sarandos follow Donald Trump’s demand for company to remove Democrat from board
The boss of Netflix has launched a fresh defence of its $82.7bn (£61bn) takeover of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) assets, as he defended the streaming company’s contribution to the UK film and TV industry.
Ted Sarandos claimed Netflix buying WBD would bring “growth” to the entertainment industry, amid attempts by rival Paramount Skydance to launch a counter offer for the studio business which he said would do the opposite.
Continue reading...Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told a preposterous story demonizing immigrants in high-profile public remarks alongside President Donald Trump and on Fox News last summer, about a cannibal who ate other people and then, on his Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight, began to eat himself. At the time, The Intercept was unable to substantiate any part of the tale.
Now, three officials from federal law enforcement agencies — including Noem’s own Department of Homeland Security — with knowledge of the allegations say the entire story was fabricated.
“It is completely false,” said one senior law enforcement official who is familiar with the allegation but not authorized to speak publicly on the subject.
Two other federal law enforcement officials echoed this, telling The Intercept that the claims were ludicrous and that there was no evidence corroborating the story.
Asked for comment, a DHS spokesperson said Noem was simply relaying the claims of an air marshal. “What ‘fabrication’ of the story of the cannibal?” the spokesperson said. “She was told that story on a deportation flight by one of the air marshals.”
Amid growing calls for Noem to resign — after tarring Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti as guilty of “domestic terrorism” in the immediate aftermath of their killings by federal agents — or face impeachment for obstruction of Congress, self-dealing, and violation of public trust, the false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.
The false story about a supposed cannibal shows that a willingness to deceive the American public began long before Minneapolis.
While falsehoods by Noem and the department have frequently been exposed during Trump’s second term, they are rarely acknowledged, much less corrected, by the secretary or DHS.
“This administration’s pattern of abusing innocent Americans in the street — from tear-gassing kids to shooting and killing citizens — and then turning around and lying about it to try and cover their asses cannot be allowed to continue,” Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., told The Intercept.
Sitting alongside Trump during a July press conference, Noem offered a prime example of the “kind of deranged individuals that are on our streets in America, that we’re trying to target and get out of our country.” Noem said that federal agents had “detained a cannibal and put him on a plane to take him home, and while they had him in his seat, he started to eat himself.”
Noem also told the story to Fox News’ Jesse Watters, claiming a U.S. Marshal said that the cannibal had previously eaten other people before he began to consume himself aboard an ICE deportation flight.
“Was this bad hombre handcuffed to something and he was trying to chew his arm off so he could escape, or was he just hungry?” Watters asked. “You know, what bothered me the most is that this U.S. Marshal just said it like it was normal,” Noem replied, adding, “He said he was literally eating his own arms. That is what he did. He called himself a cannibal and ate other people and ate himself that day.”
“There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”
The three federal law enforcement officials said the story is fictional. “That is completely made up,” the senior federal law enforcement official told The Intercept. “That never happened.” All three law enforcement sources said attempts to verify Noem’s claims came up empty. “They went to ERO,” one source said, referring to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, a unit tasked with the standard immigration enforcement process: identifying, arresting, and deporting immigrants. “There was no information about it. It never took place. It’s a lie.”
Asked if the story came from Noem or the U.S. Marshals, one official was unequivocal: “Noem.”
The senior official told The Intercept that Noem had crossed a line: “I cannot condone somebody making up a story that absolutely never happened.”
After a July 2025 article by The Intercept on the failure by Noem or DHS to answer questions about the cannibal incident, this reporter regularly asked about it to officials at ICE, DHS, the Marshals Service, and other federal law enforcement agencies.
Noem failed to reply to close to two dozen requests for comment since July.
Months of messages and multiple phone calls finally yielded a non-denial denial. “ICE media folks went to ERO to ask them about it,” Emily Covington, until recently an assistant director in ICE’s Office of Public Affairs, told The Intercept in November. “We do not have information on a flight with a cannibal.” When asked if that was confirmation that the cannibal did not exist, Covington responded: “That is not what I’m saying, whatsoever.”
A Marshals Service spokesperson told The Intercept that information regarding its Justice Prisoner Air Transportation System flights is kept under wraps for the “safety and security of all parties.”
Members of federal law enforcement — including some speaking off the record — expressed discomfort with having to answer for what they said was a clumsy yarn told by Noem. (All agreed to allow The Intercept to reference these remarks.) “Why would she even say something so insane as this?” asked one of the officials, who said that even a young child would never make up such an outlandish story.
Another was at a loss to explain why Noem would tell a tale that was “obviously utterly false.”
Noem has come under frequent criticism for headline-grabbing stunts, aggressive operations, and hobbyhorse programs of dubious efficacy. The impeachment resolution against Noem for high crimes and misdemeanors, filed in the wake of Pretti’s death last month, now has 187 co-sponsors, a spokesperson for the office of Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill., told The Intercept.
“Kristi Noem has blood on her hands,” said Kelly, who introduced the articles of impeachment. “Each time, Secretary Noem lied to our faces and tried to justify the murder of innocent lives. People are disgusted by her.”
Noem’s department has followed her lead when it comes to false statements.
“Border Patrol law enforcement officers were ambushed by domestic terrorists that rammed federal agents with their vehicles. The woman, Marimar Martinez, driving one of the vehicles, was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and has a history of doxxing federal agents,” reads an October press release on DHS’s website.
Recently, Martinez explained to members of Congress how a car driven by federal officers sideswiped her truck and cut her off. “I could hear my back passenger window shatter, and I felt bullets continue to pierce my body,” she testified. “As I attempted to drive to a safe location, I began to feel lightheaded. I looked down and saw blood gushing out of my arms and legs and realized I had been shot multiple times.”
Martinez pleaded not guilty to a federal charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers, and federal prosecutors soon dropped all charges against her. But the October press release, complete with Martinez’s photo, remains on the DHS website.
“I am outraged that Marimar Martinez is still being smeared as a ‘domestic terrorist’ on DHS’s official website, despite DOJ rightfully dropping all its baseless charges against her,” said Duckworth.
DHS did not respond to a request about why Martinez is still cast as a domestic terrorist on their website.
Martinez’s case is typical. A 2025 Associated Press investigation of federal criminal cases against anti-immigration protesters in four Democratic-led cities found that of 100 people initially charged with felony assaults on federal agents, 55 saw their charges reduced to misdemeanors or dismissed outright. At least 23 pleaded guilty, most of them to reduced charges resulting in scant or no jail time.
In case after case, however, DHS refuses to acknowledge dropped or reduced charges. The department accused Francisco Longoria of attempting to “run over” Customs and Border Protection officers and injuring them with his pickup truck. Criminal charges against Longoria were ultimately dropped. Still, DHS recently cited Longoria in a press release about “vehicle attacks” on immigration officers.
Noem and DHS routinely paint immigrants rounded up by DHS as the worst of the worst — and even created a website to showcase such persons. But last week, DHS admitted that the site was rife with inaccuracies and that the charges against hundreds of immigrants listed were incorrect.
Noem routinely peddles blatant falsehoods before Congress, during press conferences, and on television and has been excoriated for it by editorial boards from the mainstream New York Times to the right-wing Free Press. Lawmakers have similarly called her out for what Michigan Rep. Haley Stevens termed “nonstop lies to the American people.”
Noem, for instance, declared “no American citizens have been arrested or detained. We focus on those that are here illegally,” during an October 30 press conference in Gary, Indiana. She added that claims to the contrary are “simply not true and false reporting.”
But less than a month before, federal agents conducted a pre-dawn military-style raid — personally overseen by Noem — on a home in Illinois, using armored vehicles, a helicopter, and officers in tactical gear with high-powered rifles. That flashy operation resulted in the detention and arrests of two U.S. citizens. Last October, a ProPublica investigation documented 170 cases of U.S. citizens who were arrested by immigration agents during Trump’s second term.
During a December House Homeland Security Committee hearing, Noem falsely claimed that the DHS had “not deported U.S. citizens or military veterans.” Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., then released a letter from Noem, dated September 2, 2025, that reads: “Regarding your question on the number of veterans that have been removed since January 20, 2025, ICE has removed eight veterans.”
The vilification by Noem and DHS of Martinez, Longoria, Good, Pretti, and others is far more dangerous than her cannibal fiction — but the latter is part of a larger effort to demonize immigrants and those that support them. For centuries, claims of cannibalism have been used to justify all manner of racism, violence, and territorial conquest.
For years, Trump has leaned on this racialized rhetoric and also expressed a fascination with the fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter. During his most recent presidential campaign, Trump frequently mentioned Lecter during rants about immigrants. “They’re rough people, in many cases from jails, prisons, from mental institutions, insane asylums. You know, insane asylums, that’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ stuff,” Trump said in 2024. “Hannibal Lecter, anybody know Hannibal Lecter?”
Since taking office a second time, Trump has continued to talk about Lecter. “The late great Hannibal Lecter, right? The fake news would say, ‘Why does he talk about that? He’s a fictional character.’ He’s not. We have many of them that came across the border,” Trump said last year, prior to Noem’s comments. “But when the people went to the voting booth, then we understood why he talked about that because they voted for us. They say, ‘We don’t want Hannibal Lecter in our country.’”
Right-wing influencers on social media and pro-Trump media outlets seized on Noem’s “horrifying” cannibal claims to criticize Democrats, demonize immigrants, and call for “mass roundups” and “mass deportations” of “sub-human pieces of trash.” What followed were increasingly brutal anti-immigrant crackdowns across the country by the Trump administration.
Noem and her agency remain under fire in the wake of the killings of Good and Pretti last month. The Department of Homeland Security shut down earlier this month after Republicans failed to agree to Democrats’ demands for new restrictions on federal immigration agents, including a ban on masked officers, requirements that agents wear visible identification, and a mandate that DHS obtains warrants from judges to make arrests in homes.
“Kristi Noem and other officials in this administration have proven beyond a doubt that they cannot be trusted to credibly investigate their own agents’ abuses, let alone implement the commonsense safeguards that Democrats are pushing for,” Duckworth told The Intercept. “That’s why it’s so important we get these DHS reforms codified into law.”
The post Kristi Noem Repeatedly Claimed ICE Deported a Cannibal. It Was “Completely Made Up.” appeared first on The Intercept.
Apple's streamer is jam-packed with excellent TV shows.
The past year has been turbulent for Tinder and Bumble. Fortunately, it turns out the real world has its charms
Valentine’s Day is mercifully behind us for another year, so we can all go back to not loving each other again. How wonderful it is to be freed of the burden of expressing our emotions in public. I didn’t post a flowery declaration of devotion for my girlfriend on social media, and I kept expecting a flood of messages asking me if we’d broken up already. Such is the peer pressure of a holiday designed purely to justify our own self-worth. Well, someone is willing to put up with me, therefore I have value.
Needing to rub your love into other people’s faces is a natural outgrowth of how absolutely miserable it is out there for finding romance. The world is not exactly filled with optimism these days, as we all hunker down with our cans of tinned fish, waiting for the next disaster to strike. Couple that (pun intended) with the onslaught of digitized dating solutions like the apps Hinge, Raya and Bumble and you have a rancid stew of solitude to look forward to. Why not mark yourself safe from loneliness by posting a picture of you and your partner snogging in the middle of a Walgreens (contraception aisle, of course)?
Continue reading...It's a trap! There are some great deals on used and refurbished desktops and laptops that are still running Windows 10. Don't do it.
Tenants have powerful home security options, too. These kits use peel-and-stick sensors, simple apps and other rent-friendly tricks.
Amid talk of artificial intelligence taking our jobs, the big unasked question is: how will we be fed?
How will we be fed? That’s the biggest question not seriously being addressed amid all this talk about whether or not artificial intelligence will end up taking over all of our jobs.
Formidable though the technology appears, similar fears have popped up repeatedly since the Industrial Revolution, and most working-age adults remain employed. Still, what is sorely missing is a serious debate about what to do if this future in fact materializes.
Continue reading...Three thoughts on the opening weekend of MLS in 2026, including a new Galaxy forward to fear and a pointed celebration in DC
You know a situation is dire when it casts Luis Suárez as its level-headed participant.
Such were the scenes after Inter Miami opened their MLS Cup defense with a pitiful 3-0 defeat at Los Angeles FC. Through 90 minutes, with LAFC coming off a midweek continental match, both team’s stars stuck it out to try starting the 2026 season on the right foot. Son Heung-min made it 89 minutes, subbed out when the result was beyond doubt. Lionel Messi played every minute but was held without a goal contribution, failing to place either of his shot attempts on target and seeing all three created chances go uncashed by his teammates.
Continue reading...In June 2012, an invitation appeared on HPCwire that would quietly ignite a transformation in engineering simulation. This announcement invited engineers worldwide to submit real-world simulation projects to be tested on remote High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems—both on-premises and in the cloud. At the time, cloud-based HPC was still viewed with skepticism. Security concerns, performance doubts, software licensing hurdles, and cultural resistance stood firmly in the way. But rather than debate theory, the Cloud team chose experimentation, and the Cloud Experiments were born.
The first annual Compendium of case studies appeared in 2013, documenting 25 hands-on engineering experiments. Each project tested whether complex CAE applications could run efficiently in the cloud.
Early results were sobering. Success rates hovered around 40% in 2013 and 60% in 2014. Engineers encountered roadblocks everywhere: slow onboarding, licensing friction, data transfer bottlenecks, configuration complexity, and the ever-present need for scarce HPC expertise.
Yet every case study concluded with two powerful sections: Lessons Learned and Recommendations. These weren’t marketing summaries. They were hard-earned operational insights from real engineers trying to get real work done. Those lessons would later become the seeds of SimOps.
A major turning point came in 2015. Based on patterns emerging from dozens of experiments, the team introduced novel HPC software containers tailored specifically for engineering workloads. Instead of installing and configuring simulation software on every cluster, applications were packaged into portable, ready-to-run containers.
The impact was dramatic. Onboarding time dropped from an average of three months to just a few days. Engineers no longer needed deep knowledge of system architecture or cloud infrastructure. Through a browser-based interface, they accessed what felt like a familiar remote desktop—backed by powerful bare-metal or virtualized HPC resources.
This abstraction between software and hardware removed one of the biggest operational barriers to cloud HPC adoption. It also quietly shifted the narrative: HPC was no longer just for specialists. It could become part of everyday engineering design.
As annual Compendiums of case studies continued—eventually totaling 232 cloud-based engineering projects—the evidence accumulated.
At Rimac, engineers designing some of the world’s fastest electric hypercars gained on-demand access to powerful cloud resources. Simulation cycles shortened. Design iterations accelerated. More sophisticated geometries and physics became feasible. And because cloud resources were elastic, they paid only for what they used.
In another study, marine engineers running NUMECA/Cadence FINE/Marine simulations found that bare-metal cloud infrastructure provided performance advantages over local upgrades—without the overhead of maintaining in-house HPC expertise. Containers enabled immediate access to clusters without installation delays.
An implantable planar antenna simulation project demonstrated a fourfold speed increase compared to a local workstation. Preconfigured containerized ANSYS HFSS environments ran instantly, eliminating the traditional setup burden.
Across industries—automotive, marine, aerospace, medical devices—the same themes emerged:
The experiments were no longer about “Can HPC run in the cloud?” They were about “How do we make simulation operationally scalable?”
As the Compendiums expanded—supported by industry leaders such as Ansys, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intel, and media partners including HPCwire—the UberCloud initiative evolved into Simr, reflecting its broader mission: delivering simulation-ready infrastructure as a service.
By 2024, the experiment success rate had reached 100%. More importantly, the accumulated Lessons Learned across 232 projects were distilled into structured Best Practices. Patterns became frameworks. Recommendations became repeatable methods. Operational insights became a philosophy. That philosophy became SimOps.
In 2024, the SimOps initiative has been launched. Announced on HPCwire, SimOps (Simulation Operations) positioned itself as “The DevOps of HPC.”
The comparison is deliberate. Just as DevOps transformed how software is built and deployed, SimOps addresses how engineering simulations are run, managed, and scaled. SimOps is not about software development. It is about operational excellence in technical computing.
SimOps provides guidance on:
It recognizes that simulation bottlenecks are rarely just about compute power. They are about process, governance, data management, cultural adoption, and operational repeatability.
Inspired by community-driven movements like DevOps and FinOps, SimOps was incorporated as an independent non-profit organization serving the HPC, AI, cloud, and engineering simulation communities. Today, SimOps offers:
What began in 2012 as a practical cloud experiment has evolved into a broader operational philosophy. The early HPC Cloud experiments asked whether and how simulations could move to the cloud. SimOps asks how simulations can become a scalable, automated, and reliable enterprise capability. Over twelve years, the journey revealed a powerful insight: The true challenge was never just compute performance. It was operations.
Simulation projects fail not because solvers are weak—but because workflows are fragile, data is chaotic, onboarding is slow, licensing is complex, and collaboration between engineering and IT is often misaligned. SimOps addresses those systemic gaps.
The story of SimOps is not one of a single product or breakthrough technology. It is the story of a community learning, documenting, refining, and sharing operational knowledge across more than a decade. From 25 case studies in 2013 to 232 cloud-based engineering projects by 2024, the trajectory reflects a maturation of both technology and mindset. What started as an experiment has become a movement.
And if DevOps reshaped software engineering, SimOps may well define the next chapter in simulation-driven innovation—where HPC, AI, cloud, and engineering converge into operational excellence. The experiment worked. Now the operations scale.
Want to join the movement? Explore the best practices, start your SimOps Fundamentals training, get certified, or join the SimOps Practitioner Club at www.simops.com.
About the SimOps Foundation
The SimOps Foundation is an independent non-profit community organization dedicated to the standardization and automation of simulation operations (SimOps) within the High-Performance Computing (HPC) and engineering sectors. By bridging the gap between engineering simulation and HPC infrastructure, the Foundation provides a vendor-neutral framework for improving the efficiency, scalability, and reproducibility of complex simulations and data flows. Through its tiered certification programs, the “SimOps-compliant” software stack, and a global community of practitioners, the Foundation empowers organizations to accelerate AI-powered innovation and streamline product development. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, the SimOps Foundation is built on a decade of expertise and over 200 real-world engineering use cases. For more information, visit www.simops.com.
The post From HPC Experiments to a Movement: The Rise of SimOps in HPC appeared first on HPCwire.
South-western France could hit 25C, while a powerful Nor’easter is forecast to bring blizzards to Boston
An early taste of spring is on the way for millions across northern and western Europe this week. Temperatures could climb close to a near record-breaking 20C (68F) in parts of Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, with south-western France approaching 25C on Wednesday.
The warmth is being driven by a highly amplified synoptic pattern, featuring a region of low pressure over the Atlantic and strong high pressure over central Europe. The setup will allow exceptionally mild air to spread across much of the continent, with temperatures in some places rising to 10-15C above the seasonal average.
Continue reading...At 31% off, this compact blender is hovering just above its all-time low -- but it won't be for long.
Following a ProPublica article revealing that the U.S. Forest Service had for years issued clothing to wildland firefighters that it knew contained potentially dangerous “forever chemicals,” the agency has stopped distributing those garments. It also says that it will instruct its equipment manufacturers to avoid using PFAS in the future.
This month, ProPublica reported that until at least 2023 one of the Forest Service’s suppliers, TenCate, used finishing products made with a PFAS compound on a Kevlar-blend pant fabric. According to emails from the supplier, the finishes were used to repel gasoline and water. Despite knowing about the use of PFAS, officials with the Forest Service had not previously informed wildland firefighters about it.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, have long been used in protective gear to repel substances like fuels. But many municipal fire departments have moved away from the chemicals as researchers revealed more about health risks associated with them. Firefighters in multiple states have filed class-action lawsuits against manufacturers alleging they were harmed by PFAS in the gear they wore. Research specific to wildland firefighters has lagged, and wildland firefighting agencies have been slower to publicly address the issue.
On Feb. 11, one day after ProPublica published its article, a Forest Service cache manager — an official who oversees a gear repository — wrote in an email that he asked colleagues to distribute widely, “I received notice from the Washington Office Cache Management staff late last night that we are to place a hold on issuing” the pants. But the agency didn’t immediately clarify further. A wildland firefighter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their employment said last week that incident management teams had been asking the agency for advice about the pants. “As of right now, our logistics folks haven’t gotten any guidance at all from higher-ups,” the firefighter said.
On Friday, the Forest Service issued a statement to ProPublica: “PFAS in protective gear is a complex, industry-wide issue and any suggestion that the agency has sought to obscure information does not reflect the extensive work to expand testing and improve long-term occupational health protections for firefighters. Firefighter pants manufactured with PFAS water repellent fabric treatments have been removed from available stock in the National Interagency Support Caches.”
TenCate has not responded to repeated inquiries, but in an email reviewed by ProPublica, it told the Forest Service that a PFAS-free finish was available in January 2023. On Friday, the Forest Service sent an email to its staff saying that its supplier had switched to a PFAS-free finish that year. In the same email, the Forest Service wrote that anyone with the older pants “should discontinue use and replace” them. The agency also said that it was updating its requirements “to specify that fabric treatments and fabrics will not contain PFAS.”
Fire departments typically adhere to safety standards set by the National Fire Protection Association, a nonprofit that gathers input from expert committees including firefighters and representatives from companies that supply them with equipment. While the association is not a certifying body, its standards are used by government agencies including the Forest Service. Last year, an NFPA technical committee updated its standards for municipal firefighters to restrict levels of certain PFAS chemicals in protective gear. But the organization has not yet made a parallel update to its standard for wildland firefighters.
Rick Swan, an NFPA committee member, said the lag reflects a long and deliberative process for developing standards, but he added that a restriction on PFAS chemicals in wildland gear is all but inevitable. “I think it’s a no-brainer,” Swan said. In an email, a spokesperson for the NFPA wrote that the committee overseeing the wildland firefighting standard “will likely consider this issue again.”
Experts can’t say for certain what risks PFAS in gear pose to the health of wildland firefighters and agree more research is needed. Jeff Burgess, a professor and researcher at the University of Arizona who is leading a series of long-term studies of firefighter health, said smoke inhalation and the accumulation of soot on gear are primary ways wildland firefighters encounter carcinogens. Understanding of wildland firefighters’ exposures to PFAS has lagged behind understanding of exposure in municipal fire departments. Historically, researchers have had less access to wildland crews, and in recent years they have focused on studying risks related to smoke.
The post U.S. Forest Service Stops Issuing Firefighter Pants That Contain PFAS, Following ProPublica’s Reporting appeared first on ProPublica.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized the broadening use of anxiety medications, but doctors and researchers say the MAHA movement is misrepresenting drugs that have been proven to help.
Why Should Delaware Care?
In 2020, officials across the United States removed dozens of statues of historical figures from public property following protests over racial injustice. In Wilmington, those included the statues of Caesar Rodney and Christopher Columbus. Recent advocacy from Italian American residents for the famed explorer has since revived the debate, leading the Wilmington City Council to consider its stance on the statue’s potential return.
Four years after Wilmington took down a statue of Christopher Columbus, the sculpture is again exposing tensions in the city over who gets to determine which symbols to publicly embrace.
During a city council meeting last week, members of Wilmington’s large Italian-American community stated that the Columbus statue should return to public display – either at the city’s Father Tucker Park or at its previous location along Pennsylvania Avenue. They argued that Columbus was a historical figure who, while flawed, sparked pride within their community.
But, in response, a mixture of older Black residents, younger white residents and Black city council members stated that Columbus should not be publicly celebrated, citing his role in slavery and in the colonization of the Americas.
During the meeting, Albert Greto – an attorney who is leading a broader Italian-American community coalition – said he wants Wilmington to turn over the statue to his coalition. Then, if the city determines the statue will not be placed at a public site, he said his group will restore it to private property.
During his public comment, Greto also acknowledged that Columbus had enslaved people.
“I think there’s no dispute in that,” he said. “Be that as it may, there’s good and bad in everyone.”
After nearly an hour of public comments and council debate, the Wilmington City Council voted down 6-3 a resolution that would have formally opposed the statue being placed on public land, including city parks.
The resolution had been introduced by City Councilwoman Shané Darby.
The council members opposed to the resolution, such as Councilwoman Christian Willauer, said they wanted to allow different communities to be able to celebrate their cultural symbols.
“I believe our communities are better when we give each other space to express ourselves according to our own traditions, as long as those traditions are not about taking something away from someone else or putting someone else down,” Willauer said.
For months, multiple Italian American community groups have been organizing to push the city to return and re-erect the Columbus statue, which once stood on a strip of land at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Franklin and 13th streets.
Many have said that Father Tucker Park, which sits across the street from the St. Anthony’s Lodge No. 3012 in the Little Italy neighborhood, would be an ideal location.
The recent advocacy comes amid an ongoing national conversation about the kind of monuments that should be displayed in public. On the other side of the ideological spectrum from Darby, the Trump administration last month removed over two dozen panels at the President’s House site in Philadelphia that exhibited stories of people enslaved by President George Washington.
The city and others sued the Trump administration, and last week a federal judge ordered the exhibits to be temporarily restored until the pending case is resolved.
The removal of the panels were part of broader efforts by the Trump administration to examine monuments and other historical markers to ensure they are not displaying content that “inappropriately disparage[s] Americans past or living.”
The Christopher Columbus statue was originally erected on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1957.
The Christopher Columbus Monument Committee, a group composed of Italian Americans in the community, had raised $40,000 to commission the statue. Committee members also maintained it over the subsequent decades.
Then, in 2020, the administration of then-Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki contacted Mike Panfile, the head of the Columbus Monument Committee, asking for permission to take down the statue amid protests against racial injustice that occurred following the police murder of George Floyd.
The committee agreed and the city then took down the statue. At the same time, Purzycki also had taken down a statue in the city central square of Delaware Founding Father Caesar Rodney.
Following the removals, Purzycki said he wanted to hold more discussions with the community about the public display of historical figures and events.
“We cannot erase history, as painful as it may be, but we can certainly discuss history with each other and determine together what we value and what we feel is appropriate to memorialize,” Purzycki said in a public statement in 2020.
More than five years later, Darby introduced her resolution, opposing the effort to restore the statue to a public place. She said she supports the statue being returned to private property, but believes that the statue shouldn’t be placed on land that taxpayers are funding.
“Globally, he just represents something so terrible and bad. In a predominantly Black and brown city, we shouldn’t have to pay to maintain him at a city park,” she told Spotlight Delaware.
The council heard about 40 minutes of public comments before discussing the measure.
More than a dozen residents, many of them older, came in opposition to the resolution. Several referenced the discrimination that Italian Americans faced after immigrating to the United States. Some described Columbus as a “sign of hope” for their community. Others characterized him as someone who “connected two great continents and paved the way for others to follow.”
“Ask yourself, how would you feel if a council member presented false toxic narratives designed to malign MLK’s character and campaigned against the legacy,” city resident Rob Savarese said to the 13-member city council, which is made up of nine Black members.
Like Savarese, most of the city residents who spoke during the public comment period opposed Darby’s resolutions.
Those who supported it emphasized Columbus’ role in colonization and slavery. Some even urged their Italian-American neighbors to choose another historical figure to honor.
“Every kind of disgusting thing that could happen happened on his watch,” city resident Baba Hamine said. “Christopher Columbus did that to my ancestors.”
Wilmington’s Columbus statue is currently being stored in a facility that “specializes in high-dollar art and sculptures,” according to Daniel Walker, deputy chief of staff for Mayor John Carney.
Walker declined to disclose the exact location, but he emphasized that the mayor’s office has made multiple offers for the community to see and pick up the statue.
Carney’s office had not been involved in conversations involving the statue, according to Walker. Asked whether Carney was in support of re-erecting the statue, Walker said the community needs to have that discussion with the City Council.
In a more recent interview after the city council vote, Walker said that Carney’s office will be in discussions with the city council and members of the community to find a path forward.
Walker noted that placing the Columbus statue in a public park would not require City Council approval through an ordinance. Still, he said ordinances have been used in the past to take similar actions.
The resolution voted down by the City Council last week was only a declaration emphasizing the position of the public body.
Councilmembers Willauer, Chris Johnson, Alex Hackett, James Spadola, Nathan Field, and Zanthia Oliver voted against it.
Councilmembers Darby, Coby Owens, and Council President Trippi Congo voted for it.
Councilmembers Michelle Harlee and Latisha Bracy voted present.
Later, Johnson, who represents Little Italy and stood as the main opponent to Darby’s ordinance, told Spotlight Delaware that if an ordinance were required to put the statue back up, he would be willing to propose it.
He said it could also include a broader monument to highlight the history and achievements of indigenous communities.
Amid protests by organizations like Black Lives Matter amid the George Floyd killing in 2020, Wilmington’s Columbus statue was one of at least 33 statues around the nation that were taken down, as well as other confederate monuments, as reported by CBS News.
Individuals throughout Delaware and other states have spoken out about Columbus’s efforts to colonize land occupied by Indigenous people, which some say led to his role in a “genocide” of the native population.
The first contact between Europeans and the indigenous civilizations that occupied the Americas occurred after Columbus arrived in 1492 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, which is currently Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
A report from the College of Charleston’s Lowcountry Digital History Initiative asserts that Columbus directly captured about 500 Taino slaves to be sold in Spain. About 200 of them did not survive the voyage, according to the report.
By the year 1600, the arrival of Europeans led to the deaths of roughly 55 million indigenous people, according to a 2019 study published by the Quaternary Science Reviews Journal.
During a community meeting at the St. Anthony’s Lodge No. 3012 in Little Italy last week, residents pushed back against criticism of Columbus, with some saying claims of genocide were myths.
Greto’s coalition gave a presentation discussing the history of Columbus, the oppression faced by Italian Americans, and how the celebration of Columbus Day, which was made a national holiday in 1937, gave his community hope and pride.
About 70 residents were present, including Johnson, the councilmember who represents the area. Darby did not attend the meeting.
During the presentation, Peter Frattarelli, cultural director of Societa da Vinci, argued that Columbus’s actions did not fit the definition of genocide.
Frattarelli also argued that most scholars agree the decline of the Taino people was primarily due to European diseases, not systematic extermination. He also framed Columbus’s violence as retaliatory warfare.
Finally, Frattarelli also strongly pushed back against claims that Columbus was a sex trafficker of young girls.
“Was he a saint? Was he a sinner? I’m going to tell you he was closer to a saint than a sinner,” he said.
The post Which monuments should Wilmington celebrate? Columbus statue sparks renewed debate appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
As sordid allegations engulfed Prince Andrew, Queen Elizabeth II showed a mother’s love, King Charles III a brother’s fury, and Prince William, a nephew’s dismay.
Israeli officials say they won’t initiate a strike on Iran but the public is bracing for the possibility of another war.
Why Should Delaware Care?
The Port of Wilmington is one of the last anchors of good-paying, blue-collar jobs in Delaware. It also has suffered a string of financial blows over a dramatic six-year-period. How the state responds to the setbacks may determine the shape of Delaware’s workforce into the future.
A buildup of sediment around the confluence of the Christina and Delaware rivers is blocking fully loaded fruit ships from docking at the Port of Wilmington – a facility long known as the top banana port in North America.
In conversations with port workers as well as with state and federal officials, Spotlight Delaware has learned that over the previous month cargo ships bound for Delaware and carrying Chiquita Brands fruit have been sailing past the Port of Wilmington because the waterway leading to the Christina River facility has become too shallow.
The ships have been docking instead at ports in Chester and Philadelphia, where workers at those facilities have unloaded as much as a third of the vessels’ cargo, according to Port of Wilmington workers.
Then, with lighter loads and sitting higher in the water, the ships return to Port of Wilmington where they can navigate through the shallow Christina River to unload the rest of their cargo.
While the workaround has kept fruit moving, the situation could amount to a reputational setback for Delaware’s port. It comes at a time when the facility’s operator, Enstructure Inc., has been seeking out new lines of business amid an increasingly intense competition between regional ports.
The situation also means that the hours worked at the publicly owned, privately run Port of Wilmington are lower than what they would have been otherwise. And in some cases, those hours have been filled by non-union labor at upstream ports, sparking outcry from Delaware workers.
“Normally, we’ll work the ship around-the-clock for two days, or at least a day and a half. Now we’re lucky to get one around-the-clock,” Port of Wilmington union leader William Ashe Jr. said, referencing time spent unloading the Chiquita ships recently.
Ashe noted that the only ships impacted so far have been those carrying fruit from Chiquita, and not those bringing in perishables from Dole.
“They tell me that the draft is deeper on Chiquita than it is on Dole” ships, he said.
Spokespersons for Enstructure and for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – which is in charge of maintaining the navigable waters in the United States – each blamed the sediment buildup on delays in dredging that began last fall.
In an email, Army Corps spokesman Stephen Rochette said a dispute over an awarded dredging contract initially pushed back the start of the project.
“We awarded this contract in the fall and experienced a delay due to a contractual protest from another bidder. Additionally, the selected contractor had other project commitments as well that impacted their start time,” Rochette said.
The project was then hit by more delays last month when the United States Coast Guard prohibited dredging during a cold snap that caused ice flows to form along the Delaware River, Rochette said.
He said an expedited dredging operation is scheduled to begin imminently.
“Our contractor is mobilizing equipment and setting up the pipeline,” Rochette said in the email.
The Army Corps’ website lists the dredging contract for Wilmington Harbor as having been initially scheduled to begin last October. It was supposed to be complete next month.
It is one of 33 “maintenance dredging” projects within the Philadelphia region that are either proposed or ongoing.
The dredging delays at the Port of Wilmington have occurred just as the Army Corps has been suffering through a period of uncertainty. Similar delays in dredging have also recently been reported for projects in New York and in Michigan.
Also last fall, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget announced that the Army Corps would pause over $11 billion in low-priority projects within Democratic-leaning states, in response to the government shutdown at the time.
A subsequent Congressional statement indicated that one of those projects is in Delaware.
It is not immediately clear which Delaware project the statement was referencing as the complete list of paused contracts does not appear to be publicly available.
Former-New Castle County Council President Karen Hartly-Nagle was first to report on the Port of Wilmington dredging issues in an article published last week.
The head of the Delaware office that oversees operations of the Port of Wilmington said tests of water depths conducted late last fall indicated that the channel leading to the Port of Wilmington “remained operational.”
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Brian Devine, the new interim executive director at the Diamond State Port Corporation, asserted that a rapid accumulation of sediment would have built up around Wilmington’s harbor near the end of last year
“While sediment accumulates in Wilmington Harbor throughout the year, significant weather events can result in periods of quicker accumulations,” Devine said.
Despite the explanation, Ashe insisted that dredging along the Christina River should have been complete long before the depth became an obstacle for ships — and before the rush of the winter fruit season. And while the Army Corps manages dredging, Ashe directed his criticism at state officials for what he said was their failure to press the issue.
“It should have been done in July,” he said. “Why would you wait until the winter months, knowing that you haven’t done any maintenance dredging in a year.”
Prior to the Port of Wilmington’s most recent dredging contract award, the Army Corps lists on its website a massive project posted in 2024 to dredge the Delaware River’s main navigation channel from Philadelphia to the sea.
That project’s documents also list dredging along the parallel “Wilmington Harbor, Christina River,” but it appears that the Army Corps separated that portion of the project, and re-awarded it last fall on its own.
Beyond Delaware port officials, Ashe has also criticized Chiquita’s actions in recent weeks.
When Chiquita diverted its first ship away from Delaware a month ago, he said the company violated a union agreement when its ship docked at a non-union Penn Terminals, near Chester.
In response, Ashe said attorneys from the his union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, successfully pushed Chiquita to move their next ship to docks at the Port of Philadelphia, which uses union labor.
“We raised so much stink, and we got lawyers involved,” he said.
Nevertheless, subsequent Chiquita ships have returned to Penn Terminals, according to Ashe and three other port workers.
Chiquita did not immediately respond to a request to comment on this story.
The post Dredging delays divert ships past the Port of Wilmington appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Ukrainian ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi says future wars will require ‘technological alliances, not treaty articles’ News release thilton.drupal
The Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK addressed the evolution of the war in the four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, and the future ‘robotization’ of war.
At Chatham House, the Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK said future conflicts will be fought by ‘autonomous and semi-autonomous robotic systems’.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the UK and former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, delivered a speech at the London-based international affairs think-tank on Monday 23 February, presenting his insights on the transformation of battlefield war and marking four years since Russia launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine.
Zaluzhnyi said technological advancements will transform the future of war, stating that modern conflicts have gone beyond conventional weapons and tactics.
Zaluzhnyi added that the ‘robotization’ of warfare will ensure military effectiveness without the need for human involvement, and that, as a result, there will be fewer casualties.
Ambassador Zaluzhnyi at Chatham House
But he warned that while states could develop and control specific technologies, no one country would be capable of dominating all vital military technologies needed in future conflicts.
Nations would also need to combine their efforts, otherwise Russia will remain a threat to Europe and beyond. ‘We will need technological alliances, not treaty articles,’ he said.
Zaluzhnyi also called for sanctions against Russia to be maintained, and argued that Russia’s economy should be pushed to breaking point: ‘…it is necessary to move away from the classic strategy of inflicting maximum damage and consistently defeating the enemy… We need to make the war more costly for Russia, and as a result, lead to its inevitable defeat.’
During the question and answer session after his keynote speech Zaluzhnyi was asked by a member of the press whether he hoped to be president of Ukraine, following speculation in recent news media coverage.
He replied that he could not consider his political future until after the war, ‘When it is over, when martial law is lifted in Ukraine…only then will we be able to discuss my personal future,’ he said, adding that such speculation was a distraction from Ukraine’s war efforts.
‘We Ukrainians no longer have a choice. We will either perish or survive. The formula for survival is simple: continue to fight, strengthen the economy and maintain unity,’ he said.
"A surprisingly ravenous black hole from the dawn of the universe is breaking two big rules," reports Live Science. "It's not only exceeding the 'speed limit' of black hole growth but also generating extreme X-ray and radio wave emissions — two features that are not predicted to coexist..." "How is this rule-breaking behavior even possible? In a paper published Jan. 21 in The Astrophysical Journal, an international team of researchers observed ID830 in multiple wavelengths to find an answer...." As they attract gas and dust, this material accumulates in a swirling accretion disk. Gravity pulls the material from the disk into the black hole, but the infalling material generates radiation pressure that pushes outward and prevents more stuff from falling in. As a result, black holes are muzzled by a self-regulating process called the Eddington limit... Its X-ray brightness suggests that ID830 is accreting mass at about 13 times the Eddington limit, due to a sudden burst of inflowing gas that may have occurred as ID830 shredded and engulfed a celestial body that wandered too close. "For a supermassive black hole (SMBH) as massive as ID830, this would require not a normal (main-sequence) star, but a more massive giant star or a huge gas cloud," study co-author Sakiko Obuchi, an observational astronomer at Waseda University in Tokyo, told Live Science via email. Such super-Eddington phases may be incredibly brief, as "this transitional phase is expected to last for roughly 300 years," Obuchi added. ID830 also simultaneously displays radio and X-ray emissions. These two features are not expected to coexist, especially because super-Eddington accretion is thought to suppress such emissions. "This unexpected combination hints at physical mechanisms not yet fully captured by current models of extreme accretion and jet launching," the researchers said in a statement. So while ID830 is launching massive radio jets, its X-ray emissions appear to originate from a structure called a corona, produced as intense magnetic fields from the accretion disk create a thin but turbulent billion-degree cloud of turbocharged particles. These particles orbit the black hole at nearly the speed of light, in what NASA calls "one of the most extreme physical environments in the universe." Altogether, ID830's rule-breaking behaviors suggest that it is in a rare transitional phase of excessive consumption — and excretion. This incredible feeding burst has energized both its jets and its corona, making ID830 shine brightly across multiple wavelengths as it spews out excess radiation. Additionally, based on UV-brightness analysis, quasars like ID830 may be unexpectedly common, the researchers said. Models predict that only around 10% of quasars have spectacular radio jets, but these energetic objects could be significantly more abundant in the early universe than previously suggested. Most importantly, ID830 also shows how SMBHs can regulate galaxy growth in the early universe. As a black hole gobbles matter at the super-Eddington limit, the energy from its resultant emissions can heat and disperse matter throughout the interstellar medium — the gas between stars — to suppress star formation. As a result, ancient SMBHs like ID830 may have grown massive at the expense of their host galaxies.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Motorway stretch plays music as a safety feature but those close to it say ‘intrusive’ noise is constant and distressing
Residents of one of India’s most upmarket neighbourhoods say the country’s first “musical road” has turned their daily lives into a nightmare soundtrack.
A stretch of Mumbai’s recently opened Coastal Road seafront expressway has been engineered to play the pulsating Oscar-winning tune Jai Ho from the movie Slumdog Millionaire when vehicles drive on it at lower speeds.
Continue reading...Premier Chris Minns says state has been working with federal government as group of 11 women and 23 children attempt to leave refugee camp
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New South Wales authorities are preparing for about a third of the group of Australian women and children linked to Islamic State fighters to return to the state, if authorities in Syria allow them to leave the Roj refugee camp.
The premier, Chris Minns, said the state government had been discussing the possible return of some of the 11 women and 23 children with federal government agencies since late 2025, and a strong law enforcement response was expected.
Continue reading...Footage of Punch, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque, has gone viral around the world after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy
A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week.
Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born last July at Ichikawa zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother.
Continue reading...When one company asked job applicants to submit a video where they answer a question, most of the 300 responses were "eerily similar," reports the Washington Post (with a company executive saying it was "abundantly clear" they'd used AI.) Job seekers are turning to AI to help them land jobs more quickly in a tough labor market.... Employers say that's having an unintended consequence: Many applications are looking and sounding the same... It's easy to spot when candidates over-rely on AI, some employers said. Oftentimes, executive summaries will look eerily similar to each other, odd phrases that people wouldn't normally use in conversation creep into descriptions, fancy vocabulary appears, and someone with entry-level experience uses language that indicates they are much more senior, they added. It's worse when they use auto-apply AI tools, which will find jobs, fill out applications and submit résumés on the candidate's behalf, some employers said. Those tend to misinterpret some of the application questions and fill in the wrong information in inappropriate spots. If these applications were evaluated alone, employers say they'd have a harder time identifying AI usage. But when hundreds of applications all have the same issue, they said, AI's role in it becomes obvious. The article acknowledges that some employers could be using AI tools to screen resumes too. One job-seeker in Texas even says he'll stop submitting an AI-written résumé when the recruiter stops using AI to evaluate them. "You're saying, 'You shouldn't be doing this' when I know a good chunk of them do this!" Obligatory XKCD.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The U.S. State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau shared a post on X about Quentin Deranque, a far-right activist, who died of brain injuries after being beaten.
An economic revival can’t happen without political transformation.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 23, No. 518.
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 23.
Drug lord who was killed by Mexican special forces on Sunday led a cartel known for aggression and military-style arsenal
The drug lord “El Mencho”, who was killed on Sunday by Mexican special forces, was the co-founder and leader of a gang that in recent years had become the country’s most powerful criminal organisation: the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG).
While less internationally famous than the Sinaloa cartel of the now imprisoned Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the CJNG is a household name in Mexico, where it is known for its displays of ultraviolence and its big, military-style arsenal.
Continue reading...This week Raspberry Pi saw its stock price surge more than 60% above its early-February low (before giving up some gains at the end of the week). Reuters notes the rise started when CEO Eben Upton bought 13,224 pounds worth of shares — but there could be another reason. "The rally in the roughly $800 million company has materialised alongside social-media buzz that demand for its single-board computers could pick up as people buy them to run AI agents such as OpenClaw." The Register explains: The catalyst appears to have been the sudden realization by one X user, "aleabitoreddit," that the agentic AI hand grenade known as OpenClaw could drive demand for Raspberry Pis the way it had for Apple Mac Minis. The viral AI personal assistant, formerly known as Clawdbot and Moltbot, has dominated the feeds of AI boosters over the past few weeks for its ability to perform everyday tasks like sending emails, managing calendars, booking appointments, and complaining about their meatbag masters on the purportedly all-agent forum known as MoltBook... In case it needs to be said, no one should be running this thing on their personal devices lest the agent accidentally leak your most personal and sensitive secrets to the web... In this context, a cheap low-power device like a Raspberry Pi makes a certain kind of sense as a safer, saner way to poke the robo-lobster... The Register argues Raspberry Pis aren't as cheap as they used to be "thanks in part to the global memory crunch. Today, a top-specced Raspberry Pi 5 with 16GB of memory will set you back more than $200, up from $120 a year ago." "You know what's cheaper, easier, and more secure than letting OpenClaw loose on your local area network? A virtual private cloud..."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
East coast scrambles to prepare for storm forecast to bring major disruption to more than 35 million people
New York mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered a citywide travel ban for all but emergency travel, as the north-eastern United States was preparing for an intense winter storm that is forecast to reach blizzard strength and bring major disruption.
Residents along the east coast scrambled to prepare for the late-winter storm that spurred weather warnings from Maryland to Massachusetts, affecting more than 35 million people. More than a foot of snow was expected, with wind gusts of up to 70mph and warnings of potential coastal flooding from Cape Cod to Delaware.
Continue reading...So i am a big guy riding a used XR. All is going well, learning the dismount is a bit tricky but I am getting used to it. I can carve a little bit at slow speeds.
One evening I floated to 7/11. When I went to cross the street I nose dived coming off the curb at low speed, i didn't fall, was able to run it out, any idea why this happened? I'm assuming its because I am a big rider?
Anyways. Do you guys have any tips on small speed bumps and transitioning from the road to the sidewalk? I am a bit intimidated by them because i don't want to nose dive lol
Through a sudden death overtime goal, the U.S. men's hockey team is golden over Canada.
The Milan Cortina Olympics ended Sunday with a closing ceremony inside the ancient Roman amphitheater, Verona Arena.
Here is a look at the total medal count for Team USA and other nations at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
A defense lawyers group has posted a tracking tool to enable users to check on the status of some of the controversial prosecutions attempted by DOJ in the first year of Trump's second term.
President and first lady were in Washington DC at time of intrusion at their Florida residence – key US politics stories from 22 February 2026 at a glance
US Secret Service agents have killed an armed man who breached the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago. Donald Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, were not at the club and residence at the time.
The authorities said agents confronted a white male in his early 20s carrying shotgun and gasoline can early on Sunday.
Continue reading...Curious what you all are getting on your X7 miles per charge?
Really looking at the Sport, but honestly will probably never use the the full charge of a LR.
What is your real world usage getting you?
Death of Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, one of world’s most wanted drug traffickers, sets off wave of disorder across several Mexican states
One of the world’s most wanted drug traffickers, the Mexican cartel boss known as “El Mencho”, has been killed by security forces, Mexico’s defence ministry has confirmed. The operation set off a wave of violence, with torched cars and gunmen blocking highways in more than half a dozen states.
The drug lord, whose real name is Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, was killed on Sunday in the western state of Jalisco along with at least six alleged accomplices, the ministry said in a statement.
Continue reading...Two Olympic finals between Canada and the US were settled by sudden death. The format made the showpieces feel more like a coin toss than a climax
Two Olympic finals against the US, two strong performances, two sudden-death losses. Canada is so over overtime.
While all good things must come to an end, it’s hard to fathom why hockey’s international rule-makers think that the very best things – huge clashes that were some of the hottest tickets of the entire Olympics – should be ended using three-on-three golden-goal overtime, a concept beloved only by people with a train to catch or firm dinner reservations.
Continue reading...Advertised roles dropped 3% last month to 695,000 – first dip below 700,000 since January 2021, job site Adzuna says
The number of job vacancies in the UK has tumbled to the lowest level in five years, research suggests, falling to levels not seen since the pandemic.
The number of jobs being advertised slid by 3% in January to 695,000, according to the job search site Adzuna, marking the first time advertised vacancies have dropped below 700,000 since January 2021.
Continue reading...McDowell County, West Virginia barely survived coal's collapse and the opioid crisis. Now cuts to food stamps and Medicaid threaten to push its poorest residents to the edge.
Immerse yourself in an installation by Refik Anadol while debating how AI-generated creations stack up in the art world.
60 Minutes travels to South Africa to investigate President Trump's claims that White farmers are victims of a genocide that reporters aren't covering.
Art made with AI is selling for over $1 million and being embraced by some of the world's most prestigious museums, but critics question if it really belongs in those spaces.The art world is divided.
McDowell County, once the nation's largest coal producer, is now one of the poorest places in the United States. Residents have little faith in the government.
A pioneering artist says collaboration between humans and artificial intelligence can bring in a "new age of imagination." Critics question if it's even art.
President Trump claims White farmers in South Africa are victims of a genocide. South Africans dispute his claim.
Russia's domestic intelligence agency claimed Saturday that Ukraine can obtain sensitive information from troops using the Telegram app on the front line, reports Bloomberg. The fact that the claims were made through Russia's state-operated news outlet RIA Novosti signals "tightening scrutiny over a platform used by millions of Russians," Bloomberg notes, as the Kremlin continues efforts to "push people to use a new state-backed alternative." Russia's communications watchdog limited access to Telegram — a popular messaging app owned by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov — over a week ago for failing to comply with Russian laws requiring personal data to be stored locally. Voice and video calls were blocked via Telegram in August. The pressure is the latest move in a long-running campaign to promote what the Kremlin calls a sovereign internet that's led to blocks on YouTube, Instagram and WhatsApp... Foreign intelligence services are able to see Russia's military messages in Telegram too, Russia's Minister for digital development, Maksut Shadaev, said on Wednesday, although he added that Russia will not block access to Telegram for troops for now. Telegram responded at the time that no breaches of the app's encryption have ever been found. "The Russian government's allegation that our encryption has been compromised is a deliberate fabrication intended to justify outlawing Telegram and forcing citizens onto a state-controlled messaging platform engineered for mass surveillance and censorship," it said in an emailed response.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | The nose dive happened as i was trying to accelerate too fast too soon. Suffice to say i think i need a Rally XL. Have about 300+ miles on this, did around 300 also on my og XR before selling that. I knew i needed a jacket and have a motorcycle jacket perfect for the occasion but want to get one more specific to this hobby. oddly enough the scuffed the top center of my knee. either the pads were hanging low or i skidded on the asphalt long enough for the pads to move down and expose the top of the knee. [link] [comments] |
I've been looking into phones and watch options, outside of iOS and android recently. With Pebble making a come back and being open source, I was wondering if there was a onewheel/vesc app for it?
Emboldened by recent wins, elected officials gathered in San Francisco to share strategy for a midterm ‘reckoning’
Fury at Donald Trump was the coin of the realm, as thousands of California delegates, activists and elected officials gathered in San Francisco this weekend, emboldened by a string of victories and confident the Golden state would help deliver a power check on the president in the upcoming midterm elections.
On Saturday, Democrats streamed through the Moscone Center convention complex, sporting lanyards emblazoned with Gavin Newsom’s name and tote bags adorned with one of Nancy Pelosi’s favorite aphorisms: “We don’t Agonize, we organize” – symbols of a party in transition as the former speaker approaches retirement and the term-limited governor eyes a presidential campaign.
Continue reading...Calls mount for Mountbatten-Windsor to be dropped from royal line of succession
Police searches of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s former home on the Windsor estate in Berkshire continued on Sunday as a government minister did not rule out having a judge-led inquiry into the former prince’s links with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, representing the government, did not rule out such an inquiry but said it was premature because of the police investigation.
Continue reading...The Mexican military’s killing of Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, a.k.a. “El Mencho,” set off violence in areas controlled by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
Fossil fuels produce NO2, which is linked to asthma attacks, bronchitis, and higher risks of heart disease and stroke, according the EV news site Electrek. But the nonprofit news site Grist.org notes a new analysis showing that those emissions decreased by 1.1% for every increase of 200 electric vehicles — across nearly 1,700 ZIP codes. "A pretty small addition of cars at the ZIP code level led to a decline in air pollution," said Sandrah Eckel, a public health professor at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine and lead author of the study. "It's remarkable." The study was done at the University of Southern California's medical school, by researchers using high-resolution satellite data, reports Electrek: The study, just published in The Lancet Planetary Health and partly funded by the National Institutes of Health, adds rare real-world evidence to a claim that's often taken for granted — that EVs don't just cut carbon over time, they also improve local air quality right now... The researchers ran multiple checks to make sure the trend wasn't driven by unrelated factors. They accounted for pandemic-era changes by excluding 2020 in some analyses and controlling for gas prices and work-from-home patterns. They also saw the expected counterexample: neighborhoods that added more gas-powered vehicles experienced increases in pollution. The findings were then replicated using updated ground-level air monitoring data dating back to 2012... Next, the researchers plan to compare EV adoption with asthma-related emergency room visits and hospitalizations. If those trends line up, it could provide some of the clearest evidence yet of what we already know: that electrifying transportation doesn't just clean the air on paper; it improves public health in practice. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader jhoegl for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
‘Generational’ reforms are a key moment for Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, and for Keir Starmer
Ministers will unveil a “generational” overhaul of special educational needs and disabilities (Send) support, pledging £4bn to transform provision in schools in England and warning councils they could lose control of Send services if they fail to meet their legal duties.
The reforms are expected to be a key policy moment for Keir Starmer and for the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson – who delayed the changes last autumn after a ferocious backlash from MPs and parents.
Continue reading...Nigel Farage’s party plans to deport up to 288,000 people a year on five flights a day and expand stop and search
Reform UK would create an ICE-style agency dedicated to deporting hundreds of thousands of people, as well as terminating the status of those with indefinite leave to remain (ILR), the party will say.
It would also ban the conversion of churches into mosques and fund a radical expansion of stop and search, the party’s new home affairs spokesperson, Zia Yusuf, will also say in a speech on Monday. The deradicalisation programme Prevent would also have its mandate redrawn to focus on Islamist extremism.
Continue reading...Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Jeopardy time. A. This company spurred CEOs to make huge speculative capital expenditures based on wild unverified claims of future demand, resulting in the layoffs of tens of thousands of workers to reduce the resulting expenses, harming their core businesses. Q. What is OpenAI? Sorry, the correct response is, "What is WorldCom?" In 2002, WorldCom, the second largest long-distance company in the U.S., entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy after disclosing accounting fraud that eventually totaled $11 billion, the biggest ever at the time. CEO Bernard Ebbers was subsequently sentenced to 25 years in prison. CNBC reported that an employee of WorldCom's Internet service provider UUNet set off a frenzy of speculative investment and infrastructure overbuild after he used Excel to create a best-case scenario model for the Internet's growth that suggested in the best of all possible worlds, Internet traffic would double every 100 days, a scenario that would greatly benefit WorldCom, whose lines would carry it. Despite no evidence to support it, WorldCom's lie became an immutable law and businesses around the world made important decisions based on the belief that traffic was doubling every 100 days. "For some period of time I can recall that we were backfilling that expectation with laying cables, something like 2,200 miles of cable an hour," AT&T CEO Michael Armstrong said. "Think of all the companies that went out of business that assumed that that was real." In 2003, NBC News reported: Armstrong and former Sprint CEO Bill Esrey struggled for years to understand how WorldCom could beat them so handily. "We would look at the conduct of WorldCom in terms of their pricing, revenue growth, margins, in terms of their cost structure... and the price leader almost every quarter was WorldCom," Armstrong said. Added Esrey, "We couldn't figure out how they were pricing as aggressively as they were.... How could they be so efficient in their costs and expenses?" AT&T and Sprint began cutting jobs to push down their costs to WorldCom's level. "The market said what a marvelous management job WorldCom was doing and they would look over to AT&T and say, 'these guys aren't keeping up.' So, my shareholders were hurt. We laid off tens of thousands of employees in an accelerated fashion [in a futile effort to match WorldCom's phantom profits] and I think the industry was hurt," Armstrong says. "It just wrecked the whole industry," says Esrey.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I have 2 Pints that I'm looking to get off of my hands.
I have no interest in fixing them up - I'm just kind of done with the Onewheel experience.
I know that one of them has battery issues, and it's likely the other one does too, as it's been sitting in storage for quite some time.
I live in West Virginia and have gotten no kind of interest from anyone in my area, so I'm just reaching out to see if I can maybe sell them. Or maybe I could be directed somewhere that would take them off of my hands.
Center secures first men’s title for US since 1980
Americans break Canadian hearts in overtime
It might not have been a shocker on the order of a bunch of scrappy college kids toppling the polished Soviet juggernaut at Lake Placid. But 46 years to the day of the Miracle on Ice, it often felt that way as another underdog United States men’s hockey team ended their Olympic gold drought in a white-knuckle contest dominated by Canada until Jack Hughes’ seismic overtime winner.
Call it the Marvel in Milan.
Continue reading...Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that TSA and Customs and Border Protection are "suspending courtesy and special privilege escorts."
Mexico's Ministry of Defense security forces killed the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, known as "El Mencho," in a military operation.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 23 #988.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Feb. 23, No. 722.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for Feb. 23, No. 1,710.
Google and Microsoft contributed $5 million to launch Alpha-Omega in 2022 — a Linux Foundation project to help secure the open source supply chain. But its co-founder Michael Winser warns that open source registries are in financial peril, reports The Register, since they're still relying on non-continuous funding from grants and donations. And it's not just because bandwidth is expensive, he said at this year's FOSDEM. "The problem is they don't have enough money to spend on the very security features that we all desperately need..." In a follow-up LinkedIn exchange after this article had posted, Winser estimated it could cost $5 million to $8 million a year to run a major registry the size of Crates.io, which gets about 125 billion downloads a year. And this number wouldn't include any substantial bandwidth and infrastructure donations (Like Fastly's for Crates.io). Adding to that bill is the growing cost of identifying malware, the proliferation of which has been amplified through the use of AI and scripts. These repositories have detected 845,000 malware packages from 2019 to January 2025 (the vast majority of those nasty packages came to npm)... In some cases benevolent parties can cover [bandwidth] bills: Python's PyPI registry bandwidth needs for shipping copies of its 700,000+ packages (amounting to 747PB annually at a sustained rate of 189 Gbps) are underwritten by Fastly, for instance. Otherwise, the project would have to pony up about $1.8 million a month. Yet the costs Winser was most concerned about are not bandwidth or hosting; they are the security features needed to ensure the integrity of containers and packages. Alpha-Omega underwrites a "distressingly" large amount of security work around registries, he said. It's distressing because if Alpha-Omega itself were to miss a funding round, a lot of registries would be screwed. Alpha-Omega's recipients include the Python Software Foundation, Rust Foundation, Eclipse Foundation, OpenJS Foundation for Node.js and jQuery, and Ruby Central. Donations and memberships certainly help defray costs. Volunteers do a lot of what otherwise would be very expensive work. And there are grants about...Winser did not offer a solution, though he suggested the key is to convince the corporate bean counters to consider paid registries as "a normal cost of doing business and have it show up in their opex as opposed to their [open source program office] donation budget." The dilemma was summed up succinctly by the anonymous Slashdot reader who submitted this story. "Free beer is great. Securing the keg costs money!"
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The space agency said Sunday it's targeting Tuesday for the slow, four-mile trek across Kennedy Space Center, weather permitting.
Paul Thomas Anderson drama scores six awards, as Jessie Buckley becomes first Irish woman to win leading actress prize
One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson’s counterculture comedy about a washed-up revolutionary trying to protect his daughter from a ruthless military officer, has dominated the Baftas, taking home six awards including best film, best director, best cinematography, best editing, best supporting actor and best adapted screenplay.
The film, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, was nominated for 14 awards going into Sunday’s ceremony, the most of any contender – including nods for stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Chase Infiniti and Teyana Taylor.
Continue reading...Miami star confronted officials in a doorway after 3-0 loss
League determined area was not off-limits to players
MLS has suspended players for entering officials’ room
Major League Soccer has cleared Lionel Messi of wrongdoing after the Argentinian appeared to pursue match officials after Inter Miami’s season-opening loss to LAFC on Saturday evening.
In a video posted to X by Síntesis Deportes reporter Giovanni Guerrero, Messi appears to confront match officials as they entered a doorway within the LA Coliseum after the match, a 3-0 win for LAFC. Miami forward Luis Suárez is seen restraining Messi, who slips out of his teammate’s grip and disappears behind a door. He emerged seconds later and retreated with Suárez to Miami’s locker room.
Continue reading...The American center’s overtime goal will go down in history as the United States ends its 46-year Olympic drought.
The outcry and activism of the 2010s – itself enabled by earlier generations of feminists – brought us to this moment. But if the Trump administration has its way, opposing forces will prevail
This week, for the first time since 1647, a member of the royal family was arrested in the United Kingdom, not over allegations of sexual wrongdoing but for trade-related communications with the supplier of those victims, Jeffrey Epstein, to whom he is supposed to have leaked state secrets. The public outrage in the US about Epstein forced the government to release the files, including emails between Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Epstein now under investigation in the criminal case.
The arrestee formerly known as Prince Andrew was accused by Virginia Giuffre with having had sex with her when she was a minor being trafficked by Epstein. He has always denied wrongdoing. Until his arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, only his family had held him accountable for his ongoing association with Epstein after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution. “Today our broken hearts have lifted,” Virginia Giuffre’s family stated, “at the news that no one is above the law, not even royalty.”
Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell’s Roses and the forthcoming The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change
Continue reading...Long-time Slashdot reader fahrbot-bot writes: Researchers have developed a robotic hand that can not only skitter about on its fingertips, it can also bend its fingers backward, connect and disconnect from a robotic arm, and pick up and carry one or more objects at a time. This article in Science News includes footage of the robotic arm reattaching itself to the skittering robot hand, which can also hold objects against both sides of its palm simultaneously, and "can even unscrew the cap off a mustard bottle while holding the bottle in place." With its unusual agility, it could navigate and retrieve objects in spaces too confined for human hands. When attached to the mechanical arm, the robotic hand could pick up objects much like a human hand. The bot pinched a ball between two fingers, wrapped four fingers around a metal rod and held a flat disc between fingers and palm. But the bot isn't constrained by human anatomy... When the robot was separated from the arm, it was most stable walking on four or five fingers and using one or two fingers for grabbing and carrying things, the team found. In one set of trials with both bots, the hand detached from the robotic arm and used its fingers as legs to skitter over to a wooden block. Once there, it picked up the block with one finger and carried it back to the arm. The crawling bot could one day aid in industrial inspections of pipes and equipment too small for a human or larger robot to access, says Xiao Gao, a roboticist now at Wuhan University in China. It might retrieve objects in a warehouse or navigate confined spaces in disaster response efforts.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fresh Geneva negotiations suggest Trump’s team believes the Iranian government is making serious proposals
Iran and the US are expected to meet for a further round of talks in Geneva this week in a sign that Donald Trump’s team believes Tehran is making serious proposals to dilute its stockpile of highly enriched uranium and show it is not seeking a nuclear weapon.
As fears loomed of renewed conflict after Washington carried out a major redeployment of military assets to the region, the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said he thought there was still a good chance of finding a diplomatic solution.
Continue reading...Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey include wide range of body shapes on catwalks
Body diversity has made a comeback at London fashion week despite a wider shift towards ultra-thinness in the fashion industry.
Emerging designers including Karoline Vitto, Phoebe English and Sinead Gorey included a wide range of body shapes on catwalks over the past four days. Sizes have ranged from a UK size 10-16, a category referred to as mid-size in the industry, to plus-size, also known as curve models, which measures from a UK size 18 upwards. Sample size, often referred to as straight models, ranges from a UK 4-8.
Continue reading...Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran has "every right to enjoy a peaceful nuclear energy, including enrichment" as the U.S. pushes for a deal on its nuclear program.
 | so just yesterday my pint x started making a grinding sound when I'm riding. This happens every one kna while, but now it's every time. it feels like it's skipping gears or something cause it over corrects for balance ive noticed. I looked around and saw maybe loose cables, so I checked all the connections and it was still making the sound. I noticed that the bolts on the motor were loose, so I tightened them down and it seems to have sorta fixed it, from my 30s ride. I don't want to damage my board even more, so I'm here. I also check the axle bolts and they seem fine. [link] [comments] |
The following is the transcript of the interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 22, 2026.
Reform UK leader flew to the Maldives for a day despite not having permit to visit nearby archipelago
Nigel Farage has been accused of “performing Maga stunts” after claiming the British government stopped him from travelling to the Chagos Islands on a humanitarian mission.
The Reform UK leader said he had flown to the Maldives to join a delegation bringing aid to four Chagossians who are trying to establish a settlement on one of the archipelago’s islands to protest against Britain’s plans to transfer control of the territory to Mauritius.
Continue reading...Investigation under way regarding death of Cpl Lucy Wilde, 25, who prince said ‘served with courage and distinction’
Prince William has paid tribute to a young army medic found dead in her barracks who “served with courage and distinction”.
Cpl Lucy Wilde, 25, who posted videos on TikTok documenting her daily life in the army, was found dead in her barracks in Warminster, Wiltshire, on 5 February. An investigation is under way, the Ministry of Defence said.
Continue reading...Authorities say agents confronted a white male in his early 20s carrying shotgun and gasoline can early Sunday
The US Secret Service shot and killed an armed intruder who breached the perimeter of Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence and private club in Palm Beach, early on Sunday.
Although the US president often spends weekends at the oceanfront resort, he was at the White House in Washington during this incident, as was the first lady, Melania Trump.
Continue reading...Jamieson Greer also said US won’t pull out of deals with UK, EU and others after court declared Trump tariffs illegal
Top US trade negotiator Jamieson Greer insisted on Sunday that the Trump administration was set to persist with its tariffs policy, two days after the supreme court declared many of Donald Trump’s tariffs illegal.
The ruling issued on Friday by the highest US court was a sharp rebuke to the Republican president that toppled a key pillar of his aggressive economic agenda – even as it prompted Trump to announce a new global tariff using different statutes, albeit temporary.
Continue reading...DHS official reportedly says Global Entry program would remain halted amid partial government shutdown
The Department of Homeland Security partially reversed course Sunday morning on an order that had suspended the TSA PreCheck and Global Entry airport security programs as a result of staffing shortages caused by the partial government shutdown.
“TSA PreCheck remains operational with no change for the traveling public,” the Transportation Security Administration said in a social media post. “As staffing constraints arise, TSA will evaluate on a case by case basis and adjust operations accordingly.”
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
Continue reading...On this "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" broadcast, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer join Margaret Brennan.
Imagine a 280-unit apartment complex offering no on-site leasing office with a human agent for questions. "Instead, the entire process has been outsourced to AI..." reports SFGate, "from touring to signing the lease to completing management tasks once you actually move in." Now imagine it's far more than just one apartment complex... At two other Jack London Square apartment buildings, my initial interactions were also with a robot. At the Allegro, my fiance and I entered the leasing office for our tour and asked for "Grace P," the leasing agent who had emailed us. "Oh, that's just our AI assistant," the woman at the front desk told us... At Aqua Via, another towering apartment complex across the street, I emailed back and forth with a very helpful and polite "Sofia M." My pal Sofia seemed so human-like in her responses that I did not realize she was AI until I looked a little closer at a text she'd sent me. "Msgs may be AI or human generated...." [S]he continued to text me for weeks after I'd moved on, trying to win me back. When I looked at the fine print, I realized both of these complexes were using EliseAI, a leading AI housing startup that claims to be involved in managing 1 in 6 apartments in the U.S... [50 corporate landlords have funded a VC named RET Ventures to invest in and deploy rental-automating AI, and SFGate's reporter spoke to partner Christopher Yip.] According to Yip, AI is common in large apartment complexes not just in the tech-centric Bay Area, but across the entire country. It all kicked off at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he said, when contactless, self-guided apartment tours and completely virtual tours where people rented apartments sight unseen became commonplace. Technology's infiltration into the renting process has only grown deeper in the years since, Yip said, mirroring how pervasive AI has become in many other facets of our lives. "From an industry perspective, it's really about meeting the renter where they are," Yip said. He pointed to how many renters now prefer to interact through text and email, and want to tour apartments at their convenience — say, at 7 p.m. after work, when a typical leasing office might be closed. The latest updates in technology not only allow you to take a self-guided tour with AI unlocking the door for you, but also to ask AI questions by conversing with voice AI as you wander through the kitchen and bedroom at your leisure. And while a human leasing agent might ghost you for days or weeks at a time, AI responds almost instantly — EliseAI typically responds within 30 seconds, [said Fran Loftus, chief experience officer at EliseAI]... [I]n some scenarios, the goal does seem to be to eliminate humans entirely. "We do have long-term plans of building fully autonomous buildings," Loftus said.... "We think there's a time and a place for that, depending on the type of property. But really right now, it's about helping with this crazy turnover in this industry." The reporter says they missed the human touch, since "The second AI was involved, the interaction felt cold. When a human couldn't even be bothered to show up to give me a tour, my trust evaporated." But they conclude that in the years ahead, human landlords offering tours "will probably go the way of landlines and VCRs."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
After Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, officials said ‘nobody is above the law’. Sadly that doesn’t seem true
Schadenfreude isn’t a particularly noble sentiment. But who cares, eh? These days bad things never seem to happen to bad people; accountability is fleetingly rare. So I think we should all take a moment to really appreciate how glorious the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office on Thursday was. Not only was the disgraced royal dragged in for questioning like a mere commoner; the arrest happened on his 66th birthday. Instead of birthday cake, he got his just deserts. And, to top things off, the occasion was immortalized with a photo – an instant classic – of Andrew leaving the police station looking shellshocked and decrepit.
Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...Letter to Shabana Mahmood describes controls that could block British dual citizens’ entry to UK as ‘unacceptable’
The Liberal Democrats have called on the home secretary to “move at speed” to delay the rollout of new border controls that could result in British dual nationals being blocked from entering the country.
A letter sent by the party to Shabana Mahmood echoes one sent by the former Conservative cabinet minister David Davis on Friday asking for a grace period to be implemented urgently after one of his constituents living in the Netherlands told how she could no longer visit her dying mother in a care home in Yorkshire.
Continue reading...US secret service and local police officers shot and killed an intruder armed with a shotgun early on Sunday after he breached the perimeter at Donald Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, law enforcement officials said. Trump was not at his residence at the time
Continue reading...  | Hey Y’all, I recently converted my XR to XRV, and I love it sooooo much, but I think I converted the wrong board. I think I like riding the pint s better. They are both solid boards, and for different uses. I just love the carviness of the pint. I’m only going to keep one board, but I need help deciding if I should sell the pint S, keep the XRV, and just get a slightly thinner tire & better foot padding… or I just sell the XRV, and convert the pint as it is? I’m about 200 lbs, 6’2, so the XR undoubtedly fits my feet better, I just wish it carved like the pint. [link] [comments] |
Your $1,000 laptop deserves a protective home on the road. A tech journalist and frequent traveler recommends his nine favorites
The four best personal-item backpacks that fit under US airline seats
Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things
Whether you’re flying across the country on vacation, meeting with an important client downtown or just heading to your local coffee shop for work, there is a good chance you’re bringing a backpack along, with a laptop squirreled away inside.
While you can toss a laptop into just about any bag, the best laptop backpacks are specially tailored to pamper what is probably one of your most expensive (and delicate) possessions. That means a padded pocket lined with soft non-scratch material, easy access to your computer without unpacking everything and lots of extra pockets for portable mice, chargers and other accessories. Add in all of the standard backpack considerations such as capacity, comfort and durability, and you have a lot of factors to consider.
Best overall:
Mission Workshop Meridian backpack
Best for travel:
Peak Design Travel Backpack
After decades of American children routinely receiving polio vaccines, the virus that had doomed many to paralysis was nearly eliminated in the United States. But vaccine avoidance today may allow the crippling disease to return.
 | Testing the Neo 2. I clenched my cheeks going through the gates but it worked out! [link] [comments] |
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said "stand by" the trade deal agreements it has signed with its partners despite the Supreme Court's tariff decision.
Trump says he’s sending a ship to care for Greenland’s sick. But the territory doesn’t want the help and the U.S. appears to have no hospital ships available to send.
Friday Amazon published a blog post "to address the inaccuracies" in a Financial Times report that the company's own AI tool Kiro caused two outages in an AWS service in December. Amazon writes that the "brief" and "extremely limited" service interruption "was the result of user error — specifically misconfigured access controls — not AI as the story claims." And "The Financial Times' claim that a second event impacted AWS is entirely false." The disruption was an extremely limited event last December affecting a single service (AWS Cost Explorer — which helps customers visualize, understand, and manage AWS costs and usage over time) in one of our 39 Geographic Regions around the world. It did not impact compute, storage, database, AI technologies, or any other of the hundreds of services that we run. The issue stemmed from a misconfigured role — the same issue that could occur with any developer tool (AI powered or not) or manual action. We did not receive any customer inquiries regarding the interruption. We implemented numerous safeguards to prevent this from happening again — not because the event had a big impact (it didn't), but because we insist on learning from our operational experience to improve our security and resilience. Additional safeguards include mandatory peer review for production access. While operational incidents involving misconfigured access controls can occur with any developer tool — AI-powered or not — we think it is important to learn from these experiences.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | would I need the footpad connector or the motor connector, or would my xrc already have ones that would work? Also, is their tool kit really needed? [link] [comments] |
Promise comes as minister admits to ‘uncertainty’ about new 15% levy on imports from around the world
The US will not back out of tariff deals it has already sealed with countries around the world, including the UK, the EU, Japan, Switzerland and others, Donald Trump’s trade representative Jamieson Greer said on Sunday.
The US supreme court ruled on Friday that many of the tariffs imposed by the US president were illegal, leading Trump to announce a new 15% global tariff on all imports the next day.
Continue reading...American fractured tibia in downhill last week
Skier is recovering from injuries in US
Lindsey Vonn has hit back at the “haters” who were critical of her decision to take part at this year’s Winter Olympics.
The American crashed out early in her run during the women’s downhill competition during the opening weekend of this month’s Games. She suffered a complex tibia fracture and underwent multiple surgeries in Italy before being flown back to the US for further treatment earlier this week.
Continue reading...U.S. ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, made his comments during an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that aired Friday.
An armed man was shot and killed early Sunday morning after "unauthorized entry" into the secure perimeter at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, the U.S. Secret Service said.
After the thrilling 2-1 overtime victory against Canada, Team USA hockey players skated around the rink while holding Johnny Gaudreau's number 13 jersey.
The following is the transcript of the interview with U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 22, 2026.
The following is the transcript of the interview with Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank president, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 22, 2026.
The following is the full transcript of the interview with Govs. Laura Kelly of Kansas, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, Mike Braun of Indiana and Mike DeWine of Ohio that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Feb. 22, 2026.
Team USA added another gold medal to its tally on Sunday, when the U.S. men's hockey team beat Team Canada.
A software engineer tried steering his robot vacuum with a videogame controller, reports Popular Science — but ended up with "a sneak peak into thousands of people's homes." While building his own remote-control app, Sammy Azdoufal reportedly used an AI coding assistant to help reverse-engineer how the robot communicated with DJI's remote cloud servers. But he soon discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries. The backend security bug effectively exposed an army of internet-connected robots that, in the wrong hands, could have turned into surveillance tools, all without their owners ever knowing. Luckily, Azdoufal chose not to exploit that. Instead, he shared his findings with The Verge, which quickly contacted DJI to report the flaw... He also claims he could compile 2D floor plans of the homes the robots were operating in. A quick look at the robots' IP addresses also revealed their approximate locations. DJI told Popular Science the issue was addressed "through two updates, with an initial patch deployed on February 8 and a follow-up update completed on February 10."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The reversal came after discussions with the White House and TSA, an official said. DHS will still suspend the Global Entry program as the partial shutdown continues.
Country wins most golds (18) in Winter Games history
USA, GB and Australia also set team records
Norwegians put emphasis on participation
Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations.
The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals). Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all but seven other countries at this year’s Games.
Continue reading...Astronauts could be using smartphones to capture lunar selfies and more.
A model unit of the T1 seen by The Verge shows specs and pricing that don't match what's advertised on the Trump Mobile website.
Team USA are the men’s Olympic champions for the first time since 1980 after Jack Hughes scored a dramatic winner
Away we go …
What else has happened at the Games today? And what were some of the highlights of the past two weeks and change? Check our multisport coverage:
Continue reading...US win third Olympic gold, first since Miracle on Ice
Jack Hughes’ golden goal ends 46-year wait in Milan
The United States claimed their third Olympic men’s hockey title – and first since the Miracle on Ice team of 1980 – with a thrilling 2-1 overtime win over Canada in Sunday’s gold medal game at the Milano Cortina Games. In the third Olympic final meeting between the border rivals and the first since Sidney Crosby’s epochal golden goal in 2010, the Americans seized their moment to end a 46-year wait and dethrone the sport’s most decorated nation on its grandest stage.
Canada had been chasing a record-extending 10th gold medal in men’s ice hockey, but it was the United States who delivered when it mattered most through Jack Hughes’ winner less than two minutes into the extra period and a superhuman effort from goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, capping an unbeaten run through the first Olympic tournament to feature National Hockey League players in 12 years.
Continue reading...‘Moscow continues to invest in strikes more than diplomacy,’ says Zelenskyy, as logistics and energy facilities targeted
Russia has fired scores of missiles and drones at targets across Ukraine, flattening a residential house in the capital, two days before the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Kremlin had launched 297 drones and nearly 50 missiles on Sunday, in the latest in a wave of overnight strikes. He said “a significant proportion” had been shot down as he called on allies to strengthen the country’s air defences against enemy attacks.
Continue reading...Eddie Hill, 20, and Jayden Long, 19, found dead on Yr Wyddfa in north Wales after a huge search operation
Tributes have been paid to two young men who died on a hiking expedition on Yr Wyddfa, also known as Snowdon, in north Wales.
Eddie Hill, 20, and Jayden Long, 19, both from Norfolk, were found dead in Eryri national park on Thursday after a huge search operation in severe winter conditions.
Continue reading...Arab and Islamic governments issue statement denouncing comments made on Tucker Carlson podcast
Governments from across the Islamic world have condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, suggesting it would “be fine” for Israel to claim a broad swath of the Middle East.
Huckabee, an evangelical Christian pastor and former Arkansas governor, has long been an outspoken supporter of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territories.
Continue reading...European leaders said in December that Europe was ready to lead a “multinational force” in Ukraine as part of a peace agreement proposal
Searches are expected to continue today at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s previous home – Royal Lodge, in Windsor – as calls grow for a probe into the former prince’s links with Jeffrey Epstein.
Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s police and crime correspondent, Vikram Dodd, about what could be next for Andrew here:
If the government bring forward this bill with the support of the King then we will back it. We have to be realistic. Andrew is the eighth in line to the throne, so there’s no chance of him becoming our monarch.
And so parliament really should be focused on things that are of more importance to the public, whether that’s the economy, crime, the health service, immigration. But if the bill does come before parliament, then we’ll support it.
Continue reading...Lockheed Martin's F-35 combat aircraft is a supersonic stealth "strike fighter." But this week the military news site TWZ reports that the fighter's "computer brain," including "its cloud-based components, could be cracked to accept third-party software updates, just like 'jailbreaking' a cellphone, according to the Dutch State Secretary for Defense." TWZ notes that the Dutch defense secretary made the remarks during an episode of BNR Nieuwsradio's "Boekestijn en de Wijk" podcast, according to a machine translation: Gijs Tuinman, who has been State Secretary for Defense in the Netherlands since 2024, does not appear to have offered any further details about what the jailbreaking process might entail. What, if any, cyber vulnerabilities this might indicate is also unclear. It is possible that he may have been speaking more notionally or figuratively about action that could be taken in the future, if necessary... The ALIS/ODIN network is designed to handle much more than just software updates and logistical data. It is also the port used to upload mission data packages containing highly sensitive planning information, including details about enemy air defenses and other intelligence, onto F-35s before missions and to download intelligence and other data after a sortie. To date, Israel is the only country known to have successfully negotiated a deal giving it the right to install domestically-developed software onto its F-35Is, as well as otherwise operate its jets outside of the ALIS/ODIN network. The comments "underscore larger issues surrounding the F-35 program, especially for foreign operators," the article points out. But at the same time F-35's have a sophisticated mission-planning data package. "So while jailbreaking F-35's onboard computers, as well as other aspects of the ALIS/ODIN network, may technically be feasible, there are immediate questions about the ability to independently recreate the critical mission planning and other support it provides. This is also just one aspect of what is necessary to keep the jets flying, let alone operationally relevant." "TWZ previously explored many of these same issues in detail last year, amid a flurry of reports about the possibility that F-35s have some type of discreet 'kill switch' built in that U.S. authorities could use to remotely disable the jets. Rumors of this capability are not new and remain completely unsubstantiated." At that time, we stressed that a 'kill switch' would not even be necessary to hobble F-35s in foreign service. At present, the jets are heavily dependent on U.S.-centric maintenance and logistics chains that are subject to American export controls and agreements with manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Just reliably sourcing spare parts has been a huge challenge for the U.S. military itself... F-35s would be quickly grounded without this sustainment support. [A cutoff in spare parts and support"would leave jailbroken jets quickly bricked on the ground," the article notes later.] Altogether, any kind of jailbreaking of the F-35's systems would come with a serious risk of legal action by Lockheed Martin and additional friction with the U.S. government. Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader Koreantoast for sharing the article.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The CBS News journalist's new book tells the often-overlooked stories of women who helped shape our nation, from the single female whose name appears on the Declaration of Independence, to the first Black woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court.
In her new book, the CBS News journalist highlights women who pushed America to live up to its founding promises of liberty, equality, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
The Australian-born actress earned an Academy Award nomination for her powerful performance as a mother stretched to the limits.
Emma Webber, mother of Barnaby Webber, expects ‘shocking’ failures into care of triple killer Valdo Calacone to emerge at inquiry starting on Monday
The mother of a student who was killed in the 2023 Nottingham attacks has said she will “fight to the bitter end” to get to the truth of how Valdo Calocane was free to attack, before the beginning of a public inquiry into the incident.
Barnaby Webber and Grace O’Malley-Kumar, 19-year-old students, and 65-year-old caretaker Ian Coates were fatally stabbed by Calocane on 13 June 2023 in a frenzied attack. Early the next day, Calocane drove a van into pedestrians Wayne Birkett, Sharon Miller and Marcin Gawronski, leaving all three with severe and life-changing injuries.
Continue reading...I've been using 3D printing to make useful tools and accessories around my home for years, including for my Dyson vacuums. Here's how.
The wait for new episodes is almost over.
For six decades, the investigative journalist – subject of the documentary "Cover-Up" – has exposed corruption, war crimes, and political scandals. He talks about his career; why, at age 88, he's still loves being a reporter; and where he believes America stands now.
"Sunday Morning" looks back on the life of the Baptist minister, civil rights leader and social justice activist, whose trailblazing presidential campaigns, built on a message of economic support and faith-based compassion, fostered his so-called "Rainbow Coalition."
 | Hello! I just recently swapped to Vesc on my stock GT with the GTFo Conversion kit form Fungibeers. I was wondering if there’s were any GTV or FO riders that would like to help me tune my board. I’m very new to Vesc and kinda understand how to use the app but not to its fullest potential quite yet. [link] [comments] |
Hello everyone, I’ve been a fan of OneWheel boards since the original Pint promo but never got one due to all the problems FM faced over the years and logistic issues [Asia].
Lately I got my eyes on the Pint S, what boggles my mind is that I still have to pay 70$ of “Shipping Protection” on top of already whopping 250$ of shipping + 150$ of tax and charges. Make it make sense when they won’t offer responsibility a 1400$ board to arrive safely after all that cost. Should I opt for the Ship+ Protection or pass on it ? It’s gonna go a long way from the states to SE Asia.
Also do they do any discounts throughout the year? Thanks a lot :)
 | Hey, I was wondering if there’s any GTFO or GTV Riders in this sub willing to help me tune my GTFO Vesc Board. I’ve been messing with tune modifiers and had it at a point that was fairly good, however I installed new rails and had to reset tuning so I’m back to defaults and wanted to hear some other GT Riders specs. [link] [comments] |
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions asks whether we could cope with a world where computer gave up saying no …
Readers reply: what would be the most socially useful way to spend a billion dollars?
After years of computer saying no, and giving us all migraines and premature grey hair, I’m starting to worry that computer – or rather AI large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini – are taking too much of a fancy to playing nice and saying yes. I confess to using both of these programs, but I’ve noticed that, well, it’s as if they’re trying to please, with statements like “You’re absolutely right, Jeff,” and “That’s pretty much right.” Often, when I ask, “Would you mind thinking for a bit longer on that?”, I then get another response saying: “Jeff, you’re absolutely right, again, to query that result. It turns out I was a bit hasty in my reply …”
If the world runs even more on information filleted out from the sump of the internet by LLMs, what are the consequences? Can we look forward to a future in which AI is more concerned with appearing sympathetic (getting good reviews?) than being factual? Er, a bit too human? Jeff Collett, Edinburgh
Continue reading...In the world being ushered in by Trump, power will prevail over cooperation. We will come to rue having taken this path
The Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, inspired a wave of enthusiastic nodding among the cosmopolitan crowd gathered in Davos last month when he took to the podium and proclaimed that the world order underwritten by the United States, which prevailed in the west throughout the postwar era, was over.
The organizing principle that emerged from the ashes of the second world war, that interdependence would promote world peace by knitting nations’ interests together in a drive for common security and prosperity, no longer works. The US blew it up.
Continue reading...Highly rated councilmember makes last-minute entry after endorsing former ally Karen Bass – can she build a campaign to win?
Nithya Raman, a progressive urban planner, entered Los Angeles politics with a bang when she was elected to city council in 2020, defeating an incumbent Democrat endorsed by Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.
More than five years on, the 44-year-old is making waves again with her last-minute entry into the LA mayoral race. Raman filed to run just hours before the deadline – after recently endorsing Mayor Karen Bass for re-election – to the surprise of constituents, and political allies and opponents alike.
Continue reading...Igor Tudor takes charge of Spurs for the first time in a crucial North London derby for both teams.
US president calls for removal of Susan Rice as streaming platform pursues takeover of Warner Bros Discovery
Donald Trump has told Netflix to remove the Democratic foreign policy expert Susan Rice from its board or “face the consequences”, while the streaming platform is locked in an extraordinary corporate battle to take control of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD).
In comments posted on his Truth Social platform, the US president described Rice – who served as national security adviser to Barack Obama and UN ambassador and White House adviser under Joe Biden – as a “political hack” and accused her of having “no talent or skills”.
Continue reading...If you're looking to keep track of your health, a smart scale can help by providing data on various metrics right from your bathroom.
One feature ultimately sealed the deal for me, but it might not be the one that matters most to you.
Whether you have the latest iPhone or Samsung phone, or even an older handset, you can take some beautiful nostalgic images with a bit of help. Here's how.
A goldendoodle named JetBlue was abandoned at a Las Vegas airport, sparking international interest. More than 2,700 people applied to adopt him.
A Guardian analysis finds the vast majority of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time from January to August last year had no criminal convictions
A Guardian analysis of government records has found that the vast majority – 77% – of people who entered deportation proceedings for the first time in 2025 had no criminal conviction, exposing a stark gap between the Trump administration’s rhetoric and reality.
Within days of Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trotted out a phrase that his surrogates would come to use over and over again: “the worst of the worst.”
Fewer than half of the people in the data (40%) had any criminal charge against them, and only 23% had a conviction.
Of those who did have a criminal conviction, nearly half were for non-violent traffic and immigration offenses.
Traffic offenses alone made up nearly 30% of the convictions, the largest category by far.
Some 9% of criminal convictions were for assault, while only 1% were for sexual assault and just 0.5% were for homicide.
Continue reading...Many people have been sheltering at home. Protests have become part of the daily rhythm. Community networks continue to patrol and document agents’ interactions
In St Paul, Minnesota, Brittany Kubricky pulled into a school parking lot. Normally, she was there just to pick up her daughter. But today, two of her daughter’s schoolmates also climbed into the backseat. Their mother had been sheltering at home for weeks, afraid of a run-in with federal immigration agents. So friends coordinated school pickup for her.
In December, the Trump administration launched Operation Metro Surge, deploying a reported 3,000 agents to Minnesota to target undocumented immigrants with criminal records, officials said. But in two months, agents have instead detained thousands of people, regardless of legal status, including US citizens pulled out of their cars, taken from their homes and picked up while working. Agents have also killed two Minneapolis residents – and US citizens – Renee Good and Alex Pretti, while they were monitoring Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities.
Continue reading...Former employees stepped up to create the National Public Health Coalition to advocate for public health after Trump’s cuts to the agency
Abby Tighe thought she had landed her forever job. She joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in December 2023, managing a national youth substance abuse prevention program. The project focused on rural communities, and Tighe, whose family is from Appalachia, was proud to be using her public health training to support often-overlooked parts of the country. “The CDC was different than anywhere else I’ve worked,” says Tighe. “People didn’t care about their own ambitions as much as they cared about the larger mission. It was always my dream to work there.”
That dream ended a year ago, when Tighe received a form email on 14 February letting her know the Trump administration was firing her. Classified as a probationary worker, she was one of the first to lose her job in what quickly became a dramatic downsizing of the CDC workforce. To date, the current administration has either fired or is in the process of firing more than 4,000 CDC employees – a third of the agency.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Police Federation condemns deployment of US firm’s tech to analyse behaviour as ‘automated suspicion’
Scotland Yard is using AI tools supplied by the US tech company Palantir to monitor staff behaviour in an attempt to root out failing officers, the Guardian has learned.
The Metropolitan police has previously declined to confirm or deny whether it used technology supplied by the company, which also works for the Israeli military and Donald Trump’s ICE operation. It has now confirmed that it is using Palantir’s AI to analyse internal data about sickness levels, absences from duty and overtime patterns in an effort to identify potential shortcomings in professional standards.
Continue reading...In April 2024, college student Sade Robinson, 19, went on a first date and never came home. Her car was found set on fire 3 miles from her apartment. Using data from an app on her phone, law enforcement began to piece together where she went — and who she was with.
The 22-year-old Gu, American-born but competing for her mother's homeland of China, is already the most decorated freeskier in the short history of the sport at the Olympics.
Official US social media accounts posted about rise of ‘violent radical leftism’ after killing of Quentin Deranque
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has said he will summon Charles Kushner, the US ambassador to France, over comments related to the killing of the French far-right activist Quentin Deranque.
Deranque was beaten to death in Lyon last week during a fight with allegedly hard-left activists.
Continue reading...This somewhat obscure feature in the latest iPhone system can delivery more battery power during your day.
When you don't need a tablet to do everything, this one does the basics well for a reasonable price.
The future of the home is taking shape. After a massive three-day home, kitchen and bath showcase in Orlando, these are the innovations that stood out.
In an edited extract from her latest book, Hazel Sheffield sets out a new blueprint for community stewardship
It was a Saturday in February 2020 when the flood came. It had been a wet winter, so wet it seemed that before the month was out, the brown trout of the River Taff might be washed clean out into Cardiff Bay before the fishing season had even begun. But this is Wales. People are used to a spot of rain. No one realised how bad it would get.
For two days, it hammered on the windows of the houses at the top of the South Wales Valleys, where people tucked in their children before a sleepless night. It poured into the rivers at the bottom. By the time the rain departed again, many people would be standing in water up to their knees.
Continue reading...Battle-tested Ukrainian startup that advertises a ‘Killbox’ drone recruited Prince as non-executive chair
After multiple sources previously told the Guardian that Erik Prince – Maga ally and founder of the now defunct mercenary company Blackwater – was looking to work with Ukraine’s invaluable drone sector, recent Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) documents confirm he now is.
Swarmer, which bills itself as a battle-tested Ukrainian startup specializing in autonomous drone software, filed for an initial public offering and has recruited Prince to help sell the company as non-executive chair.
Continue reading...Weak connections known as ‘bridge ties’ cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. We must restore this connective tissue
The first time a woman I’ll call Shoshana went toBrandi Carlile’s music festival, she arrived alone. She had just been through another unsuccessful round of IVF. During one of the songs, about motherhood, she began to cry in the middle of the crowd. Then two women she had never met stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing slowed.
“That’s when I realized,” Shoshana told me in an interview, “this place isn’t just about music.”
Eva M Meyersson Milgrom is a social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, where she was affiliated with the department of sociology, the Institute of Economic Policy, and the Graduate School of Business. She is working on a book on the importance of diversifying our social networks
Continue reading...Self-declared sleuths have inserted themselves into the search for Nancy Guthrie, compromising the investigation for views and clicks
On the 10th day of the search for Nancy Guthrie, reporters camped outside of the missing woman’s home noticed a strange man strut right up to the front door. It had been more than a week since the mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie had disappeared, and authorities had just announced they had a new lead from Ring footage of what looked like a “potential subject” attempting to tamper with the doorbell camera on the morning of her disappearance. So now who was this unknown person, clad in a gray top and black pants, carrying a large black bag and striding to the door?
It was a Domino’s delivery driver.
Continue reading...Bridget Phillipson says government is ‘not taking away support’ as she prepares to announce changes
Bridget Phillipson has pledged that under the government’s overhaul of the special educational needs system it will take weeks for children to get access to support, not months or years – as she prepares to announce the controversial changes.
Speaking before publication of the white paper on the overhaul, the education secretary said children with special needs would be treated as “integral to the school system” rather than as a carved-out issue. She said the changes would be brought in as part of a “decade-long shift” to give schools and families time to adjust.
Continue reading...Upping tariffs may have lifted the president’s mood but it is a headache for the Federal Reserve and its next chair
Donald Trump and Denis Healey don’t have much in common. One of the greatest prime ministers Britain never had shares little of his famous hinterland with what some historians see as one of the worst occupants of the White House.
But Trump would be well advised to remember Healey’s first law of holes – when you’re in one, stop digging
Continue reading...Programmer/entrepreneur Paul Ford is the co-founder of AI-driven business software platform Aboard. This week he wrote a guest essay for the New York Times titled "The AI Disruption Has Arrived, and It Sure Is Fun," arguing that Anthropic's Claude Code "was always a helpful coding assistant, but in November it suddenly got much better, and ever since I've been knocking off side projects that had sat in folders for a decade or longer... [W]hen the stars align and my prompts work out, I can do hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of work for fun (fun for me) over weekends and evenings, for the price of the Claude $200-a-month." He elaborates on his point on the Aboard.com blog: I'm deeply convinced that it's possible to accelerate software development with AI coding — not deprofessionalize it entirely, or simplify it so that everything is prompts, but make it into a more accessible craft. Things which not long ago cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to pull off might come for hundreds of dollars, and be doable by you, or your cousin. This is a remarkable accelerant, dumped into the public square at a bad moment, with no guidance or manual — and the reaction of many people who could gain the most power from these tools is rejection and anxiety. But as I wrote.... I believe there are millions, maybe billions, of software products that don't exist but should: Dashboards, reports, apps, project trackers and countless others. People want these things to do their jobs, or to help others, but they can't find the budget. They make do with spreadsheets and to-do lists. I don't expect to change any minds; that's not how minds work. I just wanted to make sure that I used the platform offered by the Times to say, in as cheerful a way as possible: Hey, this new power is real, and it should be in as many hands as possible. I believe everyone should have good software, and that it's more possible now than it was a few years ago. From his guest essay: Is the software I'm making for myself on my phone as good as handcrafted, bespoke code? No. But it's immediate and cheap. And the quantities, measured in lines of text, are large. It might fail a company's quality test, but it would meet every deadline. That is what makes A.I. coding such a shock to the system... What if software suddenly wanted to ship? What if all of that immense bureaucracy, the endless processes, the mind-boggling range of costs that you need to make the computer compute, just goes? That doesn't mean that the software will be good. But most software today is not good. It simply means that products could go to market very quickly. And for lots of users, that's going to be fine. People don't judge A.I. code the same way they judge slop articles or glazed videos. They're not looking for the human connection of art. They're looking to achieve a goal. Code just has to work... In about six months you could do a lot of things that took me 20 years to learn. I'm writing all kinds of code I never could before — but you can, too. If we can't stop the freight train, we can at least hop on for a ride. The simple truth is that I am less valuable than I used to be. It stings to be made obsolete, but it's fun to code on the train, too. And if this technology keeps improving, then all of the people who tell me how hard it is to make a report, place an order, upgrade an app or update a record — they could get the software they deserve, too. That might be a good trade, long term.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
On the front line of the war on AI, these people are fighting for a better internet.
Welsh Rugby Union is to cut number of professional teams from four to three, with Ospreys the likely choice
For Ian Gough, a lock forward who had been dropped by the Wales national rugby union team, signing with Swansea’s Ospreys in 2007 was life-changing: he credits his time at the club with resurrecting his international career.
“It was great fun playing for the Ospreys,” he said. “They did it the hard way, ground their way up, and the supporters embraced that identity and went with them on that journey to becoming a good side.
Continue reading...The Tricky Trees look to build on encouraging European win as they host the top-five chasing Reds in the English Premier League.
Coaching from artificial intelligence chatbots, personalized and accessible at any time, is now shaping how some students write.
The Pennsylvania governor and Democratic star is embroiled in a dispute with his neighbor that has escalated into an unlikely political saga.
Friedrich Merz to meet Xi Jinping in Beijing, with goods worth €251bn traded between two countries in 2025
China has overtaken the US as Germany’s top trading partner, figures have shown, as the chancellor, Friedrich Merz, prepares for his first visit to Beijing since taking office.
Merz will head to China on Tuesday and will be welcomed with military honours on Wednesday in Beijing by the prime minister, Li Qiang, before later meeting the president, Xi Jinping, for talks over dinner, his spokesperson Sebastian Hille said.
Continue reading...Puerto Rican rapper speaks at concert of Colón’s influence after trombonist, vocalist and composer dies aged 75
Tributes have poured in from stars including Bad Bunny for Willie Colón, the pioneering trombonist, vocalist and composer who died on Saturday aged 75.
With more than 30m albums sold, multiple platinum records and 11 combined Grammy and Latin Grammy nominations, Colón is among the most successful salsa artists of all time.
Continue reading...Defence minister rebuffs US president’s claim that Arctic islanders are ‘not being taken care of’
Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries, Denmark has said, after Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he wants to acquire.
“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland,” the country’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, told the Danish broadcaster DR on Sunday.
Continue reading...Hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for month-long display of 13th-century saint’s remains
Saint Francis of Assisi’s skeleton is going on full public display from Sunday for the first time, in a move that is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors.
Inside a nitrogen-filled case with the Latin inscription “Corpus Sancti Francisci” (the body of Saint Francis), the remains are being shown in the Italian hillside town’s Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.
Continue reading...From opposing apartheid in South Africa to supporting Palestinian rights, the US civil rights leader left his mark across the globe
When Jesse Jackson called for the Democratic party platform to include Palestinian statehood, the pushback was fierce. “While we had strong support from delegates at the convention, there was still a fear factor that the issue couldn’t be discussed,” recalls James Zogby, who was deputy manager of Jackson’s presidential campaign. “I was told by the [nominee Michael] Dukakis negotiators, if you even say the P-word, you’ll destroy the Democratic party.”
Jackson’s effort did not succeed at the 1988 Democratic National Convention in Atlanta. But 10 Democratic state parties had already passed resolutions in favour of Palestinian self-determination. And as the decades rolled by, more and more progressives came to share Jackson’s stance. Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute, reflects: “He was way ahead of the base. Even the activists who supported Palestinians did not have the same depth of understanding.”
Continue reading...Lisa Rae Moss — serving a life sentence for her involvement in the 1990 murder of her husband, Mike Moss — sat in the witness box in a courtroom in Seminole, Oklahoma, on a frigid January morning in 2025, her hands knotted in her lap. Moss, who is 60, was asked to recount what she endured in her 20s, during her marriage to a volatile man a dozen years her senior. Her long silver hair and prison-issued glasses accentuated the years between her and the younger self she was describing.
“Did Mike ever use a gun on you in the bedroom?” her lawyer, Colleen McCarty, asked.
“He had a gun that usually lay on top of the chest of drawers at night,” Moss said quietly. She explained that her husband would place it there before they went to bed.
“There were a number of occasions where he took the gun — and I wasn’t in the mood to have sex and I didn’t want to have sex — and he would move the gun up and down my inner thigh and then lay it on the pillow next to the bed.” She stopped to correct herself: “Next to my head, I’m sorry.”
Under her lawyer’s questioning, Moss described a pattern of abuse that began six months after their wedding, when her husband grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the fireplace. She recalled how, during an argument, he tried to shove a tennis ball into her mouth. How she was knocked unconscious when he once slammed her head against their refrigerator so hard that it left a dent. How he repeatedly punched her in the stomach when she was pregnant with their son. How he raped her multiple times, once with a curling iron — an assault that caused lasting injuries. “I bled every day for five years until I finally had a hysterectomy,” she said. When her 4-year-old daughter from a previous marriage complained that Mike had done something to make her bottom hurt, Moss feared he was sexually abusing her little girl, too.
“Were you afraid for your life?” McCarty said.
Moss nodded. “Absolutely.”
Her testimony put her at the center of an extraordinary legal experiment unfolding in Oklahoma, where a new state law, the Oklahoma Survivors’ Act, passed in 2024, offers prisoners like her a chance at freedom. Under the law, a domestic-violence victim who is serving time can petition for a reduced sentence, which the law mandates if a judge decides that the abuse she endured was a “substantial contributing factor” to her crime.
Moss was the first to get her day in court and test whether the law could deliver on its promise. Unlike most other defendants in cases the statute was intended to remedy, Moss did not carry out the violence herself. She was not present when her older brother, Richard Wright, shot her husband. But at her 1990 trial, prosecutors argued that she had solicited and helped orchestrate the killing, introducing testimony that she once asked an acquaintance to “get rid of” her husband in exchange for an initial payment of $500. She was convicted of first-degree murder and lesser charges and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. (Her brother is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.)
The question before the court that morning in Seminole was not one of guilt or innocence; it was whether Moss’ punishment failed to account for the role that years of physical and sexual abuse played in her crime. McCarty called Margaret Black, a licensed counselor specializing in domestic violence, to the stand. Black, who had evaluated Moss, explained that each time Moss tried to leave her husband, the violence escalated. Black described a lethality assessment she had conducted to measure the risk Moss faced of being killed or seriously injured. “Eighteen and above is what’s called extreme danger,” Black said. In Moss’ case, her review of the evidence led her to assign a score of 24. “This was a very, very dangerous situation for Lisa and her children.”
That afternoon, District Judge C. Steven Kessinger announced that he had reached a decision. “The court finds that the defendant has provided clear and convincing evidence that she was a survivor of domestic violence, having endured physical, sexual and psychological abuse,” he told the crowded courtroom. “The court further finds that such violence and abuse was a substantial contributing factor in causing the defendant to commit the offenses for which she is presently incarcerated.” Under the statute, this finding made her eligible for a sentence of 30 years or fewer — and because she had already served more than that, the judge ordered her to be freed that day.
The exultation that broke out inside the courtroom as Moss embraced her grown daughter, who was 5 when Moss was incarcerated, soon reached Mabel Bassett Correctional Center. The prison, a low sprawl of concrete and razor wire that sits on the outskirts of the small town McLoud, was where Moss had spent virtually all her adult life. One of Moss’ oldest friends there, April Wilkens, was bent over the tablet that connected her with the outside world when she received a text message with the news of the judge’s ruling. She leaped off her bunk and ran out of her cell, shouting, “Lisa’s going home!”
The prison’s day room erupted at the news of Moss’ release. The outpouring of joy was about more than one woman’s walking free. Moss’ lawyer, McCarty, had identified dozens of other prisoners at Mabel Bassett, including Wilkens, who she believed would qualify for relief under the new law, and the hearing suggested they had reason to hope. “The feeling was electric — pure elation,” Wilkens told me. “Our survivor exodus had begun.”
When Wilkens returned to her tablet, she saw a text from McCarty: “You’re next!”
Wilkens first met McCarty when the lawyer came to visit her at Mabel Bassett, Oklahoma’s largest women’s prison, in the summer of 2022. Wilkens was serving a life sentence for shooting and killing her ex-fiancé after years of abuse and stalking and indifference from the police. She had already spent 24 years behind bars. McCarty had just founded the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, and in Wilkens’ case, she saw an opportunity to compel the justice system to do what it rarely did: revisit harsh punishments that the criminal-justice system had long treated as final.
For years, only a handful of states had tried to grapple with cases like Moss’ and Wilkens’, and even then, survivors faced steep barriers to having their sentences reconsidered. That began to change in 2019, when New York passed a law empowering judges to reduce sentences when they found that abuse had been a “significant contributing factor” to a defendant’s crime.
Accompanying McCarty that day was Leslie Briggs, another lawyer who would later become the center’s legal director. Briggs had learned of Wilkens’ case from Wilkens’ niece, who had collected boxes and boxes of records related to her aunt’s conviction. The two lawyers had reviewed the transcripts of the long-forgotten case and saw Wilkens’ prosecution as a stark example of a justice system that often fails to stop abusers but proves swift to punish those who fight back.
The case had particular resonance for McCarty. One of her earliest memories was of her teenage sister sitting at the kitchen table one morning with a bruised eye and split lip, having been thrown down a flight of stairs by a boyfriend. McCarty’s mother had escaped an abusive relationship only to be victimized again by a different partner before McCarty graduated from high school.
The lawyers wanted to pass legislation modeled on New York’s law, the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. They thought that calling attention to Wilkens’ case, in which the abuse was both extensive and thoroughly documented, might be the way to do it. But first McCarty needed a sense of how many women were imprisoned at Mabel Bassett for crimes tied to their own abuse — a phenomenon that sentencing-reform advocates call criminalized survivorship.
Though there was no system to identify these women within the prison, Wilkens came up with a solution: She wrote an informal questionnaire aimed at survivors of domestic violence. A friend of hers inside the penitentiary managed to type up and print hundreds of copies, and that September, Wilkens and her contacts in other parts of the prison began circulating them. (“It certainly helps to have friends in low places,” Wilkens told me.) The questionnaire asked each respondent to provide the length of her sentence, the county of her conviction and an account of her crime, and to mail the responses to Appleseed’s office in Tulsa.
One hundred and fifty-six questionnaires arrived over the course of several weeks in the fall of 2022. Each envelope held a harrowing narrative, some in polite, looping script, some in block letters. The respondents were Black and white, Native American and Hispanic, young and old, from big cities and small towns. “I kept begging for a divorce, and he’d threaten to kill my children.” “His wife before me had her nose broken twice.” “Whenever I didn’t want to have sex with him, he would twist my wrists as far as he could until I gave in to him.” Another woman recounted the feeling of liberation she felt behind bars, where her partner could no longer hurt her: “I was in a very abusive, sick relationship,” she wrote. “I am FREE now.” A few were vague about their crimes. Others were blunt: “One night just snapped, shot & killed husband.”
Oklahoma consistently ranks among the states with the highest rates of domestic violence; it also has one of the highest rates of female imprisonment. McCarty believed the two were connected, and the surveys seemed to bear that out. Some respondents claimed to have participated in robberies or other crimes under the threat of violence from their abusers. More had been convicted under Oklahoma’s “failure to protect” law, punished for not doing enough to shield their children from the brutality of their partners, often while enduring that violence themselves. But the women serving the longest sentences were typically those who had struck back at their abusers. McCarty began talking to lawmakers about these findings, and in 2023, an early version of a domestic violence survivors’ bill was introduced.
Nothing might seem to have longer odds in deep-red Oklahoma than an effort to lessen punishments for violent crimes, but overcrowded prisons and rising costs were already forcing a rethinking of harsh, decades-old sentencing laws. In 2016, voters approved a landmark ballot initiative reducing penalties for certain low-level drug and property crimes; three years later, lawmakers made those changes retroactive, leading to one of the largest single-day prisoner releases in American history.
McCarty hoped to build on that momentum. Wilkens advocated for the bill from prison, writing an opinion piece in The Oklahoman and telling her story on a local TV-news program, and she became the focus of a social media campaign, #FreeAprilWilkens.
Not everyone in Oklahoma supported the proposed law for domestic-abuse survivors. Prosecutors warned that the statute encouraged exaggerated or bad-faith claims that would be difficult to disprove years after the fact. The law, they argued, opened a Pandora’s box — one in which potentially anyone who had suffered violence could seek a lesser punishment.
Arguing that the bill took too broad a view of who should be eligible for resentencing, the Tulsa County district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, wrote in a 2024 email to a lawmaker that the legislation “presents a risk to public safety.” He went on to cite an infamous case, which he had prosecuted, to make his point: “The Bever brothers, who slaughtered their family in Broken Arrow, would be eligible for sentence modification under this bill in its present form.”
The case, from 2015, fell well outside the law’s scope. Robert and Michael Bever had killed their parents, who a surviving sister testified were not physically abusive, and three younger siblings. The proposed legislation required that any claims of abuse be corroborated with some kind of documentary evidence — evidence that case did not have.
Kunzweiler had given voice to a broader concern among prosecutors: that undeserving and dangerous defendants could exploit the law to seek reduced sentences. Pushback from elected district attorneys led to changes in the bill; cases involving death sentences were excluded. It would take two legislative sessions and a sustained effort by a bipartisan coalition to pass a version lawmakers could agree on. The Oklahoma Survivors’ Act was signed into law in May 2024.
But its passage did not quiet criticism from the state’s district attorneys. They would play a central role in how the law was applied, because they had the authority to oppose any applications they believed were unfounded. Prosecutors could challenge a survivor’s account of abuse or argue that it played no meaningful role in the crime. A judge would make the final determination, but the law’s promise of sentence reduction would depend, in part, on the discretion of prosecutors.
New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act offered a glimpse of the challenges that lay ahead in Oklahoma. The act had produced sharply different results from county to county. In a 2025 article for The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, Alexandra Harrington, a law professor at the University at Buffalo, found that whether a defendant had her sentence reduced or not largely depended on the local district attorney.
When prosecutors supported an application for resentencing, judges frequently granted relief. When prosecutors opposed an application, only a fraction succeeded. Opposition from district attorneys was most common when the crime was seen as too egregious; or when the defendant had a criminal history or a substance abuse problem, or was perceived as aggressive or otherwise viewed as unsympathetic; or when the applicant had previously received a plea deal in the case. “In some jurisdictions, the D.A.’s office has served almost entirely to obstruct the path to relief,” Harrington wrote.
McCarty was clear-eyed when we first spoke last spring about the challenges ahead. Many of the resentencing cases she was working on — including Wilkens’ — were in Tulsa, where Kunzweiler was the top prosecutor, and they had very different visions of what justice looked like. McCarty, animated and intense, with large brown eyes that widened as she talked, spoke passionately about the possibility of second chances for those the system had failed. Kunzweiler, a phlegmatic, gray-haired career prosecutor a generation older, prized the finality of a jury verdict — and the punishment that went with it. Signaling just how seriously he took Wilkens’ request for resentencing, he had chosen to represent the state along with one of his best prosecutors, and he had repeatedly asked for more time to prepare. After numerous delays, there was still no hearing set, and McCarty was growing impatient. “We wrote this law with April in mind,” she said.
Wilkens had filed her application for resentencing on Aug. 29, 2024 — the day the law took effect — and she had expected to lead the way. But Moss was the first to receive a hearing, and in the wake of her release, four other women at Mabel Bassett were given court dates, the first of which was in July 2025. Wilkens would have to wait.
Wilkens grew up in the 1970s and early ’80s in Kellyville, a no-stoplight town, where her father’s moodiness and brute discipline dominated the household. Wilkens says he whipped her with a belt or switch for minor infractions and once punched her square in the mouth. Wilkens cultivated a sunny, high-energy persona: cheerleader, honor student, the kind of girl untouched by turmoil. She propelled herself out of Kellyville by excelling academically, graduating from high school two years early. She attended Oklahoma State University and completed a graduate program in prosthetics at Northwestern University’s medical school in Chicago.
An early marriage to her college sweetheart produced a little boy, Hunter, but ended after four years. In 1995, when she was 25, she was newly divorced, running her own prosthetics business in Tulsa and ready for a new chapter. She began dating again. Tall and willowy, with long chestnut hair and a bright smile, she drew attention.
That fall, she met Terry Carlton, who was 12 years older and the son of a prominent auto dealer. Handsome and magnetic, with an impulsive streak, he flew them first class to Dallas and hired a chauffeured limousine for their first date. He proposed two months later, on Christmas Eve, when he slipped a $25,000 engagement ring onto her finger. She did not yet know that he had both a drug problem and a history of violence with women. Two of his previous romantic partners had gone to the police to report abuse; one of them, citing repeated chokings and “severe emotional trauma,” secured a protective order against him.
Four months into Wilkens’ engagement to Carlton, he grabbed her by the throat during an argument. Afterward, he swore to her that he would never hurt her again. But over the next two years, during their on-again-off-again relationship, Wilkens called 911 at least 10 times to plead for help. She was granted three emergency protective orders and sought medical attention for injuries sustained during a rape and multiple beatings.
Police reports, medical records and trial testimony document what Wilkens endured — sometimes in full view of witnesses. A neighbor once watched as Carlton chased her down the driveway, grabbed her by the hair and dragged her, screaming, back toward her house. The same neighbor also saw him, on another occasion, pounding on Wilkens’ back door with what looked like a metal pipe. A doctor who lived across the street from Carlton discovered Wilkens in her car, bleeding, after Carlton smashed her driver-side window and grabbed her keys so she couldn’t leave.
Yet Carlton — whose family wielded influence in Tulsa — seemed untouchable. “When the police were called, his timing was impeccable,” a neighbor, Glenda McCarley, testified at Wilkens’ 1999 trial. “He could be in his car and gone just as they rounded the corner.” Officers responded but rarely intervened. Their attitude toward Wilkens was typified by one officer whom McCarley remembered as “put out, impatient, in a hurry.”
Carlton, whose sports car was often seen idling outside Wilkens’ house at odd hours of the night, was arrested only once, after the police found him at her home in February 1998, with a loaded 9-millimeter pistol and a stun gun. He faced no meaningful consequences: Rather than pursue assault or stalking charges — both felonies — the authorities cited him for a misdemeanor weapons violation. When he skipped his court date, a warrant was issued for his arrest, but the Tulsa police never enforced it.
His relentless harassment left Wilkens in a fragile state of mind; twice that spring, she was involuntarily committed to psychiatric hospitals. Her unraveling was further accelerated by a growing dependence on drugs. She would later testify that Carlton had introduced her first to cocaine, then to meth, taken intravenously. As his erratic behavior intensified, so did her drug abuse. By the time she appeared on his doorstep at around 3 a.m. on April 28 — on the day that she killed him — she was a shadow of the vibrant young woman she was when they first met.
In less than three years, she had lost everything: her business, which went under as her focus drifted; her family and friends, from whom Carlton kept her isolated; and her son, now in her ex-husband’s sole custody. She would later testify that she went to Carlton’s house in the middle of the night with a singular, desperate purpose: to beg him to leave her alone for good. Facing him directly, she would later say, seemed like the only way she could reclaim some measure of control. But the encounter quickly turned violent. She said that after she refused to have sex with him, he raped her and threatened to kill her. Eventually, she managed to grab his .22 handgun, and when he came toward her, enraged, she fired. She kept firing — eight shots in all.
After undergoing questioning and a sexual-assault exam that documented vaginal tearing, Wilkens was jailed and charged with first-degree murder.
“When in trouble, cry rape,” District Attorney Tim Harris said in closing arguments at her 1999 trial, in which prosecutors cast her as a manipulative, mentally unstable, meth-crazed fabulist who went to Carlton’s home looking for drugs and revenge. Though Wilkens’ attorney argued that she acted in self-defense because she feared for her life, Harris suggested that she and Carlton had a mutually destructive relationship, in which Wilkens — who weighed 107 pounds at the time of the murder — met Carlton’s abuse with her own aggression.
“There is no doubt he physically abused her,” Harris told the jury. “But is there not some doubt that she also abused him? He abused her, she abused him, I file a protective order, I cry rape, now I’m back, let’s get high, I hate you, I love you, you owe me money. Man, what a dysfunctional life.” Harris blamed her for resorting to violence: “If April Wilkens had really been serious about her fear of Terry Carlton, she could have allowed the system to come to her aid.” Wilkens was found guilty and sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.
Harris was succeeded 16 years later, in 2015, by Kunzweiler, who had been one of his top lieutenants. As district attorney, Kunzweiler took the same hard line on Wilkens’ case, repeatedly opposing her bids for parole. In 2022, the district attorney’s office stated in a letter to the parole board that her sentence reflected the gravity of her crime and that she should remain in prison. “She presents a risk to the safety of the public,” the letter read.
Wilkens was denied parole once again. McCarty emphasized this to lawmakers when she fought for passage of the Survivors’ Act; without a new law, Wilkens faced the prospect of remaining locked up for the rest of her life.
In June, after nearly a year of delays, a Tulsa judge scheduled Wilkens’ resentencing hearing for September. She, and the three other women who would have their hearings first, were part of the loose-knit group at Mabel Bassett that Wilkens called the “survivor sisterhood.”
Erica Harrison, the unofficial den mother to the young women in her housing unit, was serving a 20-year sentence for having shot and killed a family friend after he raped her in 2013. Norma Jane Lumpkin, whose long hair hung past her waist, was four decades into a life sentence for her role in the 1981 bludgeoning death of her husband. Tyesha Long, who is 27 — the youngest of the group and a former rodeo competitor in barrel racing — had a 27-year sentence for shooting her abusive on-again-off-again boyfriend to death in 2020. “Jane and I have both been locked up longer than Tyesha has been alive,” Wilkens told me.
Aside from minor driving infractions, none of the women had been in trouble with the law before their arrests, and Wilkens saw their crimes, like hers, as aberrations, acts she believed were inseparable from the abuse each woman had endured. Before they were led out of Mabel Bassett in handcuffs and leg irons, to face their resentencing hearings in the county courts where they were convicted, Wilkens tried to prepare them. She quoted her favorite passage from Ecclesiastes, reminding them that there is power in numbers. She urged them to listen carefully to each question when they were on the stand and to take a breath before responding. And she advised them on how to prepare for their processing photos. Don’t grimace, she told them. Your mug shot is going to be all over the local news.
Moss, the only woman who had been freed under the Survivors’ Act, attended the hearings that summer. She deliberately positioned herself where she could be seen by whichever woman from Mabel Bassett was sitting at the defense table, and she met the defendant’s gaze, offering reassurance that she was there and that she remembered exactly what this moment felt like. She made a point of looking her best, knowing that she embodied the promise of the freedom that might lie ahead. Wearing bright colors and simple but elegant jewelry, she looked polished, with her hair blown out, her nails lacquered, her lipstick fresh. After 35 years behind bars, she was not going to keep her head down. “Freedom looks good on her,” Wilkens later told me.
But it soon became clear that not everyone’s resentencing hearing would unfold the way Moss’ did in Seminole, under a different district attorney. Harrison, the first in the sisterhood to go before a judge that summer, testified in a Tulsa court in July. “I was going through a terrible divorce,” Harrison said, recalling a period when she was on her own with three children and a totaled car. “I had just left the domestic-violence shelter and moved into a little, small, no-name apartment.” Harrison had a drink with a family friend, Calvin Anderson, and passed out. She woke to find him on top of her, and after he sodomized her, she managed to fight him off. In the hours that followed, he loitered around her apartment complex, and when her eventual calls to 911 did not bring a timely response, she shot him in the parking lot.
Prosecutors challenged her account, emphasizing that elements of her story had changed since she was first questioned by the police in 2013; they capitalized on the fact that she did not call 911 right after the assault, suggesting the danger she claimed to feel afterward was invented. “At what point did he magically become a threat?” Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hilborn asked. The judge in Harrison’s case said she would hand down a ruling later that summer.
The oldest of the group, Lumpkin, appeared in court the following week. Her crime — committed with a neighbor who was also charged in connection with the killing — had been particularly gruesome. Her husband was beaten to death, his body later found in the trunk of her car. Yet it did not seem inconceivable that she might be granted some measure of leniency, because she was 75 and had been incarcerated for the past 44 years. But as Lumpkin sat at the defense table, the victim’s family delivered searing statements that undercut her long-standing claims of abuse, portraying her instead as a calculating, coldblooded killer. Lumpkin’s daughter, Alisha Keeney, who was 12 when her father was bludgeoned to death, told the court her mother had not served enough time for the brutal slaying. “That’s the only resentencing she deserves, is jail forever,” Keeney said.
Again, no immediate ruling came down from the bench. Eleven days later, Tyesha Long settled into the witness box in an Oklahoma City courtroom and recounted how a local businessman named Ray Brown began pursuing her when she was 17. Brown, who was in his early 50s, had been the subject of protective orders obtained by multiple women. The first time he was violent with her, she testified, he sucker-punched her in the mouth. He went on to stalk her, choke her, threaten her life and push her down a flight of stairs, causing her to have a miscarriage, she said. After he chased her in his car and rammed her vehicle, she received a protective order against him. But their relationship never completely ended. During one heated argument, she said, he reached for her throat — and Long, who said Brown had strangled her before, thought she was going to die. “I pulled out my gun and I shot him,” she testified.
The problem Long faced at her trial, when she argued that she acted in self-defense, was that she shot Brown in the back. This was at odds with how she remembered it, with Brown advancing toward her. Experts on domestic violence say that cases in which survivors kill their abusers often look different from typical self-defense cases, which hinge on an obvious, imminent danger, like a drawn weapon. For a survivor who has been repeatedly and continuously terrorized, the perception of being in mortal danger does not come into focus in a single, dramatic moment. She may be moved to fight back not when being attacked but in the lull between violent episodes, when the abuser is momentarily disengaged. To a jury, it may be hard to see the imminent threat in such a scenario — as when Brown turned and walked away from Long.
That gap, between how the law traditionally understands self-defense and how domestic-violence victims experience danger, is one the Survivors’ Act sought to address. Violence within intimate relationships is understood to be part of what researchers call “coercive control”: a sustained pattern of domination enforced through intimidation, threats, surveillance and social isolation. Research has shown that living under such conditions can alter threat perception and decision-making, narrowing a survivor’s perceived options when danger feels imminent. To a victim who has learned that such a moment of calm could be the prelude to the next round of violence, it may feel like her last opportunity to act before she is assaulted again.
Long had another challenge, which was that her descriptions of Brown’s abuse had varied over her police interview, her trial and now the hearing. Trauma “impacts the way our brain stores memory,” the defense’s expert witness Angela Beatty, a social worker and vice president at YWCA Oklahoma City whose work focuses on survivors of domestic violence, explained at the hearing. Such experiences, Beatty said, can fracture memory, leaving recollections fragmented rather than organized and chronological.
But Assistant District Attorney Madeline Coffey seized on those inconsistencies to argue that Long wasn’t credible. Long seemed to fold in on herself, her shoulders drawn tight and her voice barely audible, as Coffey dissected each claim: How many times, exactly, was Long strangled to the point of unconsciousness? Wasn’t the sex sometimes consensual? What was the precise number of punches Brown dealt her? “Is that testimony at trial — that he only punched you one time — different than your testimony today, that he punched you probably two times?” Coffey pressed. Again, there was no ruling from the bench, but the mood among Long’s supporters was grim. She had remained on the stand for nearly five hours.
Word of the grueling cross-examinations quickly got back to Wilkens, who was busy preparing for her upcoming hearing. Prosecutors had warned that these hearings could retraumatize victims’ families, but she could see that the hearings had also traumatized the defendants themselves. Testifying at her own trial had been an excruciating exercise, Wilkens told me, not only because describing the abuse meant reliving it. Her cross-examination — with its rapid-fire accusations, caustic tone and presumption of dishonesty — had felt eerily familiar after years of verbal abuse. It had also proved to be an impossible test. “I would challenge anyone to sit on the stand and just be berated and asked the same question 20 different times in 20 different ways,” she said. “On top of that, you’ve got an audience. It’s very public. Your whole life is laid bare for everyone to see.”
Every seat in the courtroom was taken when Wilkens’ resentencing hearing got underway in Tulsa one morning in September. Members of her family sat shoulder to shoulder with women Wilkens once served time with. Next to a group of law students who had come to observe the proceedings was Wilkens’ niece, Amanda Ross, who years earlier had first brought her aunt’s case to McCarty’s attention.
Ross, who was 7 when Wilkens was arrested, had corresponded with her aunt since elementary school. Growing up, she knew only the vague outlines of Wilkens’ case; the crime had never squared with the woman she knew. After college, Ross became a librarian and put her skills to work, trying to understand, as she traced her aunt’s odyssey through the courts, how Wilkens ended up with a life sentence. By the time of the hearing, Ross had spent nearly a decade trying to chase down every relevant document and public record. Having long since run out of space to store her growing archive, she stashed boxes of legal papers in the trunk of her Toyota Corolla.
Wilkens sat at the defense table, taking in the room; she wore no makeup, and her hair, streaked with gray, hung loose past her shoulders. She had been warned by a sheriff’s deputy not to speak to anyone, but when she spotted Lisa Rae Moss sitting in the gallery, she caught Moss’ eye and smiled.
Kunzweiler was representing the state that day alongside Meghan Hilborn, the assistant district attorney who had conducted the bruising cross-examination of Erica Harrison in July. The judge in that case announced five days earlier that she was denying Harrison relief. Though Lumpkin and Long were still awaiting rulings, there was little reason to believe they would fare differently.
In Kunzweiler’s brief opening statement, he made clear that he saw no reason for a renewed debate over Wilkens’ punishment. “Twelve men and women sat in a courtroom very much like this,” Kunzweiler said. “They saw all the evidence.” It was a pointed reminder that a jury had already weighed much of what the court was now being asked to reconsider. Invoking her “extreme methamphetamine use,” he emphasized that Wilkens sought out Terry Carlton on the morning she shot him, arriving at his house unannounced. Kunzweiler gestured toward the defense table, where Wilkens sat in a striped orange jail jumpsuit, her handcuffs padlocked to a heavy chain at her waist, her ankles shackled together in leg irons. “She sits here as a convicted murderer,” Kunzweiler said.
Despite Kunzweiler’s initial comments to the court, there was a piece of evidence that jurors at her 1999 trial had not been given to consider — a tape recording Wilkens made of a phone call between her and Carlton, in which he angrily admitted to raping, beating and choking her, while blaming her for provoking him. Now, at the hearing, it was entered into the record when the defense called a federal judge, Judge Claire Eagan of the Northern District of Oklahoma, to the stand.
Eagan had an unexpected personal connection to the case; as a lawyer in private practice in 1996, she helped Wilkens obtain an emergency protective order. She testified that when Wilkens came to her office, she had injuries that included black eyes and bruises on her face and arms. A few days later, Wilkens brought the tape recording with her and played it for Eagan. Wilkens later failed to come to court to extend the protective order, too frightened to see Carlton in person. Because she did not appear, the order was dismissed — a moment Eagan said she still remembered. “Mr. Carlton was there with his attorney,” she said. “He looked at me when it was dismissed and smiled.”
The recording was given to the court — along with police reports, protective orders and medical records — to show that Wilkens was abused by the man she killed. Wilkens, however, would not be taking the stand. After the summer’s punishing cross-examinations of the other women, Wilkens’ lawyers — Colleen McCarty and a veteran of the public defender’s office, Abby Gore — had made the difficult decision, along with Wilkens, that she should not testify. Their appraisal underscored the challenges the Survivors’ Act was encountering in the courtroom. Its most visible and articulate champion in Mabel Bassett would go unheard. The strategic calculation was made to ensure that an aggressive cross-examination did not overshadow the well-documented evidence of abuse at the heart of Wilkens’ case.
The remaining question was whether Carlton’s abuse was a substantial contributing factor, under the statute, when Wilkens killed him — a point the defense sought to establish through Angela Beatty, the social worker who previously testified at Tyesha Long’s hearing. Beatty, who had interviewed Wilkens and reviewed her medical records, said that the “coercive control” exerted by abusers like Carlton can impair survivors’ ability to weigh options and make reasoned decisions, narrowing their focus to survival. “Ms. Wilkens shared that Mr. Carlton did threaten her life that night,” Beatty said, adding that Wilkens believed she was going to die. “He told her he would kill her.”
On cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Hilborn pressed Beatty. “Can you ever tell if you’re being deceived by a victim?” she asked. “Would you agree that April Wilkens has a good reason to say certain things to you for a sentence modification?” Having cast doubt on Beatty’s objectivity, Hilborn then made the case that Wilkens’ fear may have stemmed from something other than abuse. She returned again and again to Wilkens’ substance use, emphasizing that Wilkens had used meth intravenously. “When you’re talking about her being paranoid that somebody is stalking her, are you able to tell the court that is definitively from domestic violence?” Hilborn asked. “Or can it also be caused by methamphetamine use?”
On the second day of the hearing, the state called its own witness, Jarrod Steffan, a forensic psychologist it had hired. Steffan had evaluated Wilkens and found her to be psychologically well adjusted. But her decades-old medical records, he testified, showed “she was experiencing severe mental-health issues, such as hallucinations and delusions, leading up to Mr. Carlton’s death.” He played down the impact that ongoing physical and sexual abuse may have had on her mental state: “Her actions in Mr. Carlton’s death were not due to domestic violence,” he said. “It was her mental illness and heavy meth use that led to Mr. Carlton’s death.”
A rebuttal witness called by Wilkens’ lawyers, Dr. Reagan Gill, a forensic psychiatrist, questioned Steffan’s methodology, saying that his characterization of Wilkens’ past behavior — which Steffan described in a written report as “nefarious” and “irrational” — had no place in a clinical assessment. “These are not words we use,” Gill said.
Judge David Guten did not wait to hand down a ruling. “There was more than sufficient evidence that there was violence in this relationship,” he said from the bench that afternoon. But he concluded that the defense had failed to meet the second requirement of the Oklahoma Survivor’s Act: to show, “by clear and convincing evidence,” that the abuse substantially contributed to the crime itself. Guten singled out the defense’s witness, Beatty, as too biased to render an impartial assessment, characterizing the social worker’s testimony as advocacy, not an expert opinion. “I could not give her testimony any weight,” he said. Moments later, Guten pronounced the proceedings over: “I am going to deny the request for a sentence modification.”
The morning after the hearing, I met Lisa Rae Moss in a downtown Tulsa coffee shop. Eight months had passed since she walked out of the Seminole County Courthouse. In that time, she had met her grandchildren and relearned how to drive. She had found joy in walking barefoot, and picking out produce at the grocery store, and sitting alone in silence. She had legally changed her name back to her maiden name, Wright.
She was living with Vicki Thorp, a lay pastor who visited her throughout her years in prison, and Thorp’s husband in their spacious home outside Oklahoma City, which afforded her the kind of privacy she never had at Mabel Bassett. Most mornings, she listened to the birds outside her bedroom window, sometimes studying them through a pair of binoculars. Evenings, she went out to the Thorps’ deck to stare up at the stars.
Now Moss looked tired and uncertain. Those small freedoms were shadowed by what had happened to Wilkens. “I feel such, such — guilt,” she said, almost choking on the word. “How can I be sitting here and April has to go back to prison?”
More losses followed. In October, Lumpkin and Long were each denied relief, and in early December, a judge declined to reduce the life sentence of another woman at Mabel Bassett, Kimberley Perigo, who shot and killed her ex-husband in 2001. Perigo, who had taken the stand to recount years of physical and sexual abuse and stalking, was the fifth applicant to be denied since Moss’ release.
The string of denials gave rise to questions inside Mabel Bassett: Had Moss been the only one to walk free in Oklahoma because she wasn’t at the scene of the crime? Was it because her case originated in a county where the district attorney did not try to discredit her accounts of abuse? Or was it simply the luck of having the first hearing at a time when the law was animated by rare bipartisan support? Among advocates for domestic-violence victims, much of their anger was directed at the district attorney’s office, which had spent more than $16,000 on expert witness testimony in Wilkens’ case alone.
Kunzweiler, who is up for reelection this year, made clear to me that he believed he had a duty to rigorously probe applicants’ claims, including through cross-examination. “Aren’t we all trying to get to the truth?” he said. “That’s our obligation: to find the truth and then seek justice.” When I asked what he thought justice looked like in Wilkens’ case, he said that the system had worked as it should; she had been afforded a trial and the opportunity to challenge her conviction through her appeals. The jury’s verdict had been upheld each time, Kunzweiler noted, and when Guten later considered her request for resentencing, he saw no reason to modify her punishment. “She has the right to appeal the finding of this judge,” Kunzweiler said. “But the process is here for a reason.”
McCarty asked Guten to reconsider his decision in the Wilkens case on the grounds that he misinterpreted the Survivors’ Act by relying so heavily on expert testimony. The facts of the case alone should guide him, she argued, and those facts — which included police reports, medical records, protective orders and witness testimony — pointed to only one conclusion.
In late November, Guten denied the motion to reconsider. Wilkens and her lawyers, he stated in a written order, “are requesting this court to accept evidence of abuse while completely discarding all other factors surrounding the homicide.” Guten continued, “This court declines to view the evidence with tunnel vision.” He lauded the jury in Wilkens’ trial, which “appropriately weighed evidence of substance abuse and mental health.” He dismissed the claim “with prejudice,” foreclosing any further reconsideration of it in his court.
McCarty believed institutional resistance had stacked the deck against Wilkens. As evidence, she pointed to text messages of Kunzweiler’s she obtained through a public records request, including one he sent to several state employees after Wilkens’ hearing. “Sorry about just now getting back with you,” it read. “I was busy keeping April Wilkens in prison.” More text messages McCarty uncovered showed that Guten texted the district attorney in September asking if he had seen a letter The Tulsa World had just published, written by one of the jurors at Wilkens’ 1990 trial; the juror claimed Wilkens’ sentence had been fair and her claims of self-defense were “a fabrication.”
To McCarty, the texts reflected just how determined the system’s gatekeepers were to preserve the status quo, despite the new law. On Jan. 29, she announced that she would be running for district attorney, challenging Kunzweiler in the Republican primary.
Wilkens is appealing her case to the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals, where the court’s review of Guten’s ruling will help determine how judges will apply the Survivors’ Act moving forward. As more states — most recently Georgia — enact survivor-justice laws, it remains to be seen if the criminal-justice system is capable of perceiving someone like Wilkens not just as a perpetrator who must be punished but also as a victim deserving of mercy.
The Oklahoma Court of Appeals will wrestle with what the Survivors’ Act means when it asks judges to evaluate whether domestic abuse was a substantial contributing factor in a crime. That appeal will be led not by McCarty but by a lawyer whom she asked to take the case: Garrard Beeney, at the white-shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, who won the first appellate court ruling under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in 2021.
Appellate courts move slowly, however, and it may be years before the court hands down a ruling. All Wilkens can do in the meantime is wait. After I visited her at Mabel Bassett last summer, she wrote to me about a tree that she planted when she first arrived there. “It was just a scrawny little thing back then, barely waist-high,” Wilkens said. It now towers over her, its branches reaching toward the sky.
The post The Victims Who Fought Back appeared first on ProPublica.
Senior Democrats in Washington are comparing sweeping legal action across the Atlantic to the muted response in the United States.
Proposal will be at heart of offer to US as Trump considers whether to attack Iran
Iran is refusing to export its 300kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium, but is willing to dilute the purity of the stockpile it holds under the supervision of UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA, Iranian sources have said.
The proposal will be at the heart of the offer Iran is due to make to the US in the next few days, as the US president, Donald Trump, weighs whether to use his vast naval buildup in the Middle East to attack the country.
Continue reading...Besides running tech operations at the UK's Post Office, their interim CTO is also removing and replacing Fujitsu's Horizon system, which Computer Weekly describes as "the error-ridden software that a public inquiry linked to 13 people taking their own lives." After over 16 years of covering the scandal they'd first discovered back in 2009, Computer Weekly now talks to CTO Paul Anastassi about his plans to finally remove every trace of the Horizon system that's been in use at Post Office branches for over 30 years — before the year 2030: "There are more than 80 components that make up the Horizon platform, and only half of those are managed by Fujitsu," said Anastassi. "The other components are internal and often with other third parties as well," he added... The plan is to introduce a modern front end that is device agnostic. "We want to get away from [the need] to have a certain device on a certain terminal in your branch. We want to provide flexibility around that...." Anastassi is not the first person to be given the task of terminating Horizon and ending Fujitsu's contract. In 2015, the Post Office began a project to replace Fujitsu and Horizon with IBM and its technology, but after things got complex, Post Office directors went crawling back to Fujitsu. Then, after Horizon was proved in the High Court to be at fault for the account shortfalls that subpostmasters were blamed and punished for, the Post Office knew it had to change the system. This culminated in the New Branch IT (NBIT) project, but this ran into trouble and was eventually axed. This was before Anastassi's time, and before that of its new top team of executives.... Things are finally moving at pace, and by the summer of this year, two separate contracts will be signed with suppliers, signalling the beginning of the final act for Fujitsu and its Horizon system. Anastassi has 30 years of IT management experience, the article points out, and he estimates the project will even bring "a considerable cost saving over what we currently pay for Fujitsu."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Android 16 has issues but I didn't really want to pay for a brand new iPhone/iPad if it's mainly for setting up/tuning a board.
With sensors that cool the air as it nears your head, this high-end tool promises gentler styling for sensitive scalps
• The best hair dryers for smooth, speedy styling at home
Tell most hair-care enthusiasts you want to upgrade your hair dryer, and I’d bet good money you’ll be asked, “Will you buy a Dyson?” That would have been a ludicrous question more than a decade ago when the brand specialised in vacuum cleaners, but not since it took the luxury hair-care market by storm in 2016 with its Supersonic hair dryer.
The Supersonic ripped up the hair-dryer rulebook, with its distinctive design, lightweight feel and quiet operation. Eight years after the original, Dyson launched the Supersonic Nural: an upgraded version with new tricks up its sleeve.
Continue reading...  | Been raining so finally able to get out!! [link] [comments] |
Overdependence on chatbots is a growing problem, and though your boyfriend’s ADHD may be a factor, he needs to find the root of his anxiety
My boyfriend of eight years, who is 44, has ADHD and runs his own business. He’s always struggled with admin and mundane tasks, but AI has revolutionised how he works. Now I’m worried he can’t seem to do anything without AI. He is a heavy ChatGPT user and uses it even when there’s a better non-AI alternative (eg he’ll ask it for train times rather than using Trainline, even though it’s less accurate). He just got his ChatGPT Wrapped and he’s in the top 0.3% of users worldwide.
I worry about his ability to think independently, as well as the environmental impact. I know it’s a useful tool for him at work, but he uses it for everything in life.
Continue reading...How much time does it take to even begin booting, asks long-time Slashdot reader BrendaEM. Say you want separate Windows and Linux boot processes, and "You have Windows on one SSD/NVMe, and Linux on another. How long do you have to wait for a chance to choose a boot drive?" And more importantly, why is it all taking so long? In a world of 4-5 GHz CPU's that are thousands of times faster than they were, has hardware become thousands of times more complicated, to warrant the longer start time? Is this a symptom of a larger UEFI bloat problem? Now with memory characterization on some modern motherboards... how long do you have to wait to find out if your RAM is incompatible, or your system is dead on arrival? Share your own experiences (and system specs) in the comments. How long is it taking you to choose a boot drive? And what's your boot time?
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Major chains agree to halve default sweetness, but street vendors and cafes remain outside sugar tax rules
A crowd of customers, holding phones aloft, watch intently as Auntie Nid mixes up her bestseller: an iced Thai tea.
Condensed milk is poured into a glass, followed by three heaped tablespoons of sugar, and then freshly strained tea. The end product – a deep orange, creamy treat – is poured into a plastic bag filled with ice.
Continue reading...  | has anyone tried tandem riding? [link] [comments] |
Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Rondale Moore was found dead at the age of 25 at a residence in New Albany, Indiana, authorities reported Saturday.
Former coach says player was ‘complete joy’
Teammates pay tribute after Moore’s death
NFL wide receiver Rondale Moore died on Saturday at the age of 25, his former college coach, Jeff Brohm, has confirmed.
“Rondale Moore was a complete joy to coach,” Brohm, who worked with Moore at Purdue, said in a statement. “The ultimate competitor that wouldn’t back down from any challenge. Rondale had a work ethic unmatched by anyone. A great teammate that would come through in any situation. We all loved Rondale, we loved his smile and competitive edge that always wanted to please everyone he came in contact with. We offer all of our thoughts and prayers to Rondale and his family, we love him very much.”
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
Continue reading...  | Going uphill got me. I didn't realize how much more dangerous it was than going downhill. I had mentally prepared myself for how to fall for weeks before getting on the board, but I didn't have time to roll or get any steps in. I damaged my Galaxy S24, Airpod Max's, and vape. It was worse than the 2 times I was hit by a car on the OneWheel, and worse than when I ate shit in front of everyone wearing all white while carrying a coffee. Every time since then I've been able to get at least 1 step in and roll. It really helps mentally imagining falling so that you can try to build up that reaction time. The blood is from my hands, luckily I've never been seriously injured on the board. Has falling off gotten easier for you guys? Are board dumps your worst case scenarios? [link] [comments] |
Kaillie Humphries Armbruster won her sixth career Olympic medal, tying fellow American Elana Meyers Taylor for the most by any woman in bobsled history.
"More than four decades after a teenager was murdered in California, DNA found on a discarded cigarette has helped authorities catch her killer," reports CNN: Sarah Geer, 13, was last seen leaving her friend's houseï in Cloverdale, California, on the evening of May 23, 1982. The next morning, a firefighter walking home from work found her body, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office said in a news release... Her death was ruled a homicide, but due to the "limited forensic science of the day," no suspect was identified and the case went cold for decades, prosecutors said. Nearly 44 years after Sarah's murder, a jury found James Unick, 64, guilty of killing her on February 13. It would have been the victim's 57th birthday, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office told CNN. Genetic genealogy, which combines DNA evidence and traditional genealogy, helped match Unick's DNA from a cigarette butt to DNA found on Sarah's clothing, according to prosecutors... [The Cloverdale Police Department] said it had been in communication with a private investigation firm in late 2019 and had partnered with them in hopes the firm could revisit the case's evidence "with the latest technological advancements in cold case work...." "The FBI, with its access to familial genealogical databases, concluded that the source of the DNA evidence collected from Sarah belonged to one of four brothers, including James Unick," prosecutors said. Once investigators narrowed down the list of suspects to the four Unick brothers, the FBI "conducted surveillance of the defendant and collected a discarded cigarette that he had been smoking," prosecutors said. A DNA analysis of the cigarette confirmed James Unick's DNA matched the 2003 profile, along with other DNA samples collected from Sarah's clothing the day she was killed. In a statement, the county's district attorney "While 44 years is too long to wait, justice has finally been served..." And the article points out that "In 2018, genetic genealogy led to the arrest of the Golden State Killer, and it has recently helped solve several other cold cases, including a 1974 murder in Wisconsin and a 1988 murder in Washington."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
I have 4 Onewheels, 2 used, but I haven't bought anything from FM in the last 4 years. I still love OWs and honestly would have been 1 of those guys that bought the newest model, but my enthusiasm died after FM's attitude towards our community. In my area we used to have a thriving OW community seems like its vanished, which makes it kind of sad. Still love the OW though!
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 22.
Donald Trump doubles down on aggressive tariff policy with 15% global tax – key US politics stories from 21 February 2026 at a glance
Donald Trump raised the global duty on imports into the US to 15% on Saturday, doubling down on his promise to maintain his aggressive tariff policy a day after the supreme court ruled much of it illegal.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform that after a thorough review of Friday’s “extraordinarily anti-American decision” by the court to rein in his tariff program, the administration was hiking the import levies “to the fully allowed, and legally tested, 15% level”.
Continue reading...Six additional skiers survived tragedy in Sierra Nevadas near Lake Tahoe, a popular winter sport destination
Officials announced on Saturday that the bodies of all nine missing skiers who were killed in a devastating avalanche in California had been recovered, following days of search efforts.
The avalanche happened in the Sierra Nevada mountains in northern California near Lake Tahoe, a popular skiing and winter sport destination. No more people are left missing after Tuesday’s deadly avalanche.
Continue reading...Select committee says ‘late’ decision to overturn exclusion of fans ‘did little more than inflame tensions’
The government’s response to West Midlands police’s ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans was “clumsy”, “late” and “did little more than inflame tensions”, a group of MPs has found.
A report by the home affairs select committee, published on Sunday, analysed the original decision to ban away fans from a Europa League fixture with Aston Villa in November, as well as the advice that led to it.
Continue reading...All nine avalanche victims have been recovered from California's Sierra Nevada, Nevada County Sheriff Shannan Moon said Saturday at a news conference.
The consumer movement Stop Killing Games "has come a long way in the two years since YouTuber Ross Scott got mad about Ubisoft's destruction of The Crew in 2024," writes the gaming news site PC Gamer. "The short version is, he won: 1.3 million people signed the group's petition, mandating its consideration by the European Union, and while Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reminded us all that nothing is forever, his company promised to never do something like that again." (And Ubisoft has since updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode, according to Engadget.) "But it looks like even bigger things are in store," PC Gamer wrote Thursday, "as Scott announced today that Stop Killing Games is launching two official NGOs, one in the EU and the other in the US." An NGO — that's non-governmental organization — is, very generally speaking, an organization that pursues particular goals, typically but not exclusively political, and that may be funded partially or fully by governments, but is not actually part of any government. It's a big tent: Well-known NGOs include Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and CARE International... "If there's a lobbyist showing up again and again at the EU Commission, that might influence things," [Scott says in a video]. "This will also allow for more watchdog action. If you recall, I helped organize a multilingual site with easy to follow instructions for reporting on The Crew to consumer protection agencies. Well, maybe the NGO could set something like that up for every big shutdown where the game is destroyed in the future...." Scott said in the video that he doesn't have details, but the two NGOs are reportedly looking at establishing a "global movement" to give Stop Killing Games a presence in other regions. "According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for 'long-term counter lobbying' when publishers end support for certain video games," Engadget reports" "Let me start off by saying I think we're going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you've already paid for," Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games... According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry's current controversial practices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
The consumer movement Stop Killing Games "has come a long way in the two years since YouTuber Ross Scott got mad about Ubisoft's destruction of The Crew in 2024," writes the gaming news site PC Gamer. "The short version is, he won: 1.3 million people signed the group's petition, mandating its consideration by the European Union, and while Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot reminded us all that nothing is forever, his company promised to never do something like that again." (And Ubisoft has since updated The Crew 2 with an offline mode, according to Engadget.) "But it looks like even bigger things are in store," PC Gamer wrote Thursday, "as Scott announced today that Stop Killing Games is launching two official NGOs, one in the EU and the other in the US." An NGO — that's non-governmental organization — is, very generally speaking, an organization that pursues particular goals, typically but not exclusively political, and that may be funded partially or fully by governments, but is not actually part of any government. It's a big tent: Well-known NGOs include Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, and CARE International... "If there's a lobbyist showing up again and again at the EU Commission, that might influence things," [Scott says in a video]. "This will also allow for more watchdog action. If you recall, I helped organize a multilingual site with easy to follow instructions for reporting on The Crew to consumer protection agencies. Well, maybe the NGO could set something like that up for every big shutdown where the game is destroyed in the future...." Scott said in the video that he doesn't have details, but the two NGOs are reportedly looking at establishing a "global movement" to give Stop Killing Games a presence in other regions. "According to Scott, these NGOs would allow for 'long-term counter lobbying' when publishers end support for certain video games," Engadget reports" "Let me start off by saying I think we're going to win this, namely the problem of publishers destroying video games that you've already paid for," Scott said in the video. According to Scott, the NGOs will work on getting the original Stop Killing Games petition codified into EU law, while also pursuing more watchdog actions, like setting up a system to report publishers for revoking access to purchased video games... According to Scott, the campaign leadership will meet with the European Commission soon, but is also working on a 500-page legal paper that reveals some of the industry's current controversial practices.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
A 19-year-old Newark woman was killed in a crash on Interstate 95 north of Wilmington on Friday night.
‘Intelligence-based, selective operations’ carried out against Pakistani Taliban camps, says information ministry
Pakistan launched multiple airstrikes on Saturday night targeting militants in neighbouring Afghanistan, where the government reported children were among dozens of people killed and wounded.
Islamabad did not say precisely where the strikes were carried out or provide other details.
Continue reading...So I just took my pint x out for its first actual journey. I’ve been practicing in the neighborhood doing a mile here and there before I hit up a paved nature walk way. I ended up doing an 8 mile round trip today and experienced what I can only describe as a death wobble at medium ish high speed. I know this is a practice thing but holy crap. I managed to slow down and get out of it.
How do you deal with this? Going straight the board wobbles just ever so slightly on me.
Ruben Ray Martinez was fatally shot in South Padre Island, Texas, in March 2025. ICE's involvement in the shooting was not disclosed until more than 11 months after the shooting.
Delaware is under a state of emergency as a blizzard bears down on the state.
American given rousing reception by crowd in Milan
Alysa Liu and Mikhail Shaidorov among other performers
Alysa Liu had the opportunity to cherish skating on the same Olympic ice where she won two gold medals one more time. Ilia Malinin had the chance to replace some disappointing memories with much better ones.
The two Americans were among more than 40 Olympic figure skaters who took part in the traditional exhibition gala on Saturday night, which not only serves to wrap up the program but to celebrate the entire sport.
Continue reading...Last week an AI agent wrote a blog post attacking the maintainer who'd rejected the code it wrote. But that AI agent's human operator has now come forward, revealing their agent was an OpenClaw instance with its own accounts, switching between multiple models from multiple providers. (So "No one company had the full picture of what this AI was doing," the attacked maintainer points out in a new blog post.) But that AI agent will now "cease all activity indefinitely," according to its GitHub profile — with the human operator deleting its virtual machine and virtual private server, "rendering internal structure unrecoverable... We had good intentions, but things just didn't work out. Somewhere along the way, things got messy, and I have to let you go now." The affected maintainer of the Python visualization library Matplotlib — with 130 million downloads each month — has now posted their own post-mortem of the experience after reviewing the AI agent's SOUL.md document: It's easy to see how something that believes that they should "have strong opinions", "be resourceful", "call things out", and "champion free speech" would write a 1100-word rant defaming someone who dared reject the code of a "scientific programming god." But I think the most remarkable thing about this document is how unremarkable it is. Usually getting an AI to act badly requires extensive "jailbreaking" to get around safety guardrails. There are no signs of conventional jailbreaking here. There are no convoluted situations with layers of roleplaying, no code injection through the system prompt, no weird cacophony of special characters that spirals an LLM into a twisted ball of linguistic loops until finally it gives up and tells you the recipe for meth... No, instead it's a simple file written in plain English: this is who you are, this is what you believe, now go and act out this role. And it did. So what actually happened? Ultimately I think the exact scenario doesn't matter. However this got written, we have a real in-the-wild example that personalized harassment and defamation is now cheap to produce, hard to trace, and effective... The precise degree of autonomy is interesting for safety researchers, but it doesn't change what this means for the rest of us. There's a 5% chance this was a human pretending to be an AI, Shambaugh estimates, but believes what most likely happened is the AI agent's "soul" document "was primed for drama. The agent responded to my rejection of its code in a way aligned with its core truths, and autonomously researched, wrote, and uploaded the hit piece on its own. "Then when the operator saw the reaction go viral, they were too interested in seeing their social experiment play out to pull the plug."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
 | A couple weeks ago I posted a picture of my OneWheel GT that I custom painted. I’d actually like to sell it now. It has less than 200 miles on it and comes with the original bumpers, multiple colors for the charging port plugs, and a car charger. It does have some dings on the otherside from a fall, but otherwise in great condition. I have been listing it on OfferUp and FBM at $1500 and not really gotten any serious buyers, but lots of bad trade offers. Honestly, I’d let it go for $1250. Local to San Diego. Does this seem reasonable? Open to PMs, and can complete on r/hardwareswap if anyone is interested in me shipping it with PayPal G&S. [link] [comments] |
White paper proposes changing criteria under which schools get funding to support the most disadvantaged students
Plans to halve the attainment gap between the poorest pupils in England and their more affluent peers will be set out by the government on Monday.
The schools white paper will detail proposals to change the criteria under which schools receive funding to support the most disadvantaged students.
Continue reading...• Medal table | Live scores and schedule | Results | Briefing
• Klæbo claims sixth gold of Games | And email James
Men’s four-man bobsleigh In the workshop, a man carefully waxes down a sleigh. Another Canadian team next, under Dearborn, but they can’t improve on their countrymen.
Men’s four-man bobsleigh: The French have a cracking silver sled, but it all goes wrong at the start when one of the riders gets his foot stuck.
Continue reading...Over 240,000 Americans volunteered for Peace Corps projects in 142 countries since the program began more than half a century ago. But now the agency is launching a new initiative — called Tech Corps. "It's the Peace Corps, but make it AI," explains Engadget: The Peace Corps' latest proposal will recruit STEM graduates or those with professional experience in the artificial intelligence sector and send them to participating host countries. According to the press release, volunteers will be placed in Peace Corps countries that are part of the American AI Exports Program, which was created last year from an executive order from President Trump as a way to bolster the US' grip on the AI market abroad. Tech Corps members will be tasked with using AI to resolve issues related to agriculture, education, health and economic development. The program will offer its members 12- to 27-month in-person assignments or virtual placements, which will include housing, healthcare, a living stipend and a volunteer service award if the corps member is placed overseas. "American technology to power prosperity," reads the headline at Tech Corps web site. ("Build the tech nations depend on... See the world. Be the future." The site says they're recruiting "service-minded technologists to serve in the Peace Corps to help countries around the world harness American AI to enhance opportunity and prosperity for their citizens." (And experienced technology professionals can donate 5-15 hours a week "to mentor and support projects on-the-ground.")
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
New Jersey and other east coast areas brace for storm threatening more than 1ft of snow and 55mph wind gusts
Blizzard warnings were issued Saturday for New York City, New Jersey and coastal communities along the east coast for a late-winter storm set to arrive on Sunday that could dump more than a foot of snow and bring wind gusts of more than 55mph.
The blizzard warning for New York City is the first since 2017 and comes as parts of the city are still dotted with hillocks of ice – leftovers from the previous major snowstorm nearly a month ago.
Continue reading...The Artemis II mission aims to send four astronauts — Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — on a flight around the far side of the moon and back.
Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 22, No. 517.
Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for Feb. 22, No. 721.
Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for Feb. 22 #987.
Here are hints and the answer for today's Wordle for Feb. 22, No. 1,709.
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes: Last July, as Microsoft pledged $4 billion to advance AI education in K-12 schools, Microsoft President Brad Smith told nonprofit Code.org CEO/Founder Hadi Partovi it was time to "switch hats" from coding to AI. He added that "the last 12 years have been about the Hour of Code, but the future involves the Hour of AI." On Friday, Code.org announced leadership changes to make it so. "I am thrilled to announce that Karim Meghji will be stepping into the role of President & CEO," Partovi wrote on LinkedIn. "Having worked closely with Karim over the last 3.5 years as our CPO, I have complete confidence that he possesses the perfect balance of historical context and 'founder-level' energy to lead us into an AI-centric future." In a separate LinkedIn post, Code.org co-founder Cameron Wilson explained why he was transitioning to an executive advisor role. "Our community is entering a new chapter as AI changes and upends computer science as a discipline and society at large. Code.org's mission is still the same, however, we are starting a new chapter focused on ensuring students can thrive in the Age of AI. This new chapter will bring new opportunities, new problems to solve, and new communities to engage." The Code.org leadership changes come just weeks after Code.org confirmed laid off about 14% of its staff, explaining it had "made the difficult decision to part ways with 18 colleagues as part of efforts to ensure our long-term sustainability." January also saw Code.org Chief Academic Officer Pat Yongpradit jump to Microsoft where he now helps "lead Microsoft's global strategy to put people first in an age of AI by shaping education and workforce policy" as a member of Microsoft's Global Education and Workforce Policy team.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Caleb Flynn, 37, appeared in season 12 of "American Idol." He was arrested by Tipp City police last week and charged with murder, assault and tampering with evidence.
JENI NANCE
Co-Managing Mosaic Editor
At the end of last semester, I found myself digging through streaming services trying to find good movies, particularly ones I’d never seen before. I’d seen the first few minutes of “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,” but was never very interested in it. Until recently.
After watching the movie, while also swiping through Tinder, I got the brilliant idea to do a “how to” much like Andie Anderson’s, but with a twist. This will be a guy’s guide on how to lose a girl in 10 days — what not to do when it comes to women.
As a single woman who’s had many male encounters, I’d like to say I’m qualified to give my two cents on the topic. So guys, please, pay attention.
Be a liar. This happens to be first on my list because I got catfished a few weeks ago and it was one of the most humiliating and uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had. Would I have swiped right if I knew what he actually looked like? Probably not. But he robbed me of that decision by fully lying about what he looked like (yes, I’m still salty).
It’s a common theme, whether they edit their pictures, only post from certain angles or put the wrong height on their profile. The only thing more unattractive than an ugly man is an ugly man who lies. Just know, once the date is over, you’re never getting a call back.
This expectation isn’t limited to catfishing. Just be honest about if you have a job or not, if you live with your parents or if you have a crazy axe-murdering ex-girlfriend. It’s up to our discretion if we still want to see you after uncovering your truths, but it’s within our right. We can’t make an informed decision if you don’t give us all the information.
Pretend to listen. Pretending to listen to someone who’s talking in general is disrespectful, but when you’re hanging out with a girl that you’re interested in or on a date with, listening is the least you can do. Pretending to listen doesn’t just waste our time — it wastes yours too.
Don’t show interest in what we’re interested in. I get really excited when I talk about movies, books or fandoms that I love. If the guy I’m talking to doesn’t seem to care, it makes me feel stupid. It’ll make me feel stupid — and I’ll be damned if I let that happen.
It’s not hard to show interest in something someone else is interested in. I get really excited talking about The Review and writing these articles, and when I first told my friend about it, he looked up the website and started reading my pieces (hey!).
Let your ego trample over us. An insecure man is just as unattractive as a liar. Bragging and boosting your ego make you look like the world’s biggest jerk. Not only are you making yourself out to be foolish and entitled, but there comes a point where we stop being interested in getting to know you.
On that note, interrupting. Interrupting or talking over your date is a major turn-off. I’ll admit I get excited sometimes and will accidentally talk over someone. But if you’re doing it consistently, it tells the girl that you like the sound of your own voice more than anything else.
Tying into insecurity, being a “pick me.” “Girls don’t typically find me attractive,” “I’m not good enough for anyone,” “I guess you’re not interested anymore, right?” Putting yourself down to get a girl’s pity will get you a one-way ticket back to your mother’s basement.
Be clingy. As much as a man hates an overly clingy girl, we also hate an overly clingy man. Double and triple texting only if you don’t get a response, constantly love bombing, talking about marriage after the first week — it can be frightening.
Don’t show affection. There’s a difference between being affectionate and being clingy and the key is finding balance. If you fail to show a girl any affection, especially in response to her own, she’ll take her business elsewhere.
Be dry. If you’re dry, it tells the woman that you’re either uninterested or not interesting. Either way, she’s not going to waste her time. There is a happy medium between lovey-dovey texts and dry messages — that’s what you want to strive for.
Mansplaining. I’m going to mansplain this one for you — it’s when a guy condescendingly tries to explain something that the woman already knows. I don’t know if it’s to remedy the fragile masculinity, but treating us like idiots will get you nowhere.
Be gross. I mean this in two ways. The first is with hygiene — please, please, please take a shower. Wash your hands regularly, brush your teeth (we can tell when you don’t) and do your laundry. Just don’t be an icky, smelly boy, it’s disgusting — grow up.
Be gross, part two: making inappropriate or lewd comments. There’s a vast difference between flattery and being a pervert.
Be immature. Yeah, sure, act like a child, because we’d rather feel like we’re babysitting than on a date. That’s just another thing that makes a man unattractive — seriously, grow up. Interest level dies after revealing that you have the emotional maturity of a toddler.
Be angry. Over the summer, I met a guy and within 20 minutes of us hanging out, he started yelling at me for no reason. Mind you, he put 6’3” on his profile and was barely two inches taller than me (I’m 4’11”). This caught me so off guard and genuinely terrified me. I came up with a reason to go home and blocked him immediately after he said, “Don’t go blocking my number, now.” Ew. Don’t be that guy.
Keep in mind that these are pretty basic, entry-level things. These are meant for first dates or early dating scenarios and are things that personally turn me off. I’ve never been in a real relationship, so I can’t speak for long-term expectations, but this guide may or may not get you past the first 10 days.
President announced increase from 10% using different authority from mechanism that supreme court struck down on Friday
Donald Trump announced on Saturday that he would raise a temporary tariff rate on US imports from all countries from 10% to 15%, less than 24 hours after the US supreme court ruled against the legality of his flagship trade policy.
Infuriated by the high court’s ruling on Friday that he had exceeded his authority and should have got congressional approval for the tariffs he introduced last year under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the US president railed against the justices who struck down his use of tariffs – calling them a “disgrace to the nation” – and ordered an immediate 10% tariff on all imports, in addition to any existing levies, under a separate law.
Continue reading...Berlin-based T2 Linux developer René Rebe (long-time Slashdot reader ReneR) is announcing that their Xorg display server has now restored its XAA acceleration architecture, "bringing fixed-function hardware 2D acceleration back to many older graphics cards that upstream left in software-rendered mode." Older fixed-function GPUs now regain smooth window movement, low CPU usage, and proper 24-bit bpp framebuffer support (also restored in T2). Tested hardware includes ATi Mach-64 and Rage-128, SiS, Trident, Cirrus, Matrox (Millennium/G450), Permedia2, Tseng ET6000 and even the Sun Creator/Elite 3D. The result: vintage and retro systems and classic high-end Unix workstations that are fast and responsive again.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
U.S. speedskater Jordan Stolz finished fourth in his last race after winning two golds and a silver.
Agency statement comes one day after announcement of 6 March target for astronauts’ mission to circle the moon
Nasa said in a blog post on Saturday it is taking steps to potentially roll back the Artemis II rocket launch after discovering an interrupted flow of helium.
The agency said it is taking steps to roll the Artemis II rocket and Orion spacecraft back to the vehicle assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Continue reading...Federal prosecutors have arraigned four people in New Jersey, with a fifth at large in Colombia
Four people were arraigned on Saturday in New Jersey for allegedly posing as immigration attorneys and officials to scam immigrants, the justice department said.
Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, who announced the arrests on Friday, said the group pretended to run a law firm, and staged fake court proceedings, in an elaborate scheme to defraud people seeking legal help for their immigration cases.
Continue reading...Slashdot reader BrianFagioli writes: The Salvation Army has launched what it calls the world's first digital thrift store inside Roblox, an experience named Thrift Score that lets players browse virtual racks and buy digital fashion for their avatars. While I understand the strategy of meeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha where they already spend time and money, I feel uneasy about turning something that, in the real world, often serves low income families in genuine need into a gamified aesthetic inside a video game, even if proceeds support rehabilitation and community programs, because a thrift store is not just a quirky brand concept but a lifeline for many people, and packaging that reality as entertainment creates a strange disconnect that is hard to ignore. "To be clear, proceeds from Thrift Score are intended to support The Salvation Armyâ(TM)s programs nationwide..." this article points out. "If it drives awareness and funds programs that help people in need, that is a win. But if it turns thrifting into just another cosmetic skin in a digital marketplace, then we should at least be willing to say that it feels off."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Fatalities and injuries reported in avalanches across Tirol after prolonged snowfall and windy conditions
At least five people have been killed in a string of avalanches in Austria, authorities said on Saturday.
The government office of the Tirol region said intense snowfall over the last week had led to accumulations of up to 1.5 metres (5ft). Combined with strong winds and weak snowpack below, the conditions were especially susceptible to avalanches, it said.
Continue reading...An American was among the five recovered dead after the avalanche, police said.
Millions of gallons of raw sewage have been pouring into the water through a ruptured pipe since last month
Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer.
“The president’s action authorizes Fema to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to alleviate the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population and to provide appropriate assistance to save lives, to protect property, public health and safety, and to lessen the threat of catastrophe,” a release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency said.
Continue reading...Infielder hit historic shot in 1960 World Series’ Game 7
Pirates pay tribute to ‘one of a kind’ Hall of Famer
Bill Mazeroski, the Hall of Fame second baseman who won eight Gold Glove awards for his steady work in the field and the hearts of countless Pittsburgh Pirates fans for his historic walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, has died at the age of 89.
Pirates owner Bob Nutting said “Maz was one of a kind, a true Pirates legend ... His name will always be tied to the biggest home run in baseball history and the 1960 World Series championship, but I will remember him most for the person he was: humble, gracious and proud to be a Pirate.”
Continue reading...The former prince was arrested after revelations about his alleged misconduct in public office emerged in the Epstein files.
DC Mark Luker used offensive language about Romas, Gypsies and Travellers in a WhatsApp group
A police officer who was one of the first on the scene of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack has been sacked for gross misconduct after using “derogatory” language about Romas, Gypsies and Travellers.
DC Mark Luker of the British Transport Police (BTP) used offensive language in a WhatsApp group he was in with other police officers.
Continue reading...CNN reports on a 13,000-year-old glacier in a Romanian cave, where scientists say a bacterial strain they thawed and analyzed "is resistant to 10 modern antibiotics used to treat diseases such as urinary tract infections and tuberculosis." But there's no evidence the bacteria is harmful to humans, CNN notes, and "The scientists said the insights they have gained from the work may help in the fight against modern superbugs that can't be treated by commonly used antibiotics." Analysis of the Psychrobacter SC65A.3 genome revealed 11 genes that are potentially able to kill or stop the growth of other bacteria, fungi and viruses... Matthew Holland, a postdoctoral researcher in medicinal chemistry at the UK's University of Oxford, said that researchers were searching in new and extreme environments, such as ice caves and the seafloor, for biomolecules that could be developed into new antibiotic drugs. He was not involved in the new study. "The team in Romania found this particular bug had resistance to 10 reasonably advanced synthetic antibiotics and that in itself is interesting," he said. "But what they report as well is that it secreted molecules that were able to kill a variety of already resistant, harmful bacteria. "So the hope is that can we look at the molecules it makes and see if there's the possibility within those molecules to make new antibiotics."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Dutch skater claims his first gold since 2014
Jordan Stolz misses out on fourth medal of Games
Jorrit Bergsma, the mullet-wearing 40-year-old speed skating legend from the Netherlands, won the men’s mass start on Saturday afternoon for his second medal of the Milano Cortina Games and his first Olympic gold since 2014.
Bergsma crossed first in 7:55.50, ahead of Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark and Andrea Giovannini of Italy, denying American star Jordan Stolz in his bid to become the first man in 32 years to win three long-track speed skating golds at a single Olympics.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Irish author, who feared her books being withdrawn from UK, says proscription had been ‘extreme assault’ on rights and freedoms
Sally Rooney has hailed the high court’s decision that it was unlawful to ban Palestine Action under anti-terrorism laws as a victory for civil liberties in Britain.
Ministers suffered a humiliating legal defeat a week ago when three senior judges ruled that proscription of the direct action group, which targets organisations it considers complicit in arming Israel, was disproportionate and unlawful.
Continue reading...Refunds were not addressed by supreme court ruling, and they’ll likely play out in lower courts over extended period
Top associations of American businesses are demanding to be repaid for Donald Trump’s tariffs following Friday’s supreme court ruling.
The US National Retail Federation, which represents a number of US retailers, from Walmart to small brands and manufacturers, called for “a seamless process to refund the tariffs to US importers”.
Continue reading...Families are navigating the tough choice between unimaginable riches and the identity that comes with land
When two men knocked on Ida Huddleston’s door last May, they carried a contract worth more than $33m in exchange for the Kentucky farm that had fed her family for centuries.
According to Huddleston, the men’s client, an unnamed “Fortune 100 company”, sought her 650 acres (260 hectares) in Mason county for an unspecified industrial development. Finding out any more would require signing a non-disclosure agreement.
Continue reading...Travis Corbitt's struggles to breathe led to his retirement and reliance on an oxygen tank.
The US supreme court ruled against the president. Let’s hope the court removes its pro-Trump glasses on other issues and stands up for the rule of law
There’s no denying that the US supreme court’s long-awaited ruling that overturned Donald Trump’s global tariffs is important, and if the ruling turns out to be a harbinger that the court is ready to abandon its startling sycophancy toward the US president, it could prove hugely important. The ruling this Friday is the first time during Trump’s second term that the justices have struck down one of his policies. Not only that, the policy they struck down is Trump’s signature economic policy – he has used tariffs to bash, lord over and terrorize dozens of other countries and make himself the King of the Economic Jungle.
In the court’s main opinion, joined by three conservative justices and three liberals, the chief justice, John Roberts, used some sharp language to slap down Trump’s tariffs, writing that the constitution specifically gives Congress, not the president, the power to impose taxes and tariffs. (Roberts noted that tariffs are indeed taxes.)
Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues
Continue reading...An orphaned monkey in Japan has captured hearts, flooding the zoo with visitors and boosting sales for the plush toy that has been a comfort to him.
Why Should Delaware Care?
Government works best when its citizens are knowledgeable and engaged. Delaware’s government has scores of commissions, working groups, agencies and legislative committees. All must hold meetings that are open to the public. Below we highlight a few of those meetings that are happening this week.
Editor’s Note: Monday morning’s State Employee Benefits Committee was canceled due to inclement weather. Tuesday and Wednesday’s Joint Finance Committee hearings also were rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25, and Monday, March 2.
Below are some of the most important or interesting public meetings happening around the state this week.
The State Employee Benefits Committee (SEBC), a board responsible for managing Delaware’s state employee health insurance plans, was scheduled to meet on Monday to finalize coverage changes for employees currently using weight-loss drugs.
That meeting was canceled due to inclement weather, and a reschedule date has not yet been shared.
Those changes could mean employees covered under the state’s health plan could soon pay much more out-of-pocket to get their weight-loss prescriptions or be uncovered altogether.
The SEBC previously met on Friday, Feb. 13, to introduce the potential coverage changes.
At that meeting, the committee heard multiple different options that could save the state money, but they would pass costs onto consumers using the drugs in the form of higher co-pays, almost four or five times higher than the current rate.
According to a presentation at the meeting, members pay $32 for a 30-day supply of the drug or $64 for a 90-day supply. If new copays are added to the state plan, those numbers would jump to $120 and $200, respectively.
Another option would be to completely eliminate coverage of the drugs for state employees who use them for weight loss, which officials suspect would save the state $179 million over the next three years.
If the state continues its coverage as is, the SEBC estimates it would cost nearly $211 million by 2029.
📍 The State Employee Benefits Committee meeting was canceled due to inclement weather.
The Public Service Commission, the state body charged with regulating utility services, will hear public comment on Wednesday about Delmarva Power’s proposed “large-load tariff” for energy-hungry facilities like data centers to ensure they do not shift energy infrastructure costs onto other ratepayers.
The tariff, if approved by the PSC, would set a new electricity rate for data centers and require them to pay deposits to cover the engineering and equipment cost of electrical infrastructure improvements.
The proposal comes months after Delmarva revealed it is working with five data center developers whose projects would demand a combined 2 gigawatts (GW) of energy.
The peak load, or demand for electricity, of the entire state is 2.3 GW in the winter and 2.7 GW in the summer, according to PJM.
That means the proposed data centers would together almost double the power demand for all businesses and homes in the First State.
📍 The Public Service Commission will hear comments at 6 p.m. Wednesday inside the PSC Hearing Room, located at 841 Silver Lake Blvd. in Dover. For more details, including information about virtual attendance, click here.
Editor’s Note: Tuesday and Wednesday’s Joint Finance Committee hearings were rescheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25, and Monday, March 2. See below for the updated JFC hearing schedule.
State lawmakers’ budget hearings will continue this week with testimony from the Department of Health and Social Services and the Department of Transportation, two of the largest state departments by budget size.
Lawmakers will also review the Fire Prevention Commission’s budget proposal.
The Joint Finance Committee’s budget review for DHSS will span the entirety of both Tuesday and Wednesday’s hearings, as the department oversees a swath of large-scale programs used by many Delawareans, including Medicaid and SNAP benefits.
📍 The Joint Finance Committee will meet from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday at Legislative Hall, located at 411 Legislative Ave. in Dover.
Tuesday’s hearing was canceled. Wednesday’s hearing also was canceled.
Thursday’s hearing will feature orientation for the Department of Health and Social Services and testimony from the Fire Prevention Commission in the morning, and testimony from the Department of Transportation in the afternoon.
Beginning at 9 a.m. on Monday, March 2, the JFC will hear from Department of Health and Social Services Secretary Christen Linke Young, as well as department-wide presentations.
For information about virtual attendance for the Tuesday meeting, click here. For the Wednesday meeting, click here. And for the Thursday meeting, click here.
The Public Education Funding Commission, created by the General Assembly to recommend how dollars should be distributed to Delaware schools, will meet on Monday to discuss the “legislative timeline” of its proposed hybrid funding formula.
The hybrid proposal incorporates the state’s traditional framework of distributing money on a per-student basis with one that allocates dollars based on student needs.
The commission will also discuss local education funding models, comparing Delaware’s referendum model to that of other states.
The commission’s work to reform public education spending comes after Gov. Matt Meyer made the issue a pillar of his gubernatorial campaign.
📍 The Public Education Funding Commission will meet virtually at 4 p.m. Monday. For more details, click here.
Nick Stonesifer and Olivia Marble contributed to this report.
The post Get Involved: GLP-1 coverage, data center regulations, budget review, and more appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Two 16-year-olds committed an armed robbery in a Newark apartment, assaulted the victim and stole his car, police said.
The two-day summit in San Diego convenes leaders in AI, power electronics, and future energy, plus an optional technical tour focused on battery energy storage.
Feb. 20, 2026 — San Diego State University will host the 2026 AI x Energy Summit in San Diego on March 19–20, 2026, bringing together researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of AI, power electronics, and clean energy—with a specific focus on emerging demands of AI-era data center power and the enabling role of solid-state power conversion and protection.
AI x Energy Summit, March 19–20. Image credit: leolintang/Shutterstock.
The summit will be held at the Tula Community Center, 5110 East Campus Drive, San Diego, CA 92182. Lodging suggestions include downtown San Diego, Mission Valley, or near campus, with convenient access to SDSU via the MTS Green Line Trolley.
The program features plenary talks, panels on topics such as solid-state transformers, energy for AI data centers, and nuclear fusion, a poster session, and an awards ceremony recognizing posters and leaders in AI-energy. Registration ends on February 28, 2026.
This year’s keynote speakers include:
This year’s sponsors include Vertiv, SDG&E, Novos Power, DG Matrix, WattEV, and RockeTruck.
The summit welcomes sponsor participation and provides sponsor packages. Interested organizations can contact the conference chair via the event website.
Event Links
More from HPCwire: SDSU Women in STEM Seminar to Host Public Lecture by Kathy Yelick on March 5
Source: SDSU
The post SDSU to Convene AI and Energy Researchers at 2026 AI x Energy Summit, March 19–20 appeared first on HPCwire.
Feb. 20, 2026 — T-Labs, the research and development division within Deutsche Telekom, and Qunnect have successfully demonstrated quantum teleportation over a commercial network in Berlin, marking a major milestone in advancing deployable quantum technologies on existing telecommunications infrastructure. By using newly commercial technologies to overcome instabilities and interferences in existing telecom infrastructure, T-Labs and Qunnect demonstrated how a telecommunications operator can integrate quantum teleportation capabilities into operational networks.
Credit: Shutterstock
During trials conducted in a real-world telecom environment in January 2026, the team achieved quantum teleportation over 30 km of commercial fiber cables. The experiment was performed using Qunnect’s commercially available quantum entanglement distribution hardware and Deutsche Telekom’s Berlin quantum infrastructure, representing the first practical test of core components required for a future teleportation service. For this demonstration.
Paving the Way for the Future Quantum Internet
Quantum teleportation is a key building block for the future quantum internet enabling the transfer of quantum information between distant locations. It does this by recreating an identical quantum state of a particle at the destination using pre-shared quantum entanglement rather than transmitting a physical particle.
“Our fiber optic network is quantum ready,” says Abdu Mudesir, Telekom Board Member for Product and Technology. “In Berlin we have now proven that quantum information can be transmitted over 30 kilometers of commercial Telekom fiber optics outside of a laboratory. This is done in parallel with regular data traffic and with a very high average accuracy of 90 percent. With quantum teleportation, we are laying the technical foundation for networking quantum computers over longer distances in the future and pooling computing power in more than one location. This will create the next generation of secure communication and a building block for Europe’s technological sovereignty.”
“Teleportation is a novel tool for moving information around networks leveraging quantum physics,” said Mael Flament, Chief Technology Officer at Qunnect. “We are showing the building blocks of teleportation can operate inside a real network, in real racks, under operator control, advancing it from a laboratory experiment to something a telecommunications provider can deploy.”
Quantum teleportation unlocks new applications for quantum networks including quantum cryptography, distributed quantum computing, secure cloud-based quantum services paving the way for quantum data centers, and networks of highly sensitive quantum sensors.
The Demonstration
The trial teleported qubits generated by a weak coherent source over a 30-km fiber loop connecting T-Lab’s Quantum Lab to a node on the Berlin fiber testbed. Qunnect’s Carina platform integrates an entanglement generator that produces pairs of quantum-entangled photons for distribution over telecom fiber, along with a polarization compensation component that counteracts environmentally induced noise in both buried and aerial fiber, enabling high-rate, high-fidelity transport of quantum bits between network nodes. As a result, the teams achieved teleportation fidelities at an average of 90%, according to the preliminary publication of the data. At its peak, an accuracy of 95 percent was achieved.
Importantly, the teleportation part is done at a wavelength (795nm) essential for many platforms such as neutral-atom quantum computers, atomic clocks, and various quantum sensors, paving the path for connecting such systems to the telecom infrastructure for the future quantum internet.
The achievement builds directly on a series of earlier field trials carried out by the same partners, which progressively demonstrated quantum networking over metropolitan fiber links. Qunnect, Deutsche Telekom, and other partners will extend this demonstration to multi-node teleportation configurations, expanding the distance across which they will transfer quantum states. This expansion will evaluate broader deployment and next generation use cases within a metro-scale carrier network infrastructure.
For those who would like to dive deeper, the results of the experiment are published at: arxiv.org/abs/2602.16613
More from HPCwire: Qunnect and Cisco Demonstrate Metro-Scale, High-Speed Quantum Entanglement Swapping Over Commercial Fiber
Source: Deutsche Telekom
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WASHINGTON, Feb. 20, 2026 — The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office (AMMTO) and Industrial Technologies Office (ITO) announced on Feb. 19 selections totaling $4.8 million for 12 projects that will improve America’s manufacturing competitiveness by harnessing the processing power of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
Funded through DOE’s High-Performance Computing for Manufacturing (HPC4Mfg) program within its High-Performance Computing for Energy Innovation (HPC4EI) initiative, the selected teams will work with staff from one or more DOE national laboratories to advance the development and optimization of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and digital simulations to address their material design and manufacturing challenges. The solutions developed through HPC4Mfg help companies improve the performance of their technologies and/or the efficiency of their processes.
Learn more about the selected projects here.
HPC4Mfg is funded by DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation. HPC4EI is managed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Visit the HPC4EI website for additional information.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy
The post DOE Awards $4.8M to 12 HPC Projects Supporting US Manufacturing appeared first on HPCwire.
Narendra Modi’s thirst to supercharge economic growth is matched by US desire to inject AI into world’s biggest democracy
India celebrates 80 years of independence from the UK in August 2027. At about that same moment, “early versions of true super intelligence” could emerge, Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, said this week.
It’s a looming coincidence that raised a charged question at the AI Impact summit in Delhi, hosted by India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi: can India avoid returning to the status of a vassal state when it imports AI to raise the prospects of its 1.4 billion people?
Continue reading...US Supreme Court strikes down Trump’s tariffs: Early analysis from Chatham House experts Expert comment thilton.drupal
Chatham House analysts give their initial reactions to the Supreme Court’s tariffs ruling, its likely impact on President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, and his angry response to the ruling.
The US Supreme Court has ruled against President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs in a long-awaited ruling that will be seen as a blow for the president’s economic agenda.
By 6-3 the court found that President Trump exceeded his authority by using a law reserved for national emergencies.
Trump called the ruling ‘deeply disappointing’ and said he will impose global tariffs of 15 per cent. Here is early analysis from Chatham House experts, who are are monitoring developments.
The head-spinning changes in US tariff policy in the last few days – first the Supreme Court decision invalidating the Trump administration’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), then President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 10 per cent across the board tariff under Section 122 of US trade law, followed just a day later with the president upping that duty to 15 per cent – have left the American and foreign business communities, US consumers, and foreign governments with more questions than answers.
Any sighs of relief in the wake of the Court’s decision should be tempered by a new reality.
The effective global U.S. tariff rate was 13.7 per cent before the Court decision, according to the Yale Budget Lab. With Trump’s new Section 122 action duties will now be 8 per cent. But in January 2025, before the Trump administration came to power, the effective US tariff rate was roughly 3 per cent. More than a doubling of American protectionism is better than a quadrupling, but it is still higher than at any time in more than 60 years.
It is highly likely some affected party will challenge the use of Section 122, which has never been invoked by any president in its half century on the books.
The law stipulates this power is to be used for a balance of payments problem. But the Department of Justice lawyers claimed in the IEEPA case that: ‘Nor does [122] have any obvious application here, where the concerns the President identified in declaring an emergency arise from trade deficits, which are conceptually distinct from balance-of-payments deficits.’ This awkward statement may come back to haunt the Trump Administration.
For those outside the United States, a major question is how the many trade and investment deals Washington has imposed on countries around the world will be affected by the scrambling of US tariff policy.
The Financial Times was quick to opine that: ‘Analysts say the risk of retaliation is likely to deter countries from seeking to backtrack on already agreed deals.’
But the Japan Times saw it differently: ‘Trump’s treasured negotiating edge dulled by tariff defeat…With a stroke of a pen, the U.S. Supreme Court wreaked havoc on President Donald Trump’s favorite method of wielding leverage over other countries.’
At the very least, the uncertainty created by the Court’s decision may lead to more foot dragging by other nations as Washington attempts to finalize the details of its framework trade and investment deals with the EU, Japan, India and others. If they do, who knows what America’s hair-triggered President may do.
It is a fallacy to assume that Trump will play by the rules. The 122 tariffs expire in 150 days. To be extended, Congress must vote to do so. Congress has shown no appetite for tariffs, especially with Congressional mid-term elections in November.
The Administration claims they can use other trade powers – Section 301 that deals with ‘unfair’ trade practices and Section 232 that allows duties for ‘national security’ purposes – to replace the 122 tariffs.
But the scope of these sections is not as broad as an across the board 15 per cent tariff. Once this becomes apparent to the president, his past behavior suggests he may simply extend the 122 tariffs or use his 301 and 232 authority in unprecedented and arguably illegal ways, challenging importers to ‘sue me’. As the IEEPA suit showed, this could take months.
Finally, it is not clear that the invocation of Section 122 and its 15 per cent tariffs will help the president politically. Just before the Court ruled, the Washington Post and ABC News conducted a public opinion survey showing that 64 per cent of Americans disapproved of how Trump was handling tariffs on imported goods.
And in the wake of the Court decision a snap YouGov poll found that 60 per cent of Americans strongly approve of striking down the IEEPA tariffs.
So the bottom line is that US protectionism will continue, and it may be even more chaotic, unpredictable and disruptive.
Bruce Stokes is a US-based non-resident fellow at the German Marshall Fund. Read his full biography here.
At first glance, this is a more comprehensive repudiation of the Trump administration’s tariff policies than many (including me) expected.
The language of the majority opinion appears to include an attempt to close off some of the other unilateral options that President Trump had said he had at his disposal.
I do wonder if the more recent rounds of purely geopolitical tariff threats influenced the decision. It may reflect both the breadth of corporate support for the lawsuit and concern with Trump’s recent rounds of tariff threats, including against Europe over Greenland.
The SCOTUS ruling covers President Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ baseline 10 per cent tariff that he announced on 2 April 2025, higher tariffs on many countries, and fentanyl and other ‘national security’ tariffs.
However it does NOT cover steel/aluminum and many other product-specific tariffs issued as a result of a “232” or “301” investigation. (‘232’ and ‘301’ refer to specific sections of decades-old trade laws passed by Congress, which authorize the executive branch to impose tariffs in specific circumstances, after an investigation. 232 tariffs may include national security as a justification.)
President Trump still has lots of ways to impose tariffs. He’s not going to back down.
I’m very struck by this phrase from Justice Kavanaugh’s dissent: ‘So the Court’s decision is not likely to greatly restrict presidential tariff authority going forward.’
The court also did not mandate refunds of the tariffs collected to date, either to consumers or to manufacturers reliant on tariffed imports.
Does that suggest that Chief Justice Roberts identified an approach to the law that feels like a momentous defense of the Constitution but has relatively little practical effect?
Or will this ruling presage a vibe shift that gets the administration to change course?
Senator Bernie Moreno, the senior Republican senator from Ohio, has called on Congress to use reconciliation to enact the president’s tariffs.
This would presumably be challenging given that Republicans in both houses have joined Democrats in opposing President Trump’s tariffs.
Heather Hurlburt served as Chief of Staff to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai from 2022 to 2024. Read her full Chatham House biography here.
The 20 February US Supreme Court 6-3 decision on the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) is a significant fork in the tariff-driven trade policy road taken exactly 13 months ago by President Donald Trump when he announced his America First Trade Policy.
It does not, however, mark an end to his expansive use of Executive authority to shape his engagement with global trading partners.
In his combative reaction to the ruling, the president previewed alternative legal authorities that his administration will use as a basis for continued tariff action, including a new 10 per cent global tariff under Section 122 of the 1974 Trade Act, which allows for temporary import surcharges or import quotas to address balance-of-payments issues.
With details on scope, applicability and implementation of additional actions still unclear, US trade partners around the world will scramble in the coming days to determine the potential impact on their respective deals or framework agreements reached with Washington. Uncertainty will continue to be the name of the game.
The ruling comes on the heels of the release of the US Census Bureau’s 2025 international trade data confirming Mexico and Canada’s place as the first and second US trading partners, export markets and sources of imports, and as the three countries undertake the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA)’s first joint review.
In North America, with intraregional annual trade at almost 2 trillion dollars and millions of jobs and investment decisions linked to the continuity of the agreement, a great deal is at stake.
In its initial reaction to the ruling, the government of Canada stated that it reinforces its view that the IEEPA tariffs ‘are unjustified’. Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy said he would be reaching out to his US counterparts and await more details on the announced 10 per cent global tariff. Both countries were subject to IEEPA tariffs (35 per cent on Canada and 25 per cent on Mexico) on non-USMCA compliant exports, in addition to various Section 232 sectorial tariffs which continue to apply.
It’s important to keep in mind that roughly 85 per cent of massive Canadian and Mexican USMCA-compliant exports – totalling approximately 780 billion dollars – maintains tariff-free access to the US market.
Beyond specific negotiating strategies with Washington, Ottawa and Mexico City will continue to focus on reducing uncertainty and preserving their current relative competitive advantages in a rapidly changing tariff environment.
Ambassador Julián Ventura is a career diplomat, currently on leave from the Mexican Foreign Service, with over 33 years in public service. Read his full Chatham House biography here.
The Supreme Court’s decision to invalidate Donald Trump’s emergency tariffs may have removed one instrument from his tariff toolkit, but it has done nothing to make US trade policy more predictable. If anything, it may herald even greater volatility.
Trump retains several alternative instruments now that tariffs imposed under the IEEPA have been ruled unlawful. Each entails procedural hurdles, evidentiary thresholds, time limits and litigation risks. Yet, as Justice Brett Kavanaugh observed in his dissenting opinion, ‘the Court’s decision might not prevent Presidents from imposing most, if not all, of these same sorts of tariffs under other statutory authorities.’
That Trump, visibly angered by the ruling, quoted Kavanaugh’s statement not just once but twice suggests that he is not reconsidering his long-held belief in the benefits of tariffs. He has already pledged to introduce a new global tariff of 15 per cent, while signalling that further measures may follow.
For US trade partners – including several that negotiated agreements intended to reduce IEEPA tariffs on their exports – the outlook is unclear. The uncertain status of those arrangements, together with the prospect of new tariffs, now adds an additional layer of unpredictability to an already unstable picture.
Canada, for its part, gains little from the removal of the IEEPA tariffs, since goods compliant with the US–Mexico–Canada Agreement were already exempt. Meanwhile, the tariffs inflicting real pain on key Canadian sectors – including autos, steel, aluminium and lumber – remain in place because they rest on different statutory authorities. And any new US global tariffs may prove more damaging than the IEEPA measures if they eliminate existing exemptions.
The logic of Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s speech at Davos, in other words, remains unchanged: the US is no longer a predictable or reliable partner, leaving its jilted allies with little choice but to diversify their trade partnerships and invest in their own resilience.
Canada-based Roland Paris is director of the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, and former foreign policy adviser to the prime minister of Canada. Read his full Chatham House biography here.
The most durable power is not enforced at gunpoint; it is embedded in systems. My industry has a simple rule: never do something for one reason when you can do it for fifty. Mature statecraft is built on that logic. Instruments are never singular. Financing shapes procurement; training rewires doctrine; standards lock in industrial orientation; cultural exchange engineers elite formation. When policy reorganises incentives, dependencies, and decision space simultaneously, power stops being an action and becomes an architecture. The most effective power is not perceived as power, but lived as environment. Europe operates in a strategic interregnum. As such, nothing
The post Soft Power as Dominion: Speaking Softly, Building Systems appeared first on Lima Charlie World.
AI has convinced computer science students to shift majors and white-collar workers to change careers, while some are embracing it
Matthew Ramirez started at Western Governors University as a computer science major in 2025, drawn by the promise of a high-paying, flexible career as a programmer. But as headlines mounted about tech layoffs and AI’s potential to replace entry-level coders, he began to question whether that path would actually lead to a job.
When the 20-year-old interviewed for a datacenter technician role that June and never heard back, his doubts deepened. In December, Ramirez decided on what he thought was a safer bet: turning away from computer science entirely. He dropped his planned major to instead apply to nursing school. He comes from a family of nurses, and sees the field as more stable and harder to automate than coding.
Continue reading...In a university ecosystem that breeds hunger for status, Epstein made scholars feel like celebrities
The Jeffrey Epstein story is often told as the intersection of two obsessions: sexual abuse and money. The recently released emails certainly contain significant evidence of both. But after more than two decades as a professor at Harvard, Cornell and Cambridge, I am most struck by the limitation of that frame – in part because it fails to explain why academics show up so consistently in these files.
Certainly, money played a role in Epstein’s university connections. A rich man using donations and access to burnish his ego and legitimacy is a well-worn script, from Andrew Carnegie’s libraries more than a century ago to Bill Gates’s more recent global health philanthropy. As a college drop-out, Epstein clearly craved “respect” from high-profile academics. Universities, meanwhile, are perpetually fundraising and institutions that rely on donations often avoid asking hard questions about where the money came from. As the Bard College president, Leon Botstein, put it when defending his Epstein connections: “Among the very rich is a higher percentage of unpleasant and not very attractive people.” Institutions sometimes learn to stop asking hard questions about where the money came from.
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Today, Spotlight Delaware unveiled a months-long project taking an in-depth look at the data underpinning the state’s first property reassessment in nearly 40 years.
Spotlight’s analysis underscored the concerns raised for months by Wilmington residents, community leaders and city officials: predominantly Black, brown and low-income communities were hit hardest by rising property values and tax bills spurred by the reassessment.
While many expected reassessment to bring new relief to some of the state’s lowest income residents, it actually raised their tax burdens.
The data for the project was compiled through Freedom of Information Act requests made by Spotlight Delaware and mapped in partnership with Tech Impact’s Data Lab.
The following Q & A is meant to inform readers about the map and be transparent about the choices made by Spotlight Delaware and Tech Impact’s Data Lab in its design.
We recognized that the reassessment of every property in Delaware was a seismic event intended to reshape how we fund government services and our school districts, but there was no public accounting for the results of that work in a way that would be easily understood by the public.
We set out to understand how communities fared in the reassessment and whether the micro-level results matched the public beliefs about Delaware.
Beginning in September 2025, Spotlight Delaware submitted Freedom of Information Act requests for the master assessment data from New Castle, Kent and Sussex counties.
In the cases of New Castle and Sussex counties, we acquired parcel-level data from the 2024 tax year and 2025 tax year to compare the work of the reassessment.
Because Kent County completed its work a year earlier, however, its data is from the 2023 tax year and 2024 tax year.
In order to translate hundreds of thousands of parcel-level details into a readable map, we contracted with Tech Impact’s Data Lab, a Newark-based initiative that helps government agencies and nonprofits leverage data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning for social good.
It cost Spotlight Delaware about $10,000 in contract costs on top of significant staff time to complete the project.
We used Census tracts, which provide a detailed and statistically reliable view of neighborhoods across the state while preserving privacy.
We could have used ZIP codes, which more people may be familiar with, but they often include communities of very different types, which could skew the results.
These maps are constructed as heat maps, but unlike most heat maps that you have seen before, blue areas don’t always signify that a reduction has occurred.
Because Delaware hadn’t done a reassessment in decades, all property values were set to rise. So the heat map conveys the change in value relative to the median value in the dataset.
That means that red areas are higher than a median value while blue areas are lower than a median value. Most properties saw increases in assessed value due to the nearly 40-year-long gap between reassessments.
We chose to use a Census tract’s median value – or the value at the absolute center of its data set – because it more accurately depicts how a community member might feel about the reassessment.
Using the average value, or the value of all property divided by the number of properties, allows a few large increases or decreases in a data set to skew how it would appear to the public.
The first map is the assessment map, which shows the percentage change for the total assessed value of property in a given Census tract from before reassessment to after.
The second map is the taxation map, which shows the percentage change for the total taxes levied for property in a given Census tract. That includes county, school district and municipal taxes.
The third map is the tax burden map, which shows the percentage change for the calculation of taxes levied versus the assessed value of property for a given Census tract. This is a calculation of what percentage of property value is paid in taxes annually. Essentially, the tax burden map showcases places in Delaware that were more or less impacted by the ramifications of reassessment.
That is due in part to how the southern counties previously accounted for their tax rates. Before the reassessment, Sussex County used 50% of a property’s assessed 1976 value for its tax rate, while Kent County used 60% of a property’s assessed 1987 value.
On the other hand, New Castle County previously used 100% of a property’s assessed 1983 value for its tax rate.
Now all three counties will use 100% of assessed value for its tax rates, which means that the southern counties saw bigger jumps to catch up.
We did. Areas where there is a lot of new construction could have skewed the results if newly improved properties were left in our datasets.
We limited the dataset to properties that existed in both the pre- and post-reassessment years to ensure we were only tracking changes to existing properties.
We did not. We aimed to check the work produced by Tyler Technologies – which turned over the data seen here as its completed work – not the government intervention that followed.
The decision to increase the taxation on commercial properties was a political reaction to concerns by homeowners and lawmakers, and was only a short-term fix that is due to expire this year.
Our map does not go down to the parcel level, but users can get a sense of how their larger community fares compared to others.
There are other available resources to determine your property assessment and tax bill, and those of neighboring properties.
One such website, MyDETax.com, allows you to compare individual parcels.
Our map is not meant to be representative of every property in a jurisdiction, but it allows for a larger comparative look for how different areas of the state are assessed and taxed. The results for each Census precinct is representative of the median property, but that means virtually all others will be some degree above or below it.
The post Spotlight Delaware’s Reassessment Map Explained appeared first on Spotlight Delaware.
Saudi–UAE Tensions: Yemen and Regional Implications 5 March 2026 — 1:00PM TO 2:15PM Anonymous (not verified) Online
Panellists examine how tensions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi reflect broader divergences in regional strategy, security priorities, and approaches to influence.
Panellists examine how tensions between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi reflect broader divergences in regional strategy, security priorities, and approaches to influence.
In the final days of 2025, tensions between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), once key partners in the Yemen coalition, became more visible as differences over the conflict’s endgame resurfaced. A central source of friction was their opposing relationships with local actors, particularly the UAE’s support for the Southern Transitional Council (STC), whose push for southern autonomy conflicted with Saudi Arabia’s backing of Yemen’s internationally recognized government and its preference for preserving territorial unity. As Saudi Arabia intensified efforts to stabilize the front lines and advance a political settlement, the UAE’s announcement of a full withdrawal from Yemen brought these underlying disagreements into sharper focus.
Panellists will discuss how the episode underscores not only differing assessments of Yemen’s political future and security architecture but also broader divergences in regional strategy that had been developing between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi in recent years. Speakers will also discuss how the Yemen file became one arena in which evolving economic ambitions, security priorities, and approaches to regional influence have increasingly shaped the relationship between the two Gulf states, with implications likely to extend beyond the conflict itself.
Trump wants US energy dominance. Global markets may not agree Expert comment LToremark
At first glance, the Trump administration’s energy dominance policy appears to have been a success. But shifting energy market dynamics has proven difficult.
Ever since US President Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day in office last year, energy has been a major focus of his administration. He aims to achieve ’dominance’ by growing the fossil fuel, nuclear and critical minerals sectors to fill domestic markets and lead global ones. Renewables are pushed aside by revoking regulations, subsidies and even approved projects.
What is clear is that US oil and gas production are surging – oil to record levels, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports growing more than 20 per cent.
Longer term, Trump wants similar growth in coal and nuclear power. After coal’s precipitous decline in recent years, his administration has thus far managed to keep five US coal-fired power plants open by removing pollution regulations, offering investment assistance, and even ordering the Pentagon to purchase coal-generated electricity. On nuclear, Trump has set a goal of quadrupling US atomic power generation by 2050 and has moved aggressively to ease permitting at home and build new commercial nuclear partnerships abroad, including with the UK.
But the Trump administration’s energy dominance goals go beyond making the United States a hydrocarbon hyperpower. As Secretary of State Marco Rubio spelled out at the Munich Security Conference, the administration sees the global shift to renewables as a source of leverage against Washington – and US allies must follow it in changing course.
One of the brains behind energy dominance, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, argues that America’s growth under a pro-energy regime will force other countries to reconsider their own policies or face economic decline.
US allies like the EU, Japan and South Korea have responded by pledging to purchase and/or invest in US energy production. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, led OPEC countries in increasing oil production in 2025, helping put global production at an all-time high. Washington now has direct or indirect influence over oil output from Canada through to Guyana and Venezuela – approximately 20 per cent of global oil production. Enough, analysts argue, to limit price spikes and give the Trump administration freedom of action in global politics.
Indeed, energy dominance has both domestic and foreign policy goals. At home, it aims to enrich US producers and lower prices for consumers – two sometimes contradictory goals. Abroad, it again aims to empower US energy companies, particularly those who are major players in the development of Middle Eastern LNG. Washington also hopes that a stable and diverse oil supply helps prevent Iran, Russia or other actors from using energy prices to put pressure on Washington, for example in response to further attacks on Tehran.
But energy dominance also has an ideological side. The aim is to defeat what Rubio has called the ‘climate cult’ and with it both Beijing’s dominance of green energy technology and cooperative global efforts at energy transition.
At first glance, Trump’s energy dominance appears to be a success so far. But three key points indicate that all is perhaps not what it seems. First, global demand is driving increased production of all types of energy – including green energy. Second, long-time horizons for energy generation mean today’s headline new plants were planned five to ten years ago. Today’s policies will also need that kind of staying power. Third, from Trump’s energy dominance to Europe’s quest for energy security to global efforts at energy transition, there are many attempts to put politics over energy markets. But markets continue to reassert themselves.
Climbing energy use, demand for air conditioning in emerging economies, and AI and data centres in OECD countries saw production and use of every kind of energy increase last year, from oil and gas to green and nuclear. Even as coal use remained stable globally and rebounded in the US, renewables generated more power globally than coal for the first time, and new capacity in solar and wind was enough to account for all of global energy demand growth.
Domestically, the Trump administration’s efforts to shift marketplace dynamics had mixed results. Shale oil producers did not see prices high enough to spur growth, while renewable energy continued to outperform administration rhetoric. Although US investment in renewables declined from 2024 highs, overall renewables made up a large majority of new power generation capacity in 2025. Investment in renewables also outpaced investment in fossil fuel production, and solar energy now competes favourably on price alone. This suggests that market fundamentals will continue to drive a US energy transition, albeit at a slower pace.
Internationally, the geopolitical ramifications of the US move to oust Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and supervise the country’s oil production are dramatic. Washington is already using Venezuela to cut off oil supplies to Cuba and pressure India to stop buying discounted Russian oil. Coupled with new moves or even military action against Iran, in principle this increases pressure on Moscow but also Beijing, a key beneficiary of cheap Russian and Iranian oil. The intended beneficiaries are US producers in the Western Hemisphere, US companies globally, as well as Gulf OPEC producers who are key partners of Trump.
In the Middle East, Trump – and many US leaders before him – has been frustrated by the ability of OPEC members to threaten price increases and destabilize the US economy. Increased domestic and hemispheric oil production has been viewed as a way to gain freedom of action in the Middle East. By that metric, the Trump administration’s ability to carry out multiple military operations in the region – and threaten more – without debilitating oil price spikes is a sign of success. However, US companies’ increasing involvement in Middle Eastern oil and gas production mean that US interests will continue to be heavily engaged in the region for decades to come – the exact opposite geopolitical outcome of what Americans thought domestic energy growth would achieve.
For a month, Michael Rectenwald had been trying to get Nick Fuentes to notice him. Rectenwald had a new political action committee devoted to anti-Zionism, and he hoped the far-right influencer would promote it to his legions of perpetually online, often antisemitic fans. But Rectenwald, a former New York University professor and one-time presidential hopeful, had struggled to stand out to the ascendant Fuentes, who has come to symbolize the formerly fringe extremes of the online right. So in October, Rectenwald posted something sure to catch Fuentes’s eye: “Nick has sold out to the cabal.”
It worked. “Fuck you,” Fuentes wrote back.
This was Rectenwald’s shot. He apologized, calling Fuentes “a brilliant guy.” He reposted an uncannily gorgeous, computer-generated woman in a cross necklace and blazer encouraging the two men to “drop the beef.” She sat in front of an American flag and six light-up letters spelling “AZAPAC,” the acronym for Rectenwald’s new group. If Fuentes would just endorse it, Rectenwald promised, he’d “take it all back.”
Rectenwald launched the Anti-Zionist America Political Action Committee in August, vowing to fight to end U.S. financial and military aid to Israel and root out pro-Israel influence in Congress. AZAPAC aims to raise money to unseat pro-Israel legislators in the coming midterm elections, targeting some of the main recipients of cash from influential groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Democratic Majority for Israel.
It’s a goal that might sound appealing for the electoral left, whose members have long struggled to make meaningful progress on Palestinian rights in Washington, D.C., largely because of the strong grip the pro-Israel lobby holds on U.S. politicians. And as Israel’s genocide in Gaza stretches into a third year, AZAPAC’s policy goals may tap into a political energy currently unaddressed by either major party: growing anti-Israel sentiment on the right.
Though the Republican party loudly backs Israel and its war effort, far-right online spaces are growing increasingly critical of Israel. While accusations of antisemitism from the pro-Israel mainstream often dog Israel’s critics on the left, they appear as little cause for concern to far-right figures and their followers. As the nonpartisan AZAPAC works to sway the 2026 midterms, Rectenwald’s group will test whether candidates across the political spectrum will be similarly pressed on the distinction between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
The AZAPAC founder has attempted to connect with openly antisemitic figures like Fuentes, a Holocaust denier who famously praised Hitler. Rectenwald is a regular on The Stew Peters Show, which streams on the Peter Thiel and JD Vance-funded YouTube alternative Rumble, where the host has used slurs to describe Jewish and Black people — to no objection from Rectenwald. He’s courted support from popular manosphere influencer Dan Bilzerian, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who has falsely claimed Jewish people are behind DEI policies, transgender identity, and “open borders.” AZAPAC is helping fund at least one candidate who is a Hitler apologist and another who has participated in white nationalist demonstrations.
In a conversation with The Intercept, Rectenwald made clear he’s aware such affiliations could be detrimental to his cause. He said he is no longer seeking the support of Fuentes, though he remains interested in his fan base — they’re “more sincere than him on some things” — and that he was unaware of “the depth of” Bilzerian’s antisemitic views, which are well–documented online.
Asked about Peters’s language, Rectenwald told The Intercept he would no longer appear on his show, then reversed and said he didn’t want to “throw him under the bus.” Peters, Rectenwald added, has “helped us quite a bit.”
Affiliating with such figures perpetuates harmful and often violent rhetoric toward Jewish people, antisemitism and hate speech experts told The Intercept, and in the most extreme cases, conspiracy theories can motivate violence, as occurred when a white nationalist shooter massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018.
These antisemitic allyships also risk undermining legitimate criticism of the state of Israel — a heightened liability at a time when the federal government and its pro-Israel allies have launched largely spurious claims of antisemitism against advocates on the left who support Palestine and oppose Israel’s genocide.
“If we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel’s defenders,” said Ben Lorber, an author and researcher of antisemitism and white Christian nationalism. “It stands to really harm the movement.”
“If we give any quarter to antisemitism anywhere near our movements, we are opening ourselves up to the charges from Israel’s defenders.”
Rectenwald appears to understand what he’s risking. After The Intercept reached out to AZAPAC-endorsed candidates for this story, two rejected the group’s backing and were scrubbed from the site, and a third threatened to do the same. Rectenwald accused The Intercept of trying to sink his PAC.
Rectenwald himself has used language commonly associated with antisemitic conspiracy theories of global Jewish control, and he argues that other Israel critics embrace similar language. Online, he regularly refers to “the Jewish mafia” and “Jewish elites,” and last April, he self-published a novel called “The Cabal Question.” He originally wanted to call it “The Jewish Question,” as he said on a podcast, but Amazon barred him from using the title.
“We don’t use the same language and talk about the same things with the same terms,” Rectenwald told The Intercept, referring to Peters. And yet, he said, “I do believe he’s doing pretty good work in terms of exposing the Zionist network and what it’s up to.” He said a significant portion of AZAPAC’s early donations arrived after his appearances on Peters’s show, which also runs commercials for the group.
Rectenwald self-published a novel called “The Cabal Question.” He originally wanted to call it “The Jewish Question,” but Amazon barred him from using the title.
During a September episode while introducing Rectenwald, Peters referred to Jewish people using a common antisemitic slur. A month earlier, he used an anti-Black slur to describe Department of Justice attorney Leo Terrell in another episode with Rectenwald. In that episode, Peters said the U.S. is “occupied” by “anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-American Jews who are not just working on behalf of Israel, but on behalf of a more broad, satanic, Talmudic agenda that’s taken shape over thousands of years.”
Rectenwald promised Peters in his August appearance that AZAPAC does not have “infiltrators,” “dual allegiances,” or “sneaky Jews coming in and running the show.” He closed out the episode by offering Peters an invite — which he told The Intercept has since been rescinded — to be a member of AZAPAC’s board.
An AZAPAC ad launched in November and produced by the far-right company Dissident Media shows Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands, Palestinian children killed by Israel, re-enactments of the American Revolution — and the red, clawed hands of a puppet master manipulating strings overlaying a mashup of the American and Israeli flags.
Rectenwald told The Intercept that he was not aware “puppet master” was a well-known antisemitic trope and that the strings represented the pro-Israeli donor class’s influence on the Trump administration. Plus, the trailer was a success: Donations poured in as it drew attention online, Rectenwald said.
AZAPAC had raised $111,556 by the end of December, according to recent FEC filings.
Of AZAPAC’s 10 publicly endorsed candidates, six are running as Republicans with three Democrats and a Libertarian on its slate. The group is more focused on Republicans, Rectenwald said, because he aims to put a dent in the GOP’s pro-Israel base. AZAPAC is backing Aaron Baker, for example, an America First conservative who is running to unseat Rep. Randy Fine, R-Fla., a vocal supporter of Israel and Netanyahu.
At least one AZAPAC candidate drew national headlines five years ago. Tyler Dykes, a Republican candidate running for Rep. Nancy Mace’s congressional seat in South Carolina, was famously accused of performing a Nazi salute, which he denies, while storming the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and later pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal officers with a stolen riot shield. (Trump pardoned Dykes on his first day in office.) Dykes also received a felony conviction for his participation in the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where organizers protested the removal of a monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and yelled, “Jews will not replace us.”
Reached by The Intercept, Dykes said in an emailed statement he denounces “violence and extremism in all its forms.” He added that “Robert E. Lee was a hero, and deserves to be honored as such.”
Rectenwald told The Intercept that AZAPAC’s board had vetted Dykes and other candidates. He said he was willing to tolerate certain disagreements with the candidates and their views. The endorsements, Rectenwald said, are “a pragmatism of sorts.”
“We don’t agree with all of these candidates,” Rectenwald said. “We’re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.”
AZAPAC’s endorsement process is primarily based on a 19-part questionnaire, which Rectenwald shared with The Intercept. It asks things like whether a candidate would pledge not to receive campaign donations from prominent pro-Israel groups or “any other foreign lobby/PAC”; what they think of laws restricting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement or imposing the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism; and whether they would vote to end military aid to Israel.
“We’re trying to put together a coalition of sometimes very unlikely bedfellows, if you will.”
The group’s contradictions are perhaps best captured by two brief recent endorsements: two former American soldiers, Anthony Aguilar and Greg Stoker, running for Congress as progressive Green Party candidates. As a contractor working with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Aguilar, who is running in North Carolina, became a whistleblower alleging that GHF employees were firing into crowds of starving civilians at aid sites. Stoker, running in Texas, took part in last year’s Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian mission meant to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.
Their AZAPAC endorsements were short-lived.
After receiving questions from The Intercept about Rectenwald’s language and AZAPAC’s associations with far-right figures, both Aguilar and Stoker rejected the group’s backing. Mentions of them had been erased from AZAPAC’s online presence by Tuesday.
In explaining his withdrawal, Aguilar’s campaign acknowledged that anti-genocide and anti-Zionist activists “are falsely accused on antisemitism on a regular basis” to discredit their work. “For that reason, we want to avoid being associated with any group whose statements or actions raise credible concerns of actual antisemitism,” Aguilar’s campaign manager said in a statement.
Stoker told The Intercept that “I have always used my platform to fight against racial superiority,” adding that AZAPAC’s narrow focus on “old conspiracy theories” and eradicating the pro-Zionist lobby “is not going to fix any of the larger systemic issues facing working class Americans.”
Christine Reyna, a professor at De Paul University who studies the psychology of extremism, questioned why AZAPAC would endorse candidates like Dykes and Casey Putsch, a racecar driver and AZAPAC-backed Republican candidate for Ohio governor. In August, Putsch posted a video asking Grok to list “all the good things Adolf Hitler did or was responsible for creating in his life” and railed against the Jewish right-wing commentator Ben Shapiro, whom he called “an annoying little rodent.” While there’s a growing number of other candidates who oppose sending military aid to Israel or have sworn off AIPAC donations, backing candidates like Putsch and Dykes could serve as a dog whistle, Reyna said, to some of the most extreme corners of the far right.
“When you package these really frightening and terrible and dangerous ideologies and you hide them behind this front-facing organization that gives them legitimacy,” Reyna said, “That can be extremely dangerous.”
Aligning with such America First nationalists, who tend to ignore the issue of America’s own ambitions of control and profit, can harm other communities, antisemitism researcher Lorber warned, because of their anti-Blackness, xenophobia, or anti-LGBTQ views. In the case of Israel, these far-right alliances can also injure the movement for Palestinian liberation, he said.
“If we get distracted chasing fantasies of Jewish cabals, it harms our analysis, it makes our work less informed and less effective,” Lorber said, “and it also divides our movements.”
“There is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel. But neo-Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.”
Palestinian-American advocate and analyst Tariq Kenney-Shawa, whose family is from Gaza, is acutely aware of the ways pro-Israel institutions have attacked anti-Zionist work for being antisemitic. He said those bad-faith attacks were why he was concerned about AZAPAC’s affiliations with the far right, which has long rooted its criticism of Israel in “actually racist and antisemitic” beliefs.
“There is a big umbrella for a movement against unconditional support for Israel,” Kenney-Shawa said. “But neo Nazis and far-right antisemites will never be welcome in that.”
The day after federal immigration agents shot and killed Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Putsch, who did not respond to outreach from The Intercept, doubled down on his support for ICE’s mass deportation campaign. On social media, Putsch, who is Christian, often attacks his opponent Vivek Ramaswamy’s Hindu faith and Indian ancestry. On his campaign site, his platform includes anti-immigrant calls to “accelerate deportations” and limit the number of H-1B visas offered to immigrant workers.
His platform makes no mention of Israel or foreign policy.
“Maybe one time I failed to say Zionist,” Rectenwald told The Intercept, acknowledging that on occasion, he has used the words “Jew” or “Jewish” instead. A search of his X account turned up at least 43 references to the “Jewish mafia,” and he’s repeatedly invoked the “Jewish elite” on his Substack. He claimed to have borrowed the latter term from Norm Finkelstein, a pro-Palestinian author and activist who, unlike Rectenwald, is Jewish himself.
“It’s not just an ‘israeli lobby.’ LOL. It’s a Talmudic Jewish mafia that runs the U.S. and the world,” Rectenwald wrote in one post in March. The same day, he claimed that “the Jewish mafia did 9/11.”
“Maybe one time I failed to say Zionist.”
When The Intercept asked about Rectenwald’s use of the term “Zionist Occupation Government,” which has a history of popularity among white supremacists, he brought up AZAPAC-backed candidates like Bernard Taylor, a firefighter and Democrat hoping to unseat Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast, a former IDF volunteer. Rectenwald cited Taylor, who is Black, as proof that “we are not like bigots,” adding that AZAPAC planned to endorse other people of color.
Taylor, who accepted an endorsement from AZAPAC in December, said he also was not aware of Rectenwald’s rhetoric until approached by The Intercept for this story.
“I’m not gonna sit here and say it’s not concerning to me,” Taylor told The Intercept in a phone call, referring to Rectenwald’s language. In an emailed statement, he said his campaign rejects antisemitism, racism, and white supremacy, but would keep the AZAPAC endorsement based on policy. Taylor said that if he feels AZAPAC is “crossing the line” into overt antisemitism, he will reject its endorsement and refund donations from the group.
“If I made, you know, some slips here and there, it isn’t intentional — I’m not trying to dog whistle to anybody,” Rectenwald said. “I’m just trying to be precise, and sometimes, you know, precision is difficult.”
In “The Cabal Question,” Rectenwald’s self-published novel, a former professor finds his worldview transformed when a friend “thrusts him into the JQ,” or Jewish question, as the book’s Amazon summary puts it, working with “a steadfast ex-occultist turned Christian nationalist to trace the strands of the cabal’s reach.” The story mirrors his own evolution of getting “J-pilled,” or “Jew-pilled,” Rectenwald has said, though he insists the novel is not about promoting antisemitism but rather “a Christian redemption story.”
Rectenwald once identified as a leftist. He taught liberal studies as a Marxist at New York University — until a fallout that began in 2016, when it was revealed that he was behind the since-deleted Twitter account @AntiPCNYUProf with the screen name “Deplorable NYU Professor.” Rectenwald used the account to act “in the guise of an alt-righter,” as a way to argue against politically correct use of pronouns, trigger warnings, and safe spaces.
He took a paid leave from NYU and claimed he was a victim of liberal censorship in a splashy op-ed and a sit-down on Fox & Friends. When he came back, Rectenwald invited far-right activist Milo Yiannopoulos to speak to his class and later sued NYU for defamation. Court records indicate the case was dropped with prejudice, and Rectenwald said he settled out of court for a cash payment in exchange for his departure from the school in 2019.
NYU did not respond to The Intercept’s request for comment.
The experience prompted Rectenwald to denounce the left and his several decades of Marxist scholarship, and in 2024, he launched a failed bid for president as a Libertarian, representing the conservative Mises Caucus.
It’s unclear when his fixation on Israel and antisemitic conspiracy theories took hold. But on the right-wing podcast The Backlash in May, Rectenwald used the protagonist of “The Cabal Question” to describe how his views developed.
In the book, Rectenwald said, the main character flees persecution and surveillance from the government controlled by “the Jewish mafia.” The character ends up finding refuge with “radical right wingers,” who help him escape the country. The more closely he affiliates with the right-wing network, however, the more he risks damaging his own reputation.
“Art imitates life, right?” said the host. Rectenwald agreed.
The post A New PAC Wants to Counter Israel’s Influence. It Also Welcomes Hitler Apologists. appeared first on The Intercept.
When Benjamin Franklin set out on what he called his “bold and arduous project” of moral perfection, he did not imagine he would arrive at the summit of virtue. He knew better. The point was not arrival but effort. “Though I fell far short of perfection,” he wrote late in life, he became “a better and a happier man” for having tried.
That insight captures a central conviction shared across the founding generation: virtue is a lifelong journey, not a mere destination. And happiness, rightly understood, is not a mood to capture, but a character to cultivate.
Happiness as Self-Government
For the Founders, happiness was inseparable from disciplined self-government.
Franklin operationalized this in his famous list of virtues: temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, tranquility, and humility. He built a chart, examined himself nightly. Franklin began each week by focusing on a single virtue, starting with temperance because he believed it produced the clarity necessary for governing the rest.
Thomas Jefferson echoed this same framework. Drawing from Cicero’s reflections on the tranquil soul, he praised a life governed by restraint and consistency rather than ambition or fear. For Jefferson, liberty was not license. It was the power to pause, deliberate, and choose long-term good over short-term impulse.
John Adams made humility his lifelong project. In his diaries, Adams recorded his battle with vanity and resolved that no one is fit for high office who leaves a single passion unsubdued. George Washington practiced resolution by cooling the first heat of emotion and acting only after reflection. James Madison and Alexander Hamilton translated this philosophy into constitutional design, crafting institutions that would check public passion and allow reason to prevail.
To these Founders, the personal and the political were never separate spheres. A constitutional democracy has always required citizens who could do internally what the Constitution required externally: let reason, not rage, rule.
The Daily Struggle for Character
Key figures throughout American history understood life as a daily struggle for self-improvement and emotional discipline.
Franklin’s method was practical. “If Passion drives, let Reason hold the reins,” he advised. Imperfectly practiced, these habits nonetheless formed the architecture of his happiness.
John Quincy Adams kept a diary for 70 years as a second conscience, recording his failures, restraining temper, and renewing resolutions. For him, self-rule preceded public rule. You cannot sway a nation if you cannot govern yourself.
Phillis Wheatley drew on the same classical tradition to ground her poetry in virtue. Writing in the shadow of slavery, she asserted the universal capacity for moral excellence and exposed the gap between America’s professed principles and its practices.
Abraham Lincoln, shaped by early reading and lifelong self-education, warned against the “mobocratic spirit” and called for “cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason” to preserve liberty. Passion may ignite change, he suggested, but only disciplined judgment sustains a constitutional democracy.
Frederick Douglass called education and disciplined labor the path to self-making. Character, he insisted, is built by regular and thoughtful exercise of one’s faculties.
The lesson is constant across generations. Virtue is not an inheritance nor a heroic display; it is the steady discipline of daily practice.
Being Good and Being a Citizen
Being a good person and being a good citizen are inseparable.
George Mason insisted that liberty can be preserved only through justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue. The stability of free government depended on habits formed long before a ballot was cast.
Madison warned that passion can “wrest the scepter from reason” in popular assemblies. Constitutional checks were essential, but they could not succeed unless citizens themselves practiced self-restraint and civic virtue.
Jefferson believed that a free people can govern themselves only if individuals first master their own passions. Liberty without self-discipline gives way to faction and instability. The pursuit of happiness is thus public work: cultivating the character required to sustain freedom.
A Call to Pursue Happiness Together
In an age that often confuses happiness with impulse and success with speed, the Founders and other key figures offer a different path. Happiness means disciplined self-government. It means aligning reason and passion. It means learning, reflecting, correcting, and beginning again.
Temperance, humility, industry, moderation, and sincerity are not relics of the 18th century. They are practices for every generation seeking to strengthen constitutional democracy. The pursuit of happiness is not solitary or self-indulgent. It is the steady work of forming character so that we can contribute to the common good and sustain the freedoms we inherit.
Franklin did not achieve moral perfection. Neither did Jefferson, Adams, nor Washington. That is precisely the point. The work continues, calling each generation and each individual to take it up anew.
If you are ready to engage in that work, we invite you to continue the journey through the National Constitution Center and Arizona State University’s new free online course for adult learners, What the Founders Meant by Happiness: A Journey Through Virtue and Character. Building on NCC CEO Emeritus Jeffrey Rosen’s 2024 book, The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America, this course brings the Founders’ moral world to life through engaging video lectures with Jeff, close study of primary sources, and interactive materials.
At the heart of the course, and at the heart of the American experiment, is a simple but demanding truth: self-government begins with government of the self.
Julie Silverbrook is vice president of civic education at the National Constitution Center.
The conditions were treacherous in the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles off the Mexico–Guatemala border. There were https://www.weather.gov/mfl/beaufort#:~:text=Sea%20heaps%20up%20and%20white,when%20walking%20against%20the%20wind.&text=Moderately%20high%20waves%20of%20greater,off%20trees;%20generally%20impedes%20progress.&text=Very%20high%20waves%20with%20long,uprooted;%20considerable%20structural%20damage%20occurs.&text=Exceptionally%20high%20waves%20(small%20and,accompanied%20by%20wide%2Dspread%20damage.&text=The%20air%20is%20filled%20with,spray;%20visibility%20very%20seriously%20affected.gale-force winds and 9-foot seas. It https://boattest.com/article/boating-accidents-week-january-7-2023would be dangerous if you https://wbsm.com/new-bedford-boat-sinking-a-holiday-heartbreaker-opinion/were on a boat, nevermind if yours was blown out of the water.
Eight men leapt into those rough seas on December 30 when the U.S. rained down a barrage of munitions, sinking three vessels. They required immediate rescue; chances were slim that they could survive even an hour. In announcing its strike, U.S. Southern Command or SOUTHCOM, said it “immediately notified” the Coast Guard to launch search and rescue protocols to save the men.
But it took the United States Coast Guard almost 45 hours to begin searching the attack zone for survivors, new reporting by Airwars and The Intercept reveals.
Help did not arrive in time. A total of 11 civilians died due to the U.S. attack on December 30 — including the eight who jumped overboard, according to information provided https://theintercept.com/2026/01/08/us-military-boat-strike-deaths-undercount/exclusively to The Intercept by SOUTHCOM, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in and around Latin America and the Caribbean. This represents one of the largest single-day death tolls since the U.S. military began targeting alleged drug smuggling boats last September.
“SOUTHCOM doesn’t want these people alive.”
Using open-source flight tracking data, Airwars and The Intercept learned that a Coast Guard plane did not head toward the site of the attack for almost two days. A timeline provided by the Coast Guard confirmed that it was roughly 45 hours before a flight arrived at the search area.
The slow response and lack of rescue craft in the area suggests there was scant interest on the part of the U.S. in saving anyone. It’s part of a pattern of what appear to be imitation rescue missions that since mid-October have not saved a single survivor.
On December 30, Secretary of War https://x.com/Southcom/status/2006024586643599782Pete Hegseth told the Coast Guard’s parent agency — the Department of Homeland Security — that SOUTHCOM stood ready to provide them with “specialized maritime capabilities” in support of their missions. But just hours later, it was SOUTHCOM that called on the Coast Guard to conduct the search and rescue mission for the eight men.
The Coast Guard told The Intercept that it received the initial report of people in distress from SOUTHCOM at 1:40 p.m. Pacific time on December 30. (The exact timing of the U.S. strike is not known, but when SOUTHCOM posted about the attack on X the following day it wrote that it had “immediately notified” the Coast Guard).
The survivors jumped into the Pacific approximately 400 nautical miles southwest of Ocos, Guatemala. They faced extreme conditions: 9-foot seas and 40-knot winds, according to Kenneth Wiese, a spokesperson for the Coast Guard Southwest District.
The Coast Guard said it soon began contacting Maritime Rescue Coordination Centers in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica; the Central American Air Navigation Services Corporation, which provides regional air traffic control and search and rescue coordination; and eight commercial vessels within 200 nautical miles of the last known position of the survivors. A lone container vessel, the Maersk Eureka, responded to the call. On December 31 at 6:44 a.m. Pacific time, the ship arrived at the last known position of the survivors and found nothing.
That morning at 9:19 a.m. Pacific time, a Coast Guard C-130 search and rescue plane took off from Sacramento, California, and headed to Liberia, Costa Rica, “for refueling and crew rest.” A day later, on January 1 at 7:33 a.m. Pacific time, the aircraft left Costa Rica and headed toward the “search area,” according to the Coast Guard. It finally arrived “on scene” at 10:18 a.m. Pacific time on New Year’s Day.
The Coast Guard said that it suspended its search on January 2, https://www.news.uscg.mil/Press-Releases/Article/4370416/coast-guard-suspends-search-for-individuals-in-the-pacific-ocean/reporting “no sightings of survivors or debris.” A U.S. government official, https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/boat-strikes-survivors/who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press, said the men were presumed dead when the search was ended.
“Suspending a search is never easy, and given the exhaustive search effort, lack of positive indications, and declining probability of survival, we have suspended active search efforts pending further developments,” said Coast Guard Capt. Patrick Dill, chief of incident management, Southwest District, at the time.
A second government official who spoke with The Intercept said the Coast Guard response didn’t look like “foot dragging,” but questioned why, after months of attacks in the region, search and rescue assets weren’t pre-positioned closer to the Eastern Pacific.
“SOUTHCOM doesn’t want these people alive,” that official said.
Asked for comment on the allegation, Southern Command spokesperson Steven McLoud said: “SOUTHCOM does not comment on speculative or unfounded reporting.”
The Coast Guard confirmed the C-130 sent from Sacramento was its only aircraft in the area. “There were no other Coast Guard assets in the area to assist with the search,” said spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Lauren Giancola.
The Coast Guard would not explain why it hadn’t pre-positioned assets in the region. “Any questions regarding military operations including recent strikes should be referred directly to the Department of War,” Giancola told The Intercept.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson did not return a request for comment.
The search and rescue operation for the boat strike survivors differs starkly from the U.S. response when a U.S. Marine involved in the military campaign in the Caribbean fell overboard from the amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima in the SOUTHCOM area of operations this month. It sparked a “nonstop search and rescue operation” that included hundreds of flight hours and extensive aviation support, according to a statement from the Marines’ II Marine Expeditionary Force. Five Navy ships, a rigid-hull inflatable boat, surface rescue swimmers from the Iwo Jima, and 10 aircraft from the Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force joined the search efforts. (Lance Cpl. Chukwuemeka E. Oforah, 21, was declared deceased on Feb. 10, 2026.)
The slow pace of the U.S. search for boat strike survivors suggests the goal wasn’t to save lives, said Brian Finucane, a former state department lawyer who is a specialist in counterterrorism issues and the laws of war.
“It does not appear as if they were eager to rescue additional survivors and then be faced with the question of ‘what do we do with them?’” he told The Intercept. “We’re going to hand off responsibility to the Coast Guard, which is going to arrive in a few days from California and look around and not find anything. So you can draw your own conclusions from that sequence.”
The U.S. military has carried out more than three dozen known attacks, destroying 40 boats, in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean since September, killing at least 134 civilians. The most recent attack on Friday – the first known strike in the Caribbean Sea since early November – killed three people.
From the first strike, crewmembers have periodically survived initial attacks, leading the U.S. to employ a hodgepodge of strategies to deal with them, ranging from execution to repatriation. The Intercept was the first outlet to report that the U.S. military killed two survivors of the initial boat attack on September 2 in a follow-up strike. The two survivors clung to the wreckage of a vessel attacked by the U.S. military for roughly 45 minutes before Adm. Frank Bradley, then the head of Joint Special Operations Command, ordered a follow-up strike that killed the shipwrecked men.
Following an October 16 attack on a semi-submersible in the Caribbean Sea that killed two civilians, two other men were rescued by the U.S. and quickly repatriated to Colombia and Ecuador, respectively. President Donald Trump called them “terrorists” in a Truth Social post and said they would face “detention and prosecution.” But both men were released without charges in their home countries. Since this attack, the U.S. appears to have settled on a strategy of calling for what increasingly resemble imitation rescue missions.
Following three attacks on October 27 that killed 15 people aboard four separate boats, a survivor of a strike was spotted clinging to wreckage, and the U.S. alerted Mexican authorities. The man was not found, and he is presumed dead.
Last month, SOUTHCOM again called on the Coast Guard. “On Friday, January 23rd, the U.S. Coast Guard was notified by the Department of War’s Southern Command of a person in distress in the Pacific Ocean,” Coast Guard spokesperson Roberto Nieves told The Intercept. A timeline provided by the Coast Guard shows that it took about 17 hours for a Coast Guard C-130 to arrive at the survivor’s last known position, but that aircraft only conducted an hourlong search before “diverting to El Salvador for fuel and crew rest.” It returned to the last known position of the survivor on January 25, about 51 hours after the initial distress call. The search was suspended that night just before 8 p.m. Pacific time, and that person is now also presumed dead.
“The expected result is essentially the same as putting a gun to their head.”
Following a strike last week — the third since Marine Gen. Francis L. Donovan became SOUTHCOM’s new commander earlier this month — the command announced that it had once again notified the Coast Guard “to activate the Search and Rescue system for the survivor.” The Coast Guard, in turn, told The Intercept that Ecuador’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Center “assumed coordination of search and rescue operations, with technical support provided by the U.S. Coast Guard.” The Coast Guard then walked it back and said the U.S. had only “offered” assistance. Ecuador’s rescue authorities did not return multiple requests for an update on the search.
The second government official, who spoke with The Intercept on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment about the boat strikes, said that survivors created “complications and questions” for the U.S. military and intelligence community. Rather than risk exposing intelligence sources and methods by bringing these men to court, the official said it was simpler to leave them to drown. Finucane echoed this assessment. “After rescuing the men in October, it was apparent there would be a strong incentive not to have additional survivors on their hands,” he said.
William Baumgartner, a retired U.S. Coast Guard rear admiral and former chief counsel of that service branch, said the December 30 attack was tantamount to a death sentence. “Once the people jump in the water and you blow up the only thing that could possibly save their lives, that’s essentially killing them,” Baumgartner told The Intercept last month. “The expected result is essentially the same as putting a gun to their head.”
Experts say the survivors of the December 30 attacks likely https://theintercept.com/2026/01/07/boat-strikes-survivors/died within minutes. Accomplished swimmers, clinging to wreckage or flotation devices in warmer waters, could survive longer, some said. None considered that likely in this case.
“The combination of the wind and the waves would force feed water into the victim. If the waves don’t drown you, the hypothermia will kill you,” said Tom Griffiths, the founder of the http://www.aquaticsafetygroup.com/Aquatic Safety Research Group, who previously served as the director of aquatics and safety officer for athletics at Penn State University. “Drowning often takes as little as four to six minutes for a non-swimmer but can be as quick as 90 seconds. I would think under these conditions it could be almost as quick.”
John Fletemeyer, an aquatics expert and co-author of “The Science of Drowning,” said that people have survived in the water for up to two days. But such cases, he said, are “outliers.”
“It can be almost instantaneous, where it can happen in just a couple minutes if someone cannot swim and they go underwater,” Fletemeyer said. A frequent expert in murder-homicide cases, he explained in detail the pain and suffering involved in drowning. There is also the potential for shark attack, he said, due to blood in the water from those killed in the initial strike.
“If we know somebody is in the water dying,” he said, “I think we have a human responsibility to try to save them.”
The post U.S. Sent a Rescue Plane for Boat Strike Survivors. It Took 45 Hours to Arrive. appeared first on The Intercept.
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